Ambition, a “tales & tactics TTRPG” from artist and designer Yanni Panagiotopoulos (Heir of Swords, Majula), has launched on Gamefound. With a strange new world and unique magic system, Ambition hopes to “satiate a need for introspective journeys, where the story within shapes the story without.”
Ambition offers three ways to play that shift based on where in the story your characters, known as Ambitious, are. Tales is a rules-light mode of play, facilitating the buildup of narrative tension until the story cascades into an Engagement or Tribunal; rules-heavy, turn-based modes of play. Engagements are an arena where tension is resolved through violence on a battlemap. While Tribunals are a clock-based system for social battles of protecting secrets and exposing truth, where tension is resolved through manipulation, cunning, and wile.
One player serves as the River while the rest play as the Ambitious. The River guides the story forward, draws cards from the tarot deck to divine the fate of the Ambitious, and narrates the subconscious fixations, compulsions, and advice of the Ambitious as their Voices. The Ambitious control the conscious actions of their character, change fate with their Arcana, and decide how they respond to the River’s narration of their Voices.
Ambition’s final manuscript will be around 500-600 pages across two books and accompanied by a Tarot Deck. The Player Book (The Book of Changes) contains resources for creating characters, running Ambition’s three modes of play, the grimoire, and an introduction to Ambition’s world and setting, with The Book of The River giving The River (the GM) options of for NPC’s, encounters, and how to act as your players’ subconscious.
The Player Book includes:
- A detailed mechanics guide for running Ambition’s three modes of play: Tales, Engagements, and Tribunals.
- A detailed guide for creating a player character, the Ambitious, composed of an Innate Disposition, an Archetype, a Bloodline, a Culture, and an Ambition.
- The Ambitious reach, strive, and shape their Ambition by the features of their Archetype, Bloodline and Culture wielded in Pursuits; adventures that reshape the world.
- The Innate Disposition and Trigger Voices of the Ambitious guide how the Ambitious perceive, understand, and influence the world around them.
- 6 Dispositions each with 6 Voices. Choose your perspective and invest in your subconscious.
- 16 Archetypes each with 4 Expressions. Who are you? What do you wield? What rhythm of fate has led you to the precipice of your Ambition?
- 6 Bloodlines of the Myriad. What the Mother named when she spoke the 10000 things and how that biology expresses through play.
- 7 Cultures that let you decide how much your home and people define you.
- 12 Ambitions demanding you Reach for the unattainable, Strive for what’s beyond it, and Shape Imbrier in its image.
- An extensive Grimoire of weapons, armor, plain clothes, equipment, consumables, loot, spells, familiars, and magic items.
- An introduction to Ambition‘s world and setting.
The Book of the River includes:
- A detailed guide for running Pursuits as the River.
- Divination Tables for NPCs, Places, Dungeons, Rooms, Loot, and Encounters using the Tarot Deck.
- A detailed guide for running Downtime as the River.
- ~26 Downtime Spreads that use the position of Tarot Cards to change the fate of NPCs and influence the story while the Ambitious return from a pursuit.
- A detailed guide for designing challenging encounters and adversaries for the Ambitious.
- ~24 NPC Classes with features for Engagements, Tribunals, and Tales.
- ~36 NPC Traits that connect encounters to certain locations, cultures, or bloodlines.
- 17 NPC Types that dynamically scale the difficulty and gameplay patterns of an NPC, ranging from the lowly minion to the terrifying raid boss.
- A comprehensive setting guide focused on the seven major cultures of the world.
The Tarot Deck Includes:
- 22 Major Arcana
- 56 Minor Arcana
- 16 Inheritor Arcana
- 7 Pale Arcana
Stretch goals for Ambition include’:
- A standalone Gunwitch NPC class,
- “The Weight of Want” Fable from Infident Citadel’s Andrew, Matt, and Conlin
- New Divination tables for the Hanged Man, Tower, and Devil as well as new Nemesis tables
- “Widow’s Web” a “gothic horror Crimson Peak metroidvania megadungeon” from Alex Teplitz (Daggerheart, Kids In Capes)
Ambition Creative Team:
- Yanni Panagiotopoulos (He/Him) – Game Design, Writing, Layout, Concept Art, Illustration.
- Annaliese Cranston (She/Her) “Papercraft Bat” – Concept Art, Illustration
- Will Grossman (They/Them) “cantseewill” – Illustration
- Rory Flynn (They/She) – Illustration
- Zach Cretegny (He/Him) “Zaiilex” – Illustration
- Amphi Landrowski (They/He) – Character Sheet Layout Artist
- Andrew Beauman (He/Him) – Quickstart Layout Artist
- Brent Jans (He/They) – Editing on Presskit and Quickstart
- Vyn Vox (He/They) – Community Manager
- Zach (He/Him) – Marketing
Ambition is live on Gamefound. You can follow the game’s development on Itch.io and Patreon. Follow on Bluesky, Tiktok, Youtube and sign up for the Ambition mailing list for development updates.
Images via ThePressBetwixt
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