#possum creek games

[sticksandsharks]

HARVEST

one of two cover artworks for Possum Creek Games' latest double-feature tabletop games, Grand Guignol & Harvest, written by @wildwoodsgames. There's a few more days to back this project if you like themes of dark secrets, ritual horror and community.

[jdragsky]

"Immediately captivating and effortlessly charming, Wanderhome is the perfect blend of whimsy, heart and the spirit of adventure. Who knew a game about being on the road could feel so much like home?" — Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dimension 20

[ttrpgbookclub]

For our pilot episode, we (re)read Sleepaway by Jay Dragon (@jdragsky). “A game of horror, dreams, and summer camp”, Sleepaway sets an intense, stomach-churning tone just with the text alone.

You can find "Sleepaway" on Possum Creek Games' itch[dot]io linked here.

[emtheanxiousdragon]

Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG

Ok so if you are any sort of game designer, whether that be a programmer for a mobile app, an artist for an indie TTRPG, or a top-tier producer at a AAA-game studio, you should read Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal, it inspires you to make games that don’t just form digital communities or entertain, but allow a deeper connection to your real life.

And one game that I think, with a twist, could really fit McGonigal’s idea is Wanderhome, the excellent pastoral RPG by tumblr’s very own @jdragsky . This game is beautiful, simple, and a tool for telling these lovely stories about anthropomorphic travelers exploring a recovering society and finding themselves along the way.

Now, let me introduce my idea, tentatively titled Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG.

You make a Wanderhome character, just like in a typical game. You also make a separate Wanderhome profile that represents yourself. (this can be your actual Wanderhome character if you want to take on an alternate persona). This secondary Wanderhome character doesn't actually travel the Hæth. They represent your journey in the real world. Your second character's playbook should fit yourself and what you hope to get from this experience. My secondary character will be a Peddler, because I want to grow my personal career.

Then you get connected to a Hæth. These are shared worlds/servers that begin like all Wanderhome games (at the start of Tillsoil very soon after the end of the war) and progress from there. You can start with other players or begin on your own and find others later.

When you wish to travel to a new area, instead of randomly deciding what it should be, you base it on your current location. It can be as simple as your bedroom or as grand as the Great Wall of China! I’ll show you what I mean with where I am now.

A beautiful pond, right? Let’s turn it into a spot in the Hæth! Our first nature is based on a literal take of the area. I’m by a pond, so the first nature will be Lake! The second nature is more metaphorical; based on what you know about your location, choose a nature that describes its personality. A lot goes on around this pond, so I’ll pick Carnival. The third nature should describe the place as it is when you arrive. The calm nature of the pond today means the third nature is Field. Build the location with the rules of each nature, combined with the traits of the season, and you’ve made a Place!

In Our Hæth, each location is permanently saved into the world you created it in. If other players want to visit this location rather than create a new one, they’ll replace the third nature and the seasonal traits and set off! They can see what you’ve written about the place and the adventures you’ve had here. If you know them in real life, you can share what the real-world inspiration is. If not, you can discuss as much about it as you feel comfortable sharing.

Once you're in a Place, great! Start playing Wanderhome. If you're alone, write down what your traveler does in this place. If you're with friends, get together in person and roleplay it out, or chat together over Discord or your online forum of choice. Their characters may travel with you for a while or your paths may diverge and reconnect later. Just remember what happens so you can share it as part of your character's story. When you make a Kith, go through the regular Kith creation process and add them to your Hæth. If other players visit this Place later, they may meet your kith and will want to know what happened.

The other big ARG element of this version of Wanderhome comes with using tokens. When your character does something to create a token, you need to do something to make a token in real life. Have a list of what different actions in Wanderhome mean for you in real life. For example, when my character Camper gives away something he holds dear, that means I have to complete some professional networking. Your token action should be challenging or good for you. Change your token action as your challenges and needs change. Make them fit your life and your goals.

Take a break to complete your token action, or write it down for after the session. You won't be able to spend your real-world token until you complete your task. Once that's done, the next time your character spends a token, you can spend one too! Your token rewards are something positive to reward yourself for putting in the effort and caring for yourself, your relationships, or the world. In my Hæth, when Camper keeps someone safe from the difficulties of the world, I get to take a nap rather than work!

The months can change in small groups when you agree to change them. In bigger groups, you may set a real-world date for the change in the months. Ask the month's question to yourself and your Wanderhome character. Consider your answer a "yes" regardless of which one of you says so. When the time comes for the seasons to change, set up a party with others in your Hæth or throw your own private celebration. Just as the holiday marks a moment of personal growth for your character, take a major step forward with your own goals. As Camper celebrates the new year, I'm going to start searching for a summer internship. I'll adapt my token actions and rewards as needed, and I'll continue playing.

So long as you have Wanderhome, you can play this game. You can keep track of your Hæth in a notebook, on a google doc, whatever. My perfect version of this project would be a little website where players can join different Hæths, watch their world grow on a virtual map, see all the information neatly organized online, and connect to a wide range of people in the Wanderhome community.

Thoughts?

[kingwormm]

I may be late irl but I can never be late in canon! Happy (late) Birthday Gertrude!

[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 

-----------

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 ^^

[woyms]

Hey Kiddd!!

[laureliere]

Making a lil’ Wanderhome solo party of four for myself, so I’m illustrating them all in a digital journal. First, is The Exile playbook - a secretive doe and runaway bride, capable of stringing together magical song. I’m between Menodora or Amalthea for her name!

[jaztice]

Hey folks, I’m gonna be on a pre-recorded stream hosted by @pocketdragonpub today and tomorrow at 6 pm PST where I’ll be playing Wanderhome by @jdragsky ! Me and a bunch of other awesome nerds are doing an Easter themed two shot for the weekend! Come watch at twitch.tv/thepocketdragonpub and say hi to me in the chat!

EDIT: Streaming tonight at 8 pm PST! I got the time wrong, oops!

[whoopseydaisy]

"If I was a real motherfucker I would say it's Jax"

"I think Jax's sentimentality is going to have him help me, but instead he stays loyal to the state"

"Does Jax lay hands on you when he captures you?"

"I think so"

"The town around this Sanctuary...the Shopfront was shuttered ages ago— people in this town knew it was not safe to live here anymore. The last people left a long time ago. There's just a withered old ghost town here where the Observatory Tower, with eagles perched all over it- I haven't cooped the eagles in forever, they're half feral at this point. Sepal comes by, Dock is our friend but she's in the Underworld now. It's just been me and Charlotte and these birds for a long long time. There are no living spaces in the tower; it has been years since we've had shelter for the lost.

There is nothing here.

So the tramp of boots I can hear from the moment they leave their ships- there are no souls left in this town.

And when Jax and his sailors put their hands on Tamsin...there is nothing subtle about what happens next. Sailors are flung through the town by wind, their limbs are torn apart, blood spills in the street, they are flung aside like dolls, and those who get away and get to shelter where the wind can't reach them find the force of gravity reversed and those homes flung into sky, as if by the hands of angry gods.

Jax is left alive.

So I that I can tell him to his face that he will never find safe harbour and if he ever falls alseep in the same place twice he will not wake when the sun arises, and banish him from this place."

When this happened in the Wickedness actual play for the game's kickstarter (feat. Jay Dragon, Jeeyon Shim, and Brennan Lee Mulligan + available on the Monster Darling's youtube channel) I always imagined a grown up Jax wandering the Haeth and never able to sleep in the same place twice.

(transcription of play sheet in the reblog)

[thefandomentals]

It's Yazeba's Day! Why not celebrate with a brand new series from My First Dungeon ?! Rowan got a chance to sit down with the MFD team to learn about simultaneous releases, Possum Creek's designs, and what an audio cartoon even is.

[sticksandsharks]

GRAND GUIGNOL

one of two cover artworks for Possum Creek Games' latest double-feature tabletop games, Grand Guignol & Harvest, written by @wildwoodsgames. There's a few more days to back this project if you like themes of intimacy, monstrosity and the Gothic.

[jdragsky]

possum creek games is doing a sale on their entire library right now, which is completely fucking bonkers

so if you like queer tabletop rpgs, found family, weird liminal creepy shit, or just new ways to play games that you've never thought of before, go fucking nuts

[ttrpgbookclub]

ICYMI: Our first episode went out last week, and we had an absolute ball of a time. Don’t let the silly cold open fool you, we did discuss a horror game.

Find the episode here!

[unsaved-changes]

I recently played the tarot based ttrpg Wickedness by Possum Creek Games and I drew my covenmate, Lilith! She wields a stare that kills and her own claws and she really went though it

Wickedness was a truly one of a kind experience btw I would recommend it to anyone even mildly interested in ttrpgs

[fromthebunkers]

Opened up Wanderhome for the first time in a while and immediately my brain is so full of the Veteran playbook. It gets right to the game's themes of nonviolent conflict resolution and healing from a time of extreme violence

You have a sword, sheathed at your hip. You can unsheathe it whenever you want. You must never unsheathe it.

The Veteran knows the violence they are capable of and have committed in the past. They also know that falling back into the cycle of violence is a non-option.

Still one of the moves you have access to as a character is:

Unsheathe your blade and immediately kill the person in front of you. Then, remove your character from the game. You cannot play them any longer.

You always have an option to commit extreme violence again, but a character who does can no longer be a focus of the story. I don't even see that as a punishment really, moreso an understanding with the game and the world that the Hæth refuses to engage with those who would bring that violence back.