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[carecrowgames]

The Twitter x has reached my screen, and nothing has ever made me not want to open it this much. Its like Elon Musk is staring me into the face with all of his reckless hunger for power and recognition

[carecrowgames]

We cannot lie to you, best beloved. Though you may avoid us, there is no escape.

We’re in the walls and behind your eyes. We carved every inch of these tunnels and we’ve seen all that goes on inside them. 

Centuries of cities and strangers and frightful, ugly sights. We’d spare you from it if we could, but then maybe you are the adventuring kind after all.

Just remember, no matter where you go, you belong to us. Whether you wait or whether you run, we will find you.

You’re in the Maggots’ Keep now. And that’s forever. 

We just launched a new book! THE EXQUISITE CORPSE IN MAGGOTS' KEEP Is a branching narrative gamebook, where your choices guide you deeper into the ichor-slick darkness of MAGGOTS KEEP. Written by over a dozen authors, and illustrated by the modern Goddess of Gloom, @jnbutlerart

[carecrowgames]

We released a new Monster Care Squad expansion today! It's called Behind The Waterfall and contains 50 pages of new locations, monsters, new mechanics, and more! You can check it out over on Itch! https://sandypuggames.itch.io/behind-the-waterfall

[carecrowgames]

A realy cool 12 word game could be made from this tbh

[carecrowgames]

Yazeba Read Through #5

Hey, I skipped a day as I spent it recovering from the sun trying to evaporate my brainfluids. But delightfully I am back presenting you a reading extravaganza of .. 2 pages!

So let’s get into them, with Page 19 - Characters

Once I open page 19, seeing the Grey box with half rounded edges immediately excites me, as that seems how fiction boxes are marked. I wonder if we'll see some of the other residents this time, I would be excited to see some interactions with them. If I had to put money on someone it would prob be Hey Kid, because after they just had been introduced on page 17, i find it hard to imagine either book or reader would hold out long without seeing them some more on page. Their pure existence shouts for attention. Maybe it's an interaction between Hey Kid and Parish, considering they are the only starting residents, who haven't been introduced in fiction yet.

Ok but into the first sub chapter (?): residents! I realy love the framing of yazeba being a story that revolves around the residents and this in turn being how they are defined. Defining what a resident is within the story instead of the world seems like it prevents confusion. It also just feels consistent with how the book positions its world as seen through a storytelling perspective. More than that though, it’s simply endearing, to know that these are in a way our companions on the journey with the bed and breakfast. It makes them immediately closer to me.

This is also where exchanging characters gets introduced and oh my god, the entire concept is so fun! I got a taste for it in wanderhome (buy it at its so good oh my god, buy it now on https://possumcreekgames.com/pages/wanderhome) where it is one of the features that make the npc system so impressive to me. The traits you compose them from makes exchanging feel so natural. It helps keep characters consistent and easy to get into, while allowing the player who takes them over to not feel incredibly bound to imitating exactly what the previous player of the character did with them and instead rely on their own interpretation of the trait moves to guide them.

The fact that in this book players are encouraged to do so with the main characters, to come to understand and reinterpret them together, is incredibly exciting. I wonder what is done in the character playbook design to keep up consistency, or to help work together towards a common goal with the character, and to make it intuitive to pick them up. "It gives the character room to grow in a new way" Is such a beautiful way of putting the act of exchanging them. It highlights how it adds to the story told, making it feel like a great formulation to excite readers. Hell, it makes me want to exchange which character I play with someone right now and I haven’t even seen a playbook yet, let alone played a character.

Oh Hey, it's actually Hey Kid in the fiction block! And parish! I love that the dynamic between them so far is one of patience on parishes side, it's very heart warming and I love that there doesn't seem to be principle character tension between the residents. I had somehow expected Parish to be more annoyed by Hey Kid, so this is just the most pleasant surprise.

Apart from that, hey kid seeing themselves in Gertrudes situation in a way that delights them is so... it's such a character move, it says so much about hey kids specific view of the world and their love for the b&b. It makes me yearn to see Gertrude and Hey Kid interact in another fiction block but. If they don't, damn me if I'm not motivated to do it myself in a chapter and see what happens. This is such s tier character interaction potential dropped and they haven't even interacted yet. It already makes me appreciate the strength of these fiction blocks, not just for giving guidance for play and dropping narrative hints, but for giving you moments of character interaction and interaction potential that makes you want to write a god damn coffee shop AU, which is perfect because by god are you given the framework to play one.

Next Sub Chapter: Guests! Speaking of there seemingly not being much base tension between the residents, I can’t help but notice (my brain just somehow reminded me) that I skipped past something on Page 17: the NEFARIOUS VILLAIN Rag-and-Bones. Yet another delicious breadcrumb my dopamine hungry brain would have jumped after, back to the table of contents and directly to wherever I could read more about whoever could be a foil to these wonderful people. What a delectable thing to throw into the whole vibe of Yazebas, it both fits perfectly and changes everything in a way. Like the name and whimsical grandiosity of “nefarious villain” don’t make it seem like the character would threaten the warm vibe of the bread and breakfast, but it also introduces so much new potential into the coming scenes. You can not imagine the restraint it takes to stay on my current page.

Thinking about the residents as the main cast for the Story that is Yazebas Bed and Breakfast, It makes a lot of sense to reserve the antagonistic forces for the guests. Afterall, an individual antagonistic factor might be better reserved for an episode of a cartoon instead of a mainstay for all of them. But it also opens such potential for the chapters re-playability to consider how much introducing an antagonistic guest as a tertiary character might change their whole tone and dynamic as compared to one with a sweet and helpful one. How different might a birthday for Gertrude play out when Rag and Bones has invited themselves to the party?

Now though, reading how the book itself describes guests absolutely adds an extra dimension to them. I love the idea that their fundamental feature is that they have another home. That to them, the bed and breakfast is not the center of their world, or at least not the only center. It fits so wonderfully with the way Hey Kid understands Getrude, immediately knows to see her as having become one of the people in the bed & breakfast whos world IS the b&b. The differentiation gives such an immediate way to grasp the difference between the two and understand why it’s these 6 (7) we’re focusing on.

What I absolutely didn’t expect is that you could play several guests at once. I don’t know why, reading it it just makes sense that you would, but it sounds so cool. I love the idea of grabbing a handful of ones favorite guests, those that you want to see more off, want to give a bit more screentime, feel like might add a bit to the scene and play them all! The prospect fills me with the sort of excitement I would get from looking at a box of toys knowing I could just use multiple at once. Have you ever seen a multi-launcher for mini beyblades? Amazing feeling. Remembering the size of the list of guests in the table of contents it also just makes sense. If you have a smaller playgroup, and most scenes call for 2 of the residents you would never get to play them all.

Taking care not to let playing multible guests overshadow other Players reminds me that this – playing a large assortment of side characters - is a role a GM would usually play. Thinking about it from a GM perspective, being able to use multiple Guests also feels like a move that makes sure scenes don’t feel underpopulated. I assume (bzw vaguely remember from things seen in the past) that guests are going to be less mechanically complicated then residents – likely to be closer to kin in wanderhome then a playercharacter. So I can imagine handling multiple of them is cognitively much easier to handle then for example multiple residents and therefore allows them to fill this mass of character space much better.

I think this – the way that Yazeba transforms and maps the well-known roles and relations of ttrpgs (GMs, Players, Player Characters, NPCs, Scenes and the way it’s connected through time and space) into it’s own storytelling space, is going to be very interesting to trace as we dig deeper. I find the idea fascinating that the way Guests work, might take advantage of some of the learned GM dynamics and abilities players might bring to the table, without needing to directly put itself into conversation with them.

For now I have to say: I lied to you. I’m only doing one-page afterall, because it’s gotten realy damn late as I am writing this and I can feel my thoughts getting sloppy.

See you tomorrow as i enter page 20 .. which is still on guests.

—————

you can find my other Yazeba readthrough posts under #zeebthrough!

Preorder the game on https://possumcreekgames.com/pages/yazebas-bed-breakfast

[carecrowgames]

Cooking while having adhd truly is an exercise in the accursed

[carecrowgames]

Source

Video of Tama

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

[carecrowgames]

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[carecrowgames]

Yazeba Read Through #4

We are on Page 18 now, and I am extremely excited, as it seems we have actually entered the rules this time folks! And I thought that might make me go less granular .. BUT as I said I have been wondering how the book would begin to explain to its reader what it actually is, so I just have to immediately hone in on the second sentence of the page.

It's a bed & breakfast of course but it's also this book right here.

There is something about stating these two as a dual existence that just works so well with the magical realism of the bed and breakfast itself. I guess I also just love when a fictional world gets legitimacy as existing similar to how the book (or in this case pdf) does

The playful voice from the welcome section continues here, but as it invites you to explore the bed and breakfast it also gains a gentle tone. The specific metaphor used, the sprawling bed and breakfast standing in for the complexity of a rulebook, both promising to become easily navigateble after some guidance, somehow manages to make both of them a more imaginable space. My mind begins to draw in what's missing within my image of one one with what I know of the other and conjures my own experiences of sprawling social spaces to lend familiarity and extrapolate development over time. I find myself remembering how I got used to life in the computer science faculty until it’s sprawling series of laboratories and hallways were simply another home.

I get away being able to imagine both Gertrudes life in the b&b after months and years pass and my own potential relationship to the version of it that could manifest in my games in it.

This is where the melancholic Amelie OST (the fact that this movie has the same name as one of the residents will break me oh my god. I am only noticing now) reminds me that at some point in this book there are late chapters, the last of which is Goodbye Yazeba and I have to wonder how much this is going to be a story that will have to end. What I can also imagine is the late chapters giving a number of open ending points, that would still allow you to replay some chapters, but this also feels like the kind of story that at some point just. Ends. I think I would find myself feel very content and sad in the healthy measures about that.

As a note, I am delighted to see the playlist I'm making for this already influencing how I interact with the book. The fact that the moon princes melancholic longing was able to carry forward to make me think about how this story might end is just really cool. Can recommend the method!

And now we get the confirmation that there are parts of the book that are off limits to start with - a super cool decision for a ttrpg book honestly. Explaining the choice by likening it to the way some parts of a bed and breakfast might be off limits to a new visitor is so clever too. It continues to build the book-building double reality, and in that playful way puts rules for reading the book down without having to spend much time explaining them immediately. It just makes sense this way!

This is also why this reading experience is extremely different for me than the usual ttrpg book I read. Normally I would have jumped immediately to the playbooks, read up on central mechanics and started browsing different parts of the book as I put some first session prep together. And I know that's not how other ttrpg books are intended to be read either, but the way Yazeba specifically presents itself as overlayered fiction book / bed & breakfast / ttrpg makes me want to engage with it as an authored experience more then I tend to with a ttrpg book, that invites me more to approach it as a box of toys.

 If i were to read it like I usually do though, this is where I would actually feel invited to start jumping, as the page continues to lay out how exactly Yazebas Bed and Breakfast is played it gives us all the needed key elements to get started, and importantly all of their page numbers.

I find this whole buildup so far works really well for me. We've been invited layer for layer to the fantasy and fiction of Yazeba, got first impressions of its central cast, narrative hooks to go along with then and some character voices to lead us along when trying to play them.

Now the book is pointing all the unruly readers with no attention span, who might have been hooked by the fiction, but won’t stay long for rules explanations (that’s normally me!) to exactly where the toys are - with just enough context to use them well. The rest, I would feel if I took on that mindset, can be figured out in play.

I really appreciate when a game recognizes, that not all its players are going to approach it the same way. Laying out different courses through it, that reward different interests and needs is a great way to do so.

The entire part laying out the rhythm of play is wonderfully efficient btw. Every section is at most 3 sentences long, contains bold keywords to keep attention going and manages to leave me with a good grasp of what's going on. For how gigantic this book is, making such short work of the overview feels very restraint, I'm super impressed.

I also love how encouraging the language is. You WILL be able to confidently guide your friends. Remember to take breaks, the bed and breakfast will wait. Rules often are hard for me to keep focus on mentally, and I know for many they can be overwhelming. The use of a strong, friendly and guiding voice here I think really helps keep the mind motivated.

In honor of that, the new song added to the playlist is Ben E. Kings “Stand by me” which, is a song that has symbolized a vibe of positivity and support for me since years now.

Speaking of language, the Nouns for the mechanics integrate so very well into the fantasy. Concierge for the facilitator for example is very flavorful. I feel like this book makes a consistent effort to make the feeling of playing the game make you feel like you’re a part of the b&b and that rules. In addition, Whoopsies and Bingos as names for what I’m pretty sure are going to be weak and strong moves feels like they very much help reinforcing the genre space, making the characters feel less mechanic and more like people with fuckups and cool moments to come, you know?

But now I’m really getting ahead of myself. Afterall the section is about the flow of play and I have not talked at all about it yet!

Let's get this out first: chapters are so cool! They are so cool it makes me want to work out my thoughts on them so bad, that I forget we don't even know much about them yet as far as the book goes. I already know a bit on how they look like from the ashcan (which released along the indiegogo campaign), but that only leaves me burning to revisit them as part of this more!

In addition, i think this is where we actually see how powerful the fiction book/ttrpg double-life the book is living is in communicating information. It is obvious from the text that chapters are at the core of playing out life at the bed and breakfast, being the thing characters are used to play, and putting out what is needed to unlock more chapters and characters (more on that in a sec). They are how you interface with life in the bed and breakfast, but that alone would not give much of an impression of what they are. But the name *chapters* and the consistent fiction book/ttrpg duality that has been build up, immediately conjures the kind of stories they will tell in your mind. We already know what it is like to read a chapter in a story, now our mind is left to ponder what it will be like to play them.

Excitingly, we have learned how unlocking works now!! As I said I already knew how to play a chapter from the Ashcan, but with added context much more about it is coming together. The way the loop works feels super elegant to me. You get familiar with characters and their connected narrative threads, you look at what chapters you are able to play and which might allow you to explore what you are interested in, you slot in your preferred characters and play to find out what happens, you go and check what characters and chapters you’ve unlocked and that gives you new chapters to pull on more threads, and new characters to explore and play with. The entire thing feels a lot like a narrative exploration loop I would design for a video game, which is actually the second time in today’s session that I was reminded of video game design specifically (the first being the way the page numbers create a dynamic playspace that can be explored based on player preference). I am fascinated to see these strategies implemented with how you interact with the BOOK instead of in play loops only.

Talking about game mechanics, the whole Shelf, Journey and Track system reminds me a bit of achievement systems. Which in turn makes me wonder if the game will invite us to look at the potential unlocks and what we’ll need to do for it beforehand. If it did it would give extra incentives to explore the chapters as well as extra prompts of what to do with them. If it doesn’t it makes for nice surprises. I am super curious about this!

As a last note on the page for now, Mementos you can put on your Shelf is another one of these amazing images, that already makes me nostalgic for experiences I didn’t even have yet. It actually reminds me of my favorite game Signs of the Sojourner ~ maybe I’ll add an ost from that game to the playlist at some point.

Aand I think that’s about it for the day. I might actually have even more notes on this tomorrow, but I need to sleep at some point don’t I.

See you tomorrow as we enter Page 19: Characters.

---------------

you can find my other Yazeba readthrough posts under #zeebthrough!

Preorder the game on https://possumcreekgames.com/pages/yazebas-bed-breakfast

[carecrowgames]

Yazeba Read Through Session 3

Today was pretty busy so todays reading is gonna be only of page 17, but I want to keep up doing these daily. On the other hand, page 17 is the dramatic personae so there is a lot of meat to chew on!

Reading the book this slowly really makes me appreciate how seriously it takes creating a strong image of the bed and breakfast, its characters and storytelling genre, as well as the feeling that you are being drawn Into the world of a BOOK. Idk seeing a dramatic personae in a ttrpg book just excites me ~~

This where part of me wishes I knew EVEN LESS about the book. Because what yazeba IS, is such a unique thing in the ttrpg space and I would love to be able to see how my brain puts the nature of the beast together as I read it. The dramatic personae would probably be even more exciting then! On the other hand knowing a bit of what’s to come means I can try and find out how it builds up to it with some forth sight so I don’t mind it at all.

Btw, I love how the little symbols next to the characters serve as mnemonic devices to remember core ideas of the characters. Yazeba being a heart that was broken several times over but still holds together sticks out as especially strong to me.

In general, while I believe strong design elements are those that fulfill several functions, I also think any one function should be fulfilled and reinforced by several design elements as well. The way the book layers, builds and reinforces information, themes and vibe of its characters so far is I think really strong - and necessary, if you want people to want to inhabit and explore them!

Because no mortal can stop me, I will give some notes on each of the character introductions:

Gertrude: "Capable beyond expectations" is such a wonderful and kind genre phrase, I just really love how much the book itself cares for Gertrude, it makes it impossible for the reader to not also care about her.

Sal: I did not expect Sal to have been yazebas dropout apprentice! What an absolutely amazing combination with wanting to be a Rockstar. I have so far mostly appreciated how this book deploys its genre space but it can't be unsaid how cool the specifics of the characters and world it is building is. Sal being a cool dropout lyricist who wants to be a Rockstar is a great character, but making him a dropout WITCHES APPRENTICE? absolutely in love with the idea I'm so hooked. Once again, I would read an entire book with him as the protagonist based on this premise alone!

Hey Kid: This page also has the first mention of Hey Kid!! They are one of the characters I come in knowing the most about, because they appeared so prominently in the advertisement of the book, and I am so excited to see more of them!! For now, i can only say: what an incredible name, it says so much of the character and their sense of identity and role in the b&b, even before you know they are a delightfully rambunctious devil-child. Like, of course they are, they are called Hey Kid!

Speaking off it, as you see I decided I will take the advertisement into account when I discuss my experience with this book – it is part of the paratext afterall, and I find with most ttrpgs people will most likely enter them with some amount of outside knowledge, that is propably informed by the games advertisement and strongly informs how they interpret the text. Sadly I don’t have an absolutely garbage memory, so what I remember of the advertisement campaign is full of holes. On the other hand, the fact that my entire brain lights up when I see Hey Kid makes pretty clear how delightful the voice of the character is and how well it stuck with me over the months. In that way the advertisement gave me yet another narrative hook to enter the world through, because I can easily imagine what sort of hijinks Hey Kid might get up to, and have a very clear voice in mind with which I could play them.

Parish: Here is where I have to admit that I already knew who the frog on the cover was, and that it is likely to be the first character I’ll play once I get a game of Yazeba together. I have an incredibly soft spot in my heart for gentle but burdened knights. Once again an amazing take on this character type, making him a frog and not-a-knight-anymore but instead someone who makes sure people get to eat is just *chefs kiss*. Immediately such a range of characteristics to combine and play with and apply to each other. Btw, I feel like with the way this book builds up characters from interconnection and layers information about them, that the wizard who cursed parish might come up as a guest or a chapter. Super curious, because this is yet another narrative thread I can see myself wanting to pull on as the story progresses.

Amelie: And here we have our teased at robot! I am actually the most unsure about what to make of Amelie from the vibe I have of them so far, which means reading that they also don’t know who they are supposed to be strikes a fascinating chord with me.

Yazeba: I love the playful way the book is written, especially when it surrounds Yazeba who stands in strong contrast to that playfulness and is all the more characterized by it. I am also amazed by how strong she is characterized already. I feel like I have a very clear picture of how she moves through the B&B, and also the way people behave around her, both in space and in relationship.

The Moon Prince: As predicted, our resident to be! I was curious how the book would build them up, considering they are the first of the locked characters. Would I only know of them once I get to the locked characters, would I read of how to unlock them in the early chapters, etc. I think it works really well for me that the expectation that they will join the cast is build up this early on. It gives a first hint at the very unique unlocking mechanics that are core to the books narrative construction and an immediate motivation to want to engage with them. And what a motivation it is! I am a sucker for romantic melancholics and the image evoked by the prince is such a wonderful picture of longing. It just gets me!

It also somewhat reminds me of the French childrens book the little prince. In honor of that I’m adding a french piece to the playlist. “Comptine d’un autre été, l’après-midi” is I seem to remember the first ost playing in the french-german cult hit The wonderful world of Amelie. It creates a melancholic mood that helps me imagine the prince staring out of his window, so there it goes into the playlist.

We end the page with a promise that there will be many guests to come, building first expectations for yet another part of the narrative structure. And the Rabbits in the Garden who wear little outfits are mentioned to! Yazebas realy knows what names will tempt me xD

That’s it for today. I ended up writing way to much for one page, but the introduction of every resident felt like something I couldn’t jump over quickly. See you tomorrow!

-------------------

you can find my other Yazeba readthrough posts under #zeebthrough!

Preorder the game on https://possumcreekgames.com/pages/yazebas-bed-breakfast

[carecrowgames]

Welcome to your Cozy Town, what will your year be like as you spend the seasons with friends? Check out the game on itchio!

Cozy Town is a lovely and sweet way to pass the time with friends and would be friends. Use a deck of normal playing cards and map making materials to play with others (or by yourself!) and create a town of lovely inhabitants!

You can play out an entire year of this town, across sweet spring, sunny summer, soft autumn, and snuggled down winter. Together you’ll explore what makes people, and the communities they’re in, feel safe and cozy!

I wrote Cozy Town as a way to explore gentle games that don't depend on high stakes, lack, and conflict as a means of play. It's a simple game that values your creativity and intuition, that encourages free form collaboration and an open imagination.

Each season comes with 23 prompts, inspired by my experience as a tarot reader. I'm going to be honest here, that prompt writing was some of the hardest in my life! I wrote Cozy Town early in my game design career and it was hard coming up with almost 100 wholesome prompts that didn't depend on drama or angst, haha! (the rest of my work can be VERY dramatic and VERY angsty)

When you create your town, you have pick lists to inspire features, celebrations, and more! In the final version of the game, I got to work with other designers to create more pick lists and event card oracles for you to enjoy.

The whole game is bursting at the seams with a chill vibe and lovely illustrations! Cozy Town started out as a humble game using font art (and laid out in Libre Office Writer!). But! In the years since, Cozy Town has become such a beloved game. I wanted to create the a shiny version of the game!

I put together a sweet 90s inspired PC layout and A.G. Reeder created truly lovely art. Alex did so much to create the amazing energy of the game, with very little direction from me. Cozy Town became an entirely new game thanks to his work!!

Over the years, I've heard so many lovely stories of folks playing with family, friends, classmates, and by themselves. I've seen the most fun maps and heard wonderful stories. I'm honored that the game has touched so many hearts.

I'm so proud of this game, and I owe much its design framework to Avery Alder's The Quiet Year and Dream Askew (one of my favorite descriptions from folks about Cozy Town is "The Quiet Year, but not depressing and, really happy, actually." hah!)

Cozy Town is a great way to introduce folks to the wonderful world of TTRPGs, but it's also just a fun game to play when you want to chill and have a good time.

You can find the game on itchio at the link below! The itch page has recordings of Cozy Town being played on stream, and at the bottom of the page there's a video from Dicebreaker where the game was featured!

I'm really grateful for the folks who talked about the game and enjoyed it. The support over the years and the successful itchfunding meant I could afford to work with other creatives to work on the final version!

My health has finally improved enough that I can add the last pieces of art from Alex, so the FINAL (???!!!) version of the PDF should be up soon. (I mean, the version you can get now is 99.999% there haha)

There's an audiobook version that's coming out in 2023, and maybe a few more surprises? Who knows! I hope you check out the game and tell folks about it!

Indie TTRPGs are full of varied experiences that celebrate different ways of playing. If Cozy Town isn't your cup of tea, I hope you check out another indie TTRPG, play it, and tell people about it!

[carecrowgames]

Yazeba Readthrough #2

After some technical difficulties (hello twitter) i am continuing my aspirationally daily readthrough commentary on Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast on here!

I am changing the format from readalong commentary to an end of day summary of my thoughts. Right now i am still going very granular though, allthough that might change over time.

Today I'm leaving the cover and the table of contents behind for actual text.

But first! Shout-outs to the welcoming sign to the bed and breakfast. It's absolutely overflowing with rules in different fonts, in a way that feels like such a perfect mixture of stubborn and caring. It immediately gives me an idea who yazeba and the residents might be. "No snitching" and "no unnecessary smalltalk" one after another realy paint the picture of someone who doesnt want to be bothered, but isn't gonna be an autocrat about chasing down missbehavior. This all ending with "room for everyone" realy warms my heart!

This reminds me to introduce a little game for this read through! Last time I listened to the official ost "running away again" by naked lake, but I want some variety. So I'm gonna add a new song to my read along Playlist once a day whenever the book reminds me of one.

Today that's gonna be one of my favorite mountain goat songs "colors in your cheeks" because it’s what i most closely connect to the emotion 'room for everyone' evokes. I have a bunch of others I want to add but I will wait to grow it organically, as I read the book - so in the end listening to the playlist can remind me of some key moments from the read through.

Enter “Go home Kid, Gertrude’s Arrival”. Immidiately the small narrative text evokes images of a point in click adventure in my mind. Playing Gertrude, clicking on Sal and getting the little animation of him awaking before the conversation pops up below.

The whole thing is the kind of opening that leaves me wanting to play these characters which is exactly what the game is gonna allow me to do. I love it!

Favorite parts: Gertrudes character becomes so well lined out: the facts that she ran away, that she doesnt like her birthday and that she chose her name on the fly. This sentence

I opened the door. And my name is, uhh…Gertrude.” She said, and over the course of the sentence, it became true.

is a standout to me. The phrase “and over the course of the sentence, it became true” builds such a specific genre space, i immidiately know the tone i am supposed to read the characters and the narration with.

Gertrudes reaction to potentially not getting a room, her getting something and knowing she's gonna become a resident are also incredibly emotionally resonant, while building a very effective fantasy. It all makes me realy want to see the story, and *be* in the story.

Enter the next page, which is. incredible. The small blurp on how Yazeba came to found the Bed & Breakfast is yet another amazing character pitch - and one that answers questions that have been brought up by the last text. That one had realy build up the mystery of who yazeba is .. and now we know, because does such a good job developing her relationship to the world and how it evolved to have space for the people and trouble of the bed & breakfast. “In her own cruel and spiteful way the witch made a friend” is such a beautiful and complex character summary. There's something about this I immediately deeply relate to and once again it builds up a fantasy that I want to inhabit.

We finish this read through on page 16 "Welcome to the Bed & Breakfast”

i love how the book reinforces a lot of the impressions narrative and pictures have sketched out so far in its own voice. The magical realism and genre expectations it establishes for the stories we can tell with it being wrapped up as “mysteries of the bed and breakfast” feels super clever because it makes narrative hooks that also establish storytelling modes.

In general another thing the book has been super good at so far is seeding questions for narrative exploration that I assume will be done by playing the chapters. But the buildup to them doesn’t only take place in the chapters or the playbooks, but the rule explanations and world outlining itself.

Example here: Gertrude is the only person the b&b does not have a room for. It might be an more fictional ground work for the genre, but it also lends itself to the basis of a deeper exploration into the b&bs nature, or yazeba and Gertrude as characters. It makes me wonder if the book will drop threads like this as something to be develop3d and explored by yourself in addition to the chapters, or something that will be developed through them (and maybe the shelves?)

I also feel like these small narrative facts also do a realy good job at building a kind if fun fact library in the readers head. Which assuming they are the only one who read the book in the playgroup gives them alot of ways of enticing and introducing people to the vibe of yazeba and its cast. Similar to how it can hook the reader into the narrative they can use them in conversation to give other players some narrative hooks to develop some expectations for stories they might want to tell or elements they would want to explore at the side of a chapter. It all propably also realy helps with choosing a character one wants to start out playing.

Speaking of giving players entryways into playing the game! I appreciate how the narrative text on this page feels like it also gives an example of what playing the game might look like, while giving a more lived view into the mundanity of the fantastical reality of the b&b.

This one also seeds amelie, another resident I'm super excited about (I happen to know they are a robot which the text hints at it!)

What an interesting narrative tension btw, for Gertrude who dislikes September the 15th for being her birthday, to now live a life that's always September 15th. I feel like that might be an early narrarive thread i would like to pull on - and would you look at that, one of the early chapters (chapter 1 actually) happens to be A Birthday for Gertrude (I had an inkling i saw a birthday among the early chapters so i jumped back to confirm). I had to physically stop myself from jumping ahead to find out if it's her first day in the b&b or another one, but for once I don't want to jump around in a ttrpg book.

And thats all i managed to get through today. We made it 5 more pages in, let’s see how many it’s gonna be tomorrow ~ I’m super excited to get to some more mechanical explanations but so far i am enjoying letting myself get introduced and teased by the wonderful narrative elements.

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you can find my other Yazeba readthrough posts under #zeebthrough!

Preorder the game on https://possumcreekgames.com/pages/yazebas-bed-breakfast

[carecrowgames]

Yazeba Readthrough #1

I gave up on finding a migraine free bunch of hours to lie down and read Possum Creek Games Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast. So instead! I’ll try reading some daily on phone during work breaks and in trains and y’all get a commentary thread (to remind myself to sit down for it ^^)

Music for this reading session is ofc Running Away Again from the Yazeba OST. I love the vibe it, and the cover, establish for the game. I’m currently on a train and it makes me want to look out of the window more and dive into feelings of the exciting melancholy of leaving 

Cover: I think one of the great things about the cover is the way in which it immediately hooks you on the specific characters and interactions this book is going to evolve around. Like who are these two! Why are they argueing? Will I be able to play this frog! Thief cat??? 

Table of Contents: so i did this the first time I looked a bit into the PDF too, but I gotta do it again, because the table of contents entices me similarly as the cover does There is so much to water my mouth here. if alone because Yazeba’s has fantastic fucking character names 

Some favourites: the rabbits in the garden, who wear little outfits (I want to play them immidiately) the fact that there are two characters with a nickname in the middle of their name one after the other, Niviana “Viv” of Llyn and Percival “Percy” Combustion (are they friends?) 

The "Tracks & Shelves" Chapter fascinates me. From my first rough look into this book I have a kind of idea of what they are gonna be and how they are gonna make the book work but I don’t realy know yet! Maybe they have to do with my next fascination: locked characters!

What do I have to do to play “The Zappamouschi Circus!”? who is “T.H.E.M”? “32 Maple Lane” as a character name hooks me immediately, I would read a book on that character without any further info. 

The fact that there are going to be entire chapters on resident journeys warms my heart somehow. I've been watching a lot of slice and life recently, and I'm realy looking forward to being able to see some main characters growth over a longer amount of time.

Some of the late Chapter names similarily give me preemptive and beautiful heartache. "The Witch's Old Hostel" sticks out, as it feels like alot of emotional processing is coming for us.

also i'm noticing that a character from the locked characters is part of the resident journeys, and listed after yazeba! I love the idea of the cast of residents changing. feels like a second season addition to the cast, i often end up loving the addition to the tone these bring 

i'm still in the tabel of contents and my train is arriving '^^ diving into the first pages tomorrow 

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I started this on twitter, but oops, it died and i will not cling to it’s zombiefied corpse. I honestly love being back on tumblr, so this is me reposting my first thread of my readthrough here, and all upcoming threads will be primarily made for tumblr. Happy to be back!

You can see all my Readthrough posts under #zeebthrough, or mute the hashtag if you don’t wanna see them pop up on your timeline ^^

[carecrowgames]

Predictably, my coworkers have started switching between "Your problem is you don't ask enough questions" when they get annoyed that I stand in the way or placed something wrong, and "you need to think along!" And "you should know this by now" When they get annoyed at me asking basic questions so I don't stand in the way or place something wrong

[carecrowgames]

The preview for Carved by the Garden is out now!

Carved by the Garden is a forthcoming solo journaling game inspired by folk horror stories like The Witch, The Ritual, Midsommar, and those found in Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology. Featuring a sprawling forest as a backdrop, Carved by the Garden blends self-reflecting questions with unsettling and often bloody discoveries. 

Learn more and download the preview! 👇

[carecrowgames]

a blog post about how to bring a narrator's perspective to your ttrpg writing, and with some fun asides about dnd and tabletop games

[carecrowgames]

Ripcages could be so cute if they could move independently 😔