Momatoes, a tabletop RPG creator in southeast Asia, has a new gaming project on Kickstarter, one that has a great deal of buzz about it. I was lucky enough to talk with momatoes about the project, how it incorporates a timer, and how the increased recognition of Southeast Asian gamers is benefiting all of gaming.
EGG EMBRY: I appreciate you talking with me about your latest RPG Kickstarter. What are you creating?
MOMATOES: I created ARC, a doom tabletop RPG that blends real-time and in-story mechanics. It’s my proudest work – a rules-light, tension-heavy system that’s dripping with beautiful dark art, while remaining defiantly hopeful. Dicebreaker called it one of the 2021 tabletop RPGs to watch for.
EGG: For this RPG, is there a setting?
MOMATOES: Luckily, ARC is setting-agnostic, though it works best with fantasy adventures. We’ve had ARC playtests set in wizard academies, Southeast Asian hometowns, and even bards’ weddings!
EGG: Mechanically, how does this system work?
MOMATOES: Every story in ARC is marked by a real-time Doomsday Clock that advances at set intervals. So players have limited time to save the world! Throughout the adventure, they use Skills – such as Acrobatics, Tinker, Physique – and combine it with Approaches: Creative, Careful, and Concerted. So while the hero is innately adept and talented, players are encouraged to articulate how exactly that skill will be used. Skills and Approaches combine to determine a Threshold Number, which is basically your roll-under target. There’s more rules they can see at the Quickstart, but one other thing I’m proud of is Spells and Techniques, which act similar to inventory items but can only be recovered using a strange ritual…such as learning a secret, burning a memento, or eating a door.
EGG: There’s a physical timer for the game? How does that work?
MOMATOES: Based on roughly how long everyone wants the game to last, they set up the Doomsday Clock divided across segments called “moments.” For a one-shot game, the Clock advances by one moment every 30 minutes. Depending on the state of the world, if story fronts called Omens still exist, the Doomsday Clock can advance even more – meaning at that one instance, suddenly more moments are used up and the precious time runs out even faster!
EGG: What inspired you to create this RPG?
MOMATOES: Two things, really: first being really enamored with the idea of using clocks and real-time mechanics to incite exciting adventures, and secondly my own desire to help other people like me who often feel anxious or scared about running games. I was always worried I’d make stories that meandered, had no sense of urgency, or just disinterested players. ARC’s rules help GMs even a tiny bit by embedding stakes right into every story.
EGG: Who else is working on this project with you?
MOMATOES: Jarrett Crader and Fiona Geist, excellent editors who’s worked on Mothership, Troika, and The Ultraviolet Grasslands, helped a lot keeping the writing in top shape. If our campaign funds, we also hope to hire Dai Shugars to help make the layout as accessible as possible, and Alex Saify to assist with sensitivity reading. And of course, we have more exciting and extraordinary game designers and illustrators who we hope to unlock with the stretch goals!
EGG: In your first message to me, you mentioned that you’re from southeast Asia and that area is exploding with new voices for RPG. In your opinion, what triggered this raise in interest, or has it always existed and we’re just learning about them in North America?
MOMATOES: I’d like to think it has always existed, although the more widespread adoption of platforms like Itch.io plus increasing presence of Southeast Asian game designers on Twitter meant that we had more channels to share our creative works and build up this…exciting energy for community, connecting with folks from other countries who could finally access our games. And when you have more threads of connection, it’s much easier to build and infect others with that enthusiasm.
EGG: What made Exalted Funeral the right partner for this project?
MOMATOES: Exalted Funeral’s past campaigns and publications have included The Ultraviolet Grasslands and Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy, all of which burst with creative and defiant energy – compelling art, writing and design, which really inspired me and ARC. But what makes Exalted Funeral such a great publisher to work with is their willingness to explore new ideas, even reach out to underrepresented indie creators, which I really want to see with more publishers out there.
EGG: Beyond ARC, what else are you working on?
MOMATOES: Last month, my stretch goal for the wildly successful Orbital Blues Kickstarter got funded! I’m really excited for that one – I’ll be writing an adventure set in an abandoned theme park, inhabited by masterless animatronics and strange utopian children. I also have a zine I’m working on for Our Shores, a Kickstarter that funded Southeast Asian RPGs.
EGG: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Where can fans find you online?
MOMATOES: I’m always online on Twitter, but people can also join a Discord server where I chat about ARC and capybaras. I look forward to everyone’s support for our Kickstarter campaign!
- Our Kickstarter page
- More info at [our website]
ARC: Doom Tabletop RPG from Exalted Funeral
“A cataclysmic tabletop RPG where heroes embark on heart-racing adventures to slay the apocalypse.”
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