psychhound

[psychhound]

we read & compared two wanderhome reviews in class today and one of the reviews started with a quote from the veteran playbook so i told them about the veteran's "you get one kill then must immediately leave the game" rule and how that contextualized the role of violence in the story and they were like 👁️👄👁️

i def think they got a new appreciation for the game lmao

#yeah its ghibliesque!!! #ghibli can be dark as shit!!! #hopeful. kind. but heavy #wanderhome #indie ttrpgs

[psychhound]

the survey is closed and i'm going through all my data now but to all the trans people who got transed by playing a dnd character of a different gender yall have my whole heart and it fuckin happened to me too. we are all shaking hands in mutual former eggdom

ttrpg research study survey!!

howdy yall!!

so a lot of yall know me for my games, but by day i'm a grad student studying game studies and researching therapeutic applications for gaming (if you've seen my posts about using ttrpgs in my classroom, you may be familiar already!)

i'm doing a research study through my university looking into long term tabletop roleplay and emotional resilience. essentially, i'm asking the question: does playing tabletop games over a long period of time affect your ability to weather social and emotional challenges? the study is additionally interested if marginalized people have a different experience with roleplay and resilience than non-marginalized folks do

the study will take place in a few stages. the first stage is a survey. there are screening questions to make sure all participants qualify, and then open, short-answer questions asking about both your experiences with roleplay and making characters, and also questions about emotional resilience. you're able to answer questions with little or more depth, depending on what youre comfortable with, or skip questions if you need to. this survey should take about 30 minutes, but depends on how in depth you go with your answers

the next stage is an optional follow-up interview. three participants will be selected after the survey is completed to take place in an opt-in interview, which will last about thirty minutes to an hour. there, we'll talk more in depth about your answers and also talk about the character(s) you've played

the survey will be open from 3/27/24 to 4/12/24

to qualify, you must be a tabletop roleplayer who has played at least 3 roleplay sessions of a multiplayer ttrpg during a span of 6 months or longer. you must be 18 or over and an american citizen

spreading the word or participating is greatly appreciated!!!

you can find the survey here!!

thanks so so much yall!!!

#THIS IS SO COMMON #IM NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE RESPONSES #THIS HAS HAPPENED SO MUCH #I LOVE ALL OF YALL #<- GUY WHOS A GUY NOW

[psychhound]

It don’t matter how you got here. Don’t matter what the destination is. At some point, somehow, against the odds … Shadow felt safe with the Giant. And the Giant, though they mighta sworn off it before … cares for the Shadow. There’ll be threats. Always will be. But, maybe, you can get through. Find safety. Together. As long as it takes to get there.

And through those long days, cold nights … the tears, the fears, the fighting … someone, somewhere … might just mistake you for a family.

Well. Wouldn’t that be somethin.

Shadow / Giant is a duet roleplaying game about finding care, safety, and family amidst a malicious and unaccepting world. In it, one player will play as the Giant – a gruff and jaded adult who thought their care for the world was long gone – and the other will play the Shadow – a child with magical abilities who now relies on them for protection.

The game is asymmetrical: both child and guardian have different rules they play by, and different ways of interacting with the world. They must work together to rise to the challenges of living in a world that doesn’t seem to want them in it. But both can push their mission to the breaking point. All you want to do is find somewhere safe to go.

In Shadow/Giant you'll ... 

work together to tell the story, trading off who narrates scenes

explore themes of care, duty, marginalization, harm, and chosen family

handle miscommunications that come between the characters

balance taking necessary risks with consequences that could end the game

build a world and characters together to tell a story that matters

follow your characters over one session or many - as long as you want to keep telling their story

Shadow/Giant is based on the Badger + Coyote System from @pandiongames and is published under the ORC license

get it now on itch - or kofi!!

#srb

[psychhound]

[image id: game cover for ‘vampire manor,’ a for truth’s sake game. at the top in a white banner reads “finals sale!” at the bottom of the image it reads “1/2 off from 4/23-5/23” /end id]

vampire manor is on sale!

my for truth’s sake setting vampire manor is half off ($2.50) until may 23!!

get it on itch!

#oooooo sale !!! #itch sale #indie ttrpgs

[psychhound]

#couple different ways of quantifying popular but #my most purchased game is $5 #the game with the most downloads is $7 but its been in bundles #if were not counting breath & sword but that had a kickstarter and community copies so it has a lot of downloads #so i voted 5-10 bc all my best selling games have been 5-10

[psychhound]

last day!!!!

ttrpg research study survey!!

howdy yall!!

so a lot of yall know me for my games, but by day i'm a grad student studying game studies and researching therapeutic applications for gaming (if you've seen my posts about using ttrpgs in my classroom, you may be familiar already!)

i'm doing a research study through my university looking into long term tabletop roleplay and emotional resilience. essentially, i'm asking the question: does playing tabletop games over a long period of time affect your ability to weather social and emotional challenges? the study is additionally interested if marginalized people have a different experience with roleplay and resilience than non-marginalized folks do

the study will take place in a few stages. the first stage is a survey. there are screening questions to make sure all participants qualify, and then open, short-answer questions asking about both your experiences with roleplay and making characters, and also questions about emotional resilience. you're able to answer questions with little or more depth, depending on what youre comfortable with, or skip questions if you need to. this survey should take about 30 minutes, but depends on how in depth you go with your answers

the next stage is an optional follow-up interview. three participants will be selected after the survey is completed to take place in an opt-in interview, which will last about thirty minutes to an hour. there, we'll talk more in depth about your answers and also talk about the character(s) you've played

the survey will be open from 3/27/24 to 4/12/24

to qualify, you must be a tabletop roleplayer who has played at least 3 roleplay sessions of a multiplayer ttrpg during a span of 6 months or longer. you must be 18 or over and an american citizen

spreading the word or participating is greatly appreciated!!!

you can find the survey here!!

thanks so so much yall!!!

[psychhound]

and if i run fast enough, could i break apart?

[Image Description: A drawing of Lizzie from the home game Lost Township. Lizzie is a Black woman with short curly orange hair with a white streak in the front. She wears a gold breast plate and armour on her arms with sun details and snake scale patterns on the shoulder pieces. She wears her armour over a regular pair of pants. There’s a large sword in scabbard on her hip. She is holding up a thin rapier in both hands with a ruby in the hilt. She is looking upwards away from it with tears in her eyes. She has yellow irises, freckles and a scar on her cheek. Behind her head is a pointy yellow halo. Behind her head and the halo is a panel of a coyote running through the woods. The coyote is gray and the woods and clouds are a dark blue. Behind that making up most of the rest of the background is a patch of flowers, mostly lilies and white hyssop mixed in with white petals. End ID.]

#i aint reblogged on this blog yet but this is one of the npcs from my campaign #art of make me normal & well #faun has their commissions open!! so so so worth it

[psychhound]

[ID: a duo tone cover image showing a line of sheep running across hills in dark blue and pastel pink. the text reads: "Little Shepherd, Little Spy / a solo journaling game for 'humble shepherds' in the fairy war / + 2 player letter writing game". end ID]

​You try to keep out of the whole war business.

It’s just not really your thing. There are more important things to worry about, like Gethin, your biggest ram, getting stuck in the fence again, or Ffion rubbing against the raspberry bushes and getting her wool all sticky.

Life is pretty simple for a humble shepherd such as yourself.

You tend to your flock. You make pies and jams. You … do some reading.

Of very particular books, at very particular times.

You certainly don’t have an opinion on this whole “recently found sword of myth now in a fierce ownership debate between the mortals and the fey” thing.

And if you happen to get books delivered to you – from the rural book lending library – and then if you happen to talk to specific people – just neighbors, really – and happen to pass along certain information you gleaned from the reading of those books …

Well, what’s a little smalltown gossip?

~ * ~ * ~

Little Shepherd, Little Spy is a solo journaling game about being a spy in the fairy war. Choose which side you're on, then draw tarot cards to interpret the messages coming through the information ring. Your tarot card tells you what book to look at and what page. Then you copy down all the relevant information on that page and consult your spy codebook. ​You will need:​ 

A way to write 

A way to draw tarot 

At least four books (realistic fiction, scifi/fantasy, nonfiction, & educational)

​Little Bookshop, Little Books is a small add on giving supplementary rules on how to play the game in a bookshop or library. 

Little Mortal, Little Fey is the supplementary rules for a 2-player letter writing system, where one of you is a spy for the mortals and one a spy for the fey. You still do your solo-journaling game as normal, but it explains how letters are delivered between the two of you and when you can send and receive those letters.

available on itch here

#srb

[psychhound]

[ID: a title image for a TTRPG called "Beach Day!". the background is light tan, with a pink-toned illustration of a van on the beach with a figure sitting on top with a mounted camera. over top it says "Beach Day!" in dark teal font, and below it says "a system-agnostic party bonding minigame" end ID]

The grand adventure awaits!

The sprawling castle of the overthrown king … The bustling seaports full of animalfolk … The seedy lazerblaster shops tucked away in the slums … The glittering lair of the last great dragon …

But that’s all for another day.

Today, you just get to breathe.

The sun is shining. The air is fresh. You know you won’t get this respite for long, but it’s here for now. There’s a peace around your shoulders like a blanket, and for the time, all you want to do is savor it.

Your companions are safe, for the moment.

But this moment is all you need.

---

Beach Day! was created for the Anime and Manga Tribute Jam 2023 and was inspired by the common trope of beach episodes in anime - where characters get to have fun, get new outfits, relax, and bond. 

In Beach Day! your characters will spend time doing activities, gathering tokens, and then swapping gifts with each other. Gifts might be rewarded with gifts back ... or someone might feel inspired to open up about something they haven't talked about before. 

The minigame is system-agnostic and should work as one, roleplay-focused session in a longer running game.  The more your characters bond, the more rewards they'll get going forward from their beach episode. 

You don't need anything to play, but tokens and a 12-sided die are optional. It fits on one page and comes with a printer-friendly plaintext version.

Get Beach Day! here on itch or on kofi!!

#srb

[psychhound]

[ID: cover art for the game "dead man's hand". it emulates a crumpled piece of paper tacked to a wooden surface. on the paper there is a mock papercut image of a cowboy riding a horse and leading a horse over a hill with the sun behind them, in dark teal and orange. large text reads "dead man's hand" in an old west font, and smaller text reads "a weird west storytelling game about love, loss, magic, and all that lies between". end ID]

You collect these people’s stories like dust on your boots and freckles from the sun, inevitabilities of nature, and this one’s yours. You ain’t never been too eager a storyteller yourself. But an audience … Well, in that you’re downright gifted. Folks’ stories come pourin’ out of their mouths before you even done opened yours. Somethin’ ‘bout you just draws it out of them, like a sweet symphony from a songbird.  

They say everyone’s got a little touch of magic. Maybe this’uns yours. Maybe all these stories are fillin’ you up awaitin’ for … somethin’. Won’t know till you find out, I s’pose. Won’t know till the universe shines its light on all those tales inside you and you glow hotter than the sun.  

Till then … better get to collectin’. 

~*~*~

You'll learn these stories by playing a friendly game of cards, and through your oracular powers will know the story by the cards you draw. The cards in your hand inform the characters involved in the tale, and the flop, turn, and river will be the beginning, middle, and end. Finally, the hand you make will be the overall theme.

There are 54 potential characters to meet, and thousands of possible story combinations. Use on its own as a story generator, or use in addition to other systems to generate on-the-fly npcs or for telling stories around the campfire.

Included is a formatted PDF and a dyslexia-friendly PDF with example stories and original writing. In a world full of story and song, who are you? Just a wanderer? Or are you collecting these for a reason?

get the game on itch or kofi!

#srb

[psychhound]

A call to action: review games you love!

If you enjoyed an independent TTRPG you played recently, go give a review! It takes less than a couple of minutes and can really help the creators of the games you love! I've just reviewed a few of my recent favourites (Exquisite Biome, RUNE and I'm Sorry Did You Say Street Magic) and wanted to encourage others to do the same!

I'd love if people reblogged with their favourite games, I'm always looking for more to check out!

#i really cherish the reviews i get on my games #sometimes just seeing page view and download numbers can get a little lonely #this post did make me go look to see if id gotten any new ratings and someone reviewed one of my games and just said 'good' #and even that really made me smile!! #one review i got nearly made me cry bc the person enjoyed the game so much they came up with new mechanics to flesh out the story #and then developed the world they build into a full campaign #and i was like. oh. #im not just sending these into the void they actually have an impact on people in ways i cant see #i think of that review very often

[psychhound]

[ID: a banner for a TTRPG. there is a light tan background and large brown text that reads "the narrator paradox". smaller blue text beneath it reads "all you've ever been is a storyteller ... now the story is fighting against you". there are tilted blue and orange boxes behind the word paradox. end ID]

There is a way the story is meant to go. You have seen the future. The past and the present. You know the hero of this tale, and where they end up. You know why they go there and every ally and foe along the way. Every fleck of sand moved beneath their boot has been foretold and defined and the words that tell of it slip from your lips like the oldest of hymns …

So if that little bastard could just STOP going off script that would be really great. What do you MEAN the protagonist isn’t listening to you!? This is a STORY—don’t they know they’re in a STORY? They aren’t meant to have … have … AUTONOMY or whatever other silly thing has gotten in their head.

You need a raise. Not that the human concept of money influences your role as a narrator in any way. But, like … anything would be nice. A raise. A swift kick in the head. Maybe the undefinable concept of storytelling will talk about a union.

Sorry—they’ve done WHAT now? Okay, chat’s over. There’s a protagonist to wrangle. 

[ID: a lineart drawing of one open book and two closed books on a light tan background. end ID]

The Narrator Paradox is a one page solo-narrating game where you try to tell a story ... if your protagonist will let you. In it, you determine the five acts of your story based on an oracle, then make rolls for your plot beats to see if you can wrangle your protagonist into the prescribed narrative. If you can't, they defy you and take the story into their own hands. Wrestle the story into shape against a rebellious hero, or lose them forever and have to finish the story without them in it. 

What you'll need:

The Major Arcana from a tarot deck 

Two 6-sided dice

A coin 

The inspirations for the game include The Stanley Parable, The Princess Bride, and Stardust

Get the game now on itch!

#srb

[psychhound]

[ID: a banner for a game. the banner has a speckled purple background with the top of a building rising on one side. light text reads "the graveyard game" with the word "game" having three ghosts rising out of it. there is a block of yellowish-green at the bottom with the words "a for truth's sake ethnography writing game". end ID]

Cecilia the groundskeeper said the ghosts have been extra cranky ever since that tour of schoolchildren came to visit last week. Parsimony Smit (1667 – 1721) disagrees, stating merely that the coming supermoon is what has all the spirits in a tizzy. Not that he would ever stoop to such behavior himself.

Parsimony Smit (“Death is a debt to nature due that I have paid and so must you”) is one of the more respectable members of the deceased community here, according to himself, unlike Archie Jack (1854 – 1881 “Now between / these carved stones / rich treasure lies / dear Jack his bones”) who never got over his childish love of pulling pranks. Cecilia said you should be fine, as long as you don’t bring anything into the graveyard you don’t mind mysteriously winding up in a nearby tree. You’re not sure exactly what you’ve gotten yourself into here.

The Graveyard Game is a solo-journaling game where you travel to a magical haunted graveyard in order to learn more about the community and write an ethnography on them. 

Pull cards to ask questions of the residents, roll dice to see how well interactions go, and get to know a host of colorful characters from prankster ghosts, to the cemetery gravedigger, to a local vampire, and a mysterious stranger. Unlock 12 different locations and gain levels in friendship and familiarity with the community as you document more and more in your field notes.

You'll need: A d20, d12, and d8, and a deck of playing cards 

The Graveyard Game is a hack of For Truth's Sake by @hmooncreates. It was inspired by The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Includes a formatted pdf, a plaintext document, and a dyslexia friendly document!!

check it out on itch!!

#srb

[psychhound]

[ID: a banner for a game. it is light tan with a crumpled paper texture, and reads "with breath & sword" in large blue font, and "a solo-journaling game that helps you fight anxiety as you fight monster" below it in smaller font. there is lineart of gauntlets lying over a sword with some flowers at the bottom. end ID]

You find yourself tied to the monsters. The scratchy feeling in your chest. The way your hands tremble. The sweat that dots your upper lip when your senses are telling you a monster is close, again, now, and it’s your job to fight it. To stand up for your ideals and stand up to the threat. Whether you tame it, or this is truly a monster that needs to be slain, only time will tell.

 You know you will succeed. You always have before. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a challenge.

 Grab your gear. Put on your boots. You know how to find it. You know what to do.

 First, you just need to steady yourself.

[ID: a page spread from the game. it shows "step four" on one side, which goes over the five aspects of the game's oracle. on the other side it shows the first oracle component, where something you can taste determines what your heroic core is. the page is minimally designed, with a blue border and text on a white background, tan accents, and one image of a dragon. end ID]

With Breath & Sword is a solo-journaling TTRPG to help players combat anxiety. 

In the game, you play as a monster-fighter, who is being summoned once again due to the presence of a new monster. Each time a monster appears, you struggle with the emotional effects of the magic: effects that look a lot like anxiety. You must steady yourself before you go off to fight: in the game and in real life.

Over the course of WB&S, players will participate in grounding methods and breathing techniques to calm themselves from an anxiety attack. These methods also serve as the game's oracle in order to determine how the story goes. 

What You'll Need:

A safe space to play 

A method of writing or recording

[ID: a page spread from the game. it is the section called "the science" and goes over the psychology behind the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, the 4-7-8 breathing method, and destroying journaling. it has a few lines about narrative and play therapy, and that the creator of the game used these methods in his social work with neurodivergent teens and adults. end ID]

check out the game on itch now!!

#srb

[psychhound]

absolutely awesome essay. really made me laugh and also understand the human condition in a much more profound way. and also made me wanna get in a swordfight

this is the post for those curious that gets referenced in the video but def go watch it first so you dont get spoiled. so honored to have inspired such a profound video and im tipping my hat to you mr monsterfactory for truly the most important essay in rpg history

The Most Important Essay in RPG History is now live. Two dishes but to one table, that's the end.

Transcript here.

[psychhound]

The Crit Awards have opened their nominations! Their mission is to celebrate and recognize the contributions and achievements of the TTRPG community, so nominations and votes are community-driven.

If you enjoyed the work of anyone in the TTRPG community, from game designers to artists to actual play performers, a great way you can support them is by nominating them!

#👀‼️

[psychhound]

ttrpg research study survey!!

howdy yall!!

so a lot of yall know me for my games, but by day i'm a grad student studying game studies and researching therapeutic applications for gaming (if you've seen my posts about using ttrpgs in my classroom, you may be familiar already!)

i'm doing a research study through my university looking into long term tabletop roleplay and emotional resilience. essentially, i'm asking the question: does playing tabletop games over a long period of time affect your ability to weather social and emotional challenges? the study is additionally interested if marginalized people have a different experience with roleplay and resilience than non-marginalized folks do

the study will take place in a few stages. the first stage is a survey. there are screening questions to make sure all participants qualify, and then open, short-answer questions asking about both your experiences with roleplay and making characters, and also questions about emotional resilience. you're able to answer questions with little or more depth, depending on what youre comfortable with, or skip questions if you need to. this survey should take about 30 minutes, but depends on how in depth you go with your answers

the next stage is an optional follow-up interview. three participants will be selected after the survey is completed to take place in an opt-in interview, which will last about thirty minutes to an hour. there, we'll talk more in depth about your answers and also talk about the character(s) you've played

the survey will be open from 3/27/24 to 4/12/24

to qualify, you must be a tabletop roleplayer who has played at least 3 roleplay sessions of a multiplayer ttrpg during a span of 6 months or longer. you must be 18 or over and an american citizen

spreading the word or participating is greatly appreciated!!!

you can find the survey here!!

thanks so so much yall!!!

#srb