So some people have been having fun embracing an hour of chaos with Anarchy Goat. One thing people keep mentioning is that it vibes like I got the bugs in those Goat & Goose games meshed in. A couple asked for #TTRPG design advice.
Honestly? It's both purposeful AND accidental.
Honestly? It's both purposeful AND accidental.
*For me*, I have a strong sense of "vibes" and aesthetic in the art I enjoy. So for me, it comes down to starting with a strong sense of what genre, themes, and just general aesthetic I'm going for. What is the core concept? How do I initially imagine it playing out?
For this there was a conversation here that spurred me on. Plus I generally like wild chaos games and animal stuff. Like I made an Everyone Is John hack called Just A Normal Human about a horde of critters pretending to be human. So, right in my weird lane [embrace *your* weird].
So I usually start with the blurb. What are we doing here? What's the concept? That guides my design as it evolves. For this one, it's a very simple and direct concept. Delivered with a little fun. 
Then I go to the basic core build. Like, what do I want general rolls to do? What are we trying to guide things toward? So here I just thought about what I'd want to do in an open world animal chaos game, in terms of mundane regular actions. Plus a little themed boost choice.
![WRITE THIS STUFF DOWN: I AM A [expletive of your choice] GOA](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm9Z26TXEAAGcAQ.jpg)
Keep following the concept & drill down. Chaos sandbox wouldn't be as fun getting hurt all the time. So go full unbreakable ragdoll. Then add a choice of mods for players.
Emphasize fun-having & troublemaking via token triggers for boosts & unlocking other glitches/mods.
Emphasize fun-having & troublemaking via token triggers for boosts & unlocking other glitches/mods.
So far we have a pretty self-reinforcing game. The skills encourage general exploration and mayhem. You can't really be hurt. You get boosts for having a good time and messing the world up. I think it's all pretty straightforward at this point, despite the wild concept.
But we need the system.Take d6s. Assign "flavors" [aspects of answer] to them. It's where a lot of the "game bug" design comes in. The success die can make a mess. Impact is variable. Things can get *weird*. Same system used for a solo oracle. Motif is highly tunable like that.
Anarchy Goat proves a good example of both my general concept-driven design approach and the raw power of the Motif approach. "Flavor" tech makes them infinite flexible. Assign a descriptive label. Then scale results from none/contrary to maximum. Simple d6 math for modifiers.
Anyway, if you'd like to know more, you can poke me on Discord: discord.gg/vRfBh9f8
You can also grab the Anarchy Goat PDF + toss a few coins if you think it's a sweet little gem of #TTRPG chaos: drivethrurpg.com/product/415475β¦
You can also grab the Anarchy Goat PDF + toss a few coins if you think it's a sweet little gem of #TTRPG chaos: drivethrurpg.com/product/415475β¦
You can also explore the two Motif SRD documents and FIVE other open licensed #indiegames available under the CC-BY SRD terms [linked in this title's description].
drivethrurpg.com/product/395200β¦
drivethrurpg.com/product/395200β¦
If you wanna show a little extra love for a disabled indie #TTRPG designer with open games in these trying times, you can drop a few coins in the jar: ko-fi.com/revcasey
or grab all our of our open sourced stuff at once and give a #MutualAid gift: drivethrurpg.com/product/422362β¦
or grab all our of our open sourced stuff at once and give a #MutualAid gift: drivethrurpg.com/product/422362β¦
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