itch.io

https://miserytourism.itch.io/displacer-beast

Summary: A Pokemon-inspired romp through a moe (but wartorn) Earth where you draw cute or ugly monsters in the Google Translate handwriting screen.  Hesitant to call it a TTRPG, but it's definitely a solo imagination game.

thanks!  insane is what i aim for

This thing is good shit: https://stackedit.io/

In-browser markdown editing that got me started really quick and easily, and exports that look very good.

PLAYFUL CREATIVE PROCESS JAM

For two months, Misery Tourism is hosting a Jam about the creative process, where we encourage people to invent creative processes based around game mechanics.  A great Jam to join if you're experiencing creative fatigue like writer's block.

Entries are split into two types: Processes and Art, and you can make either (or both!).  Make a process if you want to give others a way to get their creative juices flowing.  Alternately, you can take someone else's process (or your own) and make some cool work of art with it!

Two days in, we already have 5 entries, 4 of which are processes, so there is definitely a lot of inspiration to be had if you need a starting point.  This is a chill, unranked jam.  Multiple submissions are allowed.

Tweet your entries with #PCPJam for visibility and fun!

Hey, thanks for the comment (and also thank you so much for taking the time to try out the program—that's beyond what I thought anyone would do!).  In future writings, I will definitely make sure to include some instructions.  Right now it's pretty buggy when you write out longer stuff.  Your comment would almost certainly tax it, since it's designed mostly for 1-page, <150 word prose poems that use the RETURN key a lot (this is something else I'll mention in later, more comprehensive versions).  I'll probably play around with some more builds to try to make it a little more stable, too.  

lol @ the tag yourself thing you suggested.  Although I identify closely with Lifesaber (she's the character I've written most about, in other venues), I think I'll tag MOUSETRAP.  Ayyyy,

Ahh, yeah gotcha.  That makes sense.  

Just to be clear: the following opinions belong to @lynchpoet, one of the people whose work is featured on the Misery Tourism itch.io.  I submitted work to this jam, so I'm voting here, but we're a collective.  

I like this a lot, even though I'm not into philosophy (and I think that most of the textual stuff from Kierkegaard has gone over my head).  

EXPERIMENTATION:  I give this a 4 for experimentation, because the elements of the ghazal it uses—specifically the audience/public participation aspect common in mushairahs, mixed with the mechanical lens of the cards—create an atmosphere in poetry that I don't really believe exists in the traditions of recitation and presentation that I've personally seen.  Further, the cards present a fairly unique way of generating public participation around an artist's work that is really awesome (you mention in the essay that you can basically play this with poems you create, which is great).  I know of some games that do similar stuff with haiku ( Poet Glorious by Kimberley Lam is one example I can think of off the top of my head ), but the use of the ghazal as the centerpiece, and the goal of the work to, as you put it, "...demonstrate by example how both canon-critical and original works in philosophy can be done outside the confines of the now-standard treatise, essay anthology, or journal article" is incredibly out there.  The idea of having some kind of philosophical debate or forum (or even an academic dissertation, or, fuck, even a diatribe/manifesto of some kind) based around a game, where the mechanics inform and arbitrate, is pretty wild shit.

INTERACTIVITY:  I give this a 5 for interactivity, since, uhh, it's literally all interactivity.  It's play that generates discussion.  Sweet.  The companion pieces were cool, and definitely helped me understand the context of the philosophy better, so even if  those aren't strictly interactive, I think they serve an important purpose.  

POLISH:  I think this is a pretty polished piece (leaning towards 4).  One thing I wasn't 100% clear on is how to choose a winner in the Ghazal (the game text mentions a winner at step 6, and I think it's the person who runs out of cards, but what happens if both players decide the verse is complete?).  Could just be something I'm missing.  

POETRY:  This occupies a space at the literal intersection of poetry and gaming (in all senses of that word).  I'm giving it 3 to represent that.  I wish that instead of a 5 star thing, I could just give the answer "Yes" to the question: "Is this a poem or is it a game?"

Hi, just wanted to clarify that this one here is by William H. Duryea, not E.E. COLI as the other one (TRUE NAMES) was.  We appreciate the comments though! 

Not sure if you guys are going to play LARPs, but if you do, I'd love to hear your AP.  If not, no big deal!