ᎣᏏᏲ! Osiyo! Welcome to Bramble Wolf Games! Bramble Wolf Games is the game design outfit of Gar “Sahoni” Atkins, a queer Indigenous (ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ) writer and game designer from the Southeast US. Bramble Wolf Games look to make narrative-forward experiences with substance and design the mechanics to back those feelings up. In short, we want to make games that mean something to someone. Let us help you tell stories of your own.
I'm a Queer, Indigenous (ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ), and disabled writer, game designer, and radio personality. Consider me your friendly neighborhood Appalachian monster librarian. Or just a red wolf to keep things simple.
Outside of the aforementioned (mostly analog) game design, writing, and radio; I also enjoy the act of collecting folklore and ways from around the world. I'm into cooking, general outdoorsy stuff, horror, storytelling as an artform, and pop culture ephemera so expect to see a little bit of all of those down here on my personal tumblr among other things. Also been trying to get back into biology.
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“Critically acclaimed” game designer Sahoni’s mostly stream of consciousness list of top 5 2022 games I actually got to play this year
Not to be that guy, but this was a weird year for me in that I actually got a chance to play games this year. Some bizarre alchemy of stability, financial independence, and learning to set better boundaries has allowed me, nominally a game designer, to actually play games. It even let me play enough games to have a top 5. Not that this has ever stopped me in previous years from having an opinion.
But being able to have a game in my hand and have that experiential and tactile experience first-hand instead of having to rely on watching along with friends or watch a let’s play has left me with some unexpected opinions. I found myself willing to put myself out there for the imperfect or a game that doesn’t meet the platonic gamer ideal. Not that this has ever stopped me in previous years from having an opinion.
But I’m certainly more secure in them.
The following list is a series of games I came away from still thinking about them. There is no real order to it all, just that I have thoughts and I want others to share with others the experiences they brought me in the hopes you can make your own, or tell me about games that made you feel the same way.
Scarlet Hollow
Scarlet Hollow is the game that finally cracked through my shell and got me to like visual novels. It’s not like I haven’t played any before. I love games Like AI: Somnium files and Ace Attorney. But for some reason, there has always been a giant mental disconnect for me on a gameplay level. Something about needing just that little bit of game just to let myself surrender into the sort of stories this medium can tell.
But I never felt that need with Scarlet Hollow. Scarlet Hollow, by Black Tabby Games, is a horror visual novel set in Western North Carolina. And as a North Carolinian I clocked that from the get. That’s my home. It might have been that familiarity which helped me make that connection, but the game has two major strengths that really kept me engaged.
The first is the strength of Abby Howard’s (of Junior Science Power Hour and The Last Halloween) heavy inky arts, making up the hand-drawn and tenuously detailed backgrounds and expressive character-first portraits of the game. I constantly found myself stopping to just soak in a character’s expression or at the reveal of a new horror. If comics are a narrative-visual medium, where the parts come together and blend to tell a greater whole, Abby Howard took that same lessons to heart about pacing and presentation into this visual novel, elevating it to something greater. This is a very comic book sense of each scene transition being treated like a page turn or new panel.
But I think the aspect I enjoyed the most was the dialog. This game has two big systems going for it. The first is, at the beginning of the game, you choose basically two powers for your character out of 7, including options like “strong”, “booksmart”, and “talks to animals”. But soon after that the game springs on you it’s second hidden system. Certain dialog choices you make will reveal and inform your character in the future.
Very early on there is a forced and awkward conversation with a guy on a bus who offers you a bag of boiled peanuts (one of those North Carolina touches) and you have the option to say “no thanks, I’m allergic to peanuts.” from that moment on, if you chose this, you are indeed, allergic to peanuts. Maybe it’s my infamiliarity with visual novels, but I found both of these systems novel. This is a game where I never felt like there was a bad dialog choice. All of these possibilities had potential to lead me somewhere interesting, scary, or emotionally revealing.
I was drawn deep into the world or a dying North Carolina mining town that understood how a small town actually works. With southerners that reflected the sort of people that make up my world and not some country music construct or white liberal nightmare. People of color, queer folk, the blue collared and deep rooted. It also acknowledges native folk exist unlike most Appalachian narratives I see where we tend to be an afterthought at best.
Only 4 parts of the planned 7 are out so far but if you end up craving more as I did you should also check out Slay The Princess, the studio’s other visual novel, which features the voice talents of Jonathan Sims of the Magnus Archives as a self-aware narrator urging you to kill a chained princess in a remote cabin and in order save the world.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a hot mess. There is no other ways to describe it. It’s constant crashes, weird graphical bugs, and seasickingly uneven writing leaves a lot to be desired. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t some of the most fun I’ve had in a game in years.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a tactics game from Firaxis, the same folks behind the x-com games and you can certainly feel that. There is that technical grit that you should expect, especially on higher difficulties you can feel yourself gritting your teeth as you solve the puzzles they present you with, trying to maximize your economy of card plays and movements.
I really found satisfaction in how they expressed the various superheroes of their cast through the card based deckbuilding mechanics that make up your movement options. The best example I can think of is how Iron Man is a sort of high damage jack of all trades, but he’s expensive and likes to be the center of attention so he wants to clog up your hand with more Iron Man cards. Peak Tony Stark.
But everyone seems to have their niche, although some people don’t seem to feel that way until you unlock their passives. Spider-man is a low damage character that excels at bouncing around the screen pecking off minions and using environmental damages. Captain America is a tank character that specializes on building a resources called shield and the group shared heroism. Magik (from New Mutants, a personal fave) reposition and teleports enemies and allies both. Blade messes around with bleed. It’s satisfying and made to feel more empowering and accessible than x-come with things like your attacks always hitting (this, of course, applies to your enemies too). It feels good. I’m going to keep coming back to replay this.
The other half of the game is that you’re in this explorable campus, a haunted abbey transplanted from Europe in a pocket dimension outside Salem. (The game unwittingly makes a lot of assumptions that you’re white.) Your marvel OC, a very predefined in a commander shepherd sorta guy, explores this space for resources, costumes, and more between all the standard x-com prep stuff. There is also the social links which is probably the meat of the experience.
The social links are your time to spend one-on-one time with each character. I remember notably when they first announced the game, they spent a not insignificant amount of time telling video game outlets “No. You can’t romance any of these characters. No. you can’t kiss them. You can just be...really good friends.” Par for the course for marvel’s weirdly defensive sexlessness outside of comphet. (something that feels reflected in the fashion of the game to be honest).
Marvel has always been weird about OC’s, even outside of the normal comic book company “lalalala, please don’t show us your oc’s we don’t want a plagerism suit.”
I genuinely think this is the first time they’ve allowed them in any form outside of a lego game since the 90’s. I certainly remember the surprising lack of character creation in their official Tabletop games. Or that one time they tried to make an official marvel fanfic site with the rules “no oc’s” and “no shipping”. I remember how long it took for them to embrace the concept of “spider-sonas”.
But despite this, all these hang-outs feel strangely intimate. Not always romantic, but definitely intimate. I’m talking about someone’s deep personal trauma deep in the woods and then gifting them a music box of a song that’s from their favorite album. I have no doubt in my mind my Hunter and Blade are dicking down hard in the woods. Despite some anne-riceian views on fandom, Marvel can not stop the fanfic. My half-demon is kissing the half-vampire right now.
The writing, while uneven, never doesn’t feel at least comfortably saturday morning cartoon at it’s worst. Which, honestly, is something I’m perfectly okay with for a supehero affair. Same with the quippy nature that seems to be grating some folk with this game. I don’t understand why we’ve suddenly decided to start blaming Joss Whedon for something that’s been a staple part of American theater and film since vaudeville. It’s not like quips and banter aren’t an established and recognized part of superhero fiction and there are plenty of very real things we can blame him for instead. It’s pulp y’all.
I will say when the writing is good, it’s excellent. It knocks it out of the damn park and the out of combat stuff and tiny little exchanges are some of my favorite things. Whether it’s the story about your immortal lesbian aunt that raised you to be a weapon, her wife (now a ghost that is hiding in the abbey), and the scarlet witch. Or Tony Stark having to learn humility and to give other members of a club space instead of running them over in an attempt to be the big boss guy. Or introducing other folks to Magik’s whole deal. It all just feels good and earned.
I came away from this just desperately wanting Firaxas to make a New Mutants game in this style now. Please. I’ll buy about 12 copies just by myself.
I’m a firm believer that about 90% of non-comic related super media doesn’t earnestly engage with the concept of superhero comics as a medium, either out of embarrassment or apathy. Superhero media is big, strange, and often high-concept weird. None of which I would use to describe most things post Iron Man. It’s a big reason why I think people have this big bland aftertastes after the past 15 years of so of being hosed down with the greatest afterswill of DC and Marvel.
A have a heuristic just for batman shit of “how easily can you see this man throw a batarang?”. Because if you can’t be willing to buy into the conceits and fantastical that much, how much can I trust you with anything else? How can I trust you to understand the underlying nature of the stories being told?
Midnight Sun’s understands a couple of things about superhero fiction better than most. One, that the strange and fantastical are vital to both the color of the world and greater humanity of these characters. Two, that a world of superheroics are very much build upon a conceit of duty and responsibility for others. You don’t see a lot of superheroes in movies and tv ever really doing anything superheroic. And while not all superheroes define themselves by some form of duty, it still defines their greater world. Superman in the Christopher Reeves movies takes the time to show him rescuing civilians. Into the Spiderverse shows Miles struggling to live up to this idea of doing right, even going to far to state the message of “anyone can wear the mask” directly to the audience.
Midnight Suns takes great care to tell you who all these characters are fighting for. It shows them stressed out and frustrated about not being able to respond to every situation, even the ones that are personal, after being stretched thin. Agreeing to help others do what they can when faced with tragedy. Even just being there for a friend when they need it. If you ask me, that’s marvel midnight sun’s greatest strength. I can deal with tony stark and bugs if it’s a story about that.
Signalis
I probably don’t have much to say on this that hasn’t already been said, but it’s so nice to see a game that wears it’s inspiration on it’s sleeves, but still is not afraid to be it’s own thing. I’ve been watching this game for a long time. Just the right amounts of alien, RE, silent hill, and anime. I was so pleased to see other pick it up with the enthusiasm I’ve been rooting for it with. It deserves it.
Signalis is quiet.
Yes, it has it’s share of space-y white noise and grinding Akira Yamaoka industrial, but it’s not afraid to just be quiet. It’s honestly refreshing in a world of games who can never shut up.
But Signalis wants you to feel that gripping sense of being isolated and alone. It’s precedented on being lonely and the only times you’re not alone are when you are in danger. Limited inventory leaves you with no room for something sentimental. No favorite weapons here. Not lockets you keep with you. It’s illegal to even be alone with yourself. Even when you do find someone to talk to there is an emotional separation that acts as a brick wall between you and them.
You are lonely.
It’s retro scifi style is made to evoke things like alien, but also the building genres and expecations of vhs horrors and our own nostalgia. VHS is a lonely technology. It’s use of ps1 aesthetics are made to push the feeling of playing a game by yourself late at night while a crt tv hums and scans.
I think the thing I like most is when the game stops to show you this, cutting from it’s gods eye third person view as you stomp about a metallic brutalist hellscape and pulls you into first person, made to experience this cold isolation first person as you explore a diorama or a dark snowy gap between buildings. It’s taking you, essentially, the main character’s only companion, and making that as non-existent as possible.
Soul Hackers 2
It’s the best game Atlus has written since the ps2 and I will not be taking any notes on that. It’s pure objective fact. It’s a game about adults in a capitalist hellscape, dealing with adult problems and relationships in a very anime way. I once heard some youtuber describe this Atlus budget title as “the best vita game you’ve never played” and that still feels apt.
You can see this game struggling to make thew most out of what it’s be given with static backgrounds, bland repeating dungeons, and a combat system that just kinda feels like it needed to bake for about 20 more minutes. But what it made it’s choices to include put in so much work.
As a sequel to a ps1 game about detectives (and humanity as a whole) of a sort summoning demons on their cellphones/weapons in a cyberpunk dystopia experiencing the emergence of new life in the form of AI, Soul Hackers 2 decided to take a different approach. It’s a game about emerging AI experiencing humanity, while being detectives of sorts who can summon demons on their cellphone/weapons in a cyberpunk dystopia. Very different.
I found myself delighted to spend time with it’s characters in all the various ways the narrative designers found ways to inject scenes and story into the normal dungeon crawling loop. All fully voice acted of course. I got drinks with them. I listen to them bitch or praise food we got together. I listened to little skits every time I unlocked a new passive ability for them that revealed some new wrinkle in their personality. This limited cast felt like it had the chance to be colorful and fully realized characters. There was an emotional maturity there I have otherwise felt lacking in other Atlus titles.
People were allowed to have complicated and maybe even unhealthy relationships and not only does the story acknowledge that, but the characters too. But that doesn’t mean that relationship is solved. People are messy and that’s something our little ai fragment is gonna learn again and again. Party members had tension and buck against each other, but it always felt like it would be something understandable on either end. It trusted you to understand things, make inferences, and read it in good faith. Probably lessons I could learn myself when it comes to writing.
Tinykin
Tinykin is cute. It knows it’s cute (maybe to it’s detriment at times).
In tinykin, you play a starfaring anthropologist looking for the ancestral home of humanity, only to end up in a house, frozen in time in the 90’s and you the size of a bug. You travel from room to room, collecting things to satisying chirps and navigating cities set up by various bug civilizations trying to get an answer to why...and to build yourself a new spaceship.
But it was a perfect bedtime game. Chill. Very little tension. You mess up and miss with a jump, you “died” with a little pop and reset to your place before the jump immediately. It’s a collect-a-thon that didn’t really track or gate things based on how much you collected. It’s the wort of game you could just set up and let a little cousin go to town without worry they’ll get frustrated or lost, because getting lost is half the point.
I wasn’t really biting any of the very high school atheist commentary on the nature of religion the game was throwing out there. Luckily the times it popped up were brief and inconsequential. What was much more appealing was all the ways you can move. You get a bubble to float off a double jump, a soap bar to slide and grind, and a collection of pikmin like critter to command and allow you to get to new places in an assortment of ways.
It felt good to move from one end of the room to the other like an off-roading borrower and you could feel just how much time the devs spent to make it so. Mid my playthrough they added challenge races which adds a whole new layer to how those tools can be used. This is a game I’m dying to see speedrun.
Games I didn’t get to play but wanted to...
-Live-a-Live
remake of a rpg classic, finally in English. I'd play this for music alone.
-Kowloon High-School Chronicles
remake of a ps1 cult game, finally in english. I want to be a high school indiana jones dungeon crawling to solve the mysetry of why a bizarre omnitemple is underneath my high school filled with occult-y weirdos. Interesting dialog system
.-Inscryption
card game cool. genre-bending card game things by a guy whose previous weird expectation subverting games I found neat.
-AI: Somnium Files- Nirvana Initiate
I loved the first one and it just looks like more of the same
-Ghostwire: Tokyo
I don't want to play this out of an expectation of this being some horror or action experience that would be fulfilling in any meaningful way, but rather pure vibes. Like a VR chat world with actual shit to do.
-Norco
A cyberpunk game about the invisible south. I'm in.
-Citizen Sleeper
Cool cyberpunk game about a robot finally earning freedom for their indentured servitude, only to find out their warranty has expired and their body is failing...takes a lot of cues form solo journaling games.
So, my next game has a lot of themes going for it, but the one most central to it's premise is Culture. Recognizing what it looks like, the culture around us, meditating on it's meaning and how it's affected us, our connections to that culture as a whole. But because of this, I put a lot of emphasis on self definition and expression. You don't explain it to my native ass, but there can be a lot of raw emotions in this space between things like generational trauma, diaspora, exploitation, racism, and abuse.
But; that's why that ability to self define is important. You are the one deciding your boundaries and what you want to explore. If culture is private culture that's fine. The few rules I set are largely genre-based and it has to have ties back to culture you can name and source.
And while I have 30 playbooks you mix and match in sets of 3, most character I think are going to end up being things like;
-Someone with ties to existent folklore, inheriting and continuing a legacy
-Someone with relationships with a big folklore thing they're trying to sort out their relationship with
-Folklore interpreted through a modern or unique lens
-Cultural practices; they're cool! (and a responsibility at times)
-Literary and historical figures that are neat and worth talking about
-Monsters! (complimentary)
-Not existent folklore, but something that feels in tune with their vibes
And I'm actually really excited to see things in that last one.
So there is this sentiment I see a lot online when people talk about RPG. A thread goes on for long enough and this line comes up in some form
There are a few lessons about game design and communication to be found here.
But the one that I always like to take is "players like feeling like their actions have value and impact." Which, simple, but is still important to think about. People like to feel like what they are doing has value. And while value and impact can be measured in many different ways, both narrative and mechanical, it should feel both consistent and readable to players most of the time.
When a tool consistently does not work in a situation that feels like the most important like a boss battle, players are discouraged from trying or experimenting with those things in other circumstances. This often goes double for something like a status effect which is often an investment to better circumstances on a later time such as throwing off the tempo of a monster, damage over time, or an increased vulnerability. It's a powerful tool which needs a control valve, but constancy is often part of value for a player, as is, again, communication.
So what are some solutions?
Readability won't solve a lack of consistency, but will prevent unneeded frustration from players trying strategies that won't work.
Good ui or visual design will help here. Both maybe having a reminder screen or an impact animation.
Something you could do is offer abilities where the status effect is additive. Making the option still feel attractive even if the status doesn't go off, because there is a mitigation of risk, a lack of feeling like the thing doesn't have impact still!
Etrian Odyssey as a series offers two different sets of status effects, both of which can be used to mitigate or deny certain enemy behaviors, forcing players to plan around the things they don't want to deal with.
Status effects are super impactful in this series (maybe too impactful) And both monster and your party can trade bind and ailments, often making boss battles a measure of when as much as what as you try to target certain targets or parts of enemies. Despite some skeezy art choices it's a good example where your status effects are built in and considered in every part of the game.
It might not be the best solution for your game but it's an example of that consistency and conditioning a player to explore all their tools.
A third solution: Build and design encounters that communicate certain strategies. Readable weaknesses. You know in most game that plant based monsters usually don't do well again fire spells. It's just extending that thought to be a bit broader.
Maybe monsters weak to charm have big eyes? Maybe monsters weak to sleep look sleepy? Go wild!
Of course, you could take a note from Hades and tune a boss to have statuses have more limited effectiveness compared to normal encounters instead of a binary yes/no. This might take a bit more tuning but can still make your investment feel good.
Of course the best solution is always going to be to work it in to your games bones. The more a player gets to use, or is encouraged to play with a tool, the more likely they are to think of it. If you find players aren't using a tool, it's often that the tool feels underwhelming. Is it underscaled for the threats you face? Is it too powerful so it almost never connects? Is your tool balanced and fair? Or at least fun?
-What role are your statuses even playing in your systems?
-Are combat encounters built in a way where status effects feel efficient?
I’m gonna create this post so that it can be linked through my sidebar (once i get a theme set up xD) It will be edited as I release more!
IMMUNE is a fast-paced, high-action zombie-splatter role playing game inspired by video games like Left 4 Dead and board games like Zombicide.
You can pick up and be playing Immune in just a few minutes as either player or GM with no forknowledge.
DIESEL AND DINOSAURS is a powered by charge RPG combining dinosaurs and post apocalypse settings and inspired by the cartoon Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and the comic Xenozoic Tales.
Humanity emerged from their shelters centuries after surviving an apocalypse to find the world once again reclaimed by Dinosaurs.
ARCOLOGY WORLD is a PBTA solarpunk game of community and science and learning to help your community thrive and adapt in an ever-changing and often dangerous environment.
THE WASTELAND COVENANT is the first Told By Travelers game, it is a diceless game thats mechanics are driven by questions and answer. The players take on the roles of trade envoys and settlements forging the connections needed to survive and rebuild society in a post apocalyptic world.
LEGACY OF THE LOST is a Belonging Outside Belonging (No Dice, No Masters) game about a diverse and eclectic group of survivors that have come together to live on an old ship in a post apocalyptic galaxy.
Navigate the complexities of society and the social dramas within your community while exploring and preserving the knowledge of civilizations lost to the cataclysm.
GOBLINAUTS is my first game and one that desperately needs some expansion and upgrades and I’m hoping I find the time. That being said it is totally playable and a fun lil pbta game about a community of goblins that built ships and escaped the oppressive regime of Humans (and Elves and Dwarves) on Earth.
For Centuries things have been peaceful for the hardworking but thriving Goblin communities, but now the Imperium has colonized mars and is looking to the asteroid belt…
LUMEN ENDGAME is a design tool and GM guide for adding in a variety of new options to your Lumen ttrpgs or sessions. It includes Power Up drops, Boss encounters and Finale scenes.
So I have this wrestling-themed improv party game called Friday Night Event, a big feature of which is a bunch of improv prompts randomly generated from playing cards. Which meant I had to make a lot of prompts and I may have gotten a little strange with the wrestling angles I'm giving.
A list of games I want to make one day at Bramblewolf Games
In production
The following games are actually actively at some stage in the process of being made. They probably AT LEAST have a dedicated notebook of me working out mechanics, themes, and goals.
Protect the Sacred
Status: In Production
Protect the Sacred has long since graduated from wall to full notebook (I'm actually on my second notebook), but it started on the wall and I’m just now removing it.
Protect the Sacred, my next big game project, is an anti-colonial magical pulp adventure in the style of Indiana Jones or Hellboy where you play adventurers with folklore based powers working to protect, preserve,and reclaim magic, monsters, mystical artifacts and more and as living culture. On the cultures own terms.
I’m planning a separate post soon describing my goals for the game on a mechanical, thematic, and narrative level. But I can tell you the original notes read things like “Inverse Indiana Jones- how ethical is ‘it belongs in a museum?” and “deconstruct the idea and role of a dungeon in an adventure...but keep the fun!”. But I think the biggest notes are “Anti-colonial, not decolonial” and “non-christian kitchen sink supernatural world. Let people define their own terms.” I can’t wait to show you how this has shifted and evolved already.
Brave_Heart
Status: Pre-production
The game currently in the lead to be the next thing to graduate from notebook. Brave_Heart seeks to be a digimon-inspired game aimed at kids that seeks to capture the focus on the childhood emotional journeys of the original. All while weaving in the Tech wonder/fear of the early internet, environmentalism, and the pseudo jungian psychology that made it feel like smt for kids.
Mechanically, I want it to be dice and math light and thus more accessible for kids. I’ve been looking at diceless games like Henshin (by reckoning, still the best super sentai game on the market atm) and thinking about playbooks inspired by crest. I think there is something of value in asking kids what do they like the most about themselves.
Having these playbooks build energy makes the human side important and highlights the “boy” parts of boy and monster. I think my biggest sticking point atm is...how I integrate the tags I would love to use to let kids build their monsters? How do I get that to mechanically matter? I got inspired by the digimon cardgame with a way to illustrate the building of data in a digivolution. But there is a big mechanical gap I got to fill about how to make the “digimon” interact back. How do I make the monster part matter without sacrificing the math-lite feeling? How do I make them feel like part of the same game?
Ideas on the postboard
(Unnamed) Streetfighter Tactics RPG
One day I would really like to make a hard core tactics rpg inspired by fighting games in the style of LANCER. I think taking fighting game archetypes and martial arts styles and turning them into “licenses” in the form of “belts” would translate way too well. The biggest hurdle here is likely the amount of intense testing and balance this would take. I don’t have the audience to push this one the way it’d need to be. My own internal sense of balance is just not at that level yet where I could do it all myself.
At least not for big tactics games where I have to worry about ranges, damages, and the balance of a status effects in isolation.
But boy do I want to make it. The intense combat focus would just make sense, and I know I could give it something satisfying narratively with enough time. My gut reaction would be to tie it into some themes about self-improvement and development. The effort and work it takes to follow a passion.
(Unnamed) Silver Disc Story/Space Fantasy
I really want to make a game that captures the vibes and feeling SNES to ps2 era jrps give me. But what I have on the sheet has been slowly branching off into two different games. I can’t tell if I actually want them to be two different games or if this is something that needs to be one. A lot of this game is going to build off what Protect the Sacred is doing. At least if it works.
But one part of this game really wants to be a classic sword and sorcery crystal fantasy. Something with airships and magic trains that evokes things like the classic final fantasies. I’m a big believer that all the best fantasies have a train.
The other is a big sci-fantasy weird west that shifts the focus to an indigenous perspective. The idea of a post alien invasion world people are forced onto as a metaphor for a reservation. Complete with an evil parasite empire to fight against.
Maybe this is a sign to make a system with two different settings? if so, how do I make the game itself matter?
(Unnamed) Quirky Kids Horror
I would love to make a game that captures the quirky horror of things like goosebumps, fear street, and are you afraid of the dark. The type of horror that made you feel like you were getting away with something as a kid. I’d want it to focus on investigation and keeping it together over combat. A spooky cursed town full of strange things. Maybe add a town builder to make it feel like home, even if this cursed town always has the same name.
(Unnamed) Anti-Harry Potter Magic School
Fuck Harry Potter and fuck terfs, but if anime and x-men has taught me anything, there will always be a craving for a world were you could go to a special school, learn about your cool unique little powers, and have adventures with high interpersonal drama. Superpower class will always be more exciting than algebra.
But the thing that strikes me about these schools, whether we’re talking about HP or Percy Jackson, is that they are exceedingly eurocentric and white (the word halfblood wouldn’t show up in either text if they weren’t). PoC tend to be afterthoughts and set painting and I haven’t seen one not be shit and weird about indigenous folk. I want to challenge and push back on that. I think my tags system could bring a lot to a set up like this.
Delinquents
I want to make some sort of rpg very invested in the shonen battle anime and very specifically that delinquent with a tie to the supernatural. I have a lot of feelings about those sort of kids and figures like Yusuke Urimeshi or Ichigo Kurasaki. Most of them from being a problem kid myself and how society tends to treat you. I think there is something to talk about there. Kids like that deserve to imagine themselves as heroes.
Meddling Kids
"What if everyone in scooby doo was secretly a monster and solving very human crimes?" I actually really, REALLY want to do something with "Meddling Kids". The idea of secret werewolves using werewolf powers to solve real estate fraud via haunting sounds very funny to me. Like. "Well I know it's not a ghost. I KNOW what a ghost is. This isn't it."
But also what if instead of traditional monster, each species sort of were representative of an aspect of reality? Nature, conflict, emotions... They know the monster is fake because it doesn't conform to the rules of their hidden world
(Unnamed) Card Game RPG
I think I solved one of the internal lingering problems of how to make a deckbuilding tcg rpg work. It's the dangling tantalous fruit of the game devs. A many people want to tie character growth /to/ the deck which has so many issues. Not the least of which is any strategy would need to be scalable. But, what if you remove that aspect and make character growth be shown in a set of commander-type powers split into various playbooks? Maybe growth could be shown in different ways. Narrative powers. Tricks. Player powers that could manipulate how you interact with cards or the field. Like "I make this into x kinda field" or "I provide buffs to these thing" or "I can hand our shield or heals" "I can destroy x type of thing".
The deck becomes an expression of character.
The biggest issue this one faces would be I'd need to make a whole damn tcg on top of a whole damn rpg.
So I'm really proud of the exp system of my next game and I need to explain it to you if I am to explain why this current thing I'm working for excites me. This might be a bit of a read as a warning, but you signed up for me infodumping at your own peril.
So my next big game is a giant adventure pulp.
Something with big action, punching nazis, and a sense of exploration and mystery. Basically all the sort of things you might expect an Indiana Jones to do, Philip Marlow detective, or even say a Hellboy or early Dresden. There is a lot more going on beyond that of course. I'm examining the racism and colonialism of the adventure pulp, questioning museum and academia ethics, deconstructing the idea of a dungeon and so much more. But at the end of the day it's an adventure serial asking people to think about culture, stories, and their connections to them.
The thing about pulp, where the movement gets its name (and it was a movement, not a genre), was that it was originally supposed to be a very disposable form of media. Many of the definitive novels and comics were printed on cheap pulpy paper stock. Something to be read once then thrown away. This attitude even extended to the world of radio and early serials. It was something to be enjoyed once and archival was kinda not much of a priority (see early doctor who.)
Obviously and thankfully, this expectation was not fully shared by an audience. There would be a lot more lost media if it was.
But this expectation still shaped a lot of how these stories are made.
Pulp stories tend to be self-contained. Something that tells it's story, gets out, and in the case of continuing series usually requires very little set up or explanation. You can not expect someone coming in to know your big deep backstory. This story could always be a first.
This lead to a couple things;
-the popularity of anthologies.
-a rise of masked vigilante and mystery men
-Stories tend to reset at the end of every adventure to some sense of equilibrium.
Which leaves you with a problem. If a story resets at every new adventure, where does that leave a system like EXP (experience)?
Exp, while not mandatory for games, is a great way to keep players feel engaged and accomplished. It makes people feel like they earned something and keeps things like mechanics and story opportunities feeling fresh. It's rewarding investment into a larger story and often shows a sort of linear growth. Peasant to hero-knight of the realm.
The thing about these pulp stories is they don't care about rewarding a big overarching story, a least not for a long time. But they do care about a sort of continuity. They reward that.
Another reality of pulp and it's production comes from a combination of this cheapness and the creative realities of making a story. When you think about a lot of these adventure serials often what would happen is you shove a hero in this big dramatic situation and you would have to answer "how does the intrepid hero get out of this one?"
And you would cook up an answer; hypnosis, a karate master side-kick, a batarang... and solve it. but then you have to tell another story. Eventually you start going "Well, I've already established they can do x-thing. I can solve a different thing the same way."
In a serial radio drama you probably have a limited pool of actors you're working with and they can only do so many voices so you start having people that reoccur.
None of these things require you to know a deep engaging history to understand, but you feel rewarded over that knowledge. Eventually, some of these things build up and kind become a iconic and vital part of their sort of mythic outline. Something you can't imagine them without
I wanted to invest in that kind of continuity. The idea of building a mythos and story feels very at home in the other themes of folklore and how we relate and tell stories that are folded into the game.
So I made an exp system to reflect that. This is a wip system as a reminder. Things change, but
At the end of every session you earn potentially 3 bits of exp.
-Something cool at the table others thought you did
-something cool at the table you think you did
-one for showing up
you log these and what they are for, and in future adventures, you can call upon this moment...if it's related to your current task, for a lil bonus on your roll. This also makes the exp grow, making it worth more.
I'm still defining what the big nice thing you get as a bonus on that roll is (so far the leader is a kind of special dice)
but eventually you cash in one or more of these big experiences into a thing. Advancements! New character defining tags, magic abilities, titles, better budgets. It's investing into a continuity of past adventures. Building up reoccurring characters. That talent you have. that iconic piece of gear.
I'm still figuring out if there should be a limit to continuity that you're keeping track of...how to make that bonus to your task not feel better than the thing you're spending this experience on, rewarding players that are shy or more subdued (got solutions)
but I just really like having another way to make the story you tell matter. It is, after all, a game about stories.
A Game About Community, Activism, and Kinetic Eye Beams
Exceptionals is a game inspired by X-men about and for the spaces marginalized folk make for ourselves. Play as a Geno, one of little less than 0.5% percent of the population that has gone through a mysterious process called Claremont-Simonson mutation, as you try to navigate a world that won’t make room for you. Exceptionals is a game about what the mutant metaphor means to you and the different lenses through which we view it. Punch back and build something of worth together in this narrative tag-driven tabletop role playing game that makes room for both the complicated and real joy.
Features
🧬Open-Ended Character Creation
Mix and Match between (23) open-ended but guided protocols. Answer questions to create high concept and unique super powered characters where the only real limit is your imagination. Get invested in who you make as a whole person, and not just a set of powers.
🧬Build a Community
Create a living and dynamic community space full of colorful characters. Grow your base as an anchor for other geno and help fill it with the resources they and you need. Understand how your actions effect others and gain trust through the bonds mechanic. It’s a game where you get stronger by growing your community and heal by being part of it.
🧬Comic Book Storytelling
Play as a creative team of writers and editors working to tell the best version of the story you can over time and storyline-based experience to model changes of the status quo and creative direction. Enjoy panel based action pacing and the ability of characters of all power levels to coexist and carry the same amount of story weight.
🧬Not Pain Tourism
While Exceptionals offers a number of places to push back, we understand and recognize that the most important part of a punching bag is that you choose to hit it, even if it’s not at all. We recognize not everyone gets to set the issues that the mutant metaphor is used to talk about down when they leave the table and offer many ways to tell stories outside of a lens defined by pain. We also put an emphasis and mechanical weight on the importance of joy and celebration.
KUDOS
As featured on; io9/Gizmodo, Kotaku, Listen to Theses Nerds, Team-Up Moves, Yes Indie'd Pod, Team-Up Moves, and The Voice of Dog
#1 Best Seller and Popular on Itch.io in both Analog & RPG Games, Sept 2021Listen to the Team-Up Moves AP Here!
"Exceptionals is a beautiful, brilliantly designed superhero RPG. It's truly a masterpiece, and if you haven't checked it out, do yourself a favor." -@PartyOfOnePod
"This thing COOKS, Sahoni doesn't just tap into the queer/minority readings of mutants, but also ties in the weirdness that really gets my mind racing when it comes to X books." -@froondingloom
"A refreshingly different game, that strikes a good balance between unlimited player freedom and solid guiding handrails. Really gets at the full potential of what the ;mutant outcast heroes' genre should be about: found family, building communities, and lives lived to the fullest despite being lived in defiance." -@guywhowrotethis
"The whole game oozes love for its inspiration while also going further than they dared...." -@Phoenix24Femme
"Astonishing! Uncanny! All-New! And all other X-Adjectives available.This book gets why one would want to play the Mutant Metaphor in an RPG. It cleverly weaves the power fantasy of powerful individuals with the drive to do good for one's community. It's well-researched, well-written and, well, so much fun to play!This is the superpowered game I've been wanting for a long, long time. I can't wait to tell an Exceptional story of my own!" -@Kokiteno
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vexwerewolf/in-golden-flame-act-1
The kickstarter for In Golden Flame is live! I’ve helped contribute some art to it so far, but the major goal for this is to be able to provide funding for even more art. If you’ve enjoyed what I’ve done for it so far (not to mention the wealth of art contributed from the rest of the team) please consider backing so we can make the full finished product with as much art as originally intended!
Friday Night Event Figure out which of your friends is the real king of the ring in this improv party game for 3-6 players. In Friday Night Event, take on the role of wacky randomly generated wrestlers with bizarre gimmicks as you try to break your opponents with comedy skill and might and gain heat. All you need is a pack of cards and some funny friends.*
*Funny friends not included.
Players: 3-6
Playtime: 15-30 minutes
Tool Needed: Playing Cards, 90 Second Timer, Notepad
The Podcast Team-Up Moves did an AP (actual play) of my game Exceptionals. This is a group of frankly way too overqualified folk not only playing my game but discussing it honestly. They have amazing insight well worth your time and it sounds like they had a lot of fun recording.
They also provided a list of comic issues that act as companions to my game Exceptionals and they included one of my favorite New Mutant comics. This is earnestly a stellar list and I'm honored to know my comic invoked or made people think any of these lol.
Because Exceptionals has done well enough I was able to make an expansion for it!
The Exceptionals Expansion bundle contains over 150 pages of new Exceptionals content designed to make running the game that much easier by providing options, tools, and advice. Gain access to both "Welcome To Reedsboro" and "Streetscapes."
Life in Reedsboro is no vacation...
Situated in the Outer Banks, Reedsboro is a tourist town that caters to a set of people that are only there for 3 to 6 months of the year but can’t decide whether it wants to be a summertime paradise for families and surfers or a historic get-away full of colonial and pirate history. Build community in the rural south and combat the tools used to divide and conquer Southern oppressed communities such as rural isolation, Right-wing Christian infrastructure, racism, environmental degradation, and economic oppression. On top of your normal strange and wild comic book threats.
Welcome To Reedsboro is a toolbox for any Exceptionals game, filled with things to make getting a game up and running that much easier. Including;
A city full of npcs and locations
Ready to play example characters
The pre-made base; The Cairo Classic
4 whole new protocols that explore new possibilities within the guided tag system (The Adventurer, The Hustler, The Domain, and The Echo)
Over 114 story hooks
Take to the streets. Be a hero.
The City is alight with technological marvels. The City hides mysteries in its shadows. In this heady mix of glitz and gloom are the heroes: ordinary people with extraordinary abilities fighting to protect their communities.
With Streetscapes you can transport your Exceptionals game into a world of pulp fantasy. Tell exciting stories of community, activism and freeze-rays atop airships and in silhouetted alleyways. Fight back against structural violence and exploitation in a City that your playgroup creates together. In this module you will find:
A discussion on the Raygun Noir genre and how to incorporate it into your game.
Ideas on what sort of technologies are present in a retro-futuristic world.
Changes to the Exceptionals character creation process to make your own pulp hero.
A simple way to collaboratively create your own fantastic City using three Aspects.
Sample adventures to kickstart campaigns.
Character, base and city sheets for your Streetscapes game.
You can also find the bundle with the corebook here or just the corebook here
I should really post more things here. I’m so bad about being active. I’m always like “No, this is my professionals zone”. I do have a personal one I idle at though:
https://www.tumblr.com/sahonithereadwolf
Bramble Wolf Books @bramblewolfbooks - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
