Elf With A 10 Page Backstory
A downloadable game
You and your (2-4) friends are starting a new fantasy roleplay campaign or oneshot. Your character is a badass elf* with pages of deep, edgy, tragic lore. You didn't make a healer, nor did any of your friends.
*You don't have to be an elf. Any sort of fantastical person is fine as long as they are sick as fuck.
One of you is the Dungeon Keeper. You have pages of lore about your hardcore original setting and haven’t read any of your players’ novellas. Or perhaps you suddenly had a sick idea for a character and don’t want to run the game now. This is fine, you’ll all figure it out together.
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In Elf With A 10 Page Backstory you play as mysterious adventurers who slowly reveal the secrets of their dark past to help them overcome challenges while simultaneously shoehorning their lore into the Dungeon Keeper's narrative and building off the lore of their companions. It is a lighthearted satyrical love letter to edgelord gamers and to the imaginations of our younger selves.
Despite the name, Elf With A 10 Page Backstory requires no preparation and takes little time to learn.
This game is likely to remain free but consider how fuckin badass it is to support a creator.
Download
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Development log
- Elf With A 10 Page Backstory Version 1.2!Feb 29, 2024
- Elf With A 10 Page Backstory Version 1.1Oct 10, 2023
Comments
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i gm-ed this today in my ttrpg club and it was a resounding success! over the course of like 3 hours of playing and 4 challenges (that i just counted up to 6 successes each) my 5 players only lost 2 characters, got genuinely invested in their arcs, created tragic yuri, and then "beat the game" by changing the genre from a grimdark to Sonic the Hedgehog to beat up the Dark Lord with the power of friendship.
seeing that Aloofness was essentially health i also made up some mechanics in the final battle where the enemies got to counter roll at 1 upgrade and with 4-6 give a character some aloofness, so i'm not sure i GM-ed correctly, per say, but everyone had a catastrophic amount of fun. This is a brilliant and fun game!
Hell yeah, sounds like a pretty normal game of EWA10PBS!
Regarding your hack, I intentionally left out mechanized HP and harm to the characters for thematic reasons to focus on drama and narrative but it still sounds like fun.
If you laughed with recognition when you read the title, play this game immediately. It’s exactly what you’re hoping.
Finally played this and it was absolutely hilarious. My immortal edgelord "Luxvi," also known as LXVIII, had a great time killing himself repeatedly to deal with his enemies. 10/10 would recommend
This was silly and so much fun!! Only took about 2 hours start to finish with 3 players.
Update: Played another session of EWATPB, on Twitch this time!