Whether you’re a material girl or a speed demon, it’s the end of the world as we know it, and it’s time to embrace your wild side.
Not Another Tabletop RPG is an 80’s-based microRPG abouts teenagers trying to solve the big mystery of their small town. Using creativity, players must channel their friendship to skip detention, fend off aliens, battle time-traveling robots, and survive the biggest challenge of them all: THE PLOT TWIST.
DetailsI partnered with 4 other game designers/writers at Northeastern University to bring Not Another Tabletop RPG to life for a class project. While a lot of the roles were split among the group, I worked as a lead writer and designer for the project. As a fan of retro media, I proposed the idea of creating a microRPG using 80’s tropes such as the Final Girl, the One-Man Army, and the Stoner. Not Another Tabletop RPG was originally intended to be an all-encompassing representation of 80’s culture, but after a couple group discussions, we narrowed the idea to 80’s teen culture. We created a character customizer that features many of the teenage tropes of the times and designed a small town that included various retro locations like an arcade, a mall, and an abandoned house with a legend surrounding it. We also created a Plot Twist mechanic, where the Game Manager could roll a dice block and create a mysterious wacky twist that would be revealed sometime within gameplay. Overall, the creation process was engaging and enjoyable, and I was able to hone my writing skills.
Not Another Tabletop RPG Logo!
Character Card for the Nerdy Girl. We wanted to base our character archetypes off of 80s teen tropes, and I think we did a pretty good job curating each character. While we worked as a group to narrow down which tropes to make characters out of, I designed and wrote most of the abilities of each character.
Character Card for the Popular Girl. There are a decent number of subsets of 80s tropes that we decided to include within each character, such as the "mean girl" and the "flower girl" being extensions of the popular girl but also very different from each other.
Character Card for the Metalhead. While all of these characters were fun to design and write, I had the most enjoyment designing the Metalhead, and that's probably because it's the closest one to me in real life besides the New Kid.
Character Card for the Stoner. The Stoner and the "Tortured" Artist are definitely the funniest ones that I designed due to how stupid yet captivating they are.
Character Card for the Rich Kid.
Character Card for the Jock.
Character Card for the New Kid.
Character Card for the "Tortured" Artist.