Grant Howitt is the game designer behind the wildly popular game Honey Heist and over 50 other one-page RPGs, as well as numerous other games with his game company Rowan, Rook, and Decard.
In this first edition of The Twenty Sided EXTRA—a podcast available exclusively to Twenty Sided Newsletter subscribers—Grant discusses his many games, his advice for aspiring game designers, and his proudest moment as an artist (and it’s not his 7 Ennie Awards).
This issue is all about one-page RPGs, the rules-light alternatives to the RPG behemoths like D&D, Pathfinder, and Call of Cthulu. These games are simple to learn, incredibly fun, and cover a wide array of genres. If you’ve never given one of these amazing games a try, this issue will show you some great places to start.
—Brian Flaherty
This Week in the Fractured Realms…
Exclusive Podcast - Interview with Honey Heist creator, Grant Howitt
Trailer Premiere - My First Dungeon: Honey Heist!
Play Test - a brand new one-page RPG: Double Agent, Double Trouble
Where to Start: One-Page RPG Recommendations
Schedule - Upcoming releases in The Fractured Realms
My First Dungeon: Honey Heist!
Check out the season 2 trailer
Brian: What would you recommend for a first time GM who wants to run a one-page RPG?
Grant: If you’re a first time GM, don’t run a one-page RPG.
Brian: Uh-oh…
Honey Heist is one of the most popular one-page RPGs today. It’s been played by the casts of Critical Role, Rude Tales of Magic, and High Rollers, to name just a few. On this season of My First Dungeon, Shenuque Tissera (Twenty Sided Podcast, We Fixed It!) learns the game from its creator, Grant Howitt, and runs his first-ever session for a group of comedians and performers including Nathan Yaffe (Drawfee), Vivek Netrakanti (We Fixed It!), Brian Flaherty (Twenty Sided Podcast), and Art Cai (Teach Me Good).
It’s only one page. How hard could it be?
Double Agent, Double Trouble
An original spy-themed RPG by Brian Flaherty
In my interview with Grant Howitt, he advised any aspiring game designer to do the following two things. First, drop the word “aspiring” from your Twitter bio. If you design games, you’re a game designer. Second, if you have a game, release it. You’ll learn so much more about designing games by putting one out into the world than by scratching away trying to make it perfect. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
This is my first attempt at designing a game. It’s called Double Agent, Double Trouble and it’s a one-page spy RPG based on the mechanics of the d6 system designed by Grant Howitt for Honey Heist and draws inspiration from popular social deception board games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Avalon, and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.
In this game you play as an elite team of spies for a shadowy intelligence agency known only as THE ORGANIZATION. You’re “The A Team”, “The Avengers”, the Organization’s most trusted unit that succeeds where all others have failed. But as you begin your toughest job yet you get an emergency message from THE DIRECTOR: someone among you is a DOUBLE AGENT.
Players will roll up characters to determine their “Agent Archetype” (hacker, muscle, provocateur) and their high-tech “Gadget” (super duper glue, surveillance pigeon) and will work together to build their team’s origin story. Then each player will receive a secret card that reveals their role: AGENT or DOUBLE AGENT. Only the player will know which they are; even the GM will be in the dark about everyone’s identity.
As you work together to complete the mission, you must turn your suspicion towards your most trusted allies as you try to use your SPY skills to break the FACADE of the traitor among you before they can execute a DOUBLE CROSS.
One last thing: no one said there was only one DOUBLE AGENT.
This is my first attempt at designing a tabletop role playing game, and I doubt it will be my last. If you happen to give this game a try, please let me know what you think! This is the prototype of the game and the more it is played and the more feedback I get, the better I can make it. And if Grant’s games inspire you to design your own game, let us know! We’d love to feature your games in a future issue of this newsletter.
Where to Start
One-page RPG recommendations from Grant Howitt
The Witch is Dead by Grant Howitt
You are a magical woodland creature, and your beautiful witch mistress has been killed, and you are about to set out on a murder-revenge adventure in the human lands. Comes with a spell list, a means of generating plots and adversaries, and a drawing of a cute fox that's just mauled someone.
($5 suggested price)
A brand-new RPG each and every month as well as access to a back catalogue of 50+ games including titles like Crash Pandas, Sexy Battle Wizards, Jason Statham’s Big Vacation, and Pride and EXTREME PREJUDICE.
($5 per month, individual games available here)
Choose from the many phenomenal games created by the seven-time Ennie Award-winning game designers responsible for Heart: The City Beneath, Spire: The City Must Fall, Voidheart Symphony, and Unbound.
(Heart-$20, Spire-$20, Voidheart Symphony-$20, Unbound-$13.50)
Sleepaway by Jay Dragon
A horror game of Belonging Outside Belonging* about a group of summer camp counselors protecting their queer youth from a monstrous cryptid.
(PDF-$20, Paperback-$30)
*Belonging Outside Belonging system designed by Avery Alder
Wanderhome by Jay Dragon
Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy role-playing game about traveling animal-folk, the world they inhabit, and the way the seasons change. It is a game filled with grassy fields, mossy shrines, herds of chubby bumblebees, opossums in sundresses, salamanders with suspenders, starry night skies, and the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine.
(PDF-$25, Paperback-$45, Hardback-$65)
2/23 - My First Dungeon: Honey Heist - Episode 1 (w/ Grant Howitt & Shenuque Tissera)
3/2 - My First Dungeon: Honey Heist - Episode 2
GM: Shenuque Tissera
Players: Art Cai, Brian Flaherty, Vivek Netrakanti, and Nathan Yaffe
3/7 - The Twenty Sided Podcast - Episode 14
The Wild World of One-Page RPGs