GOZR Creatures + Design Talk

In this post I talked about how I'm doing creatures in GOZR. Not much has changed since then. My stat block is the same, but I added Pack to give you an idea of how many of the creatures might be encountered.

I think I already described the fundamental game system in this post. Clearly this game owes a lot to games that came before it, so I'm going to include a section shouting out my inspirations to the best of my ability. For certain, classic D&D (specifically 1981 era) had a massive influence and some of its language is maintained herein (hit points are there, and the damage ranges are fairly in line with D&D). The Black Hack's abstract treatment of distance is something I completely stole for GOZR. But instead of a usage die mechanic I actually prefer players to just keep track of their shit. So the charsheet will have an "ammo" tracker. My own game, The Pool, has its stamp on GOZR as well. You can spend GOOZ to add "game story facts". A direct nod to The Pool and the early story gaming movement.

One game that definitely has inspired me is Mörk Borg. However, I am not sure to what extent that game inspired GOZR. I did a little archaeology and found that I had made public posts about acquiring the Mörk Borg in mid-March 2020. But my oldest GOZR document is dated March 8 and it does not mention the Swedish death metal game, despite mentioning Black Hack, OD&D, Into the Odd, and others as inspirations. So I believe GOZR predates my exposure to Mörk Borg by a week or so. After that, the game definitely hit me between the eyes and I love it. So big shout out to Sweden for the inspiration.

Regarding mechanics... I'm not sure what I lifted from Mörk Borg that I didn't find in other games. The concept of subtracting armor from damage is pretty common. But for sure the overall no-fucks-given design aesthetic of the game was inspiring to me. Because clearly, when you see GOZR finished, you will not find a lot of fucks given. It's an early 80s hard rock/metal notebook doodle game. Sort of.

I am not sure how this will all play out. Yesterday as I worked on the project I had the epiphany that this is a "sketchbook RPG". Meaning: I'm composing it the same way I would approach pages in a sketchbook, but with more of an eye toward clarity and organization. It is definitely not a game that total noobs would likely pick up and run. I do assume a lot of pre-existing RPG knowledge. I am not including a "how to play" or "what is roleplaying" section. I think I even use the term "PC" without clarifying what that is.

It's going to be a hot god damn mess but I do love it. I'm 24 finished pages in! Some of these are dense with info, some are less so. Thus, sketchbooky.

I don't know the final page count. I was kinda hoping 28. But I haven't even got to the equipment, weird magic and tech items, weapons, random encounter tables, or adventure yet. Holy shit. This might hit 44 hand-crafted pages before I'm finished.

See you in 2025.