Announcing: Meatbag Slingshot! A TTRPG

*wild cheering*

So, I am working on a TTRPG system titled Meatbag Slingshot. What? I know. 

I've been playing and writing for  TTRPGs for a few years and sometime during the pandemic, I decided to try and make my own system/game. After writing a chunk of it, I promptly fucked off and got mired in the despair one feels when they are trying to get a steady paycheck job. That was last year but then I got a job! And I kept working on Meatbag Slingshot! And I talked to some friends about it! And they said it wasn't a bad idea. So I bought a lot of dice (d6s) and kept writing and working on this game. 

What kind of game is it? 

Meatbag Slingshot is a game/system where you will play as a person who must play many people. For some reason, your consciousness is getting slingshotted to different worlds, into different bodies. One minute you are a human on earth taking the bus home from work, the next minute you are a ladybug awakening from hibernation. A few days later and you're a cyborg in  a cloud world, apparently on the run. Etc., etc. You're still you! But you are also someone, something else and apparently there is something you gotta do before time runs out.

Inspirations/touchstones for Meatbag Slingshot include

• Quantum Leap (kind of obvious. Apparently it is getting rebooted? I learned about this after I started developing this game)
• Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (Again, obvious, this came out after I started making this game but I'm honestly glad it's out, it makes explaining this a lot easier.)
• Infinity Train (RIP, this show is really interesting!)
• Miracle Workers (If you watch this anthology show, you'll understand what I mean. I guess the more popular anthology show is American Horror Story but I only watched Coven of that and frankly, I prefer laughing to being squicked out or scared to take a shower at the end of the day so here we are, Miracle Workers. The same main cast playing different characters in different settings but...what is actually different?)

I wanted to make a game where players could play in many different settings, across different genres in a chaotic and enigmatic multiverse, where working together would be important and where changing things up would be the norm. And I came up with this name. For short I use the acronym MBSS. Body swapping is something that comes up in lots of types of media. What if that was the game?  For reasons I'll get into later, it uses d6s as the main dice. and dice pools to represent your true self and your new self. 

There are a few things baked into Meatbag Slingshot that I am trying to develop and balance properly.  These things are offshoots of my philosophy on the game, what it is representing and what I want to encourage around the gaming table. The foundational truths of MBSS are:

1. "Anything can happen, child, anything can be". These are the words of Shel Silverstein, from his poem "Listen to the Mustnt's." This is a game about possibilities. Where will your next Trip take you? What will happen? How will you work together? Who are we at the gaming table versus other spaces? How can we get what we want by failing together? Who is Cruncy? 

2. Everybody else is metagaming, so why can't we? I am dating myself, but this is a riff on the title of a Cranberries album. I am sure there are some among us who do not metagame but...most of us do it. It happens! Sometimes we do it to gain an edge in a situation. Sometimes we do it to keep the party together or because we as players want to see something happen our characters would definitely not. The mechanics and gameplay of MBSS acknowledge that sometimes metagaming is part of gaming and that this can be done in a fun way that facilitates storytelling. Negotiating what happens happens on many levels when we are telling stories together and chance is involved. Lets run with it. Why not?

3. Creative community. Meatbag Slingshot is (going to be) released Creative Commons, specifically CC BY-SA 4.0. That means you are able to Share (copy, redistribute) and Adapt (remix, transform, build upon) as long as you Attribute (say what the source material is) and Share Alike (use the same license). This includes creating and publishing physical and digital things and selling them for money. But Tristan! You might be thinking, What? Why? Because I want to. I can and I want to. 

In addition to/along with the rulebook, Meatbag Slingshot will include a template to help Coordinators create Splats of their own (yes, MBSS has its own lexicon). Never run a game before? Instructions on how to create Splats and run games will also be in the core book. But hey, let's take creative community further!  Written a pile of Splats and want to bundle them and sell them? Go for it. Want to tweak the rules and stream a show using it? Again, go for it. Come up with a list of NPCs that are all lizards and want to share it? Okie dokie. Want to print the rules out in zine form and sell them at a show? Cool, sounds like a great way to share it. I, Tristan J. Tarwater, just require you share your work the same way I am sharing my work. Release it under CC BY-SA 4.0. Click the link to find out what all that entails exactly. Do what you want. Let other people do what they want with your stuff. We are already doing this, though maybe not for money. Let's create together. 

I will add, racism, sexism, homomisia and transmisia have absolutely no place in Meatbag Slingshot. Just. Point blank. Also, I do not condone the use of (what people are calling) AI (these days) in any way related to Meatbag Slingshot. Pay an artist. Hire an editor. AI has its place, but it is not here.

So what happens now? 

Well now that I have announced it, I actually have to finish the fucking thing. WOMP WOW. Jk. But basically next steps are

• Get a playtest-worthy draft of the game done.
• Edit it for basic grammar, syntax, make sure it makes sense
• Format it so people can download the freaking thing easily and it looks good and people can read it.
• Playtest the game.
• Get feedback and tweak appropriately.
• Playtest it again (and again and again) until it's a playable game that is balanced and facilitates fun times.
• Edit it again. Maybe get it translated into Spanish?
• Format the fucking thing, including incorporating amazing art from Valentine Barker (who is doing the cover!) and Nicky Rodriguez.
• Release it into the wild. 
• Lay down in a coffin and enter torpor. 

I don't have a timeline for this! I know, big mistake. When I first has the idea in...I dunno, I thought I could do it in a year but I did not take into consideration mental illness.  I am in a better place now. I have a job. My job is good. And I am working alongside cool people who are interested in the game. But I also have a job, a family, other projects and life. I want to say it'll be out by summer next year. But we'll see. Maybe the next update will be a better timeline. If you are still reading, bless you. If you are interested in learning more about this game and its development, please follow along.  If you have questions, you can post them. Let's do this! 

Check out the cool sketches by Valentine Barker for the cover. Valentine knows what's up. 

So that's it, that's the announcement. I am making an RPG, it's gonna be a little goofy, but I'm a little goofy. Hope you come along for the ride!

Best,

Tristan aka backthatelfup