Strays
A downloadable game
Now Available In Print! Strays Softcover and Strays Hardcover
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Strays is a 246 page tabletop rpg about changelings---the children of two fae courts---caught in between the pull of the mortal and fae worlds.
Choose between eight Courts, take special powers, befriend buildings, wander between worlds, and try to get by in a setting where everyone wants you to grow up and pick a side.
There are rules for physical, social, and magical combat. Detailed writeups of the eight Realms of faerie. An overhaul of the regular PbtA rules. GMing advice. A sample scenario. Rules for burning yourself out and becoming an NPC. A shared hangout spot for the party. And more.
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CW - Abandonment, absent parents, harm to children, mental illness, mistreatment by institutions, violence, the supernatural, compulsion, abduction, forced labor, some references to cannibalism, all at a level of graphicness that might be expected from a YA novel.
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Updates:
- 3.17.23: Capitalized *many* articles in section headings, removed an incorrect bookmark, adjusted the slightly too modern phrasing of "Got Your Back Bro", removed the "Ltd" from Daedalus Innovatia (as far as I could tell Ltd as a business concept dates back to the late 1800s, but it felt too modern in context), page border made 20% less intrusive
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Comments
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Were you inspired by Changeling the Lost or Changeling the Dreaming while writing this?
Sort of the opposite. Those games already exist, so I was trying to intentionally write in a different direction so as not to step on their toes. They ended up still being an influence, but more in terms of defining what Strays wasn't going to be.
now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love what you've done here. My only complaint is that I wish there was more like an expansion or supplement book. Alas then again most indie RPGs don't get enough traction to be able to make more. Other than that I love the fiction, I love how this setting is fully thought out and I just love the flavor of this book, I just want more lol.
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I wasn't sure people would click with the setting or the premise, so I didn't have plans to expand it, but I'll give it more thought.
I'm also definitely open to folks writing their own material for Strays, and I'm happy to link on the page anything that's published.
Hello! I am planning to bind my copy of strays into a physical hardback book, and I'm wondering where you looked for/found all the flower illustrations you've got on the bottom of the pages? I'd like to gather a bunch to put together into one sheet for the lining paper :)
Hi! The illustrations were sourced from pixabay. If you search plants -> illustrations -> black and white, it should bring up a lot. They're free to use, no attribution required.
Alternatively, if you message me on twitter, I can figure out a way to send you the specific plant illustrations I used. It's about 30mb of files.
Thank you for the response! I don't have twitter and I'm happy to pick and choose from the whole collection myself :)
Ah, okay, do you have an email address you're comfortable posting here that I could reach you at? Or a discord?
Realized belatedly that I misread your post. Please disregard my previous.
Also, if you're using pixabay, you may want to try a few related search terms. I think I got some of the illustrations by looking for, like, 'botany' and 'flowers' and such. They might not all be properly tagged as plants.
Words can't really describe how excited I am to play this. It somehow seems to include all the things I've been obsessed with for a while - fae folklore, the 1950s, teen shenanigans... I love the game system and how adequate it seems to the folklore (i especially love the idea of bargaining), and the world is amazing! I'm so glad I found this gem.
Thank you! I'm glad you like it!
Opens with minifiction? Yes. Love that.
Written so that someone who has never played a TTRPG could GM this? Yes. LOVE THAT.
Open, expansive, and fully realized setting? BABES, yes. It's gorgeous stuff.
I love how hard you have leaned into fairy lore in every single page. Not once do you miss an opportunity to drive the theme home.
If I had a single criticism it is this: I want to take your fancy border and cast it into the fires of mount doom. 100+ pages is too many pages for my eye to get caught on that thing.
I am so sorry about the border! I wanted some kind of framing instead of just white space, and it fit with the antique faerie stories aesthetic. If you want, I can upload a version without the border.
Don't you dare! Really, Kumada, if that's the best criticism I could come up with, you ought to be really proud of yourself. It DOES fit with the antique faerie aesthetic.
It is worth mentioning: my complaint was not that I don't like it, it's JUST that it's on every single page. If you ever do a new layout on this, I humbly suggest you consider finding a second or even a third border. Use them as visual signals that the kind of information you are about to present on a page is a different KIND of information. This kind of visual signal helps people find the information they're looking for at a glance, is all.
If you never do a new layout on this then just leave it as is. It's still very beautiful.
I'd actually planned that for my original layout, and it ended up feeling kind of jumbled in its implementation. I have a whole folder full of public domain page borders from the attempt, and I just couldn't get it to work. Using the same page border gave the book a kind of a throughline, and then I used the seasonal photographs to indicate changes of content and tone between sections.
While I don't have the same problem - I could just ignore it after a few pages - I do think it's a bit aggressive. I'd probably shrink it a bit, or try to soften it by greyscaling it or thinning the lines.
Wonderful game, the moves feel like a nice evolution from other PbtA games.
I'll tinker with it!
I've already found a few things I want to adjust, mostly small stuff like some prepositions missing capitalization in the ToC. I'll collect feedback and then make some changes.