Writing a ttRPG - Wyverns & Warrens (Pt 1 - How We Got Here) (Patreon)

(This article is not part of the content of this blog that is covered by the OGL 1.0a.)

I had a poll to see what my paying Patrons most wanted as exclusive articles, and having me write a ttRPG in installments was the clear winner.

Then I had a poll to see what ttRPG paying Patrons most wanted to see me create, and Wyverns & Warrens, a fantasy RPG I want to keep to 64-96 pages and to play in a fast and easy manner, was the clear winner.

So, that's what we're doing! WyvWar is my nostalgia-driven fantasy heartbreaker ttRPG design. Every choice I make for WyvWar is driven by the effort to recapture how it felt when I played Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures, or D&D games that use the original booklets, Basic, a Boxed set, Dragon articles, and stuff we graphed on from Boot Hill, Gamma World, Gangbusters, and anything else that seemed to use a d20 or percentile.

(Cover art by Eric Pommer. Cover graphics by Lj Stephens)

The number two pick of folks was "My Vision of Old Skool Post-Apocalypse" - A game designed to create the thrill of super-science and sorcery (or psychicry, or mutation, or all of the above) I felt when first cracking open Gamma World, Morrow Project, Aftermath!, Rifts, and watching Thundarr the Barbarian and The Road Warrior. While that's not the same as WyvWar... one core system COULD be used for both. So, I'll be keeping this concept in mind as I work on WyvWar. I don't know if I'll actually create a PA ttRPG off WyvWar, but if it turned out the same core system could also handle "Omega Project" I'd like that.

And now, an aside.

There was, briefly, a time at Wizards in 2000-2001, when I was involved in planning or playtesting of d20 versions of Star Wars, Star Trek, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, and Call of Cthulhu. I was on the periphery of most of those (I just helped playtest stat for Cthulhu, for example), but there was a conceptual seed I liked. Done properly, those games could let groups have Dark Vader, Khan, Rand al'Thor, Sauron, and Cthulhu all in the same fight, and elements of those settings can all

Now there are games where you can do that... with a lot of work. GURPS. Hero. M&M. Many others. But normally they make the GM define everything themselves for most possible worlds (or offer a sourcebook per setting, but even then the sourcebooks often don't maintain a set power level).

Now, WyvWar won't somehow solve that issue. And my FIRST goal is to make WyvWar work well for the kind of fantasy that inspired me to start this project. But that urge? To have a system I like that can cover a lot of different genres and styles? That's still an itch I'll keep an eye on see if I can scratch.

End of aside.

Looking over my notes, I see I have a LOT of things I want to stuff into WyvWar, and a desired page count of 64-96 pages, all inclusive. That means I HAVE to keep things like stat blocks from taking up much room, be that stat blocks for spells (if spells are going to have stat blocks), equipment and magic items, npcs, monsters, and so on.

Most likely, that means not having a ton of different info in a stat block. It's much easier to get a sword in a single line if all you need to know is its weight, cost, and damage, rather than also needing to worry about material construction, proficiency categories, special critical hit effects, damage type, attack chart, hardness, hit points, price multiple in different regions, religious significance, and Oakeshott Blade Type. That doesn't mean I can't have ANY additional variables, but the more details I add, the more space each item takes up.

Some of those variables can be included in a small space if they are listed once as an option that can be added to other things, rather than having every instance listed with every thing it could be part of. For example, if I want acid magic to be able to damage the armor of its targets, fire magic to be able to start fires and provide light, and shadow magic to cause fear and create darkness, I could work those rules into every fire spell and every shadow spell. Or, I can list those rules once, and say they can apply to any spell that deals damage. The size of a spell stat block doesn't change, and now every damaging spell can be one of three spells depending on which element is added.

That's the kind of design I WANT to do with WyvWar... the devil, of course, is in the details.

And if I have ANY hope of sticking to my page count... I need an outline and pagination.

Next Week! The Outline for Wyverns & Warrens!