June Mini-Letter

I. Dear Reader,

I was on vacation this week so enjoy another issue with just the links!

Yours mountain-ly,

Thomas

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II. Media of the Week

No TTRPG stuff this week so I’m going to share something full aware that most people simply don’t have time for it: this six hour review of a Japanese dating-sim from the 90s called Tokimeki Memorial. It was strongly recommended to me by designer Viditya Voleti on an episode of Yes Indie’d and so I checked it out. Turns out, it’s a fascinating look at a complex, beautiful game. I don’t think it quite justifies its huge run-time — there’s a lot of repetition! But it undoubtedly makes the case that this “game about talking to girls” is one of the greatest videogames ever made.

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• 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.

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III. Links of the Week

• Paul Beakley writes a tour-de-force review of Memento Mori, a standalone grim historical game from Two Little Mice (Household, Outgunned). They’re a studio that is doing such tremendous work and this weird, baroque creation is no exception. Paul showcases maybe the most important question a review can answer: what is the best way to engage with this game?
• Daniel Sell (Troika) has a short poignant post about the impossibility of distributing RPGs in bookstores: “The rules, as they have been shared (more than a few times) with me, suggest that ttrpgs are fundamentally unsuited for mainstream bookshops at this moment in time. Culture might catch up, but we live in a monotheistic ttrpgocracy with no sign of changing. Things like the Critical Hit rpg or Pathfinder or whatever are at best a Reformation. We are filthy pagans.”
• A playtest of jay dragon’s new game Seven Part Pact has spawned some lovely writing recently.
  • First, from Dwiz at A Knight at the Opera comes a report about a wizardly duel that they’ll never forget: “My expectations were exceeded. My worries were relieved. The stress was exhilarating.”
  • Then, on the For Want of a Silver Bullet blog, Adam writes about the game as a whole: “this game is about seven men who have incalculable power and use it to enforce their will upon the world while everyone hopes that they will do the right thing when the time comes”
• Shannon Applecline has a post about all the visual homages to the Basic D&D cover. It’s a long list of covers from various games over the last 40 years that are all riffing on those images. It’s a fun scroll.
• Rolling Boxcars has a nice review of Privateers and Gentlemen, the 1982 RPG/wargame of naval adventure.
• On Chris McDowall’s blog, an essential post for anyone trying to run one shots of his new game, Mythic Bastionland.
• On Evil Hat’s website, Leon Richardson writes about a design diary about his upcoming game, Rangers of a Broken World: “I decided to write a game about this world, where war was over but not gone yet, and where brave people journeyed into the abandoned battlefields to make them safe again.”
• Asa of Backwards Tabletop launches a free newsletter devoted to mecha TTRPGs.

From the archive:

• Snow (.dungeon, Songbirds) writes a review of Lancer, the mecha game from artist Tom Bloom and Massif Press, as a conversation with their 14 year-old self. It’s a weird, original, and melancholic read. Please note that this uses their dead-name. (Issue 98, June 2022)

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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.

• Form a crew of hackers, thieves, and grifters to plan heists and fight the corporate oligarchy in Neon City Outlaws, a new cyberpunk RPG from award-winning designer Rodney Thompson.

This newsletter is sponsored by the the wonderful Bundle of Holding. Check out the latest bundles below:

• Grim Hollow, a dark fantasy setting for 5e from Ghostfire Gaming
• Also, most of the Sine Nomine books including Worlds without Number, Stars without Number, and Wolves of God

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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!