Pixels & Platforms: The Platform Crawl RPG
A downloadable game
A micro-Tabletop RPG primarily for one-shot adventures inspired by retro 2D platformer video games.
The rules of Pixels & Platforms are inspired by the tabletop RPG Lasers & Feelings by John Harper, but build upon that framework for a somewhat more complex game.
Pixels & Platforms uses three attributes, and is designed to emulate the feel of retro 2D platformer videogames in tabletop form. This is a game of Platform Crawling; where a Stage is like a dungeon and each Screen is a puzzle platforming challenge!
Pixels & Platforms uses the Quantumverse as its default setting, but the rules are light enough to support other settings, such as adapting your favorite retro 2D platformer videogame!
Here is an excerpt from my blog of how I describe the Quantumverse:
An emergent microverse that exists "between particles"; a compressed computational world formed from the distribution of sub-atomic particles in physical space. A world of varying densities of compressed and encrypted pixels, voxels, and polygons. A fantasy world on a circuit board; a kingdom of baking-yeast people and the nefarious Rat King; A silk road Arabian Disco.
Pixels & Platforms was produced for DREAMJAM, and is made available as Pay What You Want. Purchasing Pixels & Platforms entitles you to any future updates on this version of the game. This version of Pixels & Platforms does not include original artwork (except for the "box art" by the incredible harveydentmd).
While extensive work has gone into this game, I have had limited ability to playtest it, so I am considering it to be still "in development". As I do additional playtesting or receive feedback from people who have read or played the game, I will continue to improve the game.
In future updates I intend to improve layout, provide further clarification of rules (possibly changing terminology), rule changes based on playtesting or feedback, and additional content such as a written play report or an example of a Platform Crawl Stage, Screen-by-Screen.
To learn more about my other tabletop RPG and worldbuilding creations, or to keep up with me, check out my blog, Weird & Wonderful Worlds.
This game is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Minorest of updatesAug 06, 2019
- Index Card PlatformingAug 05, 2019
- Some thoughts for changing FIGHT and SPECIAL in a future updateAug 04, 2019
- It's out!Aug 01, 2019
Comments
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There is no game. Only a PDF
Yes, it's a tabletop RPG, not a videogame (despite appearances)! The pdf is the game!
what... So its like a board game?
which I have to print?
It's more like dungeons and dragons, except much simpler. You don't necessarily need to print it, although you'd probably want a grid mat to draw the platforms on. There are plenty of online tools for this sort of thing as well.
To follow up further, if you have any interest in tabletop RPGs at all, not just this one, please let me know! It's a lot of fun, and especially right now during covid, a lot of people are playing online and it's a fun activity to do with your friends.
Obviously there's this RPG here, or lasers & feelings which it is based off of which is super simple and is linked in the description for this game. Despite the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons, I actually wouldn't necessarily recommend the current edition, as it's fairly complicated (and also not my personal preference), but if you did want to start with D&D 5th Edition it's certainly doable. There's an RPG called Fate which I think is another good introduction RPG. There's a website, drivethrurpg.com, which is kind of like the steam or itch for tabletop RPGs, selling mostly digital, but also some print options. Pixels & Platforms is not available on drivethrurpg, but plenty of other great games are available on itch and drivethrurpg.
You can read more about my thoughts on tabletop RPGs at weirdwonderfulworlds.blogspot.com
Alternatively, you can check out r/rpg on reddit, or any number of other rpg subreddits such as r/osr (focused on old-school D&D). Also, I have a blog list on my blog with many other awesome tabletop rpg-related blogs. If you're the type, there's a whole rabbit-hole for you.