🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
why Dialect is so amazing
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Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in and sit down. I thought the weather was looking up, and then we got cold rain. A good time to be inside—have some hibiscus tea. We also have rice crackers and surprisingly good toast. Tonight, we're playing Dialect. Dialect is a game about language and how it dies. And it's amazing. It may sound like some wonky, crossword-puzzle kind of thing, all up in the head. But it's not. It always hits me square in the feels. We play members of an isolated community. Maybe we’re robots, left behind on a trash-filled Earth after all the humans have left. Maybe we’re queer kids living in an abandoned parking garage. Dialect has an expansive list of options. Whatever we choose, to make your character, you just choose a card. The card says what role you play in the community. Over the course of the game, the complete person comes into focus. Our community has stages: it begins optimistically, grows, and ultimately dissolves. In each stage, we create words to capture our unique shared experience. We know ahead of time that things will fall apart. Either the larger society will reabsorb us, or we’ll die out in seclusion. This makes our time together precious. For our characters, but also for us, the players at the table. It’s poignant—piercing. When it finally ends, we’ve been on an epic journey together. And only we at the table remember the language the community spoke. I’ve said before how ephemeral the TTRPG experience is. It leaves us with nothing but memories. In this case, we have something more concrete: the words we created. Later, when we run into each other again, we might use those words. They’re our private language. They continue as long as we do. I don’t know how they do it, but these words make my heart ache. In a good way. Our isolated community was fictional, but the words are real. They make the community feel real. Tonight, I want you to have this same sense of community. And the words to give it life. xoxo P.S. If you know another game as heart-wrenching as Dialect, please tell me all about it! P.P.S. Sometimes we don’t want pathos, just a good time. That’s okay too! Raccoon Sky Pirates has zero pathos. |
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 some fizzy water. The irises are blooming, and M put some in a silver pitcher. So much else is blooming, too, but we'll let them grow. It's taken me a while to do game night because I'm recovering from surgery. This has meant enforced lying around, and that's a great opportunity to just soak it all in. I recently listened to Quinns Smith's interview of Jeremy Strandberg, author of Stonetop. Stonetop's Dungeon World-based mechanics don't exactly sing...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. Isn't it beautiful out? Let's sit on the back porch today with some fizzy water and lol at all the dandelions. They get so tall when they’re ready to let go. I got some great games recently in the mail: Zhenya's Wonder Tales by Jason Morningstar and Last Train to Bremen by Caro Asercion. Slavic folk tales, cozy tragedy, liar's dice and a deal with the Devil! This is my favorite part of crowdfunding campaigns—when a little box of magic arrives at your door....
Hi Reader, Welcome! The daffodils are blooming in the front yard. They look good in this metal pitcher, don't you think? Defy the Gods is at the distributor's warehouse, at Plus One Exp in Philadelphia. I had a great talk with Tony last week, sorting out how distribution is going to work. They're a well organized team—they got this. Plus One Exp also brought a couple display copies of Defy the Gods to PAX East last weekend. Maybe I didn't print enough of the special edition! Tony said people...