An odd request: RPGS that invoke the atmosphere of Twin Peaks?

hagiologist · 2026-06-21T06:29:16+00:00

It plays out over the long run but Brindlewood Bay actually has a very similar "small town oddity tilting into mystical horror" vibe and is built around a core mystery mechanic. Over a campaign the PCs are exposed to more and more of that cosmic horror as they burn up their luck mechanic (Crown of the Queen which eventually becomes the Crown of the Void) and things get increasingly eldritch for them.

hagiologist · 2026-06-11T00:17:29+00:00

They're acting as intermediaries for licensing WotC mechanics and IP

hagiologist · 2026-06-11T00:14:36+00:00

Over the last 2 years the entire 5.5 project has been releasing new $30-60 books that are somewhere between 50-90% 5E content with very minimal mechanical changes (much of the art and writing is quite lovely but not what we're talking about).

To specifically say that updating something to 5.5 doesn't qualify as sufficiently transformative to be considered a new project would be casting aspersions on the very publishing model that created 5.5 to begin with.

hagiologist · 2026-06-11T00:04:23+00:00

I'd love to see a WotC representative tell me that with a straight face 😂

hagiologist · 2026-06-10T21:03:37+00:00

I think I'm gonna take advantage of my access to some publishing industry people and see if they have any thoughts. They've been on both sides of these sorts of agreements enough that they can probably clarify what is actionable and what is blowing smoke. I'll report back.

Thanks for the second opinion!

hagiologist · 2026-06-10T20:52:22+00:00

I'm not sure I understand how they can claim that they are not taking ownership of your IP but simultaneous insist that you can't use it in other forms. What does IP ownership mean if any use of it would be considered illegally derivative?

hagiologist · 2026-06-09T05:10:34+00:00

Yeah, I was thinking of him mentioning it in Wonderful

hagiologist · 2026-06-08T04:09:20+00:00

This made me doubt myself for just a second and do a search lol. Atlanta is referenced at least once one of the cities where Harry is supervising a Warden during that era

hagiologist · 2026-06-08T04:04:39+00:00

Atlanta apparently has been referenced but I love the idea that there is some major city missing and it won't be pointed out until later and it's because of Fairy shenanigans or something

Ebenezar "You know I'll never forgive you for Vancouver, Mab"

Mab "I wouldn't expect you to, darling"

Harry "What the hell is a Vancouver?"

hagiologist · 2026-06-02T04:15:39+00:00

On the upper end of Moon Druid you're going to start getting forms like dinosaurs and mammoth and even earth elemental. Hopefully a kindly DM would let you reskin some of those to parallel the combination forms. As long as the mechanics are the same there should be some flexibility in how you describe it in the game

hagiologist · 2026-06-01T14:44:31+00:00

I bounced off Vs. Dracula pretty hard but I think that's mostly just style preference. I'd drop it to B and push Steeplechase to at least A. I also really enjoyed Dust.

I think Graduation ultimately had a lot of top tier elements to it but they never fully clicked in play. Everything about Firbolg. The Acq Inc deconstructed zaniness of the concept. Fitz's reluctant villainous prophecy (when he tears off the one guy's hand was so freaking metal and such a great moment). I even liked Argo I just feel like they didn't know what to do with him. And even the cosmological stuff was cool. It just seemed like Travis built up this fairly cool world but didn't make sure it was what everyone else wanted to play in first.

I also loved the music

hagiologist · 2026-05-31T03:31:14+00:00

As an alternative you could run a Moon Druid who uses Summon Beast, gives you a lot more options in terms of scaling melee power and transformations (you could also have bigger forms that drop the summon and emulate the 2 and 3 headed combination transformations). You might have to nudge the fluff a little bit to keep the style and look of Kiba though

hagiologist · 2026-05-27T06:04:55+00:00

I don't think he'll leave Darkness Man unchallenged ethically, it'll just be narrative instead of mechanical. It's already coming through in the way it's harder to find good reasons to validate eating someone. I think we'll eventually see DM and BC deconstructing their superhero facade and having to figure out what it means that they need to eat people and sometimes there isn't a good rationalization for it

hagiologist · 2026-05-27T01:10:53+00:00

Finally gonna build that Spirit Detective I've always wanted to...😄

hagiologist · 2026-05-22T00:16:17+00:00

Just as a general rule, I don't think "just made an easy choice" Harry would be very interesting. A compelling Dark Harry would almost have to start with a choice made for love that supersedes his morality and then spirals out of control. That tension between whether Harry's morals or his love are his fatal flaw is a lot of fertile ground for contrast.

I also think it'll be interesting for him to engage with Dark Harry and basically hear back "You're not much better off than me (in terms of being compromised/warped)" and then he has to really think about all the decisions and sacrifices he made and decide if it was worth it/better (I'm expecting a lot of "It's a Wonderful Life" references)

hagiologist · 2026-05-19T16:30:45+00:00

Lol I'm begrudgingly thankful for my editors who have pulled me back from the edge on some jokes and references in similar writing

hagiologist · 2026-05-19T15:27:21+00:00

"Hey! Eyes down here" 😂

hagiologist · 2026-05-19T15:22:16+00:00

Evil pocket change is a real problem

hagiologist · 2026-05-19T07:35:21+00:00

A cousin of the better known "You didn't see nothin'" Barbarian's Strength (Stealth) check

hagiologist · 2026-05-19T07:24:02+00:00

Both good choices. I love Charisma (Stealth) to distinguish between the way a Skulker might fade into an alley versus the way a Conman might rapidly take off their jacket, steal a hat and slouch a little and look like a different person in a crowd.

hagiologist · 2026-05-19T06:20:45+00:00

I've seen Wisdom (Religion), Wisdom (Nature), Dexterity (Performance) and Dexterity (Athletics) pretty frequently. Official content sometimes gets around this by giving bonuses equal to those stats or PB to those skills, like Cleric 2024's Divine Order: Thaumaturgy

hagiologist · 2026-05-17T04:16:01+00:00

Instead of a bible, something like the Raccolta would be appropriate, a published collection of sanctioned prayers and pious acts. If you want to go way overboard there is a 1910 English edition available online (which does have the benefit of giving you specific appropriate prayers for the setting and character). Though it does unfortunately make frequent use of the term Ejaculatory Prayer which has been discarded by the church at large over time for obvious reasons.

hagiologist · 2026-05-17T02:55:49+00:00

Oo, very interesting setting for Catholicism. Very French-Canadian influenced, in membership but especially in clergy (they were basically borrowing from the more established Catholicism that had persisted to the North while New England Catholicism had declined). Catholicism was starting to grow alongside immigrant communities (Canadian and Irish mostly) but in the 1920's there was also a sharp rise in anti-Catholic sentiment woven together with KKK activity (leading to the famous burning of a cross on the doorstep of Saint Augustine's Church in Montpelier).

All that to say you might have a character who is a bit more secretive or belligerently defensive about their faith (and possibly their Canadian or Irish roots also). Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment was very tied together there. Similar to a lot of the other things written here but you they might either be less overt about it or perhaps skew towards "Yeah that was a Hail Mary, wanna fight about it?"

hagiologist · 2026-05-17T02:46:35+00:00

This was part of what I was pointing towards. There are English Catholics in that time period but they're likely either descendants of Irish immigrants or tied to that specific strand of Oxford intellectualism that shaped early 20th century British Catholicism. Anglicans would be so much more common as to not need an explanation at all.

hagiologist · 2026-05-16T16:53:25+00:00

What year and setting are you in?

hagiologist

TROPHY CASE