#70: France! š«š·
I. Dear Reader
We continue Decemberās trend of guest posts about games around this world. This week, CĆ“me Martin has been kind enough to write for us about games from France!
Five French TTRPGs You Might Not Have Heard Of
France has long been a welcoming country to RPGs: D&D was quickly translated there as well as many other big ones, like Call of Cthulhu and Vampire, and all three gained success, devotees, homebrew versions and, ultimately, local revisitations of their setting and design. Today, there are big conventions held yearly and the local indie scene is alive and well.
Unfortunately, many great games are still unknown overseas, due to the lack of translated versions; which is a shame, really, since the ideas developed by many games could, in my view, spawn as many offshoots as the big ones did in their day.
Without further ado, hereās 5 indie French TTRPGs you might not have heard of! I should mention that the majority of them was created by close friends, which says more about how we indie creators tend to stick together than a tendency to promote acquaintances.
Inflorenza ā Thomas Munier has long been one of the leading figures among indie creators: his seminal work, Inflorenza (2014) explains why. It introduced me, and a lot of other players Iām sure, to amazing concepts like GMless games and making up characters as you go along: a character sheet is made of sentences which are traits, goals, memories, skills and hit points all at the same time. The game takes place in Milesvale, a sort of post-apocalyptic France, ravaged by nature and oblivion, as do many, many other games by Thomas; he created a āMilesvaleverseā of sorts, each game providing a different way to wander around this fascinating setting. Full disclosure: Iām such a fan that Iām the one responsible for the English translation!
Colours of Friendship āMelville is an amazingly gifted creator, the one responsible for my own foray into writing RPGs. Their quadrilogy shows them at their best, with four games inspired by the āBelonging Outside Belongingā system and which revolve around the passing of seasons and how groups of friends can change, grow and evolve throughout the years. Going from a simple weekend out in Summer to a Spring holiday among newborn babies, with a road trip and a funeral in-between, these games reaffirm the simple joy of embodying characters and exploring their emotions, without any need for epic adventures and magical treasures.
LibretĆ© āThomas Munier has his Milesvaleverse, Vivien FĆ©asson has his Rainyverse: started with āLost in the Rainā, Vivienās vision of a world where downpour is constant and adults non-existent is explored in full in LibretĆ©, a wonderful take on the PbtA system which changes the difficulty scales, and the stakes. You play groups of children and young teens who, in a dark tale Ć la āLord of the Fliesā, discover what it means to build a society and having to defend it against monsters while dealing with their own monsters inside. Itās not for the faint-hearted but is also one of the most honest depictions of childhood I read, both in RPGs and fiction in general.
Sonja & Conan Versus the Ninjas ā All is not seriousness and drama on the French scene: we have had our share of humorous games over the decades, and this short indie gem by Guillaume Jentey is proof of it. Itās at the same time an homage to the pulp fictions of yesteryear, a very funny GMless party game with one player as the Barbarian and the others as the Ninjas trying to fulfill their evil plans, and a game design work of genius: itās full of good ideas, from cards to be shared, played, written on and more (for the Ninjas) to the roll of a 6-sided die to know how many words youāre allowed to say (for the Barbarians). Itās also a very good game for newcomers to the hobby!
Facing the Titan ā Maybe itās a coincidence, but it does seem like us French have a knack for using well-known systems in new ways! Gulix proves this with Facing the Titan which I could sum up as āShadow of the Colossus meets Swords Without Masterā. It is, of course, much more than that: first and foremost, itās a game about a band of adventurers willing to defeat a titanic beasts (dozens are described in the book), and the tale players craft about them in a series of narrative phases. It really is a tale-telling game, with Epidiah Ravacholās system used in new ways with every step!
(I also suggest checking out CĆ“me Martinās games on itch, especially Two Summers, a sweet and scary game about a group of friends and how they change over 30 years.)
Remember when I said we just hit 1000 subscribers? Weāre about to hit 1300 suddenly. Itās been a big couple weeks! Welcome to all my new subscribers! Thanks for joining us here in this little corner of the internet.
II. Listen of the Week
On the latest Yes Indieād podcast, Jay Dragon talks about Wanderhome and particularly enjoyed learning about why the game uses animalfolk.
On the Design Doc podcast, a lovely episode about taking stock, counting your blessings and how to be sustainable as a self-employed designer.
III. Links of the Week
Articles
A procedure for collaboratively setting DCs in all your types of games that donāt have cool things like Position and Effect - could involve M&Ms.
On Dicebreaker, a great overview of some SRDs to base games
The Indie Gaming Reading Club is back and itās about the paradigm of online gaming.
Not about TTRPGs but: A powerful talk given by Meghna Jayanth about White Protagonism and Imperial Pleasures in Game Design
Reviews / Intros
A nice post about Salvage Union,a mech game built on the back of Quest.
An introduction to the feelings-delving game about kids on adventures, Crescent Moon, which Iāve already scheduled for February 2022!
A review of Coyote & Crow, a post-apocalyptic game by indigenous designers
Misc
An exciting bundle of Forged in the Dark games on Bundle of Holding
The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) released a document Professional Standards and Practices for Analog Game Publishers. Iāve been reading a lot of discussion on these standards but I think itās an interesting document - even if Iām not sure what problems it expects to solve.
IV. Small Ads
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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. Iām half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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