PAX Australia is a cross-section of local and international gaming communities. It’s an opportunity for local players to try the latest and greatest in published and independent games. The local Tabletop scene has been growing year on year, with this year’s event hosting the largest tabletop area in PAX Aus history.
On the show floor in the Tabletop Area and the PAX Rising independent games area, I had the opportunity to look at some incredible local games that take the tabletop scene in some exciting new directions. You might have read our recent story on Getting Into Tabletop Roleplaying, and these are some exciting new games that push the boundaries of the genre.
For this list, we’ve looked at games, systems, or tools that do something different from the standard Dungeons & Dragons formula.
Check out my top five from the show below.
Fragged Empire: Rag-Tag
Melbourne RPG designer Wade Dyer has successfully crowdfunded two editions of his Fragged Empire roleplaying series. This game is set in a post-post-apocalypse setting, where the various cultures of the galaxy have rebuilt from a Mad Max-style post-apocalypse and are now setting out to explore the galaxy and get into trouble in the ways only roleplayers can.
The release headlining PAX Aus 2024 is called Fragged Empire: Rag-Tag, it’s designed to be a more rules-light version of the full Fragged Empire experience. Speaking with designer Wade Dyer, he said “When making Rag-Tag, I didn’t want to just make a lesser version of Fragged Empire. I wanted to keep the themes and feel of the universe, and make something that will give new players a taste of the game.” the game will see you and your party as a group of freelance mercenaries, doing odd jobs amidst the backdrop of a galaxy still reeling from a galactic war. It has definite Star Wars smuggler or Blade Runner vibes.
On top of the ways Fragged Empire: Rag-Tag flips the traditional RPG system on its head is that there aren’t any classes here. Instead, your character evolves naturally based on the different skills you take. And your core stats level up from a measly D4 to a healthy D20 as the story evolves.
One example of how Fragged Empire messes with the traditional Sci-fi tropes is The Legion. This race of genetically bred soldiers was used as weapons during the last great war, and now, coming out of it, they are trying to decide what their society looks like. However, when everyone is bred for fighting, The Legion is missing the essentials; no one wants to be a baker or a builder. So, their society has instituted propaganda to highlight how honourable it is to be a productive member of society instead of a soldier.
Visually, the new book feels right out of Cyberpunk, it’s dripping in neon and covered in spray paint and the grit and grunge of a sci-fi dystopia. It’s incredibly evocative and the art style is gorgeous.
This definitely had me excited to build a Rag-Tag group of mercs and start making a name for ourselves in the galaxy.
Find out more here: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/fragged-ttrpgs/fragged-empire-rag-tag-ttrpg
Dark Vigil
Set in the late 1800s, Dark Vigil is a cooperative horror RPG for small parties of players willing to stand against the darkness and risk their sanity doing so.
In Dark Vigil, you play a group of Venturers who set out to combat the monsters who’ve risen alongside a seemingly endless eclipse. Townships and people surviving in this world are isolated as the world has become a darkened hellscape filled with monsters and eldritch nightmares.
Of course, some games have done the 1800s nightmare before (Call of Cthulhu, for one). But the mechanic that really had me hooked when talking to solo game designer Nicole Renner was that of Corruption. Each character has the usual physical and mental statistics; however, the Corruption statistic on each character sheet illustrates how much the character has given into the darkness or been affected by it on their adventure.
“Players can choose to give in to the darkness to help them succeed on rolls,” said Renner. “However, this always comes with a risk-reward to every engagement with the darkness”. When players decide their plan is worth risking their own corruption and sanity, they add a D4 to the roll, but roll a 1 and they’ll become more corrupted.
If corruption caps out – the player’s whole character, abilities, items and memories are handed over to the Game Master to be a new villain set on foiling the players’ plans.
This risk-reward mechanic and the real game-changing consequences will set a lot of game tables on edge. You’ll of course encounter other characters and NPCs who decide giving into the darkness is worth it to get ahead.
As the forever-DM of my groups of tabletop gamers, I have a cupboard in my house overflowing with maps, coins, icons and miniatures. But I’m always jealous of some of the incredible custom maps that you see online in shows like Critical Role. These custom pieces just feel like they make the game so incredibly immersive and take the game to a whole new level. Likewise, my wargaming friends in games like Warhammer are always on the hunt for cheap alternatives to the expensive official environment pieces put out by companies like Games Workshop.
This is where Miniature Scenery comes in, coming to their table I was stunned at how incredibly immersive their setups of sci-fi cities, medieval towns, and alien bases look.
When I looked at these miniature worlds, my gamer brain immediately jumped to games like X-Com or Jagged Alliance. These pieces are designed in Bendigo, Victoria, and then laser cut out of MDF and assembled, ready to be painted.
As such, they come flat-packed and are easy to put together, and they’re a fraction of the cost of some of the bigger injection-moulded plastic pieces.
As a Dungeon Master in awe of both the detail and cost of some of the biggest and best gaming tables online – a system like Miniature Scenery seems like the perfect stepping stone to level up my gaming table.
Suffice it to say, I purchased a couple of small pieces to assemble at home.
Find more at: https://miniaturescenery.com/
Good Society
Tabletop gaming is a great way to spend time roleplaying with your friends, and for most, this is a step into a new world to be heroes and save the day. However, on the other side, players who prefer the character and roleplaying aspects of games like Dungeons & Dragons have criticised how combat-heavy the game can be.
For those looking for a more cerebral approach to roleplaying, who live more in the world of Bridgerton or Downton Abbey comes Good Society. Good Society is hailed as a Jane Austen roleplaying game. For anyone who’s read Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, you’ll feel right at home in Good Society.
The game takes ‘roleplaying’ and runs with it. The players will each take on the role of one of the many socialites in an upper-crust social scene. The game is built around player interactions with each other and with the various NPCs that fill out the world, and it probably has more in common with a murder mystery party (minus the murder) than a game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Throughout the game, you’ll manage relationships, host or attend events like tea parties or weddings, and write letters to one another or other characters to share your dreams, desires or deepest secrets.
This game has a very specific player base in mind, probably the same players who would love the opportunity to dress up and set out the good china and teapots for an evening’s events.
The base game is a complete set on its own to play through the game, however, there are also expansions such as Love & Longing, Expanded Acquaintances and others that expand the characters and the world in the game.
For anyone who watches Dimension 20, the live roleplaying show on Dropout.tv, this game system was used for the Court of Fey and Flowers season, which took place within a faerie court.
Find out more: www.storybrewersroleplaying.com
Cartograph
Built as both a game and a supplement for other games, Cartograph by The Ravensbridge Press is a tool for drawing an original world map, complete with points of interest, towns, and other landmarks.
The game can be played solo or as a small group and tasks you with mapping a new land. You’ll roll on included tables to place towns, rivers, mountains and hostile areas. As you explore, you’ll have your travelling gear that you must keep track of – it’s all very conquistador-themed – and if you roll poorly, you might just find yourself trapped without the food or water to continue your adventure.
The game comes in a wonderful hardback book that feels like its own artifact that you might find in the Age of Sail, and the team have also been creating custom dice that can be rolled to show mountains, rivers and other landmarks.
Best of all, this game also functions as a tool for roleplaying game masters to help create maps to use in Dungeons & Dragons or similar. You can follow through the book and create your own map to import into a subsequent game. Or play through Cartograph with your friends, and then follow in their footsteps in an entirely separate game afterwards.
These kinds of tools designed to help game masters are invaluable, and gamifying the process is even better in my book.
Find out more at: https://theravensridgeemporium.com/products/cartograph
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If PAX Australia 2024 has shown me anything, it’s that the RPG scene in Australia is growing strong. This weekend I’ve seen new games that really made me think differently about how I play at my home table, as well as tools and systems that have me excited to experiment beyond the most obvious games.
If you’re keen on any of the above tools or systems, be sure to give the developers some love on social media.
About the Author
Nathanael Peacock
He/Him
Nathanael is a gamer with a disability, he has a titanium spine and sets off metal detectors wherever he goes. He is a big time tabletop gaming fan, also loves horror movies and RPGs as well as long walks in dark and spooky forests.
