A survival horror card game for 2-5 players and 1 DM.
Hello, everyone! I made a card game. It's called "Watching Us", and it is a survival horror card game for 2-5 players and 1 DM, themed after old slenderman shows, analog horror, and creepypasta.
I do not have the ability to pay for physical cards at the moment so you will need to print and cut the cards yourself, but because of that it is also completely 100% free. It's free! It's free! Go play it with your friends, because I do not know enough people IRL who like card games and horror to playtest it.
It is a macabre combination of Truth or Dare and Elder Sign. It's like a party game for masochists! I highly recommend it.
Did I mention I made almost all the art for it, and also, I made all the card templating for it myself, and also, it's completely free?
What do you have to lose? A dollar's worth of paper and printer ink, maybe? Go! Give it a shot! You'll have fun, I promise.
Few things thrive out here in the Caliper Belt. Its sparse asteroids are flecks of lifeless stone along an inky strip of space. Back in the day, it used to glow with streaks of light as massive freighters hauled their cargo from outpost to outpost. But the ore dried up, and these days the Caliper Belt is little more than an interstellar shortcut.
Only spot in the Belt still worth visiting these days is the infamous Mari’s 26-Hour Cosmic. One part gas station, one part diner, one part truck stop, one part card café, assembled from old spaceships and satellites and tethered to a hunk of rock: Mari’s is a barnacle that refuses to die.
And the only reason it’s still afloat is because of our motley skeleton crew. We don’t see many folks come through these doors. But everyone who does drop in brings a story with them. And sometimes, those stories lead to stories of our own.
THE LONG SHIFT: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS AT AN INTERSTELLAR TRUCK STOP is a tabletop role-playing game about a diner at the end of the universe, its waitstaff, and the roamers and wayfarers who pass through. It's a game with light and breezy gameplay, perfect for a one-shot or an interlude in a longer sci-fi campaign.
Check it out and live your coffeeshop au dreams (in space!)
[Image IDs:
1: On a dark blue background flanked by stars and a planet, text reads, "Mari's 26-Hour Cosmic: the last stop this side of the Caliper Belt. Everyone who passes through this diner brings a story along.
2: On a dark blue background, an vector illustration of a diner/gas station/truck stop. Text overhead reads THE LONG SHIFT: Close Encounters at an Interstellar Truck Stop. An animated shooting star blinks like a comet overhead.
3: On a dark blue background, text reads "Character creation: To start, each player creates a Player Character (PC) who works at Mari's. Each PC should have:
● A name and pronouns: Pick from the list of names below or come up with your own.
● Two different skills: everyone at Mari’s has a hand in a couple of trades. Pick one from the top half of the list to be your main gig, and any other choice as a secondary skill. It’s okay if there’s some overlap between characters.
● Three character traits: keep these small and grounded, quirks and details that you can play into. For examples or inspiration, check the Character Prompts table later in the rulebook."
4: On a dark blue background, a table reads "Guiding Stars" with a list of thirteen prompts arranged in order by the ranks of playing cards: Why we stay, Our lives before this, The greater Caliper Belt, Recreation and leisure, Dreams of the future, What makes a home a home, Childhood comforts, The natural world, Life on the road, Special occasions, Our legacies, Where we place our faith, and Music.
5: On a dark blue background, a table of Scene Prompts sorted by the suit and rank of a card deck. The table is cut off, but the prompts shown include:
● Repairing what is broken, A sunk cost, A legend of old, A stroke of luck
● A temporary outage, A storm averted, A bottleneck, A miscalculation
● A favor from a friend, Embarrassing memories, Striking a bargain, Fulfilling a promise
● A familiar song, What washes ashore, The forgotten one, Ghost stories
● Held in high esteem, A new recipe, An honest confession, Steadfast certainty
Following a conversation I had on Reddit the other day, I thought I’d share a quick insight into how I run combat (especially in D&D, which doesn’t have any mechanics for increasing tension or making combat more dynamic like other games might).
Basically…
If something new doesn’t happen every 2-3 rounds, the combat will be boring.
Now here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of new things that can happen:
A new enemy arrives
An enemy dies or flees
An enemy reveals a new ability
An enemy dramatically changes their tactics (moves to a new spot, starts targeting a different PC, switches from melee to ranged or to spellcasting or w/e)
A PC dies/goes down
Reinforcements arrive for the PCs
The environment changes (a surge of lava flows through the battlefield, a crack opens in the floor, a locked door opens, etc)
A new “ticking clock” starts (a bomb is about to go off, the enemy is charging up a devastating attack, an innocent person is in danger, the room is collapsing, etc)
A new goal for the PCs arises (an object to grab, a ritual to foil, a lengthy spell to cast, a location to reach, etc)
An NPC reveals something related to the plot (“I am your father”, “This fight is just a distraction!”, “This is actually a simulation”, “I never wanted to fight you”, “If you call this fight off and let us leave, I’ll tell you what you want to know”, etc)
The more “organic” you can make these new things the better, which is a skill you will develop as you DM more (also, some of these will just happen naturally, especially #2 and #5). At the start, just focus on the first 5 points since they’re the easiest to implement at short notice. #7 is also a good one if you have ideas for it. Your goal is to force the players to adapt to new circumstances as they arise! If something new happens but the players don’t need to change their own behaviour to match it, then it may as well not have happened at all.
Basically, be creative and be fairly brutal (as brutal as is tolerable for the players!) and you will find your combats will have a lot more punch than if you play it safe.
ellievsbear
yousharknotpass
annaxmalina
