A downloadable tabletop rpg

Buy Now$9.00 USD or more

The Colors of Magic is a light, collaborative, story-focused, fantasy tabletop RPG about a group of wizard friends.  The game focuses on the characters' beliefs and relationships.

This game uses some ideas I've wanted to test for a long time:

  •  GM "Mad Lib"-style adventure planning built around structured character creation focused on conflicts and relationships as your "stats."
  •  Giving players full authorial control over the broad strokes of the antagonists, conflicts, themes, and setting.
  • Calling the GM the "gamerunner" and the PCs the "protagonist characters"
  • Specifically incorporating non-playing audience members.
  • Really taking advantage of the Script Change safety tool and integrating it throughout the game.
  • Choosing the outcome of risky actions rather than using a randomizer; focusing on balancing the game's outcome choices rather than combat and PC abilities.

The Colors of Magic was originally written as a submission for the Our Little Foods Game Jam, which gave me an opportunity to write a game about choosing your outcomes.  It's meant as a way to introduce the ideas, above; but it's a playable game!  Now, as of May 15, 2021, the game has been updated with all-new art and "real" layout!  

Email colorsofmagic@runagame.net with all the typos and errors you find.  Also with any thoughts, experiences, etc. you have playing.  I welcome your feedback!

Updated!  The revised version was released in May, 2021!  

Updated 23 days ago
StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(16 total ratings)
AuthorJon Lemich
GenreRole Playing
TagsFantasy, Story Rich, Tabletop
Average sessionA few hours
LanguagesEnglish

Purchase

Buy Now$9.00 USD or more

In order to download this tabletop rpg you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9 USD. You will get access to the following files:

The Colors of Magic - The Revised Edition.pdf 2.3 MB
Character Sheet 780 kB
Outcomes (Colors) Reference Handout 1.1 MB
GM Tracking Sheet 132 kB
GM "Mad Lib" Style Fast Adventure Planner (v2) 816 kB
Playmat for VTT Play 438 kB

Development log

Comments

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Hello~! Any plans to release a high res version? I'd love to print this out nicely :) 


Thanks~!

Thanks!  I never thought anyone would print it, to be honest. It's more a game you read once and then play using the menu and handout pages. The layout was designed purely for screen reading (hence phone friendly columns on a monitor friendly page).

I do plan to make nicer handout pages to match the upgraded main text layout. It's my winter project.

This game sounds very interesting! Cannot wait to try it out!

It was fun! Thank you so much for running.

You're welcome!

Not sure where to report a glitch - I downloaded this using the itch.io app and it only downloaded the first PDF, the character sheet. I was able to get the rest of the sheets by coming here on the website, but figured I should report this so it has a chance of being fixed!

Wild! I didn't even know there was an app,  I hope they get it fixed.

I think it would be better if u have it posted as a zip file so everyone can simply upload that one file and get everything in one go :)

Extremely interesting concept! I particularly enjoy:

1. The fact that all important NPCs are created by the players. An obvious deviation from standard RPGs which I think help re-establish the relationship between GM and players, and will help me develop the idea with my players that they are an integral part of worldbuilding as well and prompt them to create people and places, because they often feel like "it's not allowed". 

2. No dice! Wack! I don't know how that'll translate in my group, but I'm eager to know :) Their minds are often not very narrative-driven, so it'll be interesting to see if they like it at all (always worth trying!)

Anyway, I think I'm going to wait until after the pandemic to play it (candy!!!) but I wanted to leave a small comment regardless. Thank you for the game <3 

Thank you so much for your thoughtful review! 

(+1)

The idea of the game is very interesting in a obviously good way

Thank you! <3

(+12)

Hey folks, I've put this game in the Racial Justice and Equality bundle, so it's going to get a lot of downloads.  

If I were you, a game by an unknown designer would be low on my list, so it's likely to be stashed in a thousand thumb drives and cloud drives and file servers and forgotten.  That's fine.

But consider opening it and reading it because:

  • The players create the setting by creating their characters' relationships. 
  • The GM has to use what the players created or things implied by what they created; they can't create an antagonist or location unless it's implied by the player's creation.
  • It has "Mad Lib" style story creation for GMs, to help them learn this approach (and just because it's easy). Basically, the structure of an adventure is there.  You fill it in with the relationships the players fill in on their character sheet.
  • There's no randomizer. No hit points.  No numbers at all.  Players choose the result of a risky action from a menu!  If you get hurt, write down how.
  • But it still works like a traditional RPG.  There's a GM and players, each with their character.  The GM has a pretty typical GM role.  It's a cartoon fantasy world with TV-Y7 fantasy stories.
  • You get to eat candy.  In the time of the virus, you can eat virtual candy.  I added a virtual playmat for that in January that you can use with Roll20 or any virtual whiteboard type app.
(+2)

I only found this because I jumped to the last page of the bundle, but the mechanics sound very interesting and I'll probably give it a shot when I can be around other people again. Thanks!

(+1)

Thank you!  I added a playmat image for use with Roll20 if you try it online.  In fact, I was only able to playtest it on Roll20, never in person with actual candies.  Game jam timelines make live playtest scheduling nearly impossible.

I'm so happy there were so many TTRPG systems and add-ons in the bundle, thank you for being a part of it!! I love the idea and will be trying it on roll20 as soon as my players are available <3

Thank you! If you do, I would love if you let me know how it goes and if you have any suggestions. There's an email in the game text to make it easier.