Author: Dave Sealy

An update on Malleus, my PbtA based game of 17th Century monster hunting:

I have finally got around to putting together updated versions of all of the Malleus archetype playbooks, on the new single page layout. This means the game is actually playable again, as the playbooks actually match the current state of the rules text.

I’m pretty happy with the new playbooks, although they haven’t been properly proofread. The references sheets are a bit rough and ready though, and the layout needs revision. I can finally get back to playtesting with these, however,

The new set of playbooks is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1eG9Kalh6MVdXdEk/view?usp=sharing

And the current draft of the rules (with updated logo!) is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yGpNkbjkI1ycvHftMSYNwh1I-8JCyv4x9LvthPGsb8g/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1eG9Kalh6MVdXdEk/view?usp=sharing

I’ve posted before about the PbtA game I am working on. Malleus, a game of 17th Century monster hunting. My work on the game has stalled out, in large part because the main rules are pretty firm and now I am trying to write move commentary and GM advice, and I am finding it a real slog.

In the hope that some more feedback will help, I’m posting the latest draft:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yGpNkbjkI1ycvHftMSYNwh1I-8JCyv4x9LvthPGsb8g/edit?usp=sharing

A lot of the text is still very much a work in progress.

A little while ago I made a post about the potential for a 4E D&D inspired high fantasy PbtA, about having cool powers and doing big damn hero stuff. I’ve made a few notes over time and recently came up with some ideas for a combat system with a bit of a tactical bent (although quite different from D&D style tactics). Anyways, I wrote up some ideas for the basic moves, and the sorts of playbook moves that would interact with them. These are totally untested, and there’s likely to be a lot of work to balance options, but I would be grateful for feedback and particularly whether an approach like this appeals to anyone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1WGFmdEtCcVNyMGM/view?usp=sharing

So, I’m think about PbtA for high fantasy, big damn heroes style play. We already have Dungeon World, which I like very much, but that is focused on emulating more of a classic dungeon crawl type game and is tied to a lot of D&Disms. There’s also AW: Fallen Empires and A Storm Eternal on the fantasy side.

What I’m thinking about is something more closely aligned with the kind of world and unique classes from something like 4E D&D (stuff like the warden, sword mages and seeker). Instead of Dungeon World’s random damage, I’d prefer using fixed harm values and moving away from D&D as a mechanical inspiration (while still being a flavour inspiration). The game would not be about dungeon crawling and instead focus on high adventure and epic scale quests (which DW can do, but isn’t specifically built for).

Does this game exist, but I’ve just missed it? If it doesn’t exist, is it something anyone else is interested in?

How do people in this community feel about moves that have “passive triggers”? By that I mean moves that are triggered when something happens to the PC, rather than triggered by the PC doing something (like the harm move in AW).

I’m thinking about harm/morale moves and a sanity check type move in Malleus, but the trigger for those moves would be out of the hands of the player, and I don’t know if that feel right to me.

I have been running some playtest sessions of my PbtA game, Malleus. The game is about 17th Century monster hunters. I have found sessions usually end up being more investigative than I intended, as I don’t think that is a major strength of the PbtA framework and isn’t really the kind of play I was aiming for.

Part of the reason, I think, is that the games have mainly been I one-shots and the easiest way to bring disparate characters together and give them a motive to act is to put a mystery or crime scene in front of them.

In the most recent session the idea of the characters all being involved in some kind of secret society or organisation came up. I feel like including that idea as a core element of the game opens up a way to introduce activities that don’t start with an investigation segment. Potentially I could develop rules for organisation creation, and maybe even playbooks. What I’m not sure about is – would that King of narrow structure work against the more free-wheeling nature of most PbtA games? I don’t know if there’s a need to add a mechanical answer like this to solve a problem that might just be my I creative GMing choices.

I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts.

I’m looking for a couple more people to me play test my PbtA game Malleus, over Roll20. There’s a Doodle poll to try and find a suitable time here: http://doodle.com/poll/a2tmd4wycum3ffq4

Please respond to the poll if you are interested.

You can check out the play books here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1V2t4bUhYdU5vZ3c/view?usp=sharing

And the current draft of the game is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-1pBGGjbu6uEgeTUK8Pgrmi7evjKFtx6ya4RU3TYKk8/edit?usp=sharing

Here’s the first draft of the Archetype playbooks, move reference sheet and Gm reference sheet for Malleus. They haven’t been properly proofread, and the whole thing is still in testing, but this should make testing easier – and possible for others if they want to help me out.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1V2t4bUhYdU5vZ3c/view?usp=sharing

With a bit of knowledge of AW it’s probably possible to play with pretty much just the playbooks, but the full rules (as they stand) are here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-1pBGGjbu6uEgeTUK8Pgrmi7evjKFtx6ya4RU3TYKk8/edit?usp=sharing

I’m looking for people to help play test via Roll20, if anyone is interested.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1V2t4bUhYdU5vZ3c/view?usp=sharing

Recently ran another play test sessions of Malleus, the 17th century monster hunting game I am working on. I’ve since made a few changes and have been working on a draft playbook layout. Here is the first playbook, for the Inspired. I would love to get some feedback (the art is placeholder).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1YWdOQ1NGTjJyaEU/view?usp=sharing

The current draft of the full rules is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-1pBGGjbu6uEgeTUK8Pgrmi7evjKFtx6ya4RU3TYKk8/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-zmlkgjmFt1YWdOQ1NGTjJyaEU/view?usp=sharing