A photo of a Skrap Packs playtest by one of the players  Thank you to all the playtesters at PAX Unplugged 2021, Games on Demand for a very busy weekend! It's always great to have a game, but I also got some great feedback: ALTER ARMS Alter Arms playtesters at PAX Unplugged 2021 During Alter Arms, players pointed out that not all of the character archetypes were as beneficial for players as others.  For the sake of clarity, I'm going to explain the character archetype move rules in a way that doesn't require full knowledge of the system. Character archetypes are subclasses for characters that give them access to moves that mechanically reflect the functionality of different members of a team you typically find in team henshin-hero shows like Super Sentai, Sailor Moon, etc. They are important because they give characters access to unique actions that can: A) Allow them to lower their own or another character's drama ( in this system, instead of characters losing  hi...

As of this writing, my next in-person playtests are going to be at: PAX Unplugged 2021   as part of Games on Demand : Dec. 10 - 11, 2021 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.  MAGFest 2022 as part of Indie Tabletop Showcase : Jan. 6 - 9, 2022 at the Gaylord Convention Center  Katsucon 2022 : Feb. 18 - 20, 2022 at the Gaylord Convention Center I hope to see you there! If you're interested in virtual playtesting, join the Discord! I've been continuing regular playtests of Alter Arms through the discord I set up late last year. By this point, I've run through one full campaign with a group of players, observing how they advanced their characters and the impact that had on things like enjoyment and the increase in their effectiveness in handling problems.  The big things I've noticed include: I am able to increase player agency against stronger foes by giving them the default ability to create "assets," narrative objects they put into the game world based on acti...

  During 2020, I was able to accelerate playtests for Alter Arms through a dedicated discord and a great group of players who've been running through a campaign with me to test out long-form play.  This has given me a lot of feedback, and I'm currently updating the rules as I work towards a final edit. Feel free to join the discord to learn more, and possibly demo the game yourself!

I Ran Alter Arms at AwesomeCon this past weekend and had players had some good positive feedback to round out the rules. I'm currently at the stage where I'm finalizing the rule-set for blind playtests and hope to send them out to people who have signed up sometime in the early Summer. Thank you for your patience!

Two players from a demo of Alter Arms at KatsuCon I had a great time at KatsuCon this past Saturday in their tabletop room where I was able to run multiple demos of Alter Arms for eager players! "I never thought that being an edgy super hero (WHO COULD TRANSFORM!) would be so cool! This was an amazing experience." -JD (@rise_medica on Instagram: https://t.co/XGNd6slH15 ). Thanks to all of the players from @Katsucon this weekend! #KatsuCon #tokusatsu #ttrpg pic.twitter.com/2iN8tsqXB1 — Alter Arms (@AlterArms) February 18, 2019 I had one return player who played a demo last year, who also expressed enjoyment at how the game is turning out. One takeaway I found was that the Defender archetype needed to be tempered to make it so that it didn't make it too easy for players to earn experience compared to the others. Archetypes are classes that characters have that represent their role on the team, kind of like how sentai teams have "the support...

Big thanks to all those who tried out Alter Arms as part of the MAGFest Indie Tabletop Showcase! Players had epic battles against mystic knights, vampire lords, technopathic bikers, and demonic stock brokers, and did so in awesome setpieces they came up with. One team had a member's giant robot combine with their shapeshifting alien ally to form a sword, which was used by their ally in an even bigger giant robot to attack their opponent as they fought in the middle of a weapon testing facility; Another group had a  combat robot use their battle computer to find an enemy's weak points and destroyed them in a missile barrage; A magical girl took control of an armored car through use of spells so she could bash a pursuer with her flaming mace, while her partner shifted from their beastial form to their cyborg form to take out their opponent; An extraterrestrial peacekeeper summoned their transforming robot starship to knock down a door (and conv...

New Alter Arms players. I just got back from PAX Unplugged, a major tabletop gaming expo in Philadelphia where I had some great playtests. I am grinding away on the blind playtest rules, which is good because more and more people are asking for copies to play with their friends. Minor musings: The rules can be grasped by young children, as a group of playtesters quickly and eagerly leapt into the game. I was also able to test out character creation, which I've been able to streamline to about 5-10 minutes. A BLOCKBUSTER! playtester holds up the character sheet for their actor, Bick Thudgun, star of such films as Time Spiders , You're a Monster! , and The Green Desk Lamp Knows All (as the Lamp). Also, I played some large playtests of my other game, BLOCKBUSTER! which I have been working on as a side project. I'm likely going to be publishing that before I publish Alter Arms just because it will likely take less time since the rules are so streamlined An...