WillPhillips
Explorer
Hey EN community,
I used to use the forum here a good bit back in the 4E days, but have drifted to other places for RPG discourse over the years. Have recently been checking out forums again and have been pleased at how the vibe and tone around here has remained pretty sane!
While I know EN World is pretty D&D & d20 focused, I wanted to share a project I've been working on here in the General forum in case it may be of interest for folks wanting something to go along with their d20 fantasy gaming.
Hexingtide is my love letter to the monster stories of folklore & pop culture. Itโs designed as a rules-light alternative to crunchy games for a โmonster mashโ of many different spooky archetypes.
โข Great for fans of Hellboy, Nocturnals, the World of Darkness, Universal Studios Monsters, and the classic authors like Shelley, Stoker, and Poe.
Key gameplay and mechanical distinctions include:
โข New rules - not a hack or built from a popular SRD - so that both character rules and gameplay mechanics are built from the ground up to focus on these types of pulp and folklore-influenced, spooky monster stories.
โข Player characters are hyper-focused on the most monster-y parts of the PCs: their powers (Powers), their inhuman vulnerabilities and threats (Portents), and how they remain tied to the mundane, mortal world of humanity (Pacts), using a point buy system with open-ended descriptors, allowing for maximum narrative flexibility by the players and the GM. Think aspects from Fate or tags from City of Mist.
โข All player-facing rolls - players roll a single die of a size chosen for their character: their Inhumanity Die. It is a double-edged central mechanic, directly tying success, danger, and escalation to the nature of your monster. Roll high to succeed with your Powers. Roll low to withstand the disastrous pull of your Portents.
โข Designed for a collaborative, โwritersโ roomโ spirit of play.
โข Structured gameplay procedures in the form of distinct Scene types mechanize genre tropes and motifs.
I've been working on Hexingtide off and on for a few years amidst hobby burnout and professional commitments, and I'm excited to have just released the major update to the public playtest (Playtest 4 / v0.4.6).
The game is in its most polished and complete state ever, and I'm looking to (re)build a playtester community around the game of folks who want to run a monster game where PCs are the vampires, werewolves, witches and more - but get away from some of the crunchiness of the variations of the Storyteller systems and/or get away from the PbtA, FitD, & d20/5E adaptations of these stories.
If that sounds like some gaming that may scratch an itch, I'd love to get your feedback!
๐ฟ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ๐ก๐ค๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐ฐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐๐ง๐๐ โ https://willphillips.itch.io/hexingtide
๐ ๐ค๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐จ๐๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐๐ง โ https://hxti.de/discord (Iโll admit Iโm not always at home on Discord โ Elder Millennial energy โ but Iโm trying!)
I used to use the forum here a good bit back in the 4E days, but have drifted to other places for RPG discourse over the years. Have recently been checking out forums again and have been pleased at how the vibe and tone around here has remained pretty sane!
While I know EN World is pretty D&D & d20 focused, I wanted to share a project I've been working on here in the General forum in case it may be of interest for folks wanting something to go along with their d20 fantasy gaming.
Hexingtide is my love letter to the monster stories of folklore & pop culture. Itโs designed as a rules-light alternative to crunchy games for a โmonster mashโ of many different spooky archetypes.
โข Great for fans of Hellboy, Nocturnals, the World of Darkness, Universal Studios Monsters, and the classic authors like Shelley, Stoker, and Poe.
Key gameplay and mechanical distinctions include:
โข New rules - not a hack or built from a popular SRD - so that both character rules and gameplay mechanics are built from the ground up to focus on these types of pulp and folklore-influenced, spooky monster stories.
โข Player characters are hyper-focused on the most monster-y parts of the PCs: their powers (Powers), their inhuman vulnerabilities and threats (Portents), and how they remain tied to the mundane, mortal world of humanity (Pacts), using a point buy system with open-ended descriptors, allowing for maximum narrative flexibility by the players and the GM. Think aspects from Fate or tags from City of Mist.
โข All player-facing rolls - players roll a single die of a size chosen for their character: their Inhumanity Die. It is a double-edged central mechanic, directly tying success, danger, and escalation to the nature of your monster. Roll high to succeed with your Powers. Roll low to withstand the disastrous pull of your Portents.
โข Designed for a collaborative, โwritersโ roomโ spirit of play.
โข Structured gameplay procedures in the form of distinct Scene types mechanize genre tropes and motifs.
I've been working on Hexingtide off and on for a few years amidst hobby burnout and professional commitments, and I'm excited to have just released the major update to the public playtest (Playtest 4 / v0.4.6).
The game is in its most polished and complete state ever, and I'm looking to (re)build a playtester community around the game of folks who want to run a monster game where PCs are the vampires, werewolves, witches and more - but get away from some of the crunchiness of the variations of the Storyteller systems and/or get away from the PbtA, FitD, & d20/5E adaptations of these stories.
If that sounds like some gaming that may scratch an itch, I'd love to get your feedback!
๐ฟ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ๐ก๐ค๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฎ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐ฐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐๐ง๐๐ โ https://willphillips.itch.io/hexingtide
๐ ๐ค๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐จ๐๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐๐ง โ https://hxti.de/discord (Iโll admit Iโm not always at home on Discord โ Elder Millennial energy โ but Iโm trying!)
