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W. Gage Berry

@gageberry.com

I make tabletop RPGs, adventures, and zines about strange people getting themselves into stranger situations. Designer and writer of BIG SWORD, Dead Psychics Society, and other independent tabletop games. See more here: https://gageberry.com/

76 Posts40 Follower159 Folgt
Dylan Baird (BardicGeek)@bairdlytrying.games · 6d ago

I want to say how cool it is to see people who I backed on previous ttrpg projects have new ones they're working on. Genuinely, we live in a horrible timeline. You continuing to make games and art in spite of it all? It's inspiring and I appreciate the hell out of it.

W. Gage Berry@gageberry.com · 7d ago

I think deities are under-utilized at the table. When I write a god for an RPG, I want to know what its followers actually do. What do they burn, bury, refuse to touch, or charge you for? A list of domains is useful, but the weird little obligations are where a religion starts becoming playable.

W. Gage Berry@gageberry.com · last wk.

I really quite like survival rules when they make me choose between bad options, or support tension without diluting themes. I'm less sold when they make me count three different things to discover I'm still hungry. What's one bit of travel bookkeeping you'd keep, and one you'd happily throw out?

Scréamus@phantom-limbs.bsky.social · 4w ago

Currently thinking about my creative work up until now because actually the drive to be a one-person cottage industry that's expected to go toe to toe with the big guys in terms of content and production quality is all big one act of self-harm. And yet this often feels like the norm in indie TTRPGs.

W. Gage Berry@gageberry.com · 4w ago

This is something I've always kept in my back pocket but never seen much conversation around. I first saw similar with the GLoG community and I've considered designing something similarly awesome. Death should not be the finite end of a character. They leave behind things and people and memories.

Rise Up (From the Grave) Comus@riseupcomus.bsky.social · 4w ago

"Not dying at 0 hp" is probably the most common house rule used for people who otherwise are judicious adherents to B/X or OSE. What if every class had its own mini table of house rules of things that happened at 0 hp, though? What if you used MANY house rules for death?

Death When you reach 0 hp, you may choose to die or roll on the following table. Dismemberment. You take a grievous wound and fall unconscious. After a turn, you awake with 1 hp and learn that you've lost your 1. eye, 2. hand, 3. leg below the knee. You must retreat from the dungeon as soon as possible. You must rest for a week before adventuring again. Taken. The monsters [take you prisoner/swallow you] and retreat. You may be [rescued/regurgitated] and restored to 1 hp. Wounded. You take a wound and fall unconscious. After a turn, you awake with 1 hp. You must retreat from the dungeon as soon as possible. You must rest for a week before adventuring again. Sacrifice. Your squire/henchman steps in front of the last blow and falls to 0 hp instead of you. They are taken out of the fight, and must recover in a stronghold before adventuring again. If no squire/henchman, you will die in 1 turn if you receive no healing. Weak. You are conscious, but weak. You can crawl and whisper, but not perform any tasks that require a roll. At the end of the combat, you regain 1 hp. Last chance. You are conscious, but weak. If you lay still, you regain 1 hp at the end of combat. If you take any actions, treat them as having rolled a natural 20, but you will die at the end of the round.
W. Gage Berry@gageberry.com · 4w ago

Design problem I keep circling: If a zombie RPG is about replacing your own ruined body parts, I really want each limb to have a resource die that degrades through use. But if that same die also determines how good the limb is at doing things, suddenly every arm is mostly a math decision.

Lyra and 1 other@muzzlesbian.bsky.social · 4w ago

as someone with little to no ttrpg experience before running into girl frame last year, the idea that "GM" and "player" are fully separate groups has always completely baffled me. sure, the GM may be doing things differently to the rest of you, but you're all still playing the game, are you not?

W. Gage Berry@gageberry.com · last mo.

Thinking of writing a solo map-making #ttrpg Would it be too much to track damage by how many times you've been prompted to snap your pencil in half? Or is that just right for themes of despair and destruction?

W. Gage Berry@gageberry.com · last mo.

Planning on refining my pitch for the Tuesday Knight Games writer's grant coming up. What are y'all's favorite #mothershiprpg adventures? Looking to devour as many ideas as I can to help me stew on my own and write something truly glorious. Regardless this is something I'm excited to write. #ttrpg

W. Gage Berry@gageberry.com · last mo.

Literally anything. I saw “Haunted Chop Shop” Halloween decor and thought: zombie RPG where body parts are currency. So, that.

Bad_Toad _Games@bad-toad-games.bsky.social · last mo.

What is your go to resource for ideas in your #Ttrpgs? Let others see the gears behind the curtain. For us Toads its a combination of History podcasts,folklore, movie quotes and inspirations from other games. -Hard-core History -Warhammer Fantasy -Symbaroum -Road to El Dorado -Brothers Grim