🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
why Dialect is so amazing
|
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, sit down. Have some cold fizzy water—it's way too hot out there. On the table are echinacea blooms—they're back! Since the Defy the Gods Kickstarter wrapped, I've been keeping a low profile. Writing the text, fixing things, finishing sections that were rough. I mean, that's what I'm doing now. At first, I just took the weekend off. Went to a movie. I found myself working on an old card game idea—a fast-paced sword duel played in real time instead of turns....
Hi Reader, What began as a silent shaking in the earth has grown to thunderous, resounding hoofbeats. The armies of Doom approach. Time to draw steel. That is—the Defy the Gods Kickstarter ends on Thursday! If you haven't read my emails for the last year, or I just didn't tell you, Defy the Gods is a queer sword & sorcery tabletop role-playing game set in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia—a game full of daring adventure, messy romance, and cursed power. It's a game where a single sword stroke or...
Hi Reader, It's good to see you. Please, have a seat. Have some iced tea. On the table is a little succulent called, I shit you not, goblin fingers. Other name, for real: Gollum jade. It's the most tabletop role-playing game plant I've ever met. The Defy the Gods Kickstarter ends on Thursday. It's been a roller coaster. In these last four days, I need to tell as many people as possible about it. Expect a few more emails from me this week. If you don't want to get them, you can opt out here....