The inspiration behind Tollund
Tollund, pre-order update, emergent murder mystery games, and Mothership RPG
Welcome to Exeunt Omnes, the official newsletter for loyal fans and sworn enemies of Exeunt Press, creator of games such as Exclusion Zone Botanist and Eleventh Beast. You can find digital games at games.exeunt.press and physical products at shop.exeunt.press.
TL;DR Summary
🆕 Tollund
💀 Pre-order fulfillment update
🔪 Emergent murder mystery games
🎲 Recently played: Mothership RPG
🆕 Tollund
I first listened to “Tollund Man” by The Mountain Goats when The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2 was released in 2020. Somehow I had missed it on the earlier Sweden album from 1995.
The “Tollund Man” of the song is an actual person, albeit one that died thousands of years ago in the Iron Age. John Darnielle’s lyrics for the song are just fifty-one words, but imagine the Tollund Man’s last days — an approaching council, ceremonial shoes, a final meal of wild grains, and saying goodbye.
For such a short song, it’s quite powerful.
The mysteries surrounding “bog bodies” like the Tollund Man are intriguing. Without written records, we can only guess at why these people were killed and their bodies dumped in the marsh.
Why were most of them from the Iron Age? Were they executed criminals or victims of crime? Were they unwilling human sacrifices to appease an angry god? Or were they willing offerings?
We may never know the answers, but Tollund is a way to explore what might have been. My goal was to put the player in an extraordinarily tough position: agree to be sacrificed or refuse. It’s a journaling game, but one in which each decision pushes the scales one direction or the other. The final result is an accumulation of many tiny choices over time, rather than a singular decision.
The choice is yours.
Tollund is on sale 50% off through Wednesday (September 11, 2024) to celebrate the release!
DOWNLOAD: Tollund, a solo journaling game by Exeunt Press
💀 Pre-order fulfillment update
Good news!
The print copies of Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game and Caveat Emptor have arrived! They look great, and I can’t wait to get them into your hands.
Here is what’s next:
Shipping pre-orders: If you pre-ordered a copy of either book (or both), they will begin shipping this week. You will receive a shipping notification email with tracking information when your package has been sent. Please note that international orders can take up to three weeks to arrive.
Additional items: Many orders included other items from the shop with the pre-order items. If you ordered multiple items, they will all ship at the same time. Bonus pre-order items (e.g. Theme-O-Matic print) will be in the same package.
Remaining copies of both books will be added to the Exeunt Press Shop after all pre-orders have been fulfilled.
Another update will be posted here in two weeks. If you have any questions, please email games@exeunt.press.
🔪 Emergent murder mystery games
I played an ashcan edition of The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game by Adam Bell this week, and it really made me think about emergent narratives in games.
Somehow it was able to take randomly generated suspects, add in some connected clues, and present a coherent murder mystery story with a fairly satisfying conclusion!
This week’s Skeleton Code Machine explores why making emergent narrative mystery games is so hard, and some tips to help.
READ: Solving an emergent murder mystery at Skeleton Code Machine
Skeleton Code Machine is an ENNIE-nominated weekly publication that explores tabletop game mechanisms. It’s been called a “Seemingly endless source of gaming ponderings” and a “Goldmine.” Check it out at www.skeletoncodemachine.com.
🎲 Recently played: Mothership RPG
I’ve written about Mothership RPG before, exploring how it uses both roll-over and roll-under mechanisms. Over the weekend, however, I had the opportunity to run a one-shot of it for the first time. And wow! It was amazing!
I ended up choosing Dead Planet as our adventure, but only using a heavily modified version of the first few pages of the book (The Screaming of the Alexis). Much of the plan was adapted from a WacoMatrixo video.
Went really well, and I think everyone had a fun time. In a future newsletter (or perhaps SCM), I’ll talk about how I used some hidden player information cards and an actual timer to add some suspense to the game.
PLAY: Mothership RPG by Tuesday Knight Games
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- E.P. 💀