First Release

I was pretty excited about the Belonging Without Belonging jam. My first idea involves bringing dice back so that's on the back burner right now, my second idea is cool but tripped me up as I was making roles for it. So I wanted to make a game with fewer or better roles. I also wanted to just make a game.

I shifted around the nature of moves a little bit, which is why instead of regular and weak moves there are Circular and Learning moves. Learning moves are basically a more limited version of Weak moves. They lay a groundwork for later strong moves by trying to do better but failing or becoming aware of flaws or focus on self care. 

Circular moves reflect painful social habits that don't serve you. You are drawn to these and if you don't do a strong move, you end up doing these. They don't generate a token right now, instead generating angst.

The reason for the difference is to help create a narrative engine that would normally be taken care of by interacting with other players and setting elements. By engaging in repetitive patterns, you gather angst but through introspection, reaching out honestly, and trying to better yourself you gain the resources to truly become your best self.

The Angst mechanic is the risk of bad end as well. If you have more angst than tokens, you end up giving up as a character. It is highly recommended to focus on self care. In fact, I should prpobably go b ack and add that to the tips. If you have self care habits, life is just easier and so is this game.

One thing I'm fond of is the lingering aspect to improving relationships and making art. These setting elements remain in play and can be used to help you earn tokens, as long as you are spending time on them. 

The map instructions are created specifically to highlight the protagonists starting disconnection from everyone, including people they want to connect with most and everyone they think they should feel connected to. Relationships are gained slowly by filling in a circle on the map, something resembling the clock mechanic from Apocalypse World but also entirely in control of the player allowing you to decide how to pace how fast you improve or connect to people.

I chose the name Chad because of how the name is used as a stand in for unpleasant maleness and that is to help highlight the disconnection from binary gender. I mean no insult to Chads anywhere and if this turns out to be a poor choice, I will remove it.

A couple of different things fed into this game: my experience as a human assigned male at birth, my growing awareness of gender issues,
my difficulties sometimes connecting to the existing Dream Askew roles while also loving the rules and setting, and I wanted to try to make a one page rpg. I don't know if this is my most personal game but it certainly does a lot of stuff that speaks to my personal experience.

This game was written much faster than usual for me, in part because of how it speaks to my own experiences and places I want to grow as a human being. I hope other people find it helpful or enlightening.

Future Goals: 
Improved tips, including clarifying the importance of self care

Clarify the rules for the various moves

Improve the instructions so it is clearer how to play

Improve the descriptions of queerness and the options for how your character looks