Facing the Titan, the first Draft

Pour les non-anglophones qui passeraient par là, cet article est un condensé en anglais des derniers articles concernant Face au Titan.

Hi english readers ! This blog is mainly written in french, as this is my language, but this post is for you. It resumes and collects informations about a game I’m working on, and called « Facing the Titan ».

What is « Facing the Titan » ?

Facing the Titan is a roleplaying game, a story game. The goal of the game is to tell the stories of a group of people who will face the Titan, a gigantic being running wild and causing havoc in their world. Yes, Shadow of the Colossus is one of the main sources of inspiration.

This game is a GM-Less game, with zero preparation needed, intended for a 2-3 hours of play for 3 to 6 players.

Unlike Shadow of the Colossus, Facing the Titan does not make fighting the Titan an enigma to resolve. Instead, the game focuses on the creation of the story of the Companions and their fight against the Titan. The game will be played in five distinct Phases, all almost equal in time :

• The Companions Phase, in which we learn about the Heroes
• The Titan Phase, in which we discover the Titan
• The World Phase, in which the world shows its wonders
• The Preparation Phase, in which the Companions reveal what they have prepared
• The Clash Phase, in which the fight is on

Facing the Titan relies heavily on the gameplay established by games like Swords Without Master and Sorceress Bloody Sorceress, by Epidiah Ravachol. The players will roll two dice, one black and one white. The higher dice will set the Tone for the story the player will narrate, each Phase having different Tones associated with each dice. If doubles occur, then difficulties will appear, each Phase having different rules for it.

It’s not a game of tactics. It’s a game of narrative, with a cycle of questions and answers, with a great freedom of creation.

Current state of the work

The first draft of the game is done. You can go ahead and read it. Note that I write primarily in french, and this document is my translation of it. My english could be funky sometimes.

The testing phase has begun. Those tests will help me correct things, change things, and make adjustments. Feel free to comment, test, read the text. It’s made public in order to give a preview and get feedback.

Future of the Titan

Facing the Titan is an important game for me, as I plan it to be my first « true » game to be auto-published. By true game, I mean illustration, edition, layout and more than one page. I already made some little games, but this one is bigger.

I plan to kickstart it in the upcoming months, for a PDF and Print-on-Demand release. For both an english and french version.

I’m in contact with Roger Heal, an illustrator who did illustrations for Index Card RPG, with a very specific style that matches what I see for the Titans. He also work with an indie videogame studio, Whistling Wizard.

The game does not fully describe the Titans, as this is one of the objectives of the Titan Phase. I don’t want realistic pictures for the Titans, and the POD booklet will be in black-and-white. So this kind of pictures is exactly what I need.

To help me build this game, I used pictures of Titans, that I found on the subreddit ImaginaryBehemoths. I use them to get inspiration, to show some ideas of what I intend for the Titans.

The next steps for me are to refine my text, to add examples, to explain it better, and to start working on the layout. And to start spreading the word. Feel free to speak about the game, to adress me questions, comments. I’ll be happy to discuss about it !