Genrenauts RPG update (Patreon)

I've got some time and bandwidth to work on the Genrenauts RPG, in part due to the excitement of Blades in the Dark: Deep Cuts, the expansion book released by Blades in the Dark creator John Harper. ICYMI, I did an extensive read-through and analysis of the rules modules on Twitch, now available on YouTube.

The book included several rules modules that are extremely adaptable to other Forged in the Dark games, and so I've spent some time over the last week and change thinking about and implementing some changes in the game based on those rules modules. Some of the changes were already things I was doing or considering, so it was great to have that validation in terms of "someone else worth respecting as a designer thinks this is the way to go" and helpful in seeing how Harper presents it in the book.

There are a couple of bigger changes I may yet make (downtime without dice rolls, changing from action rolls to Threat Rolls), but I want to test them out in play first before committing to them enough to go formally into the game draft. My hope is to have the revised version ready to submit early in 2025, especially as I have revised the game more strongly toward what was always one of the original intents of Genrenauts - to literalize the idea of art as a site of cultural contestation.

A game about how stories shape the world and how important it is to keep them from being warped to serve oppression seems even more vital now thanks to last week's bad election results.

For those interested in digging into the nitty-gritty, I've attached the latest game draft! As a reminder, please do not share this document with anyone else. If you want to run a playtest of Genrenauts, leave a comment below and I'll get in touch with you individually to ensure you have the materials you need to play the game and provide useful feedback. :)