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Rowan Sender

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A member registered Jan 22, 2025 · View creator page →

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Having read through Mythic Bastionland, I can safely say this myth fits in right alongside the others in the book.

I like this game. The climbing/damage table really ties the mechanics together nicely. There is the one little thing that I noticed about the player height vs damage taken vs damage dealt: because the kaiju is equally likely to attack up and down and the dice don’t increase evenly, I wonder if there is an optimal position to maintain in order to maximize your damage output and minimize the damage taken. Someone smarter than me would have to work out the statistics for each position, but I suspect that it would be the d12 height. Emergent strats like that are so interesting. In this case, it would make it that the most optimal place to attack the monster would be around the neck and shoulders. Very AOT and Shadow of the Colossus.

Using the deck of cards as a system for ​structuring the mystery is great. It also very cleanly integrates to the resolution mechanic. I do wonder how it feels in play. I could see situations where some sections feel incredibly long and other feel too short. That trade off may balance itself out though.

I’m always so delighted when people create a concise, focused game that also manages to feel fully actualized. This is not a universal game. It covers a narrow space and that is a good thing. It gives you the tools to create that exact type of scene. On top of that, it explains in very clear terms how the game should be played. That is something that a lot of games and systems could learn.

An excellent game!

A pretty cool little game about hunting monsters. The dice system is incredibly concise and effective. If I were to change one little thing, I maybe would have moved the GM Tips section to the second page with the rest of the GM tools and dedicate the rest of the space on the player page to a few more player options. Maybe give them a little bit of mechanical distinction. I recognize that this is meant to be a one page game, buuuut there is a second page so might as well use it. I really like the GM tool kit. Its not too overbearing, but still gives enough guidance to build a simple mystery to jump off of! 5/5 good game

This review weekend actually lands nicely on the last few days of the month!

If you’ve submitted a game, please take the time to go read and review each other’s games! Post them in the games comments, share them elsewhere with links! Show eachother some love!!!!

Your work is always so cool. I’m getting my physical copy of MBL in a new days so I’m holding off on diving into this fully, but it looks so good at a glance.

Very cool​ setting and genre. Reminds me of Iconoclast. I really like the poten-boxes. That really brought the whole idea together for me.

I found the system a bit confusing at first glance, but I think I figured it out. I would make it more clear that going over the goal is also a detriment. I was very confused about why anyone would ever want a negative. When exactly you add your bonus was also a little unclear. It seems like its only the last card played?

I really love this game. It’s very well developed and has a very elegant system of tags and stats. I think it might have been helpful to distinguish between {powers} and [materials] in the way the tags were presented. The aesthetic is also very cute. Over all a very open and inviting system to play and build in.

A cute little tool for executive dysfunction in the psych-rpg genre. Very lighthearted and easy to understand. I appreciate the inclusion of ​warnings about personalization.

A very cool game and a very cool critique of justice.

I for some reason has never considered that “Bookmark RPG” would use books as a tool for play. Reading through this was a very pleasant surprise. I’m always a fan of creative forms and functions!

Very cool game! I like the layout and design. They are very clean and clear. The mechanics are easy to understand and give a very good flavor to the setting. I really like the GMless system for rooms and creatures. I’m excited to see it when it’s finished!

Value calculations have poisoned us. The ideal state of creative work is creation for its own sake. This is spoiled by a deep impulse to generate capital that has been engendered by a society obsessed with value. Social media and attention economies are just another way that that impulse has been reproduced. Art is in many ways a rejection of this at it’s core. Art has no intrinsic value; though some (usually already successful people) would like you to believe that it does for the sake of marketing. Make art that only you like. Make art that you don’t even like!

Also pay artists. Its hard out here.

I love your style. The texture that everything has is so good. The hatch shading especially is a favorite of mine. Very good stuff!

The theme is required, but isn’t meant to be literal, so some extrapolation is expected. The challenge is optional to some degree, but should at least influence your design.

I am fascinated by this game. It’s so outside my field of experience that I’m not even sure what to say about it. It makes me want to look for more ​​​​Braunstein style games and learn more about them.

I really like the cover image. I’m always a huge fan of using public domain works!

I’m honestly just fangirling at this point.

Your designs are so cool and reading through them gives the same feeling as reading the game manual on the way home from the store.

There’s just so many cool toys to play with.

I really like the ticking clock. The losing and gaining time is a good way to encourage a certain type of play. Reminds me of Wanderhome in a way. Things that are usually “soft mechanics” being reinforced through hard mechanics. Also a lot of good lists in there.

I forgot to mention, I really like the little truck graphic in the bottom. V good

I really love the dithering on the images. Its such a good way to photobash some images into a completely different vibe.

I’m not super familiar with the Liminal Horror system so I can’t really speak to that aspect of this setting guide. It looks pretty good to me though. I think it could use a few NPCs or hard locations for the town. Even just a few would give a GM a lot to grab onto.

First off, amazing layout and design. It really gets across this kind of psudo-spaceage feeling. Has a kind of 2001, cold and quiet feeling.

I like the use of a dwindling dice pools. Its a great way mechanize the fleeting resources that the survivor has. It is also interesting that they player must lie to themself and the world as embodied by the GM, rather than any other player or character. Over all, I’m a big fan of this game.

Bez, there’s just something about your design taste that just tickles me. I’m in a bit of a time crunch so I’m mostly skimming since its a bit longer (sorry). I really love the dichotomy of Fool and Storm for the central character stat. It creates very interesting characters. It’s a very effective use of the Lasers and Feeling system.

Simple, tight. This is a pretty cool little dungeon room. I’m always a fan of the iso dungeon view.

REVIEW GAMES.

PANIC APPROPRIATELY.

Very cool game with a tight scope on what it’s interested in. Creates a very tense resource economy.

Nope, no requirements. Though I do encourage you to make a novel system of you’re up for it.

We’re coming up on the last weekend for this Jam. It lines up a bit strangely this month, but this weekend is the Review Weekend where we come together as a community and give feedback on each other’s games.

There will still be time to submit more games after the weekend, so don’t stress too much.

Oh I didn't realize it was supposed to be a pamphlet. That would probably solve that issue.

This is a very cool game with a custom system and a slick layout. The graphic design is immediately appealing and really draws you in. The game system seems fun and dynamic.  It really seems like it would emulate a kind of survival horror game on a dangerous planet.

I do think the layout of the rules could be tweaked slightly. I almost feel like the left most column of both pages should be swapped. I felt like I was getting a deep description of how rules play out without even knowing that they existed and and why I was doing them. I would also think about moving the table setting and description on the first page out from being tucked up against the graphic and into the first column. I didn't even see it until I had finished reading the first column and felt a little lost as to what was happening.

Over all, I think this is a very well designed game. I like it a lot. Any complaints I have are very minor formatting tweaks. Basically the last little bit of cleanup before the game is totally finished.

I'm always a huge fan of anything that is reaching towards interacting with the unknowable. This game is a great example of two beings with vastly different lives and frames of reference suddenly having to find a way to communicate. This is also a great inversion of how I had originally imagined the "Interview a worm in real life" challenge. I was thinking it in the context of the vastly large human asking an earthworm questions, but here it is the vastly large wyrm being asked questions. 

The game system itself is great. It really lends itself to the strange way these two being would have to interact. The ink blots especially are a great way of abstracting how strange their interactions would be. 

I really like the illustration work as well. The background image is great, though it is a tiny bit distracting when trying to read it all laid out on a screen. This probably wouldn't even be a problem if it was printed and folded.

This is one of the few games that I was actually able to try out for the jam. I'm going to go through my experience quickly. I did do one set of prompts for each day, just so I could move through it a little more quickly. I think that actually worked out very well with the cards that I got.

Set 1. The first experiences I got were very eerie. Because of the assortment of prompts I got, I ended up with very little concrete information or direct interaction. I mostly experienced people observing me or internal phenomenon that others didn't experience. This set my game on the path of psychological horror.

Set 2. This day started out being harassed by both the sheriff and the mayor before being asked to look into a woman's father and his illness. This was the perfect setup/knockdown for feeling like an outsider. It also gave the feeling of the town being tolerant of my presence the first day, but realizing they would need to push me out by the second day. 

Set 3. This is where the game really came together for me. The prompts I got perfectly captured the escalating pressure and strangeness my investigator was experiencing. The day started with being harassed by creepy twins while eating breakfast. Then the reverend comes to try to warm me, but passes out mysteriously before they could finish. Then, a crowd of people start screaming and puking worms in the street; something that has heretofore been unseen by my investigator. All this together perfectly set up the classic Shadow over Innsmouth moment of running panicked through the streets, afraid of everyone and everything. 

Set 4. This last day is interesting, because everything has escalated exponentially. There are suddenly monsters in the street, something that my investigator had not even conceived of being a possibility. They are grabbed by a monster and taken to their den. There is nowhere to run or hide. All that's left is to face what is coming. The priest gives us an ultimatum: willingly give up the woman we met earlier, the only positive interaction we've had in this town, and we would be set free. We linger on this for a long moment, but ultimately survival wins out. We have to get out of this town and away from these people's problems at any costs. The scene fades before any resolution can be reached. 

This was an amazing experience. I used to skeptical of solo games. Not that I thought they were bad, but that I didn't usually enjoy my time with them that much. This game sold me on them. A++ this was a great game.

This is a very well made adventure for Cairn. The rooms, map, and stat blocks are very clear and the layout is very readable. The rooms feel like they have a nice variety of gameplay and everything feels like it belongs in this place. 

The one thing I would maybe tweak if I were to run it is to move up the timeline a bit. Leaving the party 2 weeks to solve this would let them retreat and recover at least once. I would worry about that undercutting some of the challenge of this dungeon since it's not particularly long or especially deadly. But then again, OSR games can turn on a dime, so if things happen to go particularly bad, the recovery may be necessary for the players to even see most of the adventure. This is extremely minor. I wouldn't even call it a complaint, just something I would think about if I were to run it.

I really like this adventure guide. Its very clear where the points of interaction are, and there are plenty of them for players to discover. I also really like the goat image. It's very charming in a kind of roadside oddity kind of way.

Bez, homie, you're doin some wild stuff out here. This is the kind of thing I love to see come out of these jams. I'll circle back to this.

First off, I love to see explicitly queer games. This is a wonderful little exploration of what transitioning can mean for you. The check-in-over-time is kind of a staple in the transition process, but this presentation and the questions that are asked really give you a great framework for working out through your feelings.

I will be honest, the black text on yellow background did throw my back to a geocities website when I first opened it, but as I read it, it grew on me. That shade of yellow isn't too harsh on the eyes. 

I have a deep love for games that play with the idea of what "game" and "Play" even mean. I've spent a lot of time thinking about ritual and play, as I'm married to a witch and something of an occultist and historian myself. There are those who argue that the process of ritualistic or religious practice is a type of play. We take on roles that have no physical change, but rather induce a temporary of mental change. This piece straddles the line between game and ceremony in a way that I find fascinating. 

Bravo Bez! A truly fantastic game!

I truly cannot say enough good things about this setting. The layout is impeccable. Everything is so simple and easy to understand. Its just sooo clean. The writing is also efficient and evocative.

Most of all, the adventure has great synergy and flow. There are a lot of different direction that players can approach from and they all seem equally interesting. There's a lot of toys to play with, if that makes sense. A lot of levers to pull.

My one complaint is that there isn't a named moleman to interact with. I know this probably comes down to space restrictions, but I do love a good animal person, so I feel their absence here.

This is easily one of my favorite projects from the March jam. Great Job!

This is a light game for summoning your very own Dark Lord. It uses a 3 stat system with a few skills. I really appreciate the pithy intro and the layout design.

The basic gameplay loop feels snappy and has a lot of space carved out for roleplay. Passing off outcome description to another player on failure is a good way of keeping players from squirming out of consequences. I do feel like the Scene Resolution would take a while to internalize, given the two sets of breakpoints. I can see how the distribution is supposed to work out, but I feel like I would have to refer back to the chart every time I roll.

The Crisis Phase feels weirdly uninteractive. Unless you happen to be  playing a class with an ability that interacts with the Crisis phase, you have to just take whatever is coming to you. As a result there's also not much of an invitation to roleplay there, despite the events being interesting. Maybe adding an ability to every class that interacts with the Crisis Phase and using some language that encourages roleplay description would help. Then it would become another resource sink for players and give them an option on how to interact with the phase. 

Overall, I really liked this system. It's very sleek and it seems like it would be easy to teach.

This is a cool dungeon for an OSR game. I really like that it is not a dark, underground lair, but rather an open air grove that uses dense brush and thorns as the limiting factor for player movement. That's a fun way to imagine a druid's lair. The map and rooms are well made. Each one feels like they have a reason to be there. 

The drawing are very charming. Its such an interesting assortment of animals too. Finally, the Eurasian Hoopoe and the Bilby together at last. 

I will say that the game could use a formatting and grammar pass. There are a few parts, like the creature stats, that are a little hard to read as they are now.

This seems like a cool game that uses a custom system, which I always enjoy. It seems like it would do a pretty good job of emulating the feeling of a slightly more horror-themed Gravity Falls.

I do think the formatting of the game could have used another pass. You'd be surprised how much something as simple as bolding the headers and cleaning up indention and line breaks can help with readability. I know that this was a small project for a game jam, so it can easily be forgiven.

I like the adventure concept. Things turning into worms is a fun idea. I can't be too sure how the mechanical aspects would work out without getting a better understanding of the underlying system, but they seem consistent from what I've read here.

This  is a well made little game. Great presentation and flawless execution of the theme and prompts for the March jam. I really appreciate the flavor text. A lot is done in a very small amount of space.

The combination of soft mechanics and random chance make this one part improve game and one part stakeless gambling. There's a winner, which is also rare in ttrpgs, but its determined almost completely at random. 

The only criticism I have is the font size. It is very tiny. I wonder how legible it would be if it were printed. The space is well used, so ultimately it's worth it.

You don’t necessarily have to write mechanics. This jam is open to setting guides or similar projects. This just isn’t the place for a narrative stories.