Thread by @trophyrpg

A thread about Trophy as a system: the changes we're making to Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold, how the two games work together, and what's coming post-Kickstarter.

Please RT!

(Thread)

kickstarter.com/projects/gaunt…

Trophy is two games, both originally published in the Codex magazine: Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold. Dark is a one-shot game of psychological horror. Gold is a multi-session dungeon crawler. They share the same dark fantasy setting, but stand on their own as game experiences.

We're not changing much for the Trophy Dark book. It's a slim ruleset that has been extensively playtested. It works great. We'll be adding just a few clarifying points to the ruleset, principally how to handle PvP (player v player) conflict, which we've gotten some feedback on.

What we will be adding to the book is guidance for how to make your games of Trophy Dark the best they can be, as well as procedures for how to use Trophy Dark in other contexts.

We have developed a lot of best practices for running Trophy Dark since its initial publication, and we're going to include much of that advice in the book.

We're also going to provide guidelines for how to use Trophy Dark for other games. We have discovered the game is PERFECT for side stories and prologue stories in other fantasy games (DnD, etc.), because it's a one-shot with a complete arc.

Providing examples of how to incorporate Trophy Dark into the gaming you are already doing is a major priority for us.

Trophy Gold will see much more substantial additions and revisions to the ruleset in its respective book. Those details follow...

Importantly, we're adding two more sub-systems to the Trophy Gold book. The initial release of Gold was mainly the dungeon-crawling part of the rules. We focused on that in the beginning because we wanted to make sure that part—which is core to the experience—worked well.

The two sub-systems we're adding are called Journey and Hearthfire. Neither make the game more complicated, but they do expand the scope of the gameplay. And that's very important: we want Trophy Gold to do more, but not add a bunch of rules overhang in order to achieve it.

First are the Journey rules, which are being authored by Dan Felder, in consultation with Jesse and Jason. The idea is to add mechanical and procedural significance to long expeditions, as well as rules for traveling to and fro between your homebase and the dungeon.

Right now, journeys in Trophy Gold are more or less hand-waved, or reduced to an additional set in the adventure. The Journey rules for Trophy Gold will make that experience richer and more satisfying, without adding lots of mechanical complication.

The next sub-system is Hearthfire. These are the procedures you use when the characters are back at the village/town/etc., recuperating or readying for the next adventure. It also covers at-camp scenes while on the adventure.

Presently, the rules for being back in town are very mechanical in nature: basically, you spend your Coin to unmark Armor, lower your Ruin, stash it away, and so forth. It's a checklist. None of that is changing, but Hearthfire will make the process richer and more narrative.

The principal goal of Hearthfire is to tie those procedures more closely to the characters' Drives, and to explore the background behind those Drives. The way we're going to do this is with techniques borrowed from the collaborative, narrative play culture Trophy was raised in.

So, for example, when you establish a Household, set questions will help the table explore what that Household is like. When you stash away money in your Hoard, you'll be working down a list of questions and flashback scenes that show why your Drive is so important to you.

This is a highly-narrative, highly-collaborative approach. And because it's more procedural than mechanical, it does a lot of work in the story without adding complexity. It is, essentially, good play culture, codified. And we're very excited about how it will enrich the game.

We're also adding to Trophy Gold some of the same quality-of-life improvements as Dark is getting. Clarified rules, guidelines for making your own incursions, and a transcript of play are all things being added to the book.

Now let's talk about how Dark and Gold work together. And, at the outset, you should know: they don't have to! You can play one for years without ever looking at the other. But they CAN be part of the same experience—the same system—and that's what we're talking about next.

One of the most simple ways Dark and Gold are joined are through character creation. They both share the same sets of Backgrounds, Occupations, Drives, and Rituals. Gold adds Equipment and a few other stats, but a Gold character is otherwise pretty similar to a Dark character.

So, you can see right away that, should you have a Dark character you're fond of (and they survive their incursion), you can very easily port them over to Gold.

Dark and Gold also share the same setting, the grim fantasy land called the Kalduhr. This setting will be detailed in the 3rd book we're Kickstarting: Trophy Loom. The world elements that are referenced in the Dark and Gold incursions will be expanded upon in the Loom book.

Importantly, both Gold and Dark will have a lot of advice on how to continue the adventure, how to make your own incursions. Loom is your resource for doing that. It's entirely system-neutral, and designed so you can pick and choose elements you're interested in exploring.

Very little is set in stone when it comes to Loom. It's a set of tools and resources that are unified by some basic information and aesthetics, but is otherwise very much a toybox to play with as you wish.

We're going to be unifying Dark and Gold in one other, exciting way: Alexi from @ClovenPineGames will be writing a framework that will straight-up join them into a single campaign. People have been asking for this and so we're going to do it!

@ClovenPineGames That framework is still in the planning stages, but the discussions we're having are very intriguing. Alexi has a very good grasp on system and procedure, and we think he's going to knock it out of the park.

@ClovenPineGames The last thing we want to talk about in this thread is what's coming post-Kickstarter. These three books, while core to the experience, are not the end of what we're doing. We're going to support Trophy for years.

@ClovenPineGames While the Trophy team is working on getting the KS fulfilled, the Codex team will be working on the THIRD official game in the series, Trophy Colossus. It's a duet game (1v1) inspired by Shadow of the Colossus and similar stories. It will be out in Codex later this year.

@ClovenPineGames Trophy Colossus takes place in the ancient past of the Kalduhr, when titanic creatures roamed the earth (this past is strongly hinted at in the incursion The Giant's Carcass). It will use all the same character creation options, dice, etc. as the other two games.

@ClovenPineGames In terms of story, the player is an adventurer who, for reasons related to their Drive, must scale and kill one of these titanic monstrosities. But, as they scale the monstrosity, they may begin to have sympathy for it, and at the end must decide whether to slay it or spare it.

@ClovenPineGames If Trophy Dark is doomed and horrific, and Trophy Gold is desperate and excruciating, then Trophy Colossus is reflective and mournful. And the "incursion" in Colossus is the monstrosity itself. As you climb it, you learn about it—and yourself.

@ClovenPineGames It will have a much more mythical, less gritty feel than Dark or Gold. But, at its core, it is still Trophy. It still takes place in the same world (just an older version of it). And that's really important to us: what kinds of stories can we tell within the same system and world

@ClovenPineGames Additional support will come in the form of new incursions for Dark and Gold. We're unlocking a TON of new ones in the Kickstarter campaign alone, and there's one thing that we can't quite talk about yet. It's called "Roots of Old Kalduhr." That's all we can say about it for now!

@ClovenPineGames We should also mention there is a lot of third-party support coming for Trophy. This is taking the form of new games and settings, plus a few new incursions for Dark and Gold. Many of these are coming very soon as part of Kickstarter's Zinequest 2 promotion, so stay tuned.

@ClovenPineGames That's the end of the thread. As you can see, we're giving a lot of thought to Trophy as a system and how we can support it in the years to come.

Please check out the Trophy Kickstarter campaign (and download a FREE starter PDF collection) right here:

kickstarter.com/projects/gaunt…