SlipStar

Today I want to talk about a game I’m developing, SlipStar. 

You can find the working manuscript here: kjrpg.site/ssrpg

It’s a game of survivors of a galactic cataclysm: an invasion by diabolical forces from another dimension.

And I’ve been stuck working on it for about six months.

As you are probably aware, my personal gaming style leans heavily into old school play: dungeon crawls, limited resources, character lethality.

In SlipStar, there are no hit points. Instead you track things like Heart and Hope, either of which, when they reach zero, your character is no longer playable. I like this idea conceptually that you can lose heart, or lose hope, and end up succumbing to that in a way that death by hit points would otherwise function.

But what’s it like in actual play?

I don’t know yet. I felt I had to write out the mechanics and all of the game setting content in full before I attempted play testing, but then my writer’s block hit and I’ve been stuck ever since.

But my friend (and business partner) Ava Islam (here blog is here: https://permacrandam.blogspot.com/) suggested I playtest it now, in its current state, and build on that. Which obviously I’m nervous to do, but it makes sense.

So I’ll probably look to run a game of this soon, on a Friday night or Sunday night Eastern Time, just to see how even this bare bones, barely formed ruleset plays out.

I posted the link to the manuscript however to invite feedback, if anyone wants to share their thoughts. I’m new to game design personally, in that while I’ve been home brewing D&D for over thirty years, I haven’t really tried to create a game system from nothing.

Just be gentle if you can, lol. I can handle honest criticism but I don’t think I can deal with cruelty with this first attempt at something different. Different for me, anyway.