Game:Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork

Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork is a new roleplaying game created by Modiphius, the first game to come out of their licensing agreement to produce official Discworld tabletop games. It was announced in early 2024, and crowdfunded in late 2024. It’s expected to be published in mid 2025, and that there will be additional games or sourcebooks covering other parts of the Disc.

As the name suggests, the game is set in Ankh-Morpork, by default around the time of Thud!.

Description

From the Kickstarter campaign:

Adventures in Ankh-Morpork, the Discworld tabletop roleplaying game, catapults you onto the streets of the Big Wahoonie, and once you've dusted yourself off you can adventure to your heart's content. With imagination and some shiny math rocks at your fingertips, your story on the Disc awaits.

Based on the popular Discworld fantasy series by Sir Terry Pratchett, Adventures in Ankh-Morpork is an officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game set in its most recognisable city*, complete with Sir Terry's iconic wit, humour, and humanistic satire.

Discworld is a setting that has a special place in our hearts, it is our unbelievable privilege to bring that world to life on tabletops, both physical and virtual, for fans old and new. As a British company, immersed in the style of humour and sensibilities of Sir Terry and the Discworld series, we're looking to build a faithful recreation of Ankh-Morpork for you to roleplay and immerse yourself in.

* What about Lancre and Überwald, I hear you cry? We could've charged you £900, taken six years to deliver this Kickstarter... would you have liked that? We're not selling you pork futures here, or books in potentia. Instead, let's give you an amazing rulebook and sourcebooks, taking our time to deliver you the best treatment of Ankh-Morpork we can**, and then bring another Kickstarter project to life for the other areas of the Disc. We deliver more, sooner, more sustainably, and you can have books and accessories in a more reasonable timeframe each time. If this Kickstarter is a success, then more Kickstarters will follow, no sooner than Autumn 2026.

** Because the gods know it needs it.

The System

In contrast to the previous official Discworld game, which was based on the existing GURPS rules system, Adventures in Ankh-Morpork has a “bespoke” system. While it draws on the traditions of more narrative games, it still has a familiar setup of most players portraying a single character in the game, with a Game Master (GM) representing the rest of the world and characters with whom those players' characters interact. The game is relatively rules-light, and has no numerical statistics, levels, experience points, character classes or specific spells and powers.

Characters are defined by descriptive traits in a number of different categories, in concept similar to the “Aspects” used in the Fate game system. Examples from the Quickstart Guide (see below) include the Background “A troll raised by loving human parents”, the Niche “Crimescene iconographer” and the Quirk “Two left feet, but the heart of a lion”. These traits can be used to argue that a character is better or worse suited to completing a task, and players are encouraged to use creative wordplay and puns when doing so.

The outcome of this discussion determines the size of die a player will roll to resolve a task: a d4, d6, d10 or d12. The “d7A” is the “Narrativium die”, and is only rolled by the Game Master. (d20 and d100 dice are also used, but only for rolling on random tables.) When a task needs to be resolved, both player and GM roll and the results are compared. If the player rolls higher, they succeed; if they roll lower, they fail and potentially gain a “complication” - a temporary trait of varying severity which may affect subsequent tests. On a tie, the character likely succeeds while '’also gaining a complication.

Players also have a number of “Luck points” which they can spend to help another character with a test, or reduce the severity of a complication. The Gamemaster can award additional luck points for good roleplaying, storytelling or wordplay, at their discretion.

Books

The Kickstarter has (as of 2 November 2024) funded the core rulebook, as well as several others:

• Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork Core Rulebook - the core rules for the game, including setting information for Ankh-Morpork around the time of Thud!
• Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork Gamemaster’s Toolkit - resources for the Gamemaster, including a Gamemaster’s screen (to hide dice rolls and notes behind)
• Tales From the Big Wahoonie - a collection of pre-written adventures set in Ankh-Morpork
• An as-yet untitled “Hogswatch Adventure”
• The Lesser Known Streets of Ankh-Morpork - compiles three stretch-goal PDF-only releases of extra setting material:
  • The Guilds - information on the various Guilds of Ankh-Morpork
  • Lesser Known Streets - additional Ankh-Morpork locations not covered in the main rulebook
  • Anthropomorphic Personifications - information on lesser gods and other supernatural entities not covered in the main rulebook
• Ankh-Morpork Through the Ages - compiles three stretch-goal PDF-only releases of extra setting material:
  • The Glorious Revolution - for playing during the era depicted in Night Watch
  • The Bad Old Days - for playing during the early Discworld books (roughly the era up to Guards! Guards!)
  • The Industrial Revolution - setting information for playing around the time of Raising Steam

In addition a free “Quickstart” featuring the basic rules, a pre-written adventure and pre-generated characters was made available prior to the launch of the campaign. The players are members of the City Watch - all new characters, including a troll, a gargoyle, a zombie, a dwarf and an igorina - tasked with investigating a break-in at the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons.

External Links

• Quickstart Guide PDF on the Modiphius website
• Kickstarter campaign