WE START ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR CAMPAIGN II TOMORROW—

Campaign II: THE CHAOS PROTOCOL premieres on Saturday, June 24th at 8pm ET.

The Chaos Protocol is an all transgender, POC-led dark fantasy actual play series set in a non-colonial, anti-orientalist multiverse. Our series will follow three Transplanar Reification and Nourishment Syndicate (TRANS) agents on their missions through a newly rewritten reality. Each Arc will be set in a different realm and utilize a completely different TTRPG game system.

We are exactly ONE MONTH away from our premiere. Cast announcements, system reveals, character art, and trailers coming in June.

Welcome home, Transplanerds.

CHAOS has been waiting. ❌

Oh wow, it’s been awhile. Time to revitalize this account for Campaign II, huh?

Since the "outlaws & obelisks" tag is pretty barren, i thought I'd do an informational post for anyone who gets curious.

The setting is Utaram, a vast desert landscape that takes inspiration from both the US Southwest and Northern Africa, some decades after a magical apocalypse destroyed the powerful civilizations that had once sprawled across the desert, leaving sparsely-populated towns where people have to band together for survival. Reminders of that cataclysm are all around in the beings, both humanoid and beasts, who have been fused with other forms of life, like Onuris Budge, whose right arm is sometimes an elephant trunk and sometimes other things, and his animal companion (with a higher intelligence stat than him) Nebet, a leopard-flamingo. Wanderers like Chang Hushi, from the ancient Dulungai-Barun civilization far to the west, and Tovo Reeves, a bounty hunter with a mechanical exoskeleton, are not uncommon. With uncontrolled magic still heavy in the atmosphere, unreliable passages of time, and violent gangs seeking to gain influence in a chaotic landscape, threats abound. Budge, Hushi, and Tovo are thrown together in an unlikely quest for answers and a missing hat; as encounter breeds encounter, their goals, and the threats to Utaram, only seem to multiply like the time-displaced chickens in Hushi's bag.

It's quite brilliant, and unlike anything else currently being played that I know of. It's a POC-led, casually queer campaign with real stakes, wildly imaginative worldbuilding, and a series of fascinating unfolding mysteries as to the history of Utaram and the histories of the PCs themselves.

The DM is Jeremy Cobb (he/him), who has homebrewed the setting and cosmology from scratch, with a lot of research into ancient and medieval cultures of North Africa. Jeremy is one of the three hosts of Three Black Halflings, the podcast feed where Outlaws & Obelisks can be found. He also DMed their earlier campaign The Cub & the Caterpillar, using the Afrocentric Wagadu setting.

Hushi (they/them) is played by Connie Chang (they/he/she) of TransplanarRPG.

Budge (he/him) is played by Jonny Charles (he/him) of the_lonely_orchestra, who also provides the show's soundtrack.

Tovo (he/him) is played by Jasper William Cartwright (he/him), another of the hosts of Three Black Halflings.

Below the cut, there's some more spoilery information, including content warnings that people should know going in.

(PSSST I'M IN THIS AS HUSHI)

Establish your GM cred by fistfighting Matt Mercer and taking over critical role before starting your campaign.

just aabria iyengar things @quiddie 😌

quick mods are asleep post ex-ex-ex(??)-lovers who are still definitely into each other 😳

my favorite found family trope is TAKING A NAP TOGETHER so have the Arc III Transplanar cast back under the stars, like they deserve

for only $9.99 a month, you can unlock this photo of a gelatinous cube

[Image ID: A gelatinous cube. End ID.]

oh shit. oh wait. i forgot to charge money for this

I have no excuses just take this…… please…

FANART OF MY D&D CAMPAIGN?! it’s more likely than you think! 👀 @transplanarrpg

systems to run and play outside of dungeons and dragons/pathfinder that are BEGINNER FRIENDLY and STORY-FOCUSED:

MASKS: A NEW GENERATION (powered by the apocalypse engine, 2d6 core resolution): Play as teenaged superheroes! Emulate the feel of a comic book or animated TV series like Young Justice, Teen Titans, etc. DEATH IS NOT A STAKE (unless you’re The Doomed): emotional trauma is instead! FAST, narratively driven combat; complex antagonists; sessions structured by “scenes” instead of encounters to encourage roleplaying and story above all else! Perfect for folks who love superhero stories, exploring adolescent angst, and colorful combat.

URBAN SHADOWS 1E (powered by the apocalypse engine, 2d6 core resolution): A political urban fantasy game about the debts you owe, and the lengths you’re willing to go to seize power in a seedy city. Think Mortal Instruments, Twilight, etc. Play as a werewolf, vampire, hunter, wizard, etc. all vying for power. A corruption mechanic encourages backstabbing and betrayal between PCs, with the hanging sword of PCs who go too far retiring as NPC threats. Perfect for evil parties and social intrigue-heavy campaigns.

QUEST (d20 core resolution): A fantasy, medieval-suited but genre-expansive system that can replace D&D pretty fluidly, and makes for an easy transition from one system to another. No stats, only features that classes can invoke at will or with a single, unmodified d20 roll. All PCs have the same health and deal the same base damage, making combat a breeze, freeing the GM up to focus on the story. A sliding scale of success from 1 to 20 instead of a binary pass/fail like D&D!

These are just a few systems I’ve either played and/or have run, and can recommend based on my personal experience. Either way, it’s worth looking into other systems to improve and expand your own GMing chops for D&D if nothing else.

Other TTRPG systems you should check out that I don’t have the time to delve into right now: Monster of the Week (PBTA like above, 2d6 core resolution, emulate the feel of an episodic monster hunting show like Supernatural, Buffy, etc.), Numenera (complex system comparable in scope to D&D), Fiasco (GMless, improv only, card based, over the top Coen Brothers movie generator), Root RPG (play as woodland creatures!), Bluebeard’s Bride (play as different aspects of the same woman surviving a murderous pirate!), Vampire: The Masquerade (play as scheming vampires fighting back your thirst!), Call of Cthulhu (classic eldritch horror TTRPG), Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (play as a Chinese immigrant family fighting racism and hopping vampires!), Ald-Amura: Monster Care Squad (HEAL monsters instead of kill them; threat clocks advance the story); Star-Crossed (2-player, GMless, Jenga tower based game about forbidden love, PERFECT for couples), Dread (Jenga tower based horror system), City of Mist (similar to Urban Shadows — gritty modern fantasy), and more!!

Check out these systems, and recommend more in the replies!

I am reblogging this because it is useful! But also, just as a clarification:  Bluebeard’s Bride isn’t about a woman surviving a murderous pirate. It’s about a woman surviving an abusive relationship, and the mechanics, while simple, are very explicit about this. It’s a good game, but in the same way a documentary on abuse is good rather then a normal RPG.  I very much wouldn’t recommend it for beginners, and definitely wouldn’t recommend it without full knowledge of the themes. So I thought I’d just clarify for safety reasons- it is not a game about surviving a murderous pirate, at least not in the Wacky Horror Sense you might expect from that. Sorry for the killjoy response! Have some cool systems! -Mod  Pencil

An old post but reblogging with this clarification. This is very true. Probably should’ve worded my original post better given that I literally do paid GMing sessions for the company that makes Bluebeard’s Bride.

Also yes to the suggestions of Monsterhearts / MH2 in the comments! MH can be very, um, intense as well, and emotionally volatile. There’s literally a “sex” mechanic in a game about primarily teenagers.

As a general rule: do your proper research before playing a new system and/or bringing it to your friends or strangers to test it out for the first time. This list is a starting point — that’s it. I encourage folks to do their own Googling and digging around about systems when looking for new games to try!