Play as the world’s most dangerous operatives…now settled in a mysterious retirement facility! Investigate eerie events, outpunk local teenagers, and rule the bingo room in this original Tabletop RPG.
You are eighty years old. Your hands aren’t what they used to be, but you’ve still managed to disable three cameras, put an orderly on the floor, and pocket 30 bucks from the guy in room 204. You still couldn't find where the dang Administrator has stashed the good pudding, though. A mission for another day.
E.N.C.O.R.E. is a cozy, rules-light TTRPG about a retirement community built for the most dangerous people who ever lived: you! Ex-spies. Assassins. Alchemists. Occultists. One very quiet man nobody asks about.
The government never let you go home, because one doesn’t let someone with your skills and your memories walk around unsupervised. You know things. You’ve seen things. So they put you in a nice building with a garden and have strongly suggested you stay in it. However, you can’t help searching for cracks in the system.
You've got dentures, a bingo record to uphold, and instincts that never switched off.
The day-to-day events in Marblemont Estates, from crochet to calisthenics, are nice enough, but you’ve noticed that something is off about the facility…it is government-run, after all. And you've got time…honestly, it’s the one thing you've still got plenty of.
Outwit the Administrator, out-punk the local teens, and perhaps even make some new friends along the way. 80 is the new 30.
Latest from the Creator
Metis Creative
2 days ago
Choose the Wrinkles for our first Live Play!
Greetings folks!
Last week we asked you to pick some character options for our upcoming ENCORE Live-play One Shot, and you all wrote some excellent ideas!
Currently, our players are pondering their options, and we wanted to add another wrinkle (pun intended, har har) to the equation:
We want you to pick the Wrinkles these Old Timers will have. In ENCORE, Wrinkles are the old people problems that might affect certain skill rolls. They are meant to be fun and add to the narrative shenanigans (they are not meant to be super medically accurate and, therefore, depressing); the key design element is to have fun mechanics that enhance role-playing opportunities and storytelling at the table.
Here is a list of some of the Wrinkles that can affect Old Timers, as well as the skills that they impact:
Agita --> Cold Blood · Focus · Hocus Pocus
Bad Back --> Liftin' · Tough as Nails · Agility
Bad Breath --> Sweet Talk · Spinnin' a Yarn · Sneak
Bad Eyes --> Search · Steady · Notice · Take the Wheel
Hearing Loss --> Notice · Suspicion · Good Ol' Common Sense
Rusty Parts (your super-soldier cybernetic parts are old and faulty) --> Tough as Nails · Wallop · Hustle
Shaky Hands --> Steady · Hocus Pocus · Flimflam
Sleepy --> Focus · Reckon · Notice
Write in the comments which ones you want to see our Old Timers be afflicted by in the One Shot game, and we’ll pick from your short list! For rules on how Wrinkles and Wrinkle Skills work in ENCORE, please check out the Quickstart PDF. All you need to do is Follow the ENCORE Backerkit page, and you’ll receive an email directing you to the Quickstart.
We are less than a week away from the ENCORE launch, and we cannot be more excited! Shortly after the launch, we'll follow up with the Live Play One Shot!
We just released the Quickstart PDF for ENCORE! Within its 31 pages of content you'll find a sneak peek into the world of ENCORE, locations in Marblemont Estate and Gilford Grove, learn how to create a legendary Old Timer, and find out more about the gameplay of ENCORE: The Roleplaying Game.
If you want to see the Quickstart PDF for yourself, the only thing you have to do is to follow the campaign, and you will be automatically sent a copy right away!
Here's a teaser of what's in ENCORE: the Quickstart PDF!
We are super excited to see what you guys think of the Quickstart and the ENCORE Ruleset! For all your questions, comments, and suggestions, feel free to comment below, or join our Discord server!
Recently, we announced that if we got to 5,000 followers we would record a live-play one shot to be released with the launch of the campaign. Well, hopefully we will get there (fingers crossed), so we are getting ready!
And that’s where you come in! You get to choose which Old Timer characters our players will portray! Here are some suggestions:
A “former” mad scientist with a gift for creating mechanical menaces.
A master of disguise with a host of bizzarre, outdated personas to hide behind.
An ex-CIA Human Resources supervisor who “knows how to bring out the best in people.”
A “retired” thief with sticky fingers and a penchant for safecracking.
A frazzled demolitions expert with plenty more bridges to burn.
An occultist with a gambling problem and the power to speak to ghosts… or so they say.
A grizzled commando with rusty cybernetic parts that broadcast local sports news.
A KGB double agent with affinities for poisons and poetry.
A veteran assassin equally at home with sniper rifles and embroidery needles.
[Note: These are only suggestions! Feel free to come up with your own kooky concepts.]
Write your ideas for characters in the comments below: you can pick one of the suggestions above or write your own!
Then, our players will pick from the options you write.
In an upcoming update, we'll give you choices of what Wrinkles (old person problems) these characters will have!
Have any questions? Let us know in the comments as well!
We Just Beat 3,500 Followers: Let’s Do An Actual Play!
Hi everyone, Doa here, creative director at Metis Media.
We have passed 3,500 followers on the ENCORE page. Thank you! When we put this page up, ENCORE was a strange little idea about retired assassins with bad knees, and it's been really nice watching people show up for it.
So we're setting a goal.
If we reach 5,000 followers before launch, we'll shoot an actual play of ENCORE.
A table of retired killers, spies, and scientists, all of them too old for this. You'll see how the diceplay works, and how badly things go when someone's back gives out at the wrong moment. Someone will probably kill a groundskeeper by accident.
You get a say in it:
This one won't be only ours: you'll help pick some of the story ideas we play through, and some of the character options, too! What the residents used to do, what's wrong with them now, and what kind of trouble they walk into. You decide some of it, then you watch them deal with it.
How you can help:
If you're already following, the best thing you can do is send this page to one person. This might be a great opportunity to lure in one of your friends to TTRPGs, ENCORE will be one heck of a gateway drug.
Come plot with us
Our Discord is open if you want to talk ENCORE, pitch the worst possible retiree, or start scheming about the actual play with other people:
First Reveal: Here's How E.N.C.O.R.E. Diceplay Works!
Greetings Folks!
We are back with another update. In the last Poll, you all voted for what you wanted to learn more about, and “Game Mechanics” won by a close shave over Character Options! As a result, this update is all about explaining ENCORE’s easy-to-learn Diceplay. Let’s get to it!
E.N.C.O.R.E.’s Diceplay
At its core, ENCORE is a simple d6 dice pool system. This means you’re rolling a handful of dice instead of just one.
The core mechanics are that, for all challenges, you pick a few dice (from 2 up to 5), and you roll to beat a number set by the Game Master (GM) by choosing 2 dice from your rolls and summing them up! The more skilled in the challenge you are, the more dice you roll.
The ENCORE spin to this mechanic is that, before you roll, you may have to change two of your base dice in your pool to two unique dice: the Wrinkle die andthe Flair die. If your Old Timer (Player Character) has a ‘wrinkle’ that could complicate things, like a bad hip or bad breath, you change a base die to the Wrinkle die (with a distinct color); and if your Old Timer was spectacularly skilled in this challenge in their pre-retirement life, you change one of the base dice to another (uniquely colored) Flair die.
If your end result ends up using one of those two die, extra shenanigans happen! You can succeed with a Wrinkle, fail with Flair, and so on!
That’s it! This is ENCORE!
Here’s the detailed explanation:
Your Base Dice = These are always there to roll even when you aren’t super good at a Skill. We recommend you have a few of these.
Your Flair Die = This represents your expertise before retirement (sniper, demolitions, seduction, etc.). You should have 1 Flair Die.
Your Wrinkle Die = This represents your age: achy knees, shaky memory, and so on. You should have 1 Wrinkle Die.
When your Old Timer is doing something that is difficult or would lead to weighty consequences in the game, your GM can ask for a Skill Roll. They decide on the Difficulty Rating (DR), which equals the # you have to meet or beat with your dice total. Then, here’s what you do:
Grab your base dice for that Skill (minimum of 2). The # of base dice you roll is determined by your ability in that Skill.
If the Roll involves a Skill you are especially good at, you can replace one Base die with your Flair Die and add it to the dice pool.
If the Roll involves a Skill affected by your age (Wrinkles), you replace one Base die with your Wrinkle die.
Roll the collected dice pool, and choose 2 of the dice to make your total. A 6 result on the Flair Die is a Complete Success, while a 1 on the Wrinkle Die is a Complete Failure, no matter what. Normally, you would want to pick the two highest results to succeed, but you can also choose your Flair Die to use your background talents even if it means getting a lower total score, or even failing the Roll! Alternatively, you might have to choose the Wrinkle Die result in order to succeed (see the example below).
An Example Roll
My Old Timer character Jasper Nielsen is trying to drive a golf cart off a dock and onto a moving boat. Why? That’s a tale for another day. What’s important now is the GM calls for a ‘Take the Wheel’ Roll. Luckily, Jasper’s got a gift for driving: his Skill is 5 here, and he’s got Flair in this skill from his background as an exfiltration expert. Unfortunately, Jasper’s Wrinkle is that he’s got Shaky Hands; that definitely comes into play when trying to launch a souped-up golf cart onto a Bayliner. He grabs 5 base dice, then replaces 2 of them with the Flair and Wrinkle Dice (Normally, having this Flair would grant Jasper other abilities based on his Character build, but we're keeping the example simple for now).
The GM decides this buckwild maneuver is a DR 9, which means it’s very hard, even if Jasper weren’t a geriatric. Jasper has 5 base dice for the ‘Take the Wheel’ Skill, so I replace 2 of those with his Flair and Wrinkle dice, and then I roll: 5, 3, 2, 2 [Flair], and 4 [Wrinkle].
I pick two results from the pool, and luckily, I have 5 and a 4, which does add up to 9! Success! But I had to use the Wrinkle to get the success… this means Jasper succeeded in jumping the cart onto the boat, but there’ll be a funny hitch. I’ll work with my GM and the other players at the table to figure out what that might be.Maybe he landed the jump successfully…but onto the wrong boat! Maybe he hit the gas too hard, and his pills (uh, definitely not spiked with experimental mutagens) spilled out of his pocket and into the lake! Maybe the stunt was caught on the local news, meaning the Old Timers are attracting way too much attention! These moments of goofy escalation can be some of the most exciting at the table.
Final Thoughts
So that is our basic Diceplay in a nutshell! There are other factors that can come into play in the rolls, from contests or combat, to other Old Timers helping (or hindering) a Roll, and so on. Your Character details will give you fun talents and quirks to affect the gameplay as well. What do you think? What part of the diceplay do you want to learn more about? Let us know in the comments!
For those of you who followed this campaign, you’ll be able to download the free Quickstart PDF very soon! And if you haven’t followed us yet, whaddya waiting for? Shake a leg!
If you’re still in the ‘wait and see’ category, that’s fine; the Quickstart will be available for everyone when the ENCORE campaign launches!
We have just reached 3,000 followers! We are truly humbled by your support, and we are ecstatic about this chance to bring this zany game to life for all of you! If you haven't already, spread the word and let's see if we can keep this community growing!
In the last update, we revealed the results of the first poll, which was to give more details about the Setting & Lore, and we did just that! The last update, if you haven't had the chance to read it, is filled with locations for the two main settings of ENCORE: Marblemont Estates (the retirement facility the PCs live in) and the nearby town of Gilford Grove. We are having a lot of fun writing this game, and we look forward to diving further in. Hopefully you have liked what you've read so far. Let us know!
Now, on to the next Poll! This one features some familiar choices--mechanics and character options--as well as one new setting-related choice. Let us know what you want to learn more about next!
And, as always, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the support!
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