For the last few months I’ve uploaded a number of my tabletop games to my itch.io page and I’m always working on something new. I really enjoy designing pen-and-paper games as the inherent restrictions breed a unique type of creativity, and the turnaround of idea to finished product can be really short. Some of these are simple one-pagers but others are much more complex. You can find all my current games here but I want to highlight a couple.
‘Not So Merry Men’ – An Outlaw Solo-RPG
The biggest project I’ve undertaken, Not So Merry Men is a game about de-romanticising the lifestyle of the rogue outlaw. The core system is a flip on the traditional solo-rpg mechanic of drawing a card and checking a table for an outcome, where there is also a predictive gambling element to the game. The game asks you to play with just 13 cards from a standard deck making predictions on the value of each, and then at the end you collect them together and play a round of a traditional card game known as ‘around the world’. Utilising your knowledge of what cards you faced, you have an edge over simple chance.
The game is available for free online, but I have printed and distributed the physical version to multiple games stores in London and beyond. The UK rpg zine-scene has been flourishing over the last few years but is somewhat oversaturated. Hence, I wanted to make sure my first proper contribution was at least building on what had been before.
“Stay” – Game & Puzzle Design
Black Bars is the first one-pager that I put together and is a simple roleplaying game for three people. The concept is simple: one of you generates a secret composed of some consistent elements, sends it to another player who censors some of it whilst trying to figure out the secret, then hands it on to the final player who must try and figure out the secret before the censor can.
This game was recently featured in the Tiny Tome 2 collection, a combined 50 different one-page games from the indie-rpg scene published last year! It really demonstrates the sheer creativity on display in this community and I highly suggest you go and support the project. You can find the full page here.