*Thanks for watching! Let us know in the comments below your TTRPGs that you are creating!* Check out World Anvil, an amazing online world building platform, here (use GREATGM for a great discount): worldanvil.pxf.io/rPqPv Find our Bounty Hunter TTRPG Kickstarter here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/guysclanders/bounty-hunter-a-ttrpg

Immagine having a boyfriend who builds you an entire rp system because you can’t do math... this man is living the dream...

I have a player that chose to be an orphan. I said, "Great. Where was the orphanage? What were the names of the other orphans you grew up with? Who ran the orphanage?" He wound up with more background than any of the other players and went back to the orphanage multiple times.

"I'm an Orphan. I come from a massive family of Orphans."

The fact that you did this for your boyfriend is absolutely adorable and I hope you two have a good valentine's day

Made mine last year and put it on Drivethrurpg. It's a great feeling.

so this shows up in my recommendations the day after I actually started writing down notes for my own RPG system. "Eyes Computer suspiciously"

I've always created my own games, starting in high school and continuing (on and off) into adulthood. I've played around with different homebrew rule systems over the years (some good, some terrible). My current system is working well, although I've done a fair bit of tweaking over our current campaign, including a couple of fairly drastic overhauls of my combat system (fortunately, I have very understanding players). Why do I do it? I guess it's because I like the creation side of things. I'm the GM who's in it for the worldbuilding and the storytelling and the NPCs, and working out my own rules is all part of the fun.

"Why don't you have a backstory?" "Because we don't have time for me to tell you all of it and you wouldn't find it terribly interesting anyway." See also: "I do, but its a black box. Things may come out of it into the light, but its not possible to look in or reach in and grab anything."

I have a humble suggestion: pronounce ttrpgs as "teeterpegs" from now on.

Sooo your partner basically said put up or shutup and u said... Hold my beer

Creating your own ttrpg... Welcome to the GM Ascension

I'm actually already working on my own system design but I'm still looking forward to watching this video.

Thanks for this. I needed it. I've been working on a system that Started very very simple to play with my four year old daughter. Simple enough our forth game was one she wrote and DMed herself. It is now on its sixth iteration slightly heavier but still simple but now needs writing out more.

Backed this on Kickstarter! First thing I've ever backed, and I cannot wait to play it!

I've been working on my own for a while now and still at it. It's based on Japanese horror movies, stories etc since I'm a huge fan and I found it hard to run games and stories like that in other systems. It's the most fun I had being creative I've had in a long time.

A mechanism i found intriguing is using a Jenga tower for tension. Its not my idea, check geek & sundry, but that system creates a lot of tension especially in a horror setting. Not that every fail will get the characters killed, but dire consequences can be connected to that method

The simplicity and elegance of this system is incredible, Guy. I love how much you've done with so little!

Legit been working on my own for the last two years before Guy started this series xD loved the video!

This makes a lot of sense especially for dnd like why did my cleric’s 5th level spells fail?

The reason to not have a (big) backstory is that some people are DIP(Develop in play). I don't know the characters until I've played it for a while. I could write a backstory after about 3 or 4 sessions. If you randomly generate one the is a risk of it feeling wrong. But it's different for other people.

I've been working on a TTRPG for several months now. Love the video!

your system design is so considerate of unimaginative people (which I am absolutely not) this sort of thing I've had trouble with for quite some time... I love how this is addressed. In my experience the USUALY response is "then why are you here?" lol which is not a good first time experience nor does it keep people in the hobby. All personal opinions aside

5 years makig my ttrpg. Almost there.

I was in the middle of making an Undertale TTRPG when I found your videos, never been a better time for that.

Savage Worlds, NO SOLID SETTING

It's valid to say a tense dramatic moment was perfect if that was the goal. Well done!

I'm currently working on more than one TTRPG! I love these videos, thanks for sharing.

This is really neat. I heard you relate that anecdote about making a mathless RPG not too long ago, and my mind sort of got hooked by the question, then 20 seconds into thinking about it I had an idea for exactly how I would do that. I recruited a friend to help me out, and now after about a month of testing and Photoshopping we plan to take it to Kickstarter within the next week or two. I didn't even realize beyond the anecdote that you were actually making yours into a full system, it's a great time for new ideas in the tabletop role playing world.

The way he can bend his fingers both amazes and terrifies me

my very first backing of a kickstarter project. Love the idea, the premiss and love the artwork.

Actually working on a system I have in mind for decades. Based on the 1991 Aliens Adventure Game, a game with so many flaws that house rules had always been a must have. Now I finally even got rid of the Aliens movie based background for more freedom in story telling. A survival-horror game, action based, where the goal is simply to *survive the adventure.* Leveling and looting is traded for much more thrill and suspense, looking death in the eye! And yes, I keep using dice...

You can also add after skills, "traits", like "shy" or "bold" in social situations.

I’ve been wanting to make one for years!!!!

Love your information, I am writing a very crunchy, gritty, ttrpg.

lol I'm designin a LoZ TTRPG, the fact that he mentioned it in a video about designing TTRPG's that I instantly clicked on because of the title, blew my mind.

Cooking is both an art and a craft. Being able to cook an exceptional meal is an art. Being able to cook a moderate to exceptional meal several times over is a craft.

I was inspired by the video on creating your own ttrpg..I came up with an idea( it was waiting to come out to play).I am enjoying the creative process .I am following a paranormal theme.

I support your project ! Can’t wait to use this !

Made a few TTRPGs just for friends over the past 40 some years and played quite a few more. (Yes I am old) I like this game you've come up with. A lot of original ideas. Nice.

In general about creating TTRPGs... What is your favorite genre? Pick one. It will help out with the practical test. A simple or a complex system? Be it a 1d20, a table sheet, or raw numbers. A Logic System is difficult to pull off because it is "realistic" in relation to the campaign, and it triggers based on the Meta System. One must take place before the other based on the events by actions. As for "Class Tree", there is only two types. A universal ability creation system and "Schools of Trees" to pull from. Unless 100+ Classes are a thing, without using mixed classes/abilities. Combat and campaign wise... Keep stats low and options high. Make every decision critical to your Character's progression. And avoid creating useless stats or empty level up space used to just waste points in. In my TTRPG, it's a mixture of Divinity Original Sin 2's Action Point & Class System, Devil May Cry's Demon Trigger & Combat, Soul Calibur's Soul Charge & Combat, Vanguard's Card System, Yu Gi Yo's Card System, and an indie game where armor & weapons are treated by the Logic System rather than a traditional one where the entire armor set adds up to a defence stat. Along with the traditional six stat block. In short, my game can be played with dice, direct actions, or nothing but a paper and pencil for lists. Although, it's better played with Direct Action since it uses both types of mechanics under conditions. Ex: "You can equip a helmet which will add to your character's Armor Rating and protect your character's head exclusively, unless stated by an effect." And, "You can wield any weapon in any way of the hand(s), but be careful of your character's positioning during combat, since it affects the positions of your companions/pets (not PCs) and actions taken. The same is said for NPCs."

Did I miss the part where he explained WHY he went with the token/point method? I love it, but it does seem, as he mentioned, to go against the core concept (although I assumed that he wouldn't be able to adhere strictly, just because of how barebones the idea was). Cheers, and thanks for sharing!

the action point system is actually genius when it comes to wraping everything together because you cant very well cast a spell if your tired from running or staying up late or the other way round

Thank you for the video - You've inspired me to move up my work on my system!

Started making my own about a year and a half ago, you play as hackers/ internet celebrities/ civilians in a ready player one Esq internet reality. I narrowed the stats down to six : might, agility, toughness, intellect, energy.

Our group gms sometimes awards a few extra character development points for a good back story as an incentive.

That sounds like a really good system! Although it could be, by the sound of it be Universal or "setting less" like what the folks over at tabletop time made and the system er... I have... The trick to making a Universal Tabletop game is to make core rules like the AP skill system you have and build the setting editions on top like the ships and backgrounds in your game. So you can pick up the core rules and add a setting on top if your feeling creative or the developer could make editions with the added rules... That way you don't have the Games Workshop issue of not updated various games when one system could have worked. Not to mention my system which is a universal Wargame/RPG and fixes the issues Games Workshop's been having. Thanks for this video I can't wait for more game dev content!

Your boyfriend is a very lucky man.

This sounds ideal for LARPing. Keep stones/beads in your pocket and every time you do an "action" you give up stones. Skills etc. could be on a small sheet in your pocket, which you can memorize.

Very instructive, tension & decisions are the key points on a rpg system. It is related to a story, a world with hidden rules that players discover while playing and learning more about the character they play

Did this without realizing it 😅 wanted a game i could run for my kids, they had a list of things they wanted to do/characters they wanted to include. We had several session 0s, i researched various mechanics that different systems used. I cut and pasted. Meanwhile, I world built. We now have a patchwork of mechanics, genres, and systems that suits us perfectly. Coincidentally, that is how i cook as well, read a few recipes for inspiration and then adapt them to work with what I've got and meet our needs.

Thank you. I'm following the same base thought; a system where there is little to no math also easy and fast (emphasis on fast) to play online/on zoom. On the other hand, I axed 90 percent of the classes and 99 percent of the races. So it's only human centric. (Elves or dwarves may be on another continent but since we are not playing there, there are no other races, yet) I also eliminated most skills/feats :)

I'm working on a scifi system because I think it is the best way to get my partner into scifi since they love ttrpgs and this was amazing timing for me!

super useful advice! thank you !!! especially nice to follow your thought process about the choices by players, mechanics for creating tensions and decisions, and so many insights

Thank you so much. I was really struggling to make a system like this for a long time. This works perfectly.

I have been writing a TTRPG for a good while now, was looking for some extra drive. The biggest struggle I am having right now is working out an “AC” system for combatants. It’s a d6 system with superheroes/villains; has been hard thinking the best way to approach that specifically. Thank you again for your great video Guy, long time fan.

You did an amazing job creating this game. I enjoyed hearing the process.

nine minutes in, and here is a possible sollution: scenario: -character X attacks npc Y Q: i move in to attack that person, is there a obstacle? YES OR NO if "yes" then: "does the obstacle prevent me from harming the target?" YES OR NO and "does the obstacle harm me?" YES OR NO just toss a coin or throw dice (/multiple of them) and even numbers are YES and uneven ones are NO

Thanks for the insight on all your videos! I've been watching a lot lately to draw inspiration for a video game I'm attempting to story board for. I've been tempted to make some of it into a d&d campaign but much of it is too much of a railroad for d&d but too open ended for a linear story driven game lol.

Nice this is helping out a bunch with my skill based role playing system

Great video. I made my RPG, Raven of the Scythe some time ago (its on drivethru). I love what you said about how you cant really have a system without a setting. For instance, if your space game has blasters like Star Wars or just Ballistic weapons like BSG, that is telling you something about the setting just from glancing at the equipment page, even if you didnt think twice about it when you wrote it down.

Fantastic! I love your motivation and solutions in creating BOUNTY HUNTER! Brilliant. I completely agree that setting is key, the draw back to “generic” setting neutral systems like GURPS is they require specific setting books to be playable. Of course that is an intentional marketing decision by Steve Jackson, no doubt.

I've found that characters who provide backstories gives me an idea for personal story archs.

These are the kinda tips I desperately need to help finish my Yu-Gi-Oh! TTRPG! Loving the content Guy.

Silly point, but is this the first time that Guy has mentioned "Boyfriend" and not "Partner"

I've been working on my own system on and off, it doesn't use dice either but is a bit more complex than what you've described. Still a great and useful video! Given me stuff to think about.

The Shadowrun skill web was genius

I have been watching your great vidoes.I have supported the kickstarter.

I just pushed my game to drivethruRPG last week!

No cooking! In yesterday’s session the party went to what was once a Tea Room (patterned after Sally Lunn’s Tea Room in Bath) but now a Tavern, with an Actor who insisted on Tea and saffron tea cakes as she remembered from long ago (she is a vampire). One of the fighters is also a chef. Much to my surprise, he offered to try to make something in the kitchen, and the bard persuaded the owners to permit it! The ambush waiting in the kitchen needed to adjust, nice role playing ensued, (he made his cooking roles, managing to make some quick bread-scones!). Win-win all around all from cooking!

I did a double-take when you said boyfriend, honestly I love the casual representation lately, to hell with the gay-baiting crap we got for years "my boyfriend" that's all that's needed to convey it. I always feel the urge to say "my partner" when I'm talking with someone I don't know and seeing other people use specifics in public forum has really helped me get away from that

Creating a ttrpg that does not use magic directly, but also not a space rpg. More of using the video game “Legend of the Dragoon” as an inspiration. Very true that usually a game needs a setting to kind of set loose parameters on what can be.

Backstory is a relatively new thing to me. It sounds like a good idea. I'll need to incorporate that into my system.

I made an all D6 system because I was broke and my little siblings wanted to play, I ended up using the system with my friends as well

On a topic related to games getting increasingly simplified; I'm very much the kind of person who loves crunch. And this trend has deeply saddened me. A lot of my friends love DnD 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and Shadowrun 6th edition. But all of those completely fail to interest me. I don't feel like the character I make is *my character*, I feel like they're just a selection of stats and features. It's like... 60% there. Unrelated to my ramblings and I expect no one to read this far, if there are any big, crunchy tabletop games anyone feels like sharing, let me know! Not only am I looking for more to play, I'm slowly working on making my own, and ideas are forever welcome.

I made my own RPG system so I could fuse an amalgamation of every rule that I like. I also had an original concept that I wanted to develop. Now I have Lucid RPG - an alternate history about prohibition (caused by liquors that empower at a steep cost of eventual mutation and/or psychosis. The book looks great, but only one copy is going to print because I don't own the cool art.

Backed! Good luck!

I think, to get longer life out of the system. Have the reputation be an expendable resource. Like once per scene or perhaps story, you can lower your reputation by one to barely scrape by an action that you normally couldn't do. Either you didn't have the action points or didn't have the skill. Then, the narrator gets to describe how you managed it in a way that diminishes your reputation. For example a frenemy comes to your aid, or you manage to escape the gambling house without broken knees but also without clothes.

Simpler Roleplaying Games like what you've described here work best for one-shots in my experience. Simplicity is less helpful/desirable for longer campaigns, just my .02$ This sounds awesome for a quick game with beginners though!

Thanks for this video - I've been considering putting together my own TTRPG with the express purpose of keeping it SIMPLE for small children. I'm thinking there has to be SOME math in character creation at least, and trying to figure out how to avoid most of it. Definitely interested in taking a look at your system and how you got around that!

Main points: 1 Why do you want to spend hours doing this? What's your motivation for making this game? 2 Where is the player tension? How many decisions do players make? 3 Design your core mechanics to express decision and tension goals. 4 Ensure your mechanics have a broad coverage of outcomes. Things players might reasonably choose to do should be covered. 5 Risk is part of the game. Make it inclusive. 6 Healing, restoration, and moving on. 7 Combat is critical for many TTRPGs. 8 Must it always be this simple? 9 A setting helps. Add to your TTRPG 10 Character creation is the core feature for players. 11 Know and own your space.

You must allow character of players to acquire skills that they can add to their adventurer through practice and other means. In reality, I learned with practice to cook.

I have already posted the idea od the discord a while ago, but the reason why i started thinking about making my own ttrpg system was that when i went to my sister to help her with niece, we talked aboit games and stuff and she said she doesn't really have anything with dice in her house, not even d6, and so i though - then how about flipping coins? Numbers up for yes, back side for no. And so the Toss a Coin started to take a shape.

2:08 This is going to be hard to relate to. I don't get tension from TTRPGs and wasn't planning on mine having any since I don't care for it. 2:40 It's called player agency, so yeah. 12:25 You didn't indicate that the action points lost have labels so that means you can sleep off any injury and doctor can bandage exhaustion. That's not that bad but would be easy enough to fix. 24:25 Define setting. The system I made has mechanics based on physics (how many pounds equals how much damage and what to roll). And while it was based on a super hero setting, I stripped that out. It's a generic game meant for any setting like super heroes, realistic martial arts, space, or magic. You could argue that the mechanics assuming normal physics is a setting but I wouldn't consider "steel is this strong" to be a setting because it is literally just the in-game mechanics.

I will says this u are amazing u have helped me a lot

So, one thing i've wanted to try to do, key word is try, is to make a system where there are no classes. instead, you have a pool of points that you get on a level up that let you build a character buy buying different skills and point to how you want them to be. almost everyone that i have talked to about this has just told me that i was describing Pathfinder and that I should stop wasting my breath. but, i still feel like it's worth at least attempting to make my own system to see how well it really does work. and if it does, i can say that I did it. another idea i have is a system where everyone is some kind of Spellcaster, but the system is based around using Spells to solve situations, as well as the combat being based around magic dules.

Enjoyed this vid. Love how you broke down your thought processes to logical chunks. Am interested in game. Any way to buy it without backing it on KS?

I can't imagine why someone with no imagination would imagine that playing RPGs would be a good idea...

My TTRPG goal, sci-fi rpg, no dice, little to no math, no classes, no levels, easy to play, easy to learn, can be roleplay light or heavy.

The simplicity of this system comes close to brilliant. But nevermind me 😊

Your system is interesting but I prefer the probability percentage system where if you are good in something you have many possibilities to do it well but you also can fail for a reason that can bring in narrative ideas. And also, nobody is perfect in anything, something that makes it more realistic. Mythic RPG mechanics are pretty good at it.

I made my own RPG, and it was, indeed, worth it. Go make games. Go make hacks. Go make adventures. NOW!

"You can't create a role-playing system that isn't linked to a setting". You need to try Savage Worlds, lol 😅. It's specifically designed for that. Well, that and to not be overly complicated 😉. It has several setting modules, but the core rulebook also has a guide for adapting certain aspects to different settings 😉.

Very interesting concept! Perhaps I'll take a look at it when it's published to see the results of all the work you put in. Btw, you didn't tell us what your boyfriend thought of it!

its system of action points is very similar to the system that I developed last year, however, in my case each point means a dice to be rolled. I am finishing my playtest after 5 years of development.

Good vid, thank you👍

This is a great video for me to come across right as I was hoping to give my own PBTA system another shot. Love your content!

I might try a Mecha genre with this.

Hey Guy, so your combat is "take the hit (-×AP) and then you can choose to do somthing on your turn or dodge for -1AP but you cant do anything on your turn? ... surely that means you could get a loop, one person shoots, second person dodges... first person shoots, second person dodges.. on and on till one person is out of AP and falls unconscious. Unless there is something that stops the first person from repeating the same action again and again.? I'm really interested in your system but I'm obviously missing somthing in relation to combat

Designing a tabletop roleplaying game sounds a splendid idea, for those who want their games come to life using Unity or Unreal engine anytime soon, it's nice to have idea to create tabletop role-playing games. My idea: Dragon's Legion: The Tabletop Game. At the beginning of their campaign, Players chooses their favorite Legioners over 24 characters from six kingdoms asked by a GM to create a team of 5 members to prepare for war against the Sacred Army ruled by Dragon Lord, Seriko It's dice system uses risk/reward mechanics where offense and defense actions take place. Attackers must land a number higher than Defenders in order to deal a combo. Defenders must land a number higher than Attackers to avoid damage as possible of their chosen actions asked by GM either block or evade. XP is awarded for all players for winning battles, which are used for upgrade their Legioners' stats and skills/magic. The campaign comes a certain twists and turns depending on their chosen Legioners, which makes adventures more predictable. The gear system takes place where characters don't have levels, but the level of their gear instead. For example, if the sword is gear level 5 and the leather armor is gear level 5, then the gear sum level will be 10. The rarity system affects the stats and enchant factors like regaining health overtime at start of turn,etc. Allows infinite builds for their favorite Legioners anyway they want. As Legioners gets stronger, so does their war dragons.