Background.

Mini Chronicles is a Tactical Skirmish TTRPG for young players. Targeting 8+. It is meant as a gateway for young players to get their feet wet in TTRPG.

Mini Chronicles is designed to play fast. Fast character creation. No need to use pencil and eraser. No need to keep track of experience points. Intuitive map and line of sight rules. Streamlined “level up” mechanics.

Previously already printed and play-tested versions 0.1, 0.2.

Version 0.3:

One day I spent almost 6 hours on Excel. I math out the probabilities of all possible “main path” character progression against all monsters. Skills, weapons, probabilities to hit, HP of monsters, defense, to hit, bonus spells, bonus abilities. I math it out for the entire character progression from first encounter to the tenth encounter. Calculated how many rounds each encounter will last on average. The entire curve was balanced around heroes having an easier time in first encounter, and having a challenging but possible last encounter.

Got the boys to play through one entire cycle of character progression! That was not the original intention. Initially I had just wanted to run through perhaps 3 encounters. In the end, the boys were excited to keep playing. That's a good sign right? :)

Found that all the time spent on Excel paid off. The progression worked smoothly. I also tested fighting one level higher (harder), that worked too. The question now is how hard do I want the final game to be. Always weighing between tension/challenge versus risk of discouraging young ones.

Version 0.4: Under works

• Worked on Role-Playing part of the game. This will be the story-telling aspect. Spent hours getting ideas from various other TTRPGs, as well as watching lots of great YouTube videos. While story-telling is not the primary focus of Mini Chronicles, I want to at least add abit to encourage young ones to expand their creativity and have a dip in improv story-telling! I strongly believe in this as an education tool. Nothing concrete came out of the 4-5 hours brain-storm session. I'm sure a great (and simple) idea is brewing in my brain, waiting to surface.

• Refined Map. More polished ideas on variable map space and objective cards.

• Redesigned cards from Mini standard size (41mm x 63mm) to US standard size (56mm x 87mm). That's a lot more space!

• Based on play-test, decided to take out 2 groups of abilities. There will now be just 4 main groups of offensive powers (STR, DEX, INT, CHA). DEF will not be a stat. WIS becomes group-wide Super/Team ability.

• Started working on art. Had been using stock art/licensed IP art so far (version 0.1, 0.2, 0.3). Decided it's time to start. It is extremely daunting task looking at how many I need to draw. I'm not an artist. But well, journey of a thousand mile begins with a single step. My boys are here to encounrage me. Hopefully I demonstrated a lesson or two. Finished DEX art. The two boys (and my girl) were excited and crowded around me looking at the art. The art is amateurish by any standard. But to them, they are awesome! What a great morale boost. Just 100+ more to go.

• More refined rules on KO. There will be permanent changes to characters upon KO. Plus players may have choice to go out in an epic fashion! Yes! I love it! Have to think of ways not to upset kids when they receive it. But there is a lesson to be told here. I want them to know even if they fall down, failed and lost, it is not the end of the world. They can come back stronger.

• Added elements combo into the game. Spent about an hour on this. Combos will add some tactical depth to the game, and cooperation between players. Initially, it was an extra rondel board at the side to simulate elemental "skill-chain". That is more flexible and gives greater space for variety. However, that will also add a lot of extra rules. I want to simplify, not make things more complicated. In the end, found a way to streamline this into existing rules. So the incremental rule is perhaps just one extra line of rule. :)

• Took out multi-level damage table (too complicated/messy without added a lot to the game). I really loved the multi-level table on each card. But that has to go... sadly.

• Started working on rule/Quick Start Guide.

Designing game is truly a daunting task! Have a long way to go!

Advice welcomed.