Tabletop Atelier

(Naoni, our cursed wood elf ranger, donning his baseball uniform for the first time. Art by his player, lycanthroopy on twitter ) A while ago I posted a handout on twitter for a new 5th edition campaign I was starting called Dungeons x Dragons . The campaign's premise follows a group of novice adventurers as they enter the dangerous Adventurer's Exam alongside nearly 600 other applicants. At the end of the exam, less than ten applicants will pass and get their "Adventurer's License," a document which certifies them as an elite Pro Adventurer. The whole concept is heavily inspired by Hunter x Hunter, a manga that is a big favorite among myself and most of the players.  Having just survived a grueling week on Bumbo Island, an Australasian remote island where every living organism on the island is at least a Challenge Rating 3, the party of player characters earned their way into the Third Phase of the Adventurer's Exam. It was time for a big change of pace... I

 I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition since it came out, minus a few months. It was one of my gateways into rpgs, and I DMed a lot of it in the "D&D Club" in college. Since I first played 5e, I've branched out and found a lot of ttrpgs, especially indie games, that fit my interests and mechanical desires a lot better than 5e. Even so, I keep finding myself running 5e—probably thanks to its massive popularity, especially in the modern day.  I'm not someone who is easily satisfied, so I end up hacking or homebrewing parts basically any game I play after I've played around in it for a few sessions. D&D 5e is definitely the biggest example of this. I've made probably a hundred or so homebrew monsters for my campaigns over the past 6 years, as well as three or four in depth rule hacks to help capture the vibe of different campaigns I've run. Since I started Tabletop Atelier , a blog which is going to focus a lot on my own tabletop ga

 Early this year I announced Varsity, my sports anime inspired Powered by the Apocalypse game.  Outside of a teaser image for the game beautifully created by @IdleCharles on Twitter, I haven't actually teased too much about what makes the game unique. In this article, I want to go a little into what makes Varsity tick, and what I have done to capture everything I love about the sports anime genre. Core Mechanics Varisty is a Powered by the Apocalypse game, and follows a lot of the most fundamental traditions of the system. It's a "story game," and prioritizes the collaborative storytelling element of tabletop games. It uses two d6s as its only dice and considers a roll of 6 or lower as a failure, 7-9 as a partial success, and 10+ as a success. Also, the GM (or "Referee") doesn't roll any dice.  Every moment in the life of your player character—known in Varsity as your "Ace"—revolves around the big Game. Whether you are a modern day high scho