This is the most creative, and interesting TTRPG ive seen in recent memory. This is really well done, and i LOVE how each class plays a completely different game then each other without making it the tables problem!
My only gripe is that the Merc seems a little lackluster compared to the Bermail knight. The passive dice loss i feel shouldn't happen unless you use all your dice in the turn, the arm abilities (besides the battle axe, pair that with meditative breathing, and 5+ strength for a reliable 20+ damage a turn) feel a little weak compared to the damage capabilities of the other classes.
I feel like somebody should try running merc with strength giving armor (perhaps half rounded down?), dex giving extra movement, int dictating how much dice you can use before you have to discard extras, instead of passive dice loss, redo the great shield so instead of discarding a die to get protection equal to the first dice, you instead take a die of damage to the arm (so you don't just pair that with 6 strength, and meditative breathing, and become unkillable) and see how that does? (Id do it myself, but im still trynna find a party to run this)
Minor balance gripes, and questionable suggestions aside, i am DEFINETLY gonna play this game the moment i get the chance to! This definitely scratches my dark fantasy itch!
Thanks! I think ultimately I wasn't overly concerned with balance, as such, as long as each class was fun and interesting in its own way. However, I will definitely be doing a bit if fine tuning before final release. I would agree that right now the Mercenary is lagging the others a bit.
Im a balance nerd, its a hyperfixation of mine. Either way i think you succeeded in what you set out to do; just learning the way each class plays was quite fun for me!
And just the concept of the party struggling to survive while the headhunter is in the corner intensely playing modified poker made me cackle!
"Do something! We're DYING!" "STFU I'm gambling over here!"
And right out of the bat i know that some of these classes would appeal to my friends who normally never play TTRPGs, or only play D&D 5e if they do. A friend of mine who's a hardcore scrabble player LOVED the concept of the blight channeler, and i already know that my friend who likes to whip out his playing cards whenever he see's an opportunity to rope us into playing poker is gonna love the headhunter.
Haha, thanks, that was really the goal of the mechanics! It's great to get a bit of feedback on how things actually work before finalising it though. The headhunter has already had one fairly hefty balance pass prior to release here, but that just based on my own testing with a few friends.
I had been nibbling on this for a bit, but i finally had the time to sit down and properly take it in.
I spent the whole time grinning like an damn idiot.
The game itself has really brilliant takes on the more well trodden mechanics of TTRPGs, the class system of You Will Die being one of my favorite aspects of a game in a while. But its everything else that makes this stand out and really resonate with me so much. I was lied to when this was recommended to me, this is no game, its fucking art. You've done a breathtaking job weaving so many fantastic ideas into the setting and the metanarrative's storytelling, and as someone who thinks everything is about her this part in particular felt very personal to me, some of the work this references i was familiar with and the feelings this draws from are things that i had been mulling over for a while. It felt almost validating(?) to read a work that took someone else's version of the horrible virus i had been infected with, and created a piece of art that is such an eloquent melding of existentialism, consciousness, art, communication, and hell, transness all together. It was something that i found exceedingly hard to articulate to even just myself, but here you managed to do so in such a spectacularly awe-some fashion.
I hope you know that you've made something really (really!) beautiful and special, and that me and so many other little freaks are going to obsess over this for a good long while.
Your benign neurological parasites are doing just fine.
(P.S. The amount of books you've made me add to my reading list is both a wondrous blessing and a damnable curse!)
As huge fans of House of Leaves, MyHouse.wad, and other similar weird media, this game is genius! We love how it's written, the layout is amazing, such a great design, holy shit what an experience.
Note: on firefox, a large amount of Samantha's text is either invisible or illegible. Additionally, much of Charlotte's text is surrounded by boxes? I think there most be an error from whatever platform you published this from
Thanks, I'll have a look into it. I'm aware of some export problems with the current pdf, but I'm locked from making changes here until the queer horror game jam gets judged.
How the fuck do you even BEGIN to come up with this game??? I'm not even done with my first read but I'll be obsessing over this thing for weeks. Maybe months. Years even.
Thanks! Honestly, it's a thing of many pieces (which is probably an obvious statement). I think I described it in a devblog as something like the stitched together and reanimated corpses of every dead and discarded idea I ever had. The core structural framework was something that came to me just over a year ago, though, while I was standing behind my table at a local con during a quiet moment pondering about the paradox of largely unplayed but still beloved indie games.
Is it ok to say that I don’t think there’s a paradox in largely unplayable but still beloved indie games? Or more specifically that the paradox can be resolved by accepting games don’t have to be played to be enjoyed?
It's absolutely okay to say that and actually I'm inclined to agree with you. However, the thought motivated me to want to create something that was designed from the ground up with that in mind.
Thanks! I just stubbornly made the thing that I wanted to make without any concern for what conventions would dictate, except in those moments where I felt compelled to criticise those conventions. I'm already a bit shocked by the incredibly kind comments it has received from yourself and others. I don't think I ever really expected to be able to get people to understand it or even look at it. I still have no real idea of how to really explain what it actually is to people.
Thanks. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sudden surge of positive feedback. I'm the kind of person who mostly stays out of online discourse and I shut myself away while I'm writing, so there were a lot of times while creating this where I wondered whether the quality of my prose was sufficient to tell the story I wanted to tell, or whether anyone would even invest the time to understand it.
I wasn't sure if it was too on the nose, but I was too happy cackling to myself when Samantha is going all 'I usually put my inspirations here, but I don't actually know what inspired this' as the text layout directly references House of Leaves in a way that's hopefully unmistakable to anyone who's read it.
I am perhaps very dumb as it took me until pg 147 to finally Get It, at which point I had to read back through everything. Holy COW!
This is a fantastic text, chilling me like no horror TTRPG could ever manage. Not just playable, visually beautiful, and conceptually brilliant, it is also wonderfully innovative, both mechanically and to the entire artform. I should also note a particularly amazing job on the layout, what a treat!
Would this ever be available in print? I would love to have it sit unused (but quite beloved) on my shelf. Anyway, super excited to see the full release.
Thank you so much! Regarding physical copies, it recently got selected as one of the winners for Gamefound's 2025 RPG Party, so there will be a Gamefound campaign in August to crowdfund a physical print run.
OH MY CANTALOUPE! Fantastic news (and also congratulations!). Having run a campaign on Gamefound before to mixed results, I am very excited to see how the Gamefound RPG Party works out. You Will Back In This Tier!
Thanks. Yeah, my brief brushes with crowdfunding in general have been a very mixed bag and this is such a niche thing, but we'll see. I really hate marketing and the unfortunate necessity of it when it comes to putting art in front of people.
I'm also curious, if you don't mind me asking, what it was about page 147 that made it click for you? I consider it to be an important page, personally, but it's also relatively mundane compared to some of the other parts to the point that I thought people might gloss over it.
Would be happy to lend you some Gamefound-specific tip, it can be a little hard to navigate. Shoot me an email.
Well, now I have to ask why do you consider page 147 to be important? Because I don't think it is mundane at all, the importance feels obvious, to me. As for why it was the thing that finally made it click for me- i mean, its just Samantha's biggest L ever! She replaced an Obviously impactful moment with a generic enemy. But its the last line that seals the deal, where she says "I suppose you could still play the original version if you wanted to instead." Lethal amounts of designer insecurity stabbed my heart with the pain of every generic shitty ass 3.5E dungeon I'd ever made. And yet... when you combine it with the text right below it, this amateur, cowardly sentence becomes the hardest thing ever. That is when I realized what was going on, and I loved it.
Also re-reading now, I just got an extra chuckle out of noticing that since this is the only time where the Fallen Paladin enemy appears, and they appear alone, it means their Oath of Burning Vengeance ability is TOTALLY WORTHLESS! Samantha would be so ashamed but Charlotte would love it. God this books kicks ass.
I'll hit you up about Gamefound later! Regarding page 147, you're absolutely right in it being Samantha's biggest L and all of the little details you picked out. The part that makes it important to me is its connection to page 8.
This was a very engaging read! I find myself drawn to run it, in a way that inspires a curiosity to see how players engage with it. Excited to see the full version when it releases! Is there a section where we can see the fonts used? Unsure if I missed it in the text itself.
Thanks! I was kind of hoping that eventually someone might look into the fonts.
Samantha voice - Courier New, regular - This was a nod to House of Leaves, where Courier, meaning messenger, is Johnny Traunt's font.
Charlotte voice - BookmanJFPro, roman - 'Bookman' is an archaic term for someone with a love of books and reading.
Eve Conran voice - New Spirit, medium - This was a bit of a pun as she occasionally haunts the text. It's also difficult to distinguish from Bookman at first glance.
KC, the editor - Apparat, regular - This is a bit more tenuous, as the word evokes the machinery of the state, but they effectively play the role of the faceless common consensus prodding Samantha towards convention.
Elizabeth (hey, that's me!) - BookmanJFPro, roman - Reused font? Probably just a coincidence. Maybe the author got lazy.
Main rules text - Komet, regular - I just like it as a fairly classical looking sans-serif.
Main subheading text - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold, regular - It's the closest thing you can readily get to the Dark Souls 'You Died' font, so that doesn't really need further explanation.
Section heading text - GothicI, regular - It's just a fairly readable gothic font that's unusually frail in way which made it appealing.
Class fonts: (I won't comment on these as they were mostly just chosen for aesthetic reasons)
Muzeiiyd Mercenary - Rotunda Veneta, regular
Zirbari Headhunter - Bradley DJR, regular
Corpse Engineer - Chiller, regular
Blight Channeler - SchwarzKopf, new
Bermail Knight - BC Rebecca, grim
There are other fonts in this place, but those are all of the main ones.
Thanks! I can only take credit for the minis a few of the internal pieces. I was lucky enough to find some really talented artists to bring my vision to life.
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This is the most creative, and interesting TTRPG ive seen in recent memory. This is really well done, and i LOVE how each class plays a completely different game then each other without making it the tables problem!
My only gripe is that the Merc seems a little lackluster compared to the Bermail knight. The passive dice loss i feel shouldn't happen unless you use all your dice in the turn, the arm abilities (besides the battle axe, pair that with meditative breathing, and 5+ strength for a reliable 20+ damage a turn) feel a little weak compared to the damage capabilities of the other classes.
I feel like somebody should try running merc with strength giving armor (perhaps half rounded down?), dex giving extra movement, int dictating how much dice you can use before you have to discard extras, instead of passive dice loss, redo the great shield so instead of discarding a die to get protection equal to the first dice, you instead take a die of damage to the arm (so you don't just pair that with 6 strength, and meditative breathing, and become unkillable) and see how that does? (Id do it myself, but im still trynna find a party to run this)Minor balance gripes, and questionable suggestions aside, i am DEFINETLY gonna play this game the moment i get the chance to! This definitely scratches my dark fantasy itch!
Thanks! I think ultimately I wasn't overly concerned with balance, as such, as long as each class was fun and interesting in its own way. However, I will definitely be doing a bit if fine tuning before final release. I would agree that right now the Mercenary is lagging the others a bit.
Im a balance nerd, its a hyperfixation of mine. Either way i think you succeeded in what you set out to do; just learning the way each class plays was quite fun for me!
And just the concept of the party struggling to survive while the headhunter is in the corner intensely playing modified poker made me cackle!
"Do something! We're DYING!"
"STFU I'm gambling over here!"
And right out of the bat i know that some of these classes would appeal to my friends who normally never play TTRPGs, or only play D&D 5e if they do. A friend of mine who's a hardcore scrabble player LOVED the concept of the blight channeler, and i already know that my friend who likes to whip out his playing cards whenever he see's an opportunity to rope us into playing poker is gonna love the headhunter.
Haha, thanks, that was really the goal of the mechanics! It's great to get a bit of feedback on how things actually work before finalising it though. The headhunter has already had one fairly hefty balance pass prior to release here, but that just based on my own testing with a few friends.
I had been nibbling on this for a bit, but i finally had the time to sit down and properly take it in.
I spent the whole time grinning like an damn idiot.
The game itself has really brilliant takes on the more well trodden mechanics of TTRPGs, the class system of You Will Die being one of my favorite aspects of a game in a while. But its everything else that makes this stand out and really resonate with me so much.
I was lied to when this was recommended to me, this is no game, its fucking art. You've done a breathtaking job weaving so many fantastic ideas into the setting and the metanarrative's storytelling,
and as someone who thinks everything is about herthis part in particular felt very personal to me, some of the work this references i was familiar with and the feelings this draws from are things that i had been mulling over for a while. It felt almost validating(?) to read a work that took someone else's version of the horrible virus i had been infected with, and created a piece of art that is such an eloquent melding of existentialism, consciousness, art, communication, and hell, transness all together. It was something that i found exceedingly hard to articulate to even just myself, but here you managed to do so in such a spectacularly awe-some fashion.I hope you know that you've made something really (really!) beautiful and special, and that me and so many other little freaks are going to obsess over this for a good long while.
Your benign neurological parasites are doing just fine.
(P.S. The amount of books you've made me add to my reading list is both a wondrous blessing and a damnable curse!)
Thank you so much!
As huge fans of House of Leaves, MyHouse.wad, and other similar weird media, this game is genius! We love how it's written, the layout is amazing, such a great design, holy shit what an experience.
Note: on firefox, a large amount of Samantha's text is either invisible or illegible. Additionally, much of Charlotte's text is surrounded by boxes? I think there most be an error from whatever platform you published this from
Thanks, I'll have a look into it. I'm aware of some export problems with the current pdf, but I'm locked from making changes here until the queer horror game jam gets judged.
Best gaming thing since MyHouse.wad.
I take that as incredibly high praise. Love that thing.
Hey just wanted to say what the fuck how is this real
How the fuck do you even BEGIN to come up with this game??? I'm not even done with my first read but I'll be obsessing over this thing for weeks. Maybe months. Years even.
Thanks! Honestly, it's a thing of many pieces (which is probably an obvious statement). I think I described it in a devblog as something like the stitched together and reanimated corpses of every dead and discarded idea I ever had. The core structural framework was something that came to me just over a year ago, though, while I was standing behind my table at a local con during a quiet moment pondering about the paradox of largely unplayed but still beloved indie games.
Is it ok to say that I don’t think there’s a paradox in largely unplayable but still beloved indie games? Or more specifically that the paradox can be resolved by accepting games don’t have to be played to be enjoyed?
(Also check out my 2000+ page indie game…)
It's absolutely okay to say that and actually I'm inclined to agree with you. However, the thought motivated me to want to create something that was designed from the ground up with that in mind.
woah wow hey
Simply amazing. This game has cracked problems most people in the medium don't even know exist yet. I hope it becomes as influential as it deserves.
Thanks! I just stubbornly made the thing that I wanted to make without any concern for what conventions would dictate, except in those moments where I felt compelled to criticise those conventions. I'm already a bit shocked by the incredibly kind comments it has received from yourself and others. I don't think I ever really expected to be able to get people to understand it or even look at it. I still have no real idea of how to really explain what it actually is to people.
This is incredible work. Holy shit.
Thanks. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sudden surge of positive feedback. I'm the kind of person who mostly stays out of online discourse and I shut myself away while I'm writing, so there were a lot of times while creating this where I wondered whether the quality of my prose was sufficient to tell the story I wanted to tell, or whether anyone would even invest the time to understand it.
I saw a House of Leaves reference and knew I was in for a treat. Absolutely stellar work!
I wasn't sure if it was too on the nose, but I was too happy cackling to myself when Samantha is going all 'I usually put my inspirations here, but I don't actually know what inspired this' as the text layout directly references House of Leaves in a way that's hopefully unmistakable to anyone who's read it.
I am perhaps very dumb as it took me until pg 147 to finally Get It, at which point I had to read back through everything. Holy COW!
This is a fantastic text, chilling me like no horror TTRPG could ever manage. Not just playable, visually beautiful, and conceptually brilliant, it is also wonderfully innovative, both mechanically and to the entire artform. I should also note a particularly amazing job on the layout, what a treat!
Would this ever be available in print? I would love to have it sit unused (but quite beloved) on my shelf. Anyway, super excited to see the full release.
Thank you so much! Regarding physical copies, it recently got selected as one of the winners for Gamefound's 2025 RPG Party, so there will be a Gamefound campaign in August to crowdfund a physical print run.
OH MY CANTALOUPE! Fantastic news (and also congratulations!). Having run a campaign on Gamefound before to mixed results, I am very excited to see how the Gamefound RPG Party works out. You Will Back In This Tier!
Thanks. Yeah, my brief brushes with crowdfunding in general have been a very mixed bag and this is such a niche thing, but we'll see. I really hate marketing and the unfortunate necessity of it when it comes to putting art in front of people.
I'm also curious, if you don't mind me asking, what it was about page 147 that made it click for you? I consider it to be an important page, personally, but it's also relatively mundane compared to some of the other parts to the point that I thought people might gloss over it.
Would be happy to lend you some Gamefound-specific tip, it can be a little hard to navigate. Shoot me an email.
Well, now I have to ask why do you consider page 147 to be important? Because I don't think it is mundane at all, the importance feels obvious, to me. As for why it was the thing that finally made it click for me- i mean, its just Samantha's biggest L ever! She replaced an Obviously impactful moment with a generic enemy. But its the last line that seals the deal, where she says "I suppose you could still play the original version if you wanted to instead." Lethal amounts of designer insecurity stabbed my heart with the pain of every generic shitty ass 3.5E dungeon I'd ever made. And yet... when you combine it with the text right below it, this amateur, cowardly sentence becomes the hardest thing ever. That is when I realized what was going on, and I loved it.
Also re-reading now, I just got an extra chuckle out of noticing that since this is the only time where the Fallen Paladin enemy appears, and they appear alone, it means their Oath of Burning Vengeance ability is TOTALLY WORTHLESS! Samantha would be so ashamed but Charlotte would love it. God this books kicks ass.
I'll hit you up about Gamefound later! Regarding page 147, you're absolutely right in it being Samantha's biggest L and all of the little details you picked out. The part that makes it important to me is its connection to page 8.
This was a very engaging read! I find myself drawn to run it, in a way that inspires a curiosity to see how players engage with it. Excited to see the full version when it releases!
Is there a section where we can see the fonts used? Unsure if I missed it in the text itself.
Thanks! I was kind of hoping that eventually someone might look into the fonts.
Samantha voice - Courier New, regular - This was a nod to House of Leaves, where Courier, meaning messenger, is Johnny Traunt's font.
Charlotte voice - BookmanJFPro, roman - 'Bookman' is an archaic term for someone with a love of books and reading.
Eve Conran voice - New Spirit, medium - This was a bit of a pun as she occasionally haunts the text. It's also difficult to distinguish from Bookman at first glance.
KC, the editor - Apparat, regular - This is a bit more tenuous, as the word evokes the machinery of the state, but they effectively play the role of the faceless common consensus prodding Samantha towards convention.
Elizabeth (hey, that's me!) - BookmanJFPro, roman - Reused font? Probably just a coincidence. Maybe the author got lazy.
Main rules text - Komet, regular - I just like it as a fairly classical looking sans-serif.
Main subheading text - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold, regular - It's the closest thing you can readily get to the Dark Souls 'You Died' font, so that doesn't really need further explanation.
Section heading text - GothicI, regular - It's just a fairly readable gothic font that's unusually frail in way which made it appealing.
Class fonts: (I won't comment on these as they were mostly just chosen for aesthetic reasons)
Muzeiiyd Mercenary - Rotunda Veneta, regular
Zirbari Headhunter - Bradley DJR, regular
Corpse Engineer - Chiller, regular
Blight Channeler - SchwarzKopf, new
Bermail Knight - BC Rebecca, grim
There are other fonts in this place, but those are all of the main ones.
such great artwork!
Thanks! I can only take credit for the minis a few of the internal pieces. I was lucky enough to find some really talented artists to bring my vision to life.