#epistolary rpg
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Have you played THIN BLACK GULF ?
By Tamsin Bloom
thin black gulf is an epistolary rpg in which two players communicate over a long distance, but based on a dice table, each message will be randomly and arbitrarily censored
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My epistolary RPG, Ephemeron, is live! You can get a copy here:
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Some hauntings manifest beyond explanation…
Curios: Albrecht Manor is an epistolary horror mystery experience. A haunting story told over a series of letters and ephemera. The inaugural entry into the Curios Archive, Albrecht Manor invites enquiring minds to pour over the letters of Alex Dunn to discover the circumstances of their disappearance and how it’s entangled with a string of house fires over the decades.
What happened to Alex Dunn? Decipher the mystery before the letters stop.
Curios: Albrecht Manor is available now!
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Mini Reviews II
I don’t know what it is about space, but it makes me feel things. Have a handful of small and short games in space with a dash of emotional investment.
Low Battery by Batts
emotionally devastating :)
who doesn’t wanna be a little robot
play if you admire the attempt to create even under dire circumstances
One thing I love about solo experiences is that they really manage to get you into the head of other characters without any meddling from outside. This is especially true when mechanics and story/premise work together to get you there. Low Battery balances your character’s energy (Battery) and feelings (Melancholy, both signified by a D20 respectively) against the time that passes. With what little time you have left, can you find inspiration to create something? I was struggling with the D20s and watching the time and trying to decide on a move and – well, the robot is struggling, isn’t it? Struggling to stay conscious, to take in as much as it can for the time it has left in this universe and maybe, just maybe leaving something behind, something that proves it was here and tried to make a connection to the world around it. For me, time ran out too soon – but I still wrote a little poem about it:
Every time
We create something
It’s as if we chip off a tiny piece
Of the universe
As we see it
To carry around in our pocket.
You, an Astronaut by Hannah Shaffer and Evan Rowland
short, no prep required
an interactive narrative
more reflective than focused on a goal
This is a very short, narrative experience that I recommend reading with some suitable background music. Personally, this is right up my alley: you get a few choices to “sway” the narrative to your liking, which usually tells you something about yourself in the end. You are put into the shoes of an astronaut waking from their cryo-stasis due to their ship having veered off course and sending out a distress call. While you wait for an answer, you ruminate on your dreams and the memories connected to them. Similar to Low Battery, it sports a gorgeous layout that combines NASA images with the narrative, all put into a simple, retro-style mock-up of a spaceship UI. I don’t want to give away too much – it really is short. But I do feel that the themes of queerness and belonging come through strongly. Games like these either fit you like a glove or fall flat for you. For some reason, I was reminded of the Lifeline games, which I love dearly.
Letters to Europa by Lola Johnson
an exercise in self-reflection
a hopeful look into the future
relaxing and motivating
Epistolary games have their own special charm, perhaps because keeping in contact even when we’re far apart is something we’ve done forever as humans – this need to stay connected to someone we care about, no matter the odds. In the case of Letters to Europa, you write a message to a loved one on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Messages take about a year to arrive, and thus are sent in packages all at once. After you’ve finished your package, you switch over to the other character, writing back to the person on Earth. This, to me, felt like a conversation with myself, first putting down my thoughts about the given prompt, then trying to get some distance and reflect on it through a positive lens. I took the prompts quite literally and went with how my last year has gone – kind of a mixed bag. The prompts for the Earthling seem a little more sombre, more morose. Just as the other character has left Earth, though, embodying them makes you leave that behind (and that’s what the game says, too, ‘give yourself permission to let […] go’). It settles you in a more optimistic mood, no matter how depressing your Earthling’s messages might have been. This is a tiny game that relies heavily on how willing you are to engage with it – but if you can, in whatever medium you choose, I think it’s quite effective.
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I do so hate self promo, but for fans of journaling RPGs I do have a game out on itch! Illustrated by an incredibly talented friend of mine
You are a Minotaur, a fearsome relic of an ancient race, a lonely prisoner in a dark, unending Labyrinth. Mighty and powerless, captive and guardian, master of the firelight and slave to eternity. Heroes come and heroes go, seeking the fabled treasures hoarded in your prison by the very wizards who trapped you therein, but overcoming them is barely a moment's diversion from the long quiet of your captivity.
Minotaur is a game of smoke and flame, of darkness and tension, of conflict and introspection. It is all of a metaphor, a lyric game, and a journaling experience, but not precisely any of them. Expect to write a few paragraphs per session following some short prompts and a couple of dice rolls as you combat the various heroes who come into your domain, gathering clues and tricks to put towards your escape as you do so. Embrace that both escape and death are final.
2d6 not included.
#ttrpg#journaling rpg#epistolary#epistolary game#captivity#slavery#not like That kind of slavery but still forsure slavery#i think it's a metaphor for some shit I hadn't unpacked when I wrote it
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Actually have to figure the sideblog to promote this historical epistolary RPG thing. Shocked and hurt that it isn't making itself.
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Ipia Wickwoode, Somewhere in Unseely lands
Dearest Ipia,
I know not if this epistle will ever find you, nor do I even know in this hour if your heart beats in your body and if you can open my letter and read it, but nevertheless I endeavor now to make my feelings known and will put my thoughts to paper in hopes this missive will one day reach your brave hands and your discerning eyes for I have found a little bird who speaks in Unseely and claims it can pass through the veils to reach you. While I know full well that an Unseely avian may as soon lie to me and peck at my eyes in my sleep than speak truly to me, but I yet have hope that this little creature can find you and so I write to you with a yearning and hopeful heart.
Seven and ten years it has now been since you left me alone in our camp in that forsaken wood so as to turn yourself in to he who was seeking you. It seems to me as though it were yesterday, so strong is the vexation and disturbance of my emotions to this very day and yet in the very same moment it also seems as though it was a lifetime ago since I saw your fearless countenance which once gave me such comfort but which now I can barely envision in my memory.
It was a terrible time and also exciting for me, at my age--our exile in that wild wood after Mother's death. You were everything to me, my big sister, my teacher, and my protector. You taught me the ways of the knife. You taught me to move like a lynx. You comforted me when I was afraid. In that wilderness, you fed me wild honey and kept me safe in your arms.
On the day I woke to your note and your absence, I was beset instantly with a horror weighed heavy by grief and a driving rage all at once. What was I? Thirteen? Fourteen? I don’t even know. We had laid together in sleep in our hideaway camp under our one blanket the night before, sister, when I was safe in your embrace, yet in the morning you were gone forever and I was alone, for the first time in my life, in the cold and bleak winter of the wood. I could still feel your hair against my face, your thin warm body in my arms, your smell, and even your taste, but you, sister, were gone.
I knew you had gone to your certain death, or at best (or worst?) to be disappeared into an Unseely prison of nightmares. My foresight was true and I have not heard even a rumor of you in these almost two decades. My grief and anger weighed on me, sister. I was so angry that you would do this to yourself–that you would do this to me. I was a child; I had no concept of why you might have done what you did. My anger drove me for years, but eventually subsided as I grew older and better knew what may have led you to your drastic act. But, my grief–my heavy grief–remains to this day without surcease. My only consolation is that they did not burn you outside the city gates as they had done to Mother.
I survived in the wood for a few more years as you knew I would and eventually was bold enough to enter the city where I was taken under the wing of a mercenary and from there I was employed by an agent of the King, learning spycraft in the world of men and had to learn how to survive all over again, and I did until I ran afoul of a certain fay agent who banished me to a forgotten and abandoned land of twilight nightmares. I am afraid there I earned the enmity of a certain Unseely, but no matter, he is no threat to me now, and I found my escape in a new employment under a certain aunt of ours who intrigues from exile. She favors me though her favor is burdensome, but the rewards are goodly, so I continue.
Through all of this, I think of you, sister. Thoughts of you cut deep into my heart but also give me strength. I can only hope you have found some happiness wherever you may be and that I will once again meet the intensity of your countenance and hold your doe-like body in my arms again, one day.
Your loving brother,
Delvin Wickwoode
Craven Manor, 7 Olde Elfin Path, Deep in the Fairy Wood
Delvin-to-Ipia-1 | All We Love We Leave Behind
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games to play with my long distance partner? we’re queer nerds, i have a lot of dnd experience and some not dnd experience, they have a little bit of dnd experience, we both have fucked up schedules so something that’s asynchronous or short would be best. uh. there’s two of us. yeah i think that’s everything.
THEME: Long-Distance Games.
Hello friend, I am excited to introduce to you the joys of epistolary games!
From the Petals to the Leaves, by somewhere with stories.
This is a two player game about writing to a loved one while you are apart. Throughout the game you will write to each other while in different gardens, surrounded by plants and flowers of your choice.
This looks to be a pretty small game, but I think it fits the mood of writing to a loved one, with a concrete topic to base your conversations around - the plants in your gardens. I don’t own this game but I own a similar one by the same creator, so I’m assuming that the game provides you with a prompt list for each letter you send each-other. You can create your characters slowly as you write, uncovering bits and pieces about each-other through your fictional personas. If you just want something a little extra to flavour your letters to each-other, this might be worth looking at.
Soulum Scriptum, by Radmad.
Featuring the art of Marisa Bruno, Soulum Scriptum is a letter writing game for two or more players. You are isolated and alone, until a mysterious courier arrives at your door. They give you a proposition: write letters for someone just like you and they will bring you letters in return.
Develop the broken world and the haven that protects you, all while fighting despair and taking what hope you can find in your new connection across time and space.
This is a game of connection, between two isolated individuals who are struggling with despair. There are pages for various steps of the game, from world and character creation, to how to manage your feelings after your first letter. There’s also instructions for what to do when you fill certain tracks, including the track for your Haven (your home) and your Hopes (lines and pieces of the letters you receive that give you hope). If you like emotional games that have great potential to tell a story that grows brighter as you play, I recommend Soulum Scriptum.
Talking Thunder, by Eleanor Hingley.
‘Talking Thunder’ is a two-player correspondence RPG about finding connection in a dystopian world.
As the world changes, you never know what news each letter from your only friend will bring…
If you even hear from them again.
Another game about connection, this time in a post-apocalypse of some kind. I’m curious about how the letters are meant to reach each-other in the fiction of this game, although I suspect that ultimately that is up to the two of you!
We Are Ciphers, by Jgurantz.
We Are Ciphers is a 2-player letter-writing game where you craft a story using coded messages sent through the mail. You and your partner both covet the Prize, which you believe will transform your lives for the better. But acquiring it is an extremely tricky operation. Many things stand in your way, including the Target.
This is a letter-writing game with an added layer of complexity, because both of you could be writing in code! The code part is optional, but the premise of the game is that you are two spies trying to get your hands on the Prize - whatever you two decide that may be. The game comes with a list of popular media for inspiration, as well as a series of checkboxes for you to tick off to help you create a game that would be fun for the two of you. There’s also a number of worksheets to help you build your world, craft your codes, and create your characters. If you would like a fair amount of guidance as to how to play the game, We Are Ciphers might be up your alley.
The Wanderers, by AdventureByMail.
You and your friend wait to board two ARK-4 Civilian Class Shuttles charted for new colonies in the hinterlands of space. Though you will be several light-years apart, you promise to keep in touch through the interstellar communication network known as the Unified Starways Parley System. You'll use this network to tell each other about the life you build and the love you discover in the far reaches of space…
This creator makes a number of games designed for long-distance play, so if you like The Wanderers, you might want to check out some of their other work as well! The game itself is small enough to fit on a brochure, so it should be easy to print out and keep somewhere for easy reference. There are roll tables to help you create a character, and some advice on how to write your first letter. Following letters will be provided prompts based on a deck of playing cards, with special rules for drawing Aces. If you like using a bit of randomization to help drive a story, this game might be for you!
Games I've Recommended in the Past
I've played The Reaper's Almanac with a friend before and I really really love the premise of it. It has a chance to dive into some pretty traumatic material, however, as it is about death, so make sure to talk about your partner about the things you'd like to steer clear of if you play this game.
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Can you give game (TTRPG specifically) recommendations for two people？
Inhuman Conditions is a fantastic 2-player rpg where you basically go through the voight kampff test together
Godkiller is a wildly kickass 2 player game where one of you is god and the other one is. well, here to kill you,
I Have The High Ground is a way to recreate the best part of Revenge of the Sith, where anakin and obi-wan duel to the death
Eyes on the Prize is a fake marriage ttrpg that seems absolutely amazing
Anyone Can Wear The Mask is a superhero game by a dear friend of mine
Together We Write Private Cathedrals is an epistolary (letter-writing) rpg where you're a gay couple whose words are lost to history
anyway theres a lot more, those are just some of the few that i can personally recommend
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hey yall!!! new bundle :D
this is my 14 for 14 ttrpg bundle to pay off some of the debt from my top surgery!! you get 14 games and homebrew for 14 bucks, which is gonna run until june 14th (my birthday!!)
my top surgery was absolutely life changing and has made me so much more comfortable, confident, and happy. i dont regret it in the least. i also got hit with some surprise bills afterward that have me pretty heftily in debt because of it
some very kind souls have donated their games to help me pay some of this off, which was just so incredibly generous. which means its not just my games in here!! lots and lots of cool stuff, please check it out!!
in the bundle:
ttrpgs:
[BXLLET> : a game about systems of violence and power in the weird west apocalypse
disparateum: a dream-like reality-bending game where you hop worlds and tell strange stories
little celestial fieldwork guide: a city exploration photography game where you divine hidden spirits and take photos of them
beach day!: a system agnostic party bonding minigame where characters swap gifts and secrets
what they once feared: a solo journaling game where you play a folkloric monster forced to choose your path
the narrator paradox: a one page solo game where you play a storybook narrator whos protagonist has gained agency and is trying to change the story
the fool who got married (extended): a duet epistolary game of female hardship and connection in 1848
explorers of the forever city: a rules-light, fantasy role-playing game about ordinary people making extraordinary discoveries
homebrew:
riders: a pact for moth-light by justin ford, a fitd game. tame, bond with, and ride the terrifying predator moths
witch: a class for d&d 5e. be a con-based half-caster with curses, familiars, and a whole new way of doing spell slots
harmony with the wind: a ghibli-inspired d&d 5e pack with 5 feats, 4 backgrounds, 4 races, 6 monsters, and 3 subclasses
fairytale/feywild: a pack for d&d 5e with 1 background, 2 races, 1 subclass, and unique timekeeping mechanics for the feywild
burger wizard: a d&d 5e compatible narrative rpg about working as magical kitchen staff in a fantasy restaurant
argyth's arcane companion: 4 wizard subclasses, 3 feats, and 17 new spells for d&d 5e
you can get all of this for 14 bucks until june 14th!! it would really mean a lot to me for yall to check it out and also spread the word :D
check it out on itch!!
#indie ttrpgs#5e homebrew#dnd 5e#itch sale#itch bundle#so so grateful to everyone who donated games#it really means a lot!!!!
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i think.... "d&d is the easiest ttrpg to get into" anon should read any game written by Takuma Okada. especially her solo journaling ones. Alone Among the Stars is 4 pages long, including its cover. You are an Adventurer is 5 pages.
none of these pages are densely packed with text; i could argue that most of them have generously-spaced text. neither game requires mathematical calculations of any sort. You are an Adventurer uses no game pieces (dice, cards, etc.) except the rulesbook and a means of writing on it (such as pencil or digital keyboard).
I think it's good to recognize that while there definitely are games that are infinitely simpler than D&D in terms of needing no math nor dice, such games will be completely alien and unrecognizable to a person whose frame of reference is D&D. This is not a slight against Takuma Okada's work and I personally think it's wonderful that there are lots of indie games willing to experiment with what the act of play can mean, but I think to an extent recommending solo-journaling games to someone who thinks indie games are too complex and whose understanding of indie games is Villains & Vigilantes is very much misidentifying the problem. (Villains & Vigilantes seems to be very much on the complex side. In fact, it seems like it is very similar to Hero System.)
Part of it is that due to cultural relevance the act of play of a trad game like D&D is going to be mostly recognizable to even the most casual observer. So instead of recommending something like an epistolary game or a solo-journaling game to such a person it is better to recognize that there is infinite variety in complexity within traditional RPGs that still very much resemble D&D in terms of play. To mention a previous ask I just answered, games like RISUS, Microlite20, Mausritter, and to add one to that list, Warrior Rogue Mage are a much easier sell because the act of play will still be familiar to such a person (these are all very trad TTRPGs) but apt demonstrations that there are games that are simpler than D&D.
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Have you played SIGNAL TO NOISE ?
By Craig Duffy
Signal to Noise is a bittersweet interstellar epistolary game for 2 players, played out one message at a time over email.
One player takes on the role of the Explorer, one of the lucky few chosen to join the generation ship while the other takes on the role of the Earther, forced to stay behind as their companion departs the solar system. Play each round is driven by a series of prompts, a combination of mundane everyday occurrences and life-changing events that develop over time. Sending messages back and forth to one another the players must try to maintain a connection in the face of an ever-increasing time lag and the creeping distortion of the messages as the signal becomes distorted during its transmission over interstellar distances. Eventually, the unfolding events or slow loss of connection will force one to break contact, forever severing the bond between the characters that they have struggled to maintain for so long.
#ttrpg#tabletop rpg#poll#poll time#united kingdom#2020s#indie ttrpg#indie rpg#epistolary game#signal to noise
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bundletober #12: greetings from ______
alright technically this counts as 'earlier' than yesterday. tomorrow i swear to fuck i'll put this up at a normal time. and also reblog all of the last couple ridiculously late night bundletobers. but anyway today i'm looking at greetings from ______ by c.r. legge, a clearly wise and intelligent user of the classic 'two initials' naming schema.
so the coolest fucking thing about this game is that it's a map-making / worldbuilding game that can be printed out and folded into the shape of a brochure. how fucking cool is that! what an incredible, inspired use of format. its colours are ugly and weird in a very 70s way, which gives it a wonderfully dated travel brochure feel. A+ for layout.
the game is pretty simple: you start with a 6x6 grid, put each player somewhere on that grid, and then take turns moving to new squares and describing what's there. there's a really ingenious use of space here--the game uses a set of descriptors to prompt you, and while in the one-page version of the game they're all inelegantly piled into a big unappealing square, in the brochure version they surround the map on all sides, outlining the edge of one side of the brochure. it's a really neat touch that pushes the brochure version of the game out of being a format gimmick and into being, imo, the superior version of it.
if i have one criticism of greetings from ______, it's similar to what i said about locum tendons yesterday--that when you use precious space in your single-page rpg's layout to make a table to roll on, that table better be all hits. i see what c.r. was going for, with the table (designed to be rolled on with 2d6) putting less remarkable landmarks on the numbers that are easier to roll. but the job of a table should be to prompt you to say something you might not have otherwise--"a place where people live" is a boring and bizarrely vague result.
i think this table could have leaned heavier into being more evocative and vague or more specific and interesting. it's in an akward middle space between the two. that said, the concept of walking around the map creating things and saying what's there is really good and the layout makes it a real standout. if i ever run this, i'll probably try and narrativize it a bit--this seems like it would be a standout game to play in epistolary format, in-character travels and postcards flying back and forth. honestly something i might consider hacking for the next time i need to worldbuild for a longrunning campaign!
so yeah despite my criticisms i think it's fair to say any game which i'd consider hacking has done something very very right with its design--or at least, very very interesting.
greetings from ______ can be purchased as a digital download through itch.io
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What happened to Alex Dunn? The answer is in the letters.
Reality contains fractures, a series of anomalous events that defy explanation, with only remnants of their occurrences left behind. Letters, recordings, photos and reports are all that remains of these phenomena, housed within the Archive, a catalogue of the extraordinary and peculiar. Our first collection is calamitous events connected through the centuries: The Case of Albrecht Manor.
As a researcher for the Archive, read through Alex Dunn's letters and notes. Uncover the missing pieces of the mystery behind their rural Ontario home in 1993. Explore the connection between this house and the original, destroyed in a fire a hundred years before. Can you connect the clues and find the hidden patterns of this house's history?
Curios: Albrecht Manor is an epistolary horror mystery experience. A haunting story told over a series of letters and ephemera.
Curios: Albrecht Manor is available for pre-order now!
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3,4,14, please!
Answering replies from this list!
3. How you feel about your current WIP
Gods and Monsters (my current longfic) was truly sent by a demon to torment me. I wrestled with the idea for 3 months before I wrote the first chapter. It takes quite a bit out of me to write each part, but I've written more words for this pair than I have anything else ever in my life, so I'm going to keep at it.
4. A story idea you haven’t written yet
Most of my stray story ideas surrounding Tav will eventually get folded into Gods and Monsters so—no spoilers!
Other than that, it would be really cute to write Olly and Nora epistolary fiction, told in the letters they send each other over the course of a year or so.
Luckily, I have the perfect excuse—I'm waiting for @my-favourite-zhent to finish New Tricks (the universe it's set in) so I can decide what kind of ending to give everyone ;)
14. Where do you get your inspiration?
Reading Forgotten Realms lore tickles my brain in a very specific way, and often sends me down a huge research rabbit hole. Hours later, I surface with more knowledge about blacksmithing or caring for animals than I needed. For the same reason, I enjoy reading other tabletop RPG systems' guidebooks as well.
I used to live and study in a European city built around a medieval town square, so that experience is quite useful for the current setting I am writing for (BG3).
A lot of the escapism I enjoy comes from shoujo manga (another flavour of the romance genre). A thing I really enjoy doing in my writing is examining what is left unsaid in the original text (oblique dialogue, words left up to interpretation, actions not corresponding with what is spoken) which definitely comes from here. You can see this from my earliest fic on AO3: Night Swimming/Delay (Gattaca).
Bits and pieces from my own experiences and stories from the people around me definitely appear in my characters, but I generally adhere to the 7 year rule from method acting if I am pulling from something personal ("You should only employ an affective memory if it is over 7 years old."). Otherwise, everything is well and truly the product of idle imagination.
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Hello, I have a question I’m hoping you can help me with. Feel free to ignore this if it’s too outta pocket or weird. I’ve tried googling it with less than satisfactory results. I love getting physical mail and I think my loved ones do too. The problem is with the internet and cellphones and living nearby there’s basically no reason to write letters. Any news I have I’ll share over text or when I see them. I’d like to try playing a mail/messages rpg as a way to tell a story or just have a reason to write fun letters back and forth. Do you know of any letter writing games or what I could search to find them? Thanks for your time!
Yes, I do! What you're looking for is an "epistolary" game. There's a tag on itchio for them - here's all of the games under that tag:
Dicebreaker also has an article with some of them:
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