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 ___________________________________________ ...