In this dispatch of Jackalope Mail, I'm talking about some fun and weird folklore elements and how you can use them in your TTRPGs! Including trees fueled by blood and the ultimate dark academia setting! Check it out!

Another dispatch of Jackalope Mail talking about my favourite things from last month!

In this dispatch: NASA's TTRPG Adventure, the Sandman Audio Drama and Jet Lag: the Game

The Real Housewives of Innsmouth

Ever wanted to play a ttrpg about a bunch of catty fish women competing on reality tv? Ever wanted to absolutely screw over your friends in the name of petty revenge? Ever wanted to play a game the designer tagged both “eldritch horror” and “reality tv”?

If you answered yes to any of those questions then you should check out my latest game: The Real Housewives of Innsmouth! A game that lets you live out all your ugliest social fantasies!

Check it out on Itch here!

I've changed my itch username so the link is https://crackerjackalope-games.itch.io/goodbye-world now!

Do you love the intimate relationship between a mech and its pilot? Do you love quick, punchy, high emotion roleplay? Do you love the deep eroticism of being with someone while they bleed out?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then I have the 2 player ttrpg for you!

Goodbye, World </3 is a game of lasts words between a dying mech and its pilot. One player will play the dying mech and the other will play its pilot. The pilot speaks over voice chat while the mech may only type. The mech only has a limited number of messages they can send before they "bleed out" and the game ends.

The whole game fits on 2 sides of a4 folded in half and each playthrough gives a short but really impactful death scene. It has made multiple of my playtesters cry.

So if this sounds like your thing, check it out on itch here!

The Skittish Dragon and the Storm Wardens

I just released my entry for @thelostbaystudio's skyrealms jam! It's a short, system neutral adventure set in a citadel in the clouds about helping an anxious dragon who's in trouble with his mentor.

It's available on itch.io here! It would mean so much to me if you checked it out 💙

This house has been in our family for generations...

I just released Abode, my new gothic horror TTRPG!

In the game, players will play members of a gothic noble family and work together to answer a narrative question asked by THE HOUSE, a GM-like role. After each question, a new player becomes THE HOUSE, constantly evolving the story and the personality of THE HOUSE.

As you play, you will expand the family tree, inhabiting a new family member each round and telling the story of this household over generations, ending with the question:

If you like noble dynasties, gothic horror or haunted houses, consider checking out ABODE on itch today: https://crackerjackalope-games.itch.io/abode

Presenting: The Nightmare, a Rogue for D&D 5e

Happy Halloween! My treat to the TTRPG community this year is a 5e subclass that I wrote back in January. I honestly didn't think this'd ever see the light of day, but I thought it'd be fun to finally release it this October!

Hope you enjoy striking fear into the hearts of your enemies with this free homebrew subclass available here: https://crackerjackalope-games.itch.io/nightmare-rogue

Art by the wonderful @littlestarfi (sorry it took so long to finally use this lol)

Tumblr 200-Word RPGs 2023

Last November, we did an informal game jam for folks who wanted to write something for Writing Month, but would prefer to write fewer than fifty thousand words of it. You can find the complete list of participants for that event in this post here. There's also an off-Tumblr archive of entries whose authors gave permission for them to be preserved here, if any of those links turn out to be broken.

Last year's collaboration went over well enough that I thought we might dust it off again this year. To be clear, this is just for fun – it's not a curated jam, and nobody's judging winners or handing out prizes..

If you'd like to throw your hat in, just follow these steps:

Step 1: If you're unfamiliar with 200-word RPGs, read a bunch of last year's entries (linked above) or browse the 200 Word RPG Challege archives at https://200wordrpg.github.io/ to get your brain-meats properly configured.

Step 2: Write your own 200 word RPG. If you're not sure whether you have 200 words or not (and with RPGs it can genuinely be difficult to tell!), you can use the word counter at https://200wordrpg.github.io/wordcount to check.

Step 3: Reblog this post and append your 200 word RPG.

Step 4 (optional): Please indicate in your post whether you're okay with having your 200 word RPG archived off-site for posterity – if you don't say anything one way or the other, I'll assume the answer is "no".

(As before, as a courtesy to anyone who's creeping the notes, please restrict non-200-word-RPG commentary to replies and tags until November 2023 is over – let's make the actual games easy to find!)

I just released BOND, a small PC relationship generator for ttrpgs! It's CERAMIC-Strict which means it focuses on avoiding randomness and encouraging player collaboration!

Check it out here and let me know how it goes if you use it in your games!

In this dispatch of Jackalope Mail, I talk about one of my all time favourite tabletop games: Blood on the Clocktower, and how you can turn one of its character abilities into a curse in your TTRPG games!

This is my favourite article that I have written so far so please check it out! And let me know what you think :)

Here's another dispatch of Jackalope Mail! Talking about my favourite things I've played, watched and read in February 2024!

In this issue, @theabigailthorn's the Prince, Splatoon 3 DLC and a battle royale TTRPG!

Jackalope Mail: The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts

I just released a review of The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts a book by Delyth Badder and Mark Norman full of ghost stories from my home country: Wales! I wrote about the book, how it is inspiring me as a game designer, and it ends with a sneak preview of my next game!

My wizard card game SUMMONING CIRCLE is on page 60 of this zine!

⭐ DOTNOMICON: GRIMOIRE OF WONDERS! RELEASE!!! ⭐

This zine is a digital magic book featuring 85 artists and writers from all over the world. Potions, spells, guides... everything you'll need for your experiments is here! But please don't try them out, it may be dangerous~

The zine is available for free! The only thing we ask is to share our Tumblr, Twitter & Instagram release posts and follow our contributors ♥

Cover Artist

Zmijowka

Artists & Writers

_spacekitten__ ✩ Abby ✩ AlyKuro ✩ amorpheus-blob ✩ Anjell-O ✩ ardett ✩ BeartieXiansheng ✩ Bee hivemindmoshpit ✩ Blehcado ✩ Bubbles ✩ calatarii CentaurWorks ✩ CJ ✩ Clow ✩ Confused Alpaca ✩ crystowl ✩ Deceit ✩ Diane Ramic ✩ DOL Ay ✩ Doppio Hearn ✩ Durotos ✩ Echoing_melody ✩ Emmy ✩ Erin O'Connor ✩ Eros ✩ Etteee ✩ Feiyu ✩ Flaire ✩ flea ✩ Gala_xicbun ✩ ghostqueennotmean ✩ girlpire ✩ gleamiarts ✩ GoblinsAndTea ✩ Hazel Hawthorne ✩ Hiinatsu ✩ Hisairen ✩ HopeStoryteller ✩ ierlix ✩ ItssaMeMari ✩ Kacie Clarke ✩ Karla Jones ✩ KeaneArts ✩ kyaurum ✩ Linkyu ✩ Lora B ✩ LumieArtz ✩ Lunarials ✩ Mace Klein ✩ Mangetsu ✩ Max HP Art ✩ MaxieMatsu ✩ MelloWammy ✩ Memento Moray ✩ Mnemonic Mew ✩ Mori no Majou ✩ Nate ✩ nini ✩ Noll Griffin ✩ Pana ✩ Partysol ✩ Pauline Reinacher ✩ Pepperly ✩ Phenylart ✩ pnwmango ✩ PoppyMori ✩ PropertyOfHog ✩ Rainier Wall ✩ RaptorKizzie ✩ ReactorCoreArt ✩ saan-vi ✩ Sbeve Arts ✩ Sidewalkleaf ✩ Skunkoon ✩ Sophia ✩ soulzerofever ✩ Sunfloral Chaos ✩ The Rabbit Follower ✩ TheArtArmature ✩ Tina Huynh ✩ TOR WAR ✩ trash ✩ VForce ✩ XilaXena ✩ Zmijowka

Merch

✩ ardett - (icons) ✩ Bee hivemindmoshpit - (phone wallpaper, widgets) ✩ Doppio Hearn - (wallpapers)  ✩ MelloWammy - (emotes)  ✩ Pepperly - (sticker sheet, icons) ✩ The Rabbit Follower - (stickers)

Download the zine on itch.io

» This zine has interactive elements « Some PDF readers may not display it as intended.  ● Better view on: Acrobat Reader, Chrome, Microsoft edge ● Interactive doesn't work on: Firefox, Mobile, SumatraPDF Thanks to all the contributors for testing the zine before release~

Share the love as much as you can ♥ (you know, since it has links it can’t be view on tumblr search)

Please continue to support us and we hope to see you in our future projects!

I need board game geek but for ttrpgs

Things I Liked Last Month: January 2024

The next dispatch of Jackalope Mail has released, the first installment in my new monthly series: Thing I Liked Last Month, where I talk about all the cool games, books, movies and other stuff that I've enjoyed over the month!

In this issue: Ghosts, Games and Country Music!

Introducing Jackalope Mail!

I've just launched Jackalope Mail, the new Substack blog for game design thoughts and other ramblings by me, CJ Tucker! Check out my intro post here!

Alongside the intro post, I have a post inspired by Prismatic Wastelands' New Year's Resolution Systems challenge here.

You should check it out! There will be even more cool stuff there in the future!

Intro Post!

Welcome to Crackerjackalope Games, the official Tumblr for games by CJ Tucker (@crackerjackalope).

Crackerjackalope Games is home to short and sweet games, TTRPGs and game supplements with themes of death, legacy, queerness, and Welshness. Some personal favourites:

Goodbye, World is a two-player game of last words between a dying mech and its pilot. The pilot speaks while the mech can only type, and their messages are running out. This game made multiple of my playtesters cry, so I must have done something right.

DRAGONFALL is a lyric supplement about dead dragons, whalefalls and nuclear radiation warnings. This zine contains six haikus and lists of regional effects for six types of dragon.

Trivia Heroes is a 200 word, setting-neutral RPG where players answer trivia questions to make ability checks. It was made for the 200 word RPG Jam hosted by @prokopetz!

All Crackerjackalope Games can be found on itch.io or in the #my games tag on this blog!