Tablet-Based Tabletop RPG Headed To Kickstarter

[Karloff]

Tablet-Based Tabletop RPG Headed To Kickstarter

Fancy a shot at the Storyscape RPG? Would you prefer science fiction, fantasy, Old West, or something else?

Slabtown Games is about to bring its Storyscape tablet-based tabletop RPG system to Kickstarter. Yes, that is what you think it is: a game where all the prep work is done on the device, but the game is face-to-face. Remember all those stats you had to worry about, the monster mechanics you had to memorize? Forget 'em. History. Done. Well done in fact, like a hobbit after an unsuccessful dragon hoard burglary. All the game needs is for you to turn up on time. Pizza would also be nice.

It's a pretty simple idea.Storyscape lets the Keeper design an adventure, or buy one off the rack, in any style, whether it's sci fi, fantasy, or something else. The players get to design their own characters, perhaps choosing to keep it simple with a standard template, or filling in every detail on their sheet. Miniature design is the next step. Then they all get together on the appointed day.

Their tablets take care of the rest, and that includes mapping and dice rolling. It can even get tricksy, with fog of war that hides map information from some of the players. That means one character sees the room from his perspective, while his ally sees what he does not; a goblin, say, about to plunge a dagger in his back.

It's even got a cash system, allowing people both to buy content, and to sell content to others. Or, if the players are feeling generous, they can bung a few bucks in the Keeper's tip jar, to keep things running smoothly. Maybe even to pay for the pizza. Extra mushrooms, by the way. Just saying.

This one's due to hit Kickstarter in December, and if you want to know more, head over here [http://slabtowngames.com/index.php/storyscape/what-is-storyscape].

Source: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff [http://kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com/]


Permalink

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

Call me when it can play The Riddle of Steel/Song of Swords. Looks like loosey-goosey Narrativism to me.

 

[lacktheknack]

This is kind of brilliant. I love it.

I'll wait until it's done, but I may get it if it turns out as good as it sounds.

 

[Schadrach]

Call me when it can play The Riddle of Steel/Song of Swords. Looks like loosey-goosey Narrativism to me.

Yeah, it's kind of irritating that there doesn't seem to be any information about what the underlying system is or how it works...at all.

So the underlying mechanics could be as loose as something like FUDGE or get as number-crunchy as HERO character creation, or anything else. It's an unknown quantity.

 

[Frostbyte666]

Hmm interesting but I wonder how it could mesh with existing tabletop systems more than following their own. I'll also stick to dice, less damage costs when I throw them across the room in disgust of a bad roll. It would also have to be very flexible on DM improvisation since there are those in the group who can be a tad exploitative of any system, like the guy who at 1st level bound himself to a demon for a load of instant levels and power, he just has to make a sanity check every day or his mind is devoured and the demon gets loose.

 

[Slabtown Jake]

Hi, folks!

I'm Jake Boone, the [visionary|crazed] [genius|idiot] behind Slabtown Games. I apologize for the paucity of information on the website at the moment; I'll be doing my best to rectify that over the next couple of days. Until then, though, I'll try to answer some of the questions I'm seeing here.

Ftaghn To You Too:

It's more Simulationist than Narrativist. Though my first RPG experiences were with red box D&D back in the '80s, I really got *into* RPGs with GURPS, so I've got a strong Sim streak. Our system is more old-school than the new indie Nar breed, so if you imagine it something like GURPS, but with all the calculations of range/speed/size/weather/shock/etc./etc./etc. scutwork hidden away under the hood, you're not too far off.

Schadrach:

It's closer to HERO on the crunch scale. It's just that you don't have to deal with the crunch unless you want to. For casual players, they can say, "I want to play an archer," and choose an archer template, and they're done. For grognards (like myself), they can say, "I want to play an archer, but with less woods-lore and more glass-blowing knowledge," and choose an archer template, and mess around with the skills and change the build to suit their vision. We'll have more details forthcoming very soon.

Kalezian:

We intend to have the capability to play remotely, though we're setting up most of our features under the base assumption that players are usually in a room together. Still, if, for example, Larry's in a weekly game, but he has to go to Tulsa for a week on business, he can still participate via his hotel's WiFi network.

Frostbyte666:

Existing tabletop games are written to try and simulate a reality using the tools available to gamers in 1974 -- plastic polyhedra, pencils, paper, etc. If we just tried to emulate those, we'd be wasting the potential of these newfangled computer devices. We can roll d2048020902 if we want to; there's no need for us to reduce everything to the granular results available through a d20 or 2d10 or 3d6.

That said, though, we are planning to have a "use your own dice" option if people really want to use it, though I suspect that'll quickly become one of our least-used features, as players realize how much more immediate and visceral and fun combat is when you're not stopping dozens of times to explicitly interact with the game mechanics.

Also, re your first-level demon-bound guy, everything the system does is subject to GM review/alteration. So none of the control of how the story plays out gets handed to the computer; that part stays in human hands. It's just all the crappy, dull, time-consuming administrative stuff that "vanishes". Stuff like "I need a fully-statted town guard NPC right now" and "Bob's eaten three packs of trail rations, drank a flask of wine, and fired eighteen arrows... is he still suffering encumbrance penalties?"

If there are more questions, feel free to ask 'em here, or hop over to www.slabtowngames.com and join the forum. You can also sign up on our newsletter list (which is EXTREMELY low-volume and deliberately as far from spammy as we can get without simply not having a newsletter) if you want to be kept abreast of the Kickstarter.

(I might not visit this thread after a day or two, though, so much time has elapsed, the best place to ask is on those forums.)

Thanks for your interest, and here's hoping you like the end product!

 

[Slabtown Jake]

(BTW, if any of you tried to sign up for the newsletter or the forums on slabtowngames.com and experienced a failure, I think we've got that fixed now. So please try again!)