I kinda wanna write my own TTRPG. I had an idea for a system that's based around the setting of the Cuban Missile Crisis going hot, and your characters live in the resulting nuclear exchange between the eastern and western blocs. central government has collapsed, food is scarce, fallout is everywhere, but life as ever goes on for some. and so you have to survive that, but it's more focused around urban settings and trying to deal with the collapse of society, or rebuilding of society in your own way, with systems focused around defending territory, interpersonal conflicts, and resource management, along side your typical TTRPG role playing and combat. while you are playing as individuals, you aim is less to run around killing the bad dude here and there, your aim is focused around growing and protecting a settlement, and the challenges of a settlement as people in a high stress situation react poorly to it.
setting
my aim was to set it in the Soviet Union, but I suppose people could play it anywhere in the world if they felt so obliged. you obvious have a lot of institutions in the Soviet Union that are interesting to dig into, and perhaps social tensions of now the government has fallen nationalists poke their heads out, gangs of wreckers, Soviet citizens who want to put the Union back together again, tensions of centralisation vs decentralisation, the ongoing Khrushchev reforms and if people want market economics or communism. and frankly, we've all seen enough post apocalyptic America in media.
combat
obviously combat is guns and all that, but I kinda wanted to make it a lot more realistic. a lot of shots miss in a gun fight, real fights are not call of duty, especially so if you're not trained with a gun. but when they do hit, they hit hard and even the smallest guns can kill you instantly or grievously wound you; there's a lot of tension in a fight like that but a lot of smart setup you can do beyond just blind rolling dice. so the combat is about finding good cover, good ground, and good aim, in a dense urban setting. and I kinda want to have a reaction shot thing, sorta like going into overwatch in X-com, as well as other types of set up reaction shots that incentivise tactical thinking and minimising risks.
classes
I've not really thought about classes outside of combat, but they'd obviously need to be focused around people skills, medicine, engineering, strategic thinking as much as tactical and how to gamify that, and some kind of statecraft, scavenging. shooting is important, but you have a lot more to solve than just shooting, and people need to feel they can contribute without just being muscle on the one hand, and on the other the point is to desincentivise violence as it is costly. because of the desperate situation every class needs to feel deftly needed, you cannot afford to not have a medic or some guy fixing up guns, everything is too precious to lose them, but that also makes them feel valuable as players and have a clear niche to use their skills and a clear path forwards for what the team needs.
it's kind of a lot of rough ideas right now, and obviously would need a lot more thinking out and building of systems. but, I think it's quite a unique idea for a TTRPG that gives interesting stories to tell, a lot of tension, clear goals for a party, and players who feel valued above just doing big damage numbers
I'd def play this. Like you said, a post-apocalyptic setting that's not set in the US is refreshing, and the systems built around rebuilding would be pretty cool to see play out
good, because I am going to draft you in when I do play testing then
I like the idea of it being more about a settlement then a party and combat being a tense exchange of misses and maneuvering
you still have a party, but you also have the settlement and the individuals in it who the party control in combat along side the party. thinking of making some like commander or officer class that commands units around and doesn't directly attack themselves
This sounds rad as hell. I spent a few years really into ttrpg mechanics but have never tried making anything myself. If you are planning on developing this concept, I've got 2 pieces of advice, if you want them.
Unsolicited Advice
First and most important is make sure the mechanics incentivize playing in the way you intend. A lot of games feel murky and fall apart because the developers try to make their system too open ended.
The other is that a lot of great indie ttrpgs include mood/inspiration lists. So as you're starting, make a list of all sorts of media that you want to emulate or invoke and use that to keep a cohesive feel and theming throughout your work.
It's a big endeavor, good luck!
Sounds neat. One thing I have always loved is when backstory fits in to help tell the story and I am guessing as the event is nuclear apocalypse, backstory is gonna take on a harrowing, important role.
It might be nice for players to have bits of their life before and then have them become relavent. Outside of 'I trained as a soldier/medic/scientist.' Maybe stuff like 'I was stationed in the artic for 6 months and I got very, very good at poker' which the dm can later build in to the story. Or maybe the fact that the character sketched wild animals becomes relavent somehow.
Love the concept. General feedback: Combat is almost always really rough in TTRPGs. Taking an entire session to fight an enemy can really kill the momentum of a game and also is not very fun. The more ways you can speed up and simplify combat, the better.
This is coming from someone that prefers games that focus more on collaborative storytelling than stat/spreadsheet management, for what it's worth.
Either way, I'd totally play this! You should keep working on it.
