Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork from Modiphius Coming to Kickstarter This Year

Modiphius announced a licensing deal to create games based on Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld universe with a Kickstarter coming in late 2024.

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From the announcement page:

Modiphius Entertainment has secured the license to create games based on Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld universe... and we couldn’t be more excited!

Initially, we will be looking to publish a tabletop roleplaying game set around the city of Ankh-Morpork and the wider Disc, with a Kickstarter for the tabletop roleplaying game planned for late 2024!

As huge fans of the series, we want to make sure that we do Discworld justice. That's why we are looking to find out a little more about other Discworld fans like yourselves! Tell us about your gaming habits (if any), your love of Discworld, and a few bits about you so we can tailor our games for those who love the world the most.

Update! Modiphius released a press release with a tiny bit more information:

Modiphius Licences Tabletop Games for Terry Pratchett's Discworld® ​

Tabletop Roleplaying Game and Board Games to be Published​

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

London, ENGLAND: Thursday 29th February 2024

Publisher of tabletop RPGs, wargames and board games, Modiphius Entertainment Ltd. has secured the rights to produce tabletop games for Terry Pratchett’s internationally bestselling Discworld series. After negotiating an agreement with the estate of the late Sir Terry, Modiphius looks to publish tabletop games that honour the humour, satire, and darkly entertaining fantasy series.

With this year marking the 40th anniversary of the release of The Colour of Magic, Modiphius intends to publish a tabletop roleplaying game around the city of Ankh-Morpork and the wider Disc, with a Kickstarter for the tabletop roleplaying game planned for late 2024.

Modiphius is reaching out to the wider Discworld fanbase to ask for input into the games they will develop with a survey that can be found here: https://forms.gle/SE9752fDAug2qpua7

Modiphius’ roleplaying game will be the first RPG for Discworld since 1998, when Steve Jackson Games published a sourcebook using its GURPS rules.

Modiphius has a reputation for creating authentic and immersive licensed tabletop games around global IP’s, having produced award-winning games for Conan™, Star Trek™, John Carter of Mars™, Fallout™, and The Elder Scrolls™.

Speaking about the deal, Rob Wilkins said on behalf of the Pratchett Estate, “Terry had a lifelong affection with roleplaying games and it’s an entirely logical path along which you can follow his career from Dungeon Master to him becoming one of our most celebrated and beloved fantasy authors of all time. We are delighted to be partnering with Modiphius. We love their work and we love their ethos and we entirely trust them to get things right.”

Modiphius founder and chief creative officer Chris Birch said, “I’m sure many of us have Terry’s unique world in our mind's eye when we’re roleplaying. Ankh-Morpork has had such a special place in the community and is full of so much character it was a great place to begin our journeys on the Disc.”

You can sign up to be among the first to hear about Discworld updates here: https://www.modiphius.net/pages/discworld-adventures-signup

DISCWORLD® and TERRY PRATCHETT® are registered trademarks of Dunmanifestin Limited. All trademarks used under licence. Discworld properties © Dunmanifestin Limited. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Modiphius has also opened a survey aimed at Discworld fans more than players of Modiphius's other games. Questions in the survey focus on what sort of "non-digital" games you like to play, how often you play, what rules systems you prefer, and ends with the most difficult questions: Choose your favorite Discworld novel and favorite characters, with both limiting you to only three choices. Next to impossible. Respondents to the survey are entered for a chance to win a $100 voucher for the Modiphius store at the end of March.

This is the second licensed RPG based on the Discworld franchise following GURPS Discworld released in 1998 by Steve Jackson Games with Sir Terry Pratchett himself assisting with development, which at the time of writing is still available for purchase.

 

[Mercador]

That family picture is amazing! I should really get back to Pratchett books.

 

[overgeeked]

That’s cool. Good for them. I can’t think of a property less suited to their house system than Discworld. Here’s to hoping they design something new for this one.

 

[Jer]

That’s cool. Good for them. I can’t think of a property less suited to their house system than Discworld. Here’s to hoping they design something new for this one.

Discworld is a hard fit to an RPG because it's more about tone than any other setting I can think of. It's one where I feel like with the right group any system can work with it as a setting but also that there isn't a system that can make the setting work for an average group of players.

I'll be interested to see what they do with it.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Maybe I need to go back and re-read what I've already read, and then finish the rest...

 

[overgeeked]

Discworld is a hard fit to an RPG because it's more about tone than any other setting I can think of. It's one where I feel like with the right group any system can work with it as a setting but also that there isn't a system that can make the setting work for an average group of players.

Well, sort of. I know a lot of games with mechanics that would utterly stifle and prevent anything akin to the tone of Discworld poking through. The right mechanics though could absolutely push the right tone for just about any setting, no matter how off-the-wall or humorous.

For example, I'm a backer of the Monty Python RPG and I gotta say those mechanics push exactly the right buttons to evoke the tone, feel, chaos, etc of Monty Python. And, importantly, the advice from the designers is to just play the game and enjoy the humor and chaos that ensues rather than try to push the humor and chaos yourself. That game will, if played straight, produce a spot on Monty Python feel at the table.

I just hope the Modiphius people can manage something similar here.

I'll be interested to see what they do with it.

Absolutely.

 

[Abstruse]

This is going to be a big challenge. Discworld as a setting isn't anything special on its own. It's your standard fantasy kitchen sink that you'd have to work to distinguish from Forgotten Realms or Golorian or so many others. Because it's not the setting, it's how Pratchett wrote about it with the very specific tone of taking the silly parts very seriously and treating the serious parts as very silly all the while having very specific things to say. Even just saying it's "satire" feels underselling it because it's so much more than that.

And as anyone who has tried to run Paranoia knows, getting the tone right at a gaming table can be incredibly difficult because everybody has to be on the same page not just in terms of the comedic nature of the setting but in the specific type of comedy. Because for Discworld, you can't just go "It's a comedy, be silly" because there's a lot more to it. But you also can't take it too seriously. It's a very difficult line to walk and one of the reasons the novel series is so beloved.

I look forward to seeing how Modiphius handles it because there are a few angles they could use. I figure they wouldn't have pursued the license if they didn't have some ideas for how to handle it in a way that would make fans happy considering we're...let's say a bit on edge about adaptations at the moment. side-eyes BBC's The Watch

 

[Tonguez]

Well, sort of. I know a lot of games with mechanics that would utterly stifle and prevent anything akin to the tone of Discworld poking through. The right mechanics though could absolutely push the right tone for just about any setting, no matter how off-the-wall or humorous.

For example, I'm a backer of the Monty Python RPG and I gotta say those mechanics push exactly the right buttons to evoke the tone, feel, chaos, etc of Monty Python. And, importantly, the advice from the designers is to just play the game and enjoy the humor and chaos that ensues rather than try to push the humor and chaos yourself. That game will, if played straight, produce a spot on Monty Python feel at the table.

I just hope the Modiphius people can manage something similar here.

Absolutely.

What mechanics does the Monty Python rpg use, I imagine they'd be a better fit than Modiphius.

I remember playing GURPs Discworld, it was fun but not really funny, Pratchett was a master satirist, that's not at all easy to gamify

 

[overgeeked]

What mechanics does the Monty Python rpg use, I imagine they'd be a better fit than Modiphius.

That's a long and involved answer that would be tangential at best here.

Pratchett was a master satirist, that's not at all easy to gamify

Exactly. Luckily something like the absurdism of Monty Python is way easier to gamify.

 

[overgeeked]

And as anyone who has tried to run Paranoia knows, getting the tone right at a gaming table can be incredibly difficult because everybody has to be on the same page not just in terms of the comedic nature of the setting but in the specific type of comedy. Because for Discworld, you can't just go "It's a comedy, be silly" because there's a lot more to it. But you also can't take it too seriously. It's a very difficult line to walk and one of the reasons the novel series is so beloved.

Yeah. It would be way easier to find comedians and teach them to be role-players than to teach role-players to be comedians. To me, Paranoia does a great job of not trying to have the players be comedians. Take the setting at face value and do what a person stuck in that situation would do...and the comedy naturally flows from there. "Be funny! LOL!" is how we got zap play, your typical Malkavians, and chaotic stupid. Those don't work well.