Mutant Pizza

Why hello there,

I’m kicking off a journal on a 1-page RPG I’ve started designing recently, currently titled “Strange Friend in a Strange Land.” You’re exploring a strange island, full of rumored mysteries abound, when you’re greeted by an animal. This animal may have an interesting personality, but they appear friendly. Are they trying to help you? Or lead you to doom? Or maybe they just think you have some good snacks.

In this 1-page RPG, you’ll venture from landscape to landscape and encounter various interesting features to examine, all of which will require you to give commands to your animal friend.

So far, the system uses a single D6, and I’d like to keep it that way, if possible.

I’ve recently been working through how to train and communicate with your animal friend to get them to help you figure out mysteries on the island. Maybe they can fly up to a high place and retrieve a shiny artifact. Maybe they can burrow underground, on the other side of a massive door to an ancient building, and pull a lever on the other side to let you pass. But this all hinges on your connection and ability to understand your companion.

I’ve also been focusing on how landscapes and features are generated as you explore. I’m looking for the sweet spot between diverse environments and making sure you don’t have to roll a D6 a dozen times before even having one encounter.

A part of this game will be rolling and choosing words from tables; roll a 2 and pick a word from the “number 2” list, for example. Other times, your roll will note a specific type of landscape with x number of features, and specific features.

This is a super brief update as I don’t have much to share on this, but I’m excited to share more in the future about this. It’s my first (of many) TTRPG design!

That’s all I have. Until next time, friendos.