#Feminism Is A Collection of 34 "Nanogames" From Designers Around The World

Pelgrane Press, known for its narrative games like Hillfolk and its collection of story-games, Seven Wonders, is releasing an anthology of 34 mini-RPGs written by feminist authors from 11 different countries. These "nano-games", collected in the book #Feminism, are typically playable in under an hour, making them ideal for one-shots. Pelgrane has kindly sent along some previews of the book, which you can see below. With games like Mentioning the Unmentionables by Sweden's Kajsa Greger ("Three games about the anatomy of women: "Dances With Vulvas", "Dying for a Cup of Coffee", and "Just Put Some Salt on It"), Shoutdown to Launch by America's Jason Morningstar ("In this game about gendered interruption, a bunch of engineers need to fix a problem with a rocket engine in the dwindling time before launch. It won’t go well."), 6016 by Norway's Elin Nilsen ("In 6016 the only historical source of the 21st century is a collection of clips from the soap opera Love, Lust and Lack of Trust."), and First Joyful Mystery by Ireland's Cathriona Tobin ("Players examine the impact Ireland’s prohibitive abortion laws have on people who find themselves pregnant."), each game has an intensity rating from 1-5.

#Feminism is a 96-page softcover available for pre-order; those who do so get the PDF version immediately.

One of the anthology's writers, Emily Care Boss, spoke about her thoughts when writing Ma, Can I Help You With That?, which came out of her own process of aging and seeing others supporting their parents. The game investigated the was relationships become strained, and how men and women tend to interact with the process. Jason Morningstar, who wrote Shoutdown to Launch, talks about how his job in academia helped highlight some of the gender ratios and power dynamics, while quietly honouring engineers like Katherine Johnson and Galina Balashova.

With 34 different nano-games, a whole range of subjects are covered. Tour of Duty by Moyra Turkington looks at women in the US military; Her Last Tweet deals with a campus shooting event; and in President, the goal of the game is to draft the first female president of the Akhaian Empire's press statement. There's a full list of the games below the images below!

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First Date Katrin Førde
A game about a date gone wrong and a rant about the orgasm gap.

Flirt Agata Swistak
Flirt is an attempt to deconstruct the game almost everyone is playing — the game of hook-ups, crushes, and scoring!

Spin the Goddesses Karin Edman
A kissing game of lesbian witches.

Willful Disregard Anna Westerling
A love story.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl Commandos Lizzie Stark
A military unit undertakes its last whimsical mission before retiring to civilian life.

6016 Elin Nilsen
In 6016 the only historical source of the 21st century is a collection of clips from the soap opera Love, Lust and Lack of Trust.

Tropes vs. Women Ann Eriksen
Explore well-known movie clichés and tropes about women in a fun and not too serious way.

Lipstick Kaisa Kangas
Sofia hesitates about whether to wear lipstick to a TV debate on feminism.

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby Julia Ellingboe
A game about gender, cultural, and ethnic representation in the movies.

Restrictions Frida Karlsson Lindgren and Sofia Stenler
A non-verbal game on how we are and aren’t allowed to move together, as two genders.

Mentioning the Unmentionables Kajsa Greger
Three games about the anatomy of women.

#Flesh Frederik Berg, Rebecka Eriksson, and Tobias Wrigstad
A physical game about the objectification of women or how women’s bodies are butchered into parts.

Selfie Kira Magrann
An intimate game about feelings in images.

So Mom I Made This Sex Tape Susanne Vejdemo
Different generations of feminists argue it out about sex, porn, and what the main point of feminism really is.

My Sister, Malala Elsa Helin
A game about freedom of thoughts and ideas for girls in Pakistan.

A Friend in Need Muriel Algayres
A nano-game about street harassment, victim-blaming and friendship. After a bad encounter on the street, can Ella get over victim-blaming with the help of her friends?

Driving to Reunion Laura Simpson
An intergenerational game about four Black women trying to understand each other, as they drive back for college reunion.

Catcalling Tora de Boer
Street harassment feels different depending on whether bystanders support the harasser or the victim.

How to Be Ava White Eva Wei
At a board meeting, parts of Ava White’s personality decide how to make her the perfect woman.

Shoutdown to Launch Jason Morningstar
In this game about gendered interruption, a bunch of engineers need to fix a problem with a rocket engine in the dwindling time before launch. It won’t go well.

“Something to Drink with That, Sir?” Evan Torner
A woman flight attendant performs emotional labor to serve three different male passengers.

“Ma, Can I Help You with That?” Emily Care Boss
A game about family, age and the gendered nature of care-giving.

Glitzy Nails Kat Jones
A freeform scenario about intersectional feminism, interactions between women, and nail salons.

Stripped Dominika Kovacova
A game about stripping off the stigma.

President Kaisa Kangas
The war-waging Akhaian empire has elected its first female president, a very successful lady general, and feminists with conflicting agendas are trying to draft a press statement together.

Curtain Call Sarah Bowman
A larp about the experiences of a woman in the music industry over the course of four decades.

The Grey Zone Siri Sandquist
A larp about the grey zone between rape and consensual sex in a relationship.

Family Planning Clinic Baptiste Cazes and Leïla Teteau-Surel with Laura Guedes
A game about women’s health where players will play short scenes from the daily life of a French family planning clinic inspired by real stories.

First Joyful Mystery Cathriona Tobin
Players examine the impact Ireland’s prohibitive abortion laws have on people who find themselves pregnant.

Girl: A Game for Boys Livia von Sucro
A small exercise about empathy, designed for cis gendered men to take a glimpse of what it feels like to be a victim of violence against women.

Her Last Tweet Rowan Cota
A microgame exploring being a potential victim of a campus shooting event.

Tour of Duty Moyra Turkington
A freeform nano-scenario about what it’s like to serve and defend as a woman in the US Military.

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[doctorbadwolf]

I don't think we should be discussing it here, on account of the rules of the forum. This is a political topic, the discussion around it is political. The bickering about who has the "correct" viewpoint about feminism and how everyone else is doing it wrong (an argument in common from both sides, with just the whos changed) is why this kind of thing is nominally verboten here.

I play RPGs to have fun, not to explore different political ideas or sociological constructs (like critical theory). You may have a different desire, but, honestly, I really doubt that anyone would be defending these games as good games if they had a topic they found politically unappealing. Which says that the current discussion is less about the game part and more about the topic part, which is politics. Hey, it even says on their tin that these games are politically driven, so this shouldn't be a shock.

Hat tip to 77, though, for valiantly having a discussion about the game part in spite of the politics.

Many of us play games for both. Sometimes simultaneously!

And yes, if there were games that espoused libertarian politics as a stated goal I would roll my eyes and defend their right to make those games, and defend their inclusion as gaming news.

I certainly haven't defended the quality of these particular games, since I haven't played them. From what [MENTION=12377]77IM[/MENTION] posted, I'm certainly interested in them, though.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Many of us play games for both. Sometimes simultaneously!

And yes, if there were games that espoused libertarian politics as a stated goal I would roll my eyes and defend their right to make those games, and defend their inclusion as gaming news.

I certainly haven't defended the quality of these particular games, since I haven't played them. From what [MENTION=12377]77IM[/MENTION] posted, I'm certainly interested in them, though.

Whereas I'd be saying the same thing about libertarian political games. Or MRA games. Or Critical Theory games. These are political topics, and should all be subject to the rules equally. I think there's a lot of 'but I agree with this, so it doesn't trip the 'politics are yucky' button but the 'yeah, I agrees!' button. We're often blind to our own biases (me being guilty as well).

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

How doe you discuss games that are specifically about talking political subjects without talking politics? These games don't seem to have 100 pages of mechanics to mull over. Pretty quickly you are going to have a thread that is more appropriate on Everyday Feminism than on a politically neutral game forum. I'm not for banning anything but those threads would be very tricky.

 

[Sunseeker]

You can very easily talk about if something makes you think, rather than what it makes you think about. And I think that's very much the answer here. If the goal of these games it to get the participants to think about certain subjects, then we can make brief a analysis on how they're supposed to play and if that would make people "think". If someone played in one of those games, they could tell us, "yes, the way this game is designed really helped us think about things" without saying anything about how it made you feel or what it made you think about or any further detail.

It may not be the answer to get the most in-depth review of a game, but people can always PM each other to ask for specifics, so as to not violate the rules on public political discourse.

 

[Ace]

Every so often some political bugaboo or other gets made into a game.

The last one before this, not counting Blue Rose which is a game with an agenda instead of an agenda with a game was Lou J. Porters Blood and Choice which was a D20 variant about abortion clinics ! Yes really.

Now I hugely respect and admire LJP as an artist, he very smart and very under appreciated but that idea was just daft , No one with an opinion is going to play that unless everyone is on the same page and people without a strong opinion is going to play it. Its not worth the group wreckage even if anyone is interested That makes the market basically strongly pro choice gamers or LJP collectors which is a tiny subset of a niche hobby.

This collection is the same kind of thing an opportunity to express political views in the form of RPG's . I'm sure most the games work mechanically well enough but are unsuitable for most play groups . No big deal, Paul Czege's Nicotine Girls is brilliant but largely unplayable as is Kill Puppies for Satan as are many games.

No big deal. I hope the authors enjoyed making it.

 

[76512390ag12]

All RPGs are political. We simply pretend they are not most of the time. I would explain but I think it is a banned subject.

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

 

[Ovinomancer]

You can very easily talk about if something makes you think, rather than what it makes you think about. And I think that's very much the answer here. If the goal of these games it to get the participants to think about certain subjects, then we can make brief a analysis on how they're supposed to play and if that would make people "think". If someone played in one of those games, they could tell us, "yes, the way this game is designed really helped us think about things" without saying anything about how it made you feel or what it made you think about or any further detail.

It may not be the answer to get the most in-depth review of a game, but people can always PM each other to ask for specifics, so as to not violate the rules on public political discourse.

The game about the things is very interesting. I didn't like the mechanic when you had to do the thing where you whatsit the other thing, but I felt that it really made me think about things.

That kind of thing?

 

[77IM]

You can very easily talk about if something makes you think, rather than what it makes you think about. And I think that's very much the answer here. If the goal of these games it to get the participants to think about certain subjects, then we can make brief a analysis on how they're supposed to play and if that would make people "think". If someone played in one of those games, they could tell us, "yes, the way this game is designed really helped us think about things" without saying anything about how it made you feel or what it made you think about or any further detail.

It may not be the answer to get the most in-depth review of a game, but people can always PM each other to ask for specifics, so as to not violate the rules on public political discourse.

This, exactly.

You can evaluate whether a political game is a good political game, without evaluating whether its politics are good. "Goodness" here involves the game mechanics, how well it communicates its political beliefs, how respectful it is of players with differing beliefs, and whether it is fun, or moving, or rewarding, or whatever.

And by "you" I mean every single poster on this thread. "You" can post something thoughtful, critical, and expresses your views on the game without getting overwhelmed by your own stake in the debate. "You" don't have to post a knee-jerk response filled with bad assumptions, strong emotions, misinformation, vitriol, and deliberate trolling. I believe in "you!"

Special Achievement Award goes to [MENTION=6867728]ArchfiendBobbie[/MENTION] for stepping back from the brink and posting a thoughtful and articulate explanation of his or her stance.

 

[Sunseeker]

The game about the things is very interesting. I didn't like the mechanic when you had to do the thing where you whatsit the other thing, but I felt that it really made me think about things.

That kind of thing?

Sure, though it doesn't have to be quite that abstract, you just have to be willing to dance.

 

[-Wing-Zero-]

has anyone ever been girldescended(condescended) to? it's a new phrase i just made up to apply a gender tag to a negative behavior because it's easier to make blanket statements this way.