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ONLY 24 HOURS LEFT TO BACK ROM COM DRAMA BOMB

A 3-player TTRPG of Meet Cutes & Mayhem

Rom Com Drama Bomb is my love letter/ransom note to the romantic comedy genre. Play as two people being forced into a fucked up romantic comedy and the evil villain who set the whole thing up.

❤️🤣🎭💣

"It's like if Jigsaw wanted people to kiss." - BE/HOLD

This is your last chance to help support this project! Ends 2/28 @ 9pm ET

[morebluebs]

👻Perform a parlour trick, parley with shadows 👻

100% Modern Ghosts: a humorous horror journaling zine

[morebluebs]

A fantastic review of Project ECCO!

Project Ecco

A solo roleplaying game by Elliot Davis

Materials

game manual

a planner, new or used

a coin/d2 and d6

materials to destroy your planner

further into play: additional coin and die, standard deck of cards, tarot deck

Premise

A mysterious agency, an even more mysterious entity feeding on time itself and smack-dab in the middle: You. As an extension of the Agency, you are tasked with uncovering the truth about “ECCO”, the Entity of Chronological Consumption and Obfuscation. Navigating the chaos of days flying by with the aid of a simple coin, will you complete your mission to the Agency’s satisfaction straightforwardly or will you travel down a road not yet taken, peeking behind a curtain of lies? Who is really on your side? Or, perhaps more importantly, on whose side are you?

Mechanics

In Project Ecco, you progress through time and the game using a regular planner and a variety of different time travel tools. While you might be tempted to use a brand new, untouched planner for this, a used one will do just fine and might even make the game more personal and varied, since existing notes or special dates can be incorporated into play. Keep in mind that your planner will end up at least partially destroyed by the Entity, then again the level of destruction is completely up to you. Scissors are certainly an option, but a good opaque paint marker achieves the same effect with less confetti.

Your tools of choice are in essence a set of game oracles: prompts decided by dice, playing and tarot cards determine how far back or ahead in your planner you travel and which challenges you encounter along the way. Time travel can be quite random, so don’t be scared when you land on the same day more than once. At least as long as you have your trusty coin, the only thing that will keep you from slipping in-between time and experiencing some truly harrowing events. How you respond to these prompts is up to you. Write, draw, use planner stickers; the only limit is the space your planner gives you for the date you are currently on.

During your travels, you tally up the times you either make it back to the Agency or get uncomfortably close to the Entity. Entity encounters in particular are interesting because they prompt you to destroy random dates in your calendar, possibly forcing you into a timeline divergence later on. Completing six encounters either way triggers the endgame – but not necessarily the end of the journey…

Thoughts and Examples from my Playthrough

I had a lot of trouble trying to summarize the game in the above paragraphs. Project Ecco is a very meaty, complex (but not necessarily complicated) game and is more of a five-course meal than an afternoon snack. Consequently, reading the setup instructions can be a little intimidating for someone who has only started dabbling in solo play. Everything is explained thoroughly without being exhausting, however, and on top of that I found myself really interested to read about the different tools and mechanics. In fact, I had to stop myself from snooping too much so as not to spoil my first playthrough.

Your game can last you several sessions over a couple of days. Don’t worry, though, all the cool time travel tools make for a fresh and exciting experience. Special dates, timeline divergences, personal notes and Agency/Entity encounters also serve to keep you on your toes. Whenever you feel like you have seen it all, a new prompt throws you a curveball, altering your perspective on the world and its inhabitants. It’s also great for replayability purposes, as your first playthrough can influence how you go about the challenges on your second round. I usually don’t care much for replay value (my time is limited and there’s a lot of games to try out), in this case, however, it’s so on theme that it’s almost a crime not to play again.

When you have the general cycle down, the game is a breeze. Have I mentioned that I love the time travel devices? Each and every one is unique in the way it lets you progress. As soon as you pick them up during the game, you can switch freely between them. Either you are very strategic about it to avoid repeat visits to certain dates or you embrace chaos for some interesting results. In the beginning, I dreaded losing my coin and experiencing timeline divergences. The closer I got to the endgame, the more I revelled in the wild and unpredictable element they brought to the game and the story that unfolded.

At this point, it shouldn’t amaze me that much how game designers manage to achieve this impeccable level of worldbuilding with just a bit of flavour text and a handful of prompts. From the agents’ designations being real world dates to the time travel tools with clear retro vibes, Project Ecco lets you dive into an 80s sci-fi flick with you as the protagonist torn between your fragile loyalty to the Agency and the conflicting discoveries you make about the Entity. I suppose if there was one thing you wanted to knock, it could be that this is not a very character-driven game. A lot of journaling games focus on the character you create, often as a stand-in for yourself, dealing with their emotions and feelings as they react to the events thrown at them. This is more of mystery thriller focused on plot than a character exploration game. Character creation is as simple as picking your agent designation and, if you’re using a personal planner and are very meticulous in adding dates specific to your character, weaving in details during the game. That being said, I did manage to spin this into a tragic queer romance…such is the nature of solo roleplaying. Hence, others might disagree on this with me, and that’s totally fine.

My attention span has been wavering lately, so I honestly didn’t expect to stick with this. But everything about Project Ecco drew me in. I love the manual that looks like a genuine little agent handbook and the details of the understated illustrations. A solid white-black-and-red colour scheme is always a classy choice. The prompts are descriptive enough to give you guidance and bits of lore without limiting you to a specific path. It’s simply an overall round and well-thought-out experience through and through. I’m a little peeved I didn’t get the Temporal Spread – Samantha Leigh was a guest writer for this specific time travel tool and I’ve been dying to get into their other games (especially Outliers, which seems to deal with adjacent themes), so I was looking forward to get a peek at their writing here. Alas, my agent just wasn’t destined to have it…perhaps the next one will.

I wonder how well this would hold up with a digital planner. Mostly, I am an analogue player when it comes to journaling games. I like how tactile it is and that you're creating an artifact of play to keep on your shelf, something very unique and often verging on if not being outright artistry. But the analogue format does (perhaps intentionally) limit your word count and thus keeps journaling rather short and to the point. I suppose a digital format would allow for more character development, if that is your goal. It would also extend your playtime – which is already significant as is. Still, certainly an interesting option, especially when you plan on playing more than twice.

This might be your cup of coffee if...

you revel in a good time travel mystery.

you prefer to play longer games with more complex mechanics than the average journaling game.

you enjoy some solid worldbuilding and lore to add onto over time, possibly in multiple playthroughs.

you are not afraid to mess up some prime stationary. Seriously. If you love your planner? Do not use it for this. Bullet journaling queens and kings, beware!

You can get Elliot Davis’ Project Ecco HERE on itch.io or as a physical copy available at the online sources linked in the description of the game. Make sure to check out Cassi Mothwin’s flip through of the game and take in the incredible actual play episode by the My First Dungeon podcast crew that I enjoyed immensely and proves that this game supports a more light-hearted tone, as well. In case you are the creative type, Davis is currently still running a game jam for supplements for and games inspired by Project Ecco on itch.io that lasts until March 1st. Plenty of time left to get your head in the game. :)

[morebluebs]

I played Project Ecco by Elliot Davis/@morebluebs!

[morebluebs]

Rom Com Drama Bomb is coming to kickstarter for Zine Quest on 2/14

Play as two people who shouldn’t fall in love and the evil villain who will stop at nothing to make sure they do.

Sign up to be notified!

[morebluebs]

You wanted SOLO RULES for ORBITAL BLUES?!

You got 'em! The Wanderer, a solo-rules supplement by Elliot Davis (@morebluebs), is now available as an addon in Orbital Blues: Afterburn

With the addition of a deck of playing cards and a handful of poker chips, players reflect on the life of an outlaw and reckon with their Trouble as they attempt to build the best poker hand possible. 

One-part journaling game, one-part playlist builder, The Wanderer brings a new tune to the frontier galaxy.

The deck is stacked against you and you’ve only got one hand left. Make it count.

[morebluebs]

A joy to read

RPG Review: Journey of 1000 Zips

Well... if it's listed on itch as an RPG, then that's what it is... right?? In any case, this was one of the evenings I've ever had. Truly spectacular.

To play this game, you open 1000 nested zip files. Every file is numbered, so you can see how far you have left to go, and occasionally Elliot (@morebluebs) has left a comment in a file name. It's a dialogue between two people slowly losing their minds, in a way.

I spent two hours of my life on this game, and to be completely honest, I wish I hadn't. I also think Elliot wishes he hadn't made it, so at least all's fair in love and zipped files. This "game" is only for those with immense hubris and a growing to-do list filled with tasks they don't want to complete. That said, I'd rate it a 10/10 if I were a rating type of woman, which I'm not.

In order to keep myself sane, I took notes on the thoughts going through my mind as I played this game. Read under the cut to witness my descent into madness. Perhaps that will be enough to deter you from playing it yourself.

File 999. Let's do it.

950. I appreciate the title. Hoping for more of these as we keep going

900. No, it wasn’t that bad. I don’t know why I’m not listening to music while I do this. Perhaps I intuitively understand that this needs to be done in as boring an environment as possible.

899. okay

819. AH!

801. wouldn’t open. I’ve been opening these within each other, so I assume 200 nested files is the limit on my laptop. I moved file 802 to be by itself in my downloads folder and tried again. 801 opened. Huzzah, and the journey continues.

I also can’t believe this took Elliot over a year to make this. I assume this was a boredom and procrastination project. Kudos for ever finishing it tbh

800. I know. I’m doing it anyway

750. doesn’t have a comment in the file name. I didn’t realize I’d started to look forward to the names ever fifty files. Disappointed, I carry on.

743. I see we’re being unpredictable. Does the creator know that by making the opening of each file a gamble, opening these becomes more fun? Belatedly I realize that the opening of file 750 marked a quarter of the journey. Am even more disappointed op didn’t say anything to commemorate this moment.

700. I lost the ability to quit when I opened the first file. I’m committing to the bit. Fuck you.

650. once again, no mid-hundred title. I’m taking this moment to comment that as I do this, my sister is sitting next to me watching a frankly terrible horror movie. I am, I think, ashamed to say I find this activity more enjoyable.

627. Divisible by three, but not by nine.

608. Huzzah! My sister has decided to skip ahead in her movie because it’s boring her. I cannot do the same for my chosen entertainment tonight.

607 is empty. I tried opening it again. 607 2 is also empty. Migration attempt incoming.

Second migration of the night worked. continuing on. While I can’t say I’m enjoying this anymore, I’m glad that this does in fact appear to be 1000 nested files. I would never forgive Elliot if it ended prematurely

600. Don’t ask me to explain my decisions.

564. Elliot, do you feed on the part of my soul that I’m losing while playing this?

525. What does carpal tunnel feel like?

499. I feel nothing.

492. My sister asked me what I was doing. I explained to her. She asked me why I was doing this. I told her I didn’t know. She said nothing and then left. About as much of a response as I could’ve hoped for

461. Hey now. I could have done any number of things to procrastinate. You’re not special, Elliot.

432. Also divisible by three. Obviously I’m not listing every number divisible by three. But it just occurred to me here. As long as I’m taking a break from clicking, I’m going to move from the kitchen to my bedroom now that my sister has finished her movie and gone to bed. My wrist won’t stop cracking.

40 minutes later and I’m back at it.

425. In anticipation of the next file failure, I migrate this one earlier. plus if there’s a comment on 420 I can enjoy it unimpeded by the 200 file limit

407. A number that feels like it should be prime but isn’t

351. This isn’t getting any easier. However, it isn’t getting harder, either. That forty minute break did wonders for the one wrist muscle I’m using to do this.

333. Roughly 2/3 of the way there, although obviously not exactly. I think it would be an interesting psychology study to see how different people react to having to do this.

321. favorite one so far, definitely made me smile

294. Some people could probably find it in them to quit now.

284. I believe it. Why would you make this. Just to prove you could? Was 1000 the maximum files you could nest, or could you have kept going? Maybe one day we’ll have a sequel and it’ll just be 2000 files. I’d probably play that too. I don’t know why. But I think I would.

260. Another migration. This was definitely less than 200 files, but whatever. Will migrate again at 100 for the auspiciousness.

250. 75% done. I started this an hour and forty minutes ago. 100 minutes ago. So probably half an hour left. It feels like it should be less.

219. If I told my mom about this, she’d probably tell me that downloading things like this off the internet is a one way trip to getting malware on your computer. While I trust itch.io strangers much more than she does, can you imagine explaining that to the person you hire to fix your computer? “Yeah, I downloaded a file off the internet. It contained 1000 zip files nested within each other. I opened every single one and then the last one had this gnarly virus.” Like,,,,, you’d really be bringing that upon yourself. My friend hopes the last file contains something; he predicts the game of thrones shame gif. While I’d appreciate a fun little image, I fully expect there to be nothing except the last file just being called something like “you did it. Congrats on the most pointless accomplishment ever” well. Back to it

198. Elliot, if you had to go through the pain of making this, some of us might as well go through the pain of playing it.

175. I realized I forgot to point out 197, which is the Pokédex number for umbreon, my favorite Pokemon. home stretch.

135. I’m obviously tired. I did the math all wrong. Forgot to subtract the forty minutes I spent not doing this. This began at roughly 8:40 PM. It’s 10:34. So 1 hour 54 minutes minus forty. 74 minutes to open 865 files. Those numbers aren’t nice enough for me to do mental math, but I think I’ll be done in like ten minutes. Lets go!!

117. marks the first time the zipped file had a comment. Before this you had to unzip the file to see the comment. Which begs the question, is this something Elliot changed partway through, or will this be the only time it happens? I guess we’ll see.

I also realized 111 will be the last time we have repeating digit in a 3 digit number. 999 was the first… how far we’ve come.

111!!!! I feel like Elliot a bit. Is anyone going to read this? Am I screaming to the void?? Par for the course, I suppose.

100. Zipped file also has the comment. Clearly Elliot didn’t know how to do it differently at first. Anyway. Time for the final migration!

85. Seeing 2-digit numbers is jarring after all this time.

69 nice.

40. You know what would be so fucking funny? If we got to file 1 and it was labeled 1000 and then there were 1000 more files. I know Elliot didn’t do this - he doesn’t have it in him. But it would be so fucked up. I think that would make me quit. 1000 is enough

19. My favorite number. I can’t believe this is almost over.

2. This is it.

[morebluebs]

Do you long for mundanity?

Take the first zip.

[morebluebs]

Now at IPR: Project ECCO!

By @morebluebs!

Time marches on. 

Well, at least it used to.

Project ECCO is a game of time travel and cosmic horror—a solo journaling game with a twist. Time travel across the pages of a planner, writing in and marking up the dates based on prompts as you go, ultimately creating an artifact of your travels through time. 

You work for the mysterious organization known only as The Agency , tasked with tracking a time-consuming entity throughout an entire year. 

In the end, will you destroy the Entity? Do you dare question the Agency? Can you find yourself?

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Project-ECCO-Print-PDF.html

We also have the bundle available that includes the official Prokect ECCO planner!

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Project-ECCO-with-Planner-Print-PDF.html

[morebluebs]

My friends and yours at Indie Press Revolution are now selling Project ECCO!

Take a peek inside the book and the planner:

Safe Travels!

Now at IPR: Project ECCO!

By @morebluebs!

Time marches on. 

Well, at least it used to.

Project ECCO is a game of time travel and cosmic horror—a solo journaling game with a twist. Time travel across the pages of a planner, writing in and marking up the dates based on prompts as you go, ultimately creating an artifact of your travels through time. 

You work for the mysterious organization known only as The Agency , tasked with tracking a time-consuming entity throughout an entire year. 

In the end, will you destroy the Entity? Do you dare question the Agency? Can you find yourself?

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Project-ECCO-Print-PDF.html

We also have the bundle available that includes the official Prokect ECCO planner!

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Project-ECCO-with-Planner-Print-PDF.html

[morebluebs]

This is out now

Project ECCO - A Solo Time Travel Game

You work for the mysterious organization known only as The Agency, tasked with tracking a time-consuming entity throughout an entire year.

Project ECCO is a game of time travel and cosmic horror—a solo journaling game with a twist. Time travel across the pages of a planner, writing in and marking up the dates based on prompts as you go, ultimately creating an artifact of your travels through time.

You will discover anomalies signifying the decay of time, evidence of The Entity's destruction and influence, and pieces of yourself you had forgotten existed.

In the end, will you destroy The Entity? Do you dare question The Agency? Can you find yourself?

[morebluebs]

https://moreblueberries.itch.io/ecco

AVAILABLE NOW

[morebluebs]

The consumption begins.

07.02.23

12:00

[morebluebs]

Tomorrow. The timeline will never be the same.

[morebluebs]

the queer beautiful tabletop rpg ive spent the past four years of my life working on is finally available and i'm so proud of it, its more beautiful than my wildest dreams

it's called Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast and its goddamn beautiful

[morebluebs]

TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Florida

y'all there is an absolutely bonkers deal going on at itch.io right now

You can get over 500 rpgs for only *five dollars* right now. That's right, over $2000 worth of games for only five fucking dollars. It's insane. It's unreal. It's totally worth more than any dollar amount you're going to throw at it. And it's all going towards charities that work with trans folx on the ground: specifically Zebra Youth and Transinclusive Group. If you donate more than $10 you get a special bonus - the creators of Action Fiction will send you a PDF copy of the 5E supplement "Monsters of Murka: Chromatic Gamut." Go check it out now!!! Offer lasts until April 6!

[morebluebs]

Project ECCO - A Solo Time Travel Game

You work for the mysterious organization known only as The Agency, tasked with tracking a time-consuming entity throughout an entire year.

Project ECCO is a game of time travel and cosmic horror—a solo journaling game with a twist. Time travel across the pages of a planner, writing in and marking up the dates based on prompts as you go, ultimately creating an artifact of your travels through time.

You will discover anomalies signifying the decay of time, evidence of The Entity's destruction and influence, and pieces of yourself you had forgotten existed.

In the end, will you destroy The Entity? Do you dare question The Agency? Can you find yourself?