Asa Donald | Backwards Tabletop

COMING SOON: In prelaunch w/ Violent Delights, another game inspired by Shakespeare: Mousetrap is a cursed game-within-a-game that won’t go back into its box. It’s game night. You and your friends have gathered to play a Hamlet-inspired game manuscript from 1983. But there’s a catch…

Also make sure to check out Mousetrap if you are like me and are a theatre nerd who enjoys funky experimentation with the meta of games bsky.app/profile/back...

It was super fun chatting with Asa about magic circles!! Your Magic Circle so often flies under the radar, and so it's cool knowing that my little meta game/personal exploration of game design theory continues to inspire conversation 7(?!) years after it was published

@backwardsttrpg.bsky.social, @sociable-turtle.bsky.social and I recently play tested "Road to Romance," a GMless romance-based TTRPG by @planesailinggames.com. Here are some comments - and take a look at the screenshot of the excellent PCIO setup by Alex! 1

Checklist for Making a Cool Monster Vampires are undeniably cool. I break down what makes them so cool and how that can be applied to designing other monsters to make them almost as cool as a vampire #osr #ttrpg

Another interview for the Mousetrap design series: this one is with @kiennas.bsky.social. We discuss magic circles through their experimental game, "Your Magic Circle," down to emotional bleed as a form of "crossing" the magic circle. I hope you find it as insightful as I did!

A meditation about the meaning of art and artist, after a visit to the Malaysian National Art Gallery and its vast collection of wayang kulit shadow puppets, learning more about the life and practice of the legendary puppeteer Pak Dollah Baju Merah: slowlorispress.com/post/8316254...

It's the best time of year— spooky season, and nothing's spookier than enjoying a good TTRPG! OooOOoooOOOooo! Get all 3 of my "big" TTRPGs in one bundle, or individually at 50% off! Help me spite god by funding my ability to live a while longer! itch.io/s/211233/gut...

Working on a two-player bookgame that uses blinking as its core mechanic. One player stares into the other player's eyes while they read out loud. Blinking means you switch. (yeah im editing in layout for this one)

Oh right I forgot to do this in so long with all the stuffs happening this year. But anyway, if you want your work to be known to more people or just have a chance to be reviewed by me, send me your or other's people indie ttrpg works down below! It's always nice to see what new things there are.

We're just about 15 backers away from my personally most-anticipated stretch goal (an entire second set of face cards by @frogappreciator.bsky.social for you to swap into the deck) soooo if you've been waiting to back, now is a great time!!

Started a very productive playtest of my romance story game, Road to Romance last night. We got half way through and hope to pick it up after Metatopia.

Emily made this game look so inviting and also so functional. The design of the cards and references pushes the game into "anyone can play it" territory. It'll be a great choice for anyone looking to get their friends or themselves into roleplaying www.kickstarter.com/projects/ada...

There is way bigger news in the world right now 🇧🇷, but in the meantime I wrote a quick post about where this game came from and what I'd like to do with it after the jam! tbr.bearblog.dev/send-lawyers...

People will tell you that only certain folks should play DEAD-PILLED due to the mature themes, but I argue that if you want more people to recognize redpill dog whistles and further bleed the manosphere, then there should be more games like DEAD-PILLED. More games should deal with mature themes.

This week, over on my blog, I answered a request for mini-games that could be placed inside a larger game, like Fabula Ultima. So #mintrecommends some mini-games!

Locked Room is already more than halfway funded!! back this game so our tables can look like this while we gasp in horror and delight

Penpals AP is an actual play of Epistolary TTRPGs in the form that best represents them : a newsletter. So you too can feel the wait of a letter coming in real time. The wait is getting shorter, the launch ever so close. Join the newsletter now and receive a free virtual hug penpalsap.carrd.co

Oct 31st Emily will be doing a collage live stream as she works on creating cards for our Make 100 project. @willjobst.bsky.social will be joining for some digital collage and we hope you'll join us and work on some art of your own. Join us at 3:00 EDT on YouTube (🔗👇)

I'm been playtesting one of my new games (Mousetrap) which is largely about breaking and expanding the magic circle. This post helped me think through it during the game's early stages, and it's been very interesting to see how it works/feels at the table.

This is a fun horror game (still an ashcan) that is a good counterexample of pbta being about moves or the "resolving actions" part of the game The cool design here is the very genre-forward GM-facing tools, then the playbooks (asymmetrical currencies), and then a distant third, actions

I've added 50 community copies on my itch page for the RPG notebook pages I designed. There's one design in particular I think is worth trying out, I've been calling it the "Dots and Callouts" page. If you do download the note pages I'd love to hear how you use them and what games you played!

We will be launching Bastion Elysium in Indonesia at a local ren fair 🔥 Hopefully we can launch it internationally soon 🙏 44 pages (incl. covers), four political factions, a murder mystery, an apartment crawl, weird & quirky NPCs, and heavily inspired by Disco Elysium! #ttrpg #osr

ALL THE WAY DOWN: A COSMIC TURTLE MEGADUNGEON is now LIVE on Kickstarter! This has been SUCH a labor of love from everyone and we all want nothing more than to get a cool as hell book into your hands. Please show your support if you can! www.kickstarter.com/projects/see...

Starting soon!! @posatahchips.gaygothvibes.online will be talking about The House Edge and joining a big squad celebrating all the great card games funding right now!!

Read about my latest game, In the Pines! It was a pleasure to talk to @newmadras.bsky.social .

Very excited to get this game to the table!

In case you missed it earlier this week, I released a second essay in this series, and it's about breaking magic circles. It's also about the ways in which the boundaries of magic circles can be expanded, with Tully State Forest as an example.

Reminder this is happening tomorrow!

The video game market seems flooded with AI slop, the board game market seems flooded with IP cash-grabs, and the TTRPG market seems flooded with brilliant beautiful people breathing life into incredible ideas and adventures -.-

This week, I'm returning to my thoughts on freelance. What the heck should I be charging if I wanted to do this full time? www.explorersdesign.com/hireling-you...

I heard you like magic circles...

This morning I got to run some mini-games that have been giving me trouble. Genuinely, I'm so grateful for The Session Zero playtest server and the insightful folks who play/participate. With an extra shoutout to Aaron, who seems to see straight to the heart of what I'm trying to fix.

Over a year ago, I released a multi-ttrpg campaign framework inspired by REBOOT, titled CAMPAIGN.FRAME. Today I'm releasing it's sequel. It's called time.war. It's free. mint-rabbit.itch.io/timewar

Two new games published by @moreblueberries.bsky.social just arrived: "Rise, Wizards!" by @captainkrail.bsky.social and "All's Fair" by @superdillin.bsky.social I'm excited to try these! Special mentions: the gorgeous Swiss binding on "Rise, Wizards!" and the huge central spread in "All's Fair"

The second essay in my design series for Mousetrap is "Breaking Fourth walls and Magic Circles." It explores the stages and temporary worlds that we create in games and how/when we cross them. It pays special attention to a very clever Dread scenario by @ravensridgeco.bsky.social: Tully State Forest

My new essay is about games and temporary worlds - magic circles and how they're broken intentionally. This post surveys a lot: Munchkin, Savage Worlds, Monty Python, In Dreaming Avalon, You Will Die In This Place, The Yellow Curtain. With special attention to a Dread scenario: Tully State Forest.

The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game is live on Kickstarter now. Make your own murder mysteries with this hybrid board game + ttrpg! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ada...

I love Adam's design and have been on the edge of my seat waiting for this game!!!!

You may appreciate the naked contempt dripping from this email reply @loremistress93.bsky.social. Just a reminder to all UK creatives that UKGE does not give a shit about you or your opinions, and the recent AI stuff is more than just a simple mistake.

Absolutely moronic comms. Spread this far and wide. They need to learn this contempt is unacceptable

I firmly believe we can make the term "the magic onion" catch on if we try

My new essay is about games and temporary worlds - magic circles and how they're broken intentionally. This post surveys a lot: Munchkin, Savage Worlds, Monty Python, In Dreaming Avalon, You Will Die In This Place, The Yellow Curtain. With special attention to a Dread scenario: Tully State Forest.