Teaching tabletop game design
Dead Horse, Inhuman Conditions, teaching game design, and Hellwhalers
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
🐎 Dead Horse available now
🤖 Robots, theme, and mechanisms
♟️ Intro to tabletop game design
🎲 Recently played: Hellwhalers
🐎 Dead Horse available now
Dead Horse Magazine is an anthology of unsettling horror produced by Disaster Tourism:
“Dead Horse is a unfiltered dreamscape of dread, an unsettling mélange of macabre, an unified pastiche of peril. Featuring the written and artistic works of scores of creative minds on different topics for each volume. Dead Horse promises to not only be a useful addition to your musty shelves, but a channel of dread to the innermost of those you share it with.”
Writing by 24 different authors, art by 6 different artists, and a micro-RPG by Exeunt Press. If you want an issue packed with uncomfortable insectoids, gore toilets, and strangers beneath streetlights, this one is for you.
This issue was published in 2023. Approximately B5 sized and full color. Multiple content warnings apply.
SHOP: Dead Horse at the Exeunt Press Shop
🤖 Robots, theme, and mechanisms
After playing Inhuman Conditions (Maranges & O’Brien, 2020), I started thinking about how theme and mechanisms combine to create an experience for players. Also how the type of player and their incoming expectations change how they react to the game.
This resulted in the There’s a wasp crawling on your arm post at Skeleton Code Machine.
I think Inhuman Conditions is a good example of a game that starts to bridge the gap between TTRPGs and board games. Don’t miss the poll at the end!
READ: There’s a wasp crawling on your arm at Skeleton Code Machine
Skeleton Code Machine is a weekly publication that explores tabletop game mechanisms in board games and roleplaying games. It’s been called a “Seemingly endless source of gaming ponderings” and a “Goldmine.” Check it out at www.skeletoncodemachine.com.
♟️ Teaching tabletop game design
I love public libraries. When I realized an opportunity existed to help out my local library by teaching a free outreach/education class, I jumped at the chance.
Not knowing how many people would sign up (if any!), I was shocked to find out it quickly hit the max/cap of 20 people!
So this Thursday I’m running the first of four sessions on the basics of tabletop game design.
Here’s the class outline:
Week 1: Different types of players & games
Week 2: Game themes & mechanisms
Week 3: Crafting engaging player experiences
Week 4: Bringing your game to life
It’s a mix of game design theory (e.g. input vs. output randomness) and practical advice (e.g. tips for printing). If you read Skeleton Code Machine, quite a few of these topics will be familiar! The fun part will be to expand on the topics, do some exercises/demos, and put the ideas into practice.
Exeunt Press will be providing dice, handouts, and copies of both Exclusion Zone Botanist and Eleventh Beast to everyone who attends. Serif has generously provided discount codes for their Affinity desktop suite. So people should go home with some fun stuff!
My hope is that people leave the class feeling inspired and empowered to make and publish their own games!
Thank you again to everyone who provided tips for teaching a tabletop gaming class back in July. I’ll definitely share any learnings from the class!
🎲 Recently played: Hellwhalers
Recently played Hellwhalers by Brewist Tabletop Games:
Whalers will earn souls through roleplay, challenges, and gambling, eventually collecting enough to pulse the Hellwhale's disembodied heart, a blackened, grisly organ kept locked away by the captain. To pulse the heart is to summon the monster you seek: the dreaded Hellwhale.
You might recall that I mentioned this game in Dice Week: Crown & Anchor because it uses a Sic Bo board to gamble for souls each night:
At midnight, the whalers gather ‘round the board to read their fate and try to win some souls. To simulate this gambling, have players bet their Souls on a Sic Bo board. Then, roll 3 six-sided dice. If the roll reflects the outcome on a square the player bet upon, they keep their bet, and win an amount of souls equal to the square’s payout value, denoted by 1:N. N is the payout value. If the dice don’t reflect the square, the bet is lost.
Everyone really enjoyed the gambling part of the game.
Sadly, Lefty Wright and the rest of the crew of The Barbed Oyster failed to defeat the Hellwhale in the end, despite their best efforts.
Play: Hellwhalers by Brewist Tabletop Games
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- E.P. 💀