Queer mess and angry feminist 🏳️🌈 TTRPG, gamebooks and SFFF books' editor 💫 Librarian of the Discord community 1d4 💜 I also write, play and love tons of stuff (obsessing currently on Doctor Who).
“Did you see the way that little girl looked at me? Kids. Little kids. They grow up believing that they can be a hero if they drive a sword into the heart of anything different. And I’m the monster? I don’t know what’s scarier. The fact that everyone in this kingdom wants to run a sword through my heart or that sometimes I just wanna let ‘em.”
“We have to get you out of here. Over the wall. We won’t stop until we find some place safe, okay? We’ll go. Together. No matter what we do, we can’t change the way people see us.”
“You changed the way you see me... Didn’t you?
NIMONA (2023), based on the comic by ND Stevenson, who came out as transgender in 2022
The Games You Can MAKE bundle is now live on itch.io!
Check out this fantastic bundle (and I’m not just saying that because I’ve contributed to it) containing a wonderful selection of open license games, supplements and assets that encourage and empower you CREATE!
Have you ever wanted to play as ghosts haunting an old mansion?
Our Haunt is a creepy-cozy TTRPG about a found family of ghosts and the haunted home they make for themselves.
It's an easy game to play where your ghosts must be vulnerable to earn tokens, like when the Doll shares a secret that's not their to share or the Betrayed reaches out and hold another’s pain as their own.
With these earned tokens, players can spend them to have their characters perform strong moves. The Faceless can create a perfect mirror copy of themself while the Cat can find a secret passage and describe where it leads.
(Yes, you can play a Cat in this game! My greatest design achievement is when I see folks play the Cat and their natural cat behavior perfectly lines up with several of the playbook moves, hah!)
(As a side note, I talked about The Doll playbook a little bit, as a transmasc designer.)
But another thing you can do with tokens is regain or create a memory. As ghosts you only have a few fragments of memories, that you describe when you make a character. At the end of each play session, the group can spend tokens towards their memories.
Regaining a memory unearths evocative and emotional moments before death, and the game offers you lyrical inspirations to build these. Some of my favorites are city lights through the rain, the crush of broken glass, “Were the stars always this beautiful?” and fingers tracing a tattoo, a sharp intake of breath, “You belong to me.”
Creating a memory instead describes a moment that happens in between play sessions, where your ghosts become more like family. While I wanted players to have a chance to dive into the angst and revelation from when they were alive, I also wanted to offer the joy and happiness that can come from building a new afterlife with a new family.
So creating a memory also comes with inspirations, but they're more grounded, more fun, and suggest a new childhood of innocence the ghosts share together. I drew inspiration from my own queer friendships, which can often feel like we're trying to create the childhood we never got to have as our real selves.
Some of my favorites are we met a shadow that had their own voice. They asked for a name as a gift. What name did we give them? and We threw rocks and trash at the neighbor’s house. How did the ghosts of that house get back at us? Why are we friends now?
I'm really proud of Our Haunt and the care and love that went into the game. Possum Creek Games published this last year and I've heard such wonderful sweet, sad, and creepy stories from players!
Our Haunt is currently on sale (for my Birthday Sale!), but you can also grab a physical copy of the game at Possum Creek Games!