Tatzelwurm

The wildly weird and optimistic decade of the 1980‘s. It was a time when roleplaying in Germany was still in its infacy. Only a handful of rpg systems were available, so we relied on writing our own material. And we used the material we found in fanzines, and books, and movies, and comic books. The world, in a quite literal sense, was a simpler place with a slower pace. 

80‘s small-town kids like us grew up on tv shows and roleplaying, and when we played, all these different elements somehow clicked into place and became that undeniable, huge and weird thing that entertained us for years. And in the back, the old tape recorder is playing movie soundtracks. Fond memories of marathon sessions.

Tatzelwurm is the game I‘ve written to create new memories like that. It‘s deliberately vague on the setting, and it‘s definitely „cross-genre“, or using the old pulp definition, „science fiction“. 

So, why is Tatzelwurm such a cool game? Because it uses rules that were used by many wargamers back in the days, or at least are similar to them. It also has all the topics and tropes that were so prevalent in early 80‘s roleplaying. And yes, this means the setting is gonzo. Not only because the heroes will find crashed spaceships and robots, but also because wildly different time periods exist right next to each other. Why? Because it‘s cool.