Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Space Knight Academy -- a space opera hack of Laser Kittens

Kittens are great, but perhaps you are more interested in stories about spaceships and laser swords and mystical powers. In that case, you're in luck -- check out Space Knight Academy, the copyright-non-violating hack of Laser Kittens. Play a Space Knight Cadet learning to use The Power to protect the Galactic Imperium from various kinds of bad guys.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

200 Word RPGs: Occupational Safety and Health Adventures, and Micro Kittens

 Stentor submitted an entry to the 200 Word RPG contest. This year's entry, Occupational Safety and Health Adventures, was named a finalist.

You are a team of co-workers. Decide together:
- What is your workplace?
- What big project is the boss breathing down your neck about?
- How is your workplace catastrophically unsafe?

Individually, name your character and decide:
- What is my role on the team? (coordinator, expert, grunt, caretaker, gofer)
- Why do I keep messing up? (lazy, greedy, incompetent, dishonest, arrogant)

Take turns framing scenes starring your character. Everyone else plays their parts and NPCs, as needed. Each scene should lead to a point where one character (not necessarily yours) must risk their safety to move forward with the project. That character's player chooses:
1. Accept the injury. Don't tell the boss.
2. Report the unsafe condition. Tell the other players what new safety rule the boss has imposed. The other players decide how the workspace will be altered to comply with this rule, in a way that makes the workplace less safe and less efficient overall.

The game ends when either:
1. The project is completed. The team is congratulated by the boss for a job well done, and for their good safety record.
2. One character accumulates three injuries. The team is reprimanded and the project is given to another team.

You can also check out last year's entry, Micro Kittens:

3-5 players

You are a kitten who wants to get adopted from the Humane Society. Pick a description of why you should be adopted (fluffy, cuddly, playful, tiny, polydactyl) and a description of why you haven’t been adopted yet (dirty, skittish, old, aggressive, sick).

Roll 5d6. Keep them -- this is your pool. Pick someone to be the active player. When you’re the active player, frame a scene in which you act. Other players portray other characters in the scene. When you do something ADORABLE in one of the categories below, place a die next to it, as long as it’s different in number from the other dice already there. If you act according to one of your descriptions in this scene, you may re-roll one die from your pool before selecting one to place.

MESSY
ADVENTURE
AFFECTION
MEOWS

The player to your right invents a complication based on your die’s number as follows:
1: Someone gets hurt
2: Someone gets in trouble
3: Something gets lost
4: Something breaks
5: Someone new arrives
6: Something brings bad news

The player to your left now becomes the active player.

When you have done four adorable things, tell who adopted you.