Your Favorite Weird Game- Time To Talk About the Weirdest RPGs You Know!

[aramis erak]

So, we've talked about "weirdest" games in terms of mechanics and lore, what about in terms of actual play?

From the stories I hear from friend that played Vampire the Masquerade in the early 90s, things got pretty weird. Not sure if VtM had/s separate LARP rules, because their stories sound more like late-80s goth culture parties and LARPs than a TTRPG.

I was out of gaming at that time and was more into the more wholesome deadhead scene at the time. ;-)

The did and still do - Mind's Eye Theater is the system name.

 

[aramis erak]

Golly, I really liked both Ironwood and Those Annoying Post Brothers. I knew about Theatrix, but hadn't heard of Bugtown - something to look for in the wild I guess...

AFAIK, Bugtown didn't get out of playtest.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Memento Mori's Theatrix. Another diceless RPG - but one with a flow chart mechanic for the GM. There's also an optional percentile roll option. It is a generic engine, too, and that didn't help.

Is this from Backstage Press? Memento Mori Theatricks is Jared Sorensen's company (Lacuna Part 1, InSpectres, octaNe), but I can't find another Memento Mori as a publishing company or a connection between the game and Sorensen.

 

[aramis erak]

Is this from Backstage Press? Memento Mori Theatricks is Jared Sorensen's company (Lacuna Part 1, InSpectres, octaNe), but I can't find another Memento Mori as a publishing company or a connection between the game and Sorensen.

Yeah, Brain cramp. BSP, not MM.

 

[Longspeak]

By that logic, the dice aren't in almost any GM'd dice-using RPG. Reductio in absurdum.

Perhaps I didn't make my point as well as I'd hoped. (And sorry for the late reply; only just came across this thread again.)

I know GMs make a lot of choices. My point was the rules of Everway was the first time I saw (and one of the few) to make those GM choices an explicit part of the process. The "Karma" and "Drama" (as they were called) rules asked the GM to decide the outcome of tasks. The randomizing elements were, by the rules, the last resort in task resolution when the GM couldn't decide.

The cards themselves? Also weird, for a variety of reasons. But they were the last step in the process, which I still find to be weird.

 

[Jahydin]

My vote goes to:

Don't have it (expensive!), but freaking love the movie. Tickled it was made into a TTRPG.

 

[Autumnal]

Nobilis has a mildly weird setting and only slightly unusual mechanics, but the gameplay that emerges is typically absolutely insane.

Player characters are so powerful (in a way that would shame D&D level 20 wizards) that it becomes impossible to predict the direction of anything. As a game master this is liberating, because the power level means that you can hand out absolutely insane quests to the player characters (if they don't obey their Imperator things can go south quickly) and you can pretty much count on them to be able to complete it somehow. "Two thousand years ago I met a man at a crossroads north of Rome. Please bring me this man." or "England is a blight on Europe. Move it to America."

My favorite explanation example for Nobilis: If you’re the Power of Humor, and someone makes a joke you don’t like, you can say “That‘s not funny” and be right. It’s a minor miracle of destruction (which is cheap and easy for Powers like the PCs) to make it true right there at that moment, or a major miracle or destruction (which is harder and likely to be draining) to are it true everywhere and always.

 

[Blue Orange]

My vote goes to:
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Don't have it (expensive!), but freaking love the movie. Tickled it was made into a TTRPG.

Fun bit about the movie: not only is Ghost Dog's samurai code from the Hagakure obsolete, so was the Hagakure when it was written. It was written in the Edo period when the samurai weren't doing any fighting.

And yeah, I loved the movie. Gotta find that now.

Anyone think we could crowdfund a Forest Whitaker audiobook of the Hagakure? He's a movie star, might be super expensive.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Fun bit about the movie: not only is Ghost Dog's samurai code from the Hagakure obsolete, so was the Hagakure when it was written. It was written in the Edo period when the samurai weren't doing any fighting.

And yeah, I loved the movie. Gotta find that now.

Anyone think we could crowdfund a Forest Whitaker audiobook of the Hagakure? He's a movie star, might be super expensive.

Maybe you could do it via Cameo over the course of time...

 

[Anon Adderlan]

Noumenon​

There is a place outside of normal existence called the Silhouette Rouge, a place where the conscious and subconscious merge, where the real and unreal are one in the same. The Sarcophagi, creatures lacking memory and identity, are imprisoned within this place. They walk the Silhouette Rouge hoping to divine its secrets for only revelation and enlightenment can grant them release.

Noumenon is a role-playing game of mystery and abstraction. Players assume the roles of the Sarcophagi, strange insect-like creatures trapped within the Silhouette Rouge. During their adventures, players will encounter bizarre entities and explore strange locations. The Silhouette Rouge, Noumenon's setting, is detailed enough to spark the imagination yet open enough to allow customization. In Noumenon, player cooperation is key. Noumenon uses a domino-based task resolution system that enables players to build upon each other's successes.

Mechanical Dream​

On a huge planet, Naakinis, 10 races vie for survival under conditions no humans could ever hope to survive in one immense continent, encircled by impassable darkness: Kainas.

On Kainas, reality bends and weaves, dreams and nightmares come true at night, ecosystems collide, and magic faces off with technology. From this chaos, Echoes are born, from any of the 10 races. Beings of supreme power, Echoes get to shape and understand reality for their kind. YOU are one of them.

It is up to you to realize your potential and become one with the two worlds, to awaken the Dreamer.

The Whispering Vault​

Players take on the role of "Stalkers", persons who have risen above their own mortality to act as servants of the guardians of Reality, tracking down and apprehending rogue gods who have invaded Reality and returning them to the realm of the Unseen where they are cast into The Whispering Vault.