Kai's guide to #RPGSEA games and creators!

Tun Kai Poh · May 16, 2020

So a while back I posted about Paul Czege's quote on indie RPGs on itch.io, back in this thread:

Paul Czege on the wild energy of the itch.io ttrpg scene, or, "My Life With Itch"

Paul Czege, the designer of MY LIFE WITH MASTER has spent this year looking at the indie scene on itch.io, and the crazy wild energy on it. An important thread on Twitter. If I were his editor, I'd title it "My Life With Itch." Have you seen people talking about the tabletop storygame and RPG...

www.enworld.org

The itch.io pen-and-paper scene is getting more attention these days - for example, in this great overview by Caitlin Galiz-Rowe on Dicebreaker. Indie video game platform Itch.io has given tabletop RPG designers a new way to thrive

I'm going to be posting about my fellow #RPGSEA creators and their games in this thread, because these are awesome creative folks that I think deserve some love, and some attention. We'll start by saying that #RPGSEA is the hashtag for tabletop creators from Southeast Asia (SEA) - the whole boisterous bunch in the Philippines, my local Malaysian ttrpg design scene, but also creators in Singapore, Indonesia and all over the region. #RPGSEA also covers creators of Southeast Asian descent in the worldwide diaspora, bringing their own personal perspectives and takes on SEA culture and roleplaying in general!

I've put together a collection page of #RPGSEA games that I vouch for on itch.io, which you can check out here.

Games of #RPGSEA - Collection by Role Over Play Dead

Later on, I'm gonna be doing individual focus posts.

Fenris-77 · May 16, 2020

Nice to see you repping your peeps. I look forward to seeing what's going on halfway around the world.

Tun Kai Poh · May 17, 2020

Starting in the Philippines, let's look at the work of BJ Recio of Buko Juice Games. BJ writes about Filipino-inspired gods and monsters for use in tabletop RPGs. Perhaps you've seen his name on the writing team for The Islands of Sina Una, a successfully crowdfunded setting book for D&D 5e based on the pre-colonial Philippines.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-islands-of-sina-una-philippines-ttrpg-book

His system-agnostic adventure Cockamania! is a quirky and charming mystery set in a rice-farming village where local gods and spirits are locked in a nasty web of ambition, grudges, curses and stolen poultry, all of which swirls around the seasonal cockfights staged by the villagers. If you ever wanted to see what happens when you enter a cockatrice into a cockfight, this is the adventure for you. There are also two traditional chicken recipes for the reader to try.

Cockamania! by BJ Games

Tales of cockfighting and the marital spats of gods. A system-neutral RPG scenario!

bukojuice.itch.io

BJ also helped create the viral #ManilaEncounters tag on Twitter last year, which generated a huge amount of urban fantasy microfiction from Manila's residents. He's edited the best of these, with permission of the authors, into a zine, Manila Encounters Vol. 1, which also includes additional art and essays. There are plenty of great adventure seeds for a Manila-based urban fantasy game right here.

Manila Encounters Vol. I by BJ Games

Random Encounters in the sometimes wondrous, sometimes horrific Metro Manila.

bukojuice.itch.io

His Patreon can be found at:

Get more from Buko Juice Games on Patreon

creating Filipino-inspired RPG content

www.patreon.com

Tun Kai Poh · May 19, 2020

Malaysian game designer Aaron Lim has established a clear brand, and that brand is all about strong thematic elements and clever wordplay.

From the micro-game that first brought him to my attention, Baby's First RPG, to the Oaths of Virtue that govern the warriors of The Oaths We Swore Amid Autumn Leaves, Aaron's games are always distinct, focused and memorable.

Baby's First RPG by ehronlime

This is a tabletop game about babies and their first RPG

ehronlime.itch.io

The Oaths We Swore Amid Autumn Leaves by ehronlime

Swear oaths to each other, meet rivals in battle, struggle against fate and destiny.

ehronlime.itch.io

Sometimes Aaron's puns aren't just textual; in The Outer Whorls, the players make a map of connected Worlds by each dipping a finger in ink and marking their fingerprint on the Galaxy map! What's more, every time two players' Worlds attempt to make a Connection, the simultaneous-choice mechanic is played out by having the players choose one of their five fingers to point (there are different meanings listed on a handy table). That's the kind of design that shows true commitment to wordplay - and it isn't even Aaron's first game to use finger-based mechanics!

The Outer Whorls by ehronlime

A story game of making connections between doomed worlds

ehronlime.itch.io

I could go on and on about Aaron's very specific and very gimmicky designs. His game about an online community of gunpla collectors. His extremely Malaysian schoolkid superhero game. His game about the different phases in the life of a wuxia swordfighter (and also heavily themed around the number 4, which has grim connotations in Chinese culture).

But if you have any interest in lyric games, read Homebound. It's an anthology of games about home and going away, inspired by his experiences as an immigrant, as part of the Melbourne game design scene, and as someone who returned to Malaysia. It is heartfelt, artfully written, and deeply personal.

Homebound by ehronlime

An anthology of games about home and going away

ehronlime.itch.io

Tun Kai Poh · May 24, 2020

Natum Go is a character designer from Indonesia who highlights Asian characters, stories and themes through their artwork. And they design RPG material too!

Their D&D 5e Sorcerous Origin, Ancient Curse, is a particularly clever twist on the folk tales of ancestral curses that ensure certain doom. This sorcerer subclass draws power from the curse they were born with to try to thwart fate. The Cursed Self feature manages to be both a curse and a blessing on the first attack roll, ability check and saving throw rolled each day, and there is a plethora of curse-themed powers that the sorcerer gains as it goes up the levels (including access to a limited number of warlock spells). It doesn't seem overpowered or underpowered, and is dripping with flavour. Best of all, there are two versions of the file, one with designer's notes (for optimization of play) and one without (for hardcore players I guess).

Ancient Curse - Sorcerous Origin (D&D 5E) by Natum Go

An RPG subclass for the Sorcerer class

natumgo.itch.io

Their single-player introspection game, You Hold The Thread, is about examining choices made in the past and thinking about alternative events that could have resulted from different choices. It works particularly well if you have diary entries or old social media posts to reference. I particularly like how there is a strict time limit on reviewing and thinking about those choices...after which you destroy or delete your notes, because while learning about the importance of past decisions is good, dwelling too long on the past is bad. Well thought-out.

You Hold the Thread by Natum Go

A game about empowerment through introspection

natumgo.itch.io

You can find their artwork for their homebrew D&D campaign here. Now, somebody go hire them!

Natum Go

I'm a freelance artist from Indonesia. My ambition is to highlight Asian characters, themes, and story through my artworks. Twitter: http://twitter.com/natumgo

www.artstation.com

Fenris-77 · May 24, 2020

That artwork is solid.

Tun Kai Poh · Jun 10, 2020

First of all, kudos to Malaysian creator Aaron Lim for being nominated in TWO categories of the Freeplay Awards 2020, for The Outer Whorls and Homebound!

https://www.freeplay.net.au/awards/

Next, our #RPGSEA creator spotlight shifts to the Philippines where we look at the design work of "Pammu" Punzalan, community organizer and co-founder/Editor-in-Chief of gaming site Play Without Apology (known for years before that as Girls Got Game until a big corporation branded the phrase).

Play Without Apology

Girls got game, and we play without apology. This is how we play!

playwithoutapology.com

Pam has worked on games both big and small. Sundo is her game of death, rebirth, memories, and letting go, loosely based on the Powered by the Apocalypse framework. The First Edition is available for Pay-What-You-Want; a second edition is now in Beta.

Sundo: The First Flight by Pammu

A game about death, rebirth, memories, and letting go.

thedovetailor.itch.io

Among her smaller games - which cover topics like trashy writing, monsters going clubbing at night, and taxi drivers ferrying spirits about Manila - I'm particularly fond of Our Armistice, a two-player romance game about a soldier returning home to a loved one. It's lavishly illustrated with public-domain art from classic Filipino painters.

Our Armistice by Pammu

An intimate experience for two about Heroes, Lovers, and Home

thedovetailor.itch.io

Also check out Pammu's homebrews for Forged in the Dark, including Waking the Dead, a local Filipino take on the World of Darkness and One More Notch, which combines North Hook from Blades in the Dark with the Grishaverse novels of Leigh Bardugo.

Forged in the Dark Hacks & Supplements - Collection by Pammu

Pam's Ko-Fi:

Buy Pammu a Coffee. ko-fi.com/thedovetailor

Become a supporter of Pammu today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.

ko-fi.com

Pam's Patreon:

Patreon

Patreon is empowering a new generation of creators. Support and engage with artists and creators as they live out their passions!

www.patreon.com

Tun Kai Poh · Jun 15, 2020

Okay, we have to talk about my friend Jammi Nedjadi of Sword Queen Games. Professional tarot reader (20 years experience) and game designer (writing, layout and other magic). From the Philippines.

Jammi is an industry. They started publishing on itch the same time I did at the start of 2019.

I have published 5 things (3 small games and 2 tiny supplements) since that time.

Jammi has published 38. THIRTY-EIGHT.

Not shovelware. Not a bunch of one-pagers (although one-pagers are nothing to sniff at, just look at Grant Howitt). Twenty-plus gorgeous premium games of various size, eight free games (not necessarily short!) and various prototypes and experimental projects.

Gorgeous games.

This is what their free stuff looks like.

This is what their paid stuff looks like.

What are Jammi games about? Emotions and memories and also big magic and robots blowing up. They love creating roleplaying experiences in the science fiction and cyberpunk genres, but also ghost stories, anime fantasies and Vertigo Comic supernatural conspiracy stuff.

I recommend you take a look at their pay-what-you-want game Stories of Love in Manila. It's a storytelling game for 2-6 people set in a coffee shop somewhere in the big city of Manila. One is a gifted fortune teller, the Reader. The others are Elementals: spirits and creatures from Filipino folklore living in the guise of humans, working and dreaming in the city, coming to the Reader with their troubled love lives. It's tarot-driven, it's got romance and urban fantasy and flashbacks and flashforwards. All classic Jammi themes.

Stories of Love in Manila by Rae Nedjadi

Interpret the magic of love

temporalhiccup.itch.io

BALIKBAYAN: Returning Home, one of Jammi's best premium games, is also about Elementals, but in a cyberpunk dystopia where the spirits rebel against a powerful Corporate overlord. It's built on Avery Alder's Belonging Outside Belonging framework, and can be played with or without a GM. BALIKBAYAN is part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, so if you have that, take a look at Jammi's game!

BALIKBAYAN: Returning Home by Rae Nedjadi

A Supernatural-Cyberpunk Revolution

temporalhiccup.itch.io

Once More Into The Void, a Firebrands hack, is Jammi's ode to Mass Effect 2, about a Captain who must find redemption for the past, while gathering up their old crew for one last mission to save the galaxy.

Once More Into The Void by Rae Nedjadi

Can you save yourselves in order to save the galaxy?

temporalhiccup.itch.io

Jammi is also an active member of The Gauntlet RPG community, and frequently streams games as well as serving as a host on the Gauntlet Podcast.

And if you've heard of the Role RPG platform Kickstarter, Jammi is one of the six exciting indie creators who are being paid to create new games and supplements for the Role Marketplace! Their contribution is a space opera about a sundered galaxy called Voidwalkers! As of writing, there are 3 days remaining to back Role...

Update 6: Creators Spotlight: Sword Queen Games · Role: A New Kind of Platform For The RPG Community

Creators Spotlight: Sword Queen Games We've been so excited and overwhelmed by the support of this community in the past week. No just for Role, but also for the creators we're working with in this campaign! Thank you! In today's Creators Spotlight, we’re happy to feature our friend Jammi of...

www.kickstarter.com

Finally, you can follow Sword Queen Games on this Patreon account:

Get more from Sword Queen Games on Patreon

creating Story Games & TTRPGs

www.patreon.com

Tun Kai Poh · Jun 15, 2020

Bonus video: Here's an actual play of Jammi's solo Sword Dream adventure into Filipino mythology, We Forest Three, featuring me getting attacked by a kapre's monstrous banana.

Tun Kai Poh · Jun 17, 2020

Time for a bit of self-promotion. I'm a Malaysian creator and part of #RPGSEA too. So is Elisha, my partner in creative crime. Together with our cats, we are Role Over Play Dead - which is also the name of our blog.

In 2019 we joined the Emotional Mecha Jam on itch.io and published Ech0, a GM-less map-making game where you collectively tell the story of a dead mech pilot, as children explore an ancient battlefield and discover what remains. It's our bestselling game (and part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, if you bought that).

ECH0 by Role Over Play Dead

Peace. Kids playing in mech wreckage. A ghost. One last journey to find a final resting place.

roleoverplaydead.itch.io

That was the start of our journey as game creators.

We've gone on to work on some small supplements for various games like Troika! But our biggest ongoing project is Pipedream, a Cthulhu Dark hack about halfling detectives with magical pipeweed who will solve cases, die horribly, and/or get high.