Discworld's Headed For A Million Dollars!

Launched on Kickstarter just a few hours ago, and already over half a million dollars, Terry Pratchett's Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork (now that's a mouthful!) looks certain be be the next million-dollar TTRPG Kickstarter.

For £50 you can pick up the core rulebook and dice, or for £100 the full set for gamemasters (with cheaper PDF equivalents, of course).

The game is powered by Modiphius's brand new Narrativium system, which is a rules-lite narrative game system based around telling silly stories; it doesn't feature combat rules, choosing to place the emphasis on storytelling rather than mechanics.

As with most million-dollar Kickstarters, there's a ton of fun add-ons--dice, collector's editions, an adventure book, a dice tray, and more.

You can also watch a livestream of the game being played or grab the official quickstart for free.

 

[overgeeked]

$701,000 and 4081 backers.

 

[Von Ether]

I can't imagine Disc World as a functional RPG setting, but then again Toon was a thing.

But then again, I never played Toon.

But then again, if you are going to go this route, it seems to me that Toon is perfectly functional here. Certainly, "If it is funny, then it happens", should be a rule.

The underlying problem with such games is that they only work with a player group composed entirely of stand up comedians. Humor isn't an ingredient that just magically appears out of a rule set. You can't say, "And it was funny" and it be funny. At least, not more than once.

Or perhaps just not take your game too seriously and have a few drinks? Everyone at my table cracks each other up every week. Putting us in Diskworld would be like spritzing the table with kerosene and peppering it with matchheads.

Comedy can also be personal. I doubt anyone not in our group would find our game "funny" but we'd be having a ball. For us, an in-game joke about eating acorns eventually spawned a new in-game species, Squirrel Folk! I am sure that's just a silly head scratcher for everyone else, but we always get a chuckle out of it.

The actual tough part would be dropping those bits of deep wisdom as snappy Pratchett one-liners. Though some of them could be the "moral lesson" at the end of an adventure.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

I'm a huge fan of Discworld -- own all the books having got on board after the second one was published, have a signed Discworld poster, have cooked from Nanny Og's cookbook. I have also played TOON a few times, and seen that comedy games can work well, even with a random group of players who were definitely not comedy specialists. I'm also more than happy with the ruleset, as it's very compatible with FATE, a system I enjoy for story-focused games.

But I still don't think I'll be backing it. Terry's genius is not just comedy, but it's satire and there is a strong philosophical energy in his books. Trying to replicate that while generating content would be very hard work for me, and I wouldn't feel content running a game where there are Discworld elements, but not its themes and overall "feel". I ran a DOCTOR WHO campaign for a while, and it was by far the hardest one to create content for, trying for that very specific feel. I think I'd find the same amount of work was needed for me to create any new content in this RPG.

EDIT: This post crossed with @Von Ether's post, and their statement "The actual tough part would be dropping those bits of deep wisdom as snappy Pratchett one-liners" echoes how I feel.

 

[overgeeked]

To each their own, but I don’t see any reason to intentionally set the bar impossibly high first then complain how the bar is impossibly high.

Just like with every other licensed RPG, at best you’re roughly approximating the setting and stories at the table with friends. No one expects the referee to be RTD or Moffatt when running Doctor Who, nor George Lucas when running Star Wars, nor Terry Pratchett when running Discworld, nor Monty Python when running…well, Monty Python.

And most types of comedy aren’t that hard to replicate at the table. Certainly no harder than horror. They are cousins after all. As long as the players and referee aren’t doing Chaotic Stupid, you’ll be fine.

 

[BigJackBrass]

I'm astonished by how popular this is proving, given that we already had a Discworld RPG for years, written by Phil Masters with input from Terry Pratchett himself. It was popular, sure, but the new one seems to have stirred up a frenzy despite an unknown system.

 

[Morrus]

I'm astonished by how popular this is proving, given that we already had a Discworld RPG for years, written by Phil Masters with input from Terry Pratchett himself. It was popular, sure, but the new one seems to have stirred up a frenzy despite an unknown system.

1) Kickstarter and 2) Modiphius. Both are very popular.

 

[darjr]

I think the Hobby itself was much smaller then too.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm astonished by how popular this is proving, given that we already had a Discworld RPG for years, written by Phil Masters with input from Terry Pratchett himself. It was popular, sure, but the new one seems to have stirred up a frenzy despite an unknown system.

The last one was produced when the audience for roleplaying games was vastly smaller and is in a system that, today, is basically an afterthought in the industry and mostly just something grognards know and play.

 

[darjr]

The last one was produced when the audience for roleplaying games was vastly smaller and is in a system that, today, is basically an afterthought in the industry and mostly just something grognards know and play.

when I mention GURPS I get wrinkled looks and then some "Ahah! Yea!" from some folks.

I spent so much time with GURPS.... lesigh

 

[WisdomOfWombats]

Wish they had a system neutral world book.

I wish they had a world neutral system book.