#126: Immoria, +1 Forward, & more!

Saying goodbye to a podcast as well as the first compass for our game of i'm sorry did you say street magic

I. Dear Reader,

I had my first session of the year with a session zero for a game of Spire where I’m playing my favourite class, the train wizard/historian.

Also, I moved all the stuff about City23 to its own section, one scroll down. We’ve got a name, Immoria. And I’m excited to read for what you all do with our first compass!

But this week’s main story is actually a substitute for the Media of the Week section. Because two lovely podcasts called it quits this week.

One was the Gauntlet Podcast whose last episode was a mammoth 2 hour Game of the Year special where lots of people called in and nominated their favourite games (including me, spoiler it was Bloodclotte). It’s a great listen with lots of games getting shouted out.

The second podcast to do a curtain call was the podcast about everything PbtA, +1 Forward. The hosts, Rich Rogers and Rach Shelkey, finished off with an episode about Lessons Learned in 2022. The end of +1 Forward is an interesting time to think about PbtA as a school of design. The RPG scene is big and diverse. I’m sure for many people after more than a decade, the puzzle of PbtA might feel solved - its depths plumbed and secrets revealed.

At the same time, every month on the rpg subreddit, there is a post about where people are wrestling with their first PbtA game, its approach to running and playing games.

So in case this doesn’t already exist, here’s my hacked-together "Introduction to PbtA” master class series from +1 Forward. It was an excuse to wander through the archives, hope you enjoy:

• Probably one of their best episodes (even though the audio isn’t as good as it usually is), is the stellar one on Player Principles and Agenda. They look at various games and what they list as principles as players - something that I’ve wanted to do on the newsletter but it’s a lot of work! Glad they did it!

• For the GM, I remember going back to Making MC Moves a couple times when I was learning. And you should probably combine this with Principles and Genre.

• Then, there’s the more specific episodes: Proactive vs Reactive GMing, PbtA and Settings, Cinematic Roleplaying, Starting a New PbtA Game, and Scalability.

• Bonus:

  • Generally, the Belonging outside Belonging miniseries is wonderful with great episodes with Rae Nedjadi and Avery Alder and Sam Zimmerman of Typhos Games.

  • And from Forged in the Dark miniseries, the one on Scum & Villainy with Stras and John of Offguard Games has a good conversation on Position and Effect.

I think it’s safe to say the design movement has matured but it’s a bit sad to know that there isn’t podcast dedicated to covering it anymore.

Yours from the back catalogue,

Thomas

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II. City23: Immoria

16th century maps from Matrakçı Nasuh

So we have a name, folks. The winner of the vote was Immoria! And now that we have that, I’ve got the site set up: immoria.xyz

So last week, I asked people to submit a compass which will we use as inspirations for our neighbourhoods, landmarks, and people. For our first round, our compass will be FOOD. (There were other good ones and we’ll use them in subsequent rounds! For January, it’ll be food, mhm.)

I think this was a really fun suggestion from folks and I chose it because I think it’s be interesting to start with neighbourhoods where people grow or sell food, landmarks that are pubs or cafeterias or markets, people that are farmers, butchers, chefs, or elite restauranteers. I mean, there’s a reason that games start in an inn, right? They’re cool. Let’s make some.

Now, some rules, if you’re submitting a neighbourhood, same as last time. We need names, a reputation (what do people say about it), and true names (an image or phrase that captures the essence of the place).

If you’re submitting a landmark, tell me which neighbourhood it is in! Maybe it is in Tangent or the Eddies or the Warrens. For a landmark, I need a title (what people call it), address (not necessarily a literal address, more like its location in the neighbourhood), a true name (something that captures its true essence), and anything else you want to say about it.

We can’t get to people just yet but people have to be attached to landmarks and we don’t have any landmarks.

Next week, I’ll share some of the entries we receive.

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III. Links of the Week

• Some more end of the year reviews: One from Bundle of Holding and one from Possum Creek Games.

• On the Indie Game Reading Club, a review of Trophy Dark, Trophy Gold and Trophy Loom.

• Interview with Connor Alexander of Coyote and Crow about among other things, giving free books to public libraries.

• Not specifically for tabletop, but this collection of resources for working in video game design is really neat.

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IV. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

• Cloud Empress is an expansive, Nausicaa-inspired setting for the Mothership RPG. Cloud Empress imagines a far-off future ruled by giant psychic cicadas. On Kickstarter Jan. 17th

This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.

• Nyahaha! Nefarious Forged in the Dark RPGs! Play monsters building their dungeons with the Wicked Ones bundle.

• There’s also a bundle of the original 1986 sci-fi roleplaying game, 2300 AD, from Game Designer’s Workshop.

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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!