Ludonarrative Dissidents

The Lady in Blue, a mysterious figure of cosmic power, enlists a band of simple peasants for a strange task. They are to follow an invisible bridge until they arrive at a hole in the sky – and then jump through. Death awaits all but the bravest, strongest, and luckiest, but the Lady offers a reward beyond all the riches of the world: the chance to change the very stars these peasants were born und...

Pendragon is a game of Arthurian legends, first released in 1985. The sixth edition starter set was released in 2023, with a full released plan next year. It is set in a world of brutal medieval realism. Player characters are knights in King Arthur's court, striving to uphold the code of chivalry despite their passions and flaws pulling them in other directions. The starter set contains pre-ma...

Traveller is a science fiction roleplaying game of bold explorers and brave adventurers. The Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022 contains everything you need to create one of these adventures and begin exploring the galaxy. Spaceports, ancient civilisations, air/rafts, cold steel blades, laser carbines, far distant worlds, and exotic alien beasts – this is the futuristic universe of Traveller, the...

Experience Points are a common game mechanic in tabletop role playing games, but what are they? From Dungeons and Dragons to the World of Darkness, a wide variety of games use experience points to measure character progression and improvement. We discuss how these mechanics affect play and brainstorm ideas for alternative progression systems. Check out The Night Clerk, a RPG scenario zine, written...

Fiasco is an award-winning, GM-less game for 3-5 players, designed to be played in a few hours with no preparation. During a game you engineer and play out stupid, disastrous situations, usually at the intersection of greed, fear, and lust. It’s like making your own Coen brothers movie, in about the same amount of time it’d take to watch one. Tell cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastro...

Diceless RPGs are games that do not use dice to randomize game elements. Many of these games do not have any randomization elements and include games like Amber, Pantheon, and Marvel Universe. Others use randomizers like shuffled cards or spinners. We discuss these systems and how they affect game play and storytelling. Check out the LND website for links to games and more! Discuss this episode on...

The landscape was full of machines and scrap metal connected to the facility in one way or another. Always present on the horizon were the colossal cooling towers, with their green obstruction lights. If you put your ear to the ground, you could hear the heartbeat of the Loop – the purring of the Gravitron, the central piece of engineering magic that was the focus of the Loop’s experiments. The fa...

Dread is a game of horror and hope. Those who play will participate in a mutual telling of an original macabre tale. The goal of Dread is to sustain the delicate atmosphere that invokes the hand quivering emotion that lends its name to the game. The thrill of a Dread game lies within the tension between desire and loss. Players take on the role of someone trapped in a story that is only as compell...

Planet Mercenary RPG is a space opera adventure game based on the popular web comic Schlock Mercenary. It contains everything you need to create characters, equip them, and load them onto warships for adventures across the galaxy. Build your own mercenary company and accept all the best contracts. Rescue ecotourists from Eina Afa’s Stormring Sea. Leap between the Pereri Ring’s tethered asteroids i...

Call of Cthulhu is the world’s best game of secrets, mysteries, and horror, first published in 1981 and now in its seventh edition. Playing the role of steadfast investigators, you travel to strange and dangerous places, uncover foul plots, and stand against the terrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. You encounter sanity-blasting entities, monsters, and insane cultists. Within strange and forgotten tomes...

Initiative systems are an important but often overlooked element in role playing games. They determine who can act and when. They allocate spotlight time for players and influences the action economy of a game. We talk about different ways of determining initiative and if you even need them.

Eclipse Phase is the  post-apocalyptic game of transhuman horror. Humanity is enhanced  and  improved, but also battered and bitterly divided. Technology allows  the  re-shaping of bodies and minds, but also creates opportunities for   oppression and puts the capability for mass destruction in the hands of   everyone. And other threats lurk in the devas...

MÖRK  BORG is a pitch-black apocalyptic fantasy RPG about lost souls and  fools seeking redemption, forgiveness or the last remaining riches in a  bleak and dying world. Who are you? The tomb-robber with silver  glittering between cracked fingernails? The mystic who would bend the  world’s heart away from it’s inevitable end? Confront power-draining  necromancers, sku...

The Laundry Files Roleplaying Game is based on the best-selling  novels by Charles Stross. In the game, you play officers of the Laundry,  that eccentric and underfunded agency dedicated to protecting the  United Kingdom from unthinkable horrors. The Laundry uses the Basic  Roleplaying System - the same system that powers the classic Call of  Cthulhu roleplaying game (so y...

Meta currencies are a type of game mechanic found in tabletop role playing games. They are an abstract resource used by players to affect the narrative but do not represent something in the game except luck, fate, or willpower and so forth. Examples include fate points in Fate, willpower in Red Markets, and Resolve in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We discuss types of mechanics and why they are used...

Red Markets is a tabletop RPG about economic horror. In Red Markets,  characters risk their lives trading between the massive quarantine  zones containing a zombie outbreak and the remains of civilization. They  are Takers: mercenary entrepreneurs unwilling  to accept their abandonment. Bound together into competing crews, each  seeks to profit from mankind’s near-extincti...

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition is a game set in the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy. Dating back to 1986, WFRP is a celebrated British RPG about living in a detailed setting loosely inspired by the decline of the Holy Roman Empire. Players take on the roles of common folk who have uncommon destined fates, investigating chaos cults, surviving deadly monsters, and trying to scrape by in a gri...

Coyote and Crow is a tabletop role playing game set in an alternate future of the Americas where colonization never occurred. Instead, advanced civilizations arose over hundreds of years after a massive climate disaster changed the history of the planet. You'll play as adventurers starting out in the city of Cahokia, a bustling, diverse metropolis along the Mississippi River. It's a world of scien...

Many RPGs use cards in their mechanics, from playing cards to Tarot to custom decks of cards. We discuss some of these games, the types of mechanics we've seen and the history of card-based games.  If you enjoy this episode, back our Kickstarter for Season 2 of Ludonarrative Dissidents. This podcast is only possible with the help of backers and this time we'll have a private RSS feed for earl...

Greg Stolze's procedurally generated game puts  you in the corrupt,  dissolute city-state of Vindamere, but don't  worry. You play the best people there, spoiled children of privilege  with nothing better to do  than pursue swordplay, flirt outrageously,  and snack on delicious  vol-au-vents. A single game session covers the  social year from Ye  Midwin...

Base Raiders is a Fate powered superhero RPG about dungeon crawling in  abandoned villain and hero bases.  Characters find super power sources  in bases or buy them from the black market. It was written by Ross  Payton and published in 2014. Buy Base Raiders here. Our season 1 finale, an actual play of Dueling Fops of VIndamere, is coming next week. After that, our Kickstarter...

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen by James Wallis is a  humorous and competitive storytelling  game of telling tall tales.  During the game, each player must tell a story,  while the other players  attempt to interject and stage interruptions or  distractions. The  player with the best story at the end of the game is  the winner. Our next...

Unknown Armies is a modern horror RPG  that presents magick as it might exist in a  world informed by crime  fiction and secret histories, as twisting  wrinkles in reality created  by greater and greater risk, sacrifice, and  obsession. It was created  by Greg Stolze and John Tynes.

13th Age is a d20 fantasy role playing game designed for "experienced  Gamemasters and players of all experience levels." It features several  new mechanics and character class designs unique to it, like the Icon  system and One Unique Thing. It was written by D&D designers Rob  Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet.

In Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings you chronicle the many  centuries of a vampire’s existence, beginning with the loss of mortality  and ending with inevitable destruction. Prompt-driven play and simple  resource tracking provide easy rules for exploring your character’s  human failings, villainous acts, and surprising victories.