Even though we’re in that weird liminal space between Christmas and New Year’s Day, where I have lost track of time and no longer know what day it is, a lot of great games were released this last week. If you recently released something that you want included, always feel free to send me an email or message me on social media (see About page) to let me know it’s out.
Winter sales! Winter sales are still going on Itch and Steam. Go buy some neat games if you want.
Who Took the Books Your mileage on this one may vary on how much you want to play a Christmas game at this time of year but Tom Hall, creator of classic games like Commander Keen, has released a new game for the PICO-8. It’s a really cute puzzle game where you play as Santa and must find all the books in the game. It plays a lot like an adventure game where finding items will let you explore new areas. It’s also just fun seeing how much Tom Hall is involved with the PICO-8 community and is always organizing new game jams or rating PICO-8 games 5 stars on Itch.
Sewer Rave Not a new game but Sewer Rave is now available for free/Pay-What-You-Want on Steam and Itch.io. It’s a game where you explore a rat infested sewer during a giant rave.
Baby Time! Baby Time! is a new game by Goloso Games to celebrate becoming a parent. It’s a Lost Vikings-style platformer where each of the three playable characters has different abilities and you use them all to solve puzzles. Congrats to Goloso Games on the baby.
Saṃsāra Saṃsāra is an interactive poem created for the Kissinger is Dead jam. It’s a good poem and I’m also just happy that there was a jam about how awful Kissinger was and celebrating his death.
Hamayumishi: Chochin Challenge Hamayumishi is a new side-view twin-stick shooting game by Nice Gear Games that’s playable in the browser. It’s a fun arcade game with some nice art and neat slow motion gameplay mechanic!
Against the Wind Against the Wind is a new solo/coop fantasy tabletop rpg by Cezar Capacle that is focused on wilderness exploration and creating unique heroes. The game is technically in beta but I feel like it’s already a beautiful book and solid game, and with it blowing past its goal, will only become better. If you’ve never played a solo tabletop rpg before, I think this is a good one to start with.
Snake on a Train Snake on a Train is a cute endless runner made in PICO-8 where you are a snake riding in a mine cart. The game was created for the Toy Box jam which was hosted by Tom Hall and is playable in the browser.
Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999 Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999 is a game created in ZZT for the DOS Game Jam, hosted by me! I’m always impressed by what you can do in ZZT and this is no exception. In this game you have 40 weeks to establish a successful food truck business in space. Playable in the browser.
Indie Tsushin: Year 1 Indie Tsushin: Year 1 is a compilation of writing found in the first year of Indie Tsushin, a zine that covers indie games and interviews game developers from Japan. Picking it up is an excellent way to support indie games coverage and make sure projects like this can continue
WOOT 2023 I only found out about this a few hours ago and I don’t really follow the modern ZX Spectrum too closely so I might be screwing up the details of this but WOOT 2023 looks to be a compilation of new ZX Spectrum and apps, with a nice variety of stuff. I got excited because a dev I do follow, Sloanysoft, seems to have a Doctor Who fan game in it called Blocktor Woot in the Sloanyverse of Madness.
FREAKHUNTER I haven’t played this one yet but it looks like something I’ll really enjoy. FREAKHUNTER is a dungeon crawler/rail shooter hybrid and I really enjoy the low-poly aesthetic it has.
Someone in a Discord channel I’m in was asking for solo tabletop rpgs to try out and these were the first ones I came up with off the top of my head. I know I’m missing out on a ton of great ones but it really doesn’t seem like a bad batch if you’ve never tried one before? Plus a lot of them were in giant Itch charity bundles so if you picked those up, you probably already own a few of these games.
The Ironsword series is good for fantasy adventuring and maybe what I would recommend if you played a lot of fantasy ttrpgs but wanted a solo one.
The Wretched is a survival horror sci-fi game played with a Jenga tower that has inspired a lot of other stuff through the Wretched & Alone framework.
Ex Novo is a city building game for 1-4 players. The designers also made one for building a dungeon. One of the writers for this also wrote a book called Virtual Cities, about cities in video games, which I enjoyed very much.
Delve is a Dwarf Fortress inspired game where you manage a Dwarf colony. The same designer also made one called Delve, which is like Dungeon Keeper and has you building a dungeon.
I just picked up Against the Wind and it’s a very solid fantasy rpg.
Rune is a Dark Souls like rpg that I heard is good. I’m a fan of other games by the designer.
Anamnesis is a solo journaling game about reflection and self-discovery.
Alone Among the Stars is a classic solo rpg where you explore space and journal about the planets you find. Plus it’s available for free/pay-what-you-want.
Dwelling is a ghost themed solo rpg where you wander your new home and conjure spectres.
I hope that whatever you celebrate this month, it has been a pleasant time. Here are some indie games from this last week that I enjoyed looking at. If you recently released something that you want included, always feel free to send me an email or message me on social media (see About page) to let me know it’s out.
Winter sales! Winter sales have started on Itch, Steam, and probably a bunch of other places too. Go pick up some neat games if you want.
Quiller’s Code This was a really fun puzzle game created for the Thinky Game Jam where you decode messages by dragging letters onto the symbols to figure out what the message is saying. The puzzles can be tricky but the game isn’t timed and lets you experiment with the letters without being punished.
SCRAP BOOK I – The Terrors of Ice and Darkness SCRAP BOOK I is a very short (3 minute) game by the great Quinn K about mountain climbing and the pandemic. Really looking forward to future games in this series too. Read the content warnings before playing.
The Meaties 2023 This is a free zine where the author talks about their favorite games this year. It’s a great one to check out if you’re looking for some new tabletop rpgs to play and I also just really like someone putting their GOTY choices in a zine.
Coding History Not an indie game itself but it is by an indie game dev. The second episode of Coding History is out and it’s about making a 3D engine and how it may not be as complex as it would seem.
Benevolence Benevolence is a little sim where you use your powers as a god to wipe out people for their souls. The look and concept kinda reminded me of something Molyneux would make but in the 90s when he was making good stuff.
Welcome to Lunary Greens This is a system-neutral supplement for your tabletop rpg of choice of a magical neighborhood. It’s part 11 of 12 in a series and if you subscribe to their newsletter you get to claim it for free on Itch. It’s ok, it’s not a Substack.
A Musical Sheepy Xmas It’s an album of nice retro-sounding Christmas music by a game developer I’m a fan of. The Itch page also has a Bandcamp-like player in the browser so you can listen to the music without downloading anything, although the album can be downloaded for free.
There’s also three games this week that I haven’t played yet but I think look really neat.
Mobile Suit Baba Mobile Suit Baba is a tactical puzzle game inspired by Into the Breach by the developer of Baba is You. It’s available for free until this Wednesday.
Terminal Terminal is a surreal cyberpunk tabletop rpg for 3-7 players inspired by The Matrix. The art and layout look pretty great and the preview of it in Dicebreaker back in July was very positive.
Path of the Abyss Path of the Abyss is a single-player, grid-based dungeon exploration RPG with real time combat that was just released in early access. The art in this looks pretty nice and the Steam reviews are positive so far. The reviews do give a heads up that the translation from Japanese to English was done with a machine and not a human translator. They said it’s not noticeable but still probably something worth noting.
Here is a list for games that have official tabletop rpg adaptations, and unofficial ones that cite the game as the inspiration. I’m fascinated by adaptations of video games to ttrpgs and video games based on ttrpgs and wanted to see what was out there.
The title of each game links to a page where you can read more about the game or buy it. Eventually I’ll add games that would be a good fit for doing the tabletop version of the game and maybe also games that were based off tabletop rpgs. For time saving reasons, most of the descriptions just come from the Itch page they’re on. For the most part I’m not including D&D supplements on here aside from official ones just because I’m hoping this page will encourage people to check out new games. Also not including more broad inspirations and not that many supplements just because I have to have a cutoff somewhere, maybe in the future? If you’re just looking for the officially licensed rpgs, I don’t really have a good way to only show those in here. Just search for the word “Official” I guess, because I did mention it whenever those come up. For what it’s worth, I think a lot of the unofficial games are better than the officially licensed games so consider checking those out too.
It’s very likely I’ve missed a lot so please leave a comment if there’s a game you worked on or played that should be included.. Corrections are welcome too. If you see a game you made in here and think “It’s actually more like ____” then let me know!
Anthem AEGIS is a love-letter to looter-shooters like Anthem built with the LUMEN system
Armored Core Apocalypse Frame is a game built with the LUMEN rpg system. You are an Ace – a highly skilled pilot referred from a Division in The Collective and assigned a humanoid combat vehicle known as a Frame. You and your Strike Team of fellow Aces must take on The Collective’s greatest threats, ensure its survival, and carve a path for its continued success.
GUNBARE! is a power fantasy military-scifi TTRPG designed for 3-5 players. Inspired by the premise of Azure Lane, Armored Core, and the works of Tsutomu Nihei, play as a Fleetgirl, a living weapon onboard a generation ship currently running from a hostile alien empire.
Arx Fatalis Arx ObsKura is a LUMEN game inspired by Arkane Studios’ 2002 rpg Arx Fatalis and old-school adventure tabletop roleplaying games. Using six-sided dice and Tarot cards, you and your friends will plumb the deep places between cities, braving Eclipse cultists, ratfolk, Ylsian Knights, and more as you find your way in the dark.
Assassin’s Creed The Assassin is a solo game using the Wretched & Alone system where you are playing an assassin’s last mission
Atlas Reactor Cyberrats was inspired by games like Atlas Reactor, XCOM, Shadowrun, and Band of Blades. Players will control two Operatives who have been genetically engineered, and/or a giant rat. Operatives go on missions, fighting the military, the invading aliens, or members of other megacorps.
Bloodborne Beneath a Cursed Moon is a Gothic fantasy game that uses a system based on the Apocalypse World engine. Take the role of monster hunters and slay vampires, werewolves, mermen, and more in a game inspired by Castlevania and Bloodborne.
Borderlands GUNFUCKS is a tabletop roleplaying game inspired by games such as Borderlands and Bulletstorm that is built on the LUMEN system.
Boyfriend Dungeon The official Boyfriend Dungeon ttrpg uses its own custom system based on Rhapsody of Blood and of the Powered By the Apocalypse design.
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon While it’s based off the book license and not directly from the game, Callahan’s did receive a GURPS supplement.
Captain Blood BABY?! is a game where your soul has been scattered across an alien planet and you must retrieve the fragments with the help of a universal translator. The game is focused on exploration and players using images to communicate with each other.
Castlevania A Castle Outside Time is a one page rpg has players exploring a dungeon and is inspired by Castlevania style exploration and has a Dark Souls style resting mechanic
Huntervania is a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) tabletop role playing game that explores the lives of vampire and monster hunters in a gothic setting.
Let’s Kill Dracula is a 2 player rpg about being trapped in Dracula’s castle and needing to destroy him.
Crypt of the Necrodancer I Have Enough Training is a narrative adventure journaling game and a hack of “The Adventurer” by James Chip. It was inspired by Crypt of the Necrodancer
Necrocartais a solo Carta game where players explore a mysterious dungeon on a quest to find the Heart of the Crypt.
FUTILE LAMENTATIONS: DARK EXISTENCE is a pamphlet ttrpg inspired by Darkest Dungeon where you must face the horrors that afflict The Village, continue your Campaign knowing that you can die or fall into madness at any moment.
Dark Souls There are actually two official Dark Souls rpgs. One that was released in Japan by Group SNE and one that is in English by Steamforged. The Group SNE game has unofficial English translations floating around online that I won’t link to here but are pretty easy to find.
There’s also lots of ttrpgs inspired by Dark Souls.
Bleak Spirit is a storytelling game where you and your friends create a brooding, cryptic tale about a stranger in a strange land.
Bonfire & Blade is a rules-lite tabletop RPG inspired by the setting and themes of Dark Souls, with a system based on the pamphlet RPG Vampires & Claymores. It can be run by one person facilitating the game as the Fire Keeper, with one or more players exploring the world, and a handful of 6-sided dice in two colors.
Dice Souls is a zero prep Souls-like dungeon exploration game for one or two players.
Exhumed is a pamphlet dungeon inspired by Dark Souls tutorial levels: short and somewhat linear, but meant to set the stage, give opportunities to learn the style of play, and offer hints of interesting things to come.
Fever is a tabletop roleplaying game for a Game Master and players where you play as Chosen struggling against a cruel world as you hope to rebuild the broken Sun.
Grave is a toolkit for soulslike fantasy TTRPG play built on the rules for Knave.
You Died is a solo game using the Caltrop Core system to fight through bosses.
Death Stranding The Death Stranding Solo-RPG is a one player ttrpg where players control a Porter and explore outside of their starting City in search of Preppers, Distribution Centers, Cities, and the resources to connect them to each other.
Deep Rock Galactic Bedrock Mining LLC is a push your luck mining game inspired by Deep Rock Galactic
Desert Bus Bus of the Desert is a solo game based on Desert Bus, an intentionally boring mini game created for an unreleased Penn and Teller game
Desert Golfing While it works with any form of Golf, the GOLF system was originally designed for play with Desert Golfing
Destiny LIGHT is an homage to Destiny. “LIGHT is a rules-lite, power fantasy tabletop RPG designed using an early version of the LUMEN system. It’s all about creating powerful characters, called Beacons, and feeling incredible badass as you take on dangerous missions and collect valuable loot.“
Diablo “ANGELSPAWN is a high-action combat game about humans with angelic lineage fighting an unending war against the tides of evil. It is a love letter to one of my all-time favorite games—Diablo—and is powered by the LUMEN system, created by Spencer Campbell. The game focuses on frenetic combat, waves and waves on enemies, randomized loot, and slowly improving your character towards a perfect killing machine.”
Dishonored Received an official TTRPG from Modiphius that included involvement from the folks who worked on the video games.
paKtbound is a streamlined tabletop role-playing game built with the LUMEN system and inspired by Arkane Studio’s Dishonored series. Take on the role of the Paktbound, poor wretches who have pledged themselves to the service of the Stranger, as they tackle heists and hits in the rotten city of light and mirrors.
Dungeon Keeper RISE: A Game of Spreading Evil is a map drawing game that puts you in control of a monstrous dungeon as you seek to reach the surface and take over their puny kingdoms.
Dwarf Fortress DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game is a map drawing game that puts you in control of a dwarven hold as you discover the horrors that lurk below.
Elden Ring RUNE is a solo tabletop RPG inspired by the soulslike genre of video games, including Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. In RUNE, you are a wanderer of the lands of Obron. The world is dangerous, but full of power if you are willing to reach out and take it.
The Elder Scrolls UESRPG is a free unofficial game based on the Elder Scrolls series of games.
There is also After\\Burner, a tabletop roleplaying game focused on fast and positional starfighter combat and military sci-fi drama that was made with the LUMEN system.
Emperor of the Fading Suns The official ttrpg was developed internally at the same time as the computer game
Encarta MindExplorer is a single-player tabletop roleplaying game inspired by the MindMaze game in Encarta and the aesthetics of educational materials from the 1990’s. You will explore a building constructed from your imagination during a dream you have one night and meet the characters that live inside it.
Eve Online Strongly inspired by the MMORPG Eve Online, Heavens of Khepri features characters that spend most of their time piloting space ships, but this time you’re playing as the NPCs in the MMO.
FFRPG is another free rpg that’s been built by fans and has been ongoing since the 90s.
Final Fantasy VII Into the Glacier is a solo journaling game inspired by the glacier sequence in FF7.
Final Fantasy XIV Online An official ttrpg is currently in development
In the LUMEN system game Crystalline, players are Heritors, the bearers of Soul Stones- mnemocite gems which record the deeds and powers of the great heroes who once bore them. Players embark on adventures to topple the Empire, face the Shadows, and extinguish the fires of war which threaten to burn all to ash.
Final Fantasy Tactics Arma Fantasia Tacticsis fantasy adventure roleplaying with an emphasis on character & loadout customization and tactical action.
FTL: Faster Than Light Faster Than Light is a solo Wretched & Alone game inspired by the video game FTL, a solo journaling game about perseverance and about being the AI that controls a spaceship warping through the galaxy in order to save humanity.
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers Accomplice is inspired by the Gabriel Knight series. You play as a research assistant for someone like Gabriel Knight as they investigate supernatural cases.
Game Genie I suppose technically it’s not a video game and more of a cheat device for them, but there’s a couple of adaptations of the Game Genie for TTRPGs. Game Genie Apocalypse is a set of 23 moves for PBTA games inspired by video games.
RPGenieis a method of integrating cheat codes and game alterations to tabletop gaming by sharing your favorite ephemera with your friends.
Hades LOOM is a game that tries to emulate the frenetic feel and player-driven advancement of the video game Hades and is made with the LUMEN system.
Heroes of Hammerwatch GRIT is a rogue-like inspired dungeon crawler inspired by Heroes of Hammerwatch where the aim of the game is to send in waves of ’20-minute’ mercenaries to loot gold, gain glory, and vanquish enemies.
Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia Champions of Power and Dread is a dark fantasy strategic roleplaying game where you command legions of fell beasts.
Hypnospace Outlaw Alone in Cyberspace is a solo tabletop game about exploring the archive of a defunct network of webpages from decades ago.
In Other Waters In Other Waters: Tidebreak is a supplement for the horror ttrpg Mothership that is set in the In Other Waters universe. The supplement is playable in either as a group or solo and designed to be less stressful than the typical Mothership adventure.
Incremental Adventures You Cannot Kill Me in a Way That Matters is a solo ttrpg where you fight monsters in the forest, deal quick card layouts for yourself and the forest, resolve the round, and do it again.
Jet Set Radio Disposable Heroes is a fast paced tabletop RPG set in a near-future fantasy world city named Neo-Francisco. You play as package delivery people with incredible abilities, doing their best to survive and get that 5 Star rating that means they can eat that week.
Underground Broadcast is a micro-RPG about nimble graffiti punks kicking off the rebellion against a tyrannical organization.
The Journeyman Project Project Hypaethrus: Windows To Time has players create create unique Travelers to explore the past. Time-Travelers need to hide their existence to the temporal locals, so they take on new Personas while in the past. However, relying too much on their Past Persona can Bleed into their own identity.
Kingdom Hearts Interstitial: Our Hearts Intertwined is a tabletop RPG about our connections with other people, the power we draw from those connections, and traveling to different worlds. It runs on the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. The game is built to allow players to combine characters from various properties.
Knockout City Received a free official ttrpg in 2023 by Adira Slattery & Eric Feurstein
The Legend of Dragoon Chain Attacks is a system-agnostic combat mechanic for emulating Additions from “Legend of Dragoon”
The Legend of Zelda Courage is a solo RPG using the Carta System to create a dungeon-crawling experience inspired by games from “The Legend Of Zelda” series. You’ll play as the recently awoken Hero of Courage, exploring Dungeons and gathering power for your final confrontation against evil incarnate.
Forgotten Ballad is a minimalist Adventure Game – TTRPG, if you prefer – heavily inspired by The Legend Of Zelda series and the OSR movement.
Loom Loom is a fan fiction game based off the classic Lucasarts adventure game of the same name. It’s a solo journaling game where you explore the game’s world using the mechanics described in the book and write about what happens.
Magicka The Wizards of Many Hats is a game of swords and sorcery where players can cast spells by evoking the eight fundamental elements: Water, Life, Barrier, Cold, Electricity, Arcane, Earth & Fire.
Mega Man X METALUMAN is a ttrpg built with the LUMEN system as its engine and foundation for fast-paced action inspired by Capcom’s MegaMan X series.
Monster Hunter There are a lot of indie ttrpgs inspired by the Monster Hunter series. Monster Guts is a game using the LUMEN system.
Apex Predator is a single-player game inspired by Monster Hunter, in which you explore an ancient forest, tracking down and fighting titanic monsters. Along the way, you’ll face peril and find that the natural world may just be on your side.
Monster Rancher In Raising Hell, a solo TTRPG based on Monster Rancher, you’ll help your Devil grow from a baby into an adult, training it all the while so it can be a proper Devil and win one of the numerous Tournaments available in the underworld!
Moonlighter Shopkeeper Showdown is inspired by Moonlighter and has you running a shop and looting dungeons
Mortal Shell Beast Souls is a tabletop role-playing game for 2 players set in a dreamlike / virtual / metaphorical / alternative world (for the most accustomed to the world of anime, an “isekai”) where the hero is the spirit of whoever has put their body at stakes to get something special from a world other than their own.
Myst With Myst being one of the best-selling games ever, it’s not surprising that it has inspired a few tabletop rpgs. Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond is a game that uses the Myst license and uses the FATE core system for the foundation of its rules. The game is strongly influenced by Uru/Myst Online and has players exploring modern or historical D’ni and the ages connected to it. The game has received a few smaller supplements as well as a larger sourcebook that was recently Kickstarted and focused on the reconstruction of D’ni
There’s fan games too. Bring the Page With You is a free one-page ttrpg where there is no GM/DM and is focused on players collaborating together to create Myst ages.
NieR: Automata For Humankind is a tabletop RPG made with the LUMEN system for two or more players. You play as Answer units, specialized androids tasked with reclaiming the planet from an alien threat.
Outer Wilds Pale Dot is a collaborative storytelling game for 2-5 players about a crew of non-human cosmonauts leaving their planet to explore a strange solar system, finding threads to unravel the unknown along the way.
Overcooked! Test Kitchen is a co-op time management party RPG for 3 to 5 players inspired by the Overcooked! series
Paper Mario Doodle Adventures is a TTRPG with a 2d platforming battle grid inspired by Paper Mario and Bug Fables
Path of Exile Path of the Tainted is a LUMEN game is inspired by “Path of Exile”, players will slay hordes of monsters to acquire powerful loot and abilities. But most importantly they will be able to create their own Powers by combining them with upgrades.
Persona Inspired by the Persona series, Voidheart Symphony is a tabletop roleplaying game about mundane people diving into a demon-filled labyrinth to save the ones they love.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Ace Attorneys is a TTRPG built with LUMEN for 3 players. It heavily relies on improvisation for all three players and is meant to be played for 30 – 60 minutes.
Justicar is a game inspired by the Ace Attorney series. Players each embody a unique key Role as they collaboratively tell the story of a crime and its mysteries.
In the unofficial Phoenix Wright ttrpg, players are divided into prosecution and defense parties, and then each performs its own DM led investigation of a crime scene.
Picross Beauty in the Grid is a ttrpg where the main mechanic involves creating pictures in a grid
Planetside 2 PLANET FIST is a Powered by the Apocalypse narrative wargame of satirical scifi skirmish storytelling and a hack of CLAYMORE’s FIST, and winner of the SUBSTANCE award in the FIST: Ultra Jam. PLANET FIST is inspired by Starship Troopers (1997), Battlefield: Bad Company, and most of all, by Planetside 2.
Pokémon ForeverDex is a game played by mail where you generate new magical creatures through another players zip code
Pokemon Dungeon Crawler is an unofficial Pokémon dungeon crawler. You play as a Pokémon in a world after humans. You get a dungeon delving class (cleric, fighter, magic-user), you get a backpack, a weapon, and you head out on an adventure.
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor This is kind of an odd one to include since it’s a D&D computer game, which is not really something I want to delve into too much but I thought it was interesting that this game launched with a D&D 3rd edition tie in
Project Zomboid Superesse Mortuus is a d100 system game about surviving in a world full of zombies
Quake GRIM is a fast paced rpg where you fight eldritch horrors
Resident Evil The Mansion Incident is a solo dungeon-crawling RPG and a hack of Escape from Demon Castle Dracula by Rob Hebert. In The Mansion Incident you take on the role of a member of the Investigation and Rescue Implementation Service (I.R.I.S.) – an elite group of detectives tasked with finding, and in some cases liberating, missing persons in the sprawling mountains of the Midwestern United States – as you recover your team from a sinister, labyrinthian mansion that hides secrets and danger behind every door.
Biocalypse is a minimalist, Resident Evil-inspired adventure game for 2—6 players.
Resident Evil 2 Escape: Outbreak is an escape room-style ttrpg inspired by Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil: Village It turns out there are a bunch of games inspired by the tall vampire lady. Tall Vampire Ladies is a one page hack of Lasers and Feelings about trying to get a guy out of your castle
Tall Lady Castle Game is an 8 page single player (or small group) TTRPG about being an ancient monster that’s really bad at expressing its feelings.
The designer of that also made a companion game called Oh Do Not Find Me In This Castle Please, a solo game where you are the intruder wanting to get caught
Rimworld UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers is a map drawing game that puts you in control of a sci-fi colony as you struggle against starvation, the void, and the many threats that will assail you from above and below.
Rocket Jockey raptor 2057 is a fast-paced racing RPG inspired by the wip3out series, the hectic F-Zero series, the classic romp Rocket Jockey (1996), and John Harper’s Wildlings (2015).
Sable Of That Colossal Wreck is an open-world exploration TTRPG set in a post-apocalyptic setting for 1 to 4 players. Using a deck of cards, players will explore a wasteland, and build card house Ruins to explore.
Samorost Pocket Full of Stars is a cozy two-player ttrpg inspired by Samorost where the players have the roles of an Astronomer and the Storyteller and work together to tell a story about a giant jumping from planet to planet and meeting people.
The Secret of Monkey Island Blood Mountain Resort & Spa is a free download for fantasy ttrpgs. Inspired by the Monkey Island series, players explore a pirate themed resort. The NPCs are statted for DURF but the rest of the supplement is built to be system neutral.
Shadow of the Beast The Shadow & the Beast is a two-player roleplaying game inspired by the classic video game Shadow of the Beast. One player controls the Beast as it fights its way toward the Shadow, the evil overlord that stole its life and forced it to carry out terrible acts of violence. The other player serves as the Gamemaster (GM), controlling the Beast’s adversaries and any other characters while also setting scenes for the action.
Shadow of the Colossus On the Shoulders of Colossus includes rules for running colossal games as well as stat blocks for every colossus from the game
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus Honor Among Thieves is a tribute micro TTRPG (for 3+ players) about the thievish activities of a group of honorable master thieves who seek to only steal from other criminals.
Sonic the Hedgehog Radical Spin is a micro-RPG about melodramatic action animals for 2-5 players.
Rainbow Runaways is a Sonic-inspired TTRPG based on the Caltrop Core system, and is played with D4s and a deck of cards.
Soul Sacrifice Sacrifice arcane objects, blood, and limbs to cast spells in Soul Sacrifice, a TTRPG based on the PSVITA exclusive. Requires a tarot deck.
Space Quest 24XX Unlikely Heroes – Space Questing is a rules-lite sci-fi RPG hack of the 2400 system. Inspired by the old-school Sierra adventure series “Space Quest”, and its bumbling space janitor hero Roger Wilco, UHSQ can be used to run a no-prep sci-fi game that is more on the humorous, light-hearted side.
Star Control Capax Astra is a vaporwave space opera RPG inspired by Star Control, about exploring sectors full of strange alien people. It uses the Fate RPG system.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic An official campaign book for the d20 Modern System was published in 2008
Street FighterII White Wolf created an official game using their ttrpg storytelling framework in 1994
Streets of Rage Justice Sworn is a solo ttrpg by Sandy Pug Games that is inspired by brawlers like Streets of Rage and Final Fight
Subnautica Water Landing is a Carta-powered scenario for the Cast Away RPG. To play, you need the Cast Away rules
Sundered PHOTON is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2 players about fighting back an all consuming singularity, based on the LUMEN system by Spencer Campbell. Inspired by games like Hyper Light Drifter and Sundered, it aims to bring eerie exploration and lightning fast battles to tabletop.
Super Smash Bros Smash & Brothers is a one page hack of John Harper’s Lasers and Feelings for having two unrelated characters fight each other.
Suspended ERROR is a Play Out Loud text adventure where you control a robot that must fix a city’s mainframe and references Infocom designer Michael Berlyn
Tetris Scraps is a feel-good game about sharing, about harmony with nature, about bewilderment and curiosity. Inspired by Minecraft and Tetris, it uses polyominoes as part of the crafting aspect of it.
Thief: The Dark Project Blades in the Dark is an incredibly influential tabletop role-playing game about a crew of daring scoundrels seeking their fortunes on the haunted streets of an industrial-fantasy city. The book cites Dishonored and Thief: The Dark Project as influences. It’s maybe a stretch to say it’s based on those games but whatever, I’m putting it here.
Tomb Raider The Temple of Karthis is a solo dungeon crawling game using cards and dice and inspired by Tomb Raider.
Untitled Goose Game Sneak Honk is a hack of Honey Heist inspired by Untitled Goose Game
Warframe Frame is a ttrpg using the LUMEN system that was an homage to Warframe. The Warframe community got really weird and harassed the creator of the game so it was briefly made free and then changed to $5000.
The Witcher Technically it was a book first but all of these are based on the video game series. R Talsonian created an official ttrpg using the game’s license from CD Projekt
On The Path is a hack of Honey Heist by Grant Howitt, where players take on the roles of Monster Slayers investigating a mystery after receiving a strange letter.
The World Ends With You Heartbeats in Perfect Sync is a tabletop RPG inspired by the shounen battle aesthetic in games like The World Ends With You, Kingdom Hearts and Under Night In-Birth. Play as a group of ordinary people who fight monsters with ridiculously over-the-top weapons.
Vibe Check is an illuminated by LUMEN tabletop role-playing game for 3-6 players inspired by The World Ends With You.
World of Warcraft An official ttrpg was released in 2005 using a d20 system
XCOM: Enemy Unknown INTRUDER: EARTHLY ENTITY is an action rpg Illuminated by LUMEN. Inspired by the XCOM series, players are the last survivors of an Earth taken over by extraterrestrial forces and must Establish contact with other resistance cells, Free nations from the control of the ALIEN ENTITY, and rescue Earth.
T-DEF is a GMless game that comes in two 8-page mini zines: the Tactical Handbook that contains the rules for character creation and taking actions; and the Operations Manual, that contains everything you need to create missions for your troopers. T-DEF also has a sequel game.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Blades of Ether is a tabletop roleplaying game for three to six players. Guided by the Architect, the GM who gives life and voice to the Cloud Sea, you’ll set out on unforgettable adventures in a world unlike any other, changing Arlest forever with the wake you leave in the clouds.
Yakuza BAKA MITAI is a city pop, Yakuza-inspired playset for the PARAGON system from the AGON roleplaying game.
Zork Parsely is a collection of games where a group of players control one character by telling one player, known as the Parser, what they would like to do in the form of text adventure commands and the Parser describes what happens next. The collection even features a trilogy of Zork-like games known as Action Castle. The creator of Parsely has a few games in the series on their Itch page.
Uresia: Grave of Heaven is a system-neutral setting book by S. John Ross that is strongly inspired by the Zork series, with there even being a section explaining how it influenced the book and why they love the series so much. The book is now available for free here. Check it out and then consider hiring him for book or map design if you’re a ttrpg designer. The author also wrote a Z-Machine text adventure game that ranks as Polite on Andrew Plotkin’s cruelty scale. This game is also available for free.
My rewatch of the 1st Doctor era continues. Here’s what I watched (and listened to!) this week
Edge of Destruction It’s fine. It’s really ambitious to have a more psychological story this early on but even at the story only being 2 episodes it feels a little long. Plus the odd character behavior is never really explained that well. Still, from what I recall it’s kinda the only Tardis only story from the original series? Or at least one of the very few?
Marco Polo Obviously watched the reconstruction since all the episodes are missing. I know this is supposed to be a hidden gem but oof, couldn’t get past the yellow face for some of the characters. It would only be worse if we had the actual footage.It’s fascinating that the Doctor really isn’t in this one much and even William Russell seemed to be annoyed by this from reading about the production. It’s also wild that this story takes place over months instead of just a few days like most Doctor Who stories.
Really impressed with the reconstruction quality though, including having the actor who played Marco Polo doing an intro for the story as an older version of the character. Marco Polo is a jerk.
I guess I would recommend the novelization though? The story itself is fine.
Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles – Quinnis My first Big Finish story as part of the rewatch! I’ve listened to a lot of them before but as part of my rewatch I’m trying to listen to any along the way that would slot in nicely with where I’m at in the rewatch. So I picked Quinnis, a story in their Companion Chronicles line which is sorta in-between an audio book and radio drama. It’s narrated by the actress who played Susan so she acts her lines out and there’s also special effects, but narrates other parts. I thought it would make sense to listen to a prequel set before the series starts but it’s being told after Doctors 1-8 and references stuff at the beginning of the story that came up during with the 8th Doctor’s era like Susan’s son so I guess I goofed on this one. Ah well.
The production is nice and it’s a decent story. It also does a good job of staying true to that version of the Doctor and Susan. It’s not a groundbreaking story but a fun enough one off and has better pacing than a lot of 1st Doctor stories. I just wish it wasn’t referencing other Big Finish stuff. There’s probably other 1st doctor audio stories I would recommend over this, there’s some I’m really looking forward to listening to in my library, but it’s a fun story and pretty cheap too so why not. Only an hour long too.
Well, it’s Friday so here’s a bunch of recent games and games-related events that I thought were pretty cool. If you recently released something that you want included, always feel free to send me an email or message me on social media (see About page) to let me know it’s out.
The Queer Games Festival The Queer Games Festival just announced its shortlist for the year, meaning you can check out a great collection of games right here.
DEAD END Holiday Demo I really like holiday themed versions of video games and AERIFORM just released a Christmas version of their top-down Metal Gear-inspired stealth game DEAD END.
Screenshot from pareidolia in █▄██▄▄
pareidolia in █▄██▄▄ Created for Yuri Game Jam 2023, it’s a game where you design and dressup an angel and walk around a city. Really cool art style and it sounds like it will continue to get updates too.
Holiday Bundles A couple of indie game bundles have recently launched. For the price of a AAA game you could get almost two hundred instead through the Christmas Indie Game Bundle and the Holiday Indie Super Bundle.
New Games from Michigan Tech University Students Husky Game Development, the game making club at Michigan Tech University, released their games for the semester. You can play games like Iridos, Monstrous, and more on their Itch page.
Bahnsen Knights
Bahnsen Knights LCB Game Studio just launched their latest visual novel on Steam. All of their games have an incredibly cool art style and something creepy going on, this one being about a religious cult. So consider checking that out if that’s your thing.
Polygon’s Favorite TTRPGs of 2023 Polygon just put out their list of the best ttrpgs they played this year and there’s some really nice stuff. If you’re looking to try something that isn’t D&D or just want to find out what you possibly missed, check the list out. It features a nice variety of tabletop rpgs.
Here’s a bunch of recent blog and website posts that I really enjoyed. I doubt this is a thing I’ll be doing every week. There’s just been so many posts I’ve enjoyed lately and didn’t know where to talk about it. As usually, these are places I follow through Inoreader, a free RSS feed reader for the web, and I think they’re worth adding to your RSS feed reader of choice.
Indie Tsushin has a nice interview with Japanese indie game developer HesoRider.
Bobbins’ Olde Tomb Of Videogames has another post highlighting great games this week. The highlight for me was the Joust remake since I feel the need to play every version of Joust that I can find.
If you’re looking for Christmas themed games to play this month, there’s quite a few point-and-click adventures that are a good fit.
Watch Over Christmas I already mentioned this one in my winter games post but Watch Over Christmas is a nice one to check out if you’re looking for a family friend adventure game. It’s a longer game but not too difficult, features nice 2D art, and has quality of life features like hotspot highlighting.
Last Christmas Last Christmas is a darker, short adventure game where you are playing Frankie and have to prepare Christmas for his girlfriend at a cabin and features multiple endings. The original version of the game was created for Adventure Jam 2022 but has been expanded into a full game. Make sure to read the content warnings on the Steam page before picking it up.
Azazel’s Christmas Fable Azazel’s Christmas Fable is a comedic game inspired by 90’s adventures. You play as Azazel, an imp, and must track down the “source of joy” originating from the North Pole and destroy it. It’s a really charming and cute retro-looking adventure game that’s pretty family friendly. The game isn’t too long, but not too short either, and it has some fun post-game material where you can spend time looking for collectibles and talking various characters from the game.
Lake – Season’s Greetings Season’s Greetings is a DLC prequel to the game Lake. You play as a mail carrier that explores a town set in the 80s and talks to various people living there while delivering the mail. I was a big fan of Lake and its relaxed pace and looking forward to revisiting the game in this DLC.
Parsely: Kringle Krisis If you’re looking for something a little different, this Christmas version of the Parsely series has players going through a text adventure in tabletop rpg form by having one player be the parser and give responses to the commands the other players are giving.
Since I do a weekly roundup of indie games I get excited about and have seen a couple people express frustration at discovering new stuff, I thought I would list all the ways I hear about new games. In no way is this meant to be the “best way” to find them, it’s just my current process. Hopefully you’ll discover a couple of neat things from it and add it to whatever you do to discover cool games. Please don’t get mad if I left your thing out, this was all off the top of my head and there’s way better uses of everyone’s time that being mad at a blog post. But if you do know of other neat things, please leave them in the comments so I can follow along too!
Every once in a while there’s discourse online about indie games coverage and how there’s not enough people talking about them on sites but there really are a lot of places putting in the work and covering them despite it often meaning that the page gets less views than if they were to talk about the big releases. So if you’re one of those people, actually support the places doing the work! Share their posts when they cover indie games on social media and discord channels and if you can afford to, give them money on ko-fi or patreon. They can’t keep covering these games if their articles and videos just go into a void.
Blogs
Blogs are still alive and well in 2023! Every morning I check my RSS feed reader to see what people have posted in the last day. It beats the hell out of constantly checking social media to make sure nothing has been missed too. I use Inoreader, which is a free online reader that tracks what I’ve read no matter what machine I use.
Bobbins’ Olde Tomb Of Videogames is a weekly indie game roundup with more of a focus on arcade games and remakes of retro stuff but it covers it all really. It’s incredible stuff and is what inspired me to pick up my regular blogging about indie games again after taking a break from it.
Indie Tsushin is a blog focused on indie games from Japan. It regularly posts about games I never heard of and also has a lot of great interviews with game developers. Lots of great videos by them playing these games too!
Podcasts
Indie Mixtape is a podcast where the host Ty and a guest discuss what indie games they’ve played lately. The episodes are about 30-60 minutes long and cover a variety of games. It was originally a part of the site Uppercut, which I dearly miss, but I’m glad that Ty is keeping the podcast going. It’s available wherever you download podcasts.
Party of One is a tabletop rpg podcast where the host Jeff and a guest sit down to play a tabletop rpg in one session. The show dumped Dungeons & Dragons a while ago for much better games and it’s truly the best place to discover indie ttrpgs. I can’t imagine people have time to listen to every episode, but consider looking through previous episodes and checking out the ones where the games sound interesting.
It’s also very likely that there’s a podcast or two for your favorite genre of games. Since I am an adventure game enjoyer, I’ve discovered a lot of great games through the Adventure Games Podcast over the years. The show highlights a lot of great indie point-and-click adventure games and interviews with the people who made them. I don’t really follow strategy games much anymore but Three Moves Ahead is a show that has been covering them regularly for over a decade now.
Social Media
Even after deleting my Twitter account, I still find social media to be a great place to hear about various games. There’s game devs across all the places I use (Mastodon/Bluesky/Instagram/Tumblr/Cohost) so it doesn’t feel like I’m missing anything by not using Twitter anymore. And if a dev is only posting on Twitter/X, which is now a far right hate fest, we’re probably better off not being aware of them anyway. Obviously your mileage may vary on this one since social media is incredibly exhausting and most people probably only have the capacity to be on one or two platforms.
One account I’ve enjoyed following is Indie Games of Cohost, which is an account that regularly posts about recently released indie games and interviews with game devs. I believe you can follow Cohost accounts using a RSS feed reader but I’m not completely sure about that so you’ll have to dig for that answer.
Discord has also been a place where I’ve heard about many games. Obviously it’s not for everyone and it’s barely even for me, but I’m in a few game dev communities for people local to me and this has been the only way I’ve heard about the games being made in my area. There’s plenty of general indie game focused discord channels too.
Indiepocalypse
I’ve posted about it so many times now but Indiepocalypse has been a great way for me to discover games and developers I would never hear about at bigger games outlets. It’s a monthly compilation zine with 10 games per issue. Even if you cannot afford to buy any issues, the Itch pages for each issue list all the games and link to the developer pages. There is also a podcast called Indiepocalypse Radio where the host talks to different game devs every week.
Itch.io
Obviously an indie games store is going to be a way I hear about new games, but the best way I’ve discovered games through there has actually been by following lots of game devs and then regularly checking the feed. The feed will show me anytime a dev has published a new game, and it also shows me when they rate a game 5 stars or add a game to a collection. I can then check the collection to see what games are similar to it.
Video
Of course there are people on YouTube and Twitch that play indie games. I don’t follow as many as I should but two that I enjoy following are LotusLovesLotus on Twitch and Dirigitive on YouTube. Both are great folks that have introduced me to a lot of cool games and don’t have the stereotypical Twitch streamer energy where they yell a lot, which I am not into.
So that’s everything I do at the moment to discover new games, or at least what I can think of. Let me know of other neat outlets in the comments!
One of my favorite Christmas traditions in my adult life has been tuning into Jon Solomon’s 25 hour Christmas music marathon. Jon Solomon, a DJ at WPRB in Princeton, New Jersey hosts a 25 hour every Christmas Eve where he plays a mix of random stuff including a 42 minute version of little drummer boy and 30 minute blocks of x-mas themed Ramones, Misfits, and The Fall parodies. There’s also bands that record songs for the marathon now so it’s not all cursed music. He’s been doing it about 30 years now. Here’s some of the songs from last year but there’s new ones every year
He also has a Hanukkah Show every year. This year it’s tonight on 103.3 fm WPRB from 5-8 pm ET. You can also listen online here.
If you’re looking for more stuff, here’s some of the music I’ve picked up on Bandcamp over the last few years.
Some bands have made songs for the marathon in previous years, this includes this nice song by Outer World called Arc & Bow, which kinda has a slight shoegazey sound to it.
Low’s Christmas album is an all-time classic. It’s a mix of covers and new songs that capture some of the bittersweet feelings that people can have at this time of year.
And finally, while there is a shorter version on Bandcamp, I must recommend the 42 minute version of Little Drummer Boy by Lindstrom. It’s part of the 25 hour Christmas music marathon so I listen to it every year and has also become an important part of Christmas for me.
