Posted December 20, 2024 by Scrap Yarn Games
While the theming of The Sylvan came from some wonderful people in my personal life, I want to be sure to acknowledge the brilliant game designers who developed mechanics that are so important to what The Sylvan now is.
I have been playing tabletop RPGs for over 40 years and it is my opinion that M Veselak is one of the most exciting game designers ever. If you have not yet played Wickedness, go right over to her Itch.io account (https://nightling-bug.itch.io/wickedness) and get you a copy. You won't be sorry. The mechanics are elegant and compelling and the way she's managed to weave them into the story that gets told is just... clever. I have absolutely borrowed and reshaped mechanic ideas from her pages and I hope one day to gush at her in person.
And as Wickedness is inspired by mechanics in Sleepaway, I also want to acknowledge Jay Dragon (and by extension Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum). Sleepaway, Wanderhome, and Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast (found here: https://possumcreekgames.itch.io/) are exactly the sort of games that have been missing from tabletop RPGs. Jay is also tangentially responsible for the decided lack of pronouns in this book. I grew up in the age of "he and she are the pronouns someone not yourself" but I now have a kid whom I love fiercely and unconditionally who is non-binary. In learning new ways to see the world, I got thinking about writing prompts that leave space for people to tell the stories that feel right to them. Jay does not use any pronouns and I wondered if I could write a whole deck of cards worth of prompts and not specify the gender of any of the characters introduced. It turns out, I can! I hope that it makes this game comfortable for everyone who plays and enables the player to see the characters presented in the way that feels best.