A Call To Compete

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A Call To Compete is a tabletop game (closer to a board game than a TTRPG) inspired by 1-on-1 video game fighters like Tekken and Mortal Kombat.

I've been working on A Call To Compete for a few months now, and it's nearing a state that I'm able to playtest. As is my way, the playtest version is going to be way more formatted than it realistically should be.

So far we have a combo mechanic, 6 unique fighters with special abilities, 4 basic attack and defence options (built upon by the aforementioned special moves) and the start of specific stages on which to fight, along with the unique moves and hazards for each.

It's shaping up to be my biggest game yet and I cannot wait to start playtesting!

Debris Field

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Space Freighter F215-R322, designation "Cardinal" was lost yesterday. The cause was catastrophic depressurisation from a hull breach. You are a member of the crew. Floating in the debris field, a few centimetres of metal protecting you from the vacuum of space, you might consider yourself lucky. After all, you reached a pod in time.

But you don't. You know you're still in danger. You know that the end is still one wrong move away. And you know that the loss of S.F. Cardinal was no accident. The radio blares into life.

I've attended a local TTRPG charity event for the past two years, once as a GM and once as a player. In those times I ran Dread and played Vaesen and Ten Candles. This game is designed specifically for that annual event.

The idea is that people donate to charity to join the event, then, during the games, can donate further to influence positive or negative outcomes in the session. I'm not aware of any TTRPGs specifically designed with this play style in mind, so I decided to make one. This is my attempt.

Players take on the roles of the surviving members of S.F. Cardinal, alone in their escape pods with only a radio to communicate with the others. No-one knows who survived, or can be certain who they're talking to. Transmissions don't always get through. Power is draining. And someone is planning something.

Six Shooter

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Welcome to the Eversea. Part galaxy, part ocean, part any-biome-you-care-to-name, this place is hostile to life. More accurately, it's hostile to human life. The domes are a refuge from the slow death of the Eversea's embrace, as well as from its plethora of creatures. You have a weapon. Everyone does. A six shooter. Six shots. Six chances to ward off the Eversea, six shots to drive away the hungry, curious, opportunistic creatures you'll find here. But you can't survive alone. Alone you die.

Of the games on the "in progress" list, Six Shooter is definitely the one I've been working on for the longest. I wanted to design a game revolving around the humble d6, with challenge depending on your character rather than external sources. I also wanted a game where, if you don't work together, failure is inevitable.

The design so far has focused on the community aspect as well as fleshing out the setting. Players play multiple characters who must recover between expeditions into the Eversea. There's also a significant settlement-management aspect to the game, with different resources and relationships between members to consider.

It's still a long way off where I want it to be but the idea of an eldritch space ocean still sounds as cool to me now as when I first came up with it. Add on top of that a supernatural weapon and a requirement for characters to work together to survive and I think I've got a pretty solid base for a game.

The Dead Speak

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The date is 16th September 1890. A storm rages over London and few are out on the streets. In the parlour of a spacious house off Jermyn Street, St James's, a small party has gathered.

They are gathered here for a meal and, following that, a seance, the true spectacle of the evening. Each has their own reasons for being here, and each is at least passingly familiar with the others present, even if only by sight or reputation.

The Dead Speak is a murder-mystery dinner party with a twist: there is no one correct solution. Rather, there are four possible narratives, with the one being played only determined at the start of play. It's explicitly designed for 4 players, using playing cards and their suits to draw out the secrets of the party gathered.

This is the first game I've written based on a request: my sister wanted a murder-mystery game to play with her friends and so The Dead Speak was born. I'm really enjoying designing it, even if a few mechanics are elluding me at present.

Trouble Brewing

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This town has been a refuge for witches for a long time. The townsfolk tolerate you, even if they don't like you, because you can solve their problems. Spells and potions, the right ingredients for the right problem. There's talk, lately, though. The witchhunters are on the march. It won't be long until they reach your little sanctuary. Time to leave.

Trouble Brewing is currently winning the award for "most troublesome work-in-progress". I had a set of mechanics worked out, a lot of which felt very solid on paper, but when I did a solo playtest I discovered it wasn't quite where I wanted it to be. Since then the game has been shelved for a while, but I'm certain I'll be returning to it, in one form or another.

The core of the game is using ingredients to brew potions or cast spells, while managing a resource called Attention that causes detrimental effects as it climbs. There's an in-built timer: the witchhunters arrive in 20 days. If you're not gone by then, you will be burned as a witch.

I really wanted to try my hand at a couple of things with this game: I wanted it to be GM-less and I wanted to use exploding dice mechanics. I've not touched many GM-less design thus far, so it felt like an interesting challenge, with the game concept working well to allow for that style of play. Exploding dice feels appropriate for a game about avoiding attention: gain an advantage when the dice explode, though an explosion always attracts Attention...

More coming soon!