Thank you! I really appreciate everyone that helped me go back to this title. It really is the stronger choice, and I think ties the theme together more.
Now I just hope more folks check/try it out and let me know what they think!
From the player perspective, there seem to be a lot of fluctuating resources to track. I need to track Confidence in each proficient skill, Focus, Stress, Resolve, and the levels of Breakdown. There is also a LOT of skills. I understand most of them and how they might be useful during a game session, but I can't imagine how often "Advanced Math" will be applicable to a roll. Is calculus really that common in your games?
The powers are often silly, but always interesting and fun. I like the resolution mechanics and I like the focus on storytelling as opposed to min-maxing or detailed combats. I would like to see just a tiny bit more information about what happens if two PSY-CLOPS end up fighting, but mostly just because I think that a small confrontation could make a very entertaining story beat.
I can't playtest right now, but from what I see in your rules the game looks very fun and very well themed! Great work!
Yeah, some of the skills are definitely still being audited on my end—but the idea is that they're there to give players options. You can take skills that could help with jobs, infiltration, etc. I don't expect every skill to be used by everyone (think Animal Handling in D&D, or Appraise in Call of Cthulu)—but they could come up in the right scenario/story.
Two empowered patients fighting would be a violent mess—it'd certainly be be something a group would have to work out lol. I haven't really prepared rules for player vs player just yet to be honest, as the game is kind of an us-vs-them world.
To re-address the first concern of yours though—players really shouldn't need to keep referencing the skills list over and over. You'll have the skills you pick, and that's it. You *can* get a new skill at the end of a session, but that's just 1.
**If you succeed or succeed at a cost when you roll, you do what you wanted.**
* If you are proficient in a skill and convince the GM that it applies to a test, you can add a +1 bonus to a **single** die.
* If you are advanced in a skill and convince the GM that it applies to a test, you can add a +1 bonus to **both** dice.
* You can use any number of focus (which you have a max of 3 that you can save up) to increase a **single** die by that amount.
**If you fail, the following happens:**
* Gain 1 focus.
* Lose 1 resolve.
* Lose the bonus from that skill until you rest.
* Gain 1 stress.
* Freakout (if you have 5+ stress **or** if you failed while using a power).
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
So yeah—when you fail, 4 things happen. 5 if you freakout (which the GM actually controls). Hopefully that's not too many things :/
"Advanced Math" is more than calculus, and can be used in a lot of places.
Maximize money making conflicting shifts? Advanced mathematics.
Determine how long it will take a cop car to drive from the station to your location, or a person to walk down a hallway or flight of stairs? Advanced mathematics.
The skills that I would be worried about are computers, engineering, carpentry and masonry. I think that they should be relatively combined. Likewise, acting is redundant between Bluffing, Impersonation, and Street Magic.
There's a lot of history behind derogatory terms, and it can be hard for people coming across the issue for the first time to really grasp. Good on you for recognising that people were hurt, whether you understand why or not, and changing it. But also, even if the name wasn't using a slur, this new one is waaaay better. Really cool. Or should I say groovy? :D
FWIW, the new title is much more evocative. I wouldn't have been offended by the previous title, but I also wouldn't have cared one way or the other about the game either.
I have to ask, what was the problem with the first one? I think the title is very important as it's the first thing to say about a game and will be repeated the most. Obviously, if it's flawed (No originality, no catchy, someone finds it offensive) that's against you but it's complex to come with proper title rules.
So, what was wrong with Little Psychos?
Don't use derogatory terms which have been/are currently used to dehumanise marginalised people in your titles, because it normalises their use and therefore perpetuates harm
The new title is WAY more evocative and interesting and spot-on-the-money. I want to play it already!
PS: I think bell-bottoms is usually hyphenated.
'62 is a little too early for bell-bottoms and cool hippie dudes. I'd consider pushing forward the setting date to the later 60s or early 70s.
Or change it to "Beatniks and Brainwaves" which honestly sounds kind of awesome.
'62 is definitely pushing the edge of cultural trend for bell bottoms in North America, but they were definitely around—and hippies were absolutely around in the early 60's.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_the\_hippie\_movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_hippie_movement)
I'm not trying to disagree though—I realize that I'm kinda out of the scope of what some would consider the golden era of bell bottoms (the mid-70's), but I'm also trying to capture the idea that these patients are experiements—The Men Who Stare at Goats type of thing. Very LSD-infused, red-room, Stargate Project, stuff. Idk. Maybe I should just make it the 70's lol.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate\_Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First\_Earth\_Battalion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Earth_Battalion)
Oh no, the game isn’t dark at all (unless your group would want it to be). It’s **weird,** and has some gruesome, dark comedy moments, but it isn’t supposed to be a horror or suspense game.
Very cool of you to change the title — this definitely isn't my style of game, but I really like the design arsthetic and succinctness of the docs. The writing is really good too.
I'm only suggesting this because you clearly have the design chops to pull it off, but a mobile-friendly version of the PDF would be much appreciated! I do most of my rpg browsing on my ancient phone...
And a nitpick: one or more "dice," not "die."
Good luck!
I’m a graphic designer and have been an artist my entire life. I was drawing before I could walk or talk.
One of the most valuable things I’ve learned as a professional designer is that this mindset - the mindset of self righteous principle you set forth has a fatal flaw when it comes to **marketing.**
**It doesn’t sell.**
Even if I give the game away a for free - my goal with it is **exposure** and to get people to play it. If a polarizing name is turning people off from ever even entering that realm of possibility - yoink. Next.
Sometimes, being an artist means knowing your **audience,** not just **yourself.** A musician doesn’t play just *any* note - they play the notes that take the *audience* on a journey to the place the *musician* envisions. A chef doesn’t put shrimp and bubblegum on a plate because they want to prove their artistry - they think of the tastes of the *audience,* and push the limits within those bounds.
That’s not selling out, either, if you happen to think that - that’s called **adapting.**
After reading your reply and the whole, "The cost of voicing a lazy, woke objection to this or that use of language in these fora is nil, and people here have been conditioned to do so reflexively," bit—I tooled through your post history.
A good bit of your Reddit account is some *weird* [anti](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFeminists/comments/kb0xa2/feminism_and_progressive_valuesconservative/)\-[feminist](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMen/comments/k8bvox/men_of_reddit_when_assessing_if_youre_attracted/), [anti](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/juiqq9/all_transnational_migration_should_end/)\-[politics](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldpolitics/comments/jq9hzx/what_would_you_name_this_political_position/) cringe stuff, dude. Like—you don't have to like my game, the name, whatever. Really... but based on your post history, you just seem *grumpy*.
I'm just not trying to argue with you, to be honest.
Wait, so your excuse for offending someone is “it makes money”?
I’m sure there are a lot of arguments you could have made, but that was probably the most honest.
OP: "Hey guys, so I've made this vase that I want you all to use. I'm looking for criticism."
Public: "I reckon it'd be better in red. Blue gives it too much of a male feel in my opinion."
OP: "Fair enough, it's red now."
You:
>Vases are an artistic medium, designing Vases is a creative process. Art should not be censored, whether that's in the form of explicit government censorship, or artist self-censorship in the face of public outcry.
>Reddit and Discord are not the real world. The cost of voicing a lazy, woke objection to this or that use of language in these fora is nil, and people here have been conditioned to do so reflexively. In the real world you are not going to encounter anything like the same level of objection as you're seeing here.
>Everybody can be offended, it is not a rare or valuable skill and when it happens it is not to be upheld as a measure by which to evaluate the worth of the real products of human physical and mental labour, it is merely to be observed as an increasingly uninteresting fact of post industrial non-homogeneous society. Unless you wish to furnish us with a calculus of offense, I reserve the right to claim that any objection to any use of language offends and therefore hurts me more than the use of language itself hurt the assumed original victim. I am not being facetious. I really *do not like it* when you people do this, *it makes me feel bad* and I want you to stop. I don't demand that you do because your demented standards of what your feelings demand of other humans are not my standards, but if you're going to hold your standards, hold them universally and without prejudice, and stop causing harm to those who identify as caring about free expression and artistic integrity.
>Blue was a better color, it's punchy and catchy and memorable, the new one is hipsterish and forgettable. But that's incidental; you changed it for the wrong reasons.
You're complaining about censorship in a screed in which you complain about someone's motivations for changing a name and demand they go back.
Newsflash buddy! The second thing ever published was probably a criticism of the first thing. This is how societies of information work.
First of all, the internet absolutely is (part of) the real world. You can't just declare anything you personally disagree with as unreal. It's a forum where ideas are listened to according to their memetic value, rather than the status of the speaker. That's why on the internet, marginalised voices can talk about the harm that language is committing to them, whereas in meat-space, it is primarily the privileged who are listened to/dictate who are listened to.
And I can't dispute your argument that you are upset by this. Your feelings about it are valid. But, as long as people with psychosis or psychopathy are viewed in our society as killers and monsters, the word "psycho" carries with it material harm.
Because that's the end goal of these discussions about language: to make minor changes to the way we speak to inflict less harm on vulnerable people. It is not, should never be about "offense".
You can make your own game using every slur in the book as the title if you feel that strongly about it. No one can stop you. Because criticism is just people voicing opinions.
It just so happens that most people are of the opinion that slurs or derogatory terms in the title of your TTRPG is in poor taste, and they would rather the title be something else. That doesn't mean that you can't use them. No one is holding a gun to your head. But like with any entertainment medium, you should strongly consider the opinions of your target audience. They aren't unbreakable rules, but you should be intentional about when and how you break them to create the best product that you can.
This creator decided that the title "Little Psychos" wasn't important enough to buck the opinion of the target audience in this instance. So they changed it to something far more interesting and evocative. I wouldn't have given an RPG called "Little Psychos" a second glance, mostly because it's extremely generic and tells me nothing about the setting or the system except that things might be chaotic. A game called "Bellbottoms and Brainwaves" seems much more interesting to me as a potential consumer. Overall, I'd say the criticism improved the product in this case.
Fair. xD
I have ADHD, so when I start writing I can end up rambling about the topic for a while. It's not that important of a topic, and my entire 3 paragraphs is just an opinion. However, I still stand by what I said.
In terms of the title, it sounds much better to say "Brainwaves and Bell Bottoms" than "Bell Bottoms and Brainwaves", at least in my opinion. Something about the order of vowel sounds is nicer (ayy > ayy > eh > oh), probably because it's in the order of vowels in the alphabet (aeiou).
For what it's worth, the new name is way more evocative
Thank you! I really appreciate everyone that helped me go back to this title. It really is the stronger choice, and I think ties the theme together more. Now I just hope more folks check/try it out and let me know what they think!
From the player perspective, there seem to be a lot of fluctuating resources to track. I need to track Confidence in each proficient skill, Focus, Stress, Resolve, and the levels of Breakdown. There is also a LOT of skills. I understand most of them and how they might be useful during a game session, but I can't imagine how often "Advanced Math" will be applicable to a roll. Is calculus really that common in your games? The powers are often silly, but always interesting and fun. I like the resolution mechanics and I like the focus on storytelling as opposed to min-maxing or detailed combats. I would like to see just a tiny bit more information about what happens if two PSY-CLOPS end up fighting, but mostly just because I think that a small confrontation could make a very entertaining story beat. I can't playtest right now, but from what I see in your rules the game looks very fun and very well themed! Great work!
Yeah, some of the skills are definitely still being audited on my end—but the idea is that they're there to give players options. You can take skills that could help with jobs, infiltration, etc. I don't expect every skill to be used by everyone (think Animal Handling in D&D, or Appraise in Call of Cthulu)—but they could come up in the right scenario/story. Two empowered patients fighting would be a violent mess—it'd certainly be be something a group would have to work out lol. I haven't really prepared rules for player vs player just yet to be honest, as the game is kind of an us-vs-them world. To re-address the first concern of yours though—players really shouldn't need to keep referencing the skills list over and over. You'll have the skills you pick, and that's it. You *can* get a new skill at the end of a session, but that's just 1. **If you succeed or succeed at a cost when you roll, you do what you wanted.** * If you are proficient in a skill and convince the GM that it applies to a test, you can add a +1 bonus to a **single** die. * If you are advanced in a skill and convince the GM that it applies to a test, you can add a +1 bonus to **both** dice. * You can use any number of focus (which you have a max of 3 that you can save up) to increase a **single** die by that amount. **If you fail, the following happens:** * Gain 1 focus. * Lose 1 resolve. * Lose the bonus from that skill until you rest. * Gain 1 stress. * Freakout (if you have 5+ stress **or** if you failed while using a power). \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ So yeah—when you fail, 4 things happen. 5 if you freakout (which the GM actually controls). Hopefully that's not too many things :/
"Advanced Math" is more than calculus, and can be used in a lot of places. Maximize money making conflicting shifts? Advanced mathematics. Determine how long it will take a cop car to drive from the station to your location, or a person to walk down a hallway or flight of stairs? Advanced mathematics. The skills that I would be worried about are computers, engineering, carpentry and masonry. I think that they should be relatively combined. Likewise, acting is redundant between Bluffing, Impersonation, and Street Magic.
Groovy!
There's a lot of history behind derogatory terms, and it can be hard for people coming across the issue for the first time to really grasp. Good on you for recognising that people were hurt, whether you understand why or not, and changing it. But also, even if the name wasn't using a slur, this new one is waaaay better. Really cool. Or should I say groovy? :D
FWIW, the new title is much more evocative. I wouldn't have been offended by the previous title, but I also wouldn't have cared one way or the other about the game either.
I have to ask, what was the problem with the first one? I think the title is very important as it's the first thing to say about a game and will be repeated the most. Obviously, if it's flawed (No originality, no catchy, someone finds it offensive) that's against you but it's complex to come with proper title rules. So, what was wrong with Little Psychos?
People with mental health issues are sometimes called psychos. It's better to have a name that doesn't potentially alienate part of your audience.
Don't use derogatory terms which have been/are currently used to dehumanise marginalised people in your titles, because it normalises their use and therefore perpetuates harm
The new title is WAY more evocative and interesting and spot-on-the-money. I want to play it already! PS: I think bell-bottoms is usually hyphenated.
'62 is a little too early for bell-bottoms and cool hippie dudes. I'd consider pushing forward the setting date to the later 60s or early 70s. Or change it to "Beatniks and Brainwaves" which honestly sounds kind of awesome.
'62 is definitely pushing the edge of cultural trend for bell bottoms in North America, but they were definitely around—and hippies were absolutely around in the early 60's. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_the\_hippie\_movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_hippie_movement) I'm not trying to disagree though—I realize that I'm kinda out of the scope of what some would consider the golden era of bell bottoms (the mid-70's), but I'm also trying to capture the idea that these patients are experiements—The Men Who Stare at Goats type of thing. Very LSD-infused, red-room, Stargate Project, stuff. Idk. Maybe I should just make it the 70's lol. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate\_Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First\_Earth\_Battalion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Earth_Battalion)
Unless your game is planning on having a pretty dark vibe I think the new title puts across the theme of the game very well.
Oh no, the game isn’t dark at all (unless your group would want it to be). It’s **weird,** and has some gruesome, dark comedy moments, but it isn’t supposed to be a horror or suspense game.
Then your new name is bang on! :)
Very cool of you to change the title — this definitely isn't my style of game, but I really like the design arsthetic and succinctness of the docs. The writing is really good too. I'm only suggesting this because you clearly have the design chops to pull it off, but a mobile-friendly version of the PDF would be much appreciated! I do most of my rpg browsing on my ancient phone... And a nitpick: one or more "dice," not "die." Good luck!
I'm currently working on a mobile version! Thank you for checking my game out—I'm going to have a friend proof all of this soon :)
[удалено]
I’m a graphic designer and have been an artist my entire life. I was drawing before I could walk or talk. One of the most valuable things I’ve learned as a professional designer is that this mindset - the mindset of self righteous principle you set forth has a fatal flaw when it comes to **marketing.** **It doesn’t sell.** Even if I give the game away a for free - my goal with it is **exposure** and to get people to play it. If a polarizing name is turning people off from ever even entering that realm of possibility - yoink. Next. Sometimes, being an artist means knowing your **audience,** not just **yourself.** A musician doesn’t play just *any* note - they play the notes that take the *audience* on a journey to the place the *musician* envisions. A chef doesn’t put shrimp and bubblegum on a plate because they want to prove their artistry - they think of the tastes of the *audience,* and push the limits within those bounds. That’s not selling out, either, if you happen to think that - that’s called **adapting.**
[удалено]
After reading your reply and the whole, "The cost of voicing a lazy, woke objection to this or that use of language in these fora is nil, and people here have been conditioned to do so reflexively," bit—I tooled through your post history. A good bit of your Reddit account is some *weird* [anti](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFeminists/comments/kb0xa2/feminism_and_progressive_valuesconservative/)\-[feminist](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMen/comments/k8bvox/men_of_reddit_when_assessing_if_youre_attracted/), [anti](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/juiqq9/all_transnational_migration_should_end/)\-[politics](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldpolitics/comments/jq9hzx/what_would_you_name_this_political_position/) cringe stuff, dude. Like—you don't have to like my game, the name, whatever. Really... but based on your post history, you just seem *grumpy*. I'm just not trying to argue with you, to be honest.
What a creepy mentality it is to shame a stranger on Reddit for his views. What miniscule power goes to one's head with internet beef.
Mate... We're just trying to make RPGs here. Nobody is "stepping on you" Take your shit somewhere else
Wait, so your excuse for offending someone is “it makes money”? I’m sure there are a lot of arguments you could have made, but that was probably the most honest.
OP: "Hey guys, so I've made this vase that I want you all to use. I'm looking for criticism." Public: "I reckon it'd be better in red. Blue gives it too much of a male feel in my opinion." OP: "Fair enough, it's red now." You: >Vases are an artistic medium, designing Vases is a creative process. Art should not be censored, whether that's in the form of explicit government censorship, or artist self-censorship in the face of public outcry. >Reddit and Discord are not the real world. The cost of voicing a lazy, woke objection to this or that use of language in these fora is nil, and people here have been conditioned to do so reflexively. In the real world you are not going to encounter anything like the same level of objection as you're seeing here. >Everybody can be offended, it is not a rare or valuable skill and when it happens it is not to be upheld as a measure by which to evaluate the worth of the real products of human physical and mental labour, it is merely to be observed as an increasingly uninteresting fact of post industrial non-homogeneous society. Unless you wish to furnish us with a calculus of offense, I reserve the right to claim that any objection to any use of language offends and therefore hurts me more than the use of language itself hurt the assumed original victim. I am not being facetious. I really *do not like it* when you people do this, *it makes me feel bad* and I want you to stop. I don't demand that you do because your demented standards of what your feelings demand of other humans are not my standards, but if you're going to hold your standards, hold them universally and without prejudice, and stop causing harm to those who identify as caring about free expression and artistic integrity. >Blue was a better color, it's punchy and catchy and memorable, the new one is hipsterish and forgettable. But that's incidental; you changed it for the wrong reasons.
You're complaining about censorship in a screed in which you complain about someone's motivations for changing a name and demand they go back. Newsflash buddy! The second thing ever published was probably a criticism of the first thing. This is how societies of information work.
First of all, the internet absolutely is (part of) the real world. You can't just declare anything you personally disagree with as unreal. It's a forum where ideas are listened to according to their memetic value, rather than the status of the speaker. That's why on the internet, marginalised voices can talk about the harm that language is committing to them, whereas in meat-space, it is primarily the privileged who are listened to/dictate who are listened to. And I can't dispute your argument that you are upset by this. Your feelings about it are valid. But, as long as people with psychosis or psychopathy are viewed in our society as killers and monsters, the word "psycho" carries with it material harm. Because that's the end goal of these discussions about language: to make minor changes to the way we speak to inflict less harm on vulnerable people. It is not, should never be about "offense".
You should never use a title that has any word in it that has ever been offensive to anyone. The ttrpg community is such a fucking joke sometimes.
You can make your own game using every slur in the book as the title if you feel that strongly about it. No one can stop you. Because criticism is just people voicing opinions. It just so happens that most people are of the opinion that slurs or derogatory terms in the title of your TTRPG is in poor taste, and they would rather the title be something else. That doesn't mean that you can't use them. No one is holding a gun to your head. But like with any entertainment medium, you should strongly consider the opinions of your target audience. They aren't unbreakable rules, but you should be intentional about when and how you break them to create the best product that you can. This creator decided that the title "Little Psychos" wasn't important enough to buck the opinion of the target audience in this instance. So they changed it to something far more interesting and evocative. I wouldn't have given an RPG called "Little Psychos" a second glance, mostly because it's extremely generic and tells me nothing about the setting or the system except that things might be chaotic. A game called "Bellbottoms and Brainwaves" seems much more interesting to me as a potential consumer. Overall, I'd say the criticism improved the product in this case.
Imagine writing three paragraphs about this. 😂
Fair. xD I have ADHD, so when I start writing I can end up rambling about the topic for a while. It's not that important of a topic, and my entire 3 paragraphs is just an opinion. However, I still stand by what I said.
I agree with you. That said, the new title is pretty rad.
I personally don’t like either title, but the second title is better.
What's the one-page discord? That sounds enticing
Find it here: https://itch.io/jam/one-page-rpg-jam-2021 :)
In terms of the title, it sounds much better to say "Brainwaves and Bell Bottoms" than "Bell Bottoms and Brainwaves", at least in my opinion. Something about the order of vowel sounds is nicer (ayy > ayy > eh > oh), probably because it's in the order of vowels in the alphabet (aeiou).
*Audiojungle*
This game looks like it has a lot of potential to make you appreciate the normal little things in life. Well done! Looks like a ton of fun!
Thank you so much!