itch.io

Hullo! Thank you for your interest and your questions.

1. You’re definitely right - that should be three matches.

2. The intention is that your character will definitely stand watch as Burner for their night. For any nights left over, I think you could either choose amongst yourselves who does a second shift as Burner or kind of handwave past them and assume they went uneventfully.

3. You’ve got the right instinct, I think! The prompts are meant as seeds to build into something threatening, rather than all of them being inherently threatening. Mortals might hide sinister motives or beasts be more dangerous than they seem, and nature itself may be stirred to oppose the Burners. Sleep-deprived, dizzy from the smoke, and starring out into the dark, what they see can be deceptive in its form, an imagined vision to steal their focus, or threatening to their resolve, stability, or emotional state (I’m looking at the Ace of Hearts, as an example of that last). Remember that ultimately the visits are all driven by and expressive of the spirit of the wood itself, which is old, and wild, and hates fire (and thus the Burners) like winter hates the living.

I hope that helps!

Hi - the game is 20 pages long, plus 10 pages of playkit (basic moves, playbooks, facilitator guidesheet).

Only read the handouts so far, but this is a sublime piece of work. All the best of Night Witches (biting, sparse, propulsive, immersive) and The Between (grabby, actionable, particular, structural) in one lean, mean package.

One note: In my PDF reader only one page of the Rules Ashcan appears (the credits) and is readable. Looks like maybe a numbering error.

I had an idea before but I have my actual idea now: Every Room A Mouth.

EVERY ROOM A MOUTH invites the player to step into the shoes of a house—watchful, rotten, and full of hate—that will never be a home, as it seethes and growls and feeds on mortal flesh and tragedy. You’ll feel the centuries bear down upon you as horror festers in your heart, walls crumbling and roof sagging as you wait for your next victim.

It’s all about haunted houses, baybee!

I’m looking at doing something with religious relics and the saints and archbishops etc who are their custodians. Maybe try to build out the Creator section a little, so that the church around the artefact is also a persistent part of play that evolves over time.

Same as a standard Blades playbook! The usual character creation rules apply—so step whichever is still “choose a special ability”.

I’m looking over the playbooks, and the Idealist’s Alchemist ability makes reference to formulas for poultices and talismans.

Sample formulas don’t appear to be listed in the text, nor a process for inventing them. I assume the intention is for individual groups to invent their own, perhaps taking inspiration from the Blades ritual &/or recipe rules—is this correct?

Twitter is fine, or you can reach me by email at [email protected].

This is the most insightful and compelling game for D&D-style “adventure fantasy” currently on the market.

If you are interested in the tropes of D&D and associated digital RPGs and the parts of play that interest you are the humanity of the characters, their relationships to each other, and the ways they interact with communities and great forces of the world, this is the game you should be playing.

It will serve you far better and give you far more than either Dungeon World or D&D.

This game is wonderful. Pure, magical poetry, and such a beautiful expression of the history of folk divination. There was so much here that I hoped for, executed brilliantly, and some surprises (like the feather rhymes) that I adored. 

For $2 this is a steal - IMO it's worth $5 at least. Can't wait to print out a copy and carry it everywhere I go.

How could he call himself a father if he did, returning to the Summerlands only to report to your sister and mothers that he left you in this world of danger and cruelty.

His duty demands that he take you with him.

No gods watch over you.

Absolutely! Grapes of Wrath is even on the mediography list. 

I really don't need to be writing another game rn and yet-

heck yeah I'm fucking pumped we're gonna pagan it up

Heaven in the Dust

A game about flawed Greek gods struggling with scarcity and mortality down in the dust and dirt of a hostile world; 3-6 players.

https://gamesfromthewildwood.itch.io/dust

Heaven in the Dust charts the gods' messy relationships and decisions as they attempt to build community and find happiness on a foundation of shifting sand.

It gives us lonely roads and towering smokestacks, empty bellies and heavy hearts, fireside camps and strangers' barns; old grudges, swift infatuations, messy loves, precarious community; lilting folk songs and raucous jazz, and always The Fates singing in the back of your head, asking "what are you gonna do now?"

Play as one of 9 playbooks:

• Persephone - Queen of Flowers, Queen of Fields.
• Hermes - Friend of Ramblers, King of Roads.
• Hades - King of Iron, King of Steel.
• Ares: Knight of Judges, Knight of Jails
• Hestia: Queen of Cookfires, Queen of Camps
• Apollo: Prince of Lyres, Prince of Light
• Dionysus: Queen of Pleasure, King of Pain
• Aphrodite: Queen of Beauty, Queen of Bonds
• The Fates: Maker of Trouble, Framer of Scenes

Thank you very much for the kind words! I was really pleased with how that conversation went and how our attempts to shift the aesthetic vocabulary of play have been playing out. Stoked to hear it's been interesting and thought-provoking to the audience as well.

The other day I released slough, a solo LARP for #WizJam2k19 about regretting where life has brought you and preparing to change your form and leave your old life behind. It takes about a half hour to play, and requires an index card, a candle, and a book full of forms (animal, plant, mythical) that you might wish to take.

First off, co-signing what SnowyStrix said. Principles and moves are one of your key chances to inform the MC what your game is / is about / feels like in practical terms rather than aspirational ones. Try to get a clear sense of what (variously) genre, tone, mood, arc of play, feeling, etc you're aiming for and write to communicate that. 

For principles, my take is this: different principles address different parts of MCing the game, and it's good to be clear which are for which as you're writing. Some principles tell you how to run the game (address yourself to the characters, not the players; make your move, but misdirect; sometimes, disclaim decision making). Some principles signpost the feeling/tone you should aim for (barf forth apocalyptica, look through crosshairs, respond with fuckery and intermittent rewards). Some principles tell you what kinds of things to put in the game (name everyone, make everyone human; ask provocative questions and build on the answers). 

Most good principles, to my mind, do more than one thing at once. 

Like, look through crosshairs tells you all at once that Apocalypse World is dangerous and should feel fraught and ripe with the potential of loss, and tells you that it's not your fucking job to be precious and protect people (NPCs or otherwise), and tells you when someone or something comes on screen to "consider first killing it, overthrowing it, burning it down, blowing it up, or burying it in the poisoned ground" (thanks Vincent). 

I think one of the things that makes for strong, memorable, actionable principles is that multiplicity. Come up with statements that give the GM all at once a cluster of good advice.

Being poetic or metaphorical is good, if your use of those techniques is strong and clear.  Principles should start with an active, actionable verb. And at least a couple of them should point pretty directly to the themes of / central assertions about the world made by the game (in AW for my money this is look through crosshairs & name everyone, make everyone human). 

Also, principles are a key place to signal the voice of your game. There's a world of difference communicated by the difference between look through crosshairs (Apocalypse World), think dangerous (Dungeon World), show them the barrel of a gun (the Sprawl), hold a sword to their throats (To Tread the Spiral Path, my game), and make death common and make it matter (All Things Under Heaven, another of my games), even though we're all gesturing to a similar direction.

For moves: use an actionable verb, and be as straightforward and plain-spoken as you can. This probably isn't the place for poetry.

Dungeon World and Apocalypse World both have a section that's like (paraphrased) "these moves aren't jargon, they mean what they mean, just do the thing", but if we're real they both can get jargon-y. Inflict harm (as established) and announce off-screen badness feel intimidating and a little obscure; hurt them and show distant trouble do the same work and feel (at least to me) a lot more accessible as tools to reach for and immediately actionable to use.

All of this is, of course, just my opinion, but I hope it's helpful. At this point I've got like, 3 (4?) full-scale AW-adjacent games in the works and the MC stuff (agenda, principles, moves) feels both more intuitive to tackle and more rewarding to write with each new game.

I wrote one for ReCo2k19, inspired by Anais Mitchell's Hadestown.

Heaven in the Dust is a GMless roleplaying game about flawed Greek gods struggling with scarcity and mortality down in the dust and dirt of a hostile world. It charts the gods' messy relationships, their tangled feuds, their old flames and new loves, and their decisions as they attempt to build community and find happiness on a foundation of shifting sand.

It gives us lonely roads and towering smokestacks, empty bellies and heavy hearts, fireside camps and strangers' barns; old grudges, swift infatuations, messy loves, precarious community; lilting folk songs and raucous jazz, and always The Fates singing in the back of your head, asking "what are you gonna do now?"