The Objectives:
As a longtime fan of tabletop roleplaying games and a student of theatre, I have always been struck by the similarity between the historical practice of improvisational and collaborative storytelling in the Commedia with our modern practice of tabletop roleplaying, especially with rise of live performances from actual play groups such as Critical Role and Dimension 20. Tales of Italia was conceived of as a tribute to this form of storytelling, breathing new life into the classic tropes and characters of the Commedia within the framework of tabletop roleplaying for new generations and for those unfamiliar with theatre history.
The Processes:
The design of Tales highly reflective of the disparate sources that inspired its creation. The game is designed with one-shots in mind as opposed to long running campaigns, reflecting the nature of the Commedia as facilitating episodic and distinct scenarios to be improvised over a single performance. Players assume the role of one of a selection of the Commedias’ stock characters, each of which form dramatic pairs to allow players to play off one another to create the signature mischief of the source material. Each of these characters has a set of broad abilities, similar to the Powered by the Apocalypse family of games, with success and failure in using those abilities determined by drawing cards from the corresponding suits of the Minor Arcana of Tarot. In many other TTRPGs, the Game Master performs extensive planning prior to a session to help facilitate the storytelling; but I felt that would be deeply contrary to the improvisation spirit of the Commedia. Thus, the GM is also led to improve thanks to a Hand of Fate created from the Major Arcana providing a randomized series of plot points for the session to occur when players expend all the cards of one of the suits. The lineup and layout of characters and their abilities were refined over multiple rounds of playtesting.
Tales of Italia is a tabletop roleplaying game inspired by the theatrical traditions of the Commedia Dell’Arte during the Italian Renaissance. Players take on the role of one of six of the Commedia’s stock characters, each with their own unique abilities, They then work their way through various scenarios in the style of those classical performances as devised by the group’s Storyteller and guided by a standard deck of Tarot cards. Whilst players use the Minor Arcana to determine their successes and failures, the Storyteller is guided by the cards of the Major Arcana to determine plot elements for the session. The rulebook was designed in collaboration with and illustrated by artist Leo Nicholson. The rulebook for Tales of Italia was debuted at Miami University College of Creative Arts’ Sparkfest and subsequently released on itch.io in April of 2024.
https://loreweavergames.itch.io/tales-of-italia
Check out the pitch slides here and the Game Design Doc here
