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ARC: Doom Tabletop RPG - Quickstart

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momatoes

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An animated GIF showing mockup of the book, preview of interior images, and real footage of a defiant heroine and an hourglass with sand slipping away. Title says

One of Polygon's Top Indie Tabletop Games 2021

And Dicebreaker's Best Tabletop Games You Might Have Missed

Combine your imagination with the power of dice rolls to build memorable stories about the apocalypse. Together with your friends, take on the role of humble heroes and embark on grand adventures to save the world — a world that you fill with secrets and omens.

I really can't put to words how gorgeous this book is and how much fun it is to travel across each spread and the joy of turning each page. Seriously it's fucked lol —Vidiya Voleti, Interactive Artist and Award Nominated RPG Designer

If you want to play what is, in my opinion, a flawless TTRPG, please consider ARC. —HTTPaladin, co-director of The Islands of Sina Una

GAME FEATURES

As a real-time Doomsday Clock slowly ticks to its end, heroes must fight their way to salvation through Skill Checks, physical or psychosocial conflict, as well as strange Spells and Techniques. Highlights include:

Manage your hours. Dictate how much time you'll spend per session. Tackle dreadful Omens while you grapple with what little time you have left.

Celebrate player ingenuity. Don't just use Skills --- articulate your specific problem-solving Approach: whether creatively, carefully, or in a concerted manner.

Strategic player-driven combat. Conflict initiative is based on what you do, not through a roll. Strategize with your allies on how to time and sequence your actions.

A new approach to Spellcasting. Spells and Techniques sit in your inventory, and impose odd rituals to refresh them. One in particular asks your hero to eat a door!

New! Resources, including Doom Sheet, Character Sheet, Roll20, Discord bot and more at https://arc-rpg.com

New! ARCANUM SRD with all the rules and reference documents—start playing ARC for free.

ARC is a one-person project by momatoes, who wrote, drew, laid out, and probably sung the PDF to sleep.

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Reviews (0)

Discussions (2)

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Paul C January 20, 2022 3:24 pm UTC

Are any adventures available?

ADAM A October 09, 2020 4:20 am UTC

PURCHASER

Dear Arc Developers,

I hacked in the Doomsday Clock and Omen system for my MÖRK BORG 2 shot. Premise being the apocalypse foretold in the rulebooks by the Basilisks is happening soon. How soon? Well the game is a 2 shot so I figured based on the Arc preview I would do a 12 circle clock with a forced roll every hour (given the sessions are 3 hours each). I also decided to punish players by subtracting time every time they stopped to rest (and recover HP), took the long way around, or engaged in unnecessary combat (I subtracted anywhere between 10-30 minutes for each offense). I even subtracted time as a consequence for rolling a natural 1 once.

Long story short by the end of the second session the clock was 9/12 and I felt that, unless I rolled more 5+s than statistically likely, the clock would have not have filled out fast enough. The game ended up adding a session (becoming a 3 shot) and only then did the sense urgency exist. Below is my full session report.

By the end...See more

ADAM A October 10, 2020 4:54 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Sat down and thought about it more. Think I just rolled below average. I think part of the balance is knowing when to subtract time and when not to. I think I should have been heavier on the subtracting time thing as I saw the clock not filling up fast enough. I'll have to play with it more and see.

Bianca May C January 15, 2021 5:06 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

Hi Adam! Momatoes here --- the author of ARC. Apologies for the late response, but I thought it was better to reply late rather than never.

First, let me thank you for taking the time to try out the clock and omen system. I'm glad it was able to add a sense of urgency at the end, which of course is the intent of the system --- making stakes feel like real, urgent stakes. That said, I hear you, and realize that needing to add a session to make it work isn't the most ideal course of action.

You mention that you were playing 2 sessions with 3 hours each. The default rules would've suggested a 9-segment clock (2 x 3 x 1.5) which might have been perfect for your group's pace. That said, doing 12 segments is valid, but is looser than what was playtested, which might have led to needing the additional session.

The "swinginess" of the clock --- created by the random possibility of accelerating whenever you roll 5/6 --- was designed to add a measure of unpredictability,...See more

ADAM A January 23, 2021 6:46 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thanks for the response. I have used this system a couple times since my comments with several sets of variant rules for MB and it works great. Even just using the omen system (without the clock) as a guideline for direction in games can be fun. Each omen they complete results in a reward for the players of some kind so there is incentive to seek them out in the world. I like to make it vague like 'The Watcher Hungers' or something like that so that way both the players and the GM get to discover what the omen is in the world. At times this has surprised me. When players say "that's not the omen" when that was the thing I had intended it to be. Seeing players interpret the world differently than me is certainly cool. I think omens as verses in a poem would really cool (maybe a Haiku?).

I have also toyed with adding a 'speedrun' reward for players. So if they get to a certain point in the adventure and the doomsday clock is below a certain margin a magical door opens up and they get a 'bonus...See more