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This reads like LOADS of fun!
I’m preparing five battlemaster-champion pre-gens right now :-D
That sounds wonderful! I use GURPS for everything and my campaign would probably be a John Wick style massacre... but the rogues don't have to die, right?
Ja- klar. Mhm.
C'est magnifique!
A delightful swashbuckling romp and an excellent reminder that Appendix N shouldn't just be limited to the medieval period. I think this would be perfect scenario to run in 17th Century Minimalist!
It was a happy coincidene for sure that my film nights and this title fell on one weekend. I thought hard about the title for a while. And I agree that more diversification on time periods is a good thing! Then again, I do see a lot of interesting games like, whatsitsname, Mud&Lasers? So I guess I am only late to the show!
This slaps! Love how close it holds to the source material, whilst still being lightweight enough to adapt to other settings & genres!
Great colors & use of public domain art as well. A lovely & unique entry!
I'm happy you think so! It was nice to keep the looks simple and classic instead of going overbaord with deco borders and whatnot.
Gorgeous cover art! I love the creativity put into developing the characters, the rogues, and the Manse. Great job emulating the duels in The Princess Bride, and they remind me of the game En Garde!
Thanks! It was fun to make the cover look like it had been copied ten thousand times ;)
Cover: I see it’s your own artwork — fabulous! The cover works very well as a teaser: the theme and inspirations of the adventure are evident but it leaves enough unanswered questions to make you want to turn the page.
Interior art: nice stock art choices that complement the text and enhance the theme. I’m not sure about the ochre colour though, it clashes a bit with the muted tones of the cover.
Writing: “It has been many years since you all hung up your plumed hats, soubrevestes, and flouncy collars.” Love it! In one sentence you set the tone.
Gameplay: The single-use things that give protection/an opening are a great idea. They do require some familiarity with the genre, maybe an idea would be rather than providing examples, to have random tables for these items (with the option for players to choose/invent their own).
The Manse: I would probably prefer to have a map rather than a description how to create the map.
Fonts: The handwritten look of the main heading font looks fine. I’m not sure it works so well to have a similar but different font for the subheadings?
Layout: “Preparation” should be a main heading?
Usually full justification looks better than ragged right, especially as you are hyphenating. You could reduce spacing between paragraphs to half a line. Consider contouring the text around your images. You could remove the bullet points before Luckily/Trickily/Wittily.
The game is system-neutral but perhaps some systems would be more suitable than others (Pendragon? Chivalry & Sorcery? The Might Deed of Arms rule from Dungeon Crawl Classics?)
Overall this looks like a lot of fun for an evening of play. You set the genre and the tone and provide the players and the GM with lots of options to lean into that. Nice work!
Thanks so much for the detailed analysis! All good points, I will keep them in mind for a post-jam update. With such a limited space I didn't think I could fit many more tables. And gosh, there are so many great systems - I only recognised half of those you mention - that I didn't feel like giving a proper suggestion. Personally, I feel that more people should play GURPS :D
GURPS is also a good choice. Or BRP, another generic system that is designed to be easily adapted to specific genres.
"swashbuckling"... here's another word that was not in my appxnjam bingo card, and yet... Loved this! It captures that flamboyant, theatrical swashbuckling vibe perfectly from old movies. To make it truly system-agnostic, I'd recommend tweaking the setup formulas. Right now, scaling icon counts or trap numbers off 'your system's dice' creates extreme edge cases (like a d100 table needing 90+ relics, or 'roll/4' yielding anywhere from 1 to 25 traps depending on what die you grab). Specifying standard dice (like a d6 or d10) for these tables would keep the pacing snappy across all RPG systems.
That's a good thought about dice - I did sway a moment if it's good enough and then followed the main stream, where it feeels like everbody and their sister plays d20 systems (which would still be an unreasonable traps number, admittedly). On the other hand I would say that the atmosphere of the setting is actually underlined well by a room with 90+ relics, and stairs where every single step is right out of Grimtooth's book! And rather add a cap for how many need to be described at start? I will consider these thoughts when I update the layout errors after the jam. And dogs.
A complete game in four pages. Love the Alexandre Dumas vibes, it hits the swashbuckling vibe very well!
Public domain art is nicely utilized, layout is functional.
I’d love to play in a game of this!
Thanks! I use almost exclusively my own art, but since it's a setting based in real history it felt proper to use public domain images. The things you learn researching... the time you lose in the rabbithole following up who got what title because who irked them to get it and so on and so forth.
Great theme and the character creation and the manse creation are so fun. I love naming your vulnerabilities and the icons. Great job! And visually looks great.
Haha, not responsible for the theme but thanks. I thought it would help players long to acquire the swashbuckling necessities for clever banter at the start!
Good use of theme and clever mechanics!
Thanks! That means a lot, I am still so unsure whether or not my ideas are stupid.
This was so much fun to read! I love especially the character creation process. The game wants you to be witty, reacting to everything, but ultimately holds up to "swashbuckling". I would actually love to run this with my table. Kudos!
I'm glad you like it! Witty dialog can save even the blandest of plots for me so I can only encourage it, and if player quote films, that's just fine!