This weekend I finally had the opportunity to have the photoshoot I have dreamed of for some time, which included a couple of important logistical issues – like finding a place to dig a shallow grave, and arranging a time in near-winter where it wasn’t too cold to lie in it.
In this photoshoot, I’m styled in cowboy inspired clothes much like I wore as a kid equestrian, but styled up a little to my modern tastes. There’s a little bit of a narrative to the photos, so I hope you enjoy it!
The photography in this shoot is by John W. Sheldon, and myself and Jennifer Hill (a.k.a. Jaydot from Shop Jaydot) are the models. The shoot was conceived by me, styled largely by me, and planned by me and John. It is extremely meaningful to me, and I am super grateful I was able to experience it. This may be highly pretentious, but it is very special!
I’m excited to formally announce the Script Change RPG Toolbox rebrand/redesign courtesy of Clayton Notestine! I have dreamed of a pleasing, more functional presentation of Script Change for a really long time, & it’s here & it’s amazing! Download the new version at briebeau.itch.io/script-change today!
I’m excited to formally announce the Script Change RPG Toolbox rebrand/redesign courtesy of Clayton Notestine! I have dreamed of a pleasing, more functional presentation of Script Change for a really long time, & it’s here & it’s amazing!
I first want to extend my thanks to Clayton for the incredible work done on this. He was communicative, thoughtful about my design ethos, & invested a lot of effort in showcasing Script Change. His expertise is noteworthy and undeniable!
Clayton took my very rudimentary layout & organization and turned it into a functional design!
Script Change was originally written as part of [Tabletop] Blockbuster, an early design project by John & me focusing on action movie style play. I love cinematic gaming, & had been introduced to the X-card.
I wanted more for my safety experience in play, and I wanted it to be portable to other systems. I chose language I knew commonly for the tools, starting with pause, which is my favorite safe word & suited the theme.
The Pause card is vital for play & is an approachable way to introduce taking breaks in game to discuss how you want to engage with content, mechanics, or story elements.
I built on it inspired by various concepts – the cinematic fade to black (fast forward), a vibe like Archipelago’s “try a different way” (rewind), and it kept building from there. I’ve updated it often since then, & it’s a full box of tools!
There are many tools in Script Change, including some without unique cards, that help players from the start of planning their gaming experiences to post-play when debriefing and follow-up can be valuable.
Clayton took the simple text layout I had and made easy to recognize cards for the table, as well as reorganizing and at times clarifying my text to ensure it was approachable and fit the conversational intent.
The cinematic language is similar to the kind of words we use for watching videos, listening to music, and is also pretty easy to conceptualize. It carries on into instant replay, wrap meetings, & the further tools that facilitate play.
The new layout is really more usable, functional, and recognizable, plus it’s just way prettier to look at!
I love the feeling of the graphic presentation of the new design, & I am so glad to have this new look & organization to help people play games safer, with better control of content & consent! Thanks Clay!
Hey all, this is a fiction review because I got a copy of this awesome queer retelling of the Great Gatsby and I would LOVE to see more games with this energy (like Bro, Is It Okay to Dock? and such!) so I figured I’d share it here.
AJ Odasso’s The Pursued and the Pursuing, an alternate ending and retelling of The Great Gatsby, is one of the first books in months that I couldn’t bear to put down. It has been a while since I read the famous original text, but my memories of me definitely left me wishing for something different, something distinct, and this satisfied that among other things! Before I give any details, I will say that I haven’t seen the related film, but I didn’t feel I needed to. There are spoilers in this review, but the significant ones will be spoiler tagged!
Even as someone who hasn’t recently read the book, I felt like Odasso’s natural skill in establishing character notes shone through. We start in media res, a hiccup before the official end of The Great Gatsby, where Jay Gatsby himself has been shot. Instead of him dying, he’s rescued by Nick Carraway and while publicly Jay Gatsby dies, Jay Gatz has new life. They go on to have a life together in love, finding their passions in both their professions (Nick as a writer for the Boston Globe and novels, Jay in restoring boats – something I appreciated because after his injury, he’s established to be disabled, but nonetheless gets to live a life doing labor that he enjoys, and as a disabled person, I rarely see disabled characters get to go on to happily do physical jobs!), and later, become the caretakers for Daisy Buchanan’s daughter Pam when it becomes clear that Daisy’s wishes for Pam do not match up with Pam’s desires.
The story itself is largely about finding love and family in places that you may not expect, while also experiencing the reality of being people who are not accepted by others. I appreciate that Odasso is very clear that these characters are benefitting from financial privilege throughout most of the text, and how that privilege does allow them not only the means to live well and travel, but also to remain private in their “proclivities” as queer people. There are historical references & geographical references that help to structure the story, as well as provide context for the nature of their private identities. It feels almost like a wishful story, a dream that if queer people had financial security and privilege, and if we had the privacy granted by a world before the internet (which since I was a teen has been the nightmare of doxxing, stalking, & zero privacy), perhaps, in some spaces, we could live happy lives without the interference of the world and its cruelty. However, it does not ignore that there are bad things happening around them.
It references various concerns of family rejection, as well as detailing some of those events, as well as societal risk. Later in the book, time has passed and Odasso does address World War II,
<spoiler> including the Holocaust. While I think that it would be possible to look at this and think it’s unusual to bring up, since the main characters don’t engage, I felt that it was actually a really good way to highlight the privilege that these characters have in the book, residing in the United States, as white people (aside from Pam’s girlfriend at this time, Sylvie, who has Jewish family in Europe & is Creole) who can do little more than express how they wish they could help. Sometimes, marginalized people with some degree of privilege (but not necessarily the kind that can do things like change public policy or rescue refugees) like these characters are framed as being able to just like, rescue others in need, but it’s not often that simple, but the text presents it as just as frustrating and irritating as it feels to me. Rich queer people, with all your money, can’t you do more? In today’s world, maybe. In the era this is set, possibly not, not without immediately risking their lives and becoming ineffectual going forward. I also, having followed Odasso’s work for over two decades, know that they are not as distant from the history of the Holocaust as readers might think, so I see the importance of including this reflection on both the encroaching horror and how little was done. If they had written in this time period and not mentioned it, I think it would have done the story and the history a disservice. </spoilers>
Jay and Nick are largely presented as flawed people who are just trying to recover from a traumatic event and find some sort of life in a world where people like them aren’t accepted. They do find others like them, and have fun parties, but those parties are like blips on the domestic path they experience. One of the reoccurring themes is alcohol, obviously, as well as alcoholism, and trying to reduce the negative and harmful behaviors of their past, learn to moderate, and moderate their tendencies to fight with people they love as well.
Daisy is part of the story, and frankly is presented in the only appropriate way I felt she should be. She’s a difficult cousin to Nick, and a mother with uncaring expectations for her daughter. In Gatsby, she’s established to be someone who is a product of her environment – a desire for financial security and financial privilege, and a degree of selfishness. While Gatsby’s original presentation of Daisy may be flawed because of his own perception, the rest of the characters largely carry on the same characterization of the original text, so it makes sense that it continues with Daisy as well.
She is also characteristic of the high class, wealthy attitude towards eugenics & societal expectations in America, as characterized in her treatment of Pam when
<spoilers> Pam, in her teens, is revealed to be intersex, or the closest understanding of intersex at the time that they had. It’s a complex revelation and importantly executed. Daisy wants to have Pam medically examined through surgery, concerned that she won’t be able to have children because of her lack of a menstrual cycle & therefore won’t find a husband. Nick & Jay object, supporting Pam’s own objection, and take her in to protect her. Daisy does continue financially supporting Pam, keeping her privileged and protected and able to pursue the education she wants, but essentially (like in the Gatsby novel) she’s not concerned about having a close relationship, especially once it’s clear that Pam loves women and wants to be an educated writer. Odasso does regularly ensure that there are large elements of Daisy’s behaviors that are influenced by her difficult husband, Tom, who is bigoted and active politically, including the fact that Daisy keeps almost everything about Pam’s life after her teens veiled to Tom. There is a positive, though fraught, scene at Pam’s graduation where Tom learns of Sylvie & Pam’s relationship, & it is shown that Daisy also recently met Sylvie. It feels like a genuine presentation of privileged, conservative parents having a queer, intersex child that they don’t understand, don’t truly accept, but don’t want to feel like failures for not having gotten the child they expected or wanted. </spoilers>
The way that Odasso has Nick and Jay accept Pam as she is feels, in a way, a dreamlike, wishful thing of what it could be to have family who you love and identify with accept you and give you a safe space to exist. It made me wistful.
The book obviously also includes some really lovely, lightly detailed but very intimate scenes between Jay and Nick that are written beautifully and capture a specific sensation of need & fulfillment that Odasso is brilliant at. I have always loved Odasso’s work, but some of these scenes are ones that feel so sweet and yet as though they’ve been snatched from time and memory, like hurried moments drawn out to engage the passions while allowing leisurely return to calm. I really loved every single one, because they entice while not overwhelming or offending, & often have elements of humor (and I love that they recognize the physical limitations and aging of the characters!).
I truly loved the whole story, and I didn’t feel like I needed to revisit Gatsby to reengage with these characters or to enjoy the snippets of their life. I feel like, too often, fiction wants to fill in all the gaps, redevelop characterization or overcharacterize, but as a reader, I truly enjoy having spaces of time between scenes and open exploration of the way the characters act and experience things. I could connect plenty of dots throughout the story to find ways that the characters behaved, even in the first few scenes I knew who they were and how they were very quickly, but there was enough space for me to see pieces of myself, people I love, and elements of fiction that I adore peeking through, whether imagined or otherwise! I feel like more fiction could benefit from such a paced & thoughtful engagement.
Overall, I think that The Pursued and the Pursuing is an excellent retelling of the end of The Great Gatsby, with complex and open characters, truthfulness to the original story in characterization and setting, and queer reinterpretation and exploration that captures a dream of what it could be to have privilege, privacy, and possibilities in a time where maybe that wasn’t really too common for queer people. I can’t wait for what Odasso releases next, because I enjoyed every minute!
Hi all! This is my review for the third week of #33in28 where I focus on a single game. This week’s game is Alex Roberts’ Precious Little Animal! It seemed really cute and positive, which I think is something all of us could benefit from this week. Precious Little Animal is a journaling game where you tell positive things to an animal friend and is currently on Kickstarter!
Hi all! This is my review for the third week of #33in28 where I focus on a single game. This week’s game is Alex Roberts’ Precious Little Animal! It seemed really cute and positive, which I think is something all of us could benefit from this week. Precious Little Animal is a journaling game where you tell positive things to an animal friend and is currently on Kickstarter!
This is the first in my #33in28 reviews series for the month of February celebrating my birthday (I’m 33 on the 4th). I’ll do one individual review on Monday of each week, then a collection of the rest of the reviews that week on the following Sunday. Not all reviews will be the same length, but I’ll try to be thoughtful as always. I’m mixing in a few reviews of games I’m familiar with or that I just want to play, because I can (and as example reviews). Luckily I have good taste!
*This game is currently being funded through itch sales, so what I reviewed is not the final product, just what is available prior to the creator hitting their sales goal. Full disclosure: I will be editing the text and I have drawn art to be used for it, but this is the first time I’ve read the text myself.
A Greeblin’s Journey
The General Idea
Genre Tags: multiplayer (3+ players & facilitator), fantasy, tarot cards, heists, coins Replayable? Yes! Actual Play Available? Some examples in text Length: Short (One-shot)
The Review
Today I’m reviewing A Greeblin’s Journey by Thomas Novosel! A Greeblin’s Journey is a solo fantasy adventure game in zine format funding through itchio. I have played it with Thomas’s help before (handwriting for me, primarily, for a playtest) and I’m excited to check it out again!
The zine itself is well written and clearly laid out with a cute and fun cover piece by Thomas. I think the guidance at the start of the zine about themes you’ll encounter is really great, and is a good guideline for how to inform players about content so they can consent and play actively. Really a good starter.
“A player should before they play take note of what they are comfortable with for themes, as the game’s story is meant to edge the line of victory through luck and will, and what it is like to need to move. The feelings associated with your bones requiring a change of space and life after an entire life of sitting comfortably alone.” – A Greeblin’s Journey, Thomas Novosel
This in particular really resonated with me, as someone who has been in one place for a long time, and who wants to go from one place to another. The elegance of this section’s explanation of the game to come is very true to my experience of play.
A Greeblin I drew for A Greeblin’s Journey.
Another section that I really like is the description of Greeblins, which can be any kind of thing really, and this part in particular:
“While every Greeblin is different, and there is no core definition of what or who a Greeblin is, there is a feeling. Anyone can look at a Greeblin and sense that they are a Greeblin. Whether it be the way they communicate with others, or the way they look up at the natural world around them, or the curiosity they have with the constructions of civilization.” – A Greeblin’s Journey, Thomas Novosel
As the game states, a Greeblin doesn’t have a name. As someone who only recently acquired their name, I feel very Greeblin-like a lot of the time. This feels really queer in the design, though I honestly don’t know if Thomas intended it that way. Playing the game and coming to the end of the Greeblin’s story felt very reflective of many journeys, but as a queer person, I saw my own journey in it while experiencing a fantastical adventure, which is a great achievement of design.
Speaking of design, the game uses simple two die rolls and narrative prompts (which the game encourages you to replace if there is trouble with content) and then you journal your response to the prompt. I would call A Greeblin’s Journey a being game very much, because while you detail what you do, it’s about being a Greeblin and experiencing their journey. Each Chronicle of the story adds up to a goal of 21 to reach the end of your story, just like in Blackjack (card game). This allows you to time play effectively, but also paces the story well, and gives a chance of failure that is truly bittersweet considering my previous paragraph. It may take a second read to fully understand the mechanic since it’s not our standard fare, but the game does recommend one anyway to clearly understand the rules and play guidelines.
The mechanics include an Impetus die, determining what prompted the Greeblin to journal today, and the Topic die, which determines what they are writing about. There is also the Substitution, which allows you to swap a number you roll for a 1 to allow you to control the pacing of the game (a really smart mechanic, imo), and the Freebies, which are 2 free Impetus, allowing you to replace an Impetus roll with a different Impetus and set the score for it at 0.
I love this Greeblin I drew for the text. So lanky!
I won’t spoil the prompts, but they’re quite evocative and inspire a lot of introspection about how the Greeblin interacts with the world, how you as the Greeblin feel about those things, and what matters to you on the journey. I admit that in my playthrough for the playtest I was blessed with Thomas’s dulcet tones reading aloud as he inscribed my responses to the prompts, but I still feel reading through it today that this is a truly fun, and very thoughtful, game for a solo player. Reading the prompts and responses aloud to yourself is genuinely enjoyable, and Thomas’s writing is flavorful and weird.
I created a Greeblin to demonstrate how flavorful it is, using only options (bolded) in the book. Here are how the prompts came out:
My Greeblin… has tattoos that move in the breeze, prizes their magic spoon, as its reflection shows what they desire, is coming from the tall forest with no stars or moons, and is going to the pink salt ocean and its salt towers.
Like, yes. This is my jam entirely. If Thomas hadn’t been designing this completely separate of me (I’ll edit in the future, but I had no input on design or writing aside from proofreading if he asked), I’d swear he put some of this in here just for my tastes. Tattoos that move in the breeze? I imagine my Greeblin with a pretty mermaid on their arm, though they’ve never seen the sea, who reaches out for passing dandelion puffs. I imagine a forest so bright that it blinds any stars or moons and the only reprieve is the shade, but the trees are so large there are many shadows to lurk in. The spoon shows them a real ocean, with stars overhead and dark skies making the sea look like blood. That ocean – it remains to be revealed, but the Greeblin has many imaginings of what it holds. They intend to lick the salt towers, as would be expected. Who wouldn’t?
A game for two players where they tell stories and play out scenes about the unusual The Man who stays in their cabin in the woods and alone… except for The Stag from the copse who wants to influence the world of man with magic. Whether this connection leads to a revelation or condemnation does truly depend on the cards. Crowdfund ends March 15, 2021!
My goal is $1000 by March 15, 2021 and with the following goals, I’ll provide more content! There’s also a number of rewards on the itch page to help me reach my goal!
$250 – Art by Thomas A. Novosel, fleshing out the interior sketches!
Hey, friends, supporters, consumers, and colleagues. this one is a little important.
I hope the best came for you in major holidays for each culture and religion or lack thereof that came before this post, and the same wishes for you in the festivities (or lack thereof!) to come. Please stay safe in the continuance of COVID-19 and the many dangers all marginalized people face, and seek joy in every moment – even if it’s fleeting, it heals more than all the rest.
That being said, this is me. Beau Sheldon.
Me. 2020.
Content warnings for discussion of mental illness, physical disability, financial insecurity, gender identity, gender dysphoria, mention of hallucinations, mention of schizoaffective disorder, mentions of political and social issues in the United States, and details of creative dysfunction.
Note: Today seems pretty packed with pics because this particular style of design and art appeals to me a lot, so please excuse this indulgence.
—
Tell me a little about yourself and your work. What’s your background like and how has it led you to Dissident Whispers?
My name is Jeremy and I did the layout for ‘Hopebringer’ and ‘Rhemati’s Spring’ for DW. I’ve been tabletop gaming for around 6-7 years and creating stuff for around 3 years. I am a Warden (moderator) on the Mothership discord and active in a few others. One day “Silver Goat” posted up a request seeking volunteers for a BLM project, as a mixed race man (black and white if it matters) who lives in a rural area I had been struggling to find my place in the protests, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get involved.
The interior of Dissident Whispers, on the pages for Hopebringer, showing a diagram of an arena.
What other projects have you worked on that you’ve brought forward knowledge to working on Dissident Whispers?
I have been working on writing and laying out a Mothership Hack called Gordinaak for way to long, and recently released a very dumb nega tower called ‘Why is there a Wizards Tower in this Dump?’ on Itch with my writing partner.
Tell me about Dissident Whispers. What kicked off such a project concept and how did it come together? What’s the pitch?
Dissident Whispers is a collaborative compilation of adventures for various systems. For me, it all started when I saw a message on Exalted Funeral’s Discord looking for volunteers to do various pieces for a project. As we were talking about logistics the projects founder, Silver Goat, mentioned posting on the Mothership Discord. It just so happened that I warden there (moderate) so I reached out to Sean Mccoy about it and then it just kinda took off. As far as a pitch goes I’m pretty terrible at that so I guess it’s a book with a bunch of dungeons and adventures so anyone who plays games needs it.
The interior of Dissident Whispers showing the Mirstone Manor adventure – on one page, a detailed map, and on the other, an unusual pink creature.
How is planning the content of such a project impacted by the increased focus on inclusivity and a specific message?
I think for everyone involved it was different, some people made things that were topical while others did stuff that was standard adventure fare. For instance one of the adventure’s I did layout for, Hopebringer, was very stick it to the man and defeat the oppressors.
What are some examples of the adventures in Dissident Whispers that players will have to dig into?
There are soooooo many, I did the layout for Hopebringer, and Rhemati’s Spring, both very different, both system agnostic. There are some really interesting ones for Mork Borg, and I actually played one for Mothership called Ghost Ship, on the night we finished everything, which was amazing.
The interior of Dissident Whispers, focusing on the College of Acoustic Ministration, showing alien creatures and men with lobster hands.
What were some of the best parts of working on this project and putting together the collection for players to experience?
My favorite part was probably watching a flood of talented people get involved, one day it was a few people then the next the discord exploded. It was just amazing watching everything develop and how cohesive everyone was moving as a unit. I’m still in awe of what was accomplished.
The interior of Dissident Whispers showing the Snake Temple Abduction adventure, with a beautiful illustration on the right page in blue and white and a simple but useful map in blue and white on the left, along with the guiding text.
The images for the book are by Janna Heidersdorf (Illustration) and Jen McCleary (Layout). (update 7/37/202)
—
Sharang Biswas, for the Medici Group.
I appreciate you taking time for the interview, Sharang! Would you share with me a little about you and your experience? How did you end up in games doing the kind of work that you’re enthusiastic about?
I’m a game designer, interactive artist, and writer currently based in NYC. I started formally learning game design under Mary Flanagan at Dartmouth (though I studied engineering), and then went to ITP at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU to get a Masters in Interactive Design. Since then I’ve made numerous games, won an IndieCade, 2 IGDN, and a Golden Cobra Award, exhibited my games at galleries and art museums, mounted interactive theatre productions at various venues, and given a bunch of talks at conferences and universities. I’m also currently on the faculty at both Fordham University and Bard College.
I’m actually pretty enthusiastic about many different kinds of work, so I try and keep myself being by doing different stuff all the time. My major project right now is co-editing Honey & Hot Wax: An Anthology of Erotic Art Games with Lucian Kahn. I’ve been into the idea of procedure and process for a while, and about how mundane actions, when placed in a game context, can convey artistic meaning. I explored this in my games Feast & Verdure, and out of that line of inquiry came the thought: “Can games use sex acts as game mechanics, where the acts themselves are not the sole goal of the game?”. From that arose the idea of the book, though Lucian & I expanded the scope to also include games that discuss sex, sexuality, and related topics, without the use of sex acts between players or characters.
Lucian and I were very keen to make this project come to life in a way that uplifts artists and game designers, and so we decided to apply for a grant from the Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity. We received two consecutive grants, and are basically using all the money to pay the creators involved!
That’s so fantastic to hear! Honey & Hot Wax sounds really brilliant, and also like a unique challenge. One curiosity I have is how you handled ensuring that the games in the collection use consent and are responsible, considering how sex can be. What was your approach to safety and boundaries?
It is my firm belief that art can and should discuss difficult topics–art is one of the ways people, both as individuals and as societies, make sense of the world. However, such art needs to be practiced with care and sensitivity, and as such, Lucian and I were very concerned about issues of consent and safety in the games included in the anthology. To begin with, when we were soliciting proposals, we took a very broad definition of what sex is, and relied on the Effing Foundation’s definitions of “sex-positivity” and “inclusivity” (which you can read here). This was to ensure that everyone was on the same page regarding the goals of our project, and what sorts of depictions of sexuality we would be considering.
Once the finalists were selected, we commissioned Maury Brown for an entirely separate chapter on consent and safety in LARP and TTRPG, to act as a general set of guidelines when playing any of the games in the collection (or indeed, any roleplaying game at all). In the rules for their games, each game designer also included their own sections regarding safety and consent practices, to uniquely address the idiosyncrasies of the experience they were creating.
Additionally, each game was thoroughly vetted by Lucian, myself, Cat Tobin from Pelgrane Press, and Kit Stubbs from the Effing Foundation, a diverse set of eyes to ensure that the games all represented the values we wanted to promote, and that consent language was clear. As director of the Effing Foundation, Kit, in particular, offered valuable insights concerning such matters!
Finally, we were very serious about the playtesting requirement for each of our accepted games; holes and gaps in rules are hard to predict without playtesting. Running my own game with a trusted friend, for example, showed me places where I could clarify language about safety!
Of course, and unfortunately, no safety mechanics can handle every eventuality, or account for bad actors. It is in the nature of participatory, non-linear stories to defy our expectations and predictions, so to all the players of our games, we ask you to exercise judgment and pay attention to your own boundaries!
The Honey & Hot Wax cover.
Is this the first game you’ve applied for grants for? It sounds like you’re pretty great at it! What did that process entail and how do you think it’s impacted how the games are designed?
Grants, like most sorts of applications in this world, are partially about luck, so “being great at it” doesn’t mean as much as one might think! But this isn’t the first grant I’ve received to make game-like work, and hopefully won’t be the last!
When Lucian and I sent in our proposal to the Effing Foundation, we were very clear about what the grant-funding would be used for: paying the folks involved in the project a fair amount. This was paramount. All our funding went to the writers and designers involved in the book.
The creation of any kind of art requires time and space. Time and space are luxuries reserved for those with money. Good art is impossible to make (consistently, at least) if an artist is forever worried about where their next rent check is coming from. As such, Lucian and I were hoping to do our small part in supporting and uplifting indie designers. At the very least, we’ve managed to create a space where artists who might otherwise not be able to make games about risque topics, have the ability to do so, and in a way that’s financially viable!
It might be good to note here that in addition to support from the grant, each designer is also receiving royalties, and a portion of sales is also going towards charitable causes that promote sex-positivity and sex-education!
The Sleepover by Julia Ellingboe and Kat Jones.
It is great to hear that everyone is being well-paid and that you and Lucian are working to support charitable works! What do you enjoy about working on larger projects like this with lots of collaborators? How does it contrast with how you enjoy working on individual projects, and how that affects your design? (note: please feel free to give examples of your specific projects!)
I really enjoy working on group projects. Most of the work I’m proudest of is in collaboration with others. However, I wouldn’t call this a “group project” per se. Lucian and I were editors and curators of other people’s work. It was their designs…we just helped them. Granted Lucian and I have games in the book as well, but each of those was an individual work (albeit, with help from others). The book wasn’t really a group project in the same was as some of my bigger, interactive theatre pieces, for example.
For example, when Nick O’Leary and I made the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance LARP for the Museum of the Moving Image, it truly was collaborative, both with each other and the museum education department. We went back and forth with each other for ideas, to refine mechanics, to flesh out bits and to write content. None of that really for H&HW.
Feeding Lucy, written by Jonaya Kemper.
What are some lessons you’ve learned through design over time that you think your particular path is the only way you would have learned them – as in, if I hadn’t done x, I would never have learned y?
Lol, I feel that’s a weird line of thinking. Who knows what I would or would not have learned under different circumstances or different decisions? Besides, I think looking at other people’s paths is at best an exercise in inspiration. Stories of paths taken ALWAYS leave out some aspect of luck or privilege, and few can ever emulate the advice given in these sorts of tellings.
Maybe the only truth that I can say that has a high probability of working for others is 1) constantly making stuff and pushing yourself to try things you haven’t done before is how you learn and improve; and 2) being kind to people is not only the nice thing to do but more advantageous for you in the long run!
What are some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on in games and what makes them stand out amongst the rest? How were you able to put your unique experiences into play while designing them?
Hmm… this is a fun question because it made me look back on my work, and turns out, I’ve made a fair amount of stuff!
I wrote an interactive fiction piece for Sub-Q magazine called “The Book of Chroma“. That I’m quite proud of. The concept–gay priests– was actually my first idea for my submission to Honey & Hot Wax, but I couldn’t get a LARP version to work…glad it worked ut here though. It’s also my first IF piece with a significant puzzle component! I also added a sort of Indic feel to the fantasy religion I made up, because many such religions tend towards a Christian feel…
I was just nominated for an IGDN award for my short game “An Elegy From the Hive Witches“, making it the third time in a row I’ve been nominated for the Most Innovative category (hopefully it’ll also be my third win!) Looking back on the game, I really did enjoy it. It’s vaguely anti-colonial, uses words and language as game mechanics, stuff I’m really interested in!
Pass the Sugar, Please, written by Clio Yun-su Davis.
In Honey & Hot Wax, what are some of the specific pieces that you’re particularly looking forward to seeing people talk about and seeing the impact on the design landscape from? Were there any you learned from?
I mean, Clio Davis’ “Pas the Sugar, Please” has already generated conversations, after it got picked up by Intramersive Productions as an interactive theatre piece, so that’s great. Otherwise, I thinkLucian and I curated a decent selection of game, each of which has something new and interesting to offer to the gaming landscape. Lol, obviously, I’d love it if people talk about my game and how (queer) sex can be more normalized in culture!
What is Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello, as a project and as your vision?
Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello is the second anthology of chamber larps written by the Italian Chamber Orchestra, the community of roleplaying enthusiasts of Laiv.it. We are doing our best to make it a wonderful book with twelve interesting games, but to us it’s so much more than that. Three years ago we created the first Crescendo Giocoso, thanks to our community and our backers on Kickstarter. It was an incredible experience, kind of similar to Pavarotti & Friends: my games and the games of Italian game designers who I esteem, developed to be accessible to a wider public, from different countries and backgrounds.
It turned out to be the show of confidence our community needed in order to focus on our own way of designing games. With a format that worked for us as a starting base, we were able to start organising conventions not only to play games, but to write them together. Our player friends became authors and the same Italian Chamber Orchestra that was born as a joke became real, going from nine authors to almost thirty. Bigger communities of Italian larpers started to get interested in chamber larp and people from all around the world got to know our way of playing.
So in a way Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello as a book is the end point of a journey (we like to say “a grand tour”) made of writing workshops, online chats, conventions, sleepless nights on graphics and texts. In another way, we hope it could be a new starting point for our community, a demonstration that there’s people out there willing to hear our voices as game designers and that “anyone can cook” as in Pixar’s Ratatouille.
What are some of the themes players will see in the different larps in Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello?
In terms of settings, players are spoiled for choice: from the Bronze Age to the Italian Years of Lead passing through XVIII° century Venice and fantasy worlds. Alzh & Imer is about a love story between tow elderly people, one of them afflicted by Alzheimer’s, and Pantheon Club is about social pressure: each player is invited to anonymously put into play a personal “silence” (something you don’t speak about with everyone, because you’re afraid to be judged) and someone else is going to play a Greek Deity who shares or hates this same silence. The truth is we put emphasis on game mechanics above all, so players will pull colored strings to create an imaginary village or scotch tape to build a prison without actual walls, they will play in complete darkness or utter silence, they will play in the same room or in different ones, they will create scene in reverse chronological order or play the same character in different moments of life. There’s only one fixed point: everyone in the gaming group is going to play and have fun. We’ve got nothing against game masters, I’ve been one for my entire life, but my days of watching one of my larps from outside, maybe to step in and just tell the epilogue in the end, are over: I want to play with my friends and as an author I’m not going to ask someone else to just stare at the others as they play. Sharing all this experiences and putting so many heads together has been a great way to explore very different ideas and everyone can find a complete list of previews for all the scenarios on our Laiv.it website here.
The layout of this playlist looks *chef’s kiss* glorious.
The concept of the Italian Chamber Orchestra and coming together to write each of the scenarios is really brilliant and feels very collaborative. How do you work together and address disagreements, conflicts, or even just overrunning enthusiasm in such an environment?
To me the keys are transparence and dialogue. We try to create the ideal environment from the very beginning: even if a hotel with all the comforts would be awesome, we prefer to rent a house and take care of things ourselves, as a group. Maria is in charge of the logistics, but everyone brings something to eat and there are no assigned rooms. Everyone knows that we put authors first in every convention: we ask players which game they’d prefer to play of course, but we also make sure to tell them that is only a preference and they could end up in another game instead. A game is written by a person who deserves space and respect, as well as a player has the right to know what they are going to play. So, when we invited our players to become authors, we found a very sensible and open-minded audience. In order to share this way of doing things with newcomers, in our writing workshops we split up people who already know each other or who have similar experiences in order to create more diverse bands.
The starting points for every collective game in LarpJam is the Crescendo Giocoso model, so we don’t have to discuss which kind of game we’re going to create, and a theme chosen by the director of the band. The director has no special creative control outside of it, they are just a veteran author with the task of coordinating work after the workshop, in order to make sure the draft is ready before the deadline of the next playtesting convention. Everyone can get involved as much or as little as they want: do you want to join in LarpJam to share ideas and then not write a single line of text in the next months? No problem, just tell it to your band. Writing a game, as well as publishing Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello, is a way of giving voice to our creativity and the feeling of being heard is essential. We do our best to create a free space where people can be honest without being judged and where conflict is an healthy part of the process.
A note: Thoughty always welcomes Italian interviewees, even as my interview style will be changing soon, and interviewees from all around the world – of all races! Even if we need to find a translator, I’m interested in helping you tell your stories. <3
