polyhedralmice

[polyhedralmice]

Pictographer was my second submission for this year's One Page TTRPG Jam. This game is all about creating a pictographic language, and it has the advantage that it can be played solo. The game can be as fragmented as needed too, for it doesn't have a storyline to follow or a strict gameplay session. It's more of a round-based thing which doesn't follow a plot (unless players get creative).

If you try it, don't doubt to tell me what you think about it! Useful feedback for future projects is appreciated :)

[polyhedralmice]

How To Find Cool Games: On Itch.io!

As I drift into a reduced posting schedule, I figured I’d give everyone a peek behind the screen for how I cultivate ttrpgs for recommendations! Some of these tips might even help you find your next favourite game.

This is a long read so let's put most of this beast under a read-more. Keep in mind that many of these strategies work best when you're checking itch.io a little bit every week, and when you're engaging with the platform as more than just a store page. There's a lot of features that you can choose to engage with if you want to find the game for you!

browsing physical game recent releases. This helps me see what’s new and happening, and it helps with a number of things. First of all, I get to see new games pretty much every time I browse recent releases. Secondly, I get a good sense of what’s currently popular in the design space. Thanks to my weekly browsing, I recognize Cy_Borg, Shadowdark and Mausritter as games whose content shows up rather regularly - if you see a lot of products attached to one game at once, that’s a good sign that there’s a related game jam going on (in this case, Shadowdark), or that a game is really resonating with its player base.

sorting games into collections. I personally organize by genre, system, player configuration and (in Games That Intrigue Me) games that I’m personally really hyped about. This works for me because of the nature of my work, but a few collections sorted according to level of interest or game style might work better for you.

Depending on the need, I might have a collection that works specifically for the request - Neon Lights & Cyber Nights is perfect for cyberpunk games, but I might also reference this folder for combat, inventory mechanics, resistance themes, or interesting tech rules. LUMEN is great for folks who want fast-paced games, folks who are looking for certain kinds of video games, or folks who want to feel powerful. If you follow other people on Itch, you'll probably also be able to see their collections, which is a great place to browse.

searching game tags. I don’t typically use the regular search feature, although recently the website did update the toggles to restrict your results to physical games, video games, etc. Instead what I usually do is type what I’m looking for into the url: so in this case, [deck-building]. I might use a couple different wordings, such as [deck-builder] and [deckbuilding] (no spaces). You’re not going to find everything that includes the thing you’re looking for, but you’ll definitely find places to start.

Game Jams! I find these either by looking at the “Jams” tab (although you'll have to wade through video games here) or by noticing that a number of games being published recently have the “for the _” jam in the description. Alternatively, I might be reading the page for a game and see the little “Submission” badge in interaction buttons. There’s game jams for specific systems, game jams for various themes, game jams with special restrictions, and game jams that are titled things like “finish your damn game jam.”

Bundles. I typically buy big-ass bundles and then sort through the games in my downtime. These games are sorted into collections for future reference, and if a game really pops out - into the Intrigue Me folder it goes! And the best part is that I already own it, so if I want to learn more, I can just download it and start reading.

following game designers that I like. This way I’ll get notifications if they release a new game, update an old game, rate someone else’s game, or sort games into their own collections. I also get to see what other folks in the space are excited about - on the day I was browsing, Plasmodics by Will Jobst was really hot.

If you follow me on Itch, you’ll get a notification every time I add a game to one of my non-private folders! Also - you can interact with designers on Itch by liking their updates, and even commenting on their posts, which is a great way to get involved in the design community - and also just make a designer’s day!

[polyhedralmice]

Gofundthem bundles

Hey folks! I've decided to run a series of campaigns to help Gazans achieve their gofundme goals. Everyone who shows me proof they donated to a specific gofundme will receive a bundle of free ttrpg games!

We'll start with Ola, a young teacher hoping to one day rebuild her life in Gaza.

Before we properly kick off this campaign, I'm looking for more contributions to the bundle. If you'd like to contribute a game, please fill out this form! Ttrpgs and video games are equally welcome. <3

If your contribution is an Itch game, you'll want to uncheck the 'download key can be claimed' box so that people aren't locked out of downloading the game after one person does so.

[polyhedralmice]

I've been running a casual solo ttrpg club (pretty much like a book club) lately on my discord.

Anyone have any good recs for lesser known solo ttrpg's? I'm always down to expand my list of options

[polyhedralmice]

How To Find Cool Games: On DriveThruRPG!

So disclaimer upfront: I don’t use the DriveThruRPG website nearly as much as Itch.io. Some of those reasons are practical (there’s no tagging system, the catalogue is rather D&D saturated,), while others are more… well, shallow (the website isn’t as pretty).

However, DriveThruRPG is a very good tool to have in your toolbox when it comes to finding cool ttrpgs, for a number of reasons, the primary one being that it’s for TTRPGS and only TTRPGs! Let’s get started.

The Search Bar / Categories.

You can start by doing a basic search for a game that you already know about, or by searching for a keyword, like “pirates” or “zombies”. You’ll get titles sorted by “relevance”, so things that have the keyword in the name will show up first. One of the biggest downsides of this strategy is that everything kind of gets lumped in here: supplements, maps, expansions, adventures, character sheets… the list goes on. However, you can narrow down what you’re looking for by using the toggles at the top of the website. I personally usually narrow down search results by selecting “Product Type” and then “Core Rulebooks”.

One nice thing DriveThru has compared to Itch.io is that you can combine categories, so if I wanted to brows say, Gothic Horror Core Rulebooks priced under $20, well I can do that! My favourite categories are for genre, but another set of categories that you may find very useful once you’ve familiarized yourself with some games is the Rule System category. There are categories for systems like the Year Zero Engine, Forged in the Dark, BRP (Basic Roleplaying), OSR, and so much more. There’s also “other systems” and “any system” categories if you want to find something that’s unique or that can be used across games.

DriveThru also has a lot of games published in different languages, and you can narrow your results to see what’s been offered in your language. I think there are more options on this website than there are on Itch, although you might benefit by finding one or two publishers in your language on DriveThru, and then check the publisher’s website from there.

The Homepage

Another reason to check out DriveThru regularly is the sales and promotions. The top banner of the homepage will typically advertise a few things: the Deal of the Day, current themed sales, and special offers that DriveThru RPG wants you to know about. Their homepage also has Bestselling Titles, Most Popular Games Under $5, Newest Games, Featured Titles, and, if you scroll down enough, Personalized suggestions. Unlike Itch.io, DriveThru does a lot of work to show you what’s new, what’s hot, and what’s a really good deal right now, which can all be really helpful things!

When you land on a game, you’ll be able to see whether or not DriveThru sells physical copies, some basic information like book size, rule system, publisher & author, and a blurb describing the setting and other general information about the game. DriveThru has a side panel with “Customers also Bought”, which is great for showing you things that you might like, either because they surround the same theme, they work for the same game, or they are in a similar genre. (Another thing that Itch isn’t quite as good at.)

You’ll also be able to see (and leave) reviews for game, including the ratings left by other people who have picked it up. Occasionally I’ll find really useful information in the reviews, as reviewers might talk about mechanics they love or loathe, or recommend styles of play that they feel the game matches.

Finally, like Itch, DriveThru will let you know if you’ve already bought the game, and provide you with a download shortcut.

Publishing House Pages

Larger publishing houses typically have their ttrpg content sorted very nicely for you on their publisher pages, to help you find the things that you want. Modiphius is a great example, sorting Star Trek, Dune, Fallout, and their 2d20 games all in special categories.

Many publishers also have a Community Content section, which is great if you’re looking for assets, new adventures, hacks of a game system and some very reasonably priced (or even cheap) game additions. Similar to Itch, DriveThru has a Pay-What-You-Want feature for many games, although, unlike Itch, most PWYW titles require that you pay a non-zero amount.

Newsletters

When you create an account on DriveThruRPG, you can sign up for various different kinds of newsletters. Some come directly from DriveThru itself: this includes the Follow Your Favourites and Deal of the Day options, as well as weekly/monthly newsletters carrying information about new releases, special promotions, and (often) a free ttrpg product of the month.

However, on top of that, when you purchase a game or follow publishing pages, you can also get emails about new releases specific to those creators, as well as updates if a new version of a game you bought has been added. Often if it’s a game you already bought, this means you own the new version too - something that DriveThru has in common with Itch!

The Follow Your Favourites announcements will line up with whatever you’ve chosen to follow on the website. I’ve asked for updates about new Core Rulebooks, and I also get updates from the Onyx Path and a few other places where I found games I really liked. I also check the Deal of the Day offers fairly regularly; sometimes there are really really good deals offered and if it’s a game you know or like, then you don’t want to miss out on a sale!

Wishlists

DriveThru allows you to add games to wishlists to look at later, and even gives you the ability to sort your wishlists, although the process feels harder to look through than Itch does; I think it might be a UI issue.

However, because it acts like a wishlist, you can move games from the wishlist into your cart and vice versa, as well as move the games to another list. One really nice thing about the wishlist section is that DriveThru will alway show you when something you want is on sale, and how much it is normally - Itch does this too, but in this case, DriveThru is much easier to read!

I mostly sort my wishlists into Core Rulebooks and Supplements, because I don’t have nearly as many games bookmarked on DriveThru. If it exists on Itch, I store it on Itch - but there are plenty of other, “someday’ games, that I want to be able to find again in the future.

Your Library

DriveThruRPG has an app that you can download onto your computer or your phone, and it basically acts as a library that you can look through. In both the webpage and the app, you can sort your purchases alphabetically, from new to old, by publisher, by whether or not they were updated, and using similar categories as the search bar on the store front.

Free things can definitely be found here, even if they’re harder to look for. On DriveThru, most free products are things like character sheets, playtest games, or Quickstarts. However, some publishers do put up their stuff for free. Whenever I can get a Quickstart of something interesting, or if I find something being offered for free, I add it to my library. Free games are how I got started in ttrpgs, and QuickStarts are wonderful introductions to a system that usually give you a good idea of what the game is going to feel like.

Conclusion

Overall, DriveThruRPG is great for folks who like certain big publishing houses, and folks who like a good deal. I personally usually end up on the site because something in my emails caught my eye, which is the opposite of how I navigate Itch. DriveThru was my home base before I discovered Itch.io, so I still have a little fondness for the website, even if looking through it is a little bit of a slog.

One thing that might be a bit of an annoyance is that if you own something from a certain company, they might be able to send you a lot of emails for every sale and new product. If this becomes too much, you can choose to opt out from those publishers.

If you don’t want to have to actively engage with the website as much as say, Itch, DriveThru’s email system is also a big help. You can customize your subscriptions to match what you’re interested in, and then just check your emails once in a while to see what’s on offer. After a while you’ll also learn about yearly events, like the Summer Sale, which often provides big discounts on a lot of different games.

DriveThru is also a great place to start if you’re looking for print versions of games: I don’t know what shipping is like to places outside Canada, but I definitely appreciate that it’s an option, and sometimes all you need to do is find a game or publisher - once you know that it exists, you can google that publisher, check out their website, and figure out the best place to order from there.

[polyhedralmice]

Introducing: The Pride in the Fall Jam!

Welcome to the Pride in the Fall Jam!

In this game jam, your objective is to create or submit ANYTHING that involves queerness in some way in content or by the relation to yourself!

There are no rules on genre or topic OTHER THAN it is REQUIRED for all submitters to be under the 2SLGBTQIA+ umbrella (and some other stuff you'll see below)

Queerness is a subjective term which means a different thing for different people. For this jam, queerness means something that defies cisgender, hetero-normative and/or western ideals of both. Your games are encouraged to either have been CREATED by a queer person AND/OR contains queer themes. It's a pretty general game jam, so as long as you are queer AND/OR are queer and submit a game with queer themes, you're good! <3

Your games can be tabletop games OR digital games. Anything that gets your mind in the realm of game design is all that matters to me!   

IMPORTANT: Participants may submit previously-made games from no more than a year ago, but it is encouraged to also submit an original piece for this jam! This is a chance to exercise your creative skills AND get your game out there, not just one or the other! ALSO, NO AI ART OR WRITING IS ALLOWED! Also, Under no circumstances are people who submit games with bigoted tones, ideologies, or dogwhistles allowed in this game jam. If your work is bigoted in any way, it can and will be rejected for submission. You have no place in my community, and please do not play my games at your tables. Also, please no NSFW submissions (you know what I mean by that). 

IF YOU ARE SPAM SUBMITTING A GAME WITH NO ADHERENCE TO THE RULES ABOVE, I WILL ALSO DECLINE YOUR SUBMISSION! PLEASE BE AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT!

[polyhedralmice]

good read for teachers.

[polyhedralmice]

it's out!! check out my sad fucked up lil anticapitalist ttrpg, Unskilled Labor! more details below the cut

Unskilled Labor is a game about trying to tread water under capitalism. your character sheet is a resume, and the battlemap is a calendar. decide how you're gonna spend your time so you can keep your job, juggle your responsibilities, keep yourself from collapsing, and maybe even pursue your goals.

to help, you'll have a handful of odd but powerful skills picked up from your various odd jobs. become fireproof, summon cleaning supplies, grow eyes in the back of your head, sanctify your local urban garden, talk to animals, stretch an hour further. find clever uses for your powers, and circumvent the powers of others.

and trust me, you're gonna need all the help you can get. your boss wants to exploit you, your landlord wants to rob you, your city wants to keep you running in circles, your country wants to grind you down to dust. these aren't easy challenges to face. i won't tell you you'll succeed. i can't tell you there's a way out. but hey, maybe you can bloody their nose on your way down.

[polyhedralmice]

running another game jam :)

[polyhedralmice]

Now on Kickstarter from Golden Lasso Games, Starscape uses a PbtA system to explore adversity and the homes we can build together.

[polyhedralmice]

New Bundle Deal!

Get all of my 24XX games for just $2.50 until August 16th.

Bundle includes:

Super Unnatural, a game of paranormal investigation.

Explorers of the Forever City, a game of fantasy exploration.

84XX BC, a game of Neanderthal survival.

[polyhedralmice]

Protect the Child: Playtest Server

Hey! The day's finally here! I'm opening up a playtest server for my game Protect the Child, a Forged-in-the-Dark romp of monster babysitters.

If you...

want a chance to play a TTRPG for the first time

want to learn how to play Forged-in-the-Dark games

love found-family stories

want to watch game design happen pre-release

think I (Mint) have good taste in games

...you might be interested! This will be my home base for running various sessions across a variety of genres, with the common through-line of monsters taking care of a human child.

This will include quick-start games with pre-generated characters, as well as character creation sessions for teaching people how to make their own monsters (and their own supernatural kids)! All games are expected to include a basic kit of safety tools.

Protect the Child is thematically inspired by media such as:

Ice Age,

Monsters Inc.,

The Mandalorian,

Tokyo Godfathers,

Lion King 1+1/2, etc.

It is mechanically inspired by games such as:

Brinkwood: Blood of Tyrants,

Moth-Light,

Apocalypse Keys,

Last Fleet,

Antiquarian Adventures, etc.

If you are interested, hop in today!

[polyhedralmice]

I currently use Affinity Publisher, but I did the layout for my first few games using Google Slides because I found it handled tables better than Canva did for me.

hey TTRPG-making community what does everyone use to actually compile their finished games? like?? canva?? google docs? i'm struggling finding one i like (for adding visuals) that still has the functionality to provide text that can be screenread

[polyhedralmice]

ttrpgs are great because they are literally just playing pretend for adults and i happen to think that is great

[polyhedralmice]

Let Us Relitigate The Potatofire Incident

Last Sunday, one of my DnD players objected to my ruling that a potato could indeed be a type of campfire, but that didn't mean you could use Druidcraft to cook it instantly.

With the support of the group, they took to the kitchen and spent several minutes trying to burn a slice of raw potato with a fireplace lighter. They then attempted to light a small pyre out of dried macaroni in a tin pan, with which to instantly roast the potato slice. Neither attempt worked and the Druidcraft ruling was upheld.

But!

The fact that everyone brought such determination to bear on an innocent potato made for a session that I will remember for years to come.

And now you can bring this housecat/goblin energy into your home with Let Us Relitigate The Potatofire Incident.

LURTPI is a simple universal bit of roleplaying game DLC that gives your group permission to derail in search of scientific truth.

It is also part of a loose conceptual trilogy with my other titles Game Lamprey and You Have Installed The Wrong DLC And Now You Must Fight Mathomagic Dracula.

[polyhedralmice]

If you're queer or neurodivergent, angry at the world, a fan of my last lyric game, or deeply opinionated about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I might have just the new game for you: defensive programming.

My first entry to the Queer Wrath Game Jam is a one-page lyric game, using my own thoughts about game design to talk about what's it like growing up as an outsider. It draws from my own experiences as a queer, trans & autistic youth, as well as plenty of historical and literary references.

But, if you open the PDF, that's not what you'll find. Because this is also a game about censoring yourself to make other people happy. So instead, you'll find a short blackout poem about homophobia, and to read the full game, you'll have to do a little digging...