one time I had a dream that I unlocked a secret never-before-discovered achievement in Disco Elysium by squeezing into various nooks and crannies and got a special copotype called “Crevice Cop: seek out and inhabit crevices like some kind of man-spider” and I thought yeah!!! man-spider!!! crevice cop!!! this game GETS me!!!
and then I woke up to find that I had fallen partially down into the gap between my partner’s bed and the wall and was horrifically contorted and in agonizing bodily pain from sleeping in a position only comfortable to a brown recluse
Snow's TTRPG Class: Lesson #1, a reading list of experimental rpgs
"Go ahead, put anything here," Tumblr says. Well don't you worry, Tumblr. I will put anything here. Just wait and see.
I wrote this article: https://nerves.games/2023/07/26/snows-ttrpg-class-reading-list/
It's got some words in there. Go check it out. OR, just look this list of games and read them. It's your first assignment. These are all games that I think have pushed on the boundaries of TTRPGs and most of them I would consider experimental. They are in alphabetical order.
If you didn't read the article: this is not a list of best rpgs, or a list of great starter rpgs, or a list of my favorite games! It's simply a list of experimental games that I think pushed the bounds. I think if you're in my internet house (which you are while you read this, welcome in, get comfy, we've got fresh-squeezed water) you should read these and have opinions on them, even if your opinion is "lol, lmao, this is trash." But this is school so you have to put it in a complete sentence of you get an F. Minus.
We're going to be at Gen Con this weekend! Come find us at booth 449 aka Indie Island along with Possum Creek Games, Possible Worlds Games, Matthew Gravelyn, Plus One Exp, and Resident Bard.
We're going to have over 180 different games with us this year, you can see the full list and all other info here: https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/GenCon-2023.html
maybe it's just because i spend my time scrounging around libraries and itch.io and such but i'm often bewildered whenever people talk about everything becoming the same or death of art or everyone being afraid to Get Weird with It. i promise people are still out there getting weird with it. the hegemonic mainstream art remains hegemonic and mainstream. counterculture remains counterculture. as usual. interesting and somewhat off-putting zines cost a little more but the cost of living is pretty high right now, and i don't particularly mind giving an independent artist a few more bucks for their work
Yo, here is some of my art from OUTLIERS, a ttrpg surreal office lab comedy. Featuring mad computers, mystery ooze and the best little filing cabinet monster thingy.
Check it out on the Far Horizons drive thru or itch account here- https://farhorizonscoop.carrd.co
Hey! You know Rathayibacter's game Bxllet, the best ttrpg released in 2021? You should check out Bxllet Clip, a zine by yours truly.
Our first issue is the Pinxps Issue, featuring the delightful Bxllet Gxrls designed by Brian Yaksha. Inside, you'll find a kickass Bxllet hack by Adira Slattery, an interview with Rathayibacter Toxicus, a pair of adventures by Martin Dubuque, brand new rule modules from Rathayibacter, and a crossover supplement between Bxllet's Wastes and Troupe's Fiefs with new classes and Beasts by TheOriginalCockatrice.
Oh, and if you don't have Bxllet, you can grab both Bxllet and Bxllet Clip together in a combo deal at no extra cost! Check it out, and please share widely! I don't have a big social media presence, so any boosts would be appreciated!
Valiant Horizon is finally out! You can get it here! (You can also see various other posts I've made about it on tumblr by clicking that valiant horizon tag.)
Valiant Horizon is a game that features:
Lightweight, fast-paced tactics powered by Total//Effect.
12 unique classes representing archetypes of ancient heroes, each with their own unique traits and powers.
A Relationships and Bonds system that ties you to to the friends you make along the way.
A Reputation system that tells you what kind of heroes your characters are seen as.
A strong emphasis on retelling the memories of ancient heroes to create a setting at your table.
It's also going to have incredible art for each of those classes! I'm itchfunding so I'm less in the hole for that, haha.
ALT
You can back at as low as $15 (which gets you the game right now in its current extremely playable and text-complete state, sans editing and art) or as high as $120 (which gets you the game, all expansions, and I'll write you a new class).
Check it out here! https://binary-star-games.itch.io/valiant-horizon
Thanks so much for everyone's support so far! I've currently cracked the first goal (break even), but I'd love to get to future ones so I can justify giving my incredible collaborators nice bonuses!
I'm already on the hook for 2 more classes, I wonder how many I'll have to make by the end of this? Let's all find out together.
We cannot lie to you, best beloved. Though you may avoid us, there is no escape.
We’re in the walls and behind your eyes. We carved every inch of these tunnels and we’ve seen all that goes on inside them.
Centuries of cities and strangers and frightful, ugly sights. We’d spare you from it if we could, but then maybe you are the adventuring kind after all.
Just remember, no matter where you go, you belong to us. Whether you wait or whether you run, we will find you.
You’re in the Maggots’ Keep now. And that’s forever.
We just launched a new book! THE EXQUISITE CORPSE IN MAGGOTS' KEEP Is a branching narrative gamebook, where your choices guide you deeper into the ichor-slick darkness of MAGGOTS KEEP. Written by over a dozen authors, and illustrated by the modern Goddess of Gloom, @jnbutlerart
Carved by the Garden is my single-player tabletop RPG that's live on Kickstarter until August 5!
It's a journaling game that uses a standard deck of playing cards, a tumbling block tower, a six-sided die, and tokens. There is a preview linked on the Kickstarter page.
This is a folk horror game! If you don't know what that means, it's a mix of media inspirations like The Ritual, The Witch, Midsommar and more. There's also a dash of corrupted folklore and of course cryptids. If you love spooky ghost stories set in the woods, please check it out!
Hit the Road, Jack is a solo/duet game of adrenaline rush and creeping terror. Of chasing and being chased, of being forced to face your sins or to leave them all behind. It is a game of cat and mouse between two characters that we call the Jacks. This is a game that mentions blood, violence, drugs, crime, and death - both deaths you choose and deaths you don’t.
Jack Be Nimble is the sinner, the criminal, and the one being chased.
Jack Be Quick is the lawman, the aggrieved, and the one who chases.
This is their journey cross-country across an empty stretch of highways. By drawing tarot cards and responding to journaling prompts, you will be able to flesh out the nature of these two Jacks, their relationship, and how they deal with whatever the road throws at them.
You can grab your copy over at: https://urania-games.itch.io/hit-the-road-jack
My baby is still funding, and it ain’t too late to get in on it HERE. Expect the lovely laid out version to be released soon! Pictures of that will go up when it’s out!
Earlier this year, I released a new solo TTRPG: VOID 1680 AM. In it, you use a deck of cards, a six-sided die, your music collection and a voice recorder to create your own late-night radio show.
The cards help you dig deep into your collection to reconnect with music you love; they and the die also help you create anonymous Callers and the concerns, hopes and obsessions that drove them to reach out to you, a fellow lone voice in the darkness.
I also included steps for joining the library of Callers for other players to use, and even to submit your full show for broadcast on the "real" VOID 1680 AM. You can see some of those Affiliate broadcasts here. They're genuinely very cool.
VOID was the culmination of a lifelong obsession with commercial radio; both the technology (which feels retro despite scarcely being over a century old) and the melancholy romance of lonesome voices baring themselves to an audience they'll never know the scope of.
This, to me, is an apt metaphor for the act of making something - anything at all. Speak into the Void, the back cover copy says. You never know who is listening. So it is with putting something you love into the world.
So what inspired VOID? I cite both Anamnesisby Sam Leigh and The Wretchedby Chris Bissette in the book itself, two solo RPGs whose tones and methods did much to help me find my own.
But if I'm being truthful, VOID's inspirations mostly reside outside of games. Here are a few things that haunted me profoundly enough to drive me to respond.
The first is Talk Radio, specifically Oliver Stone's adaptation of Eric Bogosian's play. The movie's tagline is "the last neighborhood in America," which to me frames radio's persistent relevance and puts social media - often called a "town square" itself - in proper context as one piece of the many ways people find connection with others, for better or worse.
Contra the VOID DJ, Barry in Talk Radio is very, very aware of how his audience receives him (hint: not well). Barry must be heard, and so must the similarly damaged souls who call in to dump the poison in their brain into his... and everyone who's listening in, besides. It's a host of people who want to connect but don't know how, spiraling in decaying orbit around each other until something awful happens.
VOID 1680 AM was originally much darker before I decided to pull back and let players pick their own tone, and Talk Radio is why.
Oxenfree is a narrative video game about a small group of teens stuck on an island haunted by hungry ghosts who can be tuned in and out of reality with handheld radios. There's more to it than that, but I'll leave you to discover what on your own - because I would recommend this game to just about anyone.
Insofar as VOID 1680 AM can have a "soundtrack," it is this one by scntfc, created using WWII-era radio equipment.
The Vast of Night is a quietly alarming lo-fi/sci-fi set in a small town in New Mexico in the late '50s. A radio DJ and a switchboard operator pick up strange signals, and then... things happen.
This specific radio station (stylized in the poster above) is what I picture for "my" VOID 1680 AM.
Then there's Stevie in The Fog, played by Adrienne Barbeau. She's the bridge between VOID 1680 AM and my earlier solo game, Lighthouse at the End of the World.
She is, yes: a late night DJ. And her radio station is, yes: in a lighthouse. She's living my dream, at least until the ghost pirates show up.
Spoilers, I guess?
But the most important influence? VOID 1680 AM cover artist Jordan Witt's fan art for the podcast King Falls AM years ago. This image took up residence in my head, so much so that I still use it as phone wallpaper despite never having listened to the show it's for.
When it came time to partner with a cover artist, who that cover artist would be was never in question. Entirely unknowingly, Jordan took all these loose ideas in my head and gave them something to cohere to. A beacon, if you will.
They spoke something into the Void, and I listened.
Fun fact: Jordan even jazzed up the original logo I made for VOID 1680 AM when that title only applied to the AM transmitter in my garage. Here's my original - you can plainly see the influence of Jordan's art on that O. It all really came full circle.
Those are the biggest ingredients in the stew that made VOID 1680 AM. It's fun to talk about stuff I like, but also I hope it might nudge someone - anyone - to get going on something they're after.
(That's you. I'm talking about you.)
A project finding its voice is a wonderful thing, but there's no real miracle to it, no outside influence that will tell you what to do. It's just things in your head magnetizing to each other until they got a shape that - with coaxing - can stand on its own.
