A downloadable tabletop RPG

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Welcome to Oddity High!

Oddity High is a tabletop RPG about the life of a Japanese high school student - one who’s also got one foot firmly in the bizarre. It's influenced from the ground up by anime, manga, and video games that take the life of a high schooler and drive it off the deep end: Haruhi Suzumiya, the Persona games, Mob Psycho 100, and many more.

You're a high school student that's probably nowhere close to being ordinary. Whether you’re dealing with aliens, psychics, ghosts, demons, eldritch gods or sentient cats is up to you - but whatever it is, you’re in the thick of it. Fortunately, by happenstance or by design, you’ve got a gang of like-minded, equally-abnormal friends at your side - and with their help, you’ve got a fighting chance at surviving it. Just don’t forget that you’re also going to need to survive high school, as well.

Oddity High is powered by the Apocalypse Engine, the system used by legendary and award-winning games such as Dungeon World, Monster of the Week, The Sprawl, Urban Shadows, Fellowship, and many, many more.

Key Features

  • Unlike most PbtA games, you choose from two Playbooks: one for what you are, and one for your personality archetype. So, for example, you can be a Model Student that's a member of a secret agency, a Space Cadet who's really a robot, or an Otaku that, despite all odds, is actually an ordinary human. (More on Playbooks below)
  • Forget aliens and other threats - the biggest concern you have is school. Juggle your obligations, take part in school clubs, maybe fight to save the universe on the side, and try to avoid having a public breakdown.
  • Everyone around the table plays a part in building the school, designing its faculty, and crafting its rumors.
  • Solve problems in whatever way you're good at - whether that's talking through your issues or using your supernatural abilities

The Playbooks

Oddity High presents you with eleven Real-Life Playbooks. These are who you are - the character archetype you're filling in the anime you and your fellow players are making. The Real-Life Playbooks are as follows:

  • The Brash - what you lack in politeness and restraint, you make up for with energy
  • The Bystander - you’re sensible enough to stay out of this mess, but someone’s taken you along for the ride 
  • The Fanservice - you’re the most attractive person in school - this is both a blessing and a curse at times 
  • The Idol - you're a pop star enjoying your fame - and all the benefits and downsides that comes with it
  • The Model Student - whether the class president or the star athlete, you’re studious, respectable, and the faculty’s favorite 
  • The Noble - you’re the senpai that everyone else wishes would notice them 
  • The Otaku - you define yourself by your love of all things nerdy 
  • The Pragmatist - you're blunt, calculating, and know exactly how to get people to do what you want
  • The Prodigy - you’re far smarter than anyone else you know… and it’s lonely at the top 
  • The Space Cadet - your mind is… different. Whether that makes you a genius or just a loon is very much up in the air
  • The Supporter - the only person who you wouldn’t give everything to help, is yourself

There are also ten Other-Life Playbooks. These are what you are - how you deviate from the norm, and what powers you have, if any. They are as follows

  • The Vanilla - you don’t have any powers whatsoever - best of luck out there 
  • The Displaced - whether from another planet or another time, you’re certainly a fish out of water here 
  • The Experiment - you were made into something new in a lab - but now that you're free, nothing's stopping your humanity from creeping back in
  • The Henshin - you have another form or self that you use to kick ass and fight evil 
  • The Interface - you’re synthetic; built with great powers, but you exist only to serve your Leader
  • The Leash - you have an entity bound to you - powerful, temperamental, and under your complete control
  • The Mascot - you’re not human, but you’re here to help keep these humans from getting themselves killed
  • The Plainclothes - you’re a part of a larger organization, packed with connections, resources, and questionable motives
  • The Shadow - your mastery of stealth means that whether or not you're there is always in question
  • The Volatile - you're powerful enough to destroy any threat, but you lack the control to make sure you don't take the rest of the school with it if you did
  • The Warper - you have the ability to subconsciously shape reality - and you’re completely unaware of it

Each Playbook also has different sub-types that modify your stats, moves, and help define what you are. Once you've created your student, you're ready to start your classes. (Don't be late! And if you are, don't forget your toast!)

Want more? Check out the Playbook packs here and here.

Note: The "Playbooks" PDF, while up to date as far as the game's content is concerned, is visually still a placeholder until "proper" Playbooks can be finished. Until then, use them alongside the blank Playbooks or use this digital Playbook spreadsheet.

StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars
(10 total ratings)
AuthorStaghorn
TagsAnime, PbtA, Tabletop, Tabletop role-playing game
Average sessionA few hours
LanguagesEnglish

Purchase

Buy Now$14.99 USD or more

In order to download this tabletop RPG you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $14.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Oddity High - Core Book.pdf 1.4 MB

Download demo

Download
Oddity High - Playbooks.pdf 3.1 MB
Download
Oddity High - Basic Moves.pdf 445 kB
Download
Oddity High - Lead Writer Reference.pdf 431 kB
Download
OH - Real-Life Character Sheet - blank.pdf 70 kB
Download
OH - Other-Life Character Sheet - blank.pdf 159 kB

Development log

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Comments

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(1 edit)

HELL YES thank you for making this, mostly leaving this comment so I make sure I get updates lol. I gotta get ahold of this soon. A friend got me into Haruhi and showing this to them is gonna make their day

so uh, the new version has no included bookmarks unlike the previous one!

This is why I hate Affinity Publisher. I'll get a version with bookmarks up soon.

One of The Fanservice's EXP gain is to "release someone from your Influence." How do they do that?

You do that via "This Is Who I Am".

Small thing I just found. In the digital Playbook Spreadsheet, the Pragmatist says they start with "People are Pawns," but the 1st Flex Move, as well as the one listed in the playbook is "It's Taken Care Of."

"People Are Pawns" was the name of the original "the Pragmatist always has this and no other Playbook can take it" move, but it was changed to "It's Taken Care Of". I just fixed the issue now - thanks for spotting it!

Yeah, happy to help!

I don't understand the "Hold" mechanic. (I have a physical copy of the book, so if it has been updated in the PDF, please let me know.)
The book basically just says it is a resource that can be generated and spent, but doesn't really say HOW to gain or spend it. 

Thank you for picking up a physical copy and reaching out! Hold is generated by moves that generate Hold as part of their effects, and Hold is spent to use that move's specific effects. For example, the Basic Move get some answers generates Hold when a hit is rolled, and this hold is spent to ask one of that move's questions. You can think of moves that use Hold as having "charges" that can be spent at a later point during a scene. Hold only applies in the context of Hold-using moves, so don't worry about it unless a move says you should.

Ok, so some moves grant X charges, and you can burn a Hold to use that charge. Cool, that helps! Thank you!

Slight confusion over The Shadow's Where Are You? power.
It says what it does on a hit, and what happens on a miss. But it also starts to say something about 7-9 and cuts off, "On a 7-9, you're."
What's the rest of that sentence meant to be?

The sentence should be "On a 7-9, the Lead Writer will tell you what’s threatening your stealth if you’re present." Thanks for catching that; I'll fix it promptly.

Could you please do a release with bookmarks in the pdf?  They make a document MUCH more useable

I was under the impression that the software I was using was doing so automatically. Thanks for catching that it's not there - they'll be in the book's next version.

(+1)

Oddity High is a PbtA game for the normal-high-school-things-but-one-of-those-things-is-weird subgenre. Think Saiki K, Mob Psycho, Haruhi Suzumiya, Full Metal Panic!, Sailor Moon, or maybe Ferris Bueler's Day Off.

It also has a *strong* mid 00s anime ttrpg energy to it, so if you're a fan of stuff like BESM you should already be giving it a closer look.

The current version of Oddity High consists of several PDFs totaling around 200 pages. The core book has colorful, well-organized layout---although it's packed in a little tight. The others are currently bare text. The core book's cover is great and does a stellar job communicating the game's subject matter and tone, but it's the only art piece.

In terms of core mechanics, if you're comfortable with PbtA, you're already comfortable with this game. One big change is the addition of Opportunities---situations in which a character auto-succeeds---which can be created by certain Moves. Another is Obligation---a meter that builds as you try to reconcile the two halves of your life and when it fills causes you to have a public breakdown. Finally there's school clubs, which give you stat bonuses if you join them, but fill your Obligation if you skip them.

If you're not familiar with Powered By The Apocalypse games, this isn't a bad choice for your first one. The nuances of the system are explained clearly and in depth. The setting also thrives on drama, which is what PbtA is best at.

In terms of character creation, you build your PC from two playbooks: one normal, and one weird. NPCs also fall into those two categories: normal and weird. This division line that runs down the middle of the game is a really neat trick, and creates a lot of comedy fodder for situations where an NPC from one side crosses over into the other.

For GM support, there's a lot of advice throughout the book on how to GM, how to use safety tools, what is anime, what are ttrpgs, etc. You could pick up this book with no knowledge of anything it contains and still be decently ready to run it by the time you got done reading it.

Probably the strongest feature of Oddity High is how many playbooks it contains. There's a heap of normal playbooks, a heap of weird playbooks, Angles (think subclasses) for each playbook, and everything is distinct and fits the milieu.

Overall, if you want to play something that feels like Saiki K, emphasizes antics, and has some system meat without being super complicated to learn or teach, this is a good pick. Per the game page, it's still in active development, so more features or content may be added in the future---but it's perfectly runnable in its present state. Check it out if you want a high energy slice of life high school drama.

(1 edit)

What exactly is Finale Advancement? I don't see it mentioned anywhere in rule book nor playbook section.

It's referring to a section that is present in a separate PDF handout. It's something that I had uploaded but, for whatever reason, marked as private. I'll look it over, make sure everything is updated and nothing is incomplete, and make it public shortly. Thank you for pointing this out!

(+1)

Not a problem. My group play with your system and like them a lot.