Neopets - Official Tabletop Roleplaying Game TTRPG

[Tam]

I know d20 based systems aren't always everyone's favourite but selfishly I'm kind of very pleased about it being the case here because I already have a bunch of cool extra 7-piece poly sets that are just gathering dust and it would be neat to get a chance to use one (not that. I wouldn't necessarily go and hunt down a brand new set to perfectly match my character but that's uh that's beside the point). I imagine that's the case for a good chunk of the target demographic for a neopets game – like. having a few base mechanics in common with DnD probably helps make the game more approachable to people who haven't had a chance to play too many other ttrpgs before but maybe have at least a basic level of comfort with DnD, even just through media osmosis.

...Ok actually I can't help myself, I gotta ask. Knowing nothing else about the game, what kind of character d'you guys think you'd play (assuming here you're not the GM)? Specifically do you think you'd plop one of your existing neopets/OCs into the game, or would you prefer to start with a blank slate?

[Sporty]

Jul 21, 2024 11:50:40 GMT -5 Tam said:

...Ok actually I can't help myself, I gotta ask. Knowing nothing else about the game, what kind of character d'you guys think you'd play (assuming here you're not the GM)? Specifically do you think you'd plop one of your existing neopets/OCs into the game, or would you prefer to start with a blank slate?

Ooh, that's a really good question. I personally tend to gravitate toward some kind of spellcasting class when I play DnD, and I don't really picture any of my pets' characters as being spellcasters (although I could definitely tweak things to make one of them a wizard/wizard equivalent, hmm), so that would mean starting with a blank slate. In particular I am really wanting to make some kind of Eyrie wizard/ranger/druid/something like that, haha.

On the other hand, it would be an absolute blast to play as the Mutant Acara knight of Brightvale that is my original pet Sadala. So I'll probably end up doing both, assuming I can pry myself away from GMing or whatever else entails just straight-up playing my favorite canon characters lol.

What about you?

[Kengplant]

over on the neoboards Herdy said that it used 5e as a base, so it should be familiar to dnd players, but sounds like they've also made some pretty big changes to how class and specs work.

[icon]

Jul 21, 2024 11:50:40 GMT -5 Tam said:

I know d20 based systems aren't always everyone's favourite but selfishly I'm kind of very pleased about it being the case here because I already have a bunch of cool extra 7-piece poly sets that are just gathering dust and it would be neat to get a chance to use one (not that. I wouldn't necessarily go and hunt down a brand new set to perfectly match my character but that's uh that's beside the point). I imagine that's the case for a good chunk of the target demographic for a neopets game – like. having a few base mechanics in common with DnD probably helps make the game more approachable to people who haven't had a chance to play too many other ttrpgs before but maybe have at least a basic level of comfort with DnD, even just through media osmosis.

Tam I feel like you and I are approaching this from opposite directions but meeting each other squarely in the middle — as the resident D&D disliker I initially voiced some fears about the system being too similar to 5E but it sounds like the team is trying to cater to audiences with that media-osmosis level of familiarity, using the 5E base without being overly reliant on Wizards of the Coast's licensing/mechanics/ etc. I'm hoping that this will be mainstream enough to cater to the d20-minded folks, while still left-of-indie enough to open the door to other systems, even if that's solely a matter of personal taste.

(That being said: I also cannot deny the allure of a cool dice set. I don't have occasion to break out my dice as often as I would like)

[Kengplant]

Oh I am absolutely going to get a new dice set.

Something purple.

I'd like to play my original neopet, even if I don't own them anymore. Plus as a darigan lupe I'd get to fly. Would be heavily fighter/melee leaning. Bit of a temper, strong belief in taking action to right wrongs. Bit impulsive and impatient because of it. Very ride or die for friends.

I am definitely starting to run up against DND's limitations the more I play it. Though I'm sure that's true to a degree in any system. I was hoping for a more new system for a change of pace, but am also glad that I shouldn't have too much of a learning curve to jump in on.

[Kat]

Because Reuben is too intimately tied to the world of NeoQuest II, I don't think I can play him here. Same with most of my OCs unless they're not too intertwined with the existing story and characters.

I do however already have the idea of a snot Aisha named Snelene who has snot-based magical powers. No one wants to shake her hand, she understands why, but still.

[doctortomoe]

So does it look like this is going to be fully funded?

[Ginz ❤]

Jul 25, 2024 23:25:24 GMT -5 doctortomoe said:

So does it look like this is going to be fully funded?

It got fully funded day 1, and now working towards some cool stretch goals. The first one has already been unlocked, and with 16 days to go still I'm hopeful we'll get some more!

[doctortomoe]

Oh, then I should back it. Someone remind me to do that when I get paid Thursday

[icon]

So the Geekify team posted another update on their Kickstarter campaign page, and there are definitely a couple of things that definitely had my raising my eyebrows:

Showcasing Mechanics:

We've had a number of requests by people wanting to see how game mechanics will actually play out, and we've been trying to figure out the best way to show that off, with time for the campaign itself being so limited - our intent was always to show it as part of the continued development cycle, and to start introducing mechanics explanations in tandem with the community playtests, but we'll accelerate that a bit to help people get a feel for what happens during game play. We'll be doing a series of broad strokes overviews of some of the systems in the coming updates, and doing a tiny one-shot so people can see rules in action. (We're also still finalizing the visuals for page formatting so we can start putting information into a more polished looking document for publishing, too).

We're fully halfway through the campaign at this point. It's more than a little bit weird that the team hasn't revealed anything about the game mechanics? The page mentions a classless, skill-based system and the merch preview includes a set of dice and a GM screen, but nothing in any of the official communication channels that shows what those are actually used for. It's standard practice in the TTRPG industry for a crowdfunding campaign to either say "this is compatible with XYZ system", or showcase some of the rules to give people some sense of what to expect. (And even if it wasn't, it's just good business sense — people generally want to know what they're purchasing before they put their money behind it.)

Content Request and Idea Submissions:

We've had some really awesome submissions in the comments and idea box already, so keep them coming! While we already have a lot of the mechanics formed, we're also committed to making the game the best it can be, and we're prepared to rewrite anything that we find that needs adding or improving upon, or sounds like a great idea we want to see implemented.

Glad to the team being proactive and making space for community feedback — but again, feedback on what exactly? We haven't seen any mechanics, and volunteer playtesting won't be happening until after the campaign is over, so at this point it feels like a totally open-ended suggestion box. Is this for suggestions for new mechanics? Is the plan to design additional mechanics on top of the game in progress?

After reading those, I went back and looked at the campaign page, and I'm reading it a little more closely, particularly the timeline:

Middle of August: Kickstarter concludes
Late August: Pledge manager store opens and add-ons become available
Sept - December: Beta testing and community play throughs
Late December: Completion of the drafting and editing process
December - January: Final review, and submission of final manuscripts
February - May 2025: Production and shipping of all materials, final address updates
June - July 2025: Fulfillment and campaign completion

This all, combined with "Estimated delivery July 2025", is giving me a moment of pause:

• Four months for community playtesting is a very truncated window (I know designers who have tinkered with their games for years before publishing. It sounds like some of that work has been happening behind the scenes, but it hasn't been happening in a public-facing way, and internal playtests function very differently from public-facing ones)
  
• Trying to get any work done in late December is ambitious; the last two/three weeks of the year are fully in hibernation mode.
  
• This entire timeline is all before factoring in manufacturing + shipping delays for physical products. (And let's be honest, given the state of the world these days, manufacturing and shipping delays are almost inevitable.)

There's a world in which this above timeline works out and everyone keeps the project on task — but it doesn't leave much room for delays, snags, or any unforeseen consequences.

I'm not out here trying to be a downer, and I certainly don't want to cast any shade on the forumers who are working this project — as far as I know, nobody here is the project manager. It's very possible that things are all running smoothly behind the scenes, and this is just a lack of clarity/communication with the audience base. Maybe I'm being overly cynical here! But as somebody who's run a TTRPG crowdfunding campaign before (and been a contributing writer on at least half a dozen others), I can feel my hackles raising a bit.

[doctortomoe]

Okay, I will fully admit I have never used Kickstarter before. What do I need to do/know?

[icon]

Backing a kickstarter campaign is pretty straightforward! When you go to the campaign page, you should see a button that says “back this project”. Once you select that, you can choose which pledge you want (just the digital edition, print edition, deluxe set, etc). Then you put in your payment information, and select any bonus rewards / add-ons you want to include.

Because it’s fully funded, once the campaign ends (August 11th), backers will be charged for the amount that they paid. At some point after the campaign completes, geekify will reach out to everybody who backed the campaign, in order to gather shipping addresses and any additional info they may need.

(They’ll also charge more shipping later on, so you don’t have to worry about paying it now.)

[doctortomoe]

So this isn't like, you have to set up paypal of venmo or something in order to do?

[icon]

Nope — kickstarter only takes debit and credit cards, so you don't have to set up a paypal or another third-party payment option.

[doctortomoe]

Annnnnnd backed.

I probably will have 0 people to play with, but it feels good to support and i think at the very least it will look good on my shelves.