We talk indie tabletop RPGs with game designer Adam Vass of World Champ Game Co.

Adam Vass is the bright designer bringing "scumbag roleplaying" to a corner of the internet near you. What are indie tabletop RPGs and how can you get started with them?

Adam Vass of World Champ Game Co.
Adam Vass of World Champ Game Co. | Adam Vass

When most of us think of tabletop roleplaying games, we conjure up images of Dungeons & Dragons groups, painted minifigures on gridded maps, and epic fantasy campaigns. But what if I told you there was an entire world of TTRPGs known only to the folks who know where to look? A place where games inspired by Coen brothers movies co-exist alongside bands of thieving thespians, bloodthirsty slashers, and kids on bikes fighting lovecraftian horrors in the woods. Where journaling can tell a story as poignantly as any DM, and where the possibilities of play are limited only by the breadth of your imagination.

You’d probably tell me that I’m blowing smoke. That D&D or — if you’re in the know — Pathfinder are the main options on the market, and both deal with high fantasy. Both feature parties of heroes setting out to save the world, and so that’s what all TTRPGs aspire to be.

But before we get into a tavern brawl, let's define exactly what a TTRPG is: A tabletop roleplaying game is a set of mechanics meant to be used by a single player or group of players to tell a story. That story can involve varying amounts of improvisation and/or planning, but the basics are the same. TTRPGs differ from board games in that they are usually more focused on their stories than they are on guiding players toward a win/lose state. Additionally, there are a lot of different kidns of TTRPG mechanics and a lot of different ways to implement them, whereas board game mechanics usually involve a lot more strategy. But this line gets blurrier the longer you stare at it, so let's turn our eyes to something else.

I’d like to introduce you to Adam Vass. Vass is a game designer from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He’s one of the most prolific TTRPG makers around, and his heart lies in horror. Vass makes zines, merch, and hardcovers and publishes them at his company, World Champ Game Co. When he’s not playing or designing games, he’s a studio and touring musician.

A yellow banner that reads: "TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING & STORYTELLING GAMES."
World Champ Game Co. banner | Adam Vass

I recently sat down with Vass to discuss the state of indie TTRPGs, his design ethos, and how fantasy and sci-fi fans who are curious about roleplaying games (aka: YOU, dear reader) can find some natural entry points into what could be their new favorite hobby.

The Interview

We started out with the basics: how Vass got into playing and designing games. He told us that it started in a local comic store in Michigan after he moved back to the state after a two-year stint in Boston in the mid-2010s.

“I was resetting and meeting people for the first time and ended up becoming friends with the staff at the local comic book store, which is also our local game store," Vass said. "And just from spending so much time with them and around them, we would host game nights as an event and I would get kind of tapped-in to teach people how to play games and we'd play stuff on weeknights to see if the store wanted to stock it. I didn't work there, but I was just sort of a de facto extra player when we needed players and got really into board games and card games from a strategy standpoint.”

Once Vass started playing D&D with his group, he immediately took to the storytelling involved, but had a strong desire to expand beyond the boundaries of the game’s classic fantasy setting. “We started playing D&D together, and it was pretty quick where it was like: ‘This is entertaining, but it's not necessarily the game I would play if I had every choice.’ I've never been a big fantasy person. So we were kind of pushing the limits on what that setting entailed and what we could do. And I pretty quickly went home and was like, ‘I want to play in a 1920s Chicago mob prohibition game. But there will also be magic and all that good stuff. I took apart the stuff I didn’t like and hacked in the stuff that I do. Within five months of playing D&D for the first time, I was writing my first game, and then it really snowballed from there. I was just designing games for my friends in a vacuum before stumbling upon the entire community of folks doing what I do. Once I did find that community, I got really inspired and doubled down. That was 2016 – when I started obsessively designing.”

When I ask Vass about his design philosophy, he pulls an unlikely term out of his back pocket: Scumbag Roleplaying. “The heroic idea that we are going to save the realm and we want to do this because we're altruists and super powerful was part of why a high fantasy setting didn’t resonate with me," he explained. "Because we live in a real world where the villains are in charge and there's no group of five people going to thwart them. You can still have drama and tragedy and comedy and all of the same types of stories, but the scale is different. And I think the scale in my opinion, works better when you're not distracted by the end of the world. When you accept that the world has already ended and all you can do is headbang to your favorite records with the time that you have left.”

An opened rule-book for a tabletop RPG
Blood Borg, Vass' punk vampire game | Adam Vass

This last comment shows just how much Vass uses his two jobs to inspire one another. He makes this connection even more clearer when comparing the life-changing value of live music to the down-to-earth experience of playing a well-designed and realistically scoped TTRPG: “Booking a good show and having people come can change your life just as much as thwarting the emperor or whatever. It's just a flavor tweak, and it's a scale tweak to kind of just feel empowered when you don't necessarily feel that way in your everyday life.”

Still, though: why horror? There are plenty of ways to portray the exigencies of real life in a game without tearing someone’s guts out. For Vass, it boils down to excitement, controlling tension in a tabletop experience to add stakes to collaborative storytelling and encourage players to kill their darlings.

“In a lot of my games, I want to inject death and gore and that kind of heart-pumping horror into the actual mechanics,” Vaas said. “That takes some unlearning from people who are coming from D&D, where you're very precious with your character. Because you don't watch a slasher movie for all of the kids to survive. You go in with the expectation that one or maybe zero people are going to get out alive. And the fun part of a lot of those movies is seeing how they die or what stupid mistake they make to get killed and mechanizing those moments and being upfront with players to say: ‘This is fun. Remember you're here for fun and if you let those things happen and you let go of control just a little bit, you'll be rewarded with these exciting payoffs.’”

Vass is unapologetic about his propensity to design horror games. His design practice stems from what he enjoys, and this allows him to make games that he could see himself wanting to play. He doesn’t think about an explicit audience, but in being his authentic self when he designs, he’s been able to cultivate a group of like-minded hobbyists over the years who love his games and support his practice. He calls it a “very high trust environment” and sings the praises of making the art you want to see in the world as a small-time creator.

When it comes to stoking your own newfound passion for TTRPGs, Vass recommends starting with solo games and working your way up from there. “I know a lot of people who are creative and clever, but they don't like roleplaying because they don't like being put on the spot," he said. "I think solo games – especially prompt-based storytelling/journaling games – are really great for that because you get to flex that creative muscle, but you don't have to show anybody if you don’t want to. If a solo game resonates with you in any way, you can spread out from there and maybe tell a friend about that experience and see if they think it's cool. Then maybe you can play a two-player game, and so on.”

For folks looking for a solo game to try, Vass points to Contact by J. Strautman. It's inspired by the movie Arrival, and the player is tasked with communicating with an extraterrestrial entity via a playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, or similar music service. In this way, folks who are TTRPG-curious can leverage a familiar set of musical touchstones to accompany them as they start their journey into the unknown.

To find a community of like-minded enthusiasts, Vass mentions tabletop conventions and local stores in that order as two good ways to get in touch with an in-person group. “Otherwise, online, I think both Indie Press Revolution and itch.io are great places to browse,” he said. “Then you can see your favorite creator's stuff in their library. You might see collections of games that they like, and it's a spiderweb from there. So those would be my recommended spaces to cultivate that interest once you've kind of got the spark.”

When I ask about his favorite game, Vass is quick to recommend Fiasco by Jason Morningstar. He describes it as, “A Coen brothers movie simulator. Basically, you have a bunch of characters who all want things and they're at odds with one another. They can't all get the same things that they want. There's no dice-rolling. It's just storytelling, but the system works really beautifully for these awkward moments where you are trying to step over one another to get something and usually tripping and falling on your way there.”

As far as the best games for beginners, Vass says that two titles: For the Queen and The Zone come to mind. The former is a storybuilding card game that has very few mechanics. While the latter thrills its players by using familiar language and smart systems to tell a tale of chilling disaster.

A tabletop game set up around a table
Campfire, Vass and his collaborator Will Jobst's horror storytelling game | Adam Vass

I would be remiss, of course, if I didn’t round out the conversation by asking Vass to recommend some of his own games. “I think if you want a more grand adventure type of game with some of that ‘scumbag roleplaying’ that I was talking about earlier, I would recommend Cybermetal 2012. It's my low-tech cyberpunk world where Hell and Earth had a war, and you're in the aftermath. On the other hand, for a more narrative-focused gamer, I think Campfire is excellent. It takes a lot of DNA from Fiasco and allows you to have a good time with your characters’ demise. There’s also a lot of collaboration without putting too much weight on any one player. So, it's just really slick and friendly for a horror game.”

If you like what you see and want to support Vass’ upcoming projects, his next crowdfunding campaign will be a small, two-week run to celebrate Zine Month 2025, which begins in February. “I'm calling it the Midnight Marathon because the games in the set will all be lower-brow horror zines. That'll be on BACKERKIT starting February 4th for direct support from folks who like what I’m trying to do with my games.”

Closing Time

So have a crack at a journaling game or get a group of friends together sometime for a night at the table. It’s all about letting go, playing within the space, and hacking things together how you like them. Support Vass if you like his stuff; you can find it over at World Champ Game Co.

Otherwise, go ahead and delve into the world of indie tabletop roleplaying in the genre of your choice. You won’t have to look that hard to find the little niche that really tickles your fancy. If you can dream it, chances are it’s out there for the playing. And if not, it’s time to pick up your pen and paper and put some of Vass’ wisdom to the test. One of the most freeing aspects of zine culture and tabletop roleplaying is that the barrier to entry is so low compared to other creative industries. All you need is an idea and the will to make it happen.

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