A downloadable game

Download NowName your own price

Oddlings is a free Roleplaying Game I created to GM for my kids. It uses a single six-sided die, coin flips, and symbols for ability scores, so my younger one (who still doesn't read) can understand their character sheet.

It's a hack of Into the Odd, mechanically, but it adds collaborative world building procedures which I found kids really like. The added bonus is that you don't really need to prepare to play. You can read some thoughts behind the design process on my blog.

I added some random tables for inspiration but they are just that: inspiration. In reality, I've been usually using Rory's Story Cubes to generate ideas on the fly. 

It is also my submission for the One Page RPG Jam.

More information

Download

Download NowName your own price

Click download now to get access to the following files:

Oddlings One Page.pdf 203 kB

Comments

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

MartianSmith5 days ago(+1)

I so want to run this for a group which includes a kid who as well cannot read! Might need some modifications, but we'll see. Love the use of symbols for ease and quickness of understanding ability scores! Also I like Smile as an Ability to resist sadness.

If Oddlings use magic and, say, it might fail and backfire or strain them, which Ability should generally be rolled against? Or would it depend on the magic and overall situation (say, if an Oddling tries to keep themself invisible while going among fairies, the consequence of a fail might be embarrassment at being discovered, so the Ability is Smile; but if they use a magic to shield themself from falling rocks, the consequences might be that they strain themselves mentally to precisely avoid the rocks, so it's against Wit)?

Reply
gestaltist5 days ago

Hey, thanks a lot for your interest and for your question!

In games inspired by Into the Odd, special abilities such as magic are typically achieved by magic items/special equipment. They typically just work but have some limitation (e.g., need recharging in specific ways). So by default, I would say just let them do it, and embed the consequence/limitation in the item.

That said:

  • Depending on the age and character of the kids, you may want to be even more forgiving, and also not care about balance that much. (I might give a more powerful item to a 5yo that I wouldn’t give to a 10yo if they play together.) You might even give Oddlings innate special abilities.
  • The examples you gave are on point. If the situation creates danger from using magic, the ability to roll against is dictated by the situation. If you wanted to include some inherent risk/backlash from any use of magic, I would probably use Smile as the default roll (using magic strains your confidence and good mood).

Again, thanks a lot for checking out my game, and may you and the kids have a great time together. :)

Reply