Kyonshi
2024-09-16 07:48:27 UTC
Source:
https://www.gamesradar.com/tabletop-gaming/exclusive-the-discworld-rpg-gleefully-ignores-modifiers-to-dice-and-anything-crunchy-in-favor-of-puns/
The Discworld RPG gleefully ignores "modifiers to dice, and anything
crunchy" in favor of puns
By Benjamin Abbott
published 11 September 2024
Interview | "It’s forced us to create a system that is essentially
unique, which is almost entirely word-based"
The Discworld RPG takes a good look at tabletop gaming cliches for a
moment, scratches its chin, and then says "sod it." This pen-and-paper
adventure does something different – and it feels rather clever about
that, thank you very much.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Every new kid on the block claims to
be a unique and special flower – any similarity to the best tabletop
RPGs, or D&D in particular, is coincidental (on their mother's life).
Suffice to say, it doesn't usually pan out. Discworld RPG, though? Well,
that really is doing something different. I can't think of many other
TTRPGs that revolve around wordplay, for example.
With the game coming to Kickstarter on October 15, I tracked down
Modiphius Entertainment designer Andy Douthwaite and line editor Bryce
Johnston to fill me in on the Discworld RPG. Here's what they had to say
before they had security cart me off for bothering them.
GamesRadar+: At a top level, what's the crucial, must-have 'thing' a
Discworld RPG needs to make it feel true to the source material?
Modiphius: Punes, or plays on words.*
*[And footnotes]
GR+: How did that inform the architecture of the game, and its mechanics?
M: Massively! The whole game is built in such a way that players are
encouraged to play with words. Each character has a number of traits,
and those traits can be used to justify actions in the game. Players are
encouraged to misappropriate, mangle, or otherwise brutalise the
meanings of those traits to justify things they have absolutely no
business justifying.
GR+: What were the challenges or unexpected benefits of that?
M: It’s forced us to create a system that is essentially unique, which
is almost entirely word-based. The system works in such a way as to put
language and wordplay first and foremost, while the system fades into
the background. We didn’t ever want the system to get in the way of the
story.
The benefits aren’t really unexpected, but oftentimes someone will use a
trait to justify something in a way that makes you snort quite a lot of
tea across the room.
GR+: Was there anything commonly seen in tabletop RPGs that you
deliberately steered clear of?
M: Modifiers to dice, and anything crunchy. There are no specific combat
rules in the game either, all tests and actions are handled the same
way. You and the GM work to define what the consequences of a failed
action could be, in combat the consequence will relate directly to who
or what you’re trying to fight—rolling badly against a troll could see
you suffer the ‘swallowing your own teeth’ consequence, while the same
roll against the Luggage could see you suffer a Near Death Experience.
Those would be narrated, rather than see you losing hit points (which
also don’t exist).
GR+: What makes this game stand out from its peers, mechanically speaking?
M: We should have read this before answering the previous questions.
The game is fundamentally about language, wordplay, and narrative. It’s
a narrative driven RPG rather than a mechanics driven RPG. Dice
certainly exist, but only to create moments which help drive (or
undermine) the narrative you’re going for. Just to reiterate, it’s a
game about awful puns and silly stories. Right up until the point when
it isn’t. No Discworld novel would be complete without a moral or
philosophical point that makes you stop reading and go ‘huh’ and then
think about it for five to ten business years and we’ve tried to capture
that in the adventures we’re writing.
GR+: Can you give us an example of certain characters or iconic
Discworld elements we might encounter over the course of the game?
M: You’ll be able to interact with basically any Discworld character you
can think of, and probably quite a lot you can’t. The game is built in
such a way as to allow you to incorporate famous Discworld characters
like Vimes or Death into a story, without them overwhelming the narrative.
GR+: Was there anything you personally were keen to incorporate or
revisit in the game, like the City Watch as an example?
M: Everything, to be quite honest. This is a dream job for us. We wanted
to explore the whole of Ankh-Morpork with our grubby little paws and dig
into every scrap of detail we could find. In the course of the
development of this game, Andy read every Discworld book all over again.
On company time, no less. Let us tell you, sitting down at your desk at
9am on a Monday and going “Oh what does my day look like?” And it turns
out to be “reading Discworld”? Incredible.
I cannot stress enough that we got paid to read the Discworld series for
the umpteenth time, and the surge of jealousy you’re experiencing at the
moment is entirely justified, and probably not quite powerful enough.
GR+: Are you able to tell me what the rough product lineup will be for
the game? Are we talking a core book, a starter set, etc?
M: At its core there’s a rulebook. A core rulebook, if you will. Then
there are a bunch of accessories you’d expect, like a screen for the
gamemaster, a set of dice… and some other stuff. We can’t just spill all
the beans here, we’ve only got like three beans to spill, gotta keep
something back for the Kickstarter or no one will show up and buy our
beans.
Everything in the Kickstarter will be exclusive, so you won’t see these
books or accessories in local friendly game stores. We do have plans to
release a smaller box set of the game in retail somewhere down the line,
but if you want the complete Adventures in Ankh-Morpork experience, come
to
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modiphius/terry-pratchetts-discworld-rpg
and give us your beans.*
*[Or buy our beans? The beans have sort of gotten away from us at this
point, if we’re honest.]**
**[For complete clarity, the Kickstarter will not offer beans, accept
beans, or trade beans. This will be a beanless Kickstarter. A bean free
experience. Unless it goes really astonishingly well and we have to
start opening some spare tins to find some extra stretch goals, at least.]
GR+: What was something you've learned from the experience so far, and
is there anything you're particularly proud of?
M: No matter how many times you’ve read Pratchett, there’s always
something new in there, you’ll catch something new on the fifteenth read
through and it will be bright and shiny and for a moment you’ll remember
that incomparable joy of reading the books for the first time all over
again.
In terms of things we’re proud of, did we mention we got paid to read
all the Discworld novels again?
(We’re actually very proud of the game, but as British people,
acknowledging that would be a grave social faux pas, so we have to make
self-effacing jokes and say ‘well you know, we think we did okay’ and
things of that nature. It is good though, promise.)
GR+: A last bonus question that we like to ask developers and designers:
what's your advice on finding the right tabletop RPG for you?
M: It’s vibes all the way down. Except in this game, where it’s Vimes.
Seriously, and this isn’t super helpful, but play (or watch, or read) a
bunch of games. It’s the easiest way to figure out what you like and
what you don’t. Eventually you’ll find something that makes your
serotonin receptors light up and go ‘ping’ and then you spend all your
money on dice or books or whatever. But the process of looking at lots
of different games has value in itself, because even once you find your
favourite, you might not want it every single time. And now you know a
bunch of other options to dive into, if you’re craving something crunchy
or silly or emotional, you now know where those are as well. If you want
to play it, there’s an RPG out there that does it. And you’ll never know
if you don’t look.
https://www.gamesradar.com/tabletop-gaming/exclusive-the-discworld-rpg-gleefully-ignores-modifiers-to-dice-and-anything-crunchy-in-favor-of-puns/
The Discworld RPG gleefully ignores "modifiers to dice, and anything
crunchy" in favor of puns
By Benjamin Abbott
published 11 September 2024
Interview | "It’s forced us to create a system that is essentially
unique, which is almost entirely word-based"
The Discworld RPG takes a good look at tabletop gaming cliches for a
moment, scratches its chin, and then says "sod it." This pen-and-paper
adventure does something different – and it feels rather clever about
that, thank you very much.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Every new kid on the block claims to
be a unique and special flower – any similarity to the best tabletop
RPGs, or D&D in particular, is coincidental (on their mother's life).
Suffice to say, it doesn't usually pan out. Discworld RPG, though? Well,
that really is doing something different. I can't think of many other
TTRPGs that revolve around wordplay, for example.
With the game coming to Kickstarter on October 15, I tracked down
Modiphius Entertainment designer Andy Douthwaite and line editor Bryce
Johnston to fill me in on the Discworld RPG. Here's what they had to say
before they had security cart me off for bothering them.
GamesRadar+: At a top level, what's the crucial, must-have 'thing' a
Discworld RPG needs to make it feel true to the source material?
Modiphius: Punes, or plays on words.*
*[And footnotes]
GR+: How did that inform the architecture of the game, and its mechanics?
M: Massively! The whole game is built in such a way that players are
encouraged to play with words. Each character has a number of traits,
and those traits can be used to justify actions in the game. Players are
encouraged to misappropriate, mangle, or otherwise brutalise the
meanings of those traits to justify things they have absolutely no
business justifying.
GR+: What were the challenges or unexpected benefits of that?
M: It’s forced us to create a system that is essentially unique, which
is almost entirely word-based. The system works in such a way as to put
language and wordplay first and foremost, while the system fades into
the background. We didn’t ever want the system to get in the way of the
story.
The benefits aren’t really unexpected, but oftentimes someone will use a
trait to justify something in a way that makes you snort quite a lot of
tea across the room.
GR+: Was there anything commonly seen in tabletop RPGs that you
deliberately steered clear of?
M: Modifiers to dice, and anything crunchy. There are no specific combat
rules in the game either, all tests and actions are handled the same
way. You and the GM work to define what the consequences of a failed
action could be, in combat the consequence will relate directly to who
or what you’re trying to fight—rolling badly against a troll could see
you suffer the ‘swallowing your own teeth’ consequence, while the same
roll against the Luggage could see you suffer a Near Death Experience.
Those would be narrated, rather than see you losing hit points (which
also don’t exist).
GR+: What makes this game stand out from its peers, mechanically speaking?
M: We should have read this before answering the previous questions.
The game is fundamentally about language, wordplay, and narrative. It’s
a narrative driven RPG rather than a mechanics driven RPG. Dice
certainly exist, but only to create moments which help drive (or
undermine) the narrative you’re going for. Just to reiterate, it’s a
game about awful puns and silly stories. Right up until the point when
it isn’t. No Discworld novel would be complete without a moral or
philosophical point that makes you stop reading and go ‘huh’ and then
think about it for five to ten business years and we’ve tried to capture
that in the adventures we’re writing.
GR+: Can you give us an example of certain characters or iconic
Discworld elements we might encounter over the course of the game?
M: You’ll be able to interact with basically any Discworld character you
can think of, and probably quite a lot you can’t. The game is built in
such a way as to allow you to incorporate famous Discworld characters
like Vimes or Death into a story, without them overwhelming the narrative.
GR+: Was there anything you personally were keen to incorporate or
revisit in the game, like the City Watch as an example?
M: Everything, to be quite honest. This is a dream job for us. We wanted
to explore the whole of Ankh-Morpork with our grubby little paws and dig
into every scrap of detail we could find. In the course of the
development of this game, Andy read every Discworld book all over again.
On company time, no less. Let us tell you, sitting down at your desk at
9am on a Monday and going “Oh what does my day look like?” And it turns
out to be “reading Discworld”? Incredible.
I cannot stress enough that we got paid to read the Discworld series for
the umpteenth time, and the surge of jealousy you’re experiencing at the
moment is entirely justified, and probably not quite powerful enough.
GR+: Are you able to tell me what the rough product lineup will be for
the game? Are we talking a core book, a starter set, etc?
M: At its core there’s a rulebook. A core rulebook, if you will. Then
there are a bunch of accessories you’d expect, like a screen for the
gamemaster, a set of dice… and some other stuff. We can’t just spill all
the beans here, we’ve only got like three beans to spill, gotta keep
something back for the Kickstarter or no one will show up and buy our
beans.
Everything in the Kickstarter will be exclusive, so you won’t see these
books or accessories in local friendly game stores. We do have plans to
release a smaller box set of the game in retail somewhere down the line,
but if you want the complete Adventures in Ankh-Morpork experience, come
to
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modiphius/terry-pratchetts-discworld-rpg
and give us your beans.*
*[Or buy our beans? The beans have sort of gotten away from us at this
point, if we’re honest.]**
**[For complete clarity, the Kickstarter will not offer beans, accept
beans, or trade beans. This will be a beanless Kickstarter. A bean free
experience. Unless it goes really astonishingly well and we have to
start opening some spare tins to find some extra stretch goals, at least.]
GR+: What was something you've learned from the experience so far, and
is there anything you're particularly proud of?
M: No matter how many times you’ve read Pratchett, there’s always
something new in there, you’ll catch something new on the fifteenth read
through and it will be bright and shiny and for a moment you’ll remember
that incomparable joy of reading the books for the first time all over
again.
In terms of things we’re proud of, did we mention we got paid to read
all the Discworld novels again?
(We’re actually very proud of the game, but as British people,
acknowledging that would be a grave social faux pas, so we have to make
self-effacing jokes and say ‘well you know, we think we did okay’ and
things of that nature. It is good though, promise.)
GR+: A last bonus question that we like to ask developers and designers:
what's your advice on finding the right tabletop RPG for you?
M: It’s vibes all the way down. Except in this game, where it’s Vimes.
Seriously, and this isn’t super helpful, but play (or watch, or read) a
bunch of games. It’s the easiest way to figure out what you like and
what you don’t. Eventually you’ll find something that makes your
serotonin receptors light up and go ‘ping’ and then you spend all your
money on dice or books or whatever. But the process of looking at lots
of different games has value in itself, because even once you find your
favourite, you might not want it every single time. And now you know a
bunch of other options to dive into, if you’re craving something crunchy
or silly or emotional, you now know where those are as well. If you want
to play it, there’s an RPG out there that does it. And you’ll never know
if you don’t look.