I. Dear Reader,
Been an incredibly busy week so it’s short today. I wanted to highlight a post I just saw on tumblr. Designer Emmy Allen gets asked (in a slightly antagonistic way) about how games don’t seem to trust players and keeps “bribing” them and her answer is so fantastic.
She says:
When I’m talking about a bribe, it’s in that context; how does the game reward you for doing things, and what things does it reward. (For example, ‘scrabble’ rewards you for playing words with weird letters in them by making those letters worth more points.)
The thing is, ultimately, every game relies on a simple proposition; that if you voluntarily use its rules, you will have fun. You don’t need to follow the rules, and you can have fun without them, but the idea is that using the rules will let you have more fun, or a different type of fun, than if you didn’t. (For example, throwing a ball around is a bit fun, but if everybody agrees to follow the rules of basketball, you get a different experience that a lot of people prefer).
Anyway, the whole thing is worth reading and I’ll happily link back to it anytime someone brings up this question again.
Yours appreciatively,
Thomas
II. Media of the Week
- On Yes Indie’d, I speak to Prismatic Wasteland about his adventure, Barkeep on the Borderlands, about how it’s a fun, silly game about drinking as well as subversive take on the classic D&D module, casting it as a propaganda.
- This is an interesting video about how mysteries should work in RPGs. I like a lot of it but at the same time, I’m very happy with my detective fiction emulation machines like my current game of Hearts of Wulin: Numberless Secrets.
- 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
- On the Indie Game Reading Club, Slade Stolar interviews Paul Czege about his insights into immersive journaling games: “I think we’re drawn to journaling games because they represent an opportunity to hear from our unconscious and be affected by it.”
- Explorer’s Design has a nice masterlist of places to find and learn about typefaces/fonts for all struggling graphic designers and layout artists out there.
- Exeunt Press has released a small book called Make Your Own One-Page RPG (will be released in parts for free through their newsletter eventually) which neatly ties into the One-Page RPG Jam.
- On Rascal News, Rowan Zeoli talks about larping on the edge of the nuclear apocalypse with the designers of Eyeball to Eyeball: The Cuban Missile Crisis. (paywalled)
- Aaron Marks has a review of Salvage Union, the rules-light mecha game that has nominated for multiple Ennies.
- Jared Rascher has a review of Sundered Isles, the pirate-themed supplement for Ironsworm: Starforged.
- Nico MacDougall reviews crowdfunding data for the first 6 months of 2024: Backerkit “has raised more than a third of what Kickstarter has with less than 10% of the projects, but there’s one big caveat here: half of that money came from one project (The MCDM RPG).”
From the archive:
- Games without Master is “a short-run blog to spotlight GMless ttrpgs” and the archive has reviews of lots of classic storygames. (Issue 40, May 2021)
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.
- Discover Miami 86 RPG, a thrilling new TTRPG inspired by Miami Vice, Scarface, and Vice City. Follow now to get the Solo Adventure Pamphlet for free!
- Dice Exploder is back! The ENnie-nominated RPG design podcast that breaks down one mechanic every episode is funding its 4th season on Backerkit right now.
- 5-Star Match is a solo TTRPG about building and booking your own professional wrestling company replete with colorful characters, specialty matches, and storylines of your choice. Live on Kickstarter now!
This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.
- A bundle of cyberpunk game, The Gaia Complex.
- You can also grab Stars without Number and all of its supplements and campaign books.
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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