I. Dear Reader,
Thanks for all your responses to last week’s post! It was great to get a sense off which games people were excited to talk about! With your help, I’ve narrowed down the first three games we’re going to cover: Metamorphosis Alpha, Bunnies and Burrows, and Classic Traveller.
The two that didn’t make the cut were Tekumel and Monsters, Monsters. I didn’t go with Tekumel because on reading it, it’s so close to D&D that I’m worried I’ll basically have nothing interesting to say about it. Monsters, Monsters is a hack of another early D&D variant, Tunnels & Trolls. The twist is, of course, that you play the monsters. I loved the fact that D&D was inverted within 2 years of coming out! I think that’s really cool. Sadly, the game itself turned out to be much more of a comedy game than I realized and… I’m not sure the jokes hold up after 50 years. Like you get xp for kidnapping humans – but only the hot ones! Being horrible can be a lot of fun but not sure I have a group where this will be anything other than weird.
It’s also been interesting to discover that solo (or solitaire, as it was usually referred to) gaming has been popular since the very first games were published. Both Tunnels & Trolls and Traveller were actively thinking about and supporting solo play. Solo adventures were not only present but they were extremely popular. This makes me wonder why they ever dropped off between then and now. My current theory is that the splatbook era of RPG publishing where White Wolf and others churned out supplements, reading these books and just making characters basically became the dominant form of solo play. Nobody needed to make separate solo products.
Expect the first entire from this project in 3-4 weeks because I now have to schedule these sessions! I’ll figure out the other 7 games as I go along.
Yours progressingly,
Thomas
II. Media of the Week
- Design Doc have a really heartbreaking episode about finally finishing a kickstarter stretch goal that haunted them for years. It goes to some very personal places and I don’t know what else to say.
- Inside The Table has a great wrap-up episode where they talk about among other things Abyssal, the new forged in the dark game playtest put out by Evil Hat.
- Please consider joining 100+ other patrons and support the newsletter on patreon to help keep me going.
- If you’ve released a new game on itch.io this month, let me know through this form so I can potentially include it in the end of the month round-up.
III. Links of the Week
- The great discussion about “capsule games” continues:
- On the Rise Up Comus, a list of interesting principles including “provide predefined characters”, “create rules that are the right size”, “provide a sense of finality”, etc.
- The Knight at the Opera blog dives into the idea of pre-defined characters and why they’re interesting.
- (Every time someone says “cappier”, a fairy dies; please use responsibly)
- Deeper in the Game has a nice post about character concepts that players can just pick when making characters – a nice bundle of tropes that gives you a starting point.
- Older post that I missed: On the Lich Van Winkle blog, a great post about how character motivation is the player’s responsibility: “Sometimes players of adventure games stop and ask, “Wait, why am I risking my life in this dangerous adventure?” …Referees, you should beat them to the punch. You ask them this question.”
- On Cannibal Halfling, I enjoyed this post that captures how tricky it is to talk about RPGs: “This campaign has been fantastic, I love how my character has developed. I will never play Legend of the Five Rings again.”
- Indie Game Reading Club shares their gaming predictions for 2024, laying out some seemingly-inevitable trends like more streamers becoming brands, more vibes-forward design, more out-of-the box play.
- On Radio James Games, a positive review of Modiphius’ Dune 2d20
- I’m always interested in boardgames in the broad “d&d fantasy” genre because they always seem to have ideas relevant to RPGs. Spacebiff writes about Freelancers, a comic fantasy game with some neat ideas.
- On EnWorld, an interesting discussion about defining the modern trend in trad games that try to alter the huge reliance on the GM, referred to as “neo trad”.
News
- Jennell Jaquays, one of the most influential adventure designers, has passed away. If you’d like an overview of her many achievements, Shannon Applecline has a thorough biography and this article on Shacknews has some nice quotes from her about her career and links to a long interview.
- The Solo But Not Alone charity bundle comes back with more than a 100 solo games.
IV. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
- Play out your own found footage horror experience with Don’t Play This Game. A legacy solo RPG of handcrafted horror. Late Pledges Now Open.
- Perfect Draw! is a card game anime roleplaying game crowdfunding soon! Learn more here!
- Jukebox is a GM-less, rules-lite Broadway and movie musical TTRPG where you tell dramatic, tense, and heartfelt stories while singing your favorite karaoke songs. Back Jukebox on Kickstarter 🫵🎤✨!
- Carve your own fate with Runecairn Wardensaga Remastered, a refreshed and updated version of 2-player Norse fantasy Soulslike TTRPG Runecairn. Launching Feb 23 on Kickstarter!
This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.
- Grab a bundle of cyberpunk PbtA game, The Sprawl.
- Also, a bundle of fantasy battle maps and tiles.
Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!
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