You can support this show on Patreon!Today, I’m talking to Elizabeth Little. She’s a UK-based science teacher, artist, and game designer. She co-founded Shrike Studio in 2015 and released games such as Blight Seas Fleet, a dark fantasy naval skirmish game, for which she developed a whole range of 3D printable miniatures. This year, she released a demo of You Will Die In This Place, an RPG described as "a nihilistic dungeoncrawler about art, death and identity". It’s weird, meta, layered, and also very asymmetrical like a boardgame. We talk about its design and themes (everything is a labyrinth! relationships, games, mental illness!) and its crowdfunding campaign via GameFound's RPG Party later this year. Crowdfunding link: gamefound.com/en/projects/shrike-studio/you-will-die-in-this-place Itch.io link: https://liz-shrikestudio.itch.io/ Show Notes:The Denial of Death by Ernst BeckerMyth of SisyphusLabyrinths by Jose Luis BorgesDeimos by Dragan Bibin (painting)Toni R. Toivonen’s brass art Watching from a Distance by Warning (doom metal album)Essay about the game by the Split/Party newsletterGames MentionedCall of CthulhuDelta GreenWorld of DarknessZephyr: An Anarchist Game of Fleeting IdentitiesYazeba’s Bed and BreakfastPaint the Town RedIf you liked this podcast, check out the weekly Indie RPG Newsletter
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1:17:16
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1:17:16
Girls of the Genziana Hotel (w/ Hendrik ten Napel)
You can support this show on Patreon!In this episode, we talk to Hendrik ten Napel, a game designer from the Netherlands. He's self-published supplements for Brindlewood Bay, Bump in the Dark, and the Paragon system. His newsletter, Hendrik Biweekly, is a regular source of excellent game design thoughts. Today we're here to talk about his first crowdfunded game, The Girls of the Genziana Hotel, a gothic mystery PbtA game set in an isolated alpine hotel. You play chambermaids in the hotel trying to discover what happened to one of their own.The crowdfunding page of The Girls of the Genziana Hotel on Gamefound: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/hendriktennapel/the-girls-of-the-genziana-hotel Hendrik’s bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/napel.itch.io Hendrik’s itch page: https://napel.itch.ioShow Notes:Strega by Johanne Lykke HolmAfter Sappho by Selby Wynn SchwartzSally RooneyGames MentionedBrindlewood BayThe BetweenNight WitchesExilesCrescent 2eIf you liked this podcast, check out the weekly Indie RPG Newsletter
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1:01:06
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1:01:06
A Body of Work (w/ Emily Allen)
You can support this show on Patreon!In this episode, we talk to Emily Allen, the game designer behind Dying Stylishly Games. She's best known for her two now classic OSR adventures, the Gardens of Ynn and the ennie-award winning Stygian Library, which popularized the depth-crawl format. Both of which are now republished in new editions from Soul Muppet Publishing. She’s also designed Dungeon Bitches, a violent sapphic PbtA game about trauma and survival and the Yellow Curtain, a weird meta-storygame inspired by the King in Yellow. And then this year, we got Black Death Rising, an OSR-ish game of religious horror amidst the black plague where you can play vampires, werewolves, homunculi, changelings, ghouls, grotesques, ghosts, and waifs. And fight fascists, demons, and intelligent rats.Emily Allen’s blog: https://cavegirlgames.blogspot.comTumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/cavegirlpoemsGames on drivethruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/8182/cavegirl-productionsEmily’s Games:Wolf Pack & Winter Snow (2017)The Dolorous Stroke (2018)Gardens of Ynn (2018)Stygian Library (2018)Deep Morphean Transmissions (2019)Esoteric Enterprises (2019)Dead Girls in Sarkash Forest (2021)Dungeon Bitches (2021/2022)The Wounded, Hungry and Forgotten (2022)Black Death Walking (2022)The Yellow Curtain (2024)Black Lung (2024)Black Death Rising (2025)Show Notes:Book of RevelationsJojo’s Bizarre AdventureGames MentionedStars without NumberBeyond the WallMiseries & MisfortunesVampire the Masquerade/World of DarknessLacuna by Jared SorensonMork BorgEmpire (larp)If you liked this podcast, check out the weekly Indie RPG Newsletter
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1:04:11
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1:04:11
Gothic & Folk Horror (w/ Luke Jordan)
You can support this show on Patreon!In this episode, we talk to Luke Jordan aka Wildwood Games, a queer non-binary game designer, writer, editor, performer, and professional GM. Their own games often combine a poetic sensibility, spooky themes, high emotion, and light mechanics. They've contributed to games like Girl by Moonlight published by Evil Hat and Koriko and The Slow Knife by Mouse House Press. Today, we're talking about two of their games that were crowdfunded in a double-barrel campaign with Possum Creek Games in late 2023. Grand Guignol, a second version of their game of queer gothic horror, and Harvest, a brand new folk horror set on some unnamed British isle. Harvest / Grand Guignol on Backerkit: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/jay-dragon/grand-guignol-harvest Wild Wood Games on itch: https://gamesfromthewildwood.itch.io/harvest Luke Jordan on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wildwoodsgames.bsky.social Show Notes:The Picture of Dorian GrayDraculaJekyll and HydeFrankensteinPenny DreadfulThe Wickerman The Apostle (2018)Blood on Satan’s ClawWitchfinder GeneralWoodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (documentary)MidsommarThe Dark Is Rising by Susan CooperGames MentionedApocalypse WorldDream Askew/Dream ApartWanderhomeStonetop (with annotated actual play)If you liked this podcast, check out the weekly Indie RPG Newsletter
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1:10:21
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1:10:21
Political Rebellion & Games (w/ Jess Levine)
You can support this show on Patreon!Spoilers for Andor S2 from 04:30 to 10:30Spoilers for Rogue One all through the episodeIn this episode, I speak to Jess Levine. She is a teacher, organizer, writer and game designer. She publishes RPGs under the label, Jumpgate Games. Her work includes I Have the High Ground—a game of "banter, posturing, and capes"—and her satirical military scifi game PLANET FIST. Today we'll be talking about going rogue 2e, an award-winning game of war, rebellion, and sacrifice.Galactic & Going Rogue’s crowdfunding campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/galacticgoingrogue/galactic-and-going-rogue-two-ttrpgs-of-war-among-the-stars?ref=97zzps Jess Levine’s bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jessfrom.online Show Notes:A More Civilized Age’s actual playGuide to the BDS BoycottAA Voigt’s video about Going RogueGramsci?Roleplay Public Radio actual playGames Mentionedhook, line & cyb3r by wicked glitch gamesA Quiet Year by Avery AlderDream Askew/Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin RosenbaumIf you liked this podcast, check out the weekly Indie RPG Newsletter
Do I like game design? Yes, indie'd! A podcast of bitesize interviews with indie tabletop roleplaying game creators about their work and game design theory & practice. Releases every two weeks.
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