Turn is a PHENOMENAL game, truly one of my favorites. It's been a massive wealth of inspiration for me, and I cannot endorse this game enough. I wish I could rate it higher than 5 stars.
If you are on the fence at all about it, let me just tell you, it is beyond worth it.
I've just figured out game reviews aren't visible by using ratings so, here goes a review!
"Turn" is a finely-tuned engine for producing engaging, powerful personalised storytelling and The Feels. It begins with collaboratively building the small town your game will be set in alongside the PCs and NPCs who will populate it.
It features character archetypes with their own frameworks for character generation, partly to ensure those stories have mechanics and pacing that fits their contexts. (It's not using PBTA, but there are similarities if that helps ground things for anybody.)
As an example that has stuck with me ever since I ran into it, one of those archetypes has a prompt for generating NPCs which says "Who used to be proud of you?"
Ow. OW.
Working backwards, if you're a fan of "Night in the Woods," then it feels like "Turn"'s approach to town generation could easily have built Possum Springs and its NPCs - although NITW has nothing to do with the themes of shapeshifting and identity baked into "Turn."
Anyway, if you're remotely interested, listening to two episodes of the Roll Out! podcast playing two sessions with the game's creators will tell you what you need to know faster and better than I ever could. (And they're just entertaining in themselves.)
It's original, interesting work that provides tools for storytelling and characters we rarely ever see in popular culture, particularly in RPGs. Strongly recommended.
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Turn is a PHENOMENAL game, truly one of my favorites. It's been a massive wealth of inspiration for me, and I cannot endorse this game enough. I wish I could rate it higher than 5 stars.
If you are on the fence at all about it, let me just tell you, it is beyond worth it.
Thank you so much! This is so kind of you!
I've just figured out game reviews aren't visible by using ratings so, here goes a review!
"Turn" is a finely-tuned engine for producing engaging, powerful personalised storytelling and The Feels. It begins with collaboratively building the small town your game will be set in alongside the PCs and NPCs who will populate it.
It features character archetypes with their own frameworks for character generation, partly to ensure those stories have mechanics and pacing that fits their contexts. (It's not using PBTA, but there are similarities if that helps ground things for anybody.)
As an example that has stuck with me ever since I ran into it, one of those archetypes has a prompt for generating NPCs which says "Who used to be proud of you?"
Ow. OW.
Working backwards, if you're a fan of "Night in the Woods," then it feels like "Turn"'s approach to town generation could easily have built Possum Springs and its NPCs - although NITW has nothing to do with the themes of shapeshifting and identity baked into "Turn."
Anyway, if you're remotely interested, listening to two episodes of the Roll Out! podcast playing two sessions with the game's creators will tell you what you need to know faster and better than I ever could. (And they're just entertaining in themselves.)
Town and character generation is here: https://rolloutpodcast.libsyn.com/turn-cauldron-springs-town-character-creation?...
The first session of play, "Lodging complaints on Founder's Day" is here: https://rolloutpodcast.libsyn.com/turn-lodging-complaints-on-founders-day
It's original, interesting work that provides tools for storytelling and characters we rarely ever see in popular culture, particularly in RPGs. Strongly recommended.
Thank you SO MUCH! This is amazing!