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.

 

[Staffan]

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.

A big difference is that Discworld isn't internally funny. No-one in Ankh-Morpork finds it funny that a guy named Lord Rust agitates for sending the military halfway around the world to fight over a tiny island, but we here on Roundworld can clearly recognize that he's a stand-in for Margaret "The Iron Lady" Thatcher and the Falklands. That seems like the kind of thing that would be a big challenge.

Still, I'm sure that whatever Modiphius comes up with would be better than the previous GURPS version, because I have a hard time thinking of a system less suited to a setting that runs entirely on Narrativium.

 

[ruemere]

Took me awhile to find the main characters, Vimes was probably the most difficult to identify. Could not assign names to dwarves in armors though.

Missed names for most less known folk. The devil and trolls are particularly hard.

Don't know why but placing Ridcully at the center is irksome (and maybe intended as such).

I think that one of the shifty eyed guys is Carcer but ...

 

[overgeeked]

A big difference is that Discworld isn't internally funny. No-one in Ankh-Morpork finds it funny that a guy named Lord Rust agitates for sending the military halfway around the world to fight over a tiny island, but we here on Roundworld can clearly recognize that he's a stand-in for Margaret "The Iron Lady" Thatcher and the Falklands. That seems like the kind of thing that would be a big challenge.

Still, I'm sure that whatever Modiphius comes up with would be better than the previous GURPS version, because I have a hard time thinking of a system less suited to a setting that runs entirely on Narrativium.

To be fair, all fiction runs entirely on Narrativium. That's why turning stories into games is hard and why it's almost impossible to create a story from a game without drastically editing, cutting, changing, rearranging, etc. to beat the game as played into something that even vaguely resembles a story.

 

[darjr]

To be fair, all fiction runs entirely on Narrativium. That's why turning stories into games is hard and why it's almost impossible to create a story from a game without drastically editing, cutting, changing, rearranging, etc. to beat the game as played into something that even vaguely resembles a story.

Absolutely.

I think I’d like support for Discworld like shenanigans at the table, like how DCC gets so gonzo via the randomness and weirdness in the tables. I dint mean USE DCC or randomness of tables but find a way to help us generate those situations that lend to those shenanigans

 

[overgeeked]

Absolutely.

I think I’d like support for Discworld like shenanigans at the table, like how DCC gets so gonzo via the randomness and weirdness in the tables. I dint mean USE DCC or randomness of tables but find a way to help us generate those situations that lend to those shenanigans

Exactly. That's what they managed to do with Monty Python. Capture the absurdity with absurd rules that, if followed straight, will produce the most randomly absurd things. It perfectly captures Monty Python as an RPG for me. I really hope Modiphius can somehow to do something similar here. It's a fine line to walk. I hope they can pull it off.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

This is going to be a big challenge. Discworld as a setting isn't anything special on its own.

Great A'Tuin, Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon, and Jerakeen want a word with you, small person

 

[MarkB]

I always thought Ankh-Morpork would be great for a Blades in the Dark adaptation. All those detailed districts and factions. You could play as City Watch recruits, wizard students, or members of any of the various civic and criminal guilds.

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

 

[Anon Adderlan]

While executing the humor aspect is certainly important let's not forget that #Discworld is also on occasion deeply and profoundly profound.

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.

A large part of Pratchett magic is in simply presenting all the standard fantasy tropes from an entirely different perspective and asking questions about all the things we take for granted. After all, why do all the witches and wizards wear pointy hats? And why exactly are children's teeth so valuable? Not exactly a difficult endeavor, nor one that needs to be mechanized.

And as anyone who has tried to run Paranoia knows, getting the tone right at a gaming table can be incredibly difficult

On the contrary, I've found the elements of the setting all but write the jokes themselves, and quite consistently.

No-one in Ankh-Morpork finds it funny that a guy named Lord Rust agitates for sending the military halfway around the world to fight over a tiny island, but we here on Roundworld can clearly recognize that he's a stand-in for Margaret "The Iron Lady" Thatcher and the Falklands.

Luckily #Discworld is far more dependent on its satire than its puns.

 

[MGibster]

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.

Not even GURPS?

I'm a big fan of Discworld, but I'm not sure I could actually run a satisfactory game set on the disc. Comedy games are tough to run in my experience. My players are much better at turning serious games into comedies.

 

[Tonguez]

Btw there is a fanmade game inspired by Discworld on itchio that uses 2d10 roll under and Fate-like Narrativium (aspects) mechanic. Its driven by player vices/compulsions generating Narrativium points and a failure track for character growth (xp) - the use of vices and failure to generate narrative benefit is what plays into the Discworld vibe and that Combat is to be avoided, Damage is all narrative based and Death can be bargained with.