gshowitt

THE RAPID AND THE RIGHTEOUS

 I love the Fast and Furious series, although not really the second film and definitely not the third, my god no. But most of them are pretty good. 

Anyway: I wrote a love-letter to them, and to Mr Vin Diesel, in roleplaying-game form.

You should definitely watch an F&F movie before you play it, and probably leave it on repeat in the background with the sound turned off - you know, for atmosphere.

(The game originally had a brief system for casting "...

BIG GAY ORCS is out now

Hey! I'm super-happy to announce that Big Gay Orcs is now on public release. In it, you'll play big, tough, sensitive and heartbroken orcs trapped in a fortress that's being overrun by your enemies. Will you stay, and sell your lives dearly? Will you find love, here, at the end of everything? Will you run away with a handsome shaman and leave the others to die?

Play, and find out! 

Thanks to all my patrons for their kind support on this - I remain astonished that so many of you are ...

ADVENTURE DICE!

Here's January's game, ADVENTURE DICE. It's a super rules-lite storytelling game designed, primarily, for kids to tell stories together - or for adults to tell stories with kids.  (Or, honestly, just adults all together. It's a ludicrously simple system with a lot of output.)

It comes with four dice that you can cut out and stick together  (or that you could reproduce on other dice, like I did for testing). It's pretty freeform, and it's more interested in collaborative narrative tha...

WE THREE KINGS, an Xmas RPG

Hello! You know how I was talking about releasing that spaceship game earlier this month? Well, it's Christmas, and I decided that I wanted to write a Christmas game instead. 

Which means that a) [This is] Not a Place of Honour will be released in January, or whenever I finish the damned thing, and b) please feast your eyes upon the action-packed rules-lite daft that is WE THREE KINGS.

For the last few years I've wanted to retell the story of nativity as a high-stakes action adventu...

[THIS IS] NOT A PLACE OF HONOUR

Hey folks,

SO. I've sent out the physical rewards to those that should have 'em; if you don't have yours by this time next week, start getting furious and drop me a line.

I've been hard at work on The Spire (the next big game I'm releasing, hopefully in Winter 2017) but also ticking away on the upcoming one-pager, tentatively titled [THIS IS] NOT A PLACE OF HONOUR. For reasons that may soon become apparent, it might be a two-pager.

The game is divided up into two h...

The Golden Sea

Hi folks. So this month's game is The Golden Sea - and it's a D20 system, and fantasy at that, if you can imagine such a thing. 

The front page details the setting - a sand-covered land where folk live in the tops of ancient skyscrapers and statues - as well as rules for making your characters and serving your twin patrons - the Goddesses Three, who slumber eternal beneath the dunes, and the Crown, who pays your wages. You'll sail the sand in a well-worn skimmer in search of profit...

The Witch is Dead - Preview

http://imgur.com/gallery/bKRcf

Hello! I'm happy to announce the title of (and let you take a sneak peek at) my next game: THE WITCH IS DEAD. The pitch is in the image above; it's a murder revenge fantasy in which you are one of a group of foul-mouthed intelligent animals with magical powers.

Except - you're not that intelligent. You only know what the witch taught you about the human world. You don't have...

FORCE-BLADE PUNK

This is a preview of the sort of thing you can expect with the one-page RPG model. I wrote Force-Blade Punk a while ago, and I figured it needed an update.

Not everything will be this art-heavy or text-light, I imagine. But this is the sort of thing we're dealing with here.

THINGS ARE CHANGING AROUND HERE.

Hello! I've been neglecting this Patreon for far too long, and focusing on big projects rather than small ones. So, to that end - I've given it an overhaul. I'm moving from big, multiple-page games that cost too much to print to smaller, one-page quick-burst games. I'm looking forward to making more games.

If you'd like to adjust your pledge, you should definitely do that now. And if you've moved and still want a physical copy of my games, update your address.

Much love,

- Grant 2016-09-25 19:15:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Unbound - world-building, player-led, high-action roleplay

Hi Patreons,

Blimey, it's been a while! The reason it's been a while, mind you, is because I've been working on something very special for a very long time. It's called UNBOUND, and it's fantastic  - it's a universal roleplaying game with an emphasis on world-building, cinematic combat, and player-led narrative authority.

We want to have UNBOUND made into a gorgeous book full of beautiful art, so we've made a Kickstarter to fund it. If you're interested in changing the w...

Goblin Quest Kickstarter

Hello! My Kickstarter for Goblin Quest, a tabletop RPG of fatal ineptitude, is live. We're doing really well, and we're just about to unlock the £8,000 goal. You should totally get in on this. Here's the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gshowitt/goblin-quest-a-tabletop-rpg-of-fatal-ineptitude Goblin Quest is a ridiculously straightforward RPG with hea...

Hello lovely Patrons, So - things have been quiet, lately, haven't they? The reason for this is that I am working on a BIG SECRET RPG PROJECT with ACTUAL PUBLISHERS. It's very exciting! It also means that I can't devote a lot of brainspace (or, more importantly, playtest time) to my indie projects. Also, because I am a sucker for punishment, I am doing a Kickstarter later this month for GOBLIN QUEST, one of the first games I wrote. I'm trying to get some money together to bankroll a really nic...

EXPLOSIONS: The RPG - PLAYTEST

They said it couldn't be done. They said it SHOULDN'T be done. They said, Grant, stop doing that, put it down, put THAT DOWN GRANT SO HELP ME GOD Anyway: I have written a game in which you all play explosions. One of you talks through a cheesy 80's action flick while the others try their best to interrupt the scene by exploding, at which point they take control of the narrative. It is somewhere between Once Upon A Time and dropping a lit match in a box of matches. Are you interested in play...

Rewards re-jig

I'm changing my Patreon rewards structure around a bit. When I started out, I figured I'd be running off daft little 10-page RPGs and sending them to my friends. This has succeeded more than I'd ever imagined it would; and I've progressed up to 60-page rulebooks with full colour art and character portraits. I'm no longer working to my original brief, though. To this end, and to get together some money up-front to cover artist costs, I started charging for my games – they were still free on P...

Havoc Brigade video review

This weekend, I got up bright and early on Sunday and ran an exhibition game of Havoc Brigade for the chaps at Indie+ (http://indieplus.org/doku.php) through Google Hangouts. They did a quick video review of it, which is linked below - if you want to watch the whole game, here's a link to that too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6nzVFn2Sc8 ...

Physical Copies - sent!

So - after some frantic resizing of maps and re-jigging of text, I'm happy to confirm that the remaining physical copies of HAVOC BRIGADE and THE HOMECOMING COLLECTION 2014 are now being printed! I'm told that they'll take about 3 weeks to reach you - although, if you're in the US or the UK, it should be a little sooner. Thanks, everyone for your patience - and I hope you enjoy the games! - G

PHYSICAL COPY UPDATE: MagCloud

UPDATE ON SHIPPING AND PRINTING: After yesterday's disappointment, I've taken a look at alternative methods for shipping your games out - and MagCloud seem to offer something that'll fit. By shrinking my games down to a digest size (something along the lines of old Citadel Journals) and having them shipped locally, I can pare down the costs by a HUGE DEGREE into something far more manageable. Which is great! However, I don't want to rush into this before seeing what the quality of printing is ...

THE HOMECOMING COLLECTION 2014 - out now!

New game! New GAMES! 4 new games, right here, right now, for your viewing pleasure. The file is attached on the upper right, there. Download it, and take a look. The four games are: - WIZARD BATTLE HATS - rewritten from the preview text, this game is now not only about wearing as many hats as possible, but also stacking dice under ridiculous time pressure - THICKER THAN WATER - a card game about traitorous criminal vampires based on Indian Poker - THE CULT OF OSIRIS - a pulp magic game where...

The Homecoming Collection 2014 is going to be a little late. This is because an a perfectionist. Or, rather - after releasing the preview text for WIZARD BATTLE HATS, I realised that it wasn't much fun, and just boiled down to a fairly boring exchange of damage until one side fell over. So I'm rewriting the damn thing to make it good, because that's the sort of guy I am. WIZARD BATTLE HATS is now a game about stacking dice under pressure to represent the frantic gathering of arcane power, as ...

WIZARD BATTLE HATS preview

Hopefully - if everything goes to plan - I'll publish the HOMECOMING COLLECTION 2014 early next week. To whet your appetite, I've attached a PDF of the first game, WIZARD BATTLE HATS. (It's up there on the top right.) WIZARD BATTLE HATS is the first RPG that's written in the style of a DRUNK GUY at a BAR shouting at you in an attempt to BE UNDERSTOOD. In it, you play a BADASS BATTLE WIZARD and you DERIVE POWER by wearing MULTIPLE HATS as you sit around the game table. What's not to like? Any...

The Homecoming Collection - Artist confirmed

While I was on holiday in the UK, I wrote four games. They're short, and very silly, and they deal in some weird experimental stuff. I'm happy to announce that I've commissioned the stellar artist IguanaMouth (here's the wildly successful comic she did that brought her to my attention - http://iguanamouth.tumblr.com/post/86102460852/something-about-memories) to do the cover. I've re...

Brain Fizz Episode 4: On Giant Stompy Robots

Hello! It's been a while since I did one of these. Imagine my brain is a dog, and ideas are... I dunno. Passing cars. Most of the time a car goes past, I have a good old bark about it, but let it go. But sometimes I try to chase that bastard down good and proper, and I throw myself after it in a mad dash to stop it. At the moment, that idea is mecha - big humanoid warmachines. I am running down the street barking at it. There are already a lot of games about mecha on the market, and a lot of ...

Havoc Brigade video

Here, as promised, is a short video explaining some of the design decisions behind Havoc Brigade. Notably the ways that I encourage you to steal things and make lots of noise during play. - G

Havoc Brigade playlist

Hello! If you play Havoc Brigade and you have access to Spotify, then you might like to take a look at this playlist I've put together for the game. I had a good think about what sort of music would suit the mad-cap, brutal antics of orcs on a rampage, and I settled on Gypsy Punk. There's something foreign and unfettered about it, which I think suits the theme. Then, I cut that with a load of early Hives, some Alestorm, and The Reverend Horton Heat along with a handful of weird, experimental,...

HAVOC BRIGADE

My new game, Havoc Brigade, is out today! It's a chaotic one-shot game about orcs on a dangerous mission in a human city. It comes with a pre-generated scenario and characters, so all you need to play is a fistful of dice and some friends willing to cause a ruckus. Things have been a bit slow here of late as I spent nearly a month in the UK, but I'm back home in Australia now so I can crack on with releasing some more games. Next up after this is a collection of four short games which all invo...

The In-flight Collection

I am about to get on a plane for 22 hours. I am going to deal with the stress of doing such a thing by writing as many short roleplaying games as I can. Here's what I want from you - ideas. Stupid ideas. Good ideas. Bad ideas. Concepts. Jokes. Puns. Weird restrictions on dice and rules. Unusual mechanics you'd like to see implemented. (The last time I did this, the only game I produced was called "HEY KIDS, LET'S ALL MEET THE GIN WIZARD." I'm hoping to do better this time.) The games will no...

ORC HIJINKS YES Playtest ACTIVATE

Hello! I've just put the finishing touches to the latest draft of ORC HIJINKS YES, a game about orcs going on a stupid mission and doing really stupid things. I think - I'm not sure but I THINK - I might have made a system where every single player can just create unconnected distractions all at once, and that will still somehow further the mission. But I need your help to test that! If you're interested in playtesting the game, email me at gshowitt@gmail.com with the subject "ORC HIJINKS YE...

Brain Fizz, Episode 4

No Brain Fizz this week, as I've been in Melbourne pretending to be The Tattered Marching King all weekend. (See image; I'm the one at the back with the mask he made himself from found materials) However; will hopefully get ORC HIJINKS YES (need a new title for that, it's in danger of sticking) into a playable format for this time next week. - G

Brain Fizz, Episode 3

I've got my next game sorted out. It's none of the ones I've mentioned before. (That's just kind of how I roll.) What I've found, over the few months that I've been releasing games, is that I have a load of ideas at once and they all bubble and boil around, and then one just BURSTS to the surface and I know that it's the next game. The game in question has the working title of ORC HIJINKS YES and it's an adaptation of a Dark Heresy hack I've run a couple of times where the characters all play ...

Brain Fizz, Episode 2

Things are busy in the Howitt household at the moment. In addition to having some Actual Work to do (I mean, I'm writing about computer games, it's only JUST actual work), we've just finished running Journey to the End of the Night, a city-wide chase game, and we're gearing up for Spirits Walk in Melbourne come early March. (Spirits Walk is rad as hell, by the way, kind of a combination between Unknown Armies and Book of Spirits and Blue Peter. If you're in Melbourne on the 7th, 8th or 9th of M...