Tales from Muncie - a KoDT fangame

Tales from Muncie is a roleplaying game inspired by Jolly Blackburn's Knights of the Dinner Table (KoDT), a long running independent comic book and hilarious sendup of roleplaying games and the people who play them. In this game, you play as characters from KoDT, like B.A. Felton, Bob Herzog, Dave Bozwell, Sara Felton, Brian VanHoose, or any of the other residents of Muncie, Indiana - or similar characters of your own creation. You'll also be playing as those characters' characters in their weekly game - the Untouchable Trio Plus One, or the Men Who Hack, or whatever they called their characters in Cattlepunk, or perhaps some new game they haven't played before. And, of course, one of you will have to GM - both the game and the game within the game.

This is a comedy game meant to generate funny stories like the ones in an issue of KoDT. Don't take the game too seriously. A PC might try to break the game and ruin another PC's fun, but a player should never do that to another player. Things going haywire and not how anyone planned is to be expected and enjoyed.

Muncie, Indiana

This is the world of B.A., Bob, Dave, Sara, and Brian, of the social relationships of a community of gamers and the situational comedy (and drama!) that arises therein. Your character here is called your Player Character, or PC. Getting together for a weekly gaming session is no easy task. Your characters will have to balance work, social obligations, cars breaking down, deciding whose turn it is to bring the Mountain Dew, and all the other trials and tribulations of everyday life. But it's all worth it, because at the end of the week, you get to play...

Hackmaster

Hoody freakin' hoo! Time to get your hack on! Or perhaps you're in the mood for palace intrigue and deep roleplaying, or solving a mystery, or defending a kingdom, or whatever other storyline the DM comes up with. This is the world of El Ravager, Knuckles, Justinia, and Teflon Billy - and whatever storyline B.A. has come up with, and in whatever system the Knights have decided to play, be it Hackmaster or otherwise. Your character here is called your Player Character's Character, or PCC.

And of course, the Knights don't always play Hackmaster. They could play Cattlepunk, Men Who Hack, Spacehack, or any RPG satire you can come up with. Perhaps even a Powered by Armageddon parody. Regardless of the game your characters are playing, you should be able to get through it with the following rules. And if you don't know how the rules of the game within the game work, that's okay, your characters do - that's what rules lawyering is for.

PbtA KoDT

Powered by the Apocalypse is a genre of RPGs based on D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker's Apocalypse World's Powered by the Apocalypse engine, similar to how d20 Modern uses Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition's d20 engine. PbtA games are "fiction first", meaning you don't pick an action to do, but rather describe what your character does, and the GM will tell you which, if any, move to roll. The GM's role is also different from games like D&D or Hackmaster - see the GM section for more details.

Ability Scores

Characters have three ability scores: Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. You use the same scores for your PC and PCC. Whenever a character makes a Move, they'll roll 2d6 and add the appropriate ability score.

Ability scores range from -2 to +3. Intelligence represents your ability to figure out the most effective action in the moment. Wisdom represents your common sense and ability to tell what's going on. Charisma represents your ability to convince other people to do what you want.

When making a character, the sum of their ability scores should be +2. For instance, here are the ability scores of the Knights:

B.A. Felton

Intelligence +2, Wisdom +2, Charisma -2

Bob/Knuckles

Intelligence +0, Wisdom +1, Charisma +1

Dave/El Ravager

Intelligence -1, Wisdom +1, Charisma +2

Sara/Justinia

Intelligence +1, Wisdom +2, Charisma -1

Brian/Teflon Billy

Intelligence +3, Wisdom -2, Charisma +1

Intelligence

Intelligence represents your character's knowledge of the game they're playing, and ability to get things done in it. You'll add it whenever you rules lawyer or hack and slash.

Wisdom

Wisdom represents your character's ability to tell good ideas from bad and foresee the consequences of their actions. You'll add it whenever you plan ahead or notice something.

Charisma

Charisma represents your character's ability to convince other people to do what they say. It doesn't matter how good your idea is if nobody's listening! You'll add it whenever you convince someone.

Moves

Moves are the basic units of what you'll be doing in the game. Whenever a move comes up, you'll roll 2d6 and add the appropriate modifier. On a 7 or higher, you succeed (you "hit"), and on a 10 or higher, you get a critical success - which means on a 6 or lower, you fail. What exactly that all means depends on which move you're doing.

Convince Someone

Whenever your character is trying to get someone on their side - whether that's haggling down a shopkeep, getting one or more of the other PCs or PCCs to agree to their plan, finally getting your choice of pizza toppings, or talk your way out of being arrested by a cop who mistook your discussion of Crime Nation as planning an actual robbery, you're trying to convince someone.

Roll 2d6 and add your Charisma. On a hit, they believe you.

10 or above

Pick two of the 7-9 options.

7-9

Pick one of these options:

• Ask them what you would need to do to get them to go along with your plan - they must answer truthfully.

• Make them an offer - if they accept it, great! If they do not, take +1 forward on your next interaction with them.

• Learn something they tried to keep hidden - they must reveal something true and relevant to the situation you didn't already know.

• If the person you're trying to convince is a PC or PCC, generate 1 teamwork.

6 or below

You fail to convince them. They see a flaw in your plan, or your desires conflict strongly with their alignment, or they just don't trust you - regardless of the reason, they don't find you convincing at all. The GM makes a move.

Hack and Slash

Whenever your character is trying to inflict damage - whether you're wasting them with your crossbow, lopping off heads with your Hackmaster +12, blowing up an army with a swarm of fireballs, or holding someone back to stop them from trying something stupid, you're trying to hack and slash.

Roll 2d6 plus your character's Intelligence. On a hit, you succeed in your attack.

10 or above

Pick two of the 7-9 options.

7-9

Pick one of these options:

• Deal damage to an undamaged opponent.

• Take a damaged villain, PC, or PCC out of the fight.

• Take several mooks out of the fight.

• Push your opponent back or hinder them in some way, giving your allies an opportunity.

6 or below

You miss completely. The table was too heavy to flip, the orc horde crashed through the fireball, the enemy knight turned your blade aside - you've failed in your attack and exposed yourself to danger. The GM makes a move.

Notice Something

Whenever your character is paying attention and spots something - when you notice a flaw in a PC or PCC's plan, spy unattended valuables, or fail to spot a trap, you're trying to notice something.

Roll 2d6 plus your character's Wisdom. On a hit, you successfully spot it, whatever it is. Take +1 Forward when dealing with whatever you spotted.

10 or above

Pick two of the 7-9 options.

7-9

Pick one of these options:

• You notice something valuable before anyone else does - a treasure chest in the next room, a particularly fat coin purse, a forgotten beer in the back of the fridge.

• You notice something someone was trying to conceal - a secret passage, a hidden chamber in a chest, an entire extra pizza underneath someone's books.

• If the thing you noticed was a danger, you leap out of the way, avoiding damage.

• If the thing you noticed was a danger, you leap forward, getting deeper into the dungeon or closer to your goal.

6 or below

You fail to notice whatever it is - the shopkeeper trying to trick you, the trap about to go off in your face, the dagger in the dark, Bob taking the last soda. The GM makes a move.

Plan Ahead

Whenever your character is thinking about things before doing them - when you study a map of a castle that you snagged from behind the GM screen to find the best way in, when you pick out your spells for the day, when you spend an hour sharpening your blade while praying for guidance from the Gawds, or when you organize the PCs to come up with a way to get your rival gaming group banned from the FLGS, that's when you're going to plan ahead.

Roll 2d6 plus your character's Wisdom. On a hit, you've got an idea of what to do - generate 1 teamwork for each number you rolled above 6 (so if you rolled an 8, generate 2 teamwork). You can only plan ahead once per session.

10 or above

Pick two of the 7-9 options.

7-9

Pick one of these options:

• Generate 1 additional teamwork.

• Take 1 ongoing while acting on your plan.

• Ask the GM one question about what you're planning on doing - they must answer honestly.

6 or below

Your plan is deeply flawed. You completely miss something important, and whatever you fail to take into account is going to bite you in the ass. The GM makes a move.

Rules Lawyer

Whenever you make up a new fact to affect the scene going forward - whether Knuckles finds the perfect Arrow of Slaying for the situation, or Brian knows an obscure rule that's relevant to the current situation, or El Ravager's Hackmaster +12 has a power that's never been relevant before, or Justinia remembers a useful fact about the local culture, that's you trying to rules lawyer.

Roll 2d6 plus your character's Intelligence. On a hit, you have some sort of useful knowledge or ability that you're able to use.

10 or above

Name a new fact about the scene - Gelatinous Cubes leave a flammable trail behind them so your fireball will clear out a whole section of dungeon, or your Hackmaster +12 glows in the presence of Invisible Stalkers, or you just happen to know the traditional greeting this tribe of Goblins uses to distinguish friend from foe.

The other players and the GM must "yes, and..." your proposal, and move forward with this new fact in mind.

7-9

Pick one of these options:

• Turns out you do have an ability that's relevant to the situation! Make another move of your choice, which the GM must respond to as though they had called for it.

• The players are able to rally together to bully the GM into giving them what they want. If each other player spends a teamwork, even if their PCC is not in this scene, treat this as though you had rolled a 10.

6 or below

You got it wrong! You misremembered the rule, you used your last arrow of slaying on the Troll King, you stepped into an unexpected antimagic zone, or you speak the wrong dialect and completely put your foot in your mouth. The GM makes a move.

The Game Master

The GM's role in Tales from Muncie is different from their role in games like Dungeons & Dragons or Hackmaster. You never roll dice, and you are more restrained in what you do during the game. You can only mechanically affect the PCs and PCCs by making one of the moves below. You should make a move whenever the story starts to stall, and you must make a move whenever a player rolls a 6 or below on one of their moves. Before you do a hard move, you should probably set it up with a soft move telegraphing what's coming if the players don't do anything about it.

The GM still creates the world the PCCs play in, describes the situation, voices NPCs, and does the normal things a GM does that don't involve picking up dice.

The GM does not have a PCC, but they do have a PC. In Muncie, their PC interacts with the other PCs using the same mechanics as the other PCs do. The GM can flip the table, throttle a cheating player (or get beaten up by the players for causing a TPK), attempt to notice the PCs passing secret messages to each other, etc, the same as the other PCs. They can even get tied up or knocked out, which probably ends the story, but not necessarily!

GM Moves

GM moves are different from player moves in several ways. The GM never rolls dice, for starters. Instead, you either call for a player to make one of the player moves, or you make one of the moves described below. In addition, whenever a player rolls a 6 or below on one of their moves, you must make a move.

The Soft Moves

Dangle a Hook

When the players aren't sure where to go, and you want to tell them without outright telling them, that's when you dangle a hook. This could be introducing a mysterious, shadowy stranger in the tavern, or putting a Wanted poster on the post outside, or having the players overhear rumours of fantastic treasure, or dropping a hint that you'd really like it if someone picked up that new Hackmaster supplement for the group, or having a biker overhear them planning for the game and not realize it's a game. The first player to follow up on the hook and initiate a scene around it takes +1 forward.

Throw Something Unexpected At Them

When things are in danger of slowing down, when the players are getting just a bit too confident or full of themselves, when they just stepped on a tripwire, or when they're finally feeling safe and confident enough to let their guard down - that's when you throw something unexpected at them. Bring back a villain they thought was dead, reveal the goblin they tied up has escaped, have the treasure chest transform into a mimic, have a drunk relative kick the door in and insist on using the game table for poker.

Add More Danger

Are the players getting overconfident? Yucking it up about how your deadly dungeon is a cakewalk? Is this the first and only roll they've failed so far? Sounds like it's time to add more danger. Put an extra trap in the next room, swap out the evil wizard's Firebolt that would deal damage to one PCC for a Fireball that could deal damage to all of them, decide they've ticked off the King and have until the end of the state dinner they're at to impress him enough not to put a bounty on their heads, have the hosting PC's mom come home early, swap out all the soda in the fridge with beer, inform one PC that they forgot their dice bag at home, or in some other way introduce a new potential conflict or raise the stakes on an existing one.

The Hard Moves

Deal Damage

When a PCC gets hit by a trap or an enemy weapon, or engulfed in flame, or falls off a cliff, or when a PC gets throttled by the GM for making one too many sexist jokes or for eating the last slice of pizza, that's when you're going to deal damage. A PC or PCC who was undamaged and takes damage is now damaged.

A PC or PCC who's already damaged and is damaged a second time is taken out of the fight - they can't participate in the remainder of the scene, and will need to recover and come back later, whether that's by sleeping off their hangover after a late night drunken game, getting raised, or just downing a healing potion. Note that PCs and PCCs can both take damage, and their damage is tracked separately.

If a PCC is taken out of the fight, their PC can keep participating outside of the game within a game, but if a PC gets taken out of the fight, then their PCC can't do anything either - you can't control your Hackmaster character if you're tied up in the garage for faking a die roll, or a stray beer bottle knocked you unconscious!

Throw 'Em a Bone

Are the players in serious trouble, and it's not really their fault? Are they failing rolls left and right? Are you about to get an accidental TPK? Time to throw 'em a bone. The party gets +1 teamwork.

Advance Time between Panels

Is the current scene kind of dragging? Is there another scene that you're itching to get to, but don't really want to play out the time between now and then? Do you just want the players to stop spending the entire evening planning and actually execute? That's when you're going to want to advance time between panels.

Interrupt the players and tell them that you're going to advance time. The current scene gets cut off - maybe the person you interrupted gets to say one last thing, but that's it.

It's okay if there's no resolution to the scene or there are dangling plot threads. In the scene you advance to, anyone can bring up any pre-existing plot thread, and describe a way in which it has advanced.

Describe the new scene - explain how the game state has changed, and name a few things that happened to some of the PCs or PCCs on the way. Everyone should just go with this.

Terminology

There are a few vocab words in this game. Here's what they mean.

Players are the real life people playing the game.

Player Characters, or PCs, are the characters the players are playing in the game, like B.A., Bob, Dave, Sarah, and Brian.

Player Character Characters, or PCCs, are the characters the characters the players are playing are playing in the game within the game, like Knuckles, El Ravager, Justinia, or Teflon Billy.

The Game Master, or GM, runs the game within the game, like B.A. Whichever player is playing as the GM has a PC, but does not have a PCC.

Taking +1 Ongoing means you get an additional +1 on whatever you're trying to do that relates to the situation that gave you this bonus.

Taking +1 Forward means the next time you roll, for any move, you get +1.

Teamwork is a resource that other players can spend after you roll for a move. Each other player can spend up to 1 teamwork to either aid you, by explaining how they work with you to help you succeed, which adds 1 to your roll, or sabotage you, by explaining how they work against you to make you fail, which subtracts 1 from your roll. The party as a whole has a single pool of teamwork, and each player can only spend one teamwork per roll. You cannot spend teamwork on a roll you made. Teamwork resets to 0 at the end of each session.

Villains are major opponents who require more than one hit to defeat. Dragons, beholders, vampires, the rival game store owner, the bartender at the biker bar, these are all potential villains.

Mooks are minor opponents who can be taken out in a single hit or en masse. Kobolds, unnamed orcs, zombies, the miniature wargamers who took your table at the FLGS, background faces in the crowd at the biker bar, these are all potential mooks.

Damage damages people. A PC, PCC, or Villain who's taken damage is damaged. A damaged character who gets damaged again gets taken out of the fight.

Taking someone out of a fight removes them from a scene. They will need to recover in some way before they can resume participating in the game, and they can't do that until the current scene ends. They may recover by sleeping it off, or drinking a healing potion, or they might need to be resurrected, depending on what took them out of the fight. Once they recover, they're no longer damaged. If a PCC gets taken out of the fight, their player continues playing as their PC, and can interject and continue talking while their PC is down, though the GM may object.