A Tabletop Roleplaying Game & Dating Sim | |
---|---|
Designers | Lucian Kahn |
Illustrators | Robin Eisenberg, Vee Hendro, Lluis Abadias Garcia, Olivia Fields, Jackson Tegu |
Publishers | Hit Point Press |
Publication | 2020, 2023 |
Genres | tabletop role-playing game, urban fantasy, comedy, romance |
Players | 4-6 plus GM |
Age range | teens and up |
Skills | Role-playing, improvisation |
Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is an urban fantasy tabletop role-playing game with LGBTQ dating sim elements by Lucian Kahn, with art by Robin Eisenberg. [1] The ancient Visigoths have time traveled to 1990s Los Angeles and are battling mall goths for control of the mall. [2] The game's tone is silly and the setting has many puns. The game was inspired by 1990s movies The Craft , Empire Records , Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Clueless . [2] [3] It was nominated for the ENNIE Awards and the Indie Game Developer Network awards.
Players make characters in competing teams of two-three Visigoths and two-three Mall Goths. Conflicts are resolved by opposed rolls with two six-sided dice plus character class bonuses. Players can use embarrassing traits to offer a teammate a bonus. Characters are not physically hurt in combat but receive hurt feelings they can heal through dialogue. [4]
Adventures
Jonaya Kemper wrote the adventure "The Little Mx. Scare-All Pageant.” [5]
According to the book, Visigoths vs. Mall Goths was influenced by the videogames EarthBound , Dragon Age: Origins, Monster Prom, and The Sims 3, and the tabletop roleplaying games Montsegur 1244, Witch: The Road to Lindesfarne, Shooting the Moon, Masks: A New Generation, and Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. [6]
Visigoths vs. Mall Goths was nominated for the ENNIE Awards for "Best Writing" in 2020 [7] and the Indie Game Developer Network award for "Best Setting" in 2021. [8] It was in the exhibition "Game Play: Between Fantasy and Realism" at Museum of the Moving Image. [9]
Kieron Gillen endorsed the game. [10] [11] Justin Joyce for Polygon recommended it as a game to try from Indie Press Revolution. [12] Banana Chan for Dicebreaker called it one of the best games of 2020. [13] Linda Codega for Gizmodo recommended it as a queer game to play for Pride Month. [14] Trin Garritano, Games Digital Outreach Lead at Kickstarter, named it their favorite project of 2019. [15] Visigoths vs. Mall Goths was featured as a four-part series on One Shot Podcast Network's flagship actual play podcast hosted by James D'Amato, author of Simon & Schuster's "Ultimate RPG" books. [16] [17] One Shot Podcast Network's show Character Creation Cast also aired a two-part episode about Visigoths vs. Mall Goths. [18]
Visigoths vs. Mall Goths was originally self-published in hardcover, softcover, and PDF form through a Kickstarter campaign in October 2019 that met its initial goal in 24 hours and raised a total of $21,393 from 751 backers. [19] It continued to be distributed in softcover and PDF form through Indie Press Revolution, Itch.io, and DriveThruRPG. [12] A PDF version of the game was included in bundles on Itch.io to raise funds for various charitable causes, including abortion funds in the south and midwest of the US [20] and funds for Ukrainians impacted by the Russian invasion. [21]
In March 2023, Visigoths vs. Mall Goths was republished in softcover and PDF form by indie publisher Hit Point Press after their Kickstarter for Kahn's game If I Were a Lich, Man raised $84,590 from 2,049 backers. [22]
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