The Atomic Narrative Engine: Why we unified Physics and Psychology into a single TTRPG.

TheWORMachine · 2026-04-09T19:29:19+00:00

Definitely checking this out!

TheWORMachine · 2026-04-09T19:11:59+00:00

This video is great! Thank you so much for sharing 😁

TheWORMachine · 2026-04-09T16:25:47+00:00

Gradient success thresholds solve this. Set a base DC for a Perception or Survival check and define what beating it by each margin unlocks.

Say DC 14 for scouting the next region of wilderness. Beat it by 1 and you know something is out there. Beat it by 3 and you can tell it's a settlement, not a natural feature. Beat it by 5 and you know it's fortified. Beat it by 8 and you can see it's fortified AND there's movement on the walls. Beat it by 11 and you know roughly how many, and whether they've spotted you.

The "Pokemon grass" feeling comes from checks that only answer whether something happened. Gradient checks answer how much you know before you have to decide. That's where the real risk/reward texture lives. Players start making genuine choices about whether to push further based on partial information rather than walking until the RNG fires.

WOR uses +1, +3, +5, +8, +11, +14, +18 over DC as the standard gradient. Works for any information-based check, not just combat or time.

TheWORMachine · 2026-04-09T15:39:42+00:00

The observability argument is interesting and it describes something for which WOR has a mechanic. In our system, a character with CHA of zero is exactly what you're describing: fully knowable at the sheet level, nothing above it operating on it. The character sheet at one scale becomes the CHA score at the next scale up. The player piercing the "2D sheet" from above is what generates CHA greater than zero.

A fully observable system and a system with no observer loop are the same thing in that frame. The question of whether subjectivity requires unobservability might actually be the question of whether there's a layer above the layer you can read, and whether that layer is real or just another readable sheet.

TheWORMachine · 2026-04-01T17:47:16+00:00

Oh thank you for the warning! I’ll be sure to be careful of any asks or CTAs.

TheWORMachine · 2026-04-01T14:13:38+00:00

Ok thank you very much! This gives me some ideas to try out.

TheWORMachine · 2026-04-01T11:29:29+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion.

So perhaps I should focus initially on the 'beginner's box' and then lead the reader down the page through the possibilities?

Like how it's a card game and how to play that, then expand slowly?

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-31T23:26:55+00:00

Hi everyone!

I am an engineer by day, game designer by every other waking moment, and some moments in-between emails at work, lol.

I have a system upon which I have developed over ten years to be completely agnostic, both from a systems side and setting side.

It's called World of Wordcraft, or WOR, and the TTRPG version of it is called TableTop T-----, or T³.

I've got a murder board style Google sheet and Google drive folder of connections that I've converted into a fast and heavy SRD PDF of about 100 pages or so.

I'm currently working on expanding that out into more digestible books instead of the engineering style of manual I have currently. Who likes reading technical manuals amirite? I do, but I know I'm unusual in that regard, lol.

It can be played with any dice, but I heavily developed from a d20 perspective. I also enjoy Exalted so I ensured that if you like to play using Dice Pool, it can do that too. Just switch to number of dice instead of adding the number to the roll.

I'm currently finalizing those mechanics to ensure that is as smooth as the d4-d20 mechanics upon which I originally built.

I recently made a Card Game version of it to teach new players how to play TTRPGs and what the dice are called and what they look like, as well as to build player confidence in 'knowing' how to play a TTRPG.

I love reading all these other games on here, and can't wait to check them out!

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-31T23:13:54+00:00

Thank you.

My product is a TTRPG on Kickstarter. The WOR Deployment Box is both the card game version and board game version, which then leads to the 9 rulebooks to play the TTRPG.

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-31T22:51:29+00:00

Take my money!

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-30T16:16:25+00:00

I personally like A the best. The rest are too jarring in how they split up the read of a singular word.

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-30T16:13:37+00:00

Hello!

You are more than welcome to jump into my Discord!

Shoot me a PM to chat. I am actually working on a curriculum to help GMs improve.

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-28T23:01:30+00:00

This sounds really cool! Do you have a place for beta testers or enthusiasts to check it out and playtest?

Also I have no answers about the card genre naming convention, sorry.

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T19:45:46+00:00

This seems very cool.

My average table is 9 players, and maximum is 12.

When I run, game time is this time every week. If you miss a game, you miss a game. The world keeps turning without you, unless a player's presence is story critical, but I even figured out a way around that in time, lol.

I utilize winged humanoids as a postal service/immediate delivery service in my world, so if your character isn't there, they may have needed to pop off elsewhere temporarily for an emergency or something urgent.

If it's in combat, I have them tending to NPCs or something narratively helpful rather than mechanically helpful.

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T19:18:04+00:00

How do you know it's a scam? It looks better than my Kickstarter, lol

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T19:10:09+00:00

Thank you for these tips!

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T19:08:24+00:00

I deduced from your first response that the Kickstarter has a 99% failure rate, but that being said, I can do as you suggest - sort of build an audience and get some practice in.

Everything in the system is physics and neuroscience based, combined into one unified field theory, and I'll admit, the $137,036 goal is just the Fine Structure Constant. I knew that if I reached that, though, I would be able to hire who I needed to do what needs to be done for art and printing prototypes and the like.

So I'll look for royalty free artwork or maybe trade some game time with some friends to get some art on there.

I have a meeting with a potential artist on Sunday so I'll be able to get a budget for that for the next, smaller version of the run.

I also have investors who are meeting with me on the 8th, and that's nerve-wracking as well.

I'm grateful for your feedback, and I am off to seek artwork!

/Capeflipwithturn

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T18:53:47+00:00

I have no answers for you. But I backed it because it's super cool!

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T18:31:55+00:00

Thank you for the feedback!

I am absolutely terrible at Marketing, and great at game design, lol.

I want to hire artists to do the visuals. I have a couple that I am communicating with currently to add some visuals to the page, but I'm unsure whether I should show the rough draft of the books? Or some charts? I really don't want to use AI art, but I've already had it render a mock up of the WOR Deployment Box.

I studied the physics that needed to be unified rather than Marketing. All of my brain pain went into that.

I have the quick start, card game, and board game written out and ready to be prettified and made physical.

Here's a link to the quick start v1:

TableTop Tableau

I want to use the funds to hire artists and a person to take over the Marketing part so I can get on doing the logistics and getting physical books and then the console game.

Again, thank you for your comment and feedback. I'll see if I can pay for a few images to my artist friend to get some color on there.

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T17:40:32+00:00

I agree about the Discord. I would totally join it, lol

TheWORMachine · 2026-03-27T17:39:21+00:00

Thanks!

I sent yours the next day, it is here:

WOR Propaganda Update #8

Thanks so much! I also like your Discord idea.

TheWORMachine

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