iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

We have so many 2d6 tables for all sorts of different stuff, so we felt we had to make them easier to parse somehow! These 2d6 tables come from our section on designing your own magical items. The book comes with 36 unique Arcana already, but there's nothing better than designing them yourself!

010

A funny thing about Grimwild Community Edition is we struggled so hard to label 2d6 tables in a way that looked any good. So we settled on bolding the words that correspond to matching pairs. The result in the 2nd row and 2nd column is bolded, 3rd row 3rd column is bolded, etc. It helps a lot!!

Three 2d6 Arcana Crucibles from Grimwild Community Edition, showing bolded results where the number of the column and row matches.

walmart canada has a feature on the website that shows the price of something per 100 grams. It's very handy. But they apparently expect you to eat a FUCKLOAD of meatballs

000

The Artificer gets a 'MagiTechnobabble' table so they give arcana the worst names The Bard selects the style, tune, and impact of their songs + choose what inspires them The Berserker has both a table for scars, and the source of their frenzy The Druid exhibits their connection with nature etc.

010

Grimwild has fun optional bits for most Paths in the game, which allow players to flesh out how/why their character is that path. The Rogue gets to come up with their own criminal record: How severe their crimes were, what the nature of them was, what reputation they gained, and their own reaction.

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#1 rule of Grimwild. The book doesn't ask you to follow the mechanics as written, but it demands you follow the rules on being a good player.

020

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

before the players see any mechanical rules, they see these. And these are really the only rules the book expects one to properly follow.

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The suspense pool from Grimwild really helped me with this sort of thing, because it is an issue for me. Essentially, any time you are prompted to give a player a consequence, you can instead just bank it for later, and use it to provide a consequence when you have a good idea or a perfect moment.

020

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

the funniest thing is it's truly one of the best 5e supplements I've ever seen. It has everything you'd hope for in a supplement. 50 pages detailing locales with events and NPCs. D100 encounters table, factions, mechanics. Heists, gladiator tournaments, killing beelzebub in the gardens of babylon

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Oh hey I just looked in my email and found this video from Vincent Baker about the influences on, and the later branches of Apocalypse World! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Dm...

140

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I've always liked this spread in Apocalypse World, because it'd be impossible to tell if it's for a pbta game, or an OSR blogpost expounding on why OSR is the only real way to play ttrpgs.

053

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Grimwild is, I think, the only game that fits in the centre here. A mix of a stripped down Forged in the Dark system, with D&D 3.5e inspired paths and talents, and OSR lethality and player-focused creativity. HEAVILY GM driven, yet players have the tools to shape world & narrative. It somehow works!

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

grimwild server this morning

Discord screenshot "I think everyone should read more pbtas" with the response "but they have so much 2d6 in them crying emoji"

150

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I focused on the Witch here, because it's an all-new path for Community Edition, but all the spellcasting paths wield magic in unique and different ways. Wizards create theorems, Psions can cast infinitely, but must be careful not to unravel their minds, Sorcerers trade their blood for power, etc.

010

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

And Rituals require more than just a spellcasting talent to perform. Rituals are, in essence, quests for the PCs to undertake; requring a Source, Anchor, and Invocation. These can be equivalent to a team of people working over a period, or powerful enough to shake the foundation of the world.

Grimwild Community Edition's rules for casting Rituals; requiring a source of magic, anchor, and specialized invocation.

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The coolest part of Grimwild is the free-form magic! Spells do not have a defined range, effect, or damage. The Witch, for example, knows several Words of Power. To cast a spell, they combine two Words they know, and roll Presence. If they spend more time, the spell can become more powerful.

Grimwild Community Edition's list of the Witch's Words of Power, which fuel their spellcasting.

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I made my first real friends in elementary school overhearing them talk about Diablo 2 Those Castlevania games were 6 years of my teen life, and Dark souls is those games in 3d Bayonetta Tales of Symphonia had me reading fanfiction Nier taught me a game can be both bad and utterly incredible

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Our last update was "September 19th, 2026 - Adjusted Character Sheets to be foldable." WE DON'T HAVE THE ART IN THE BOOK YET. WHY ARE WE BEATING THE GAME BEATING LANCER

Grimwild Community Edition at the top of Itch.io's top physical games list sorted by popularity

100

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We round out the Flavours of Fantasy with: High fantasy, in which PCs start at level 3 with magical items, and lower level enemies can be taken out handfuls at a time. Cozy Fantasy, where PCs can only die in meaningful ways, outside of conflict, and grants XP when changing bonds and finishing Arcs

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

In a Grimdark game, PCs are more likely to die if they're dropped! Magic is also more dangerous by default, and magical healing is impossible. Low Fantasy scales down spell power, and restricts the party to a single magic-user. It also uses the Encumbrance, Wealth, and slow XP optional rules.

100

Matthew Andre @gugg.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

More cool stuff we added to the new Community Edition of Grimwild: The Flavours of Fantasy section gives you optional rules and advice on how to play different fantasy genres. In a Sword & Sorcery game, magic is rare, harm clears after a scene, and XP progression is slow, but carousing earns XP.

170

Just like Grimwild Community Edition, all 15 of these Story Kits are totally free groov-games.itch.io/grimwild-com...

000

One of the coolest small changes we did with Grimwild Community Edition was to remove the Story Kits (one page adventures) from the core book, and remake them in a printer-friendly style; in their own document. These are supposed to be used and marked up and written on, so we made that way easier.

100

The campaign tracking sheet goes along with our simple session planning page

000

And since you can take talents from any path when you level up, we also have a clean character sheet so you can write in your own talents. For GMs, we also included a small campaign tracking sheet

100

Of course, in the book, we've done some work to expand solo mode, so we also have the truncated sheets for the side characters in Solo Party Mode

100

We had a lot of ideas of Grimwild Community Edition, and many of them aren't just in the book, but also with the incredible extras we've made. Here we have printer-friendly single page characters sheets, including all the necessary boxes and trackers for talents!

We upgraded the index for Grimwild Community Edition, so it's also now a glossary that defines terms and explains rules! While this makes the glossary a bit longer, and a bit harder to look through, it makes up for it by also being a quick, alphabetical, rules reference!

100

Healing in Grimwild can be done in a number of ways, but none of them easy. Magical healing requires potent spells, of which casters generally get a scant few per session (and need proper touchstones to use in the first place). Healing takes time, tools, and training, and the GM can decide how long

000

But this doesn't mean the game needs to be deadly. Instead of damage, the GM can dole out conditions or Vex. The game is only as deadly as the GM wants it to be, but character death is always within grasp of the GM. There are no bags of hitpoints running around, impossible to bring down.

100

If you make a roll in Grimwild, you CANNOT avoid incoming damage as a result of that roll (unless you use our new optional armor rule, or take a specific talent). Character growth also does NOT increase the amount of damage you can take. The game is quick, explosive, and deadly (if the GM wants).

100

because Grimwild doesn't have resistance rolls ala Blades in the Dark. Grimwild has defense rolls which can reduce incoming damage, but THEY CANNOT BE USED if your character made the action roll that results in the incoming damage. Avoiding danger is already built into the roll! This speeds up play

An important piece of design separating Grimwild from some games with mixed success rolls: Grimwild's mixed success is NOT a partial success. It is a full success with full consequences. The player character succeeds totally, and the world hits back as hard as it wants. This keeps play exciting!

A chart showing Grimwild's roll results and the Reader Lens stating: "There are no partial successes in Grimwild. If it helps, think of a perfect as a full success, a grim as a full problem, and a messy as full success with a full problem."

150

At one point, I also designed a more variable Warlock, a design that I may return to as another alternative; a bit closer to 5e's conception with the Sword, Tome, and Chain. One thing I wanted to do is have every option provide an upgrade to each other option as you levelled up and gained them all.

000

In the earliest preview of Grimwild Community Edition, I had the idea of the warlock who only cast hexes and curses, a caster only capable of debuffing; very different from the current version of CE and the OG. This was extremely unpopular, but I don't want it to disappear, so why not post it here?

100

I've very carefully and totally curated my twitter algorithm to only show me (non-AI) art and the 2 or 3 people who still post there that I like. I don't love every piece of art that shows up, but it's pretty close to my taste. Wish I could curate anything here... warning: some nsfw art pops up

000

or the witch, who knows words of power, and links two of them together to cast a spell with whatever effect seems appropriate for those words, varying each, time if they wish. How powerful is a spell? About as powerful as an action. A potent spell is ~a group of people working together.

I'd definitely take a look at Grimwild! For instance, the cleric casts spells using the touchstones of their god's epithet (storms, mercy, etc) and a rites pool (blessing, divination, dominion, etc). You roll the pool of d6s to test success, and also drop any dice from the pool that show 1-3 results

The different giants all come with their own unique quests! (I will be very disappointed if somebody tries to attack the Hill Giant instead of engaging in Brute Diplomacy)

000

The Lich has a choice of spellbook!

Grimwild Community Edition Lich statblock, showing 2 different spellbook options

100

The Spynx has 3 d6 tables to roll on to generate riddles!

Grimwild: Community Edition statblock for the sphynx, which has 3 d6 tables to roll on to generate riddles.

100

certain creatures like two-legged Ettercap have a full set of pools representing their webbed domain, while the Ettin has different options for their two heads. On the side, you can see the stat blocks for less iconic creatures, which present sense data, moves, and a 1d6 customization table.

100

Who says you can't do hit locations in a narrative-first ttrpg? While most enemies in Grimwild CE are mooks, or given a single task pool to represent their ability to keep fighting, notable creatures like Balor, Dragons, and Hydra have linked task pools, with different moves and features.

A screenshot of the Balor stat block for Grimwild: Community Edition, which shows linked tasked pools for its head, demonic magic, whip and sword, and body.