I just published an RPG

That’s a tabletop roleplaying game by the way, not a rocket-propelled grenade. I’m not sure how you could publish one of those, though given the current media euphemisms for killing I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

Anyway – apropos of nothing except for having some time on my hands recently I decided to tinker with some roleplaying rules, using the “Powered by the Apocalypse” rules engine which has been my go to for a while.

As for inspiration for the setting it came through a long and convoluted process that started when I was but a little tiny child and inherited my older sister’s collection of books. I read them all to death of course being me and enjoyed them. One series was the Enid Blyton run of “Malory Towers” stories – cosy boarding school tales of noble girls facing life’s challenges, playing pranks, having midnight feasts and solving problems.

YouTube recently through up a discussion of how some of Blyton’s works had been not exactly pirated by a German publisher but since they proved so popular and profitable the publisher hired ghost writers to keep expanding the series under Blyton’s name even after her death and without the knowledge of her estate. It was an intriguing video essay and reminded me of the books I’d read as a kid. So in a spirit of nostalgia I searched youtube for more information on the subject and found that the BBC had made a Malory Towers tv show. I assumed with my cynical old-bastard head it would be an unrecognisable adaptation and probably rubbish. I watched it in that spirit and was delighted to be proven wrong. Okay it’s a kids’ show but it’s a good one! I ended up watching all 6 series (the 7th is out in a month) and enjoyed it all.

Anyway. I recently took a couple of weeks’ holiday from work and during that time, lacking any prep work required for my various campaigns, I started looking around for something to do and started doodling ideas for a Harry Potter based rules hack. Then I got bored with that because I know it inside out and everything that I could say on the subject and setting I probably have already done twice… so I wondered if it would be possible to take out the magic and just focus on the school drama.

Of course it could!

Welcome to Blaydon Grange – it’s a pbta powered game set in a post-war girls’ boarding school in rural England. While I’ve included a sample setting there is plenty of guidance for making your own, for generating characters with all the appropriate tropes built into them, and a system that emphasises the bonds of friendship and rivalry that make the books and series so charming.

I’ve uploaded it to Itch.io as a “Pay What You Want” game so feel free if you wish to go grab it and give it a whirl.

https://finncullen.itch.io/blaydon-grange-boarding-school-ttrpg