itch.io

I played Earth Mother, Sky Father with my friend Gabrielle last week, and geez is it good.

You're on the edge of your seat as the other player is choosing a prompt for you. More than once the hair was standing up on my arms. Every follow-up question feels so emotional. And it's all because of how real conversation works, how it creates an emotional space, how we take risks with the words we use and how it reveals us to be seen by others.

I think there's a kind of game design that is outside the circle of what we usually think of as game design and that I only usually see in duet games like this and journaling games. It's a kind of game design that understands how words and conversation create identity and human connection and validation. Earth Mother, Sky Father's prompts and language are so intentional. The path through them is so intentional. The way the follow-up question is done is so perfect. It's so easy for the other player to choose exactly the right word for you to follow-up on, because of how we reveal ourselves with words. It's masterful game design. I really love it.

Thank you for writing it.

Aha. Right. Remember the card numbers of all the travelers to try to get five near matches with the cards in your hand. Okay.

Page 11 says "Flip the top card in the Legacy," but the game doesn't use that term anywhere else. From context I'm pretty sure you mean Testament?

And you shuffle the Testament before this?

Thank you :)
And yes, you can go diagonal, and the path can cross itself.

I'm not planning to do a digital version. With zines I really like the fun of physical books. Sending them as stamped letter mail, and people getting them in the mail, feels like I'm being truer to the spirit of zines than a pdf or ebook.
I've done my best to keep the price down, and sending them as stamped letter mail is part of it. One to you in Brazil as stamped letter mail is currently just under $5 for the stamps.
Email me: paul (at) halfmeme (d*t) com

Hey Keith,

I'm launching a zine soon (like July 9th if things work out) about playing immersive journaling games, and I budgeted to send a copy to anyone whose game I talk about in it. It's called Inscapes: How the Worlds We Make Make Us Who We Are. It's a sequel to my prior zine The Ink That Bleeds.

And I briefly mention The Wandering Lake in it. But it was a super affecting play experience for me. So if you'd like a copy, I'd love to send you one. I just need your mailing address. You can DM it to me on Twitter @paulczege, or email it to me paul *at* halfmeme d*t com

Thanks. It's a great game.

Paul

Your cards are mostly so representational, but I'm having a hard time with the Queen of Pentacles. Help me? I'm looking down at something? What am I looking at?

Seeing the games they review/collect/comment on?
Not missing a new release from them when they publish it?
Some other reason?

Hi again,

I'm launching that zine I mentioned this coming week. It's about playing immersive journaling games, and I budgeted to send a copy to anyone whose game I talk about in it. It's called The Ink That Bleeds.

And I talk about Hopelessly Devoted a lot, and include several excerpts from my play. It was a super affecting play experience for me. So if you'd like a copy, I'd love to send you one. I just need your mailing address. You can DM it to me on Twitter @paulczege, or email it to me paul *at* halfmeme d*t com

Thanks. It's a great game.

The pre-launch page for The Ink That Bleeds is here if you want to see it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/252728880/the-ink-that-bleeds-how-to-play-i...

Great. Thanks. I'll play it soon.

Hi, I have a question. 

It says if the sum of the numbers you rolled is *less* than last time you get a clue, and if the sum is *less* than last time you get a setback. Was one of these supposed to be if the sum is more than what you rolled last time?

Hi. It's a great game. Super immersive. One of the most affecting journaling game experiences I've had. I'm writing a zine about playing immersive journaling games and I'm going to talk about it a lot.

I do have a question about calculating Adherence. For Acts of Solidarity it says to score every third instance. Do you mean to score instances 1, 4, 7, etc, or to not score the first or second instance, and score 3, 6, 9, etc.

And I presume the same principle will apply to Acts of Selfhood and Acts of Commitment. Do you score the first instance for them, or not score anything until the second for Acts of Selfhood, and fourth for Acts of Commitment?

Thanks.
And thanks for making the game :)

Thank you :) 

He just got home from school and checked the sales. He's pretty excited. 

Awesome. Thank you. I hope you have fun. Definitely let us know how it goes.

Just played it. It's a great game. It knows how to use language to create the right sensations in your body for immersion. It knows how repeat interactions bring a character to life. It knows the power of a shared dream. Super affecting and fun.

The one page version of Last Tea Shop is one of the most affecting journaling games I've played. I bought the expanded version instantly.

Seriously thinking about A Champion and Her Liege. Not sure I'll have time before the deadline though, so if you have eyes on the cover I can step aside.

Just read this today. It's exceptional. Provocative of player desire. Suggestive of its situations and elements and then trusts what you do with them. Intense climactic outcome possibilities. Probably the best de-role/debrief procedure I've seen in an immersive horror game. Betrays a lot of insight into intimacy, creativity, player motivation, and play in its procedures.

A tabletop RPG designer named Michael Prescott proposed that people design stand-alone RPG subsystems that groups could mix and match together to create their own custom ruleset for play. To me that means the systems can have an effect on the shared story, and can be triggered for use by things that happen in the shared story, but can't otherwise interact mechanically with each other. So, like, one subsystem for character creation can't tell you to create a character with hit points that another subsystem for poisons tells you to reduce. I think it's a super fun design space. Theoretically the ones I've made can be mixed and matched with ones by other designers.

https://paulczege.itch.io/you-are-what-you-eat-chargen-for-mosaic-strict

https://paulczege.itch.io/spin-the-battle-for-mosaic-strict

https://paulczege.itch.io/a-lovemaking-for-mosaic-strict

https://paulczege.itch.io/raise-the-dead-for-mosaic-strict

Oh, you know me too well. 

Okay. Requesting photo inspiration. 

Ah, it's supposed to be an aside after describing a few of the tokens, talking about how sometimes it'll be easy, and sometimes you'll need more conversation. But then the examples I used in it are more about social class. Hmm. I could rewrite the examples to be a little more wide ranging.

Hmm. When I designed it for the game jam what I wanted was for it to feel like a mechanical interlude. Like a time spent in an unfamiliar city with its own unique mechanics, which plays out, and then it's over. Like something you'd drop into the middle of your OSR game. The characters go to Viricorne to atone for their crimes, the mechanics are specific just to their time in the City, and maybe someone satisfies the Stay plaque and has to make up a new character, but otherwise when the token supply is in the discard, or players just don't have anything more they want to do, they leave, and the location and mechanical interlude is over.

If you need files for making a set of tokens and plaques, email me ( paul at halfmeme dot com ). I can get you something for how you're thinking of doing it.

You mean Traverser (not Infinite Past)? 

I agree. Play a session of Traverser and you can't stop thinking how every other RPG gets its energy from disagreement, and Traverser gets its from agreement. 

Thanks Davey. 

Yeah, there's no way to direct message anyone on itch.io.

It's been difficult to make progress writing Traverser during the pandemic, but I'm working on it. Thanks for the motivation. 

Paul 

This is my most desired feature from itch.io. Collaboration is a source of creative energy, but I shy away from it because it's a wearying accounting commitment. I'm sure I'm not alone. Revenue apportionment functionality would unlock a lot of collaborative energy for people. 

Yeah, to play it over video you'd have to physically mail the sheets to the other players in advance.
Or someone might cook up a spreadsheet with the storytelling guidelines hidden until you click a checkbox to reveal them.

Thanks. I'm glad you like it.

Thank you. Yes. A fun solution might be to ask a friend with Timeline to draw the three cards for when you play and text you photos of them. 

Or there's a version for Tabletop Simulator maybe? 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1861505181

I'm hosting a jam about writing stories of playing RPGs and storygames people don't think they'd otherwise ever get to play. Imagine the circumstances and players that would make it possible, and write about playing the game. I just published my own submission about playing La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo. It's free. Check it out if you're interested. Thanks for inspiring it.

Fantastic. It's clear mags gets the game, and had fun giving herself the fictional experience of playing it.

Hi  Jane!

1. No length requirement, so write it however you want. But for me, I think 3000-6000 words is a good range. Long enough to show what you think is the core fun of the game and some player and game drama.
   And I was assuming most people would submit pdfs, but a text file or rtf file would be fine. You can export from Google Docs as a pdf.
2. There's so many tabletop RPGs and storygames on itch (and on RPGnow and elsewhere) that no one's talking about playing and that I was hoping people would think would be fun to write about playing. It's what inspired the jam. Would you like suggestions?
3. Yes, like Jumanji. The story of people playing a tabletop game. I was thinking a roleplaying or storytelling game, but if you're inspired to write about playing a board game I'd be excited to read that too.

   
   

Paul

I would like to see this implemented as well. 

I just submitted it:
https://paulczege.itch.io/a-viricorne-guide
If any of you want a download code, DM me on Twitter @paulczege, on Mastodon @paulczege@dice.camp, or email me at paul@halfmeme.com.

Paul

Well, writing 5000 words in seven days is a big challenge. It's a big part of why I decided to do something that's more about experiencing an interesting city ⁠— because writing several thousand words of setting and situation in seven days is more achievable than designing and writing the same amount of mechanics. Five thousand words of mechanics is a substantial, mechanically complex game.

And then last night I used Google Translate on the thread where people linked to their submissions from prior years and saw that others had also found city exploration as their solution to the writing challenge.

But even still, I will need to do a lot of brainstorming prior to the start of writing. In order to hit five thousand words I'll need to generate a lot of inspiration. Years ago I read Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, which encourages creators to do three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing every morning, as a way of letting their creative brain develop confidence and power. She calls them the "morning pages". I've been doing them for almost twenty years, pretty regularly. Mostly what I write is unremarkable garbage. Thoughts about sounds I can hear at the moment. Thoughts about what I need to get done that day. Frustrations about life. But I came up with the idea for My Life With Master in the morning pages back in 2002, and I brainstorm about other game ideas in them all the time. So for this project I expect to brainstorm all kinds of stuff, both mechanics and about the city, in hopes of generating enough quantity of inspiration to support five thousand words during the writing phase.

Hi, I'm Paul Czege. I've been designing and self-publishing RPGs for just over fifteen years. I don't know how well-known American RPGs are in Portugal, but if you know one of my games it's probably My Life with Master.

In the United States it's summer break from school for my not quite eight-year-old son, so ordinarily I wouldn't have time in early August for a game jam, but he's on a driving vacation with my sister-in-law to Disneyland for most of the dates of the jam, so I'll have time to do it.

I don't have a title for my game yet, but my idea is that it's about adventuring in a city with many social groups.

I'm excited about participating in a jam that isn't organized in the English-language design scene. I really like the creative presence of international designers on itch.io. There's lots of south-east Asian designers doing interesting things. A future that spans languages and cultures feels like an exciting future for RPGs.

This not-a-game is thoroughly great. It invokes a strength people need in the world in an intense, but wondrous and caring way.

This not-a-game is thoroughly great. It invokes a strength people need in the world in an intense, but wondrous and caring way.