Who am I and why am I creating a new tabletop RPG?

Hi, I'm Robert.

At work I'm a software analyst with a passion for coming up with web apps that just work, let you do what you need with minimum effort and no surprises.

At home I'm a gamer and game designer. For the past 5 years I've been iteratively developing a new fantasy tabletop RPG called Fatebenders. Initially I started developing it as I saw many problems with existing RPGs and saw lots of potential to innovate and to deliver just the gameplay experience that I want. I've been designing it, playtesting it with my friends, writing the rules and the game master's guide, finding illustrators and editors, doing PDF layout and building online kingdom, city, faction and NPC generators to automate as much of the game master's preparation for game sessions as possible. I've applied all of my professional software analysis and user experience design skills into making Fatebenders and put all my love for tabletop RPGs into it.

What is Fatebenders?

Fatebenders is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game where ..

• Players pick a faction in a fantasy city and play as a team of characters in that faction;
• Every faction's leader pursues their secret goal with set events bound to happen unless player characters intervene;
• Combat is quick and tactical;
• You control the elements and elemental abilities have powerful synergies;
• Adventure is driven not by predetermined plot, but by the goals of player characters. Each player decides what their character's current goal is - it can be literally anything;
• The game master prepares conflicts that stand in the way of player characters achieving their goals;
• Preparing game sessions is made easy and procedural for the game master. 
• The game master doesn't need to come up with descriptions - Instead players describe locations they visit and characters they interact with by answering questions drawn from a deck;
• Player characters progress and become stronger through failing and through accomplishing their personal goal.

Why am I asking for your support?

I will publish Fatebenders as a free PDF book and a toolbox of free online generators and I will dedicate them to the Public Domain using the CC0 license. It's the wrong choice for making money, but it's the best path I can take if I want the innovation contained in Fatebenders to spread to as many other new RPGs as possible and to create as many new fun and memorable RPG experiences as possible.

The free rules PDF will reduce entry barrier to new players and the CC0 license will give no excuses for hobbyists and game designers not to steal and reuse the ruleset, ideas and innovations contained within when creating their own games and content.

I'm going for maximum impact. This Backeum account is a way for people to support me in this vision.

What is the current progress of the project?

• Game rules - designed, written (all but one chapter), mostly playtested, edited, illustrations done, both digital and print-on-demand PDF layout done.
• Game master's guide - written, not tested yet, not edited yet, not illustrated yet, PDF layout not done yet. Will add it to the end of the game rules PDF as everything should be in one book and every player should have all materials necessary to become a game master. 
• Character sheet - done. A fillable form PDF. 
• Game master's campaign notes template - done. A google document that you can copy and fill with all your encounter ideas, generated kingdoms, cities and characters and where you can keep a calendar of all the past and planned events in the game. 
• Online kingdom and city generator - done. Generates factions too.
• Online NPC generator - done. 
• Descriptive Decks - done as pages in the rulebook. A printable card deck with questions for describing locations and characters and adding tactically interesting triggers and hazards, places to hide and places to climb during combat. 
• Character conditions quick reference table - done as pages in the rulebook. 
• Support for common VTTs like Roll20, Foundry and Fantasy Grounds - plan to do if Fatebenders becomes popular.  Things like character sheet with check rolling functions, rules compendium and virtual drawable decks with descriptive questions.