These games, zines, and other materials are about plurality, have plural characters, or have plural themes. What do I mean by plurality? This definition is an excerpt from "A list of some alterhuman identities and groups," an article that I helped co-author:
"Plurality (or multiplicity) is an umbrella term for all experiences and identities in which more than one entity, consciousness, or pseudo-consciousness exists within one physical body, for systems who are or can be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly called multiple personality disorder (MPD), as well as systems who do not meet those diagnostic criteria. Plurality and multiplicity as terms have always been inclusive of systems regardless of their origin or diagnoses. Some plural systems have members who aren’t human or who are fictional characters or species. Multiplicity can be an interchangeable synonym for plurality, or multiplicity can mean a form of plurality in which more than one person, self, or identity is within a single body."
This collection is part of a series of curated collections of itch.io creations for alterhumans. As that link explains about in more detail, alterhuman is an umbrella term that can potentially include plural systems as well as members of these groups and identities who share some commonality. In particular, plural systems may be interested in other collections I made for fictives, for nonhumans, and more things that plurals and other alterhumans might tend to like. For example, character creators for making profile images of their system mates.
Some other people have made collections of plural content on itch.io.
WARNING: Many creations in this collection contain adult content and troubling subject matter about dissociation and surviving traumatic experiences, so please use caution as you explore it. I mark the creations with content warnings as I can, but I can't label the ones that I haven't played/read all of yet. Even the ones that I do label might not warn for everything.
Unrated. Zine, perzine. Tagged as plural and plurality. As described by the zinesters,
"A brief introduction to the headmates in a Body et al.!"
Unrated. Zine. As described by the zinester,
"What does liberation look like for a group of people many don’t believe exists [...] Plurality is nothing new, but the modern community—especially its activism—certainly are! After centuries of isolation and suppression, plural folks are demanding our rights. But what exactly are those rights? Join a Body et al. in attempting to answer those questions & imperfectly outlining the fundamentals of plural liberation."
Unrated. Zine. As described by the zinester,
"A plural liberation zine originally intended to be left behind in coffee shops and street corners, a Body et al. explain why we believe the plural movement desperately needs to move offline—and encourage you& to help that happen! This zine is the spiritual predecessor to the Egg Carton Manifesto (and best read alongside it)."
Unrated. Zine. Tagged as plural and plurality. As described by zinester, "A love letter to all loved ones who 'don’t exist,' this zine shows four ways to show affection for noncorporeal beings."
Content: Rated PG-13 for swear words and sexually suggestive humor.
Medium: Mini zine. There is a version for printing on a single sheet of paper and folding, and a plain text version for accessibility.
About: "A trippy one-page zine about being plural & having chronic pain."
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Mini zine. There is one version in a paged format for reading on screen, and another for printing on a single sheet of paper and folding.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. Perzine.
About: "Heavily inspired by LB Lee's Loony Brain Primer—it's a characteristically nonspecific introduction to the system! It contains no headmate names, sources, or descriptions—only archetypes, which are the five flavours of system member we've noticed over time."
Content: Rated R.
Accessibility: Black and white. Alt text included.
Medium: Zine.
Length: 52 pages.
About: As described by the author,
"Many a multi has an inner mythos, a Story that fuels them in a way that’s hard to explain. These stories can have a life of their own, and yet they’re rarely discussed, certainly not in the context of religion. But how different is fiction from religion, really? What makes something a work of entertainment, vs. an article of faith?
"In this final installment, LB Lee take on mythos and story, including:
Content: Rated G. Warning for references to trauma.
Medium: Personal zine. Illustrated song lyrics.
About: As described by the zinester,
"A zine about a aspect of my experience with having a dissociative disorder."
"The 'lyrics' are reworked from the song 'Firewalker with Me' by the Garages and roughly follow that song's tune/melody/etc through the first few verses and first chorus-- parts 2 and 3 will continue on this, picking up in other places of the track. All art is done by hand by me."
"The overlapping rings symbol is the Plural Rings, a common symbol for plurality. (Plurality encompasses a large number of experiences, and can include/may be used by those with dissociative disorders like myself, among others.)"
Vibe: Heavy. Powerful. Punk.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A short zine designed for reading on your computer screen.
About: An introduction to what plurality is.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG). It's a one-page game: its instructions are only 200 words long.
About: "A one-page game about beings inhabiting a shared body. The type of beings and the type of body is up to your group, and may vary from game to game. Take turns narrating the actions of the body."
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A custom emoji pack for using on Mastodon and Discord. Queer pride flags in the form of butterfly emojis. (Visit the designer's profile for sets of pride flag emojis in the form of ghosts, hearts, and more.)
Relevance: This set has some flags for things that aren't LGBTQIA identities. One of these is a plural pride flag.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages. Depiction of a dissociative experience, feeling far away from your body while someone else fronts, which in this case is represented as a familiar annoyance that the characters know how to deal with, rather than something really scary or strange. A reference to a traumatic experience involving fire, but with no further detail about that.
Medium: A first-person computer game, otherwise known as a walking simulator, with simple 3D graphics.
Duration: You can explore the whole story in a few minutes.
Story: An ordinary morning for a DID system as they fix themselves breakfast. Their members are supportive of one another and communicate well.
Vibe: The emotional tone of this is peaceful and cozy.
Content: Rated R, 18+, just because of a loving consensual sex scene on one page.
Medium: A short comic book, 8 pages.
About the things that the authors enjoy about being multiple, because it's more than hardships.
Content: Rated G, friendly for all ages. No common content warnings needed.
Medium: A book, specifically a personal zine. Designed for reading on screen.
Duration: 31 pages long, but the pages are short. It takes about 14 minutes to read out loud.
Accessibility: There is a "fun" version of the zine (with illustrations) and a "readable" version of it (without illustrations). Both are black and white. Friendly for people who are color blind, use screen readers, or have an intermediate fluency in English.
About the process of creating art. The zinesters offer some answers that work for them in regard to these big questions about art:
The art world sees these as very difficult questions, but Ursa Pancakes makes them look easy. Personally, I really like the answers that that they came up with for these. I highly recommend this zine for everyone reading through this collection.
Relevance: A plural system of animals made this zine. They explain that when they introduce themselves on page 2. That's enough reason to put this zine in this collection, even though plurality is not what the zine focuses on.
Vibe: encouraging, curious, lighthearted, condensed, practical, useful, friendly, unpretentious, simple, approachable, genuine.
Content: Rated PG for some swear words.
Medium: A narrative comic book personal zine, full color, for reading on screen.
Duration: 13 pages, with front cover.
Accessibility: Some text is intentionally overlapping, obscured, low contrast, or otherwise difficult or partially impossible to read, because of legitimate reasons of artistic expression. Not screen reader compatible.
Story: A plural system broods about things while driving home from work. They worry among themselves about feeling overworked and lonely, and wanting to share meaningful experiences with others who care about them. This leads to a brief but very difficult dissociative experience. (The system members are depicted as nonhuman creatures. Several of them are fictives, that is, they came from a world that is known here as fiction, and they have some dialog about that.)
Vibe: intense, clamorous, stressful, moody, wistful, but (mild spoiler) ends on a wholesome note.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages.
Medium: Software for desktop and mobile. It runs in your web browser. All of its essential features work. More features will be added later, such as an offline version.
About: "BabbleBack is a tool for simulating group chats, while you're the only one at the keyboard. It can be used for brainstorming, plural chats, and more."
Content: Unrated.
Medium: Computer game.
About: The game creator says, "Players take on the role of a humanoid protagonist struggling with DID [...] Each alter possesses unique abilities and traits that can be harnessed to overcome obstacles and complete tasks. For each task, the player needs to choose the alter with the right proficiency to do that task. However, a malevolent force known as 'The Shadow' seeks to manipulate the alters, rendering them inactive and hindering progress."
Content: Unrated.
Medium: Book.
About: "Fantastically framed yet universally relatable vignettes by fictive members of a DID system, about the facets of life that have stuck with them over the years. Together, this collection of short pieces challenges ideas about love, life and death, belonging, the meaning of life, freedom, and of truth. Over a span of more than a decade members of the Forest Folk System have written fictional and personal-essay pieces to relate their experiences and explore what they've discovered through them."
Content: Rated R, 18+. Erotic poetry, trauma, abusive relationships, self harm conjecture, smoking, drinking, drugs, blood, gender dysphoria, death, poverty and its effects on health.
Medium/about: A book of poems, much of which come from and directly refer to the author's personal experiences as a member of a plural system.
Content: Rated G. Friendly for all ages.
Medium: A short interactive text, in Portuguese, with pixel art illustrations and background music. Created in Twine.
Story: A member of a DID system explores her headspace and befriends her system mates.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A solo tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG).
Story: About getting to know a new headmate.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A one-page solo tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG).
About plurality, parenthood, and TTRPGs.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A comic book.
About how the authors experience the intersection between their genders and their DID.
Content: Rated X, 18+. It's porn. Specific content warnings are on the game page.
Medium: A lightly illustrated interactive fiction story created in Twine.
Story: About furry plural systems exploring kink together.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A zine created with the Electronic Zine Maker.
About: Made by a member of a plural system. On page three, the zine refers to another system member. Fun drawings and experiments with the software's art effects.
Content: Rated X, 18+. It's porn. Specific content warnings are on the game page.
Medium: An illustrated interactive fiction story created in Twine.
Story: This takes place within the headspace of a plural system, involving a vampiric headmate.
Content: Unrated. The authors gave content warnings for "Religious/Spirituality. Mental Health/Weird Brain stuff (put in a positive manner)."
Medium: Personal zine.
About: "A zine explaining the plurality of 'us' the Seance System."
Content: Unrated.
Medium: An independently produced playbook compatible with the tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) called Wanderhome. Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy about traveling animal-folk. Wanderhome uses no dice, math, Game Masters, or complicated rules.
About: "You navigate the world in a single body, and to the casual observer, may appear to be a single person. Maybe you even thought you were one person, once. If so, you were wrong. You are several people, travelling the Hæth together, inextricably bound. You are alive. Your caring is resilient, adaptable, and life-saving. [... This playbook] is based primarily on my own experience as a member of a system, and lets you play characters powered by kith traits. It also includes the new Nature: Headspace, for people who want to explore within."
