1st report – PBP: TTRPG „Grok?!“
Please read also my main post (also kind of a report) about RPGs. This game´s rules can be bought at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/395261/GROK. Feel free to use my genial Grok?! generators any time!:)
GROK?! is an adventure role-playing game where you assume the role of an adventurer in a gonzo world of boundless plausibility and use your ingenuity and resourcefulness to overcome strange and perilous threats.
Planet Grok was once a haven for trans-dimensional migrants and a bastion of advanced technomancy, until a cataclysm rendered it a desolate hollow planet. Now, feral monstrosities haunt its chasms, cities float among the clouds, and a derelict space station encapsulates the planet and bathes the world in perpetual phosphorescent radiation. Yet, a new era of enlightenment is dawning. Civilizations grow from the ashes, relics of immense power await those who would learn their lost secrets, and threats of caste warfare loom as leaders vie for power. All the while, a creeping black nothingness peers up through the hollow of the world.
- GROK?! is an adventure role-playing game where you assume the role of an adventurer in a gonzo world of boundless plausibility and use your ingenuity and resourcefulness to overcome strange and perilous threats.
- My first impression of that game – the rules report.
- My first impression of actual play (play by post – PBP – in https://rolegate.com).
- Conclusion of this report.
My first impression of that game – the rules report.
I do not know exactly why – maybe the „light shining“ pictures, although kind of apocalyptical setting, from the rulebook (a rules-light TTRPG)), but I felt quite optimistic.
With my tendency to be a power player (explained below), I said to myself: „If I would select one super-smart Asset, then I would be able to have a lower number of Assets for having more Resouce Points to spend in-game.“ … „For example for the Effort.“ Look at the following picture of too much Effort ;)).
POWERPLAYER is a person who finds the most powerful set of playing a character (PC). The reason is mostly to achieve a superiority. Powerplayer also researches rules to find all which can be used as an advantage… GMs have the tendency to not like that approach too much. I think that reason is mostly that powerplayers are also known for arguing about rules usage.
My first impression of actual play (play by post – PBP – in https://rolegate.com).
My first actual play was set as ADULT, therefore it was password protected. And yes, the initial setting seemed (at least for me) even darker than the kind of Apocalyptical setting of the original „Grok?!“ game. But I do not complain. I even like to solve „unsolvable“, because nobody can be a real hero without real obstacles?! Therefore I took one cursed subAsset. It was an item in the pocket (Container, with which I kind of cheated – I think. I am looking forward to what the Director – GM – will say. I want that way to compensate effective equipment of my player character (PC). And also to compensate a super-smart spell: „Golden fishy“ = 3 weak wishes per day.
Therefore I asked all other adventurers (see below) to help me. They agreed, especially Pulpo I think – who is in search of truth which maybe also could be found in the near cathedral.
GM (Director)…: mrwhiskers#5415 from Discord. His (not just) „GROK?!“ discussion server is https://discord.gg/7jMnG7pn. PLAYERS (Actors)…:
Me as Wizard Ormrin Sinkalte Ged (as the Ged – Sparrowhawk – from the book „Wizard from Earthsea“ – Ursula le Guin). But with a new nickname „Wishmaster“. Oswald – marketer, mostly theoretical, aka economist (he has a university degree but without practical experience. Therefore he wants some – like me). Pulpo (Octopus) – bulbous body having chrononaut who possessed dead man with mole rat needed feeding. He was and is smuggling truths and now he is looking for the truth about failing tunnel gardens. Sinclair-1000 – automaton (robot) that I do not know enough yet. See the picture of player´s avatars (Ormrin = me, Sinclair-100, Oswald, Pulpo) and GM´s. 
PARTY ENDED PLAYING (GAME ENDED) – sadly, after just a few rolls (and only mine) other party members had no more time to continue…
Conclusion of this report.
I like the simple rules, because being simple does not mean the inability to have a complex game. (It just has to be built up.) I liked the game itself (I now hopefully understand what means „GONZO“;)). So now I AM LOOKING FOR NEW PLAYERS TO MAKE NEW GROUP AND I AM EVEN OPEN TO BE THE DIRECTOR (GM).
You can CONTACT ME HERE. Grandmaster Radan Chrobok – Shri Satguru Traraja (= Honored true Master „King of Liberating“).
