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Telluric Chronicler
Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Telluric Chronicler is an ongoing solo TTRPG project.
Players take on the role of Chroniclers, monster hunters in a modern setting fighting against both monsters and the obligations of their daily lives.
The project is currently in it's alpha stage, undergoing private testing on a weekly basis.
Status - Ongoing (22 weeks)
Skills - System Design, Iteration and QA
Project Intent - Start Small, End Big
Previous TTRPG projects I have worked on have either been additions to existing games (such as homebrew classes, modules, etc), or games which otherwise were intended to "go big" from the beginning. Usually, they were tied to existing settings or very broad concepts. For Telluric Chronicler, I challenged myself to make something that was both constrained and not tied down to anything existing.
The setting, Telluria, was originally made for Wheels of Time. By necessity, it was never fleshed out beyond the basic idea of "people use magical stones to hunt monsters". This simple premise was all I had to work with, and it gave me the freedom to design mechanics from the ground up rather than filling out a list.
The other decision I made was to make the first iteration of the system a single page. More accurately, one double-sided page. This forced me to make a prototype which cut to the heart of what I wanted the system to do, and made sure that it was done in a timely manner.
This version of the system can be found below, which I used for initial tests.
Fig. 1a - Initial Level Layout (Uses In-Engine Tiles)
The "One-Page" demo of the game, as was used for initial tests.
Overall, I think this was a good choice. By focusing on the few mechanics which were fundamental to the system (e.g. Archetypes, Qualities, and the Hunting Structure), I was able to make a playable demo as soon as possible, which allowed me to move into testing and feedback much earlier in the design process than a larger system would have been able to.
Finding the Fun - Initial Testing
Going into this project, I was unsure exactly how far I intended to take it. The demo seemed nice, but it needed to be tested to see if there was a "fun factor" to the system. With demo in hand, my first step was to do test sessions with both individuals and groups of people.
These sessions ended up going significantly better than expected. While there were many holes in the rules as well as mechanics that needed revising, there was one mechanic which worked exactly as intended: Archetypes.
Archetypes were the game's "magic" system. Players picked 3 words, which they could use to justify specific magical effects they wanted to perform. This was designed to encourage players to come up with creative solutions that surprised both the Game Master (GM) and Players alike.
It worked incredibly well. Each of the solo sessions I ran had at least one moment when a player, confronted with an obstacle, asked to use an Archetype to do something that I never would have thought of, but made perfect sense.
The one that will never leave my head was when a player used the word Tycoon to purchase property rights to a building they wanted to get into. It proved to me that there was a "fun factor" present in the system as is that could be developed and expanded upon.
And really, what more could a designer ask for? Especially from a first draft.
Moving Forward - Creating a Plan
Once it was clear that there was a "fun factor" to the game, the next step was to expand what I currently had to support longer form play. This meant adding two mechanics onto the existing chassis. The first was Daily Life, the game's other "half", meant to make the consequences from the demo carry weight. The other was the fleshing out of character progression mechanics so that long form play had a sense of power scaling.
Once both of these mechanics were properly added to the demo (along with fleshing out the existing mechanics now that I had no space limitation), I was able to formally organize testing groups with volunteers. TTRPG players are a varied bunch, so I made sure to recruit from different pools of people: one that was more "mechanics" focused, and another that was more "roleplay" focused.
This allowed me to get different perspectives on the game, and see how the same mechanics would work for different types of people.
The setup for the testing is fairly simple. The game is run in a campaign style, with a 3 hour session for play occurring weekly for each group. This gives enough time for both groups to reasonably run through both parts of the system, allowing me to gather feedback and impressions on the current rules. I then use this feedback to begin noting changes I want to make, or mechanics which need to be looked at, building a sort of "wishlist" of potential changes.
Feedback Spreadsheet. Every piece of feedback I get is added here.
After 3 weeks of testing sessions (aka about 18 hours of total testing) there is a one-week "break" week in which testing sessions do no occur. Instead, I use this time to take into account the feedback received, and update the rules. This means that players only have to worry about rules changes every 3 weeks or so, and ensures that I have a dedicated week to begin implementing feedback.
This model takes inspiration from agile development principles, with the off week acting as a miniature "sprint" week to achieve the necessary goals. This system allows me to focus on what the system needs in the moment, and address points of weakness or strengthen what is already working in a timely manner. I have found it to be an effective structure at this point in time, and I will continue to run session in this manner for the foreseeable future.
Looking Ahead - Next Steps
This is the state the project currently exists in. However, it's always important to look to the future. As the system stands now, I am happy with it, but the main limitation is that I am currently the only person who can run the system. The rules only contain the raw mechanics and nothing else: the setting and flavor are only mildly implied, and the GM is expected to make up all of the content themselves without much guidance as it currently stands.
This is fine when I am the one running it, but getting widespread testing data will require more people than just myself to be able to gather data. To that end, the next step of the process is to begin work on documents which elaborate on the setting, sample content and guidelines for creating one's own content, and general advice on how to best run the system.
As the system is still being actively changed on a monthly basis, this is not something which can be truly "done", as many of the fundamental rules are not yet set in stone. At the moment, the current goal is to create a stable version of the system, which can be reasonably be called an early "Beta". From there, I can release this version of the system to trusted individuals to begin private testing, and scale the project up from there as necessary.
The other required materials are a part of this, but the advantage of testing a game like this is that they are being actively made in the testing process. I am forced to create sample content just by running the game, and I am slowly learning what works and what doesn't for someone running it just by testing. The test sessions are just as much of a test for players as it is for the GM.
To this end, I have been compiling all of the existing and future mechanics into documents, both for player clarity and as a reference for when sample content is to be created. In this way, I hope to make the process as efficient as possible when it is finally time to begin work on it.
All mechanical content is kept here so that it may be curated in the future.
I don't know at this time how far this project will be taking me. It may never see a public release, or I may go all the way and attempt to turn it into a full project. What I do know is that I will be continuing to work on it, and continue to meet the goals I set for myself until a decision must be made. I will build the system piece by piece, refining and iterating upon it until I am happy with the result.
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