Data, Nerves +Acquisition
A downloadable game
[COMMUNITY COPIES AVAILABLE BELOW]
Have you got a game world you've been playing in for ages but it needs some fleshing out?
Are there a bunch of groups vying for power in your big city and you want to find a fun way to determine how the balance of power lies?
Does your setting need some internal development to really bring it to life?
Based on the Beak, Feather & Bone SRD, this game gives you a way to build out your world and develop communities within it organically, all the while creating your own stories and lore to fill in the gaps.
It's a very simple game that can easily go alongside any other system or setting (although the default in the book is a sci-fi city, you could easily adapt it to a fantasy town, space colony, post-apocalyptic wasteland or anything really!). You don't need to have drawing skills or to do any complicated maths - all that's required is a simple pre-drawn map, some way to colour it in, a standard deck of playing cards and somewhere to take notes.
Playtesting has been done using a combination of Roll20 and GoogleDocs and if needed, maps can be easily created using the Watabou map generator.
Simply choose or create some factions/communities and then take turns drawing cards, picking locations from the map to claim and write down the DNA of it based on the card chosen:
Data
What is this place? How would a non-player character describe it? What is it used for? What is it called or referred to as?
Nerves
What is it connected to. Is it of historical or industrial significance? Who or what passes through this? Is another faction or the ruling party involved in it?
Acquisition
How did this building come to be part of this faction's territory? Do they now own it or simply occupy it? Is their possession open or is it a cover for secretive operations there?
Also, add some amazing NPCs to your world whenever you pull a face card and create some wonderful characters to feature in gameplay when you return to play the game you're doing this for.
This project was originally conceived to help flesh out the world of the Cybertopia Actual Play podcast and videos of the game being played by the cast will go up on YouTube are now going up, so keep an eye out here! Here's the first session, so you can see how play goes without leaving this page :)
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (7 total ratings) |
Author | Ben Newbon |
Tags | citybuilder, Tabletop role-playing game, worldbuilding |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
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Community Copy
I know not everyone has the spare cash to put down for a little worldbuilding game like this and capitalism's gonna capitalise, so if you can't afford it, please go ahead and grab a copy off this pile. I'll make sure to keep it topped up but if it's ever empty and you need one, drop me a message here or on Twitter and I'll get right on it!
Comments
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Awesome hack of Beak, Feather and Bone. Really cool game you made here, Ben.
Thanks so much. BFB really provides such a great framework to play with, I’m surprised there haven’t been many more hacks done of it!