.Netghosts ;Infinite Worlds TRPG Devlog #0

In a world where the line between the digital and the real is slowly fading, where temples dedicated to the guardian deities that watched over humanity since times immemorial lay forgotten, ancient spirits and yokai refuse to be forgotten, deny a future where naught of them shall remain but tales. In .Netghosts, these spirits adapt to this new world in ways mysterious and unexplainable even to them, evolving into digital guardians of a world that becomes more virtual by the day."

The concept of .Netghosts emerged from my love for stories of youth, change and the power of the indomitable human spirit, where digital worlds are intertwined with the physical, and also stories which depict a kind of hauntingly beautiful nostalgia for the old digital age, when even technology was analog and everything had just the right amount (way too many)buttons, switches and knobs, works like Digimon, Megaman Battle Network, and overall early 2000s "cartoons that were really toy commercials". .Netghosts explores how spirits and mythical creatures would adapt to the ever-shifting reality of 21XX, a time of technological marvels that feels both alien and not that distant from the world us players live in, and what that might mean for both them and the humans that surround them. What does it mean to be so entrenched into the digital world that data flows in your Circuit like blood flows in your veins? To both be subjected to the overwhelming stream of informations of the Overlay but also benefit from the wonders of this new age, like the DIVEnet? And what does that do to the human spirit? How do we grow and evolve from this wave of change?

Gameplay Overview:

In ".Netghosts," players, with the help of their Narrator, control a duo consisting of a Tamer — a human who has formed a bond with a digital spirit — and a .Netghost, said spirit that has evolved to survive in the digital age. Together, they navigate a world where supernatural, digital and mundane threats exist, using their combined abilities to overcome any obstacle and reach their objectives, be it Acing an exam in school, winning a neo-sport tournament or saving the whole world from another god having a mid-life crisis.

Each player plays both the Tamer and their .Netghost, and gets help in roleplaying their .Netghost by the Narrator, for example in conversations between Tamer and .Netghost most wouldn't want to be simply talking to themselves, so the Narrator takes on the role of the .Netghost, but in battle, the duo's whole toolkit is completely in the player's hands.
Gifted to them from the Soul Link formed at the moment of Emersion, the Tamer possesses supernatural abilities reminiscent of the onmyoji, witches and wisemen of myth, while the .Netghost brings its own digitalized mystical powers to the table, reflecting its evolution from a traditional yokai or ghost into a whole new type of entity.

Gameplay revolves around the use of Cards, which define the characteristics of both the Tamer and the .Netghost. These cards, belonging to different Categories and Types, form a sort-of deck that takes the place of the usual character sheet and that players use to shape their characters' abilities and strengths, offering a highly customizable and game-ish experience, where cards are played, discarded, broken and removed from play, like in any card game.
Each Card comes with the possibility for the player to place Tags in it, short phrases written by the player and agreed upon by the whole table of players (including the Narrator) which represent specific traits or powers that define your character. Tags are essential in determining roll bonuses and the strength of a player's actions during encounters, making strategic deck-building a key aspect of the game; betting everything on creating the most battle-ready duo might leave you out to dry in social settings, and going all in on being the ultimate social butterfly might not give the best results when confronting a Data Haunt, a place where the mystical, the digital and the mundane overlap dangerously.

To make actions that would impact the story being told, the players roll Light and Dark dice, a set of 2 twelve faced die that are visually distinct from each other. When starting a campaign, you decide which of your two physical die is the Light die and which is the Dark die and from then on, any roll on the Light die is a Light Roll and any roll on the Dark die is a Dark Roll. Every time a roll is called for, a player may call upon the tags on their Active Cards to accumulate both Roll Modifier and Power, then they roll both Light and Dark die, add the Roll Bonus to each die individually and in the end, they compare both of the Light and Dark Roll results to the difficulty and critical threshold of the roll (which are by standard 7 and 12 but can change with circumstance) and decide, are they gonna take their Light or Dark Roll? Light Roll represent things going smooth, without unexpected hangups or consequences, and as such only have good effects, but sometimes your Dark Roll will be higher that your Light Roll, and if you take that one, you still gain all the benefits of your Success or Critical Success, but you also give the Narrator a Dark Token, a resource that empowers them to make the protagonists' life harder and just mess with them when they least expect it; think of Dark Tokens as omens of crappy things to come. But Dark Tokens are not the only ones existing, Light Tokens are here too, and are rewarded when a player rolls a Critical Success or an Exhalted Success, they too are resource, but this time they are in the players' hands to counteract the Narrator's mischievous plans or just plain bad luck. How all of this works practically will be explained in detail in the manual, so look forward to it!

Players must balance the unique skills of their Tamers and .Netghosts to face challenges that blend physical, spiritual and mundane troubles. Whether it’s hacking into the school's mainframe to snatch the next exam's answers or battling a malevolent spirit haunting your favourite conbini, each encounter pushes the duo to the limits of their abilities.

Developement Progress:

The game mechanics for .Netghosts ;Infinite Worlds TRPG are almost complete, and I’m currently focusing on fleshing out the last kinks remaining and making sure nothing of value gets left out, after that work on the rulebook and visuals will officially be a go in full force. The rulebook will include art to complement the game and help contextualize and illustrate concepts, places and people, but please be understanding that this is an indie one-person operation, I will do my utmost best and will deliver nothing below what I consider satisfactory and something to be proud, but I am not Wizards of the Coast (luckily (¬‿¬)ehe) so please be understanding. I also plan to include comic-style storytelling within the rulebook a-la japanese Table-Talk game to immerse players in the world and have the chance to insert little snippets of the stories that are happening in the core canon of the .Netghosts Universe hope you'll enjoy them!
Before the official release, I plan to release a playtest version of .Netghosts. This will give players the opportunity to dive into the world early and provide feedback on the mechanics, balance, and overall feel of the game. The feedback I receive will be invaluable in making the final version as fun and engaging as possible.

In the coming weeks new blog posts about the state of .Netghosts ;Infinite Worlds and much more will go online, stay tuned for more updates on this world of digital spirits! To remain up to date on .Netghosts ;Infinite Worlds bookmark this site and follow me on Twitter, Spacehey or Tumblr!
And remember to have fun! -Elligeist ( •̀ ω •́ )✧