Are you familiar with journaling games at all? It's basically gamified journaling where you roll and die to determine a prompt and follow it from the perspective of your character, while taking your character's traits and other factors into consideration. I've only played Last Tea Shop before, where I ran a tea shop in the mountains serving customers on their way to the afterlife. You converse with them, learn their stories, and use acquired ingredients to craft recipes (which have effects) that you think will help them on their journey. There's usually more to the games than just a dice roll, but that's the gist of it. I'm no writer, but I had a really good time with Last Tea Shop and I'm looking forward to trying more. Here are all the ones I ordered the other day. I'm linking to the physical copies, but one of the best things about this kind of game is that I'd say the vast majority are available on Itch for like $5-$10, if not less (the game I mentioned above is free). The Thousand Year Old Vampire, whose print edition is $50, is $15 for the PDF. VOID 1680 AM – Tabletop Bookshelf - You play as a radio DJ, and throughout the game you're taking calls from listeners, getting to know them, and compiling your playlist (using whatever music you want). Carved by the Garden – Tabletop Bookshelf - This is the one I think I'm most excited for. It incorporates a Jenga tower which determines the end of the game. In this one, you're playing a character wandering through haunted woods. Thousand Year Old Vampire – Tabletop Bookshelf - This is one of the most popular and acclaimed ones. You play a vampire, and the game spans generations (as the title suggests). Throughout the game, you're slowly losing memories, including ones that meant a lot to you. It can supposedly be very heavy. I'm not great with history, so this one feels a bit daunting, but I've read several reviews that suggest having to do some research here is really fun and rewarding, which I believe. The print edition looks gorgeous. Whispers in the Walls – Tabletop Bookshelf - This is another really popular one. From what I've gathered, this one is a good starting point for journaling games. It's popular, and while I've heard people suggest that it's too simplistic, most people seem to agree that it at least evokes a really good spooky atmosphere. Transformation | Absurdist Productions - Told myself to stop ordering things, but then saw a YouTube reviewer talking about this one and he made it sound really fun. Body horror journaling game where you're slowly turning into a monster. I couldn't not. And one I did NOT order, but which came up in several YouTube videos and people seem to really love, is The Unseen World - Thomas P. King | DriveThruRPG
I received my copy of Four Against Darkness last night. The use of AI art sucks, but I'm still looking forward to learning this, admittedly in large part just because drawing out the dungeons seems really fun. I might prioritize learning this one since UnderQuest has me in a dungeon crawling mood. Supposedly it's easy to learn; it sounds like the trickiest part is just remembering each character's effects against various foes. Speaking of UnderQuest, the more I play it, the more I fall in love with it. The aesthetic really takes it to another level and it's also just pure fun. It was also very easy to learn, which is funny considering how complicated I thought it looked when I ordered it back in February.
these sound and look so cool! Might need to dive into this world. And you're making me want to get Underquest lol. I signed up for the original crowd sale but missed the boat when it came back around.
The price for UnderQuest is pretty insane now that the crowd sale is over, but it is really good and there’s already a booster pack with 54 more cards (including three hero cards, which are apparently an entirely new thing) going on sale later this summer. Sorry if I already mentioned this in one of my other rambly posts lol.
Yeah, get this game, it really is sooo much fun. Last night I finished the run I started on Friday; stretching it out over several nights felt surprisingly good and gave me something to look forward to. My character was pretty strong, I learned a couple of skills, and made it to the fourth quest of the game on the third level of the dungeon and thought I was on my way to victory until I got got in a close battle with this guy (Balacore, 14 HP) because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my health during the fight. If I had been, I would’ve had a couple of very risky but potentially extremely rewarding options (rage skill or a final re-roll which would’ve given me an affliction ). Fuck you, balacore.
Today we played Tend, it ran a little longer than I expected so we didn’t get to play much else, but I was quite taken with it. I want more scratch-off mechanics in games!
I played Go Fuck Yourself with my family a couple days ago. I recommend playing that with just your friends. Hahaha.