These are games that I've played!
Played this with a module to try out an OSR system, and had a blast horrifying my players. The Fallout System is a really good mechanic and I love giving players weird things that can be advantageous and cursed at the same time! Also love the modularity of it.
Played this with friends as an introduction to Liminal Horror. Really well laid out, and I especially like the artifacts that you can introduce players to give them an aide in deciding where to go next. Also love the procedural rolls for the Voidcrawl and all of the clues and horrors the group can find along the way. Super good for introducing a new GM to the OSR.
A great Honey Heist Hack with a lot of pathos if you lean into it!
Eerie, entrancing and emotional. Nibiru allows you to explore a new frontier, and not just the strange space station floating in space; you're also exploring the emotional landscapes of your characters. Players will add to the world by exploring the past: their former memories inform the way they navigate the world, and provide boons (and banes) along the way.
My one gripe: I wish there were more ways to encourage the characters to talk to each-other about how they're feeling.
A stellar hack of The King's Poisoner. Carries immaculate Godfather vibes, and plays very well in around 2 hours. Perfect for groups where not everyone showed up for game night, or folks who like playing Blackjack.
The playbooks for this game tie back to the core concept so well and so neatly. Each playbook has a drive that the player can pick up and run with that motivates them to keep *doing* things. It's the granddaddy of a movement for a reason!
The players and I had a lot of fun running through this one, although we were all kind of hoping for an Eldritch failure, while fearing a Chicken failure. There was a lot of inventiveness in regards to using their eldritch powers to change the landscape in their favour. This game definitely needs to be a short one, or you run the risk of running out of steam - or running out of chickens. Good for a quick pick-up game!
I played this as a one-shot with some friends and they very quickly grokked the themes of the game, and leaned in whole-heartedly regarding the complicated backstories of their characters. We picked up the themes of greed and exploitation, and slowly connected each character to someone or something on the train. I definitely see the opportunity to run this game as something longer than a one-shot: there's a lot to chew on here!
High-drama, high-excitement, This Ship Is No Mother is very very good at containing a session of play within 2-3 hours. The deck of cards makes sure that you finish when you need to, and you'll experience the dwindling of narrative resources just as your characters lose theirs. Highly recommend.
Another game that I designed! Inspired by the interchangeable Masks mechanic from Brinkwood: Blood of Tyrants, I had a lot of fun playtesting this game with friends. If you're familiar with Legend of Zelda dungeons, creating the dungeons for your players to travel through should be pretty easy. That being said, there are some roll tables and guides for dungeon creation, so you're not going it alone!
This game is breathtaking in scope and great for hyping up your table during character creation. The character options are evocative and broad, and the creatures and locations provided in the book are great for making the setting feel unique and alive. Don't let the size of the book fool you; the actual rules for rolling are pretty simple, although there's a bit more bookkeeping than what you might expect from a typical story-game.
I've created this game so it makes sense that I've played it! This game is designed to tell a very specific kind of story, but the time and place where that story happens is completely up to you. Your journey in this one is all about learning about parenthood, and overcoming pieces of your past for the sake of a kid that needs you. If you're really big into found family stories, I think you'll like this game.
Very evocative with the use of the Tarot deck; the players felt a lot of tension with every card draw. Character creation was rather simple; this is a good game for a group that is going to take a lot of initiative in role-play.
I enjoy the flexibility of this game, as well as the art and layout of the character sheets. This was the first time I'd played something that uses Tokens instead of Dice, and I understand the appeal of having a bit more control over when your character fails and when they succeed - it sets up a narrative arc really well, which is a hallmark of this genre.
My friends and I adore this game. It's full of super-charged drama and toxic relationships, and the rulebook is so intentional in how it lays out the game for you and introduces core concepts. It's a labour of love and care and that is very much felt when I play this. I am so excited to bring this game back to the table again so I can introduce it to even more people!
I've run this once so far but I loved how easy it was to create characters and missions. Everything is so accessible for online play and makes learning the game so so so easy.
This is the game that got me into tabletop rpgs. This is the game that gave me the confidence to become a game master. This is the game that I return to, whenever I want to put together a session for folks and I don't want to worry about how much I need to plan or how well I know the game. I love this game.
THE game for a comedy of errors, the prompts for each event are so charming and the art does a really good job of communicating the tone. This is such a good game for a group that wants something short without putting too much work on any one player, and you will laugh so much.
I have started, but not finished a play-through of this game. The premise is definitely one that needs to be talked through with the other person that you're playing with, but if you're on the same page, the method of playing through letters is perfect, especially because it gives you the time to put a lot of thought into how you want to respond.
I really need to play this game more often than I do, it's so solid as both a system and a setting.
This game gives you exactly what it sells you! It's a bit more punishing than I originally expected and I'm not entirely sure we followed all of the rules correctly, but the GM advice was exceptionally helpful in aiding me prepare a hook that was both intriguing for the players and detailed enough to give me something to work with.
A first-time GM ran this game for me and some friends of mine. It was very charming, and I think it's definitely very first-timer friendly. Might reduce the number of clues needed to three though, especially if you want to keep it to a one-shot!
I used this to help me make a system-agnostic character for something else I'm running and it helped me zero in on some specifics about my character's personality. Very evocative.
Inspired by Andor and I can totally see it! The rules are pretty light so you need a GM who's comfortable making spur-of-the moment judgements, but it's a good way to make sure your mission stays within the time limits of a one-shot.
I am so so so excited to see where this game goes, it's already so amazing! I love the way the setting creation in session zero helps the entire group get on the same page when it comes to genre and tone. I adore the downtime use of Vision die, especially the detail about the value of the number communicating the tone of the scene. I think the action words and how they contribute to the dice roll is also really inspired.
One of the MOST dramatic games I've ever played. The Pressure system is such a great motivator for pushing players up against each-other and encouraging them to chew each-other's heads off. If you're playing with a group that wants to have big fights, last-minute heroism, and spur-of-the-moment betrayals, you want this game.
What a HOOT! The interlocking hotels, the supplied clues, the ticking clocks... my players were SO engaged and put together some connections that I absolutely was not expecting.
This is probably the least amount of book-keeping I've ever had to do for a game. Great for one-shots with players who don't want to take anything too seriously. Not great if the GM is much better at Rock-Paper-Scissors than most of their players (I'm so sorry<3)
A beautiful, evocative addition to i'm sorry did you say street magic. I will return to this every time I pick up the original game.
This is a great game piece, although as a stand-alone game I'm not sure how much it connected. I really really enjoyed the different location descriptions though, and I loved the story we ended up telling.
