itch.io

1) Thank you for the valuable feedback. And I am very flattered by the high praise. +Dopamine boost from knowing I am on the right track :3

2) I am definitely gotta have to check out Bug City then. 

3) Yeah do the playthrough! And in Greek no less? Sounds fascinating! Drop me a link if you do it. Though I keep in mind I am adding more new prompts, many of which will slide between the existing prompts, so the numbering will change.

Hi Nickkat, thank you so much for trying the demo and providing feedback! I am glad the games setting is immersive for ya. 

Quick question, I just want to make sure you're playing the game right. You drew 2 cards yes? And you know you can stack them in any order? 

I allowed freely stacking the cards in any order so players can choose what Narrative Vector and what Relevant Skill best fit the narrative they want to express with the prompt. This gives some choice, but not too much. It's all about creating some breathing room, but not absolute freedom. Of course if you drew the same Suit (Skill) for both cards, you'd be stuck with no choice but to use that skill regardless of whatever you picked for the vector.

Let me explain my design rationale here: I am wary of introducing too much freedom; because restrictions are what drives creativity. 

The fact you had to come up crazy ideas to make Rizz work in the context of the Mer Cockroaches is actually the point of the game. 

The other issue is that certain types of gamers may be tempted to always choose what gives them a mechanical advantage (always pick the skill that gives them the most dice to roll), and that's not how I want people to play this game.

The only absolute freedom is the freedom to interpret, and that's the way it should be for these kind of games. 

If I were you in that particular situation, I would just plop in a random new character, and tie it to rizz to deal with the Mer Cockroaches. For example; the roaches aren't a real threat yet until the new moon, so the next day you went to town and found a professional exterminator who you managed to flirt with and get a date and a discount out of.  They agreed to drop by to flame thrower the roaches and then pick you up for a date. Is it a huge stretch? Yes.....but bad Movies do it all the time. Ideally, you would be utilizing the Narrative Vector and not just pulling a deus ex machina out of nowhere. 

You know, I was actually contemplating axing even the ability to arrange the 2 drawn cards in any order. But that would be a drastic change to the existing rule set. It's been something I've been thinking about (I probably won't do it, because this is asking a lot of improvisational effort from players). 

I can't promise you I will be willing to change anything, but I am still refining the game even now. Thanks for trying the Demo! Feel free to ask any more questions. I love to hear from y'all. 

Thank you so much for giving the game a shot! If you have any questions or concerns, do hit me up. 

Folks, I have just released a free DEMO edition of my Narrative RPG Zine, Tales of Kthonic Waters (launching soon this Month for Zinequest 2025 on Kickstarter). Check out the DEMO here.

Embark on a New Weird adventure that stretches the limits of Lovecraftian lore, Anti-Imperialist Satire, and the conventions of Sci-Fi Fantasy. 

What is it? 
+ Over 95+ (and increasing) pages of crunchy, narrative solo RPG in full colour, packed with art, and great writing.
+ Explore a Lovecraftian inspired anti-imperialist satire, with new weird world-building
+ Project is almost entirely complete, it's just waiting for you to manifest it into reality.
+ Certified Meatbag. 100% human made, no Gen AI nonsense

CRUNCHY, BUT NARRATIVE FOCUSED
Crunchy, meaningful mechanics form the backbone of this narrative journaling adventure. 

As a gamer, I often find myself frustrated by the lack of crunchiness in many of my solo RPGs, yet too much crunchiness turns it into a numbers game, which defeats the purpose of a narrative game. 

Tales of Kthonic Waters is my attempt to address those shortcomings in the genre, with something that I myself would want to play.

Thanks so much for the feedback! Sorry about the black background page lol.

You may be interested to know that I am currently working on a sequel to Kthonic Descent. It was going to be the "definitive" version, but then I added too much actual lore, and significantly improved mechanics.

Oh wow. That's amazing. Thanks so much. I have added you on Discord. Now I can truly archive it for posterity lol. 

Yes. Sort of. I intend to create a second edition or a "definitive edition" at least.

1) Part of the difficulty here is that Rage in Hell was designed in Adobe Creative Suite. Unfortunately I have divorced from Adobe (because of their predatory pricing practices. And later on, I took umbrage with their use of AI). So I would be recreating a good chunk of everything in Affinity instead (but that would happen anyway, cuz I need to update the art, etc). 

2) Is Rage in Hell better served as a Zine...or as a Boardgame? That's a question I ask myself. Because it's not that much harder to make it, say, a card game. But would it lose something of itself if it was a boardgame? And if I go a boardgame route...why not just make a new game/sequel? When is a "new edition" too different that it should rightly be a different game? 

So while my mind chew on those questions, I continue to work away on my other TTRPG projects (stay tuned, some really exciting stuff coming).

*whistle* Talk about the perfect combo.

Yes, please do adapt to your play preferences. 

And thank you so much for playing! And for reviewing and commenting (why is nobody commenting ;_;). It means a lot to me and gives me validation for what I do.