May 2022 Games Collection

A bunch of quirky "microgames," one-day RPGs that I typically whip up in three or fewer hours.

This collection is to hold all the games for May so I'm not cluttering up my store page. I don't know that I'm going to get one done a day, but I'd expect at least 14 over the course of the month.

Note: Despite being microgames/one-day projects, I have no sense of scale and many of these are closer to 10-15 pages. It is what it is.

Around the Water-Wheel

A game of exploring a quaint peasant town. Written May 2, 2022.

Collaborative storytelling for 2-4 players, 1 six-sided die needed. Tell a story of a town and its occupants, with a dice-based oracle to add randomness to the events.

Long Live Stalin!

A game of surviving someone else’s turmoil. Written May 2, 2022.

Card-based competitive roleplaying, 3-5 players with one taking the role of referee/Stalin's Ghost. Each player needs a pack of cards.

Microdragons

An homage to the classic. Written May 3, 2022.

A throwback to classic d20-style systems, made without consulting any reference materials and in a single day. Requires standard polyhedral set. Dragon Mage (DM) + 1-? players.

Fourthverse

With my respects to classic pulp sci-fi. Written May 4, 2022.

A traditional-style tabletop roleplaying game based around a custom d6-based dice pool success system. GM + 1 or more players.

Fair Seas

Simple setting-agnostic trading rules, playable as a stand-alone game. Written May 5, 2022.

Built to be played as a game on its own, though also set up to be played as an add-on to an existing game. No GM required, any number of players (more players = easier).

TERMINAL BLACKOUT

A Breathless cyberpunk roleplaying game. Too large for the microgame label by far.

Written May 6, 2022. 

A cyberpunk game that focuses on brutal rapid-fire play using Breathless as its central framework. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/terminal-blackout. $1.

BACK FROM THE DARK

A d12-powered cosmic roleplaying experience. Written May 7, 2022.

Roleplay through cosmic cycles with a game designed to let you go from creation myths to the end of the world.

NaniteD6

A transhuman roleplaying game on a business card. Written May 8, 2022.

Everything you need for a sci-fi roleplaying experience in a two-sided business card format.

The Empire Wants You

An anti-war propaganda game. Written May 9, 2022.

A Breathless game built around the framing device of having one character on the front-lines and one on the home-front.  Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/the-empire-wants-you. Free.

Herculeanii

Roleplaying in a doomed city. Written May 10, 2022.

A narrative roleplaying experience set in the doomed Roman city of Herculaneum. Find it at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/herculeanii. Free.

Breaking Through

A GM-optional heist game. Written May 11, 2022.

Well, the description above sort of says it all. Another Breathless game. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/breaking-through. Free.

The Stars' Lightbringer

Light (rules-light and mood-light) retrofuturist Breathless sci-fi . Written May 12, 2022.

A two-page game that fits the setting, rules, and character sheet onto the front-and-back of a single sheet of paper. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/the-stars-lightbringer. Free.

Initiated SRD

A d100 SRD designed for storytelling games with a mechanical edge. Written May 13, 2022.

This is a derivative of the Kenoma ruleset rewired for fast narrative play while maintaining most of the feel of a more "crunchy" game. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/initiated-srd. Free.

SUFFERING DOGS

An absurdo-brutalist manifesto masquerading as a 4d20 game. Written May 14, 2022.

An homage to the suprematist art movement and a visual spectacle. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/suffering-dogs. Download the demo, it's the full game for free. The price is part of the schtick.

MICROMYSTERIES

A business-card Initiated game about tracking down bad-guys. Written May 14, 2022.

A d10 (as opposed to the customary d100) Initiated game, with the customary character sheet and rules on a single business card.

Station Breached

A business-card  Breathless game. Written May 15, 2022.

Because I was wondering if I could condense the Breathless SRD to a business card. Mostly successful. Draws inspiration from a particular 2017 sci-fi game that I won't name because I enjoy being obscure and not sued, but if you played it you'll recognize the inspirations.

The Emperor Decrees

Asynchronous storytelling/roleplaying in a setting agnostic framework. Written May 16, 2022.

Here you play not as a single character but rather contribute to the workings of an empire, with players taking on the role of agents and satisfying the decrees of the Emperor. Setting-agnostic.

Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/the-emperor-decrees. Free.

When Shadows Rest

Cosmic horror Breathless roleplaying. Written May 17, 2022.

A more traditional horror story. Characters get incrementally more powerful as play goes on, but there's no way back from the corruption that rests beneath Greenrock Mountain. Heavily modified ruleset with more flexibility for the GM to throw challenges at players (at least, before the players start having problems) than standard Breathless games, enabling slow-burn tension.

Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/when-shadows-rest. $2.

Shadows of the Ages

Breathless action-adventure roleplaying for modern and historical settings with light supernatural elements. Written May 18, 2022.

Inspired by a certain open-world historical-and-modern day juxtaposed adventure franchise with hooded protagonists, Shadows of the Ages focuses on developing characters through play and a rather heavily altered form of the Breathless system.

Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/shadows-of-the-ages. Free.

Even the Odds

One-page horror-ish roleplaying with a narrative bent. Written May 19, 2022.

Intended to be emulate B-movies where the good guys win at the end, Even the Odds is a story-first game with a simple system. Odd results on the dice give you a Good outcome while odd results give you a Bad. Beat the Storyteller's difficulty, and you accomplish your task, but be careful not to suffer setbacks.

Carnifex

Breathless splatterpunk ultraviolent roleplaying. Written May 20, 2022.

The first (and darkest) part of the military sci-fi universe I hope to expand into a larger Breathless game soon. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/carnifex. Free.

Bishops & Barons

One page Lasers and Feelings hack into a humorous Ye Olde Medieval setting. Written May 21, 2022. 

Lasers and Feelings is pretty simple, and so is Bishops & Barons. The only change I really made of substance was getting rid of random tables (I hate random tables) and adding in a second attribute dichotomy. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/bishops-barons. Free.

Bergeron

Business card dystopian sci-fi roleplaying in which you escape from the law. Written May 21, 2022.

Bergeron is a little business-card style game built around an experimental dice mechanic. I'm sure it's been done by someone else, but the schtick is that you take a pool of dice and add up any with the same result to get the highest possible number and beat a difficulty number.

Reclaimers: Palisade Dawn

A small post-apocalyptic survival game with a novel mechanic using a pool of two twenty-sided dice. Written May 23, 2022.

I had an operation today so I went back and revisited a game idea I had back in 2011 and made it into a short three-page game. Really could be adapted to pretty much any setting or style.

Recension

A Rooted in Trophy sci-fi post-post-apocalyptic game about exploring the ruins of a world and bringing light to the darkness. Written May 22-May 24.

A little heavier in setting and gameplay than some of the other daily games, Recension has a modified variant of the Trophy ruleset that is a little more merciful on players and their characters. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/recension. Free.

Havens Lost

A gothic fantasy roleplaying game based on a simple story-first ruleset using two twenty-sided dice. Written May 25, 2022.

Written in the morning so that I can continue working on my superhero game that I'm hoping to have ready for release today, this repackages Reclaimers' ruleset for a different genre and style of game. It's also a little lighter.

Auspice

One-page (ish) Initiated story-first roleplaying. Written May 26, 2022.

Auspice is universal story-first micro-roleplaying that focuses on using the core Margin mechanic of Initiated's SRD to tell stories where characters develop Aspects throughout play. Published at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/auspice. Free.

Last Ship Offworld

A Breathless sci-fi microgame about escaping the end of the world. Written May 27, 2022.

Escape from a doomed world in this streamlined Breathless game. Built for the Ultralite Game Jam, it uses a single die with a modifier and has mechanics that leverage the potential for negative results. https://loreshapergames.itch.io/last-ship-offworld. Free.

Stones of Creation

Breathless fantasy roleplaying with inspiration from Gemcraft. Written May 28, 2022.

Another Breathless game, this one messing around with the idea of having characters defined by the magic stones they possess that can shape the universe around them, though characters can be powerful in their own right. https://loreshapergames.itch.io/stones-of-creation. Free.

Out of Business

Collaborative storytelling about the last day at a business. Written May 29, 2022.

A storytelling exercise rather than a traditional game, Out of Business lets you roleplay the final day at a business and provides a set of collaborative storytelling prompts. Get it at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/out-of-business. Free.

Pax Americana

Breathless Cold War espionage action. Written May 30, 2022.

Pax Americana takes the Breathless ruleset and adds more rules to create a framework for espionage roleplaying: cultivate Assets and avoid Heat while completing tasks for the Agency. If you're Burned, the game becomes much more difficult. Get it at https://loreshapergames.itch.io/pax-americana. Free.