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TTRPG Class: How to Write

Previous Post: Quasi-Text

First Post: Reading List

This was originally posted in my huge post-mortem on the .dungeon//remastered kickstarter and its success. I’m separating it from that and making it its own thing. I’ll be elaborating some of the smaller points and expanding definitions. Things like that. 

Firstly, I will say that if you are trying to be a writer for a company or get hired by someone else? These might not help you. Those companies are looking for you to write like them, which depends upon the project and countless variables I can’t quantify. It’s also an entire skill of its own. Freelance or ghost writing can often be about how well you understand different voices, different systems, and things of that nature. I’m honestly not *the best* at that kind of thing. These tips are specifically to help with the writer’s broader craft; specifically, the craft of TTRPG writing which I have found myself a professional in.

Don’t be boring. If you’re bored, skip it. Delete it. Forget about it. 

I picked this up from a screenwriting book way back before I decided to go back to college and while I was deep in the weeds of writing scripts for the movies I had in my head. The original tip-giver said to write “don’t be boring” on a post-it note and slap it on your monitor. I did that for a very long time until the post-it lost its stickiness and fell off in a move. 

This is important to TTRPGs because you don’t have to write everything. Even if you think a game needs a thing, if you aren’t excited about it, skip it. Chances are that what you’re excited about will be what you want others to be excited about as well.

2. Have a routine.

I fail at this quite often. Life changes shift my routine and knock it out of whack. But I do know that when I was in college? I had a routine and my writing output was ridiculous. And when I work on a project I tend to settle into a routine that involves waking up, exercise of some kind (usually a walk), shower, ride bike or walk to Library or coffee shop, write as much as I can, and come home to decompress/work on layout. 

Each project has had its own routine essentially and it’s important to let those routines form. I think fluidity is important even within the rigidity of the idea of Routine. Each project will have its own life and its own functions within your life. Let yourself discover new ways and new paths to reach the end goal. 

3. When writing fiction, aim for 2k words daily.

This is Stephen King’s thing. I used to do this and whenever I am writing *fiction* I still have it as my goal. But it is unattainable a lot of the time. Especially with games writing, where even just 10 words can be the focus of an entire day of work. Don’t beat yourself up over this. 

4. Write in paragraphs. Each should be an idea, preferably separated by headers. Otherwise you’re probably saying too much.

Sometimes I write in bullet points, but that’s an outline at best. A paragraph is one of the best tools you have as a writer. But it also allows you to set limits on your ideas so you’re not writing walls of text to describe your magic system or anything else. It helps you figure out your more complex systems and point out the individual ideas that make it up. If you’re writing several paragraphs about one thing? It’s probably several things that you’re trying to wedge into one.

5. Instead of writing a random generator for something, just write the good version of that thing.

6. Make a map. Put your ideas on the map. No more lists or procedural generation.

Personal pet peeve of mine. I’m not huge on random generators. I will always say that, instead of writing 100 random ideas for islands, just write one good island. And if you’ve got more in you after that? Perfect. My goal with Game Writing is to present something that’s worth paying for and worth exploring. Whether it’s a rule book or otherwise. I try to avoid random tables as often as I can.

7. Theme comes later. First, the writing.

This may be contentious. I view the act of writing as an act of discovery. I greatly enjoy Automatic Writing. I tend to follow a very train-of-thought style of writing. It feels similar to a valve that I turn on to clear out and let clean water flow. If I get caught up in the Big Picture, I’ll never get the faucet running. Get everything out of yourself before you begin self-editing. Let it all be laid out so you can look at it and then discover what It is.

8. When writing rules, remember “if…then.”

If a player chooses this option, then this happens. If a player rolls low, then this happens. And so on. This is helpful when simply stating a rule. You don’t want to get burdened by word choice. You want it to be clear and easily understood. If-then statements are easy to understand. 

9. Get a good editor and listen to them.

A good editor will tell you you’re wrong. A good editor will ask you to rewrite things because they don’t make sense. A good editor is critical but not malicious. This relationship is mutual and about respect for the work. It’s not about egos or hype. It’s simply about making the best book you can. Also, if you can’t defend a choice you’ve made, then listen to your editor when they tell you to cut it.

10. A great game is made of “catch-all” or “default” rules. Such as, “when in doubt, roll d20. Higher numbers are better.” They’re easily grasped and fill the gaps that all TTRPG texts have.

Yeah. I think all of the games people hold up as “great” have these. PbtA is built entirely on one catch-all rule that has changed the landscape of indie design since it was put on the page. It makes things easier for folks at the table when things are moving away from the text.

11. Your goal is to write one thing that’s True. This is the Work.

This is my goal when writing and sometimes it doesn’t happen. Sometimes I write thousands of words and they’re all useless. And it will always be useless until I find that One True Thing. Sometimes an entire book is just for that One Thing.

12. Refill the tank. Life is important and creates art.

This is what a screenwriting teacher said to me. “Refill the tank.” You have to participate in life to be able to write. That doesn’t mean you have to be extroverted and shit like that. It means that you gotta do things that recharge you. You gotta have experiences. You have to live your life. Have a life. 

13. The writer’s job is asking “what if?”

Stephen King might have said this too? I don’t remember. But yeah, I spend a lot of time asking “what if–” and seeing which weird scenarios spark my interest enough to write. For games or for fiction.

14. Read. A lot.

I count audiobooks. But, yeah. You gotta read stuff. Other games, novels, short stories, blogs, comics even. Take in art. It’s actually your number one job as a human. Enjoy art.

15. Go for a walk without music or a book-on-tape or a podcast. Walk and talk to yourself. Ask yourself questions about what you’re working on. Talk to yourself. Be in conversation with yourself. You are complicated and deserve attention.

I mean it :I They say the best ideas come to you in the shower. Well, that’s also true for any quiet, introspective time.

16. Have peers. Not just collaborators or colleagues, people whose work you respect. They should make you want to be better.

I get jealous of other people’s work and that’s how I know. When I’m like, “FUCK! I wish I thought of that!!” Those are the people I wanna talk to haha

17. If things just aren’t coming? Take a break. If you’re feeling aggravated, eat some food, drink some water, and get some rest.

You can’t force it. I know we can’t all take a break whenever we want, but please try.

18. Know yourself. Most people can’t sit alone with themselves. But knowing yourself is paramount. Therapy can help too. Knowing yourself means knowing why you like something, developing taste and not hiding it, knowing where to waste your time and where not to. This takes time. This is the Work.

I learn something new about myself nearly every day. I’m very curious about myself. I’m a studier of Myself. I want to know how it all works up there in my brain. I want to make it make sense. 

19. A hex/encounter/dungeon room/story can just be a weird, little guy.

Yeah. You can do Dungeon23 right now by just browsing pinterest and saving a bunch of images of cools NPCs. Your whole dungeon can just be pictures of NPCs that you make up personalities for at the table.

20. Write the game you want to play, not the one you think others will.

I think I wrote this in response to another project I saw at the time. But it’s true at all times. We’re indie designers. Why else are we doing this if not to tell our stories? 

21. Make sure your needs are taken care of by the budget before hiring collaborators.

It’s common in the indie TTRPG space to rely on collaborator clout to draw people to your project during crowdfunding. And it’s common for those sorts of things to ruin a project financially. The process will always take longer than you expect, so please make sure YOUR needs are met before you start paying other people. There’s nothing worse than promising a paycheck to someone and having to rescind the offer because something happened and you had to use their money on rent. Like, just please? Care for yourself. 

22. No stretch goals.

This is a Me thing. But I say it to everyone who comes to me asking for advice on their first crowdfunded project. Keep it simple. You want to deliver. You don’t want to overpromise. You simply want to be able to do the thing so that you can do another one later. Take it slow.

23. When writing Hurt, the most important thing is that you are human. What you feel is human. What happened to you is also human.

This is about empathy. For your characters and situations they find themselves in. It’s also about honesty. The most biting and beautiful passages of my favorite books have been honest. Because the truth is, when experiencing Hurt, things aren’t so cut and dry in your head. And your reactions might seem weird in hindsight. You might feel ashamed or guilty for not reacting a certain way. Just please have empathy for yourself. The readers will relate to the honesty.

24. End all dialog with “said.” It’s all you need.

This is a good rule because it means you have to choose to break it. Which means you have to think about why you’re breaking it. Which means you can defend breaking it. Which means your editor has to listen to you for once. :P

25. Writing is a skill as much as it is an art. Give it respect. Good writers don’t simply fall out of the womb. They mastered a craft. Not unlike any other skill or discipline. You won’t build a good chair on your first try.

It took me a long time to learn this. Writing is actually very hard and every good paragraph you read is a masterpiece of patience and skill. 

26. Find time to write. How else can you be a writer?

I hate including things because I see a silly take on twitter. But yeah, obviously. Writers write. 

27. Writing can be lonely, but shouldn't be solitary. No book is made by one set of hands.

This is true of every project I’ve done. Even my most recent effort, Melancholy Island, had my friend Char’s photography in it. Beyond that, I talked to my best friend Coleen frequently about it just to keep my head straight and focused. I also have my discord where I would lament and talk and such. Each of these things are helpful in the process of writing. Don’t isolate yourself.

28. Having an opinion is easy. Having a good one worth defending is the Work. If you have nothing to say, do anything other than write.

This may be more true of non-fiction writing, but it’s true of TTRPGs as well, otherwise you’d just play one of the thousands upon thousands of games that are already out. Figure out why it is you *don’t* want to play them and focus in on that. Your opinion lies somewhere in there.

29. Never submit a first draft.

Like, please? Have more respect for your craft. I think third draft at the earliest. That’s when I usually get an editor.

30. Don’t follow trends.

31. Writing is about making choices. Half measures are worthless. Make a choice. If it’s the wrong choice: that’s fine.

32. When writing games, you’re composing an incomplete text. Otherwise it’s a script. Choosing to write a game over a novel is an important decision.

These are all related. 

33. The two ideas circling your head are actually one idea.

I combine ideas that seem disparate all the time. It unlocks the Good Stuff.

34. Take yourself seriously. Listen to yourself. This is how you gain confidence.

35. You need to learn to say, “That’s a bad idea.”

These two both boil down to “have confidence in, and know, your taste.”

36. When writing, ignore the first thing that pops into your head. Ignore the second thing too. The third idea is where the work starts.

I’ve found when running games, the first idea I think of is often the most obvious. The second one ends up being a gimmick or a twist. But the third idea is where the humanity tends to come in. Thinking beyond tropes and cliches to find the Truth you’re trying to say.

37. Western writing traditions are not the world.

I wish I had been taught this in school. Cause the hero’s journey ruined me for a long time.

38. If you aren’t sure if you can or should write something: experience more art. You don’t need permission. You need to broaden your horizons. You’re not the first to tread this path.

We’re hardly ever doing something truly original. Find the blueprints and figure out how to make them yours. Use them to tell your story.

39. If you can’t say why you chose to do something, shut up and listen to your editor.

Yeah! :I

40. The most beautiful critique isn’t worth as much as the most mediocre art.

Keep making art.

41. Copy writing you enjoy. Assimilate it.

I steal ideas, concepts, and techniques from every single thing I read/experience. This is how you become more skilled at your craft.

42. Your job, as a writer, is to make a claim. Any claim. Your art can’t be for everyone. You can’t write for the lowest common denominator. You can’t write for the widest possible audience. Be you. That’s how you find your audience.

You’ve got things to say! Even if you don’t know it yet. That is part of the Work.

If you like my work, support me on patreon!

And check out my latest book over on itch!

#TTRPG school #ttrpg education #ttrpg community #ttrpg

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I made the a youtube video for the first time in a while.

#youtube #essay #video essay #destiny2

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This is my pretty new book.

The system is easy to pickup and play and gives a ton of fun/weird things to do with your character.

Weird gods too.

It has stitched binding, meaning it lies flat.

This is my favorite spread. It's about darkness and white hides in it.

It's free to read on itch and there's still a few physical copies on nerves.store.

#ttrpg #ttrpg community

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calling this one "psychic damage"

#music #i make music #idk #im tired

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working on music maybe

#music

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Songbirds

I'm p new at tumblr; read, bad. But I want to talk about Songbirds. It's a game I've been working on for a very long time. Iterating on it. Creating new versions over and over until finally setting on the one that exists today. It's right here if you click on this line.

The cover is done by Charlotte, the creator of Daisy Chainsaw. I watched her draw it over a discord call while I created the itch page. I remember telling her "I want it to be like that scene from evangelion when Asuka gets torn apart."

Anyways, here's some screenshots of the pdf. I hope you go check it out.

There's also a game jam going on. Lots of great submissions from lots of great folks.

There's helpful tools for running/playing the game, like this automatic dungeon generator made with google sheets from coffee johnson. And this set of google sheets with character sheets, a calendar, and more from Ida Ailes.

There's also an entire setting made up from a groups' several-year-long campaign. It's put together by Thursday, Ida, and Selene M.

It's really great to see all the submissions and I've put together a few myself. One is an adventure for the base game, and the other is a mini-setting inspired by fan-fiction.

I put a ton of work into this and I appreciate you taking the time to read this. Hope you end up checking it out. Let me know if you dig it <3

Oh, I also have this thing where if you play the game and write up a play report, if you post it somewhere and send me a link I'll send you the next *thing*, whatever it is, for free. So like the next adventure or the next setting or whatever.

#ttrpg #ttrpg community #songbird

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Game Design Diary #2 - Stats??

Image by Wayne Edson Bryan, found on pinterest (that's the aesthetic i'm going for with this project, but with more color)

[[Previous Post]] [[Next Post]]

Hello. It's 1:05am. I'm tired. But today I worked on Euclidean. Mostly I spent time trying to nail down what the stats are.

Since this is a hack of Songbirds, I now there will be four stats and at least 4-5 skills per stat. I'm a big fan of d20+stat just because. It's what my brain defaults too. But I also like it for world building reasons as well.

For Songbirds, I sat and asked myself "what does an adventurer in this world need?" For Euclidean I want to do the same, but the question is closer to "what does a modern, tactical soldier need to do their job?" Or, maybe more apt, "what are they measured by?"

It's important, for me, to think about how the stats and the skills aren't total representations of a character. They are simply the things their job or the world measures them by. So, they speak to a greater understanding of what the world expects from them.

Expectations are key to roleplaying because, if you don't know what the world expects from you, you can't figure out how you fit into all of that. Or, if you don't know how your job measures you, you won't know how well-suited you are for it. Plus a ton of other nuances that are harder for me to spell out in as few words as I want to use in this post.

So here's what I got so far:

My stats are PSYChology, TECHnique, some kind of dexterity, and then another one (I'm thinking of calling it Medical or something?). I have two down, one more's premise but not the name, and then a last one that I'm unsure of.

Psychology is based on psy-ops. It's intelligence in the military sense. Like, gathering intel, strategy, terror, diplomacy, and secrets. Technique covers things like teamwork, explosives, security, recon, and field medic stuff (so maybe not a medical stat? idk yet.)

The dexterity stat handles things like precision/marksmanship, surprise, and stalking (sneaking). I'm thinking of calling it Tactical but i'm not sure if that says what I want it to say. This stat is all about the use of your body with precision. Accuracy. Stuff like that.

The last stat is the one I'm struggling with right now. I'm having a hard time pinning down what else you need to be an operator. My first thought is to have a Combat stat. Like, the stat that kicks in when you're in fight or flight.

Because, if I think about what I have so far, psyc is the mind of an operator, technique is the, well, technical part of being an operator, like, the tools you need trained in and how well you can use those tool. Dexterity is the reflexes and accuracy of the operator. What else do they need?

Tactical thinking, tools, honed body, and??? Maybe the last one has to do with luck? Or, like, the things that training can't account for. Or maybe one that deal with the body more specfically. With skills like guts, nerves, resilience. It's what you roll to not go into shock when you get shot, or the one. you roll to push through a lot of pain.

I don't know. But it'll come to me.

That's all I have today. Plenty more noodling to do. But next post I can talk about the basics of the system and finally loop back around to the gif i posted last diary entry.

Till then...

#ttrpg community #ttrpg #design diary #project euclidean

[secretsnowclub]

My award-winning TTRPG, My Body is a Cage, is being reprinted! Go support an endangered artist and their new cat by picking up a copy on nerves.store.

It's a hardcover, full-color book. 8.5x11 landscape. Stitched binding.

If you don't know what it is, it's a 2d6 game where you balance slice-of-life drama and dungeon crawling.

You get 6 randomly rolled stats and choose a bingo-card for the archetype of character you want to be, trying to accomplish the bingo squares to earn more dice so you can do more stuff and hopefully make enough money to pay rent. Exciting stuff.

But yeah, go check it out.

#ttrpg #ttrpg community #ttrpg art

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Project Euclidean

This is a design diary for Project Euclidean.

Project Euclidean is the code name for whatever ends up being the real name. It's a hack of Songbirds 3e, with new rules, skills, yada yada yada. I'm not sure of what all will be in it yet.

Here's what I know:

It's a "tacti-cool" dungeon crawler.

You play as clones (or at least that's what you're told) who are sent into "abandoned" super structures left in space.

It takes place 7 mass extinctions from now, after humanity has crawled out to the edges of the universe, neared extinction, crawled to the edge of the universe, neared extinction, and so on and so on.

There are "alien" things. Tech and so on. But it's all just shit we made and left behind or forgotten. There are entire eras of humanity that we know very little about, much like the Us of Now know very little about dinosaurs in the grand scheme of things.

The theme is that "hell is real and we created it." I don't quite know what that means yet though.

The mission statement, or the goal of this hack, is to make an easy-to-run game that is quick to pick up and great for one-shots (missions). This is so that I can make high lethality sci-fi dungeons and run them *only* at conventions, with the idea being that you are there to see how far you can get. I want to tap into that FOMO. Each convention appearance will have a new, original dungeon. You will be able to buy the game at all times (it'll probably be free) but the dungeons can only be bought at the specific convention its made for.

My hope for this? Create a completely unique experience for each person who can arguably maybe go to one con a year. You will get Cool Shit that only you and your fellow con-goers will get. The folks at the con next month? They can't get that cool new gun attachment that let's you laser-point the firing area for an orbital canon. Just like you won't be able to get the cool trinket that makes your shotgun shoot fire on a natural 20.

This will be contentious, I know. But I think that's kind of the point. I a.) want to go to more cons and b.) don't want to just sell the same ol thing at them. If I'm going to make going to cons part of my job, I want it to be for unique stuff.

Fall back? I'll post the dungeon on my patreon so patreon supporters will still be able to get them and run them. That sounds nice and maybe makes my patreon better.

But idk.

Follow me if this sounds up your alley. Or, if you want to hear my thoughts as I go about designing a hack. If you don't know me and want my credentials? I'm a loser film school graduate who made .dungeon, lilancholy, my body is a cage, vultures, and some other stuff. That's all I got.

In the next one I'll talk about what the weird gif at the top of this post is.

#design diary #project euclidean #ttrpg

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Some of the writing in this game is kinda weird... 🎸🏳️‍🌈

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translator? uhm.. im actually trans right now

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TTRPG School: What is an RPG? Or, Defining a Quasi-Text

 This was written recently for the new edition of .dungeon, but I wanna share it with y’all.

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Cameron Burger (@camcamburger) coined the term “Quasi-lore” to talk about the worldbuilding of Minecraft. Quasi means “almost” or “resembling,” so, quasi-lore is not-quite-lore, just hints and clues that motivate an audience to come to their own conclusions about a fictional world. 

I want to go a step further and say that an RPG book is not a Text in the sense that it gives you the proper and complete instructions, rules, and information. An RPG book is, by design, a quasi-text, giving hints, clues, and advice about play that motivates the players to then produce play between each other.

I like to think of it this way because there is no way for an RPG book to hold every possible challenge, and every possible solution to every possible challenge. It can’t hold the answers to every possible question. It can’t account for every possible person who might want to play. And that is not a downside, it is a benefit.

Part of the beauty of role playing games is that there are no limits to the things that can happen. There is no computer with a set amount of power or a planned series of events with a predetermined solution to its contrived problems. It’s a collaborative effort in a way most other mediums aren’t, limited only by the people who are playing together at the time. 

A lot of words have been written about this. Crack open any RPG book and it will most definitely have a “what is an RPG” section. But the main thing this phenomenon has led me to believe, is that our language alone isn’t enough to convey or define the totality of collaborative storytelling or playing. And because of this, a very important part of an RPG cannot exist inside of a Text. It can only be created and sustained while playing.

A quasi-text doesn’t force people to see it or think of it a certain way. It’s quasi-nature allows it to be used to tell a million different stories, by allowing the players to discover or create connections between the incomplete ideas and rules presented by the text. You, the reader, or your fellow players, can peruse the book and use what’s there to think of new concepts that fit nicely inside the book’s themes, while still leaving enough, or even creating more, quasi-lore for everyone to build on.

This is what makes rpgs so collaborative. It’s in the limitations of language and definition. It’s in the limitations of the individual to cover all possible avenues. As a game designer, I can only ever hope to create a quasi-text that inspires people to Play. .dungeon is my attempt at that. There are rules and lore that this book cannot give you. There are things purposefully left open or nebulous, and not “because of vibes,” but because I simply cannot know. 

“Connection” is the biggest example and one I got a lot of questions about when people read the first edition of .dungeon. This book will not tell you how long a campaign of .dungeon should last, or how much Connection you should lose every session. Each group that sits down to play will have a unique experience with Connection . Some campaigns will end quickly, others will go for much, much longer. 

That is intended. 

You won’t know when you’ll get a “game over.” You can’t know what random encounter or boss battle will be your last. Which adventure you’ll go on last. You won’t know how many people you’ll meet, or who will be important to you in the end. The text of the book knows how to measure this and can tell you what happens when it’s gone. But what it can’t tell you is how it will happen or when. 

Your duty as an RPG player is to meet these unknowns with confidence, because your answer will be unique to you and the other players. It will be unique to this particular moment of your life. By design, there are no wrong answers between the gaps of a quasi-text. There are only your answers.

#.dungeon #ttrpg education #ttrpg community #ttrpg

[secretsnowclub]

Prose poem called "the office"

His bones ache like the mushy core of a rotten apple. He feels it inside his knees and behind his shins as he walks. Into work. It’s in his back when he twists and pops. He dreams that he is a collapsing brick building someplace out west and thinks, “what if it’s my brain that’s rotting? Becoming black soup that can be swirled with a big, wooden spoon.” When he thinks these things he feels nothing. Except a thin ocean outline inside of him. A negative space that sloshes with something ancient and scared.

#prose poem #poetry #i am a writer please forgive me

[secretsnowclub]

It's just been one thing after another lately and now I'm stuck away from home with a car that needs fixed. Any help sharing this around would be really nice. I need a "w."

#ttrpg #ttrpg community

[secretsnowclub]

Huge mood.

One of the things I find myself constantly harping on and telling newer creators is that, with the bar being raised by PROFESSIONAL people with years of training, salary, and hundred-thousand-dollar kickstarters, the barrier for entry into this industry is ridiculously high for a solo creator to compete.

Even 3 years ago it was much easier for someone, like me for instance, to get into this industry in a substantial way. Now? You either need to know a lot of people, have a well-paying job outside of this industry, or have professional skills brought in from some other job/industry.

I hate it! I've had to learn so many things that don't actually make me a better creator in order to even try to keep up, which just causes me burnout.

I'm not very parasocial or present in a lot of spaces cause that kind of thing is hard for me. But you can always reach out to me for assistance. I'm always here to lower the ladder and try to do it without being asked whenever I can. But please don't be afraid to ask. I am not that scary, I promise.

Too Many Hats! The Burden of Indie TTRPG Design

The beauty of being in a world where making games is so accessible is that you can do it all by yourself! No need to pay others for their labour (because we don't have money but our friends/colleagues deserve to be paid!)

Just do it yourself.

Sure, the hat you wear is game designer, but layout templates range from free to cheap, so put on that layout artist hat and try your best!

Oh, but you need art, and none of the resource packs you've bought have exactly what you want, so time to make something minimalist using photos on your camera roll and photoshop I guess? Don that artist hat. You can draw some playing cards! It's easy!

Now it's time to put the game online. You've read it through and made changes, putting on the editor hat in the process. Now it's time to make a summary and all the other chores the publisher hat you just put on requires.

But who will know you've put out the game? Time for the marketing hat to go on. People do prefer infographics to threads though, so on goes a graphic design hat too.

Don't forget, you're wearing the project lead/manager hat under all those other hats!

...

It's too many hats. Games are supposed to be collaborative. Why am I wearing all of these myself?

I wish I could give these to my friends.

[secretsnowclub]

Or just go to browse and hang out! I promise it will be inspiring :)

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Somebody was kind enough to make a collection of the games (that are available on itch)!

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.

Adventure RPG (in Need of Translation), Mameli – https://better-legends.itch.io/adventure-rpg-in-need-of-translation 

Apollo 47 Technical Manual, Hutchings – https://thousandyearoldvampire.com/products/apollo-47-technical-manual-an-rpg 

Care for Hecuba, Libre – https://bigstuffedcat.itch.io/care-for-hecuba 

Clay Creatures, Sinclair – https://s-jared.itch.io/clay-creatures 

Disk Horse, Geist – https://fm-geist.itch.io/disk-horse-1-off-to-the-races 

Don’t Lose Your Mind, Baugh – https://evilhat.com/product/don-t-lose-your-mind 

Everyone is John, Sullivan – https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/271276/Everyone-is-John 

Feedback, Slattery – https://adira.itch.io/feedback 

Flying Games, Dragon – https://possumcreekgames.itch.io/flying-games 

Freebase, Thron & Shaughnessy – https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1411822901179.pdf 

I EAT MANTRAS FOR BREAKFAST, Mison – https://mariabumby.itch.io/i-eat-mantras-for-breakfast 

kill puppies for satan, Baker – https://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1370/08/1370081361036.pdf 

Lady Blackbird, Harper – https://johnharper.itch.io/lady-blackbird 

Paranoia, Costikyan, Gelber, and Goldberg – https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/224392/Paranoia–First-Edition 

Plot Armor, Black – https://oriondblack.itch.io/plot-armor 

Print Weaver, Morrison – https://nlmorrison.itch.io/print-weaver 

Teen Witch, Adler – https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/variations-on-your-body 

Ten Candles, Dewey – https://cavalrygames.com/shop/ten-candles-pdf 

This Discord Has Ghosts in it, Jobst & Vass – https://willjobst.itch.io/ghosts 

Unusual Esoterica, Unpleasant – https://axesorcs.itch.io/unusual-esoterica-series-1 

We Are But Worms, LaBresh – https://riverhousegames.itch.io/we-are-but-worms-a-one-word-rpg 

Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist, Moran – https://afarandasunlessland.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/wtf.pdf

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.

Bye,

Snow