CozyCrowns 👑 - A web character sheet for Brindlewood Bay

I have recently updated CozyCrowns with two big changes.

1. CozyCrowns now offers a PDF download!

   You can now easily take your CozyCrowns created character to print!

   Big thanks to the creators of Brindlewood Bay for allowing me to use the official PDF as basis for this!

2. CozyCrowns gibt es jetzt auch auf Deutsch!

   I have added support for language switching. Current options are English and German, but the gates are now open for more!

   Let me know if you want to use CozyCrowns in your language and we can work on making it happen!

You can find both of these new features in the Menu dialog.

CozyCrowns is fully Open Source and you can find the source code here on Github

Wow that's cool, what should I do now?

• Let me know what you think in the comments
• Request a cool feature
• .. or the next language that should be supported!

You can get in touch with me here on reddit or over on Bluesky

When I first submitted Where Fields Go Fallow to the One-Page RPG Jam earlier this year, it was made in a bit of haste – a spinoff from my then main project, UNTETHERED.

As it got traction and turned into a successfully Kickstarted zine game, I felt I wanted to return to the original one-pager that started it all – and give it the attention it deserved.

When creating the one-pager, I wanted to see if a single page could hold an authentic, slice-of-hearth fantasy story – where ordinary villagers stand together against a monster, not out of heroism, but necessity.

The core mechanic was simple: dice pools drawn from who you are and what you’ve endured. It’s built on a lightweight framework I’ve been slowly refining called OGREISH – heavily influenced from games PbtA, FitD, and Fate, but sanded down and integrated with mechanics of my own, like:

• Facets instead of stats – important aspects of the fiction, like burning house, reinforced, or heavy rain affects the dice pool
• One-roll resolution – fast, full outcomes that nuances success, struggle, and outcomes
• Built for collaborative play – no initiative, no time-tracking, just shared narration shaped by the result
• No GM moves – just clear stakes, a conversation, and a lean and dynamic set of outcomes

I recently updated the one-pager to version 1.1. No new rules – just a fully overhauled layout and graphic design, now aligned with the 36-page edition we published as a zine.

- Download the updated one-pager
- View the OGREISH system it runs on

Would love to hear what you think – especially from those of you building your own PbtA-inspired engines, and especially especially if you chose to shift from using many moves to one, and what that looks like.

It's not a situation I would initiate for a good reason but sometimes it happens. The team exists in a universe where there is a metahuman that is that world's Superman. Maybe not as crazy-broken as Supes has become in composite, but when you're a bunch of newbie teens still figuring out their powers the differential is still simply insurmountable.

So the team did something bad while 'Superman' is around and now they're trying to get away. In a comic they'd have zero chance if Superman wanted to catch them. He would, then he'd give them a stern talking to as he carried them home to their families.

But is that what should happen in Masks? And if so how do you handle it? Yes, they'll roll Unleash Your Powers to try and move fast and crash through walls, but if your top speed is subsonic then right after that Supes is hovering in front of you again lecturing you on property damage.

So they get really dumb and throw a powered attack at him, one that really has no chance of even harming him. Do they roll Directly Engage a Threat for that? And if they do do they get to inflict Conditions on him? What if they manage to inflict all 5? Does Superman get somehow so distraught from these upstart teens essentially flicking spitballs at him that he runs away?

I want to make this a fun encounter that doesn't feel like there was only one way it could end.

I am looking for a RPG system to run a superheroe game for my 14 year old son. He really is into Marvel, so the game would probably set in that universe. We have been RPGin before, playing AVATAR LEGENDS among others. Although I am a rather old-school GM, so far, I like the system. So my question;

Is Masks A New Generation suitable with only one player? As for AVATAR, we find that many playbooks and mechanics depend on other characters present.

Is the system tied to its own world - or can it be used to run games in another superheroe universe, Marvel, in this case.

EDIT: Thank you all for your insight. This was really helpful. I hadn´t really thought about the teenage part. While my son loves the teenage heroes of the Marvel universe, he loves them when they kick butt, not when they get moody, angsty or come of age. This ought to be a fun game for him (us!) not a pedagogic instrument.

We at Sondeirypt Games have worked on a custom class for Spire: The City Must Fall and it's finally out! It's called the Uncivil Servant and it's as follows:

After a lifetime of working through (and in) legal tape, you're more than well-versed in the arcane secrets of stamped sigils and contracts signed in blood. You've spent so long parsing the labyrinthine Aelfir legal system that you're uniquely placed to navigate and subvert their laws to suit your needs. Better yet, you can accomplish almost anything so long as you word it carefully. And what better ways to put these skills to use than against your oppressors?

Uncivil Servant is a supplemental class for Spire: The City Must Fall and requires a copy of the original game to play. It is heavily based on the incomplete Uncivil Servant Spire Class draft by Lewis Gillingwater, with their permission.

Uncivil Servant is an independent production by Sondeirypt Games and is not affiliated with Rowan, Rook and Decard. It is published under the RR&D Community License. Spire: The City Must Fall is copyright Rowan, Rook and Decard. You can find out more and support these games at rowanrookanddecard.com.

You can find Uncivil Servant (pay what you want) here, and if you want to see more of our works you can take a look at our itch.io page.

I was thinking in making a Bull for a campaign, and was working the concept of a Ant-Man type| of character.

His strength would come from size changing, becoming bigger. Obviously, I'd limit it to something like 10 ft tall, just a tank, not a giant.

The idea came of the China Shop move, what made me think it would be cool if he was literally too big, so when he causes damage to the environment is growing more, or with There When It Matters, he's growing to move faster covering more distance

Gigantification was one of my fav powers duo Earth's Mightiest Heroes

But I'm not if it's too much, since I'm new to this system, so I'd like to know how others flavored The Bull's power

I've been reading through People's Would and was also glancing at FotF and was surprised by how short the rules are. I came away with one question - what does FotF do that isn't already done in Dungeon World? I know it is supposed to make it more OSR like but with out a running the game section on my site how that translates

Hello.

I don't understand the "Extend your senses" in the "Unleash your Powers" basic move.

It seems less adapted than the other two triggers. What examples can you give me?

First time posting here—apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere. Feel free to just drop a link if so!

I’ve recently made the switch from running D&D to Masks: A New Generation, which I’m really enjoying so far. However, I’m finding combat a bit tricky to manage. Since there’s no initiative and no strict rules on how many actions players can take, I’ve been giving each player one move before moving to the next, while adding in villain moves to increase tension. But I’m not entirely sure if that’s the “correct” way to run things.

I’m also struggling with the effects of the villain’s special moves. I get the narrative side of things and often prompt players on how the situation is affecting them, but I’m not sure what the actual mechanical or narrative consequences should be when the villain takes a move. I want to make sure it feels meaningful and impactful while keeping it fair and balanced.

Any tips or advice from this amazing community would be greatly appreciated!

Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

r/PbtA is affiliated with the PbtA discord and you're all welcome to click and join us there as well.

TLDR; can I have two or more Threats with Countdown Clocks that directly oppose each other?

Hi everyone, I am not familiar with PbtA games, but I am trying to take inspiration from its design philosophy to help me GM another game (Chronicles of Darkness, which IMHO doesn't provide much guidance or frameworks for running games, especially character-driven ones, instead expecting you to essentially already know what you're doing).

Specifically, I find very helpful the concept of Countdown Clocks or Fronts as a way to "prep" a game in a more sandbox approach. However, while trying to write down some Threats for my setting, I don't understand how to frame two opposing forces as Countdown Clocks.

For instance, using Urban Shadows as an example: I have a Ritual Threat where a faction of cultists is trying to sacrifice someone to summon an entity. I also have a Passion Threat, an NPC who wants to oppose the ritual to protect the intended victim and is willing to do irrevocable damage to stop the cultists.

How do I take each other's actions into account? What happens at, say, 11:00 if the players don't act against either Threat? Should I make a single Countdown Clock, deciding beforehand that at 6:00 the NPC manages to stop the cultists, or do I make separate and independent Clocks?

I'm a brand new MC, wanting to try out RPGs with my newbie friends for the first time. We decided to go for a cyberpunk setting so I picked up The Sprawl and my god does this book feel dense. I get that the core PbtA mechanics is just roll 2d6, but it feels like the details for mission structure, mission moves, corp moves, threat clocks, mission clocks, corporation clocks, harm clocks, assets, matrix rules, gear tags and all the rest are scattered throughout the book and I can't possibly keep all of it in my head.

I feel seriously overwhelmed and am looking for advice on what it is that I really need to know to run a first session with a bunch of newbies. Any advice is more than welcome.

Is there any move or similar action in Thirsty Sword Lesbians that lets you investigate situations, not just people? I haven’t been able to find one in the rule book. If one doesn’t exist, how does a GM avoid the need for that? I’ve found it narratively essential in games like DnD and Monster of the Week.

Back again asking your favorite things, lol. At first I was wanting to ask specifically about masks because most of them are so good and then there are some that are just... meh. However, then I thought of some other cool playbooks from other games and wanted to ask: what's your favorite and least PBtA playbooks and why?

Hello, I am GMing a Weird Weird West one shot, it is an adventure adapted from another system called DEADLANDS. The problem comes in the form of how a crime scene investigation is conducted in DEADLANDS, being a more traditional rpg you would usually roll for investigation while inspecting a specific part of the scenario, and based on the result, you would get a very specific clue. By the end of the scene, the players would try to make the most out of what they learned.

I am kind of new to PBtA so I don't know how to handle an investigation like this using a "Discern Realities"-type move, or any other kind of move, to be frank. Any advice about how to proceed?

EDIT: Thanks for the advice, it's really hard to let go of the old habits of following a scripted game and just "wing it" or "play to find out". I will try to use the Fronts organization to move the story forward, and regarding how I will handle the crime scene, I think I will be just straightforward and answer any questions, maybe draw a very detailed and visual scenario so that the clues are very highlighted and just let the players come with their own clues and conclusions. Anything else will be resolved with playbook-specific moves and creativity.

im thinking abt designing a game for me and my friends to play. the premise is that you would are employed by a bigger crime boss, but a criminal yourself in a sort of post-apoctalyptic fantasy situation. your group is apart of a prophecy and are the chosen ones in this situation. you dont see it yet but youre all gonna be great heros. there is something that all PCs face that makes/made them question their ability to be a great hero.

details abt the details ive thought of so far:

stats are gonna be based on categories of thought that might contribute to someone's self doubt

playbooks will be based on common tropes that involve a character doubting themselves.

the social currency is called Compitence or Incompetence. you do something good then depending on what it is, u gain Competence or loose Incompetence. its the other way around if its something unhelpful.

Hi,

I will be GMing Escape from Dino Island for a group of 3 in a week. None of us have ever played TTRPGs before. The only experience we have is playing thematic board games like Nemesis, BoTC, Final Girl, etc.

I have gone through the rulebooks for Apocalypse World & Dino Island (multiple times). I have also listened to a couple of playthroughs for Dino Island. I do feel like I understand the "system".

But, as my players are all new to this, would it be better to have an intro session where I explain the system to them and ask them to pick the characters before hand? Also, should I maybe give them the rulebook (DM part redacted)?

Any other things to keep in mind / to do would also be really appreciated. Im super excited to run this. Im just a little nervous.

Do you guys prefer basic PBTA games like masks, apocalypse world, and monster of the week or do you prefer spin-off systems like forged in the dark (blades in the dark, girl by moonlight, scum and villainy) and ironsworn (ironsworn and ironsworn star forged)? Which you you think is better designed at am overall system/ engine?

So, I'm looking for advice on a game that fits my needs, if it already exists. I've played mostly D20 games so far, and I was recently introduced to the PBTA genre, which fits much better with the style of game I like to play, and especially the type of game I like to DM.
Anyway, what I want is something like Symbaroum or Shadow of the Demon Lord—that kind of feel and atmosphere, but in a PBTA game. I'm familiar with Urban Shadow, but it's very modern, and I'm also familiar with the Dungeon World campaign setting Cold Ruins of Lastlife, but I think PBTA games shine when they're designed to do one thing, and if you try to change it too much, you lose that magical feeling of being the perfect fit. So for that reason i don't feel like DW is the thing for me, I want something that was designed to be dark fantasy from the start, Design intention on PBTA makes a LOT of diference imo

this is from AW 2e, p. 8 (the very first page of actual post-contents text)

do you think this is true, and to what extent? as much as I'm used to playing short PBTA campaigns (typically 4-6 sessions) I have to say there's a part of me that kinda agrees with this about AW. more than most other PBTA games, AW takes a little more time to get going and benefits from longer campaigns. (in my experience.)

I've only played a couple longer campaigns of AW. in both cases, the first session was a little meandering but not in a bad way, and the next couple sessions were fine but not spectacular, but the game really started firing around that 4-6 session mark.

whereas a lot of other PBTA games (say, Cartel or Monsterhearts) you can basically spin into high gear very early.

can you get AW running faster? should you? I've run Baker's Hatchet City starter at cons before, and it does work at getting a really full, high powered session in under 4 hours. this 8-page scenario walks through a very specific way to set up the game that is quite different from the looser version as written in the 2e book. the upside is that you rev the whole thing up much faster; the downside, in my experience, is that you don't get the sort of "we built these characters & this world from the ground up together at the table" kind of feeling.

what do you think? what are your experiences with AW? I'm intentionally keeping the central questions in this thread somewhat open vs specific. but it's on my mind because I'm thinking about running an AW two-shot soon, maybe with room to build into a full campaign, and I'm wondering about ways I could get the game moving quicker without compromising too much on that handcrafted feeling.

For the one-page game jam I released Nano-AW, a love letter for the progenitor of all PbtAs.

https://matteosciutteri.itch.io/nano-apocalypse-world

It’s free and it’s more a style exercize than a full game, but I had fun writing it.

I've been trying to come up with a list of shows and movies that can help a PC understand the general vibe of how Thirsty Sword Lesbians plays.

On my list so far I've got Steven Universe, Shera and the Princesses of Power, and KPop Demon Hunters as some varied but great examples of the vibe of the system itself.

I've got really into PBtA games over the last couple of years. I keep reading about Love Letters but everyone talks about them as though the reader already knows what they are - even the Masks core book, which you'd think would be relatively newbie-friendly!

I've picked up a vague idea of what they are (although I'd love a clear definitive explanation if anyone can point me at one), but I don't think a single source has actually mentioned why they're called Love Letters. Can anyone explain?

Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

r/PbtA is affiliated with the PbtA discord and you're all welcome to click and join us there as well.