gshowitt

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 move...

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 f...

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...

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 Q...

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 somewher...

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...

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: 2014-06-25 23:30:49 +0000 UTC View Post

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. Wh...

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 abou...

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 n...

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 ...

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 - ht...

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 ...

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 e...

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 wi...

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 call...

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...

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 an...

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 U...