Modiphius’ New ‘Discworld RPG’ Has a Kickstarter Launch Date, Is Powered By Puns
Modiphius revealed the launch date and more details about its upcoming Discworld RPG, including a new, pun-based rules system.
Modiphius announced not long ago that it was hard at work on a new roleplaying game set in Terry Pratchett’s beloved Discworld. That alone should be enough to sell you on it. If you’re unfamiliar with Discworld, you are in for a treat, my friend. Stop reading this article after the next paragraph. Put your phone down and tell your boss that you need to go ideate some actionable insights you can take across verticals. Then go out to your local bookshop; there’s probably one near wherever you get lunch, and pick up a Discworld book.
You can’t go wrong, really, with any of them. You can start with the first book, The Colour of Magic, but if I were you I’d start with Guards! Guards! instead. Great. See you when you get back from B&N. And why not swing by the Starbucks inside and get yourself a little treat while you’re there? You deserve it. We’ll be here when you get back.
Modiphius’ Discworld RPG Launches on Kickstarter Soon, Uses Puns
I hope you had a safe trip. Now then, back to Discworld. Discworld is a fantasy world that feels more real than other worlds because it has heart and humor and isn’t afraid to let people just be low-grade selfish jerks while also celebrating the indomitable nature of the human spirit. Highbrow and lowbrow come together to satirize our world with characters that stick in your soul years after you’ve put the books down.
That’s pretty big shoes for Modiphius to fill. But with this year being the 40th anniversary of the release of the first book in Discworld, it seems an amazing time to launch a new game.
And one thing that has me hopeful is that the Discworld RPG will use a new system as Games Radar detailed in an interview with Modiphius:
“The whole game is built in such a way that players are encouraged to play with words. Each character has a number of traits, and those traits can be used to justify actions in the game. Players are encouraged to misappropriate, mangle, or otherwise brutalise the meanings of those traits to justify things they have absolutely no business justifying.
[That ethos] forced us to create a system that is essentially unique, which is almost entirely word-based. The system works in such a way as to put language and wordplay first and foremost, while the system fades into the background. We didn’t ever want the system to get in the way of the story.”
–Modiphius
More to the point, the game won’t be super crunchy either. You won’t have to juggle a lot of modifiers. Instead, you work in a more narrative/fiction-focused framework to establish mechanical consequences to good or bad rolls.
Modiphius says, “The game is fundamentally about language, wordplay, and narrative.” However, don’t mistake the lighthearted tone for unseriousness. Discworld books are often light and funny right up until they rip your heart out with a deep insight into humanity that’s maybe a little uncomfortable, maybe a little relieving.
And if you see an old barbarian, just remember, you don’t get to be an old barbarian without being very,very good.
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