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rainbow trout + ichthyosaur 🐟

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'The Winds' Grandchildren of Stribog', illustration by Martin Nowak-Njechornski, 1950

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Dragon room

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Oooo you know what I haven't seen a lot of? Games meant for long term play between two players. Id love to see that!

THEME: Long-Term 2-Player

Hello friend, here's a few specific recommendations, but you'll want to take a look at the bits I recommend at the end as well!

Afterglow, by Fistful of Crits.

It started when a WIZARD cleaved apart the temple into two. Because, in the cyclical way of things, one ideology eventually wins out over the other. The Celestial Cycles shatter and pour away, blending into the colour of their worship into tones of soft purple and creamy orange hues.

Now there is no more day or night, no rising or setting of the Godly tombs that float in carefully calculated arches through the sky: there is only the AfterGlow and the wake of a different world.

AfterGlow is a solo or co-operative play journaling TTRPG game. Become a Dawncarver Acolyte of the Light, Imefelga, or a Nightweaver Acolyte of the God of the Night, Elestrell. Expand the world as you explore, search for offerings, fight dangerous threats and discover the mysteries of the Wizard and the AfterGlow.

AfterGlow is designed using the Firelights system, which was originally designed for solo play, and inspired by games such as Hollow Knight. As a game system, I think it’s one of the games that’s meant to last longer than just one session, and since AfterGlow uses the same bones, I’m guessing that it could work as a longer game as well. Just keep in mind that this game isn’t inspired by Hollow Knight; it’s more of a fantastical post-apocalypse.

Empanel, by Bogus Cheesecake.

The year is 1915 - you sit inside a dreary office, working as a telegraph operator for the North American rail system.  The dots and dashes of the telegraph machine spell out a dreary, unfulfilling existence. Until one day, a new kind of message appears. 

Empanel is a two-player narrative roleplaying game based around telegrams and queer yearning. Completely diceless, Empanel's messaging-based gameplay is designed for long-distance play between you and a partner. 

Empanel provides a new spin on two-player conversational roleplaying. Step into the shoes of a middle-aged telegraph operator (or anyone, we're not your boss) and explore the feelings of reconnecting with a love long past. 

I find that two-player games designed to happen over long distances naturally lend to more long-form play, although that is partially because of the time it is expected to take to send messages to each-other. That being said, even if you don’t live that far away, you’ll be expected to think carefully about the messages you send to each-other, as well as spend time encoding and decoding every letter you send. If you want a game about longing and secrecy, you might like this game.

Trading Places, by Jamie Sands.

Trading Places is a game for two people - one who has an ordinary life, and one who has an extraordinary life. They both keep journals. One day, they wake up in each other's bodies.  What happens next is entirely up to the people playing - will your story be a poignant examination of what a life of value means? Will you create a holiday-themed romantic comedy or an existential horror? 

This game doesn’t look like it has a recommended play time, and since it’s a journaling game, you’ll likely need to wait for each other to submit journal entries. I think the fact that you can change the tone of this game makes it really flexible, so you can talk with the other player about what kind of story you’d like to share. I also really like the idea of exploring the life of another person, and coming up with that as you go.

One More Thing, by Nathan D. Paoletta.

Somebody has been murdered! The murderer is sure they will get away with it - but the detective is on the case, and quickly sees the truth of the matter. Both of them know that the murderer did it; the question is how to prove it.

Your story begins with the murder, and continues as a back-and-forth drama playing out in the view of an imaginary television audience. The Murderer never gets away with it, but they can control how the audience sees them in the end. Were they justified in their crime? Did they see no way out of an untenable situation? Or are they a cold-hearted monster who took a life for their own material gain?

One More Thing tells compelling stories of criminals bought to justice, in the finest tradition of TV detective dramas from the 1970s to today.

This game feels episodic, but I don’t think that would stop it from being something a bit more long-form. You could run this either with one player embodying the same detective over a series of different murders, or you could alternate between roles, perhaps following the stories of two connected detectives, or switching between different tones.

Hit the Road, Jack, by Urania Games.

Hit the Road, Jack is a solo/duet game of adrenaline rush and creeping terror. Of chasing and being chased, of being forced to face your sins or to leave them all behind. It is a game of cat and mouse between two characters that we call the Jacks.

This is a game that mentions blood, violence, drugs, crime, and death - both deaths you choose and deaths you don’t.

Jack Be Nimble is the sinner, the criminal, and the one being chased. 

Jack Be Quick is the lawman, the aggrieved, and the one who chases. 

This is their journey cross-country across an empty stretch of highways. By drawing tarot cards and responding to journaling prompts, you will be able to flesh out the nature of these two Jacks, their relationship, and how they deal with whatever the road throws at them.

The game page mentions that there are different lengths of play that you can use for this game, so that tells me that long-form is definitely on the table here. I don’t know how long exactly the game is, but the nice thing about having two different roles, is that you can likely play the game twice, switching roles to give each of you a chance to be each character.

Other Games To Check Out

Little Shepherd, Little Spy, by @psychhound, has a two-player mode called Little Mortal, Little Fey. It’s a game about communication between spies, so I feel like it’s meant to happen over a significant period of time.

There's a lot of GM-Less games out there that aren't specifically two-player but are duet friendly, and are designed for longer-form play.

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Hey there, big fun of your recommendations so far! I have a request to make if that's alright:

I have recently come across Godkiller, which introduced me to the concept of duet games, as in, games specifically designed for a one player one GM dynamic. I'm aware that almost any ttrpg can be played as a duet, but do you have any more examples of games designed with that play style in mind?

Thank you!

THEME: Duet Games

Hello friend, so I'm going to link my Duet Games tag for you t peruse at your leisure, before I add more games to this list. Some of the games here might allow for more than two players, but I hope this plus the tag gives you enough options to look through!

Godspark, by M.Allen Hall.

Godspark is a tabletop adventure game for one or two players. You will explore Ruina Dei, a graveyard of the gods, searching the bodies of fallen deities for the godsparks (fragments of divine power) that allow you to stay alive. With enough godsparks, you can perform miracles, the magics of Ruina Dei. With enough godsparks, you might be able to Ascend and leave this place forever.

If you liked the vibes of Godkiller, you might also like Godspark - in fact, you might be able to attach the two games in regards to setting, placing Godspark as the sequel to Godkiller! The game uses a deck of playing cards, which I assume help you generate locations or details as you play. The game is also designed to be played solo, so I’m not sure if the two-player mode has both of you play characters, or if it sets up one person to have more of a GM role. If you want a game about resistance against heaven, definitely check out Godspark.

Haunting, by Arcane Atlas Games.

Haunting is a two player game about a sentient House that wants to devour its Occupants. 

During play, the players will work together to create their story, documenting the time that the Occupant spends living in the House and telling the tale of how the House will inevitably becomes vacant once more.

The House is waiting…

One of you is the House, angry and unchanging, wanting nothing more than to eat anyone who dares live inside it. One of you is a cast of Occupants, who move in, add to and change the House, and do their best to survive the House as it changes. In between each scene, the two of you switch roles, allowing each of you to set up and react to the decisions and actions of the other. After three scenes, the game ends. Haunting uses drawing as a way to navigate the House and the changes that happen to it. It also includes a list of traits that you can pick from to create your House, as well as rooms, various kinds of occupants, as well as examples of play. If you want a comprehensive, spooky experience, I recommend Haunting.

Conflict of Interest, by barclay travis.

In a line of work that values separation of the mind and the heart, the brains and the brawn, you have found it within yourselves to, perhaps ill-advisedly, merge the two. Not necessarily in the moments where you’ve got a gun in your hand and blood in your mouth, but in the moments between intense violence and adrenaline where you find calm in the company of one another.

This is a GM-less slice-of-life game for two players. You don’t need any materials to play, other than yourself and someone you trust.

Conflict of Interest is a game all about spies and forbidden relationships. Choose from a host of playbooks to describe the kind of spy you are; your relationship to your job is what defines you, and also defines how you relate to your partner. Over the course of a number of scenes, each player will use playbook moves to navigate scene prompts, following their spies through a series of hotel rooms, experiencing the intimate moments in between missions. If you want a chance to role-play through an intimate relationship with someone with the help of focused concepts, you might like this game.

Getting A Clue, by Hewie E.

A 6-page RPG about solving crimes for 2+ people where a coin flip can decide your fate. Form hypotheses, get into shootouts, and figure out who did it in Getting a Clue.

Similar to Godkiller, Getting A Clue requires one person to take on the role of The Commissioner, while the other player(s) take on the role of detectives. Success is determined by flipping a coin, and players determine their special abilities by rolling a d6 twice - once for Brains and once for Brawn. Successfully solving a case makes you more competent, and I suppose the end-game character would be one that had a 6 in both of their traits. The game also comes with worksheets that you can use to keep track of clues and assemble evidence to help you solve the mystery!

Final Broadcast, by grave snail games.

Against all predictions, the sun of your galaxy has just exploded. You have mere minutes—eight minutes and twenty seconds, specifically—before a crash of cosmic radiation boils you into space dust and destroys the galaxy. But you! You are here in a convenient broadcast tower from which you can send a message through a wormhole to places beyond your galaxy. A final transmission, telling the story of a doomed world before it all ends in fire.

FINAL BROADCAST is a very short improvisational storytelling game in which you transmit a final message as the galaxy is consumed by solar flame. It was developed in a week as a submission to the The Queerness and Games Jam.

Final Broadcast works with a larger player count, but also works well for 2 players. The game involves using text from your life as well as from roll tables within the game to compose final messages, and then attempting to say your final messages before your entire galaxy burns. If you want a game that is about desperation, despair, and the last gasps of a group of people being snuffed out, you should definitely check out Final Broadcast.

The Fire Flickers Between You…., by Viditya Voleti.

The Fire Flickers Between You is a game for Two Players for around 40 Minutes, about the bond between a Pilot and Mech, and the last night they'll spend together. 

One of you is a highly advanced combat mech, the other is their specialized Pilot. You two are fully in synch from completing missions, training, and spending time together. 

Your platoon has lost the battle. You all must flee before enemy reinforcements arrive. The Pilot, however, proposes the two of you will set up a diversion giving the others time to escape.  You both now sit around a campfire, waiting for the enemy to arrive. In these final moments, a conversation strikes up.

This game has players lighting, placing, moving, and putting out candles as you reminisce about your friendship, what it means to sacrifice yourself, and whether or not you're ready to let go of each other.

The Fire Flickers Between You uses the power of candles and and flame to describe the last moments of a duo that has bonded in a unique way; a Pilot who has lived a life full of danger and adventure, and a Mech that has absorbed the Pilot’s memories, but does not have the capacity to understand things like sacrifice or death. If you want an emotional game that allows you to review an entire life in just a few hours, I recommend The Fire Flickers Between You.

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wild horses

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[from twitter]

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“It’s a twister!” - Taken some years ago by 15 year old Lucille Handberg near Jasper, MN.

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now she’s all ready for spooky season—are you? 🌕🐺

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After the storm !!!

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gay people will say "i know a spot" and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then it's a time loop and then

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Art by Justine Thibault