#Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

[iloveabunchofgames]

#JakeReviewsItch

as long as we're together: magical girls sweet & pure

by cloverfirefly

Price (US): Name your own price

Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

Genre: Visual Novel

Pitch: Bad magic is making good magical girls fight each other. The only thing that can save the day is the power of friendship!

My expectations: I super don't care about magical girls anime, and I'm feeling a bit grumpy this morning. Good luck, as long as we're together. The game was first published four years ago and is still listed as "in development," which doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence. I'm curious about how much visual variety there will be. The Itch page shows two screenshots in a row featuring the same characters in the same poses, but they're wearing different outfits in each picture.

Review:

Sweet and Pure are magical girls. Some evil force has possessed Pure. She attacks Sweet. A series of flashbacks remind the heroines of the power of friendship. Pure shakes off the corruption. Evil is no match for the power of friendship. Nothing can harm these two as long as they’re together.

At the default text speed, taking time to read all the dialogue without skipping anything, a single playthrough takes less than five minutes. That’s not a complaint—the laughable writing lost me in minute one.

At a few points, you’ll be asked to pick a card, which determines which flashbacks are shown. These are blind, arbitrary choices that have no bearing on the outcome of the story, and do little to flesh out the characters, their relationship, or their world. Each of my three runs felt equally pointless and unfulfilling.

The low-resolution, limited-palette, dithered aesthetic is appealing. There are only three characters, each locked in a single pose, but they change outfits and facial expressions often enough to maintain visual interest. If you’re going to keep saying there’s a sword in Pure’s hand, though, maybe draw the sword? As for audio… It doesn’t exist. No music. No sound effects.

+ Looks nice enough. + Ends quickly

– Poor writing. – No audio. – Arbitrary choices

🧡🤍🤍🤍🤍 Bottom Line: I don't know much about anime, but I'm pretty sure if you want magical girls to teach you about the power of friendship, you have better options than as long as we're together: magical girls sweet & pure.

#JakeReviewsItch is a series of daily game reviews. You can learn more here. You can also browse past reviews...

• By name • By rating • By genre

#as long as we're together: magical girls sweet & pure #cloverfirefly #Visual Novel #Interactive Fiction #The power of friendship #Magical Girl #Anime #Manga #JakeReviewsItch #Computer Game #PC Game #Video Game #Indie Game #Game Review #Itch.io #Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

[temporalhiccup]

✨

✨ A game I wish more people were talking about.

Okay SO I seriously SERIOUSLY don't know why people aren't talking about or playing GODSEND. I crash into people's conversations all the time with HELLO HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT GODSEND ITS GREAT WHAT YOURE TALKING ABOUT IS IN GODSEND LETS PLAY IT.

Godsend is cool for SO SO many reasons but here are a few bullet points:

The premise of the game is that the world is coming to an end: there are only so many ages of divinity and humanity left before the apocalypse. So as gods and avatars, you must do what you can to make things go your way, and there is nothing left to lose.

Everyone plays two characters! You play a god, but you also play the human avatar of another god PC of another player. I have seen AMAZING moments when players have acted AGAINST THEIR OWN OTHER CHARACTER because of the DRAMA and it was AMAZING EACH TIME.

But why two characters? You play as one God that sees through all the ages and will be there at the end of days. But with each new age, you play a different human avatar, one who carries out the will of another god. So TECHNICALLY YOU GET MORE THAN TWO CHARACTERS EVEN HOW AMAZING IS THAT.

In general, why aren't there more ttrpgs where you get to play more than one character? Why does the GM get all the fun, huh?

This is a PbtA game but it is DICELESS. DICELESS PBTA. DO YOU HEAR ME. The vibes are impeccable, the execution breathtaking. Basically as gods and avatars, it is not a question of if you are able to do it: you do it! You perform miracles! You defy destiny! You see the threads of destiny! But at what great and terrible and EPIC cost?

Here are examples!

A couple of BASIC moves you can do as a God:

A couple of BASIC moves you can do as an Avatar:

So your stats as an Avatar are how many narrative bonuses or penalties you get when you make a move. DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN. WHY AREN'T THERE MORE GAMES DOING THIS. I AM LOSING MY MIND.

Anyway every time I have read/played this game I have turned completely feral, and I don't know why we're not talking about Godsend. Please go check it out, you may already have it if you bought the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality three years ago.

#asks #monsterfactoryfanfic #godsend #pbta #rae going feral here #godsend makes me so fucking feral each time

[theresattrpgforthat]

How do you know so many games to recommend? I feel like I’m always scrambling to find games on a certain topic, and itchio’s search function is tricky at best.

Hello friend! I have a few methods, and I think they all tie back to my pretty big obsession with games. Let's take a trip through my indie RPG journey, because this is kind of the result of approximately 5 years of interest.

DriveThru RPG

When I first got into TTRPGs, I didn't have a lot of money (let's be real, even right now I don't really have that much spending money) but I did have a little more time, so I combed the net for free tabletop games. I got acquainted with DriveThruRPG first, and I took everything I could that was free and put it into little folders on my computer. Since then I've realized that I can access my folders through the DriveThru App, so there's much less on my computer and more just waiting to be downloaded and perused.

I also get notifications from DriveThru about deals of the day, and occasionally I just browse the storefront to see if anything catches my eye. DriveThru's navigation system is not great either, but one of my friends does some of his own sifting and has directed me to some real gems. I learned about Pandora London, Swords of the Serpentine, and Savage Worlds this way.

Podcasts

I love TTRPG podcasts but I didn't want to listen to D&D podcasts. I found Fandible first, when I was looking for a play through of Changeling: The Lost. I walk to work and I also like to listen to podcasts when I clean my house, so I usually get through one episode a day. I usually look for podcasts that play in multiple systems, although you'll see a number of podcasts here that focus on just one non-D&D system. Here's a few that I recommend:

Fandible: Just a group of friends who love playing games together. All of them are GMs, and they all GM different games. Jesus is the most adventurous, and is constantly bringing new games to the table. I found Slugblaster, Numenera, and Unhallowed Metropolis through them!

Character Creation Cast: I started listening to CCC last year, thanks to a recommendation from a friend, but I fell in love quick. The hosts focus only on the character creation aspect of games, and they also spend time talking to other gamers about the parts of play that each guest feels is important. I found out about Descent into Midnight, Nova, and Blue Planet this way.

The Gauntlet Podcast: This Podcast no longer releases episodes but I learned so much about safe game play through this podcast. Once a month the hosts would sit down with guests and highlight a game of the month for each of them. Often they would talk about games that they adored even before those games made it to publication. I found out about Brinkwood, Apocalypse Keys, and Poutine through this podcast. I miss it so very much.

I would also recommend My First Dungeon, Party of One Podcast, The Eternity Archives, One Shot, and +1 Forward for exposure to many indie games.

Itch.io

I didn't interact much with Itch.io at first - I thought it was mostly for indie video games and generators - but when the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality came out I went feral. I sorted through each and every page of games in that bundle and put all of the TTRPGs into folders - which I am still refining to this day. As you can see, I get very excited whenever a big bundle comes out, as it gives me a lot of exposure to games that people have made.

I also sort through the most recent additions on Itch every one or two days. I usually categorize my folders via genre and rules system, but I'm currently in the process of curating folders for duet and epistolary games. If I think a tag will help me, I usually use https://itch.io/physical-games/tag-[tag] and then insert what I'm looking for in the [tag]. It doesn't get everything but it gets me started.

Often if a game was entered in a Game Jam, there's a tab that you can click to see other entries in that same Jam. So occasionally I'll browse Game Jams for other games that I might find interesting. And for games that I know that I'm personally passionate about, I have a Games that Intrigue Me folder to flip through for when I'm choosing which game to play, or if I want to spotlight a game that I've been itching to put on a rec post.

Other Avenues

I am actually subscribed to you on Youtube, along with a number of other great reviewers!

The Gaming Table is a wonderful Aussie creator who reviews copies of indie ttrpgs. She started a year ago and already has a truly delightful backlog. I recently listened to her review of Bluebeard's Bride and it was wonderful!

I found 11dragonkid when I was looking for Lancer content and was pleasantly surprised to find other ttrpg reviews for games such as ARC and Gubat Banwa.

I watch A.A. Voigt's and Talen Lee's (@talenlee) mini-essays about games and the pieces of those games that speak to them not just to learn about new games but also to learn about what makes those games matter. I found the videos on Capitalites and Girl By Moonlight very informative!

I also watch Dave Thaumvore for reviews for big-print games (Vaesen, Symbaroum), and Questing Beast for updates on what's happening in the OSR scene (Vaults of Vaarn, Mothership).

I'm also subscribed to a number of newsletters and RSS feeds! Bundle of Holding has a blog announcing new bundles, the Indie RPG Newsletter has some great indie rpg coverage in their monthly updates and associated links, and I have an RSS feed on Feedly for game musings on whatever blogs I can find.

In Conclusion...

Much of my TTRPG knowledge comes from constant osmosis. I talk to friends about games, spend a lot of time on Itch.io, and I'm also finding new games here on Tumblr. I have an RPG server where me and a bunch of my friends play pretty regularly, and I'm constantly introducing them to new games. We finished up our Monster Squad Arc a month or two ago, and we're currently getting geared up for a Galaxy Games arc - this time with games that other players are bringing to the table!

I started sorting games for my own enjoyment - I love having all of my little boxes that I can go back to when I am hankering for my own game. I started this blog because I found there were too many games that I was excited about and I was never going to get through all of them just gaming with my friends.

#asks #mint speaks #thanks for asking this question! #I love talking about my immersion in tabletop games #I also love recommending things

[totesmgoats01-published-author]

Has anybody heard of or played a game called KBNR?

I was just cleaning out my downloads folder and realized I couldn't remember what "KBNRWIN.RAR" was, so I unzipped it and it was a very short, pixel graphics, semi-monochrome, top-down, indie horror game. The "readme" txt is very sparse, with some links to bandcamp (for the soundtrack) and itch.io (for other stuff by the creator?) both of which were dead ends.

The controls of the game were ONLY arrow keys to move. That's it. There's no "select" or "back" or even "exit game" buttons (the readme said exit was alt+F4). I looked up the name and the only thing I could find mentioning it was a "top 10" style list by "the casual gaymer" mentioning it without much detail.

The gameplay itself is controlling a little purple character, who climbs up some kind of tower or mountain, as you go text boxes pop up then go away after a few seconds. When you get to the top of the mountain/tower your character jumps off (you don't have control over this) and the game closes itself.

I buy a bunch of big itch.io bundles, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was from one of those but can anyone back up the claim that it is? In particular I've bought bundles in support of various charitable causes. These are the specific ones, with the dates they came out:

Games For Gaza  Oct 29, 2023

Bundle for Ukraine  Mar 09, 2022

Indie bundle for Palestinian Aid  Jun 05, 2021

Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality  Jun 07, 2020

Searching the bundles for "kbnr" has no results.

Has anybody else seen or played this little game? Am I crazy? Am I haunted? I've seen stories that start pretty similar to this on nexpo and I'm not thrilled about it lol.

#original post #kbnr #kbnr game #indie game #indie games #indie gaming #pc games #internet mysteries #nexpo #has anyone heard of this #what other tags can I use to reach people lol #itchio #itch.io #itchio games #itch.io games #cw sui mention #cw horror

[iraprince]

Have you ever played steamed hams? :o How was it?

i haven't actually had the opportunity yet, but i own it and have delighted solely in reading the rules (it's a one-pager) many times. (i actually would really love to set up a regular game night w my friends this year so i can play and properly review a bunch of the games i have....)

it's one of those ones that leans far heavier on roleplay than on mechanics, so it's one that might be challenging at first for people who are new to improv or shy about it, but honestly it's so silly that i think it could actually be a great way to get timid/uncertain roleplayers used to it! because it's relatively open-ended, i think a first play of steamed hams might benefit from at least one player who's pretty comfortable with rp/has gm'd before/etc who can help keep play moving.

(for those just tuning in: steamed hams is a game i recommended in a list of indie ttrpgs recs i made recently! if u bought the itch racial justice + equality bundle a few years back u already own it. ...also just as a little disclaimer i am currently contracted to do some work for the dev of this game on an upcoming project! it's a total coincidence and has nothing to do with steamed hams, but i would just feel weird not mentioning it i guess?)

#ttrpgs #ttrpg #OH MY GOD I HAAAAVE TO DECIDE IF IM GOING TO HAVE MY ORGANIZATIONAL TAGS IN PLURAL OR NOT. I NEED TO MAKE A DECISION #and then rememebr it.

[noeybodys]

Hi, I just wanted to tell you that about 2 years ago I got Dungeons And Lesbians as part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality on itch.io and I played it about 6 months later I was looking through what games I got in the bundle and I saw yours and figured I might as well play a lesbian dating sim for the laughs right? Because I was a cishet male? Anyway I played it and it had been turning around in my head for a long time since until about a year ago I realized I was a trans lesbian and sorry for rambling I just wanted to let you know your "silly little game" was one of a few factors that made me finally put together last year the fact that that I was trans. Anyway I'm starting HRT next week and im very excited about it and this game just means so much to me I thought I might let you know <3

omg. i'm only just replying to this now, but this is literally the best thing i've heard about that game?? omg omg. this makes me feel so many things... I'm sure I'm late to the party, but congrats on your new gender!!!!!

#just n talk #ahhh i have so many mails piled up while i was gone #but ahhh this makes me so many feelings

[lgdays]

hiii congrats on the launch!!!! are you guys planning on updating your itch.io page with the full game? im wondering since it came in a bundle I got, or if I would have to buy it again? thanks ❤️

Hi there! The full game is available on itchio, you just have to download it again. And don't worry, if you got the game through any of the bundles (Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, Palestinian Aid, and/or Bundle for Ukraine), you don't need to pay anything extra!

#long gone days #longgonedays #asks

[dragonomatopoeia]

Do you have any recommendations for zines?

I ended up writing a pretty long front-matter to this ask, so I've put it all under a Read More. If you only want the resources, feel free to skip to the end

So: I am always going to be a little too pedantic and autistic for a comprehensive, unambiguous rec list. Someone asked me what my favorite book was once, and it felt like my brain stalled and rebooted five times.

Don't get me wrong! I love putting specialized recommendations together, like puzzle-box mystery novels, or horror genre video games with thematic emphasis on grief, or documentaries on sewage treatment

But I am very, very bad at recommending general purpose Media full stop. alas I am a fussy and particular creature who hisses at five star rating systems on review websites because I think using the same Quality Metric regardless of genre and medium and purpose is Silly

Making recs gets even more difficult with things like zines, where they are small press by nature. A lot of my favorite zines are DIY projects with Very Small Distributions. One of my prized possessions is a small, hand-drawn zine of one hundred cats the artist drew with their eyes closed, which they gave to me for free because they liked my shirt. But that's a zine that means something to me because of circumstance and taste and my own ability to pick it up in person

Your mileage tends to vary with this stuff. If I found a Repo The Genetic Opera zine that ranks every organ in the human body, I have friends that would love that WAY more than I would, and I'd probably send it their way. If I found a zine about Gundam and gender and disability and idealized bodies that have been shaped into weapons, then I have dozens of friends I would need to send copies of it to, but that wouldn't make it any less niche. Zines are for VERY specific audiences. That's one of the best things about them!

That Being Said! There ARE popular, more-accessible, or more well-known zines and artists with broader appeal, and I mean that in an enthusiastic, complimentary manner.

I've even seen zines being advertised on my tumblr dashboard. Zines like:

Oh No! A kidpix zine by Louie Zong (Pay what you want- all proceeds donated to LA Foodbank)

Golem Zine is a publication by and for Jewish creatives living in areas where Jewish life is challenged. Their Out West issue sold out before I could grab a copy ($10 per issue, physical)

FYMA: A Lesser Key to the Appropriation of Jewish Magic & Mysticism goes hand in hand with the previous zine, I think (Pay what you want)

But you're more likely to get something that caters to your specific interests and artistic sensibilities by getting in touch with your community members, asking friends who have similar tastes, or checking out some of these resources:

Your Local Library (I'm being serious here-- your library likely has connections to local artists, galleries, resources, and e-resources that can set you on the path to zines you'll enjoy)

Any local art walk or small press events near you (your library can help you find these)

Itch.io's Zine Tag (Adding more tags will help you filter these)

Papercut Zine Library's Virtual Library

Internet Archive's Zine Collections

The DC Punk Archive Zine Library (Specific to punk and DIY interests, as you might imagine)

The Library of Congress Online Zine Web Archive Collection

QZAP (The Queer Zine Art Project)

POCZP (People of Color Zine Project-- and they're on tumblr!)

Hevelin Fanzine Collection (Literally a bunch of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy fanzines that were all collected by one guy which are now being digitized)

From Staple to Spine: A Compendium of Zine-Related Books (This doesn't have zines itself, but the books included can be a great starting point for where you should be looking and what will be of interest to you)

I also recommend making your own zine! It's fun to make things and put words and images on paper.

And if you downloaded the bundle for Racial Justice and Equality off itch.io, you already own the Electric Zine Maker (Warning for brightly colored, glitched, and moving visual elements that may cause eyestrain. I would also be wary if you're prone to migraines)

I know this has been a Lot and I got a bit carried away, but I hope that this helps you in your quest for finding cool, obscure art made by people who care deeply about niche topics. Personally, that's my favorite kind of art

#asks #anonymous #recs #resources #should i tag this as research aids. i feel like this is now a research aid

[dungeonmalcontent]

Reminder: If you're looking for a non-d&d ttrpg to play and don't want to pay out the nose for a core rulebook and dot want to pirate one, think back a bit. 3 years ago, did you buy the $5 Bundle for Racial Equality and Justice on itch.io? Because there are ttrpgs in there. Most notable of them is probably Lancer (a battlemech rpg).

Was recently reminded that I'd bought that and still have access to all those games.

And there were a few other big bundles since then.

And even if you haven't bought a bundle with any ttrpgs, just browse there. There's some good ones.

#ttrpg #tabletop rpgs #itch.io

[was-it-really-worth-it]

Game 245 - deskspace by npckc

I picked up this game through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. I chose to donate 10 dollars, and I found about 153 games in the bundle that I was actually interested in. So, the consideration for this game will be if it was worth the 7 cents (rounded up) that I paid for it and the hours that I played it for. The bundle has since ended, but I still encourage you to make a donation to the organizations listed here.

What did I think it was at first? no idea!

How was the character creator? There isn't one! There isn't really a way to customize your experience either.

How was the game? This is a fun little self-care / time management app! You can log your mood, set timers, and take little breaks.

What did I not love? The UI is very minimal and the app is cute, but my cell phone does all of these things for me. Google can do most of these things. I don't necessarily need an app for this.

At 12 minutes and 7 cents, was it really worth it? It's a pretty cute little utility, and if you find that having your phone on you is a distraction when you study this could be helpful!

#deskspace #itch.io racial justice bundle #c reviews #gaming #npckc

[iloveabunchofgames]

#JakeReviewsItch

Anodyne

by Melos Han-Tani, Marina Kittaka

Price (US): $9.99

Included In: Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, Indie Bundle for Palestinian Aid

Genre: Adventure

Pitch: What if Link traded his sword for a broom?

My expectations: If I'm not mistaken, the Anodyne series is well regarded. I've played a chunk of both games and liked this one better than its sequel, but I still found it underwhelming. Were my first impressions correct, or will it finally win me over today?

Review:

In the original The Legend of Zelda, protagonist Link stabbed Zols and Kees with a sword.

Anodyne’s protagonist, Young, stabs slimes and bats with a broom. Not, like, the sharpened handle of a broom. He just walks up to monsters and stabs them with bristles.

All subsequent, top-down Zelda games had Link swing his sword in an arc, which not only looked less awkward than the slow stab, but added nuance to combat. I won’t go into a thorough analysis of Zelda combat through the ages, but while I’ll concede that cloning the first game’s basic sword attack is a valid choice, it’s an odd one. It worked in that game because the sword was one of many tools, meant to be used in concert with shields, boomerangs, and bombs. The sword could shoot laser swords.

In my time with Anodyne, Young picked up keys, health pips, and eventually a pair of jumping boots. I explored vast swaths of the world, conquering dungeon after dungeon, and everywhere I went, I stabbed the same slimes and bats with the same broom.

It’s a dreary, wearying slog, tragically devoid of nuance and wonder.

+ On rare occasions, fighting monsters, solving puzzles, and collecting keys in a dungeon creates a sense of progress, and a fleeting glimmer of Zelda magic shines on Anodyne. + In addition to functioning as a broom, the broom can be...a broom. Puzzles that involve sweeping up dust and depositing it elsewhere are generally successful. + Simple controls. + Occasionally gets dark and weird. More of that, please!

– If you're ripping off Zelda, rip off Zelda! Where are all the items? – To quote that Zelda commercial, "Which? Way? To? Go?" I want to get a little lost in a game like this, but give me some direction. The map and the fast-travel system are invaluable, but they're not at all user friendly. – Combat stinks. Movement is generally is slow and clunky. – Miserable music that sucks all the joy out of adventuring. If the rest of the game were oppressively depressing, maybe it would work. Instead we have a light, goofy, broom-stabbing Zelda adventure that's determined not to have any fun.

🧡🧡🤍🤍🤍

Bottom Line: Play a real Zelda game.

#JakeReviewsItch is a series of daily game reviews. You can learn more here. You can also browse past reviews...

• By name • By rating • By genre

#Anodyne #Melos Han-Tani #Marina Kittaka #Action-adventure #The Legend of Zelda #Zelda #Top-down #Indie Bundle for Palestinian Aid #Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality #JakeReviewsItch #Computer Game #Video Game #Indie Game #Neo-retro #Game Review #Itch.io #Pixel art

[legy]

random game roundup

Jabberwocky - Free!

sorry everyone. i fucking hate this poem lol

this is a pretty charming zelda-like that likely doesnt have more than an hour runtime. you wander around and kill shit and completely flounder at a sokoban puzzle for 6 minutes. i think the combat is really unresponsive and the weakest part of the whole thing (and having to kill 10 of anything to proceed is weird and not exceptionally well communicated) but the music is great and it felt very nostalgic to play

Camphor - Free!

description of the game straight up says it plays for 30 seconds to a minute and they are not kidding. this is a visual poem about a worm looking to see fireflies. the lack of screen direction consistency drove me insane. just play this to see what i mean

NeuraQaurium - $4.95

Included in Indie Bundle for Abortion Funds

this shit gets me right in the creatures

neuraquarium isnt really a "game" its a neural network simulation where a bunch of fish powered by machine learning react to stimulation in the environment, evolve and generally survive. you have some minor interactions (can place food and change the environment a bit) but its mostly a virtual fishtank. every time i found a favorite they died instantly. but shooting things with laser beams and spinning in a circle was pretty big in my aquarium

Cat Ace - $4.99

Included in Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, Indie bundle for Palestinian Aid

competent arcade-style dogfighting game. there's a bit of depth here but i did really feel like i saw everything there was to see about this game after like... 5 minutes. the visuals are great (i love the 3d effect when starting/ending a run), music and sound effects are godawful, wish i could hold onto the missile powerup for longer because its the funniest weapon

Septiny - Free!

they r not kidding this is a rage platformer

short game where you jump through 3 levels 7 times which each level getting more difficult as you loop around. the jumping was unfortunately not really responsive enough to make this fun to play + i definitely had some unearned level clears where i died and it just moved on anyway

#random game roundup #jabberwocky #camphor #neuraquarium #cat ace #septiny

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: Magic and Mystics

This week's games are all magical in nature, whether they be solo games, supplements, or something as big and as grand as a wizard's tower!

Tower & Town, by Ari Calix.

After years at the Mages’ College, you have finally completed your studies and acquired a tower of your own. What better use for your new arcane residence than pursuing a wizard’s favourite pastime: magical research! The College, of course, has high expectations and anticipates regular reports on your progress.

There is, however, a complication. Your new tower is far from the distractions of the city, but it’s only an hour’s walk from a small town very eager for your magical assistance. You may have plans to revolutionize magical science, but the townspeople are really more interested in your warding their chicken coops against thieving sprites.

Tower & Town is a solo RPG about a rural wizard managing their time, making friends, and changing magical scholarship forever—while trying not to be driven out by an angry mob or lose research funding.

This is a neat little game that provides you with a balancing act: keeping up on your research while also doing favours for townsfolk in order to keep you in their favor. You’ll use two skills, Arcane and Mundane, and two specialties, one that informs your magical abilities and one that demonstrates your non-magical competencies. Your Reputation exists as two tracks that will move up and down depending on your success in meeting demands. The game provides a structured set of stages to ensure your wizard will receive many requests, and there’s enough moving pieces to keep your game playing over an extended period of time - so you can play a little bit every day.

Spellchitects!, by Viditya Voleti.

You craft and design the spells and rituals that are being cast all around your world. Using your advanced knowledge of how magic is weaved, you mark out the symbols, colors, and components to craft the desired effects. 

Sometimes you make spells for customers, sometimes you make spells just for the heck of it! As Spellchitects, it’s all about experimentation, collaboration, and fun!

As a spell-crafting game, this can be a fun little exercise on its own, but it could also be a way to design a magic system for a larger game. Each player will use a variety of different-coloured writing instruments to create elements of the spell. The colour and the marking involved in the sigil will each communicate something about what the spell does. The players will also have to assign a spell component for each extra symbol invoked in the creation of the spell. 

If you bought the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality a few years ago, you already own this game! 

Summoner’s Fate, by Rae Nedjadi.

You are STUDENTS at a Learning Institution that focuses on the esteemed and complex art of ARCANE SUMMONING. You have learned how to call upon beings to be an extension of your own will and power.

A CONFLICT has arisen, an ADVERSARY reveals themselves. The stakes are high, things are dire! You few are the only thing standing in the way, there’s no one else. You have to rise to the challenge and trust that you’ve got what it takes!

This game takes inspiration from both Spindlewheel, by Sasha Reneau, and Royal Blood, by Grant Howitt. It has a Game Facilitator, also known as Fate, as well 2-4 players. It uses a Tarot deck to determine elements of the game: the Major Arcana provide story aspects and character elements, while the Minor Arcana are used for moments of the story where your summoners will make a wager in order to overcome a challenge. Your characters can summon Powers or Daemons to help them - but doing so also means that you could lose that which you wagered, cracking or shattering one of the crystals from which you draw your power. 

If you like heavily interpretive games, or you like playing with Tarot Cards, this game might be worth checking out!

Research Arcanum, by J. Evan Nyquist.

Research Arcanum is a PbtA game about learning the secrets of a fantasy world for 2-5 players including a GM. It can be used as a supplement to augment an existing tabletop roleplaying game or played on its own to generate the academic history of an Arcanist or to plumb the mysteries of a setting’s magic.

This game is something that you could run as a one-shot inside a larger campaign to give your characters a chance to really delve into the lore of a world, or to role-play the arduous journey of tracking down a specific magical solution to an urgent problem. If you like the idea of magic being something you can study in an institution, this game will give you a chance to really explore that.

I can also see this game being easily hacked into a sci-fi setting as well! Instead of a wizard university, your characters may be seeking information from an alien repository or a Jedi library. Just make the sources places like The Library Planet or Xritex, an alien researcher, and spheres things like Warp Travel, Robotic Intelligences, and Twi’lek Culinary Techniques. 

Wizard Pals, by Tadhg Lyons.

The world is a wretched place, and life is awful. Thankfully, You Are Magic, and even better, you can Do Magic, and it rules. Anyone can be a Wizard, and a Wizard can be anyone.

Wizard Pals is a lighthearted TTRPG/collaborative storytelling game in which every hero is a mysterious and magically powerful being known as a Wizard. To play, you need some pals of your own, some 12-sided dice, and an adventurous spirit. The game itself is easy to learn and approachable, open-ended and chaotic, and perfect for new TTRPG players and veterans alike.

In Wizard Pals, the colour of your robes denotes your area of expertise, your Signature Spells are powerful but require a re-charge, and all of you will go upon a quest to complete a Wizardly Task! There is so much room to make this game as goofy as you like - it’s hard to keep a straight face when one of your wizards is a frog in a top hat, or an ominous floating orb. 

There’s a number of mechanics that remind me of other games, including two abilities and a target number that you must roll under or over, similar to Lasers & Feelings. (The game uses d12s, which is what makes it slightly different!) However, when you’re in combat, your characters will be rolling using something akin to attack and defense, with a stat layout that you have to assign to both. 

This game comes with two supplements: The Bastard of Undertower, and The Haunting of Hobble. These are adventures that a GM can lead the characters through, which is great if your game master wants a little guidance, or just less prep to do. 

What’s So Cool About Street Magick?, by Vincent Quigley. 

So what IS so cool about Street Magick ?  Well... It's a micro-rpg where you play people that have shed the burden of banality and that yield terrible magick for it.  It's a game about the homeless, the vagrant, the people that tend to become invisible in our regular boring ass lives. 

It's a game about finding the fantastic within the rotten. 

It's a game that will need you to make your own. 

This is a simple hack of What’s So Cool About Outer Space?, about magic users on the streets. Follow rumours and fight of arcane threats that nobody else seems to care about. You have power now, but a happy ending isn’t going to just fall in your lap - you’ll have to fight for it. 

This game uses just d6’s and a bunch of imagination. I’d love to see this game in combination with a city-builder, such as I’m sorry did you say street magic, by Caro Acercion, or What is Here? by Matthew Gravelyn. I love the idea of creating a city and then exploring it - it gives me a lot of the same vibes as Urban Shadows or World of Darkness, but with less fiddly bits or chapters of lore.

#magic #wizards #indie ttrpgs #tabletop games #game recommendations #dnd

[clowngames]

By the way, to the folks struggling with the impending lack of fresh content as a result of the strikes I would like to remind you to play the games you bought on itch in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality (2020), Indie bundle for Palestinian Aid (2021), Bundle for Ukraine (2022), Queer Games Bundle 2022 (2022), Queer Games Bundle 2023 (2023), and several other bundles you may have purchased which I was personally unable to at the time.

There are literally 3000 video games and 2400 tabletop games across these bundles. I've only played several dozen. I will survive the strikes.

[petraforgedyke]

i played Ships That Pass with @lunellum today, and it was so much fun?

and we told a tale of a former research vessel-now a freelance crew's home ship, and a fancy corporate property racing ship that gets chartered out as a leisure craft meeting and developing feelings, ending in an elaborate plan of faking your own death to get away from corporations. (and also the platonic relationships between the ships and their pilots. friendly and caring, and shitty siblings who make fun of each other)

anyway uh if you've got a fiver to spare, it's on itchio (if you bought the racial justice and equality bundle in 2020 it's also in that)

10/10 definitely recommend

#seg plays

[mackerelphones]

Review: PALACE OF WOE (Owch, 2019)

One of my favorite developers is Owch, a pseudonym of “arcanist” Chloe Taylor, creator of numerous challenging video games of varied genre but a consistent minimalist aesthetic, dark tone, and recurring symbology. Of these, the least cryptic is PALACE OF WOE, a 2019 “sort-em-up labyrinth” available on itch.io.

As with all of Owch’s video games, the story in PALACE OF WOE is more the player figuring out what to do than a conventional plot, so if you would prefer to play a delightful puzzle game “unspoiled,” click the link above and drop a few dollars to play it. Or download it right now if you bought the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality or the Bundle for Ukraine.

Per Owch tradition, PALACE OF WOE dumps the player into an eerie, supernatural world with zero exposition or instruction. The window of the game executable is entitled “LOOK at the PALACE OF WOE,” and instead of “Start” or another conventional option, the title screen begins the adventure when the player selects “ESCAPE.” A clear mission statement: ESCAPE the PALACE OF WOE.

From a top-down perspective and an aspect ratio suggestive of the Game Boy, the player controls a spiky-haired character in a hoodie, the back of which is emblazoned with a bug-like shape. As the first room forces the player to learn, this one-eyed tough can kick chairs, trees, coffins, and any other object Sokoban-style to clear rows of obstacles. Rather than scrolling, movement occurs on a screen-by-screen basis. Leaving a screen resets every obstacle and every enemy. Only bosses, rare unique encounters such as possible Beat the Art Breaker nod Sink (who knows the secret) or Chloe herself, do not respawn.

Screenshot: the southern coast.

In PALACE OF WOE, enemies and bosses are also more akin to obstacles, neither moving nor provoking combat. The majority not obstructing essential passages can be safely ignored. There is no gameplay benefit, such as EXP or money, to be derived from “fighting” each foe beyond the literal experience of practice.

The enemy, often something cute in the overworld but more disturbing up close, is angled to the spiky-haired protagonist like an opponent’s Pokémon. Brief flavor text and ominous, raspy droning (probably the battle theme slowed down) introduce our opponent: “LONGLEGS is hungry.” The action occurs in a box in the middle of the screen. On the right of this box is the player’s health bar, and on the left the opponent’s. Clusters of square tiles in different arrangements appear in the box, which can accommodate a five-by-five grid of these tiles and whose edges wrap in on themselves. The player must place the set of tiles before a time limit indicated at the top of the screen places the tiles for us. If a full row or column of the box is filled, this row or column of tiles vanishes, and the enemy takes one HP damage. However, if tiles overlap other squares already set into the box, these tiles vanish, each one lost sapping one HP from the player character. The “combat” system is splendid, simple in concept but allowing challenging permutations. Each enemy demands the player manage different tile layouts, many large and ungainly. The toughest enemy, Gutrot, I even thought impossible to beat until I saw a let’s play in which the player, Alex Diener, defeats one with no difficulty.

There is also a hold box that contains a single square tile. Once per battle, the player can swap the larger set of incoming tiles for this single one and a hopefully easier, lifesaving move. While this seems like an emergency measure, it is strategically valuable and proves essential for Gutrot and Look. The main menu also allows the player to fight enemies context-free to optimize our skills and maximize efficiency, a sure draw to those who thirst for mastery. The difficulty level is inconsistent, however. I struggled with Badmouth, a standard enemy, more than almost any of the bosses.

Badmouth’s extra difficulty may be some kind of statement about harassment.

If defeating enemies is not the objective, though, how does one escape the Palace of Woe? The answer is simply to find the Exit. Guarding it, however, is an amorphous glitch-entity, Swim, who appears throughout the Palace to tantalize the player from unreachable areas.

Screenshot: Swim. Her guardian is Sink. Get it?

To transmute Swim from a swarm of pixels to a solid being, the player must locate the twelve “keys” and then her lair behind several screens of pills. Not “keys” in a typical sense, these arcane miscellanea allude to other Owch games, such as an apple with a hole in it that might have been held by the player character’s blue neighbor in Long Live the Axe. PALACE OF WOE follows the time-honored video game collection structure.

The music loops, also by Owch, are short and usually spooky. After all, the Palace of Woe is not a place one wants to be. Most of the battle themes—“BOOT,” the four “DARKPUSHER” tracks, and the “boss theme”—while still ethereal, are surprisingly soothing and upbeat, music not for life-or-death struggles but forprogress.“Don’t give up!” they seem to say, welcome encouragement on my fifth try against the same tree.

The environments that the overworld Sokoban rooms constitute, rendered in tile-by-tile pixel minimalism, portray recognizable though abstracted spaces. The player begins inside a ghost-filled building, presumably the Palace of Woe itself. However, most of the map consists of this prison’s environs: shorelines, a graveyard, and apple tree forests. The northern reaches of the map, areas such as those the soundtrack identifies as hermit haus and ticks inn, plunge into surreality unrecognizable as physical places. For none of the Palace of Woe is a physical place, being instead, like the enemies encountered in it, representations of the hero’s psychology.

In PALACE OF WOE’s short length, Owch fully explores the game systems and achieves a work satisfying and unified in form and theme. Not only a compelling and fast-paced puzzle system, the “combat” frequently means accepting damage of our own, suggesting a dissociation between self and body. That overworld navigation and combat both revolve around different forms of “sorting” also plays into “sorting yourself out,” the central theme. Characters similar to the PALACE OF WOE player character appear in Owch’s earlier Beat the Art Breaker and Long Live the Axe, where their humanoid forms serve as modifiable avatars for pink bug-like beings resembling the creature on the PALACE OF WOE protagonist’s hoodie. The suggestion of minds capable of moving between different bodies here serves an explicit transgender metaphor. PALACE OF WOE is a model of brevity, completeness, and thematic coherency.

This spiky-haired tough is not so brutal as Owch’s previous bruisers, with whom she shares voice samples. Rather than dying or exploding into blood, her enemies, when trounced, merely “[step] aside” to let the player continue. This and the framing of the protagonist’s situation as escaping a prison instead of invading someone else’s territory make for a less morally ambiguous story. Where10S reaches a degree of difficulty that borders on the humanly impossible, PALACE OF WOE’s forgiving loss states drop the player back to the start of the screen. Instead of the limited checkpoint systems typical of Owch, PALACE OF WOE generously saves on every screen.

To miss the blunt but affirming allegory that the ending of PALACE OF WOE spells out would demand superhuman pigheadedness. It is not a coincidence that the default palette (except the black) matches the colors of the transgender flag. In contrast, exegesis of other Owch titles, like Long Live the Axe, is beyond me.

The cumulative result is something that, by Owch standards, feels kind and clear, more accessible. This (presumable) wider audience appeal suits what, despite first appearances, is a hopeful albeit simple message for those who need to escape the Palace of Woe in real life. However, the other manner in which PALACE OF WOE proves accessible is no different from the rest of Owch’s portfolio: complete excellence.

Check out this and other arcana from Owch at her itch.io page.

Originally published 6 May 2022 on mackerelphones.com.

#palace of woe #owch #indie games #puzzle games #transgender