As the launch of Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon approaches, I’ll be posting regular updates with a behind-the-scenes look at the design decisions going into the game:

• Epsilon Update 01: Epsilon overview

• Epsilon Update 02: Plant features

• Epsilon Update 03: Plant morphology

• Epsilon Update 04: Exclusion Zone map

• Epsilon Update 05: Character creation

• Epsilon Update 06: Playtesting

• Epsilon Update 07: SHX system

• Epsilon Update 08: Bloom

• Epsilon Update 09: Inventory

• Epsilon Update 10: Timeline

Note that everything here is in development and subject to change. These updates are a snapshot of how things looked when they were written.

Follow the Kickstarter pre-launch page to be notified when it goes live!

Exploration and discovery

I consider exploration and discovery to be core elements of Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon. I want you to feel like you are walking into the unknown, unsure what you will find, and surprised by what is there.

One way to do this is to move to a larger, pointcrawl map as I described in Epsilon Update No. 4. Combined with primary, secondary, and tertiary objective locations defined on the map, this creates interesting routes and some tough choices.

When you move into a new node, however, you still need a way to find out what’s there. For that, I want a simple die roll system.

Here’s how it works:

1. When entering an unexplored node, roll 1d6 + Ring, where Ring is the current concentric ring that you are in on the map (ranging from 1-6). This yields a number between 2 and 12, depending on your current location on the map. Higher ring numbers (deeper into the EZ) will produce higher results on average.

2. Compare the result versus the discovery table:

   1. 2-5: Alpha Class encounter

   2. 6-9: Plant discovery1

   3. 10-12: Beta Class encounter

3. Make additional rolls as necessary to define the encounter or plant.

Let’s take a look at what each of these results mean.

Three different discovery results

The discovery roll results in one of three outcomes:

1. Alpha Class encounters are fairly routine and sometimes mundane. They include thick underbrush, annoying insects, strange smells, and unstable terrain. Some are hazardous (and trigger a challenge), a few are strange, but they are rarely unsettling or inexplicable.2 Many of them have associated journaling prompts.

2. Plant Discoveries are still the core of the game. These result in a new, undocumented plant being found. You’ll roll for plant morphology and features.

3. Beta Class encounters, on the other hand, are where things get really weird. Strangling roots, incoherent VRF event survivors, crash sites, and truly dangerous things are all in this class.3 Many of them are challenges.

This discovery system has elements of a depth crawl. Moving deeper into the EZ toward Ring 6 at the center shifts the results of each discovery roll. You can see this in the photo of my original, rough notes above.

In Ring 1, the possible results are 2-7. A result of 6 or 7 means a plant discovery. That’s 2 of the 6 possibilities or a 33.3% chance of discovering a plant. You are more likely (66.7%) to have an Alpha Class encounter. There is no risk (0%) of a Beta Class encounter in Ring 1.

You are most likely to discover new plants in Rings 3, 4, and 5 with an approximately 67% chance of finding one. The chance of finding new plants is actually a little bit lower in Ring 6 at 50%.

The more dangerous Beta Class encounters don’t show up until Ring 4 (17%) and increase to a high likelihood in Ring 6 (50%), at the remains of the VRF in the center of the EZ. In Ring 5 and Ring 6, there is no chance of a rather mundane Alpha encounter. It’s either plant discovery or a Beta encounter.

Objectives, risk, rings, and discovery

I like that this creates a natural progression of discoveries as you move deeper into the EZ. Things start pretty normal in Ring 1 and the chance of discovering a new plant is pretty low. Things get more weird and dangerous as you approach your primary objective location at the center in Ring 6.

If you were only tasked with discovering plants, you’d avoid Ring 5 and Ring 6, but the new primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives (each tied to locations on the map) force you into other rings. Suddenly routes matter, time in each ring matters, and taking the shortest route isn’t always the best plan.

That’s the feeling I want in Epsilon: a constant pressure to move, explore, watch the clock, and wonder if you have time to complete one more task before you must leave the EZ.

- E.P. 💀

P.S. Follow Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon on Kickstarter. I post updates here on the third Friday of each month.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

I’ve mentioned many times that restrictions breed creativity when it comes to game design.

This was particularly true for me in this year’s Appendix N Jam hosted by Dank Dungeons. The jam requires that submissions be not more than four A5 pages or the equivalent — two A4 pages or eight A6 pages. Having never worked in an A6 format before, I thought it would be a fun challenge.

Combined with my randomly assigned title of Cemetery of the Silent Monks, I created a little, black and white, A6 adventure zine.1 It’s a zonecore one-shot for MÖRK BORG inspired by Roadside Picnic and Stalker:

“The sky over Graven-Tosk was torn asunder with blinding flame and choking, black smoke. At least that’s the way Aalgut the Gravedigger explains it. Says a Black Egg now sits just outside the main cemetery. Big as a house. Perfectly smooth. Doesn’t cast a shadow. He’s seen it himself, but refuses to go too close. He’s seen the Silent Monks that come and go from inside. He’s seen them take people inside the egg — and never come out.”

It’s got sphincters, mutating milk, and digestion machines. As one person described it: “This adventure has wonderfully grotesque imagery, but leaves out just enough detail for our imagination to fill in the blanks with something personally upsetting. Bravo!”

The constraints and that imagination came together in how I built the Black Egg artifact generator.

The Black Egg Artifact Generator

Powerful alien artifacts feature prominently in Roadside Picnic and are important to the genre. These discarded items are probably just junk to the aliens, but to humans they are inexplicable, magic-like objects.

I wanted to include them in the adventure, but with a tight space constraint, I couldn’t actually list them out in detail. While a list of D12 Black Egg Artifacts would be handy for a GM, there was simply no room.

Instead, I opted for a A+B+C combinatorial table plus a table of D6 powers that (when combined) could generate 1,296 different items.2 The specific details are left to be imagined, which can sometimes be even better.

The table has three Aspect columns (A, B, and C) of independent aspects that can be combined. The first column is an adjective, the second is a material, and the third is a physical form. They are then combined in order to create an artifact:

• 1+3+4 = humming stone needle

• 6+5+1 = spinning crystal sphere

• 5+1+5 = throbbing flesh blob

Then a power is added to the artifact with an additional d6 roll. The powers are more defined and may include mechanical effects. Examples: “Animals are terrified of it. Dogs whine. Livestock panic.” or “Will explode when struck. Test Toughness DR12 or stunned, +4DR for d4 rounds. Artifact destroyed.”

With just a few rolls, a GM can create any number of unique artifacts — some useful, some dangerous, some useless. They seem utterly mysterious to the players, and it is up to them to figure out what they do.

Less is more with zonecore

If I were unconstrained, I’d probably still be working on Cemetery of the Silent Monks. I’d be tempted to include a long list of interesting artifacts for players to find, listing out each one in great detail. Each would have a name, description, and specific mechanical effect. It would be a lot of work and fill up a bunch of pages.

And I’m not sure it would be better.

In fact, I’m quite certain it would be worse.

I think people are enjoying the artifact generator because it doesn’t indulge in excessive exposition. It doesn’t explain the artifacts in detail. By its very nature it creates a bit of mystery and unknowable information.

That captures the “unknown and unknowable” zonecore vibe far more than a detailed list of artifacts.

- E.P. 💀

P.S. Grab a free copy of Cemetery of the Silent Monks at itch.io and leave a review.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

“It was a stoop sale, which is a garage sale if you live in Brooklyn, which I do.”

— MC Frontalot

Scratched, scuffed, and playable!

Over the past few years, I’ve accumulated copies of Exeunt Press games that are lightly damaged. I can’t sell them at full price as pristine and perfect items, and yet they are too good to throw away. They are perfectly readable, usable, and playable!

The Exeunt Press Summer Stoop Sale to the rescue!

Give these books a good home. Show them that they deserve to be played just as much as other copies! And do it at a significant discount!

Shop the stoop sale!

Everything is 60% off regular prices!

Get Exclusion Zone Botanist, Blackflower, Eleventh Beast, ADVENTURE!, Caveat Emptor, Make Your Own One-Page RPG, and select issues of Tumulus for 60% off their regular prices.

What kind of damage? Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Scuffed, scratched, partially delaminated covers

• Bent, creased, or otherwise wonky (but readable) pages

• Dog-eared or bent page corners

• Dinged and damaged edges

• Minor print alignment errors

• Other cosmetic issues that do not impact playability

They aren’t perfect copies, but they are perfectly good games.

Every copy signed by me!

To make these copies a little more special, I will be signing every one that goes out. I might even include a little scribble skull drawing to go with it. Along with the scratches and scuffs, your book will be one of a kind!

Sale ends Sunday, August 16, 2026

This is a short sale and some of the titles only have one or two copies available. If you see something you want, grab it.

All Stoop Sale items are available via the Summer Stoop Sale product page. Select the item you want from the drop-down menu.

If you have any questions before ordering, let me know at games@exeunt.press.

Quantities are obviously limited. Once they are gone they are gone. All items are sold as-is, non-refundable, with no warranty expressed or implied. All sales are final, but gaming is forever.

- E.P. 💀

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2026 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

I sometimes get asked to check out people’s new one-page RPGs, particularly around this time of year during Unknown Dungeon’s One-Page RPG Jam.1 While I don’t have time for open submissions, I’m always happy to check out the games my friends are working on.2

It made me think about what universal feedback I might give for those making new games this year, particularly one-page RPGs released as PDF-only. While I talk at length in Make Your Own One-Page RPG about game design and publishing, there’s a short list of things I’d encourage all new creators to consider.

Here is that list!

I hope it helps you make your first (or next) one-page RPG.

1. Don’t rasterize your text.

This is probably the biggest piece of advice for those brand new to making games and entering game jams. While it can be tempting to work in your favorite app such as Canva or Photoshop, you should really try to create a game with selectable text.

Without getting all technical, text is usually vectorized. This means it is infinitely scalable (larger or smaller) because the letters are stored as points, lines, and curves all fitting on a grid. Depending on how you export from Canva or other applications, it might rasterize your text. Raster images are made up of individual pixels rather than curves. When you try to zoom in on them, they just get blurry.

How can you check? Open up your PDF and try to select just the text to copy and paste it elsewhere. If you can, you probably have vector text. If you can’t, it is almost certainly raster text. You can also check by opening the PDF properties and checking the list of embedded fonts. If there are no fonts listed, it might be rasterized.

Also, if you exported your game as a JPG or PNG, the text is rasterized. Please use PDF instead.

Being able to select and zoom in on text is important for people with screen readers or low vision, and for anyone who wants to read on displays of different sizes.

Can I select and zoom the text? That’s the first thing I check.

2. Tell me the hook up front.

I have a short attention span when it comes to new games, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. It’s a roleplaying game, so tell me what role I will be playing in this game!

Am I a wizard? If so, what am I trying to do? Is it a cooperative game or competitive? How long does it take? What do I need to play? What kind of fun should I expect?

The final exercise of my public library game design classes is usually a Mad Libs style game pitch. I make worksheets that allow participants to fill in blocks about their games: game name, hook, min/max players, and so on. In just three sentences, they can quickly communicate what their game is about. Almost always I’m immediately interested upon hearing the resulting pitch and want to learn more.

It doesn’t need to be a full marketing pitch, but even a one-page game should tell me why I might want to play it.

That’s the second thing I look for when checking out a new game: What’s the hook?

3. Have a clear core game loop.

No one will play your game if they can’t figure out how to play it.

Almost every game has a core game loop, even if it is not immediately obvious. Take the time to map out the loop of your game. Use a flowchart if you can — not necessarily to include in the game, but for your own edification. If you find you can’t easily build a diagram of your core game loop, you probably have a game that is too complex (or outright broken).

After you understand your game’s loop, make it clear in the game. I like to use numbered lists of steps when making one-page RPGs because space is tight. When more room is available, I include the flowchart.

Once I’ve read the hook, I want to know how to play! Show me the loop.

4. Make it printer friendly.

I love white text on a black background as much as anyone, but please remember that many potential players will want to print your game to play it. Having one or two A4 pages of black ink may discourage people from giving it a try.

Does this mean you need to use boring black text on white and ditch your vintage parchment background? Not necessarily. You can always include a printer-friendly version with the background image layers turned off.

I’m not hard-set on every game being printer friendly, but it is something to consider.

As an ancillary “Rule 4.5,” I would add that you should use high contrast text in your one-page RPGs. The tight space is already going to make you use a smaller font, so you don’t need to make things worse with heavy grunge effects and low contrast. Again, you don’t necessarily have to do this, but at least consider an alternate “high contrast” version.3

I usually print games to play them. Have mercy on my printer.

5. Include credits and contact info.

I’m always surprised at how many games don’t include credits or a copyright notice somewhere. Let me know who made the game. Tell me where I can find more of your stuff via an itch.io page or social media. This also helps me know how to credit creators when discussing games at Skeleton Code Machine.

Along with creator credits, remember to credit art and font sources as necessary. If you are using public domain art, the artists are dead and won’t demand credit… but it’s still nice to do. Some fonts, maps, SRDs, and freely available art pieces require credit to be given in the game itself. Consider using Hinokodo’s Human Made logo.

Check your licenses and give credit where credit is due.

- E.P. 💀

What do you think? What’s on your “pre-flight checklist” when doing a quick check on a game before publishing it? Let me know in the comments.

P.S. New game! Get We are Mushrooms (Print + PDF) in the shop. Be the mushroom you’ve always wanted to be. Skeleton Code Machine readers can use code IMAFUNGI for 10% off your order. Offer expires August 7, 2026. 🍄

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

I fill your pants with bees!

You and your opponent are rival wizards. Battle for supremacy by using your wizard fuel to cast spells and drain the fuel of your rival. Less fuel means fewer options for spells, so you’ll need to be creative.

Wizard Fuel Duel is a two-player, head-to-head game about casting absurd spells to drain the fuel of your opponent. It plays in about 10-20 minutes and only requires three six-sided dice (3d6) and a deck of cards.

Each round you roll three dice and assign one to Action, one to Essence, and one to Target. When combined, they create the spell that you’ll be using against your rival: Drain Energy, Infuse Object, Ignite Animal, and so on. Then you’ll describe how the spell actually works against the other wizard. Remove heat and freeze their head in a block of ice. Infuse and fill their pants with poison or bees (or both).

It’s a quick, silly game that fits on a single A4-sized page front and back. Free community copies are available! Scroll down on the game page to claim one.

Line art is by Evlyn Moreau. Color is by me.

Claim a free copy!

Join the One-page RPG Jam

Wizard Fuel Duel was created for the One-Page RPG Jam 2026 hosted by Unknown Dungeon. This is my second submission this year! Check out The Walden Paradox to see my first one.

The jam encourages participants to get creative by imposing a tight constraint: the game must fit on a single sheet of paper. I’ve found the concept so intriguing that I’ve published a guide on how to Make Your Own One-Page RPG.

This year’s jam runs from July 12, 2026 to August 16, 2026, so there’s still time to join!

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

You are Henry David Thoreau.

You came to the woods because you wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if you could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when you came to die, discover that you had not lived.

The Walden Paradox is a solo journaling game about Thoreau’s final months at Walden Pond from May 1846 to September 1847.

Each month, a new visitor will call upon you. Converse with them. Keep a keen eye for both peculiarities and signs of time paradoxes. Record everything in your journal. The game ends either at the 6th time paradox or when your time at Walden ends in September — whichever comes first.

Then, you will write a final letter to your friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This is a journaling game for 1 player that plays in about 1-2 hours. All you need to play are a pencil, paper, deck of cards, and two six-sided dice.

Free community copies are available!1

Get The Walden Paradox

Join the One-Page RPG Jam

The Walden Paradox was created for the One-Page RPG Jam 2026 hosted by Unknown Dungeon.

It’s an annual jam that encourages participants to get creative by imposing a tight constraint: the game must fit on a single sheet of paper. I’ve found the concept so intriguing that I’ve published a guide on how to Make Your Own One-Page RPG.2

Exclusion Zone Botanist, Eleventh Beast, and Caveat Emptor all began as jam submissions. Last year’s submission was Ghost Beacon.

This year’s jam runs from July 12, 2026 to August 16, 2026, so there’s still time to join!

- E.P. 💀

P.S. I also published Cemetery of the Silent Monks this week for the Appendix N Jam — a zonecore one-shot for MÖRK BORG, inspired by Roadside Picnic and Stalker. Investigate the Black Egg that landed in Graven-Tosk! 👽🛸🪦

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

Cemetery of the Silent Monks

The sky over Graven-Tosk was torn asunder with blinding flame and choking, black smoke. At least that’s the way Aalgut the Gravedigger explains it. Says a Black Egg now sits just outside the main cemetery. Big as a house. Perfectly smooth. Doesn’t cast a shadow. He’s seen it himself, but refuses to go too close. He’s seen the Silent Monks that come and go from inside. He’s seen them take people inside the egg — and never come out.

A new zonecore one-shot for MÖRK BORG inspired by Roadside Picnic and Stalker from Exeunt Press.

Cemetery of the Silent Monks is an 8-page, A6 zine including:

• D6 Rumors & Lies

• D6 Encounters in Graven-Tosk

• Black Egg Artifact Generator1

• Silent Monk Transformation Stages

• The Black Egg Map (7 areas)

A6 is approximately 4.1 × 5.8 inches (105 x 148.5 mm). I’ve ordered a small print run which will be available in the Exeunt Press Shop in September.

Free community copies are available!2

Get Silent Monks

Join the Appendix N Jam

This adventure was created for the Appendix N Jam 2026 hosted by Dank Dungeons.

It’s an annual game jam that “pays homage to this retro pulp fantasy.” Participants are assigned a randomly generated Appendix N book title. They then create a TTRPG module (adventure) based on the given title. Submissions are limited to four A5 pages (or eight A6 pages).

Last year I made The Trench Grub’s Thirst for the jam. It’s a CY_BORG heist, inspired by The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton and the “The Last Question” short story by Isaac Asimov.3

This year’s jam runs from July 1st 2026 to August 1st 2026, so there’s still time to join!

- E.P. 💀

CEMETERY OF THE SILENT MONKS is an independent production by EXEUNT PRESS and is not affiliated with Ockult Örtmästare Games or Stockholm Kartell. It is published under the MÖRK BORG Third Party License. MÖRK BORG is copyright Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell. CEMETERY OF THE SILENT MONKS is Copyright 2026 EXEUNT PRESS.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

As the launch of Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon approaches, I’ll be posting regular updates with a behind-the-scenes look at the design decisions going into the game:

• Epsilon Update 01: Epsilon overview

• Epsilon Update 02: Plant features

• Epsilon Update 03: Plant morphology

• Epsilon Update 04: Exclusion Zone map

• Epsilon Update 05: Character creation

• Epsilon Update 06: Playtesting

• Epsilon Update 07: SHX system

• Epsilon Update 08: Bloom

• Epsilon Update 09: Inventory

Note that everything here is in development and subject to change. These updates are a snapshot of how things looked when they were written.

Follow the Kickstarter pre-launch page to be notified when it goes live!

Status and timeline update

Work continues on Epsilon, but at a slower pace as of late. My efforts have been focused on getting We are Mushrooms published and on two other projects to be released in September. While this update may be shorter than the previous ones, I’m happy to report that Epsilon is in a good place:

• Introduction and front matter are complete

• Character creation is done

• The improved inventory system is done

• The map structure is complete

• Encounters and challenges (SHX) are done

• Plant discovery, features, and morphology is done

• The new Bloom (corruption) system is done

It feels great seeing the whole game come together.

The challenge is that I still need to commission art and work with an editor for revisions. After that, I need to finish layout for what is easily the largest project I’ve ever done. With 167 days left in 2026, while not impossible, it feels increasingly unlikely that all of those remaining tasks will be done before the end of the year.

I know how much you are looking forward to this game, and I truly appreciate your patience. As I mentioned in the very first update, the Kickstarter will go live when it is ready. In the meantime, you can follow along with updates.

No matter what, you can expect an update here on the third Friday of each month!

- E.P. 💀

P.S. Check out this amazing Exclusion Zone Botanist scrapbook created by Vansheea and shared on the r/solorpgplay subreddit. It’s really impressive!

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

I’ve been working on a new game, and the test prints arrive next week. It’s called We are Mushrooms, and if you’ve enjoyed solo journaling games like You are a Muffin, I think you are going to really like this one.

We are Mushrooms is a solo journaling game to play together.

You will begin by choosing what type of mushroom you’ll be and creating a basic map of your immediate area. Then, over the course of twelve turns spanning three seasons, you will silently observe what happens in the forest. Knights, rogues, merchants, monks, and animals will leave their mark on your surroundings. New features will be added to your map. The weather will change.

You might even be eaten, but that’s okay.

You’ll always grow back.

Subscribe now

Growing and releasing spores

Each round of the game you’ll have a chance to grow. Some forest visitors may cause your growth to decrease (e.g. if they eat you), but don’t worry too much about being picked or eaten. Most of your mushroom structure is safely underground. You’ll just take a short break and then grow right back.

If you ever reach your maximum Growth (three dice stacked, each at their maximum value), you will disperse your spores and spread to nearby areas. When that happens, you’ll choose two adjacent locations on the map and draw your mushroom in them. Then you’ll begin the growth cycle again.

Rolling the same visitor more than once

Each round, a new forest visitor appears. The visitor could be an animal or a person. They might just be passing through or they could leave a lasting mark on the forest clearing. It is possible (and expected) that some visitors will return later in the game (i.e. rolling the same value again). Return visits often have different details or effects. Some visitors will even interact with things other visitors have left behind.

A solo game you can play together

You can play We are Mushrooms as a group — sort of like a silent book club.

All players start and end the game at the same time. When rolling for an encounter, all players (i.e. mushrooms) will experience that same event. How players react to and imagine events, however, will be an individual experience for each player. The Monk (one of the forest visitors) might enter the forest clearing and build a shrine, but each player can imagine what that shrine looks like as they see fit.

The goal is to provide a framework where any number of players can have a shared activity and yet feel comfortable exploring their own creativity and imagination.

When is it going to be available?

We are Mushrooms is written, edited, and laid out. I sent it to the printer to have a few test prints made to make sure it’s perfect. They are due to be delivered the week of July 14, 2026. I’m excited/nervous to see what they look like!

Assuming they are good, I’ll send the full print order to the printer. Those usually take 2-4 weeks to arrive. Then We are Mushrooms will go on sale at shop.exeunt.press.

Subscribe and follow along here at the Exeunt Omnes newsletter to be notified when copies are available!

Subscribe now

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2026 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

It’s back!

If you’ve been unable to complete your Tumulus collection because Issue 01 “Do not trust robots.” has been out of stock, now is your chance.1

The theme of this Winter 2024 issue is dystopian anxiety about malfunctioning artificial intelligence. You’ll find android naming schemes, a cyberpunk district worldbuilding game, a logic puzzle, and a hex flower game engine.

It’s available now via the Tumulus Back Issues order page while supplies last.

I don't trust robots.

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

I’ll be at the ALA Annual Conference this week in Chicago! Come to the GameRT Mage’s Program: Creativity, Community, and Connection: Why We Can’t Shut Up about Game Jams:

This panel brings together librarians and game publishers to share their experience and ideas on hosting game design workshops at your library! From iterating on existing games to creating original ones, from board games to tabletop roleplaying games, from single-day events to a month-long event, come learn how play can foster creativity, facilitate community, and build connection with library resources and services.

The panel is Saturday, June 27, 2026 from 2:30 - 3:30 PM CT at McCormick Place, W 194 A. Rebecca Strang is the moderator.

Because I’ll be there, note that any Exeunt Press Shop orders received during that time will ship after the conference. You can expect shipping to resume by Wednesday, July 1, 2026.

If you will be there, please let me know in the comments!

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

As the launch of Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon approaches, I’ll be posting regular updates with a behind-the-scenes look at the design decisions going into the game:

• Epsilon Update 01: Epsilon overview

• Epsilon Update 02: Plant features

• Epsilon Update 03: Plant morphology

• Epsilon Update 04: Exclusion Zone map

• Epsilon Update 05: Character creation

• Epsilon Update 06: Playtesting

• Epsilon Update 07: SHX system

• Epsilon Update 08: Bloom

Note that everything here is in development and subject to change. These updates are a snapshot of how things looked when they were written.

Follow the Kickstarter pre-launch page to be notified when it goes live!

The inventory challenge

In the original Exclusion Zone Botanist, there is no inventory system. You begin the game with “a couple of chem lights, rations, first aid kit, and a Bureau issued HX-40 pistol that you’ve never fired.” Beyond those items, you have your sketchbook and pens. Nothing is ever gained or lost during your incursion into the EZ.

I want Epsilon to have an inventory system. To me, the ability to customize the items you carry is just as much a part of character creation as is choosing your background and skills. Finding new items and occasionally losing some of them needs to be part of the game.

In the Epsilon version that was playtested at Unpub, players had a basically unlimited inventory. New agents began the game with eight items including a notebook, chronometer, food, water, backpack, paper map, analog compass, first aid kit, and chem lamp. There was also D66 table to gain additional starting items to add to your inventory. Even more items were acquired via events while exploring the EZ.

While I liked the immersiveness (and perhaps simulationist vibes) of it, it slowed down the game in a suboptimal way. This showed up in the playtest feedback as I noted in my post-test write-up:

Too many ways to gain items and no way to lose items. Players didn’t love having to search through a long list of items to see if they applied to the current challenge. Based on watching how players interacted with each part of the game, the equipment wasn’t as engaging as the exploration and drawing.

It should have been no surprise that people play Exclusion Zone Botanist and Epsilon for the exploration, drawing, and push-your-luck zonecore tension. Adding an inventory system that makes players stop those activities to search through a list runs counter to the goals of the game.

Keep it simple

Epsilon’s inventory system is now streamlined in a way that lets the best parts of the game shine. The starting equipment is still there, but abstracted away. If you think you’d reasonably have an item that would help in a specific challenge, give yourself a +1 to the SHX system roll. We don’t need to list everything out.

Yet some item specificity is necessary. Therefore, special items that are acquired along the way will go into your inventory, but with a much smaller fixed capacity. You can carry four items with you at any time.

I’m also continuing to revise many of the encounters and challenges so that they consume items. Previously the game would continually give agents new items but never remove any. Balancing that will be a big improvement and is aligned with simplifying the gameplay.

Epsilon is the largest project I’ve worked on so far. Scope creep and the desire to include every fun idea is a constant risk and battle.

Of course I want to have it be a deeper game, but inventory is a good example of the need to focus on the core promise of the game: deep exploration and discovery with constant time pressure.

Follow the Epsilon project

I am posting an Epsilon update on the third Friday of every month through development, launch, and fulfillment. You can read previous updates in the Exeunt Omnes archive.

What do you think? Have you played a solo game where the inventory system got in the way of the best parts of the game? Let me know in the comments.

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with game design content and creative inspiration.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

Although Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon remains the main project at Exeunt Press this year, I’ve also been working on some other games. This week, I’d like to talk about my learnings from playtesting one of those games: Proxwar Zero.

Two games, both alike in dignity

One of the games is a spiritual successor to You are a Muffin called We are Mushrooms. It takes what I’ve learned since publishing it in 2022 and applies it to the new game’s design. There are more opportunities to personalize your character, a greater variety of prompts, and (what I find most interesting) connections between the random events. The game is made to be played either solo or “solo together” with others. After one more check from my editor, it’ll be ready for a test print.

The other game is a cyberpunk city-builder called Proxwar Zero, based on the Gridlock City game included in Tumulus Issue 01. It’s influenced by world-building games such as Beak, Feather, & Bone by Possible Worlds Games, which was itself influenced by Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year.

I wanted to use my board game knowledge to give the competitive mechanisms more teeth. My goal was to make the core mechanisms of the game solid and enjoyable, even without the storytelling and thematic layers.

Proxwar Zero gives you the feeling of controlling a shadow faction conducting secret operations: funding landmarks, torching rival headquarters, and burning allegiances. Each of the 12 available factions (including both corps and hackers) has an asymmetric Special Op that feels unique. You build and destroy the city, all the while placing bets on which faction will have the most power in the end.1

How it got here contains a valuable lesson in playtesting.

Iteration zero

Proxwar Zero is a game where 1-4 players compete by influencing the factions of a cyberpunk city to gain control. Players don’t control anything on the map. They are not the city factions. Instead, the players represent shadow organizations waging a proxy war via the city’s corps and gangs.

I spent a lot of time writing the rules, revising them, and adding mechanisms to counteract potential problems that might arise. The original playtest version of the game rules came in at over 3,900 words.2 There were rules for drafting factions, setting up the map, and preparing starting hands. Players each managed a hand of cards but also a face-down, dynamic stack of cards. Each player’s turn included three phases, each of which had multiple steps and options. The end game had multiple scoring steps and a slew of tiebreakers.

It was different, interesting, complex… and a bit of a mess during the first playtest.

Imagine a beautiful house of cards that eventually collapses under its own weight. That was the first iteration of Proxwar Zero.

There were so many steps that it was a burden to play. Many of the steps required multiple lookups and references, such as cross-referencing the card suit to the faction to a color when drawing it on the map. The map had zones that restricted actions and then dice that restricted the zones. It was system upon system that made it feel like we were fighting the game the whole time.

We did end up finishing, but I could hardly say it was a fun time.

And yet, we agreed there was a great game in there!

More streamlined and more engaging

That first playtest was a fairly discouraging experience. Afterward, I copied the whole mess into a new Notion subpage called “Deprecated” and started over.

I did not, however, throw away all that work. Instead, I tried to write the rules again, but this time from my memory of the playtest. I kept the parts we felt were fun, and ruthlessly ripped out as much complexity as possible. How can I eliminate the need for color coding? Can I just use a single hand of cards? Can I get rid of the dice completely?

I ran another quick, partial playtest and cut some more.

I ended up reducing the rules by almost 50%.

Setup now takes almost no time at all. Turn order and “first player” no longer matter. Players choose a single action on their turn and it moves to the next person. There’s a clear end game trigger and scoring is easy.

Based on the latest partial playtest, Proxwar Zero is, without a doubt, a far better game:

• Setup is faster

• Turn order is simpler

• Actions are streamlined and useful

• The storytelling elements have space to shine

• Scoring is cleaner

These changes didn’t just mechanically improve the game (though they did). They made the game easier to play. The proxy war aspect of the game and its emergent storytelling come through more clearly now. The game is more engaging because players spend less time navigating procedures and more time creating a cyberpunk city.

The idea of influence vs. control is retained and still central to the game. The covert ops are faster, cleaner, and easier to understand. There’s room for players to become their corp or hacker faction as they play the game.

There is, of course, some design work to do. For example, some of the faction “Special Op” abilities need balancing, I need to check the average game length, and the map needs to be finalized. But that is all to be expected at this early stage of development.

So the question is: Did I waste all that time by writing more and more rules before the first playtest?

Reducing muda

There’s a concept called muda (無駄). I’ve seen it translated as “futility” or “wastefulness”. Muda is more than physical waste and defects. It’s any waste of time, effort, and focus that does not add value to the final product.3

Given my background, I couldn’t help but think of this after the playtests. Did I spend hours of time across days or weeks writing rules for no reason? Should I have stopped sooner and tested earlier?

The answer isn’t an entirely clear one.

I ended up ditching almost half of the entire Proxwar Zero design (as measured by word count).4 It might have been better to incrementally add, rather than design and delete en masse. Designing in this way produced a significant amount of muda.

At the same time, while I could have avoided a lot of the “wasted” design time, I wouldn’t have had so many different ideas in the game to test. It’s because it had everything in it that we found the best parts. I’m not sure the core concept of the game could have been expressed in a minimalist form.

As soon as possible, if not sooner

This is where the concept of minimum viable product (MVP) comes in. An MVP is the most basic, usable version of a product that can be tested. You make the MVP and test it early. The feedback you gain is used to develop the product further. The purpose of the MVP process is to avoid the wasted time that I experienced above.

Ultimately, I spent too much time before the first playtest, but the process wasn’t entirely wasteful. It helped me discover which ideas were worth keeping. It’s a minor mistake I can learn from, and the MVP model is a way to handle similar situations in the future.

When should I playtest? As soon as I have a playable core concept.5

Ideas like MVP and muda aren’t hard and fast rules, but they are long-lasting, popular concepts for a reason. While I had a sneaking suspicion I was going too far with the initial design, keeping these ideas at the forefront would have stopped me — and prevented a lot of wasted time.

Either way, I’m very excited about the game Proxwar Zero has become and can’t wait to share it with you when it’s ready!

What do you think? How early do you playtest your ideas? Let me know in the comments.

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

Four times a year, Tumulus takes a single theme and explores it from every angle: design theory, game history, mechanical analysis, playable games, and exercises to spark your creativity. Read it with pencil and dice at hand.

Tumulus Issue 06 “Hammer a nail in the coffin.” is the current issue for a few more days — vampires, skeletons, ghosts, haunted houses, and the undead:

• Assignment: TPK: Design a game where the players are already dead.

• The dangerous dead: Exploring the historical and archaeological roots of killing the dead, including D6 Revenant Prevention Methods.

• Bosman’s typology of player death: A model for the death of a player’s character in tabletop and video games.

• Markov chains for restless spirits: Creating mechanisms with memory for escalating ghost attacks.

• Vampires & secret societies: A selection of vampires and the esoteric orders associated with them.

• Haunted houses of insufferable gloom: Read about one of the earliest ghost stories written by Pliny the Younger, and generate a haunted building with bleak walls and vacant eye-like windows.

• Vampire mechanisms in Blood Borg: Five thematically-integrated mechanisms for gutter punk bloodsuckers, including an interview with creator Adam Vass.

• Diceless skeletons destined to lose: Exploring narrative design vs. resolution mechanisms in The Skeletons.

• A place for all my corpses: Operate a cemetery, bury the dead, and make money. A fully playable game that is “incomplete by design” with exercises to improve it.

And this issue comes with a printed Blood Chapter bookmark.

The next issue is set to be published in June 2026, which is just a few days away. Once published, Issue 07 “Slay the dragon.” will be the default starting issue for new subscriptions. It includes a dragon generator and two playable games, one of which is about passive-aggressive dragon roommates.

Get Tumulus

Tumulus back issues

You’ll still be able to get Issue 06, but only as a limited quantity back issue after June 1, 2026. In general, when those are sold out, they are gone.1

Subscribing saves you over 30% on the cost of each issue.

Choose your four issues

When you subscribe, be sure to select the four issues that you want to include with your subscription. This is especially important when renewing to avoid getting duplicates.

- E.P. 💀

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

As the launch of Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon approaches, I’ll be posting regular updates with a behind-the-scenes look at the design decisions going into the game:

• Epsilon Update 01: Epsilon overview and launch dates

• Epsilon Update 02: Plant features

• Epsilon Update 03: Plant morphology

• Epsilon Update 04: Exclusion Zone map

• Epsilon Update 05: Character creation

• Epsilon Update 06: Playtesting

• Epsilon Update 07: SHX system

Note that everything here is in development and subject to change. These updates are a snapshot of how things looked when they were written.

Follow the Kickstarter pre-launch page to be notified when it goes live!

The inevitable transformation

I recently wrote about the zonecore genre, using The Colour Out of Space, Roadside Picnic, Stalker, and Annihilation as touchstones. Using those as guides, I was able to identify five key elements that are usually present. The first, of course, was an anomalous zone — the EZ in the case of Exclusion Zone Botanist. Others include a non-hero stalker, inexplicable phenomena, and institutional fatalism.

The one that I find most compelling, however, is the inevitable transformation:

Direct or indirect, physical or mental, the anomalous zone permanently changes those who enter it. There is no protection from it or way to ward it off. At best, its inevitable effects can be reduced, slowed, or postponed.

This change is based on proximity to the zone, subtly (or not so subtly) transforming those who enter. It’s the ruined crops, poisoned soil, and a “slightly luminous” Mrs. Gardner walking on all fours in The Colour Out of Space. It’s the stalker’s child in Roadside Picnic — both in appearance and abilities.

Corruption in the EZ

That inevitable transformation is what I wanted to capture in the original Exclusion Zone Botanist. Which is why the six-step “Corruption Progression List” only ever goes one direction. You begin to itch. Small lumps form. Tiny sprouts erupt. Reversing these effects is not part of the game.

The corruption steps in EZB were, to me, one of the most compelling parts of the game. Mechanically, knowing there are only six steps to the fatal end makes the corruption dice rolls more powerful.1

Bloom

I always felt that “corruption” was a descriptive but clunky word for the transformation in EZB. It certainly gets the point across, but it never felt like that’s what agents in the EZ would call it. In my bitter, jaded, sarcastic, bureaucratic vision of the game’s world, the agents would call it something darkly amusing. Something that sounds not so bad, when in fact it is very bad indeed.

Bloom is what corruption will be called in Epsilon.2 It’s a cute, fun word that describes horrible, irreversible changes. Perfect.

Next, I wanted the progression to be less deterministic. The same steps happen in the same order in EZB, which works really well for a short game. In Epsilon, Bloom now has branching paths and multiple terminal points.

It’s like a skill tree, but cursed!3

Bloom progression tiers

Where EZB had six, linear steps for corruption, Epsilon has seven non-linear tiers.

The moment you enter the EZ, you are at Tier 1. Simply entering the zone causes a change, albeit a small one: an earthy smell, annoying gnats, birds that are louder than you’d expect. That’s where it begins — nominal, barely noticeable. After that, the effects become more pronounced:

• Tier 1: Barely noticeable

• Tier 2: First signs

• Tier 3: Benign physical changes

• Tier 4: Significant changes

• Tier 5: Major transformation

• Tier 6: Loss of control

• Tier 7: Terminal (game ends)

As Bloom increases throughout the game, it is tracked on your Bloom die as part of the SHX system. The die starts the game at 1, meaning Tier 1. Each tier has six possible options, but you don’t just roll for each one. After rolling for your starting Tier 1 effect, subsequent ones are based on a twisting path through the progression.

You might start with an itch, but then it might progress to small nodules on your skin or it might lead to a tuft of your hair falling out. If your hair falls it, your fingernails are next. Each step along the Bloom progression impacts the future ones.

If your Bloom die is at 6 and you need to increase it, you reach the Tier 7: Terminal stage. There are six different game endings where you become part of the forest.

Bloom expands the corruption system into something deeper and more unpredictable.

I think you’re really going to enjoy it.4

Follow the Epsilon project

I am posting an Epsilon update on the third Friday of every month through development, launch, and fulfillment. You can read previous updates in the Exeunt Omnes archive.

What do you think? Do you like that corruption is now called Bloom? How do you feel about branching progression paths? Let me know in the comments.

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

I ran a free public library tabletop game design workshop recently just outside of Baltimore. It went really well. Not only was it well attended with all the seats full, but everyone was so enthusiastic and engaged!

The structure was exactly the same as the hands-on workshop I ran at the Gettysburg Library back in January, which was based on the crash course I taught at Dickinson College.1 So I’m comfortable with the material, how participants react to the various activities, and what to expect.

While it works really well, I can’t help but try to think of ways to improve it going forward. Can we make the output (i.e. a playable game) the focus of the class from the first slide?

What did I cover in the recent class?

My goal for the 2-hour public library workshop is to have participants walk away with four new skills:

1. Know who your game is for: Understanding the kinds of fun you want your players to have and what kind of players would enjoy your game is fundamental to design. We cover the 8 Kinds of Fun, Bartle’s Taxonomy, and the Quantic Gamer Motivations along with some easy exercises.

2. Be able to pick a theme: Relying heavily on Sarah Shipp’s work on thematic game design, we pick random themes (e.g. mermaid pirates) and try to narrow the scope and increase the resolution — zooming in.2

3. Design for meaningful choices: We cover player agency models, what it means to give players a choice, and how to avoid false choices.

4. Think about your game in three acts: The final concept is how to make the beginning of you game feel different from the end of your game using Freytag’s Pyramid. We also talk about how to make sure your game ends.

At the end of those four sections, the participants have a very simple game that uses their selected theme. It’s not a good game (by design!) but it’s enough to imagine what it might be in the future. We then take turns pitching our games using a standard format.

There’s usually a few minutes at the end for discussion and questions.

What changes would I make in the future?

I spent some time pondering the questions above, particularly about cutting out some content. It’s a lot to cover in just two hours. I’d really like to have more time for discussion and working on games.

Here are the changes I’d probably make to future classes:

1. Reduce the types of players section: The way it is now, we spend time on not only LeBlanc’s 8 Kinds of Fun and Bartle’s Taxonomy but also the Quantic Gamer Motivations. While I like the emphasis on how different models can be used to answer the question of “Who am I making this game for?” it is probably too much. The Quantic stuff is definitely getting cut. Bartle’s might be cut too. The 8 Kinds of Fun does everything I need to cover.

2. Reduce or cut the game arc section: I’m torn on this one because participants find game arcs and timers interesting, but it takes a lot of time to explain. Cutting it allows the class to focus on just three big ideas versus four. Perhaps I can roll it into the Worst Dungeon Crawl Ever iterative design exercise.

3. Make the game the goal: During the class we choose themes and each participant makes an intentionally bad card-based dungeon crawl game with it. Then we use iterative design and player agency models to make it better. We usually end with everyone doing a Mad Libs style pitch of what they’d want their game to become. It’s fun, but it’s crammed in the second half of the class. Perhaps I can restructure to make this game the overarching goal from the start.

4. Keep but restructure the kinds of games: I spend some time covering the differences between types of games: board game vs. TTRPG, euro vs. ameritrash, high luck vs. low luck, abstract vs. thematic, party vs. reflective. It’s helpful to include, but it can be tightened up. Is it possible to combine this into the 8 Kinds of Fun?

5. Incorporate map-making: I ran a map-making workshop at Harrisburg University recently based on Everything is Pointcrawl. It went over so well, I wonder if there are elements of that 3-hour class that could be incorporated into the 2-hour free library classes. Probably not enough time, but worth considering.

6. Allow more time for pitching: The game pitches at the end are always fun and energizing but they are also the last activity before time runs out. So while they are great, they also feel rushed. I’d like to use some time picked up from above to give more time to pitches.

There are some other small changes to slides and structure that I’d do, but these are the big ones that I’m considering.

Focus on the output

I think my biggest conceptual change is to move away (a little bit) from the focus on four specific design skills and focus the workshop on the output — the games.

It might be possible to pitch the class as “make a board game in 2 hours” and have that be the structure, but ensure that we hit the design skills along the way. The class would progress in the same order (e.g. the kinds of fun is first), but we’d be working on our games from the start.

This might allow us to fill out our pitch sheets as we go so that reading them out at the end is the culmination of our work.

Continual improvement

I really think the class structure is good as it is right now. I’ve heard nothing but positive comments from those who have participated. I’d be happy to run it again without any changes.

And yet, I can’t help but think about how it could be tweaked and improved.

Iterative design and playtesting. It’s not just for games. ;)

Let me know in the comments what you think of the proposed changes!

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

If you are in the Baltimore area, come to my free Crash Course in Tabletop Game Design workshop this weekend! It’s Saturday, May 2, 2026 2:00 — 4:00 pm at the Severna Park Library in Severna Park, MD.

I’ve taught this class at Dickinson College and the Gettysburg Library and now it’s coming to Maryland — hands-on with activities related to each topic.1

What you will learn

An introduction to designing your own board game or roleplaying game! You’ll learn about: theme vs. mechanisms, engaging player experiences, and how to bring your game to life. For anyone who has considered making a game or just enjoys playing them. No experience required -- just curiosity about game design!

I’m covering the four tabletop game design elements I feel are most important:

1. Know who your game is for.

2. Choose a theme and zoom in.

3. Design for meaningful choices.

4. Think about your game in three acts.

We’ll close out the class by pitching our games to each other!

Registration not required

You don’t need to register for the class ahead of time. Just show up Saturday at the library. The class will be held in the Community Meeting Room at the Severna Park Library, 45 W. McKinsey Rd, Severna Park, MD 21146.2

If you have questions, call the library at (410) 222-6290.

I hope to see you there!

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

As the launch of Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon approaches, I’ll be posting regular updates with a behind-the-scenes look at the design decisions going into the game:

• Epsilon Update 01: Epsilon overview and launch dates

• Epsilon Update 02: Plant features

• Epsilon Update 03: Plant morphology

• Epsilon Update 04: Exclusion Zone map

• Epsilon Update 05: Character creation

• Epsilon Update 06: Playtesting

Note that everything here is in development and subject to change. These updates are a snapshot of how things looked when they were written.

Follow the Kickstarter pre-launch page to be notified when it goes live!

Discoveries that impact game state

From the beginning, I wanted the things you discovered in the EZ to have an impact on the game state. That was hard to fit into the original one-page, trifold version of Exclusion Zone Botanist that was released in 2022.

I was able to add a touch of it in the expanded zine version, particularly in Plant Group D.

For example, the toxic fog (D1) plant feature causes your coughing, vomiting, and the agent blindly running through the forest. This is implemented by marking that hex on the map and then rolling to immediately move to a random adjacent hex. That hex becomes a permanent hazard, preventing easy backtracking. The random movement messes with your plans.

The time loop (D3) and dyschronometria (D4) change the normal game loop and time progression — either slowing it down or skipping ahead. The lashing vines (D6) force a die roll to attempt to dodge them. Failing the roll results in immediately applying the next effect from the corruption list.

I think these added a lot to Exclusion Zone Botanist, and players seemed to agree. In fact, most wanted more. That’s where Epsilon’s challenge system comes in.

Creating a challenge system

Pushing your luck is the core concept of Exclusion Zone Botanist and is also at the core of Epsilon. This is present in the pressure to get as far as possible into the EZ, knowing that every step farther in is another step that will need to be taken on the way back out too. I always want the decision of when to turn back to be a difficult one.

So when it came time to implement a challenge system, that feeling of pressure and risk needed to be present.

Some inspiration came in the form of Ahoy designed by Greg Loring-Albright and published by Leder games. In the pirate-themed game, players must load their cannons before firing at another ship.

They do this by slotting a six-sided die into a specific spot on their player board. Then, when they attack, they can choose to “turn down” that die — spending pips to add to their attack roll.1 What makes this so interesting is that you need to turn down the die before your opponent makes their opposing roll.

It creates a tough decision: How much do I spend of this limited resource? How badly do I want to win this specific battle? Do I need to save for future encounters?

Of course, that’s not enough for a roleplaying game core resolution system. I knew I wanted to include character creation and skills that would impact the chance of success. I wanted bloom (formerly corruption) to be part of the equation. At the same time, I certainly didn’t want a complicated multi-stat, multi-step system.

Thus was born the SHX system.

The SHX system

The system I came up with over the last year or so uses just three stats or factors: Stamina, Health, and one other (X). The X can be rethemed as necessary for the setting.2 That’s why I’m calling it the SHX system.

Here’s how SHX works in Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon:

1. Tracker dice: The player uses 3 six-sided dice to track the three values in Epsilon: Stamina (S), Health (H), and Bloom (X). These are not rolled. They are simply used for tracking. All three individual values must always be in the range of 1-6, as indicated by the six-sided dice.

2. Bloom as temporary cap: The Bloom acts as a cap or temporary maximum for the other two values. The sum of [ Stamina + Health ] must always be less than or equal to [ Bloom + 7]. At the start of the game, Bloom is 1. That means the total (sum) of Stamina + Health must be less than or equal to 8.

3. Stamina (S): Stamina can be spent to increase the chance of success for challenges, but may never be reduced less than 1 or increased higher than 6.3

4. Health (H): If Health is ever reduced to less than 1, the game ends in failure.

5. Bloom (X): If Bloom is ever increased higher than 6, the game ends in failure.

Using this system, when Bloom is low, you are safe from ending the game by acquiring too much corruption and mutation. It also means, however, that your Stamina and Health are limited.

Being mutated by the forest isn’t a good thing, and yet it increases your Bloom, which allows you to have a higher Stamina and/or Health. So maybe it’s not a bad thing?

For example, when your Bloom is at 5, the sum of your Stamina + Health could go as high as 12 (5+7). That would allow you to max out both individual Stamina and Health values at 6.

Thematically, Bloom doesn’t just mutate and degrade your body. In some ways, it invigorates you. It makes you stronger.

Of course, this change comes at a cost — a lethal one if taken too far.4

Resolving a challenge with SHX

Challenges in Epsilon happen where there is a chance of success or failure. Some are optional and others are mandatory.

Every turn in Epsilon, you either (a) discover a new plant, or (b) have an encounter in the EZ. Challenges are attached to both encounters and some plant features. So there is always a chance of a challenge.

For example, the encounter might involve a clearing full of little brown mushrooms. In a single puff, they all erupt, ejecting their spores into the air. The brown cloud is everywhere. You would then resolve a challenge to determine if you successfully avoided the impact of the spore cloud or not.

Challenges work by rolling dice versus a target number known as a Challenge Rating (CR).5 Most challenges are CR 9 but others might be easier or harder.6 Each challenge has an associated skill type (e.g. Wilderness, Threat, Precision, or Exertion).

Here’s the process to resolve a challenge:

1. Push past limits: Optionally convert Health into Stamina at a ratio of 1:1. This is overexerting yourself to get a short term boost at a cost. Health is generally difficult to recover. Limits on maximum Stamina and Health still apply.

2. Bid stamina: Optionally spend Stamina to gain a bonus to the challenge roll. Each pip turned down will increase the roll by 1. Stamina may never be turned down less than 1. The most Stamina that can ever be added to a single challenge roll is 5.

3. Roll the dice: Roll 2d6 for the challenge. Add the Stamina bonus to the sum of the dice rolled.

4. Equipment bonus: Add +1 to the result if using a single applicable equipment item that would significantly increase the chance of success.

5. Skill bonus: Add or subtract 1 based on the character’s background skills such as Wilderness, Threat, or Precision. Each challenge has a designated skill type.

6. Compare results: Compare the final result versus the CR:

   1. Result ≥ CR = Success

   2. Result < CR = Failure

Each challenge has an associated Success/Failure result that can then be read and applied.7 Most have mechanical impacts on the player or game state.

In the spore cloud example above, success means you stumble back and your lungs burn, but you are ultimately able to hold your breath and get away. Failure means you trip, fall, and despite your best efforts you inhale some of the spores. Your Health increases, but you also immediately check for an increase in Bloom.

How you choose to spend your Stamina, what items you acquire, and your character’s background all impact your chance of success while in the EZ.

Nothing new (but sort of new)

There are other systems that use 2d6 dice, that have three stats, or that have resources that can be spent to increase dice rolls.8

That said, the SHX system is distinctive enough that I gave it a name:

• Two stats (S+H) that are bound by a third stat (X).

• The X stat only ever increases and never decreases, resulting in failure if it goes too high. This means you want it to increase a little but not too much.

• Stamina can be spent to improve rolls but only as a bid prior to the roll.

• The resources can be converted, but only in certain directions. Health can be converted to Stamina, but Stamina can never be converted to Health.9

• Skills, equipment, and other factors can be easily implemented as +1/-1 modifiers while keeping the math relatively simple.

• The same system can be used for combat rolls with full or partial success.

• The system can be rethemed to fit other settings. I have a dungeon crawl game in the works that uses Stamina, Health, and Terror as the three stats.10 If it continues to work as well as I’d expect, you’ll see this in a lot more Exeunt Press games in the future.

The SHX system received nothing but kind words during the recent Unpub playtest. In fact, players considered challenges and this system to be some of the strongest parts of the game.

So I feel good about including it in Epsilon and really hope you enjoy it!

Follow the Epsilon project

I am posting an Epsilon update on the third Friday of every month through development, launch, and fulfillment. You can read previous updates in the Exeunt Omnes archive.

What do you think? Does the SHX system sound good to you? If you are familiar with similar TTRP core resolution systems, please share them in the comments. I’m particularly interested in ones that allow bidding prior to rolling and/or the spending of resources to boost a result.

- E.P. 💀

🌿 Join 1000+ other field agents and follow the pre-launch page on Kickstarter to be notified when it goes live. Get in. Discover and document. Get out. 🌿

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Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

The game that was originally called Turtchester and eventually became Ratsail has seen a lot of changes. After playtesting it at Unpub, it has undergone a few more changes.

Now it’s time to do some more testing!

I’ll be at MEPACON this Friday (4/17/2026) with a copy of Ratsail:

Mepacon is a three-day gaming convention in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania that runs in spring and fall. We feature all kinds of games from social board and card games to tabletop and live-action role-playing. Besides gaming we have a wide variety of vendors and events, including contests, auctions, game raffles and a game playtest area.

I’ve registered for one of the Break My Game playtesting blocks:

Break My Game: Ratsail

Friday, April 17, 2026 4:00 - 6:00 PM

It’s 2-4 players and plays in about an 45-60 minutes. I’m hoping to get at least one or two plays of the game in before I have to leave at about 6:30 PM.

- E.P. 💀

P.S. If you love tabletop games, you should check out Tumulus. It’s a print-only, quarterly zine packed with Skeleton Code Machine game design content.

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press

Inspiration for Exclusion Zone Botanist

When I first thought about the game that later became Exclusion Zone Botanist (released in 2022), my primary influences at the time were “The Colour Out of Space” and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction. It was going to have progressive zones that, like in Extraction, you couldn’t return to once you closed the door. You’d have to decide how far you could push before it’s time to get out.

Then I saw an educational leaf diagram made for kids, showing the different leaf shapes and their names.1 I wondered what it would look like if I removed the combat (which wasn’t fun anyway) and added a science component — documentation as play.

Although I’ve yet to read the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer or watch the Annihilation film adaptation, I was familiar with their concepts.2 I loved the idea of going into a weird area, completing a mission, and getting back out. I listed it as one of the main sources of inspiration for EZB.

Trophy Dark tapped into a similar idea of a dark forest, separated from the world around it, and operating with its own rules. Just being in the forest was a potential source of corrupting ruin, as the game calls it.

As I was working on EZB, a friend told me it sounded like one of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. They take place in an alternate universe Chernobyl exclusion zone (“the Zone”) after a physics-defying catastrophe occurs. Stalkers go into the zone, grab what they can, and try to get back out alive.3

All of those sources and more served as inspiration for Exclusion Zone Botanist. And as I’m sure you’ve noticed, they are all similar in many ways.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that I had made a zonecore game.

I had never even heard the term.

What is zonecore?

The genre has many different names: zonepunk, zone stories, picnicpunk, rust and radiation, stalkercore, and zonecore. I’m going to choose to call it zonecore throughout this post because it’s the one I prefer.4

I’d say it is speculative fiction about a sealed-off anomalous territory caused by an inexplicable event. The zone often has its own rules set against a backdrop of institutional or bureaucratic oversight. This is often combined with a Lovecraftian creeping horror and cosmic indifference.

Is that a definition? Perhaps.

Quite often, however, strict definitions for art are uninteresting, unhelpful, or both. Instead, I’d like to offer five elements that I feel define the genre which may or may not be present in zonecore works.

To be quite clear: I am not the first person to try to describe this genre. I’m not claiming to have invented this, nor claiming to have an authoritative view. This is me writing as a way to clarify my own thoughts and learn more about the sources. Create your own definitions and identify your own elements in a way that helps you do the same.

The roots and examples of zonecore

To understand why I’m choosing those five elements, we need to look at four important works: The Colour out of Space, Roadside Picnic, Stalker, and Annihilation.

1. The Colour out of Space (1927)

In H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” from 1927, a meteor (or something like a meteor) crashes in the hills west of Arkham. It transforms everything nearby, ruining crops and poisoning the soil with fruit growing to an abnormal size but bitter and disgusting. Woodchucks and rabbits leave strange tracks in the snow. The hogs and cows begin to dissolve:

“The swine began growing grey and brittle and falling to pieces before they died, and their eyes and muzzles developed singular alterations. It was very inexplicable, for they had never been fed from the tainted vegetation. Then something struck the cows. Certain areas or sometimes the whole body would be uncannily shrivelled or compressed, and atrocious collapses or disintegrations were common. In the last stages—and death was always the result—there would be a greying and turning brittle like that which beset the hogs.”

Mrs. Gardner eventually ceases to speak, begins to walk on all fours, and became “slightly luminous in the dark” similar to the vegetation. Thaddeus goes mad, whispering about “moving colours” in the nearby well. Nahum does not survive his more dramatic transformation:

“Whether it had crawled or whether it had been dragged by any external forces, Ammi could not say; but the death had been at it. Everything had happened in the last half-hour, but collapse, greying, and disintegration were already far advanced. There was a horrible brittleness, and dry fragments were scaling off. Ammi could not touch it, but looked horrifiedly into the distorted parody that had been a face.”

We never really learn what the meteor was, why it crashed, or why it eventually shoots vertically back into the sky at the end of the story. It is also left as a mystery if it is really gone or if part of it still remains. It’s spreading an inch a year and the narrator recommends bringing in botanists to study the flora:

“Botanists, too, ought to study the stunted flora on the borders of that spot, for they might shed light on the country notion that the blight is spreading—little by little, perhaps an inch a year.”

Ultimately the blight is unknown and probably unknowable.

As a side note, “The Willows” (1907) by Algernon Blackwood was one of Lovecraft’s favorite supernatural tales. In it, the narrator enters a strange zone filled with menacing willows. It might be the junction point for an alternate and indifferent universe: “…whereas these beings who are now about us have absolutely nothing to do with mankind, and it is mere chance that their space happens just at this spot to touch our own.” While I’m not sure it directly influenced “The Colour out of Space,” I do think it is worth mentioning here.

2. Roadside Picnic (1972)

Roadside Picnic (Пикник на обочине) is a sci-fi novel by the Arkady and Boris Strugatsky brothers, first published in 1972. The publication and translation history of the book is extremely interesting, but I’d like to focus on the story itself.

At the risk of spoiling a 54+ year old book, here is a high level summary:

• The story takes place after The Visitation, a global event where aliens simultaneously visited several locations on Earth over a two-day period.

• There is almost nothing known about the visitors — no physical description, no communication, no reason why they came, or why they left.

• The areas they visited have become strange, anomalous zones littered with artifacts that are so powerful that they seem like magic. The zones also contain, however, amazingly dangerous traps and deadly materials (e.g. “hell slime”).

• Official institutes are set up to study the zones, collect artifacts, and develop ways to use the new alien technology. There’s no attempt to repair the zones or even protect the public in a meaningful way.

• The public is prohibited from entering the zones, but the institute secretly uses “stalkers” — people who risk their lives to get into the zone, grab what they can, and get back out. There is, of course, a huge black market for artifacts.

• Merely being in the zone begins to change the stalkers and their offspring, leading to strangely mutated children. Even the dead awaken and start wandering around the town.

Roadside Picnic is credited with coining the term “stalker” — a term that is, as we will see below, still in use today.5 It also popularized the idea of an institution cordoning off the zone and studying what’s inside.6

3. Stalker (1979)

Roadside Picnic was later turned into the 1979 Stalker film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, the same director as Andrei Rublev (1966) and Solaris (1972). The film takes liberties with the story, including significant changes to the ending. It’s been called one of the greatest films of all time and has had a huge impact on science fiction.

The film retains some elements of the book: an anomalous zone protected by armed guards, stalkers who make a living by conducting incursions into the zone, and something so powerful it allows wishes to be granted. Tarkovsky has stated in an interview, however, that the film never intended to be a faithful adaptation:

“I must say, too, that the script of Stalker has nothing in common with the novel, Picnic on the Roadside [sic], except for the two words, “Stalker” and “Zone.” So you see the history of the origins of my film is deceptive.”7

Tarkovsky perhaps overstates the differences here, but it is true that his goals were different from the Strugatsky brothers. Thus the same zone creates very different pieces of media and literature. As the AV Club said in A Brief History of the Zone:

“Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker sits high in the pantheon of great art-house science fiction, transforming Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s 1972 novel Roadside Picnic into a characteristically heady and gorgeous meditation on the director’s pet themes: art, hope, fear, water, death, and so on.”

Together, the Roadside Picnic book and the Stalker film served as inspiration for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of video games, beginning in 2006 with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. In the game, players enter a mysterious zone created by a second disaster inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone.8 The flora and fauna have mutated inside the zone and even the laws of physics appear to have been warped.

As in Roadside Picnic and Stalker, scavengers in the game known as Stalkers enter the zone to try to recover powerful artifacts. In addition to tossing nuts and bolts to find anomalies, they use electronic anomaly detectors. There’s also a lot more shooting and radiation.

4. Annihilation (2014)

It is impossible to talk about zonecore without talking about Annihilation and the Southern Reach Series by Jeff VanderMeer. Many of the same hallmarks of Roadside Picnic and Stalker zonecore are present:

• Researchers (i.e. biologist, anthropologist, psychologist) launch successive expeditions into an anomalous zone called Area X. A notable difference is, however, that the explorers are both authorized to enter the zone and are armed.

• The source or origin of the zone are mysterious and potentially unknowable.

• Being in the zone can trigger mutations in both humans (called “brightness”) and the animals.

• An institution called The Southern Reach dedicated to the control and investigation of Area X.

The 2018 film, like the Stalker film, changes the story in some significant ways. The zone is caused by a crash-landed meteor and is called the Shimmer. There are mutant bear and alligator attacks and video messages left from the previous expeditions. The ending is different as well.

Jeff VanderMeer has said via Twitter post that Annihilation was not inspired by Roadside Picnic or Stalker:

“Three years since Annihilation came out and that bit about Stalker still cracks me up. Roadside Picnic/Stalker are [sic] zero influence on the novels, but definite influence on the movie. Which minorly inconveniences me in interviews. LOL.”9

His inspirations were more ecological and grounded in reality, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.10

Five common elements of zonecore

So we can now return to the question: What is zonecore?

My proposed elements differ from the AV Club’s trinity of “the Stalker, the Zone, and the Destination.” While I agree the stalker and the zone are almost mandatory, I’m not convinced there needs to be a specific destination. The goal could simply be exploration without a chosen target location — the zone itself is the destination.

The following elements also tend to skew toward the examples listed above, but I hope they are broad enough to capture other works as well.

1. The anomalous zone

Arguably, the important element of zonecore is the zone — The Zone, Area X, the Exclusion Zone. More than being right there in the name, it is the driving force behind the story. Sometimes it is quarantined and walled off. Other times the boundaries are invisible but still exist. The rules inside the zone are different from those outside the zone.

The inexplicable phenomena resulting from the new rules exist inside the zone and are another of the zone’s defining features.

2. The non-hero stalker

Does a zone exist if there is no one there to explore it?

Roadside Picnic, once again, appears to set the standard for what a stalker is — a gritty, jaded, heavy-drinking, loner who knows the zone like the back of their hand. This makes the Annihilation and Southern Reach approach interesting because it sends not a black market loner into the zone, but a heavily armed and well funded team. Neither versions feel, however, like stereotypical heroes. They are flawed at best.

Once the stalker becomes a clearly heroic figure who always acts with justice, something feels off about it. It feels less like zonecore.

3. Inexplicable phenomena

Gravity traps, mutating plants, horrific animals, alien artifacts, and blight-spreading meteors can all be found inside the zone. They exist in a very real way and can be poked, prodded, collected, and studied — but never truly understood. We never learn the actual mechanism of the meteor’s blight in “The Colour out of Space.” There is speculation about the aliens in Roadside Picnic (giving the book its title), but there are no clear answers.

Things are twisted, turned upside down, break the rules of physics, and yet always leave us with the answers unknown and ultimately unknowable.11 Often the answer is shrouded in something bigger than humanity that exhibits the indifference of cosmic horror.

4. Inevitable transformation

In Roadside Picnic, the transformation doesn’t directly impact those who enter the zone as much as it does their offspring. Children of stalkers become something strange (as in the book) or develop supernatural abilities (as in the film).12 As noted above, the changes are direct and based on proximity in “The Colour Out of Space.” Similarly, the Shimmer in Annihilation mutates and “refracts” the DNA of explorers and animals who come in contact with it.

Direct or indirect, physical or mental, the anomalous zone permanently changes those who enter it. There is no protection from it or way to ward it off. At best, its inevitable effects can be reduced, slowed, or postponed.

5. Institutional fatalism

While this might be the weakest of the five elements, I feel compelled to include it.

There is often an agency, bureau, or some institutional power that controls access to the zone and interested in studying it. In Roadside Picnic, this is the International Institute for Extraterrestrial Cultures or just the Institute. It is the Southern Reach in Jeff VanderMeers series. In Pacific Drive (video game), the Advanced Resonance Development Authority (ARDA) was involved but then disbanded.

Adjacent concepts worth mentioning are the SCP Foundation, Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) in the Control video game, and the Fringe Division in the Fringe TV series.13 The list of fictional secret police and intelligence organizations is a long one. Many are similar fictional agencies tasked with controlling dispersed supernatural threats rather than controlling a single zone.

A key element is that the institutions are flawed, sometimes incompetent, and rarely seek to “solve” the problem of the zone. Instead they accept the zone as the way things are and seek to extract value (monetary or scientific). The existence of the zone is taken to be inevitable and unchangeable.

If the agency is too active, too committed to long term solutions, or too effective, it may start to feel less like zonecore.

But what about exceptions?

I’m a fan of the quote attributed to George Box: “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”14

It is certainly possible to think of exceptions to the zonecore elements proposed above. Rainbow Six Extraction continues to feel like it should be included even though the stalkers are well-armed heroes with special powers and it lacks institutional fatalism. And there are probably examples of media that have many of the elements but don’t feel like they should be included.15

So why try to identify common elements then if everything is an exception, special case, or breaks the rules?

I find thinking about things like this to be helpful. It organizes my thoughts and creates a framework to start with when making something new. It also provides some ideas on how to mix and modify genres: What if the stalkers mutated the zone instead of the zone mutating the stalkers? What if the stalker were a powerful hero? What if the safe vs. zone areas were inverted?

These elements aren’t a recipe to be followed or a test to be applied. They are not a list of necessary and sufficient criteria.

They are a way to think about media and, in particular, tabletop games.

Weird stories and the zone

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is an anthology of short stories edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer. The 2012 Booklist review captures the essence of what I love about weird stories and zonecore:

“In the 1990s, a new kind of genre story seemed to have sprung up. It was frightening but seldom gory; either not quite as realistic as or less fantastic than it initially promised; very short on monsters no matter how monstrous it got; eerie but just about never ghostly (at least, no ghosts horned into the act); creepy even when it decided to be funny; and un-, far more than super-, natural.”

Modern zonecore is rooted in the weird stories of the past — H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Robert Chambers, Clark Ashton Smith, Algernon Blackwood, and Shirley Jackson. In weird fiction, the horrors are ever present, but rarely clearly seen.

The same can often be said of zonecore. The zone is a source of terror and anxiety, even when it is a peaceful forest filled with birdsong.

Zonecore (and adjacent) games

The AV Club’s A Brief History of The Zone mentions the creative appeal of zonecore:

“Artists, too, keep re-entering the Zone; Tarkovsky’s interpretation of the Strugatskys’ initial vision would turn out to be just the first of many. As an idea, a meme in the classical sense, it is plague-like—resilient, mutating, dangerous.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been infected by the zonecore plague, finding it endlessly fascinating. It’s a near perfect mix of speculative fiction, weird stories, and easily accommodates push-your-luck mechanisms. It’s everything I enjoy all wrapped up into a single genre.

I’m not the only one! There are many games out there that I think fit into the zonecore world. I’ll try to list many of them here.

The following list is intentionally not divided into TTRPG vs. board games because I think that distinction is not as clear as we are sometimes led to believe. Also, many of these games don’t include all five elements. Requirements here are loose.

• 2400: Zone by Pretendo Games

• Alone Against the Zone by Ganesha Games

• Blackstone Highway by Snow

• Cemetery of the Silent Monks by Exeunt Press

• Chiron’s Doom by Nick Bate

• Cross the Zone by Psycho Headcheese

• Decree by Phantom Limbs

• Delta Green by Arc Dream Publishing

• Eco Mofos by David Blandy

• Escape the Zone by Psycho Headcheese

• Exclusion Zone Botanist by Exeunt Press

• Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon by Exeunt Press

• Expeditions by Jamey Stegmaier

• Fallen Land: A Post Apocalyptic Board Game by Sean Cahill and Jon Lonngren

• Fear in the Foundation: An SCP TTRPG by Fear in the Foundation

• FIST: Ultra Edition by Claymore

• Into the Zone by Exalted Funeral Press

• Milk Bar by Eryk Sawicki

• Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars by Free League

• Navigator byMichael Klamerus

• Niv Lova by Writefirstergames

• QZ by Jason Tocci

• RAD by ¡Hipólita!

• Rad Zone Totality by Toby Lancaster

• Reminiscence of Decay by Jean Verne

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Board Game byPaweł Samborski

• SCP: The Tabletop RPG by 26 Letter Publishing

• STAL_KORG by Psycho Headcheese

• STALKER - The SciFi Roleplaying Game by Burger Games

• The Bureau by Goblin Archives

• The Zone by Raph D’Amico

• Trespasser by Binary Star Games

• Trespasser RPG byPolilla

• Trophy Dark by Jesse Ross

• Weird Stories by Gil Hova and Amber Seger

• Zona Alfa: Salvage and Survival in the Exclusion Zone by Patrick Todoroff

• Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl by Maciej Drewing and Krzysztof Głośnicki

• ZONE by Iron Cutler

• Zones by Sasquatch Games

• ZURF by Emmy Verte

If you can think of additional zonecore tabletop game examples, please share them in the comments. Both board games and TTRPGs are welcome. I’ll try to update the list periodically to include them if they fit. (Last updated 7/20/2026)

- E.P. 💀

P.S. Start your incursion into the EZ. Discover and document strange plants in Exclusion Zone Botanist: Epsilon from Exeunt Press. 🌿

Play some weird and wonderful games at shop.exeunt.press.

Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. Exeunt Omnes is Copyright 2025 Exeunt Press. For comments, questions, reports from the EZ, or pro tips: games@exeunt.press