Yak-Hack

Privately, have been accussed of being too bleak - that's fine I guess, even though I see my stuff as an exercize in dark pulp comedy. The entire wholesome hopepunk movement strikes me as cynical corporate fanservice confused for pseudo-political empowerment, but to each their own. I do however love a good Jest. A goof. A playful little trickster. A tricky little goofster. A jolly old knee-slapper. Did you hate reading that as much as I hated writing it? Well folks, I am but a slave to my impulses. Here's a game about being a rebellious Jester, fighting the power with subversion and trickery. You are recently unemployed and since the monarchy is the only one interested in your distinguished and highly specialized talent, you are also unemployable. Your other Jester pals were also let go, and you've formed a Conspiracy . Go forth and cause chaos! Important disclaimer - I purposely avoided seeing the Joker movie, or reading anything about it. Any and all simila...

I am extremely pleased and humbled with how many people responded so charitably and kindly to the recent  Table-Centric Design , were I outlined some recent ways I've been thinking about design. I did however, make a tactically beneficial mistake of referencing the recently dug-up corpse known as   "system matters."  Tactically beneficial, because a lot of people responded to it, gave good feedback and better criticism, but a mistake since it might leave people with a distorted impression. This could have made the impression like I don't believe system matters, which is not true. It could also make the impression that I believe the tangential opinion - that system doesn't matter as much as people think it does. I also don't believe this. I am not trying to be obtuse, I swear. System does matter. If you've played games published by other people a lot, you just know it. The pain of a clunky rule that constantly needs to be looked up everytime it is trigg...

Recently, I've been questioning the primacy of "Design" within RPG products. There's a kind of determinism that is generally accepted among RPG folks that Design determines what Play looks like. Listening to some versions of what Game Design is, you'd get the sense that the job of a designer is to manipulate and mind-control the people who play it, and perhaps to teach lessons about some things. If they are correct, and game design truly is a form of Vault-Tec style behavioral control, we might have to ask ourselves if this is even desirable? I don't doubt that design to a certain extent shapes the behavioral patterns and the choices role-players make, but I find that designers more often than not overrate their own presence at the table in a rather self-aggrandizing way. There is a famous, perhaps dubious sentiment surrounding Vampire The Masquerade - that the games mechanics seemed so contrary to the intended playstyle of the game that it is a wonder a...

Take the following statement as true: "Level 1 Characters should not have a backstory. The game is their backstory." If this is true, what do we then do to generate interest and investment in the character? I recently made this personality generator for a campaign of ASE  that you can use to flesh out exactly how to roleplay them and instruct GMs in how the world might react to them.  Roll 1d6 per table, and intepret as you wish.  MY GENERAL ATTITUDE IS... Cocky Unpleasant Charming Hyper Cowardly Morose WHEN I EAT I... ... slide the whole meal right down my throat ... take tiny little bird bites ... separate all the different food stuffs into different piles ... I mix it all together into a single sludge ... I chew loudly with an open mouth ... I hide my mouth with my hand MY WALK-STYLE IS... Forward-tilting Crooked Straight-shouldered Stiff-necked Hunched Backward-tilting FAMOUS EXPRESSIONS Ugh! Waaaait a minute......

The game that started it all for me Eye of Poseidon, is finally out!... https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/eye-of-poseidon-quick-start-rules (... Somehwhat. This game roughly what it was a year ago, with a few last-minute editions to make it actually-complete, but it is still just a Quick-Start based on the long-abandoned Forged in the Dark system and heavily based on a Moves structure that I've grown out of... more later) Want to enact the court dramas of Star Trek? In a submarine? In the apocalypse? With strange underwater flora and fauna, deteriorating underwater settlements and just a hint of cynical I've also released IN HEAVEN!!  https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/in-heaven This is a tool for generating exiting and strange afterlives for your PCs once you've ruthlessly killed all of them. It has 5 random tables, most of which contain some kind of mention of Monkeys. Buy both of these things. They are great ___________________________________________ ...

It is a well understood, but little expressed fact that the "theory" behind roleplaying games has very little to do with academic inquiry and the establishing of truths. Instead, most of our theorizing rely on pure guesswork, marketing gimmicks and internalized industry standards. Even if someone approaches a theoretical truth about what Games are (or should be), there is no established and accessible way for the rest of us to know whether what they are talking about makes sense, except an abstract, formal logic. As a result of this vague framework, game developers usually get up hung up on this or that specific, usually highly personal thing. It's their own Theory Heartbreaker, coincidentally related to the new game they are selling. The most common among these Theory Heartbreakers are XP. There's a popular school of thought that posits that RPG mechanics are a form of mind control, and believe this is a good thing. Most commonly, they refer to XP as a key pr...

SO I ONCE AGAIN DID A THING SKØVD - A GOTHIC AND GLOOMY GUIDE "SKØVD  is a Weird Gothic fantasy mini-setting for Black Hack 2nd Ed. and similar pen-and-paper systems. Exiled from the Empire of Flenn, your adventurers have been stranded in the city of Skøvd (pronounced however you wish), a vile place full of crime, injustice and supernatural occurrence. It is a single A4 Pamphlet, ready to Print and Play! It is not fully fleshed out - on purpose. Take the ideas, tables and plot hooks and flesh them out yourself, or place them in an entirely new context. The narrator is unreliable - you decide the canon of the setting." AVAILABLE AT ITCH FOR $2.50 https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/skvd ______________________________________________________________________ It's been out for a while and has recieved some great feedback. The central concept of it is to provide GMs with a world that is distinct enough to inspire play, but ambigious enough to make your own. All P...

Hello all, Exciting times! I'm actually finishing up on a lot of projects and I am making great progress in general. I've decided to make a big move: ANNOUNCING: WOLF-EEL GAMES Wolf-Eel Games is going to be my own self-publishing vehicle. It's going to have a bunch of stuff that I've discussed here and on Twitter . You can find us at  https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io  and Patreon . ANNOUNCING: THE DINING DEN OF THE FUZZ-MONSTER The Dining Den of the Fuzz Monster is a submission to the great itch.io "Pamphlet Jam " created by Nate Treme . It is a grotesque adventure inspired by the dark humor of Mervin Peake's "Gormenghast" and the terror of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", with a fun and scary monster at it's core. It is based on The Black Hack (duh) and can be used as a pick-up-and-play, dropped in an already existing setting, or as a part of the setting of Skøvd ..... https://wolf-eel-games.itch.io/the-dining-de...

OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE UR-CORPSE GAME:  The Black Hack 2nd Ed. by David Black SETTING:  Fever Swamp by Luke Gearing LANGUAGE:   Swedish PLAYERS:  Disa  as the Fighter " Pravoslav "Pravvo" Storáková " Elliot  as the Wizard " Eberhardt "Nubbe" Brúntz " Jonas  as the Cleric " Bohumil Storáková " SPOILER ALERT  I trust that if you are going to play this module, you won't read further. If you like knowing all the secrets and pointing out a bunch of meta-stuff at the table is fine with your group, alright. Personally, I think Deadpooling it isn't all that rewarding. Part 1: The Actual Play Upon arrival in the Village of Clink, the players had already heard of the bounty regarding Gert Von Hammer and his research. I also introduced them to the creepy Jasmine - the cult-leader for the water-dead god. I loved the cult, even if I didn't get to play with it (or the Village of ...

The Ideal Games Debater Hey, you there! Are you into debating, reviewing or designing games? Do you find yourself alienating everyone you talk to or engage with? Are the people who agree with you all gigantic assholes? I get it, taking a stance and defending it is fun, exhilarating even, especially in those moments where you've really humiliated and "destroyed" another person because of how "good" you are at debating. Maybe it reflects badly on you as a person in some circles, but why should you care? You won, you were correct, and at the end of the day, the truth is what matters. Except, of course, that we aren't really talking about truth at all, but a set of assumptions that bad-faith debaters are making about what roleplaying games are, how they exist in the real world and how to evaluate them. Those assumptions can be challenged, and circumvent a lot of toxic, divisive debate. Challenging those assumption might be hard, because you've built yo...

OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE UR-CORPSE GAME: The Black Hack 2nd Ed. by David Black SETTING: Fever Swamp by Luke Gearing LANGUAGE: Swedish PLAYERS:  Disa as the Fighter " Pravoslav "Pravvo" Storáková " Elliot as the Wizard " Eberhardt "Nubbe" Brúntz " Jonas as the Cleric " Bohumil Storáková " PREFACE: I had not intended to write a play-report when I started this adventure, so the details are muddy. This won't be a session-by-session retelling, and I might be missing something or misrepresenting stuff. If you are looking for a review: it is very good . This is going to be part a record of a fun mini-campaign and part musings on how stuff could've been done different. Mostly by me, but also stuff about the module and the system. I've decided to split it up into 2 (or more) chapters to keep each post from being overlong. Part 1. Preparations and Translations Fever Swamp, in T...