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Avri here, and I have the outline of an idea for a ghostbox hack, Letters from Camp.  

Hope to have it complete by the end of the submission window, and in time to include it on this year's Solo Not Alone fundraiser.

Thanks for taking the time to leave a note, and for the kind words.  I'm intrigued about how this might be hacked into a duo game.

Welcome, Molly.  If there's one thing that I wish I knew before starting to design games, it's how collegiate and cooperative and supportive the other people doing it are!  If you have questions, ask.  If you are looking for feedback, you'll be able to find it.  If you are worried you don't have the experience or whatever, know that everyone has to have a first design.

I'm looking forward to trying yours!

Hi, Will.  I'm Avri, a New Yorker by birth and by choice - I spent twenty years in between getting educated in England.

Was introduced to RPGs through Red Box D&D in the early 80s and quickly found end explored everything else that came along.  I'm a systems designer - my first published boardgame was for Looney Labs Icehouse / Treehouse / Looney Pyramids system, and soon after came a design for Nestorgames' Shibumi system.

It's no surprise that in shifting gears from boardgames to RPGs I have gravitated towards SRDs.  I Kickstarted a Descended From the Queen game, my first release on Itch was for the Carta system, and I'm currently working on games for Second Guess and for LEADS . . .

And all while the deadline for submitting my short story for an anthology creeps closer . . .

Try Descending the Stairs.

Descending the Stairs is a storytelling card game for 1 to 6 players, detailing the final night at your favorite night club before it closes forever:

In ones and twos, or in big groups you arrive at the club.
The dance floor is crowded as you settle into your usual routine.
This is far from your first night at the club. 
Knowing that it is your last, everything takes on depth and meaning.
You find yourself reminiscing, noticing things you might otherwise have missed . . .

Descending the Stairs is about relationships. It focuses on the players and their characters’ subjective impressions of the club, their history with it, and how that impacts their relationships with others.
For the best experience, expect to listen to each other as the world is being built around you, be attentive to what your fellow players are saying, and incorporate their stories into your own answers.

Thanks to the wonderful photographers of Pexels, Descending the Stairs contains a wide array of staircase images, chosen to inspire the players as they begin each play. Are these the stairs to the oldest rock club in England? To a glittering 70s disco? To an exclusive 19th century social club? To a smoky dive bar? Or are they the stairs to somewhere far stranger?

Standing at the top of the steep and narrow stairs - hot, sweaty, exhilarated.
Feeling thoroughly spent. A night at your favorite club is over. 
But tonight, the club closes forever. 
What will you take with you as you descend the stairs for the last time?

Descending the Stairs is a game Descended From the Queen, designed by Avri, with layout by Adam Vass.

I did wonder about the "draw from the bottom" instruction, and had already decided not to!

Oh - I also learned that I have a lot to learn about layout and graphic design . . .

My first game on itch!  

I loved setting up the numbers, running through a dozen or so plays as fast as possible to get a sense of the win / loss ration, then tweaking the numbers and doing it all again.  It gave me reassurance that the underlying game was fun (and a little addictive) before adding the narrative element.  I was also surprised to find that my playtesters unanimously wanted a harder game to win, not an easier one, and now I love that a victory is a rare thing to be savored.  It is also in keeping with my soccer fandom where the name of my team is sort of a byword for bad luck and futility, with occasional moments of fleeting glory . . .

(I think Fleeting Glory is the name of my next game . . .)

In the dropdown for each file, do you select "Book"?  "Other"?  Does it matter?

(As someone who was never really a videogamer, itch does like to remind me regularly that tabletop / analog games are something of an afterthought here . . .)

(Turned out to be more like 15 to 20 minutes.)

My playtests (mechanical only, no narrative yet) are running 5 to 10 minutes - I flew through a bunch just to get a feel for the win / loss rate, whether or not the *game* underpinning my storytelling is fun.  Figuring 20 to 30 minutes will be the landing point once people are narrating each of 10 to 18 turns . . .

I'm looking to play with Adam Vass' 2d6 dice tech . . .

Was a lot of fun to run this game over the forums at BGG.  Be happy to run again in future.

Thank you for this wonderful game.  My unexpected journal can be found as a session report on RPGG:  https://rpggeek.com/thread/2446809/brief-interlude-alone