Sunday 23 February 2020

GRAVEROBBERS Bare Bones Edition - update 0.1 patch notes

I just updated the “alpha” version of the GRAVEROBBERS system, my set of rules and tools for tabletop roleplaying games of stealth and sedition.

I thiiiink Gumroad might have sent out an email to folks who’ve downloaded it before saying there’s a new version? Maybe? Maybe not?

In any case, here’s what’s changed:

- Replaced the Murderer Crime with the Fence

The Murderer was kinda boring and never sat right with me - the ominous tone was fun for a moment but didn’t seem nearly as gameable as the other Crimes, plus it focused on Violence - pretty much the game’s antithesis.

The Fence as a title doesn’t carry the same weight (I think all the other Crimes more or less sound like something the character would get yelled at them in the street: “Traitor!” “Heretic!”. Fence not so much) but is way more interesting and gameable. Managed to squeeze a d6 table in there too, so you have variable starting items!

- Updated Tools of the Trade

Some minor changes to existing Crimes. The Harlot now starts with a hand mirror - a classic adventurer’s item! Vagrants get string, which is like a lesser version of the Burglar’s rope for tying things or could make a fuse. Traitors get some paper to go with their writing set.

The Heretic gets a ceremonial dagger - which now means the Fence is the only “unarmed” Crime. Not sure how I feel about all the knives... but they’re flavourful and a great drastic, dramatic final option. Plus, bad Odds in Violence is discouragement enough from resorting to it, and sharp implements can always be used to other ends.

- Renamed the Authority to the House

Pure semantics. “The House” has been a contender for a while and after some thought I’ve decided it’s the better option. Feeds into the casino motif and has a more subtle ominous-ness than the Authority, I think.

- General text and readability changes

Some very minor changes in text, plus I put Unicode symbols for dice in place of some clunky phrasing about how many dice are needed to roll. I’ve been using the Unicode dice symbols a lot lately for bits and pieces in BUTCHERY - super easy to parse and breaks up a wall of text. MORE πŸ‘ EMOJI πŸ‘ IN πŸ‘ GAMES! πŸ‘



Enjoy your new coffin of scraps! Feedback and play reports are as always more than welcome - hit me up here or on Twitter.

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