Discworld TTRPG Kickstarter to Launch October 15

Modiphius Entertainment will launch its Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming Discworld TTRPG in October. The previously announced Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork, the first TTRPG for Discworld in 20 years, will launch on Kickstarter on October 15th. Modiphius has not said whether the Discworld TTRPG will use its 2D20 system or a new RPG, but those who sign up to the Discworld mailing list will have access to a Quickstart guide later this month before everyone else. (UPDATE: A GamesRadar+ article confirms this will be a new game system, which includes no modifiers to dice and is narrative-focused.)

Discworld is the beloved fantasy world created by Sir Terry Pratchett. The Discworld novels written by Pratchett weren't a unified series per se, but rather a collection of different characters and storylines that all took place in the same world and were unified by Pratchett's beloved whimsical storytelling manner. The first Discworld book, The Colour of Magic, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

More details can be found below:

Publisher of tabletop RPGs, wargames and board games, Modiphius Entertainment Ltd. has today announced that its Kickstarter campaign for the TTRPG Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork will launch on 15th October 2024. Fans can be notified when the Kickstarter launches by signing up here.

Modiphius recently announced that it had secured the rights to produce the first new roleplaying game for Terry Pratchett’s internationally bestselling Discworld series in over 20 years. 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’ roleplaying game will be the first RPG for Discworld since 1998, when Steve Jackson Games published a sourcebook using its GURPS rules.

Those who are signed up to the Modiphius Discworld mailing list will have an exclusive preview of the Quickstart rules 24 hours earlier than the rest of the public, when it previews later this month.

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

 

[overgeeked]

It's interesting that this is actually pretty focused on Ankh-Morpork and that Lancre and other areas will be coming in later campaigns no sooner than 2026. Which makes plenty of sense -- and I suspect anyone who wants to do a Tiffany Aching adventure on the Chalk doesn't really need an official sourcebook beyond what's already published for Discworld elsewhere -- but I hadn't seen that detail mentioned during the lead-up hype.

The dice are fine, although not exciting. Not how I pictured octarine, though.

Yeah. That's one of the big benefits of a rules light system, especially one that has free-form character creation. Once you have the rules, you don't need any other books. Unless there are drastic changes to the rules or expanded rules, you're set with the Quickstart. That's great for players but not so great for the company trying to publish. The decades of Discworld atlases, companions, maps, etc already fill that niche. To say nothing of the internet filled with wikis.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah. That's one of the big benefits of a rules light system, especially one that has free-form character creation. Once you have the rules, you don't need any other books. Unless there are drastic changes to the rules or expanded rules, you're set with the Quickstart. That's great for players but not so great for the company trying to publish. The decades of Discworld atlases, companions, maps, etc already fill that niche. To say nothing of the internet filled with wikis.

That's actually why I decided not to back the Night Vale RPG. In addition to finding a class and level system to be a super-weird fit for it, I can just do it myself with the material already out there and VOID 1680 AM or the Monster of the Week RPG.

 

[overgeeked]

That's actually why I decided not to back the Night Vale RPG. In addition to finding a class and level system to be a super-weird fit for it, I can just do it myself with the material already out there and VOID 1680 AM or the Monster of the Week RPG.

Yeah. Literally the same. I heard about it and watched a video, saw what company it was, assumed they'd do class-and-level...once the video confirmed it, I switched off and never looked back. Absolutely atrocious fit for something like Night Vale. If it were Cubicle 7, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. I'd still wait until after it released generally to check it out.