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Hey hey, first release of my vampire hookup TTRPG, it's not perfectly balanced yet but it's getting there 😊

Thanks @codaattheend and many friends for helping me playtest it <3

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Dungeon Malarky from Levi Combs forced me to add a third row to my RPG zine wall!

How many can YOU identify?

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Now at IPR: Transformation

The changes started subtly: cravings and intrusive thoughts. But they soon built into noticeable physical changes, followed by a complete change in perception. It isn’t clear what you will become, but you can no longer deny that you are becoming something.

Do you fight the change? Embrace it? In either case, there is no stopping the transformation. Whatever you are becoming, it is inevitable. At best, you might be able to wrest enough control over yourself to spare those around you.

Transformation is a Kafkaesque, body-horror, solo RPG. Take on the role of an unfortunate soul whose body and mind are becoming something they cannot yet imagine. As the game progresses, you will change, taking on both physical and mental monstrous changes. You’ll journal about the changes as you struggle to understand what’s happening and relate your understanding to those around you.

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

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Hey everyone, please consider buying the 2024 itch.io Palestinian Relief Bundle- it's 373 games, game-making assets, tabletop roleplaying games, zines, and comics for a minimum of just 8 USD! They have a goal of 100,000 USD, and as of the time I'm writing this post, they have 8 more days to reach it.

Link will be in the reblog!

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The Werewolf in PSYCHODUNGEON is maybe my favourite playbook. It's lycanthropy as a chronic pain allegory, which the playbook's struggle is in trying to learn to listen to their body.

Is it also a light puppy girl playbook? I'll never tell

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Two Graves is a solo-journaling RPG about revenge and rebuilding yourself after you've done what you swore to do all those years ago.

Download Two Graves here

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Can y’all believe that there’s just ONE MONTH until Little Wolves launches on Backerkit?

We can’t, but also we can! It feels so close!

We’d love to hit 500 followers before the campaign starts, so tell your friends 👀

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Free templates for TTRPG books

We just released two templates for TTRPGs in Affinity Publisher!

If you don’t really know where to start when creating a book, we got you! Both templates are FREE and will always be FREE!

Both include margins, bleed and a larger gutter for better readability in the book's center. ✨✨

We currently made a 8.5x11 template and 5.5x8.5!

You can pick them up here: https://wendigoworkshop.itch.io/free-affinity-publisher-template-for-ttrpg

Or here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-affinity-100696871

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Review: So You Want To Be A Game Master by Justin Alexander

I was reading Justin Alexander’s book So You Want To Be a Game Master this week and something very obvious sneaked up on me. When someone says a book is for “new GMs”, they’re going to have to imagine some kind of person when they say that. When you say “new GMs”, what do you imagine to be their past experiences, their wants, their needs?

Now this book has an answer to that question. But it’s answer that is inherited, rather than made. Because the book is essentially a kind of transmutation of the Alexandrian blog, from pixel to print, the intended reader of the book has to be pretty close to the blog’s primary readership. Which turns out to be primarily, people running D&D 5e, secondarily, people running similar trad games, and tertiaririrally, anyone else.

But the model of the GM that D&D 5e and similar-ish trad games propose is a specific one. You know the model but it’s worth expanding: world-creator, NPC-actor, story-starter, story-ender, rules-teacher, player-manager, pseudo-computer, and so on, and so on. I’m not a fan of this model. For one thing, I think it is too much. I don’t think anyone dreams of doing this much labour.

Ever since the hobby began, people have been trying to solve it. The two broad solutions have been: adventure modules and highly specific games. Adventure modules say, “We got you, boss. Here’s a bunch of work done already. Focus on the other stuff.” Highly specific games say, “We’re world, scenario, rules, everything, all wound up and ready to go. Just follow instructions. Add salt to taste.”

Even as the Alexandrian has a lot of content about “fixing” D&D modules like Descent into Avernus, neither of these two solutions are to be found in So You Want To Be A Game Master. Instead, the book primarily gives you two things: techniques and procedures for running specific modes of play (dungeons have a dungeon turn, raids have raid turns, mysteries have the node structure and the three clue rule) and advice on how to write and create your own play materials (creating dungeons, hexcrawls, and so on). I have no doubt a need is being met here. But focusing on these things presupposes that our conceptual new GM won’t be using the previously mentioned two solutions – modules or specific games. Why?

Maybe it’s because this imagined new GM really wants to write their own adventure material. Fair enough. I’m one of those people. Or I was, when I played 5e a lot. (Nowadays, I’ll do anything to avoid doing anything.) But this isn’t a book about writing per se – as in, it’s not about the act of imagination where your mind goes away and comes back with words. It’s mostly about how to structure the results of that creative act. It’s mostly giving you formats to follow.

So I think we come to the answer finally: This book imagines a new GM is someone who is running D&D 5e or some other un-opinionated game and wants structures to follow when they write their own adventures. There is other good stuff in there for other people but it’s limited: this is who will get the most out of this book.

(This first appeared on the Indie RPG Newsletter)

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It's my birthday today! 🎉 In honour of that, I'm running a sale on a bunch of my games on Itchio for the next seven days! It's 36% off because that's how old I'm turning this year.

Pick up a game about witches, journeys, lesser gods or dying cities - or buy them all at once!

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Y'all working on any games out there?

I wanna hear about them!

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In the line of helpful stuff for TTRPG creators, a list of resources for art and stock images!

If you don’t have the money, you don’t have to use AI! There are cool people making affordable art!

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*examines your pdf folder* have you read them all?

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Giving stuff away for free? In this economy? More likely than you think!

Community copies are initally generously sponsored by kickstarter backers. We add more when they run out.

Grab yours: https://summoning.itch.io/

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Hey you might already own Splat Magazine, a TTRPG Zine with articles about playing, designing and running games written by folks all over the world.

Check out our catalogue:

https://summoning.itch.io/

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When someone asks the obvious question, it activates my trap card!

Explaining Splat magazine in 15 seconds!!

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I'm gonna be on a panel tomorrow (4/6) at Big Bad Con Online, hanging out with @temporalhiccup and talking about horror and ttrpgs!

Horror is one of my favorite genres, so I am very excited to discuss the challenges and opportunities that ttrpgs offer within horror!