Homestuck.XYZ 2.0

Hello everyone!

I've been a lurker on these forums for a little while now (and used to frequent the original MSPA Forums, may they rip in pepperoni) and I finally made an account because I wanted to share with you all a project I've been developing!

The SBURB Tabletop RPG Version 1.0!

I know there are a couple of fan-made SBURB tabletop games out there already, but I noticed that they all needed extensive knowledge of the source material to play- which meant all my uncorrupted friends were left out of the experience I wanted to share with them. My goal was to make a Homestuck inspired tabletop game that anyone could play regardless of whether or not they'd read the comic, played the games, or even brushed up against some grey paint at a convention.

And so, with that in mind, I created an infodoc to put onto paper the rules and mechanics of a brand new system designed to be as close to a realistic SBURB as possible! I hope that anyone, regardless of their familiarity with Hussie's works, can pick up this document and be able to run a game of SBURB with their friends by the end.

The version I'm sharing with you is only the first of many to come, and as such is missing quite a few features that many of us all know and love- as of V1.0, Humans are the only playable race, and not all the mechanics are quite as fleshed out as I'd like them to be. But fret not! SBURB V1.2 is already in the works, and will include Trolls as a playable race as well as expand on some of the more important mechanics such as Alchemy.

This is where I'd like some of you kind TTRPG players to come in: I need help playtesting V1.0 so that I know what changes need to be made for the future. I need to know which mechanics work, which don't, what needs more explanation, what has too much- any and all criticism you can think of! I'd love for some of you out there to run your own games with as few or as many people as you like and tell me what you think of the experience!

Thanks so much in advance, and I hope you all have fun!

[EDIT]: For those who are interested, here's the official Discord server for this project! https://discord.gg/dbq2hhVG58

I will playtest with some relatively normie friends on friday and report back on my experience.

Biggest issue with a SBURB TTRPG is always the fact that, as much as a collaborative effort as SBURB is, most of the game is actually spent playing solo. How does your system deal with this issue?

luigi wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:05 pm

I will playtest with some relatively normie friends on friday and report back on my experience.

Biggest issue with a SBURB TTRPG is always the fact that, as much as a collaborative effort as SBURB is, most of the game is actually spent playing solo. How does your system deal with this issue?

That's actually something I've had a hard time working around; my first idea has been to make the warp gates easier for players to access and to have quests span between all of the planets, making it more conducive for players to work together in the early stages. I haven't mentioned anything to that effect in the document itself in this version, however. Frankly the first half of the game doesn't really make it easy for players to work together- it's really not until you hit God Tier that things start coalescing. I'm hoping to find a more solid solution to that soon. If you have ideas, I'm happy to hear them!

As for you and your normie friends, I hope your first game is fun! I really appreciate your help!

Read through this and for the most part, it's a fairly solid general guide on things to be found in sburb. A detail that seemed a little off was the space player denizen suggestion, considering most space players in canon are known to have Echidna as their denizen, and it appeared that Echidna wasn't mentioned in the doc.
A blind spot that I see in there is information on alchemization, particularly the combination mechanics and such. Perhaps it was mentioned briefly in the introductions of the machines that facilitate it, but I didn't manage to spot much on that.

Other possible topics that could be written about later include exiles, archagents, frog temple, (possibly) first guardian stuff, session scratching, the furthest ring/horrorterrors, fraymotifs, various things involving grist such as grist torrent and the stock exchange, boondollars/bucks/bonds, and the intricacies of frog breeding.

I wish you the best of luck on further writing!

EDIT: As for the topic of how much play is done separate from the group, I feel that can be used to the group's advantage for the sake of scheduling, as it could very well be used so not all players have to be present for particular sessions unless they need to/want to interact with the current focus character.

ok cool but do I get eldritch blast?

really cool project I'll take a look at it so I can try playing a oneshot with some of my friends

lavendersiren wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 15, 2021 2:38 pm

Read through this and for the most part...

To be entirely fair, I would never call myself an expert on HS/SBURB so there could be a lot of information that's wrong or unconfirmed lol If you're willing, I'd love to have some people to chat with about the lore who may be more knowledgeable than I while creating this.

As I mentioned in my op, there is a lot that's missing from this base version that I've been working to expand on in the next version. I was mostly just trying to get a basic framework out to test the actual functions of the system. I built this (kinda) from scratch, which I've never done before, so I wasn't sure if there were things I missed which would make or break the playability of the game.

I'm also struggling with the fact that this is really meant for people with absolutely no knowledge of HS/SBURB at all, and I don't want to overload new players with the massive lore dumps that might be necessary to completely explain how some functions of the game work. I'm doing my best to navigate that in the background for later, more complete versions. I might honestly just provide supplementary material for that information, like D&D's Dungeon Master's Guide, so that the player's aren't bombarded with lore but the GM can still have a decent grasp on the general setting. The more I think about that actually, the more I'm liking the idea. There may be an edit to come concerning that.

PilotBlackSmith wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 15, 2021 2:59 pm

ok cool but do I get eldritch blast?

really cool project I'll take a look at it so I can try playing a oneshot with some of my friends

Whelp. Now I'm going to spend the next hour or two finding a way to include Eldritch Blast as a usable power in-game XD My immediate thought is something to do with horrorterrors, maybe a grimdark feat? We shall see~

I hope you and your friends enjoy yourselves, let me know what you think!

musicalEmpathist wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:07 pm

<Text wall>
>this is really meant for people with absolutely no knowledge of HS/SBURB at all

here are some things I'd like to say:
>Instead of trying to create a ruleset for "trolls", try creating a baseline for making an alien race and use trolls as example in your system, this way if a DM wants to make a different alien race instead of trolls, they will be able to do so.
>think about what parts of the sburb sequence is made from customized parts in Homestuck's storyline and what parts would be "generic" for every session, regardless of the ones we saw
>in your aspect chart in your PDF, some aspects like Void and Time are explained through phrases, I personally think instead of giving a phrase explaining the aspect, just give words that represent it(Time would be something like "Order, Sequence, Fate, Ending", Void would be something like "Misfortune, Lack, Nothing, Privacy", and one more example would be Heart like this: "Introspection, Self, Personality, Soul"), it allows DMs and players to interpret their powers more freely and thus give more interpretative freedom

musicalEmpathist wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:07 pm

To be entirely fair, I would never call myself an expert on HS/SBURB so there could be a lot of information that's wrong or unconfirmed lol If you're willing, I'd love to have some people to chat with about the lore who may be more knowledgeable than I while creating this.

If there's anything I love, it's exploring the framework of SBURB. I do a lot of minimal system sburb rp. If you got somewhere on discord to talk about this stuff, pm me over here and I'll be willing to offer my insight. I've played a sampling of D&D 5e (played through the starting adventure and then ran a custom one) and read a fair amount of material, so hopefully I shouldn't be too clueless on that end.

musicalEmpathist wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:07 pm

As I mentioned in my op, there is a lot that's missing from this base version that I've been working to expand on in the next version. I was mostly just trying to get a basic framework out to test the actual functions of the system. I built this (kinda) from scratch, which I've never done before, so I wasn't sure if there were things I missed which would make or break the playability of the game.

Makes sense, yeah. There are quite a few moving parts when it comes to sburb, and a lot of ways that it can be adapted and shifted to fit the needs of a particular session's needs.

musicalEmpathist wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:07 pm

I'm also struggling with the fact that this is really meant for people with absolutely no knowledge of HS/SBURB at all, and I don't want to overload new players with the massive lore dumps that might be necessary to completely explain how some functions of the game work. I'm doing my best to navigate that in the background for later, more complete versions. I might honestly just provide supplementary material for that information, like D&D's Dungeon Master's Guide, so that the player's aren't bombarded with lore but the GM can still have a decent grasp on the general setting. The more I think about that actually, the more I'm liking the idea. There may be an edit to come concerning that.

Supplemental side-books + having a dungeon master's guide does sound like a good solution, especially in terms of organization and keeping things modular. Might even make it easier to add things on in the future.

As far as keeping things noob-friendly, in addition to the DM guide, perhaps having sprite guides play a central role in immersive information handling, played by either the GM or someone trusted by the GM?
Might be more an optional sorta thing but it sounds like a neat idea at least.

PilotBlackSmith wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:14 pm

here are some things I'd like to say:
>Instead of trying to create a ruleset for "trolls", try creating a baseline for making an alien race and use trolls as example in your system, this way if a DM wants to make a different alien race instead of trolls, they will be able to do so.

You make some really good points here. I've been struggling with trying to include Trolls in a way that would be easy to grasp for someone who knows nothing about them and I've yet to find a way to do so without absolutely massive walls of text. Making a base "Alien" race instead might be a far easier way to handle that, and leaves me open to releasing a full guide on Trolls and Alternia later as a supplement, possibly with a SGRUB-based session guide to accompany it. Using a modular Alien race would also make it far easier to include Cherubs in the future as well. Definitely going to keep that in mind.

PilotBlackSmith wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:14 pm

>think about what parts of the sburb sequence is made from customized parts in Homestuck's storyline and what parts would be "generic" for every session, regardless of the ones we saw

Also a very good point, and something I've been doing my best to figure out. Since we only see a small handful of sessions in the canon (most of which are non-viable in some way) it takes some digging to figure out what a "normal" session of SBURB is supposed to be like. I've been doing my best to consult the Wiki in order to determine what the game is supposed to be like, but like I said to Lavendersiren, I am by no means an expert on the material. I'm considering making a Discord server for this project to gather information and testing data more efficiently, so if either of you would be interested I'd be happy to set that up today and PM you the links.

PilotBlackSmith wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:14 pm

>in your aspect chart in your PDF, some aspects like Void and Time are explained through phrases, I personally think instead of giving a phrase explaining the aspect, just give words that represent it(Time would be something like "Order, Sequence, Fate, Ending", Void would be something like "Misfortune, Lack, Nothing, Privacy", and one more example would be Heart like this: "Introspection, Self, Personality, Soul"), it allows DMs and players to interpret their powers more freely and thus give more interpretative freedom

This is another fabulous idea. When I first drafted this out I was having a hard time figuring out how to explain certain aspects (how in the hell do you explain the concept of Void other than "nothingness"?), so these examples really help.

I really appreciate your input here, it's incredibly helpful and has already saved me from some massive headaches.

lavendersiren wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:25 am

> snop
Supplemental side-books + having a dungeon master's guide does sound like a good solution, especially in terms of organization and keeping things modular. Might even make it easier to add things on in the future.

As far as keeping things noob-friendly, in addition to the DM guide, perhaps having sprite guides play a central role in immersive information handling, played by either the GM or someone trusted by the GM?
Might be more an optional sorta thing but it sounds like a neat idea at least.

Yeah, I agree with you on the supplements. I think you guys have sold me on that idea fully. It would certainly make a lot of aspects easier, as I said in my response to PilotBlackSmith. Having the Sprites play a more active role is also a very good idea; I didn't touch on them much in V1 but I planned to address that later, because I feel like they were oft ignored in the comic until they had a convenient role to fill, yanno? It might be best to have them be played by the GM so that they can give appropriate hints and guidance, like a follower NPC.

As for Discord, I am more than willing to make a dedicated server for this project if there's interest in that. I think it might be easier for me to collect resources, information, and testing data that way as well. PM me if you're interested, and I'll get one set up.

An Official Update!

For those of you not in the Discord server, I have begun work on V1.2, and it's become a much bigger project than it was before. In fact, it's now Two Whole Radical Documents!

I've split the original document into a Player's Guide and GM's Guide, for the sake of clarity and space for expansion. I'm also working with some of you lovelies to expand on combat, alchemy, races, and aspects. I realized after chatting with y'all that a lot of these things were way more barebones and unclear than I'd thought they were, and others were far too expansive. So I'm working on refining some of those points respectively.

As of right now I work full time, go to school full time, and aside from those of you helping in the Discord I'm working on this basically on my own (not that your help isn't valuable, it really is and I super appreciate you being here imsorryilyuwu). As such, it may get put on the backburner here and there while I take care of my actual adult life. However, I'm taking a break from school over the summer so I should have a lot more time to work on this by then! I'd expect V1.2 to probably be released by mid-to-late May, and probably a final V2 by the end of August. Maybe. Hopefully.

In any case, it shouldn't be too long before I can share a more polished version with you all. If you'd like to help with the project, make suggestions, or just keep up on every announcement, make sure to join the official Discord!

Kowalski: Progress Report

It's been about two months since I gave you all an update, and last time I said I'd probably have V1.2 for you around now-ish. I was pretty close with my estimate, surprisingly!

With the amazing and invaluable help of PilotBlackSmith we've gotten a pretty comprehensive section on Weapon Kinds done, which I am currently tweaking here and there as best I can. Huge round of applause for all the hard work Pilot put in!

In addition to that, I've added a new playable race: Aliens! The creation process for Aliens is quite modular, and should allow for both Trolls and other humanoid species to be made. I feel that handling it this way makes things more approachable for those who have no knowledge of Homestuck, and it keeps me from having to write an entire dissertation on Trolls as a species. Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I have been considering creating supplement materials for Trolls specifically that add them as a specific subrace and go in-depth about them, but that is a project for much later. Maybe I'll call it something like "Adventures in Alternia"...

For the GM's side of things, I've added a new section on Underlings, Denizens and NPCs (the Consorts and Carapacians) including stat blocks, general information, and how they all fit into the general game. I've expanded on Alchemy a bit more, added reference images for a lot of the sections (art credits where available), and added a section on Fraymotifs and customized combat.

All in all, I think things are coming together pretty nicely! I won't lie, I got very busy for a while with finals and then again with personal and work duties, but things are starting to ease up again and I'm feeling ready to tackle this project once more. My goal is to have the last few bits fleshed out by the end of the month and ready for review. I'll then post the documents here for you all to take a crack at and critique! Once I've gotten some feedback on it, I'll polish up whatever needs fixing and (hopefully) have the final V2 out by the fall.

If you'd like to help with the project, give feedback, or just keep up to date on all the gritty details; don't forget to join our Discord Server!

It's all coming together

PilotBlackSmith wrote: ↑

Thu May 20, 2021 10:33 am

It's all coming together

My friend, you are an absolute blessing

Well, I'm only a little bit late, so it's fine- right?
>.>
<.<


right?

Anyway! The time has come, the day has sprung!

Version 1.2 of the SBURB TTRPG has been completed!

Well, as complete as any other beta at least.

As I've mentioned before, this version has been split into two parts: The Player's Guide, and the GM's Guide. Both are pretty hefty. And yet, they still need a lot more expanding before we can get to the final versions. However I figured this would be a good, barebones option for review and playtesting, so I can figure out where the quirks are before I get too invested. The links to each document are below, and should allow for commenting. You're all welcome to use said comment function to point out anything you like, dislike, or think needs more improvement. As before, you're all welcome to use this to run your own SBURB games with your friends, and let me know how it goes!

And as always, if you'd like to be a bigger part of the whole shebang, you're welcome to join our Discord Server! Happy Gaming!

> Player Guide
> GM Guide