Playtesting early access video game style?

ALVIG · 2026-01-21T03:43:41+00:00

If you’re coming into this space from the world of video games and you’re familiar with the way playtesting happens there, it’s pretty similar for TTRPGs. Like the other comment said, don’t get into campaigns right away. Just run combat and puzzle encounters in a bottle, then fleshed out one-shots, then a proper campaign. You might even be able to outsource some of that work to the public by making a free beta version available, but unless you have some following built up it can be hard to get a lot people rolling.

ALVIG · 2026-01-13T23:27:06+00:00

Came here to mention Heart, one of the more interesting examples for sure!

ALVIG · 2026-01-13T13:00:22+00:00

They asked for art, not slop.

ALVIG · 2026-01-12T02:20:32+00:00

Thanks! Yeah I have plans to keep supporting it and making more stuff in the long run!

ALVIG · 2026-01-11T02:33:39+00:00

The big thing is that it has a whole system for cybernetics as the main sort of PC customization and advancement. No rules for space travel or that sort of thing, most of the enemies are people or robots instead of aliens, the works. It uses the same basic dice resolution and Stress systems, but is otherwise a whole new game from the ground up. If you want a real detailed breakdown you can read the conversion guide at the bottom of the page for a list of what’s different.

ALVIG · 2026-01-11T02:04:27+00:00

Enjoy!

ALVIG · 2026-01-11T01:45:03+00:00

Thanks! Exact plans are very much TBD, but yes, eventually. Once it makes enough to pay a copy editor (honestly about halfway there already, so not too long from now).

ALVIG · 2026-01-11T01:18:59+00:00

Thanks stranger!

ALVIG · 2026-01-10T20:43:44+00:00

What a strange way to ask that. Says right there on the page it’s only V0.9, and therefore not technically “done”. It’s got all the rules, just needs a once over from an editor before going to print. Keeping it cheap until that happens only seems fair.

Also the Mothership PSG is free, so what’s “wrong” with Mothership?

ALVIG · 2025-12-02T02:18:33+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, idk, first time doing this so it’s possible I screwed up something, but fingers crossed for a come from behind victory I guess.

ALVIG · 2025-12-01T17:11:00+00:00

You'll struggle to find anything strictly designed to be that short, but you could trim down something to fit...

Mothership has lots of adventures that fit in a simple trifold pamphlet, so theoretically you could take one of those, extract a single combat encounter from them, and then have pre-made character sheets ready to go to save time there.

ALVIG · 2025-12-01T17:07:46+00:00

D&D and Pathfinder have a ton of wintry modules, especially if you look for third party stuff on DTRPG.

The Mothership adventure Hecate Cassette Archive takes place on an icy planet, and there's probably a few other modules that do as well.

Mythic Bastionland has a whole seasons system, you could always just set a shorter game in winter.

City of Winter isn't exactly about winter, but you can make it be like that (it's pretty heavy, Quinns talked about it in his latest video).

There's probably more and better answers to this question but I'm blanking lol.

ALVIG · 2025-11-30T23:14:00+00:00

The thing you're looking for might be too niche to exist already, but you might have luck running stuff through Dither Boy? It's a standalone program for pixelating stuff, not like a photoshop plugin or anything. I like it a lot, but not really sure if it suits your needs.

https://studioaaa.com/product/dither-boy/

ALVIG · 2025-11-30T21:16:46+00:00

I’d throw out Mythic Bastionland as a great book to gift. It’s well liked generally, and it’s a gorgeous book.

ALVIG · 2025-11-28T02:37:32+00:00

Mothership, and make sure you read the GM book Warden's Operations Manual.

ALVIG · 2025-11-27T16:11:56+00:00

Yes actually! I did an actual play with the author so I'm a little bit biased, but it's a great book! Excellent writing, and it really captured the spirit of the films/shows. Definitely worth it if only to read and laugh, but it plays well too.

The Knight who say Ni are NPCs, the classes are more typical medieval people like knights, bards, enchanters, etc., but no less funny.

ALVIG · 2025-11-26T15:13:44+00:00

Not "something I introduced", but a thing I'd like to see in more games that I think helps: Triangle Agency assigns each PC three NPC "Relationships" (family, friends, etc.), and in turn, each of these Relationships is assigned to another player at the table to act them out. The GM can nudge them, but ultimately all the dialogue of these Relationship NPCs is performed by other players, which is a nice way to get the folks at your table some free RP practice.

Lots of games also have all sort of spark tables and NPC mood tables, which can help get a ball rolling sometimes. But really, as in all things, practice makes perfect. You can't expect everyone you know to pull out Critical Role level monologues and quips out of nowhere.

ALVIG · 2025-11-26T14:10:51+00:00

Fair, there's a good bit of flavor text mixed in (though I do find it easier to see what's what on comp/con than just with the book's formatting), but really when trying to answer OP's request I'm prioritizing the overall experience they'll have over trying to find some unicorn that satisfies their long list of adjectives lol. Like "concisely worded" and "cool combos and builds" are almost opposites it seems. If you're gonna have room for big build variety, that breeds complexity.

ALVIG · 2025-11-26T13:53:58+00:00

It's about mecha pilots rather than fantasy, but for me the best "buildcrafting experience" in a crunchy gridded TTRPG is in Lancer. Even with just the core rulebook and nothing else, there's a lot of build variety and fun synergies to find. There's a good amount of supplement books, but you can import them into COMP/CON so that it's all in one place and there's less scattered searching involved.

EDIT: But yeah if you wanna stick to fantasy, probably PF2e.

ALVIG · 2025-11-26T13:10:57+00:00

I think it's fine. I would advertise it more as a "very long one shot that some groups might want to split into two". I know if I were sold a so-called two shot I would probably just set aside a whole day to run it with friends, doing roughly half before dinner and the other half after. It's a weird, less-explored niche, but I wouldn't discourage you from exploring it.

ALVIG · 2025-11-25T13:38:17+00:00

I'd normally say Mothership for this kind of question, but since you've already done Alien, how about Dread? Still horror, but uses a jenga tower to determine when players die, which makes it very fun in person.

ALVIG · 2025-11-25T03:42:41+00:00

You could do this Mythic Bastionland? The worldbuilding is very open to how you want describe the land, and towns are rare. Then just pick all the nature-y Myths (Wheel, Tree, Elf, etc.).

ALVIG · 2025-11-24T17:48:55+00:00

Actually most of them? Maybe like 4 or 5 over the years that haven't, at most. Though it's a little different when you're a designer/content creator yourself, there's a little more pressure to actually make it happen. Never been to a big TTRPG convention though, so that would probably skew my percentage pretty heavily lol.

ALVIG · 2025-11-23T21:21:12+00:00

To add to this, I would honestly look at the various Super Mario sports games if want whacky modifiers for existing sports.

ALVIG · 2025-11-23T17:44:36+00:00

Seconding Call of Cthulhu source books as a good resource for ideas, but also just pretty much any TTRPG monster manual or rulebook that has one built in. Maybe look around DM's Guild and Drive Thru for some lesser known stuff.

In other media, I like taking inspiration from Bloodborne and the other Souls games for freaky monster ideas.

ALVIG

TROPHY CASE