RPG playsets ‘Totally Epic Gaming Resource’ will have you fighting giants, obsessing over pop idols

Two-player tabletop RPG “A Single Moment” has players assuming the role of a samurai, whose paths have converged into a duel to the death.

If you’d like something other than the samurai theme, this year’s “Totally Epic Gaming Resource” is for you. It comes with 11 diverse new scenarios for the game, including corporate wars, territorial conflicts between mythological creatures, and the exciting and often strange world of Japanese pop idol worship.

One playset even tweaks a gameplay from “A Single Moment” to provide a unique experience. A player becomes a trio of giant monsters, and another the warrior who must defeat them.

Created by Filipino game designers Tobie Abad and Thomas Regala, “Totally Epic Gaming Resource” is a supplement book for Abad’s “A Single Moment.” Both are available on DriveThruRPG.

There are 11 playsets to the game: 

1. Corporate War: Gigantic corporations vie for advantage and success.
2. Geniuses: The greatest minds clash in a war of ideologies and philosophies.
3. Hounds of War: Military agents battle against each other for their patriotic goals.
4. Music Artists: Be it through lyrics, harmony, or pure attitude, may the best music win.
5. Oshi/Wota: In Japanese idol culture, the unique relationship is tested.
6. Retic Matters: Serial-numbers filed off for a liquid encounter leaving phantom scars.
7. Sapphire Heroes: Friendship and rainbows clash against insecurity and jealousy.
8. Times of Strife: Survival of the fittest or survival for humanity?
9. Twisted Myths: The battle between creatures of meaning and myth in a mortal land.
10. Underwater Critters: In the dark depths where light never comes, two creatures war.
11. War On the Colossi: The battle against the giants is on. Can you stop them all?

Regala was driven to create the first six playsets after his initial experience with “A Single Moment.”

“I just needed the right concepts to tackle, something off the beaten path,” he said. “I juggled the ideas in my head for a couple of days, and sat down and got them into writing one Saturday afternoon.” In one sitting, he managed to create five playsets. 

While Regala is a tabletop game designer with titles like “Combatron” and “Hugot” under his belt, “Totally Epic Gaming Resource” is his first foray into tabletop RPG design.

“It was scary because it’s treading into all-new territory,” he admitted. “Thankfully Tobie is an awesomely supportive mentor/editor and told me to relax and let loose, so I ended up enjoying writing these playsets!”

Regala is particularly happy with the “Retic Matters” and “Oshi/Wota” playsets, with the latter exploring the pop idol culture, something that Regala recently became enmeshed in.

“I wanted to show the reasons why wotas [idol fans] are so invested in their oshis [idols] and the scene itself, and I realized that ‘A Single Moment’ is a very good vehicle to convey the experience of attachment, disillusion, and denouement between an idol and their supporter/fan,” he said. “I was hoping that in this playset people can experience being wotas/idols without having to know much about Japanese culture.”

On the other hand, “Retic Matters” involves fistfights, giant military robots, nuclear conspiracies, clones, and a never-ending war.

“It’s a love letter to a great Hideo Kojima franchise,” said Regala. “When I realized that the franchise had seven themes, I was like ‘I MUST make a playset for it!’”

“Thomas’ playsets are the stars of the tome,” said Abad. “His reinterpretation of a certain ultra-popular military stealth game which we love is just amazing! And his ability to write playsets exploring everything from the idol-fan relationship to the intellectual war between two philosophers is just unbelievable.”

Gamers inspiring gamers

As “A Single Moment” inspired Regala, he in turn inspired Abad to design the latter five playsets of “Totally Epic Gaming Resource.”

“I first invited Thomas to write playsets back when I had plans of releasing a new edition of ‘A Single Moment’ some months back,” said Abad. “Loving what he created, I challenged him to write more and when I saw the amazing stuff he created, I myself got inspired to write new ones too to complement his!”

Abad’s “War on the Colossi”— which counts PlayStation classic “Shadow of the Colossus” as a major influence — does away with “A Single Moment’s” card system and adds a mechanic for tracking damage.

In the playset, the Wandering Warrior must defend their city and defeat three behemoths by climbing on top of them and attacking their weak spots. The Colossi win by destroying the city, or injuring the Warrior until they can no longer fight. The Warrior can prevent injury by allowing the city to be damaged, so expect plenty of difficult and exciting choices to be made during play.

“A Single Moment,” as “Totally Epic Gaming Resource” and its predecessor “Ten More Playsets” show, is an excellent platform that can be used again to create more playsets in the future.

“It reduces the narrative flow to the key moments, and trains one to identify what makes one love specific genre or moments,” he said. “I released ‘A Single Moment’ under the Creative Commons license to encourage others to make games using it.” — LA, GMA News

For more information on “Totally Epic Gaming Resource,” visit Tobie Abad’s TAG Sessions Facebook page and Thomas Regala’s The Epic Gaming Regiment Facebook page.