🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
game therapy
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Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Have some fizzy water. It's so hot outside. A neighbor gave me a bouquet of zinnias—they're in a jam jar on the table. Do you ever check out—dissociate—when you should be concentrating? Time you urgently need tickscdcr5t by and by. And then you realize you're doing it, and you feel like you're falling into quicksand? No? Just me? Then have you ever felt the opposite? You suddenly find yourself dialed in, not just mentally but emotionally? And something unlooked-for unlocks in you? Role-playing games do that for me sometimes. Do they ever do that for you? Tangentially related: One of my absolute heroes in tabletop RPGs is Alex Roberts. In May, Dicebreaker interviewed Roberts. Turns out she’s a trained therapist. She talked about how games can be profound, therapeutic experiences, sometimes especially because they’re not officially “therapy.” I love those meaningful gaming experiences. Ones that couldn’t've come out any other way. But—as Roberts says in the interview—they don’t have to be therapy. Maybe you didn’t sit down at the table tonight to process you trauma via an elf persona, or to help your friend process theirs. Trusting your fellow players is key. Roberts' most recent game that allows for those experiences is a new edition of her groundbreaking game For the Queen. Darrington Press gave it new, full-color portraits of queens, in a box with a magnetic closure. Luxe. Roberts also redesigned some questions to draw you in more. You can tell everyone worked hard to make an already great game worth a re-do. Not related at all: I have box sets of Raccoon Sky Pirates to sell again! Q Workshop shipped the dice to me way ahead of schedule. So now we're in the final gallop to the end of this game's run. After that, I'll let it go, so I can work on the new design. Make it worth a re-do. Cheers, P.S. A cool game resource is crowdfunding right now: How to GM Romance. It looks like it has a lot of good tools and ideas. Things about consent, for instance. Since Defy the Gods offers a lot of romance, I'm backing it. P.P.S. Raccoon Sky Pirates box sets are available! I'm restocking Indie Press Revolution, Amazon, and my own site. Get one while you still can! |
Everlasting, Neverending Game Night
🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in, have a seat. The snow is finally starting to melt around here. On the table, we have a tin of shortbread cookies, and in the kitchen, your choice of tea, coffee or hot cocoa. So hey, a few weeks ago I got a little preachy about promises and contracts. Although I wasn’t talking mainly about Jay Dragon, I did imply she'd done some things, or failed to, based on conclusions I drew from the Rascal article I mentioned. I was too hasty. The Rascal piece was more...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. On the table, I have a bowl of kiwis—the indie game designer of fruits. They're hard to peel, but I swear it’s worth it. (If you’re into OSR, just beast it and bite right through the fuzzy skin.) I know this talented up-and-coming game designer named Faye Weaver. Faye is a Horizons Fellow this year, like I was last year. And she’s been getting frustrated about, well, the crickets. I think everyone who puts a game out there feels this way sometimes, so I...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in, out of that snow. My it's cold out there—winter is biting down. But it's cozy in here. Have some hot cocoa. I made it with warm milk this time. Did you read the Rascal article about Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast? It's the kind of cautionary tale that keeps me up at night. If you don't have a Rascal subscription, do get one. But for now, here's my best sum-up: Possum Creek Games, led by Jay Dragon, made some big promises to the writers and artists who helped...