RPG Books

Beak, Feather, & Bone is a collaborative worldbuilding tool as well as a competitive map-labeling RPG. Starting with an unlabeled city map, players are assigned community roles before taking turns claiming and describing locations. Players draw from a standard 52-card deck to determine a building’s purpose and then describe its beak (reputation), feather (appearance), and bone (interior). As buildings are claimed, a narrative for the town and its inhabitants emerges, including major NPCs and shifting power-dynamics. Inspired by map-making games like Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year and archetype-focused RPG systems like Meguey & Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World, Beak, Feather, & Bone is a zine-length game including rules of play, 11 community roles illustrated by Austin Breed, a map by Jonathan Yee, and optional lore & GM tips for running games in a city populated entirely by ravenfolk (or kenku, tengu, etc.). While default play is lightly competitive, rules variants for solo, cooperative, and character-focused play are included as well. Similarly, while the illustrations and GM notes provided will help inspire a ravenfolk city, the beak/feather/bone labeling system can be used with any map, game genre, or populace.

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Published by Shing Yin KhorDistributed by Deernicorn Distro A Mending is a solo story-building and keepsake game about two friends who have been parted for some time, using sewing, embroidery, and map-marking mechanics. In this game, you sew a path on a cloth map, and build a story using prompt cards as you progress through a reflective and gentle journey of interesting characters, thoughtful questions about your friendship, and a few strange occurrences. You will play the game by planning your route, marking the map, and building a story by answering prompt cards. The prompt cards will ask you to consider your relationship with your friend, mark your map with beads or written notes, introduce you to delightful characters (including at least one dog), and will sometimes affect the path you have chosen. The game is designed to be played solo, but the game booklet will also include suggestions on how to play this as a 2 person game (using a single game kit), or communally in a larger group. A Mending can be also played as a system-agnostic storytelling module for other roleplaying games.

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Published by Good Luck PressDistributed by Deernicorn Distro   TORQ is a post-apocalyptic car-PG for 2-5 players, half road warrior tactics, half freeform roleplaying. In TORQ, you are a driver, licensed to go anywhere, with the grit to handle anything. You venture from community-to-community, using your special talents to help in anyway you can. There’s gas in the tank, an X on the map, and miles of blacktop ahead. Race along the open road, collect the pieces of a changed world, and build something new together. Let’s hit the road. TORQ is a blend of two games, interconnected: Road, a quick tactical game where players drive through a hostile world using a playmat: a modular grid representing the many highways, mountain passes, wide-open canyons, and city streets of TORQ. Powered by a unique tactical system, drivers dodge obstacles, investigate oddities, and thrash those who stand against them. Reststop, a character-focused roleplaying game where drivers visit communities, bringing their special talents to those who need it. The reststop is a low-stakes, chill hangout portion of the game where players inhabit different characters in each community, playing scenes and building the world together. TORQ’s world exists after a global change. Is that a disaster, an apocalypse, a choice? Create and play vignettes of this weirded-world, a world where people and communities strike a truce with the hostile environment, surviving and thriving in a post-anthropocene world. TORQ’s world is more humanistic than its post-apocalyptic predecessors: this is not a game for prepper-power fantasy, gun nut brinksmanship, or a rehash of feudalism. TORQ’s world is one of many communities living independently and together, tied together by the driver’s who make it from point A to point B, mutual aid, and the weird world. Create that world and those places, and inhabit the people finding connection and joy in a different world.

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Published by Buried Without CeremonyDistributed by Deernicorn Distro In Monsterhearts 2 you and your friends create stories about sexy monsters, teenage angst, personal horror, and secret love triangles. When you play, you explore the terror and confusion of having a body that is changing without your permission. This game is powered by the Apocalypse World engine. It draws inspiration from Twilight, Buffy, Ginger Snaps, The Vampire Diaries, and The Craft. “By the time they hit adolescence, most people have gotten over their fear of the dark. They spend their midnight hour on gushy phone calls, diary ramblings, and wet dreams. They fall asleep peacefully, assured that the shadows hold no monsters. But the shadows do hold monsters. You know because you’re one of them. Wickedness dwells within your heart, hunger courses through your veins. High school weighs on you and teen drama puts you on edge, but you have power. What do you do next?”

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Published by Shing Yin KhorDistributed by Deernicorn Distro A Mending is a solo story-building and keepsake game about two friends who have been parted for some time, using sewing, embroidery, and map-marking mechanics. In this game, you sew a path on a cloth map, and build a story using prompt cards as you progress through a reflective and gentle journey of interesting characters, thoughtful questions about your friendship, and a few strange occurrences. You will play the game by planning your route, marking the map, and building a story by answering prompt cards. The prompt cards will ask you to consider your relationship with your friend, mark your map with beads or written notes, introduce you to delightful characters (including at least one dog), and will sometimes affect the path you have chosen. The game is designed to be played solo, but the game booklet will also include suggestions on how to play this as a 2 person game (using a single game kit), or communally in a larger group. A Mending can be also played as a system-agnostic storytelling module for other roleplaying games.

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A fancy map for use with A Mending, but it’s also just a nice map. This map is a limited-run map for use with A Mending. Designed by A Mending designer Shing Yin Khor and screenprinted by hand in the Heart of the Deernicorn workshop on 10z unbleached cotton canvas. Product Details 16″ x 25″ finished dimensions Hand-sewn, and hand sceenprinted using water-based inks 10z unbleached cotton canvas A Mending game sold separately

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