Posted September 02, 2022 by Deep Light Games
24Blue is a minimalist OSR system based on the 24XX system by Jason Tocci.
In here I've disclaimed my current game design process. I'll use that as a frame work to keep things organized here
I have the feeling that I'm a very organized person regarding RPGs. I have many folders: games I read and liked, games I need to read, games I'm writing... but the one I less use is the Adventures folder inside the GM folder. There are many there I've never run. And it became a really cramped folder when I realized you really can run almost any adventure using almost any ssytem, it all depends on how much heavy lifting you're up to make during conversion.
But that became a LOT easier after 24XX. It's is really easy to wing it. But there's a caveat. There was no generic system. All hacks I knew embraced a theme or setting whole heartedly.
How do I convert on the player side? I felt there was some kind of template behind my hacks...maybe I could reverse engineered it?
Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland was my prior go-to system regarding generic OSR fantasy. Terrific game, but something wasn't clicking for me. Silent Titans introduced me to the system and I thought I could use it to run other OSR adventures. Although I enjoyed converting to the system, the PC's didnt felt right for my style of play. The classes in Bastionland are GOLD. That alone is more than worth the game. The lore is great but I wanted more free form rules. So here was one of the seeds. how to emulate these kind of characters
Fate has a huge influence in me. Tags made me realize game dont need numbers. So at hack #1 I already had added traits rules, to be one of the cornerstones of my 24XX hacks.
I actually did some counting on how much things someone started in a 24XX game (specially the original ones from 2400). I noticed there was almost a pattern and try to replicate that quantity when writing the 18XX series.
Rules wise, it was pretty straightforward to summarize the main rules in a broader way. I had to spell out some unwritten rules I had internalized which made them even clearer to myself.
The tables on the back took somework, both by creation from my part as well as many many sources.
The name came here, together with the cover. The playtest campaign was played using a megadungeon which I rather not mention due to one of its authors. I liked in the end :)
Actually I playtested the rules before I even wrote them. I played mostly by heart but toke notes of what needed more explaining when writing. A first for me but turned out ok IMHO :)