REVOLT AND REBUILD Issue
US Discounts, Accessibility, Revolutionary Zines, a Tutorial, and More!
Hey folks: rebels, weirdos, space pirates, nerds, bayers!
Iko here. Before I hand over the pen to Wren, who put together "Revolt and Rebuilt," a fantastic list of games that will make you feel better in these dire times we’re all living through, here are a few quick and important news items.
SHOP NEWS & DISCOUNTS
The TLBS store works like a connective tissue between the American and the European scenes, and beyond. US and Canadian folks grab our zines by EU/UK designers, and vice versa. That’s why:
US friends
As you probably know, tariffs are on pause mode for the next three months. Phew. Let’s hope that becomes permanent. Anyway, to celebrate the pause and to support our US friends, we’ve decided to apply a transversal 10% discount on all physical orders to the US (this doesn't apply to preorders). The discount is applied automatically on checkout.
EU friends
We’ll be reinstating EU sales at the end of the month-ish. By then, we’ll be fully compliant with the new import rules. And, as last year, all orders will have preprocessed customs. Speaking of which, if you'd like to see some (imported) products in our store that you’re having a hard time finding elsewhere, let us know!
MAKE ACCESSIBLE TTRPGs!
We’re extremely excited to be releasing this free zine in collaboration with the Disability Network. This zine, written by Will Purves and laid out by Claire Moore, outlines a set of suggested practices for designing and producing more accessible games: TOGETHER & FOR EVERYBODY. Reading this zine has been a game changer for me; it helped me frame a better mindset to start working better and making my work more accessible. If you, like me, would like to make your zines and gaming experience more accessible but don’t know where to start, grab MAKE ACCESSIBLE TTRPGs! It’s free!
RESOURCES
On a similar subject, Philip Jensen, a Mörk Borg-esque designer and member of the TLB community, has blessed us with a mini-tutorial on “(A.K.A. you want your next zine to look gritty, punkish, and wild but care about accessibility and would like the text to be searchable (as opposed to a big bitmap overloaded with effects and textures).” Phil has got you covered; check out their tutorial:
SIGNAL BOOSTING
You probably know it’s Liminal Horror month, and our LH community friends are running three, yes three, crowdfunding campaigns. You probably already know about them, but in the spirit of horror design kinship, here are the three links:
LIMINAL HORROR DELUXE EDITION: Four years of work and love, boiled down to a humongous tome by Goblin Archives and Josh Domanski, under the 3D eye of art director Zach Hazard. WARNING: PODCAST INCOMING SOON.
I DON’T BELONG HERE: Radiohead music turned modern horror RPG sparkbook by RPG poet Adam Station, with mesmerizing design and art by Strega Eden Wolf and many other guest artists. WARNING: PODCAST INCOMING SOON.
LIMINAL GRIMOIRE: Collection of horrors by pamphlet master Allen M. Hall. Includes many adventures for 1 to 2 players, which is kind of Allen’s specialty.
It’s interesting to note that many of the artists and writers involved with each project contribute to some level to the other projects (and also to the TLB community). It’s nice to see a strong community emerge and collaborate despite, well, despite all!
BUILD A BETTER WORLD TTRPG JAM
(UPCOMING)
TTRPGs are a fantastic way to build community and bring solace in harrowing times. Many of us, all over the world, are going through difficult and anxious days. With the TLB server mods, we've thought we should run a TTRPG jam on itch with the theme "Build a better world."
Our goal is to launch the jam in 2 to 4 weeks. We're still figuring out how the jam should be shaped, and we would really like to hear what the TLB community thinks so we can bring this jam to life with your help and feedback. We might also need some help putting together design resources and promoting the jam. If you want to follow along or contribute to the jam organization (build resources, organize workshops, and whatnot), hop in the Discord server; we have a new dedicated channel: build-a-better-world-ttrpg-jam.
CAMPAIGN SEEDS
After the preview of The Traveller Urban Legend, I’ve just released a short blog post on Campaign Seeds: a mini-framework distilling a series of hooks to quickly launch and sustain your campaign. The example Seed, "Mustangs," is designed for The Lost Bay RPG, but its framework can easily be adapted to any game. Go read it here.
And now, without further ado, let’s hand the pen to Wren:
REVOLT AND REBUILD
So….
Is it just me or does everybody else feel like the world is slowly but surely sliding into the unquenchable fires of hell? Oh yeah you all feel that too? Hm… I’m not sure if that is better or worse than if I was the only one feeling it.
These days things are feeling pretty dire, especially… well especially everywhere. All in different ways, but no place remains untouched. There is no bastion of health and safety and freedom to be found, there never was...
But let’s get back to TTRPGs, because this is a TTRPG newsletter and we can’t just have this be me ranting about about our current existence for like 10 paragraphs.
Playing TTRPGs is fun and can be very therapeutic. In TTRPGs you can fight against fascism and authoritarianism, you can behead the bourgeoisie, you can punch Nazis! TTRPGs allow us to play out sweeping, successful revolutions and make real change in our invented worlds, something that can feel so unachievable to us in meatspace.
For me and a lot of other fellow TTRPGers, these ideas have been present in much of our work and thoughts about this hobby, and how this hobby can intersect with and encourage revolutionary thinking.
Inspired by these thoughts, as well as the ongoing rise and prevalence of fascism in the current state of our world, Iko asked the lovely folks on Bluesky and the Lost Bay Discord server for recommendations on games focusing on these topics.
You can check out Iko’s original Bluesky thread here, and if you’re interested in seeing most of the mentioned games (all of the ones that I could find on Itch.io,) as well quite a few other revolutionary titles, you can check out this collection that I started during the original discussion.
At the time of writing there are 42 games in that itchio collection, but I plan to continue to add things as I come across them. There are many, many games about rebellion and revolt on Itch.io and I am but one little bird.
I’ll be featuring a selection of the projects here, organized in no particular order. This is a non-exhaustive list, and you should definitely check out the collection to see the other titles I managed to find.
Disclaimer: I haven't played any of these games/modules/settings, as I am not immune to the TTRPG collectors’ dilemma of having just so many things and so little time to play the things I would like to. I did really enjoy going through and reading these though, and if any of them sound interesting to you then you should too!
On that note, let’s get to the games!
When in Rome by Chris Air
This grungy module for Mothership has you play as indentured miners, working in a far off, nearly forgotten moon in service of the Powers That Be. Their debt is un-earnable, growing even as they work to pay it off. They’ll never get off this cursed rock. Not if Electorenzo Resources has anything to say about it. They’ll stay here till they die, of mechanical failure or tunnel collapse, or the ol’ Liquid Lung. Nobody ever dies of old age.
Your party has decided to finally do something about this, if only to save themselves. A daring heist will be their way out, their way into some place untouched by this drudgery. That heist is to steal from a derelict Electorenzo Resource space station orbiting the planet, which contains everything a spaceship needs to survive interstellar travel and get the hell out of this place.
Nothing goes as planned, of course...
This module may not have your PCs freeing the galaxy from ultra-capitalism, but it definitely encapsulates the feeling of living under such a system perfectly. The desperation is palpable.
Also available in paper and staples at The Lost Bay Studio store
Greenjackers by Penflower Ink
In Greenjackers, the Conglomerate rules the City, keeping the populace tired and distracted with long work hours and many, many bills to pay. Subscription Services are king, and everything that could possibly have one does.
You play as the eponymous Greenjackers, a rebel group of eco-hacking guerrilla punks, fighting against the ‘Gloms and providing for your community. You perform missions in different blocks of the City and, if successful, you “Green” them, pushing back the corpos and slowly but surely carving out a better living.
I find with many pieces of media in the cyperpunk genre the capitalistic hellscape of the world goes somewhat unquestioned. It’s there, it’s horrible, it sucks, but the characters don’t really fight against it. It’s just accepted that this is the way the things exists in this setting (looking at you Blade Runner.)
Greenjackers isn’t like this. This game is about fighting back against the corporations who seek to own you and everything else. This game is about fostering a world that is better than the one we live in, and working to make that world a reality, displacing the old ruling class.
May You Fish in Interesting Times by W.H. Arthur and Carol Wu
In May You Fish in Interesting Times you play as anthropomorphic birds who are the remnants of a failed revolution. You've gotten together with your old comrades for a fishing trip. Is it just a simple trip or is there something more at play here? That will be decided during play!
Only one thing is certain, the Secret Police know about your little gathering, and are quietly moving against you...
There are five anglers/ex-revolutionaries for you to play, each of them with unique skills and a flaw that once cost the revolution dearly. The artwork of the different playbooks and the other included illustrations are beautiful, and really help the vibes of each personality come through with their excellent composition.
The kingfisher being renamed the Rebel Fisher was an ingenious move, I like to think that they chose that new name themselves.
This isn’t really related to rebellion at all but as a bird myself I really enjoyed the bird trivia that came with each playbook, I learned some interesting fun facts about my avian brethren!
Steelweaver’s Rebellion by Mabel Harper
Blades in the Dark’s Doskvol is already a city on the edge of rebellion, a tinderbox in need of a spark. Steelweaver’s Rebellion is this spark.
Steelweaver’s Rebellion takes place in Coalridge, Doskvol’s manufacturing district. With scant worker’s rights and predatory employers, life in Coalridge is a life of mistreatment and tragedy. Or, well, it is for most. Not for the ruling class, though. And definitely not for Lucretius Dream, the commanding arbiter of the district’s pain, the one who carved it up and shaped it to satisfy his own greed.
In order to defeat Dream and his supporters, the crew must build a coalition with many dispirit rebel factions, pulling them together to fight for the same goals and work towards a better future for the entirety of Coalridge. But beware, there is also a stranger in their midst, trying to worm their way into the coalition’s workings and corrupt it from the inside...
I would love to say more but it’s possible that there are some future players of this campaign reading this, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. Consider it encouragement to go check out the module yourself!
Bastard Sons by Hop To It
Unlike the rest of the projects featured here, Bastard Sons isn’t tied to any particular game, instead being a system-agnostic setting, written to be usable with any game one would like. The author recommends Into the Odd, Mörk Borg, and Shadowdark but those are definitely not the only ones that could be used. Personally I would really love to run it with Cairn.
In Bastard Sons your PCs fight against the Sons of Mitkos, an occupying military that serves only its own greed. They enforce their rule and secure power through intimidation, protection rackets, and coercion. Sound familiar? It should, as this setting draws direct inspiration from many historical and contemporary colonial projects.
The setting of Bastard Sons feels alive and lived-in, with a vast history that stretches far beyond the current occupation. It reminds you that there once was a world without these boots on our necks, and that such a world can exist once more.
This setting is just amazing, and now I want to play a whole campaign in this world. Everything has been fleshed out enough to feel complete, but there are still holes to fill with your own ideas, still places for the world to grow. I love it.
This City Must Burn by Julien Legault
This City Must Burn takes place in the city of Vestille, a miraculous and horrible city in the midst of an industrial revolution. The class-divide is large, and growing ever larger. The rich get richer and the poor stay stuck in the factories that grow their wealth, worked to the bone.
You play as key players in the revolution, folks who are unable or unwilling to let this abuse continue. There are six different playbooks to choose from, each with their own privileges. These privileges will be slowly lost as the characters deepen their support of the Revolution, becoming enemies of the state.
The Night of Fire is fast approaching, a night of blood and flames and rage. There is no way to stop it, it always comes. When it does how will your PCs react? And what will they do in the midst of it?
The Fire is such an awesome part of this game, and I don’t want to spoil it. Just know that it comes into play after a certain threshold is met, and things get very intense. The mask and gloves are off, there’s no more pretending here. Whether it’s the Populace, the Law, or the Aristocracy, something breaks, and chaos bursts forth. Only one thing is certain, nothing will ever be the same.
Casual Games for Protesters by Molleindustria and Harry Josephine Giles
While the games we’ve talked about so far have all been about playing out activism, this collection features games to play during activism.
These games can be played during protests, rallies, and marches, and were developed to make such events more engaging and fun. Of course they aren’t applicable to all situations. But for those demonstrations in which it is, these games can help make things feel a lot less dour, while still fighting against the establishment.
If you have a printer available to you, printing out and assembling some copies of the free zine version would be a great idea. You’d be able to hand them out to your fellow demonstrators while also not requiring you to have your phone on you in order to play.
I haven’t had the chance to try any of these out just yet, but I’ll definitely keep them in mind for the next time I’m out and taking part.
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And that does it for our newsletter for today! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. I love going through and finding all these great projects. It gave me some renewed hope in the world, while also giving me a lot of fun new ideas for TTRPGs to run with my friends.
That's all for now folks.
Stay safe out there, be kind to one another, and take no shit.
Free Palestine.
Iko, Wren
I try to stay off discord, but SUPER excited for the build a better world jam! I have projects booked up til mid may, but would love to release something for this!