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Narrative Alchemy

19
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A member registered Apr 19, 2021 · View creator page →

Creator of

Recent community posts

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I don't use Gen AI anymore, after suggesting to Midjourney that they should block the names of all living artists who haven't opted in... And being ignored. Have also considered changing the cover art after the fact, but didn't think it would fix any of the harm done. You've given me more to think about though. Thank you.

Some LARP communities are very into serious games, Intercon and Knutpunkt / Solmukohta among them. "Playing to lose" / "type 2 fun" style gameplay is how I've most often seen it described. Can link you a few articles on it if you like.

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I believe this is the first time I've had such a detailed review of any game I've written. And you definitely get what I was going for. I should probably add to the description that while I'm not schizophrenic, I have experienced psychosis on a few occasions. In fact, that might be a better word to use, since it's a symptom rather than a diagnosis. I appreciate you pointing that out.

I feel very seen and appreciated by your review. After running a couple of games at Meaningful Play Conference this week, and then reading this, I feel like the time for serious games is definitely upon us. You really hit the nail on the head when you were talking about how play is for adults too. Americans finally seem to be realizing this matters, and I agree with one of the keynote speakers that we're going to be able to change the world with it.

This was a great theme for a jam. If you run more, I look forward to participating in them. And if you would ever like to collaborate on something, that's one of my favorite things to do.

I'm so glad to hear it. This game is new enough that I haven't run it yet, but I'm scheduled to at Meaningful Play Conference in about a week and a half. Hoping to run it at Intercon W in late February / early March also.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to playing it myself. Might run it the next Intercon.

Sure, I'd love to.

Thank you :)  My other silent game, Garden of Pathos, is the only one to win an award to date. So I thought it was time for another. If you like the idea of playing a giant cursed plant in Baba Yaga's greenhouse, you might like that game also.

Thank you for catching that. I came here today to upload a version of the PDF with some minor corrections, only to find that I never uploaded the old one. It should be accessible now. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Sorry, what?

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No problem at all. I'm pretty new to the site and I really appreciate your interest. One of my other games has been downloaded a lot more, but I think this one has generated the most comments and that's pretty interesting. It tells me something about what kind of games I should make more of... But what, exactly?

This is my first game specifically written to not be fun. At all. It's written too be frustrating, upsetting, possibly excruciating for some people. Maybe the point is that I should do more serious games. Already working on one in the new transformative role-playing game design program at Uppsala University. It uses a dyimg bear and her soon-to-be-orphaned cub to try to build empathy for animals, stereotyped people, and the terminally ill. That one's going to need a lot more testing before I let kids anywhere near it.

What is it that made you excited to read this game? That would probably be helpful to know.

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This is an analog game that is designed to be played in person or via Discord. The download is a PDF that you should be able to use with any screen reading software that supports pdfs. If you have any trouble, I should be able to edit the options on the file and re-upload it.

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Thank you! It was so much fun getting to listen in on some of your conversations as the moderator. 

Thank you! I just hope it isn't too upsetting for people to want to play it

You wish it was a book? I'm not sure there's enough material, but maybe I could do a short story based on this game...

I'm planning to do a revised version eventually, but right now I'm focused on my Golden Cobra game for this year.

That's fine. I didn't realize there would be ratings.

Playtesting this game was the most fun I've had at a larp in a while.

Thank you :)  I haven't thought of most of my games as explicitly educational until recently, but maybe I should...

Asking because I write larps and TTRPGs.