Zine Month Recommendations Week 3
The Good, the Bad, and The Ziny
My Kickstarter campaign for MÖRK KÖPHETS: A Dead Mall Dungeon Crawl, is now over! Thank you to everyone who backed it!
One week left in Zine Month. Here are three more recommendations for projects to check out.
Wondering what Zine Month is all about? Check out my article explaining it:
Previous Recommendations
The Colony - Magical Apocalypse HexCrawl by Gabriel Kerr
The Sorcerer’s Fate by Nerdronomicon
Terror Vision by Lex Mandrake
Grotten - 1 Bit Deeper by Tommy Sunzenauer
The Hauntings of Hyde Park by Nico MacDougall
Precious Things by Lucas Zellers
HIC: Tapestry - Toilet Roll Paper Game by Tanuki Games
For an in-depth master list, check out the link below:
Community Radio, Second Edition by Thoughtcrime Games
Type: Storygame | Genre: Comedy/Horror | System: Original
Your town has deep secrets, terrifying monsters, unspeakable evils, a clandestine city council making strange decrees...and a public radio station!
In Community Radio, a group of 3 - 10 people gather to improvise scenes that show what life is like in this town, with accompanying public radio broadcasts. It's a game of dark humor and improvisational play that can last for 1-2 hours.
Community Radio is an improvisational storytelling game explicitly inspired by the popular fiction podcast, Welcome to Nightvale. You and a group of friends generate a weird town full of mysterious beings and inexplicable events that are treated as everyday and mundane by the locals. While I have not played the first edition, the rules seem exceptionally light and are more of a guide for creating your own personal episode of Nightvale. As a longtime fan of the podcast in question, I like this concept quite a bit.
From Midgard to Eternity by Armanda Haller
Type: Solo RPG | Genre: Fantasy | System: Original
Seasons change and time passes. Iron rusts, trees bend under their own weight and even the frigid oceans may seem to grow older. As you gaze upon the rolling waves and feel the chilly wind of the North Sea on your weary, creaking bones, ask yourself - what has been the measure of your life? What great deeds of yours do the skalds embellish and the children seek to emulate? And at the end of all things, when you take your very last breath on this realm, your heart pierced by foe’s axe or by age’s frailty, will you enter the halls of the slain, the field of the warring host, or face Hel herself?
From Midgard to Eternity (FME) belongs to the genre of journaling games, a form of single-player RPG that has you chronicling your story in the form of a journal, guided by prompts provided by the game. FME sees you take on the role of a Viking warrior near the end of your life, reflecting on the accomplishments you have made as you look forward to entering the halls of Valhalla after dying in glorious combat.
Armanda Haller is an Argentinian RPG designer who made an impression on me with her last Zine Month submission, Grandmothership, an RPG about old ladies solving mysteries in space. Her output drips creativity, and FME looks no different.
The Details of Our Escape by Tyler Crumrine
Type: TTRPG | Genre: None | System: Original
The Details of Our Escape is a new tabletop roleplaying game from ENnie Award-winning game designer Tyler Crumrine, two-time Eisner-nominated comics artist Linnea Sterte, and Windham-Campbell Prize winner in fiction Renee Gladman. Played with a standard 28-tile set of dominos instead of dice, players control a caravan of over 2000 people in search of a new home. What they're leaving and what kinds of strange & wonderful sights they encounter along their journey is up to you. Which party members continue all the way to the caravan's final destination, however, is up to fate.
The Details of Our Escape drew my attention with its combination of unique mechanics and poignant subject matter. Using dominoes instead of dice, this zine sees you charting the adventures and misfortunes of a community of individuals searching for a new home. There is no Game Master directing the action, instead players take turns drawing dominoes, reading prompts, and choosing how their group responds. It’s an incredibly creative setup, and one that is ripe for inspiration.
Zine Month Continues…
Next week is the final week in Zine Month. We will wrap up with some last-minute recommendations, as well as a few thoughts on the month as a whole.
Armanda funded, did you see it?