tbh I never backed any game before so I am by no means an expert on fulfillment quality, but I thought Chrys and Plus One Exp did a great job! Everything was in good shape and well protected 😄
my wife might steal the dice lol I guess I’d let her 😆
A game jam from 2026-05-01 to 2026-06-08 hosted by Courtney 🌻 The Sunflower Court. Inspired by, by which I mean ripped entirely off of, the
May 8
Defy the Gods:
Queer sword & sorcery adventure-romance set in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia
Kissam the Sorcerer (they/them)
Created for the “The Perilous Amulet” quick start adventure, Kissam is an androgynous figure whose face and body are covered with Atlantean tattoos, making their face have a skull-like affect, only emphasized by their dark eyes and hollow voice. They were once the lead scribe who worked for the city ruler (born as the daughter of the ruler’s right hand magistrate.) After decades in service, they cast off their old gender and name along with their career; their study of sorcery gave them personal revelations as well as magical ones. They are short and stocky and have small bull horns growing out of their temples. They wear loose layered robes with no decoration except for beads tied in their gray hair.
They read about the amulet in ancient scrolls. Spirits of ancient Atlanteans throng around the amulet, and beg to be summoned, promising to lend Kissam power if they do so. Kissam believes that if the Atlanteans were given life again, they could share their knowledge and marvelous inventions and magic - even though it would cause chaos.
The influential of the City shunned them when they began to practice sorcery. They have been banned from working as a scribe, and were thrown out violently by the city guards. Their lover Al-Ellati “El” was killed trying to protect them. Kissam breached Death’s wall with sorcery, but was unable to find El. Perhaps they are deeper in the netherworld - or someone else has already resurrected them for their own purposes.
Queer sword & sorcery adventure-romance in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia
I highly recommend this game, especially to anyone who's already interested in games like Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Agon or Runequest. Some highlights of what I enjoyed - gorgeous and evocative artwork, really cool character abilities, building a city together that our characters loved and cared about, playing our own enemies in cutscenes, flavorful worldbuilding options to decide what the gods are or what is magic, and opportunities for dramatic reveals or vulnerable moments.
When I had the opportunity to play this game, we saw some really fun larger-than-life character abilities ("Miracles", "Spells", "Moves", etc.) like -
changing the timeline
summoning a posse of shades who are super helpful until they get hungry
making an illusion of people so real that you single-handedly change your city's demographics
communing with a mythical beast and convincing them to become a guardian spirit of the nearby river instead of eating people
disguising yourself completely as a high priestess and taking over the temple without any question from the acolytes
emanating the power of the goddess of hopeless wishes so powerfully that an enemy just decides to leap back in the Underworld
literally flying with the power of friendship
Learning the rules was pretty easy, rolls are 2d6 with a modifier if applicable. Epithets work both as sort of stats/abilities and conditions/health/durability. You write a unique phrase that talks about your character's behavior or values. You rewrite one of these epithets when your character experiences Crisis (from taking too many Wounds - which usually comes from low rolls) or Doom (from gaining too much Fire - which comes usually from high rolls). You gain XP when you roll low, or when you do certain things that match the theme of your specific character archetype (for example, communicating with otherworldly forces for one playbook, endangering yourself to seek knowledge for another.) There's definitely some fun toys on each character sheet to keep track of and challenge everyone to dive into the drama.
There's an example adventure in the back of the full book, however it seems easy to set up a simple adventure by just looking at the playbooks that people are interested in and the World Forces (the authorities in the world that hate your characters for their subversive lifestyles and adventuring ways). In fact, each player makes a character who is a World Force, which also helps with fleshing out the opposition.
We encountered a god of revenge who was angry that our Revenant didn't want to serve them, city officials who sent guards to tear down our neighborhood to make way for a "fire break", a river god spreading curses to our neighborhood who also hated the Vessel's deity for not being a traditional goddess, and Atlantean sorcerers who wanted to plant their city in the Wild and our neighborhood alike without regard for either the wild creatures or city-dwellers. The players fleshed out some ideas at the beginning of the game of what creatures served the Underworld, what were characteristics of Atlantis, and what the city government was like.
For a one session game, I would definitely recommend doing as we did and starting each player character off with 2 XP and 2 Fire, and truncating some of the world building. I could definitely see this system being compatible with a bunch of sword n sorcery adventures as long as the group made sure to create dramatic relationships with each other and the opposition (World Forces).
Defy the Gods is one of my top favorite games, and while I usually just write adventures, I had fun trying to write a playbook recently. I've never written one before, so it was a challenge. (I did miss a pun on "unveiling" lol).
You were a dreadful, sacred guardian. Regain your lost power, and this time, only your own heart will command it.
This includes a google sheets character keeper with dropdowns, fillable pdfs with and without art, and a screen reader friendly version. Posted with the kindly permission of the creator.
When I re-read The Epic of Gilgamesh, I was haunted by the mysterious figure of Humbaba/Huwawa. I wondered what it would be like to be that kind of person, if that person lived, if that person moved in the world after such a great loss and humiliation, if there was a realization that the gods were toxic and they had never been as loved as they thought they were. And a lot of gender feelings.
The Apotropaic would also be good to play a Medusa, fairytale ogre (the Puss in Boots kind perhaps), djinn (depending on the tale), Polyphemus or potentially even a Fafnir or Lucifer type character.
You can find Defy the Gods here:
Queer sword & sorcery adventure-romance set in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia
I had a bunch of character ideas, but ended up going with The Vessel playbook.
My Vessel had some fun banter with the Wolfling, met a follower of her former deity, and had an interesting conversation with oddly cheerful followers of the god of Revenge. The mechanics have a lot of similarities with Thirsty Sword Lesbians, but some Belonging Outside Belonging concepts have influenced the way the game is set up and how the World Forces are played out. We each played an NPC briefly before playing as our PCs, which was pretty neat.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve gotten to be a player. Honestly I’m sad that it’s been so long since I’ve been able to play with a group. I also feel like I’m picking bad times to speak and ending up accidentally interrupting or creating an awkward silence. I guess it’s just like that some times though in this hobby.
Anyway, check out this really cool game!
Queer sword & sorcery adventure-romance in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia
another snippet of prep from my Defy the Gods adventure!
I'll be truncating some of the collaborating worldbuilding of the City and World Forces so that the players can still make some decisions, but it is more tightly focused from the beginning so we can get to the drama faster.
Right now the main two deities are Ereshkigal and Inanna, but I will let the players expand on that in play too.
I really need to re-read the Epic of Gilgamesh on my flight this Sunday.
Thankfully the prep is super similar to Thirsty Sword Lesbians. I'm more excited than nervous to run it though I'm sure I will get nervous again!
