The Idle Digest #2.5

Critique Navidad Edition

I hope you don’t mind but a supplementary newsletter: I will not make this a habit, I promise.

I wrote this supplementary digest because a few people have asked me to summarise the Critique Navidad series of reviews I completed over the month over December. I did these 25 reviews as a gift to creators across the world as a response to this post by Clayton Noteskine which suggested we all give easy to give gifts to creators for the holidays.

I of course overcommited, and it turned out that I wrote enough that it would have dominated the entire Idle Digest for the month, and I didn’t want to do that. Hence the supplement.

Before I list them all, it’s really interesting to me that, without intention, a number of themes emerged over reading and playing this many games in such a short period of time. Potentially these themes might having something to say about game design in 2024 and what we might be expecting from new designers in 2025.

• Short games are hard to write, and you have to make a lot of compromises in order to do so. While it’s an interesting design challenge to keep a short game to your chosen format (perhaps trifold pamphlet, perhaps bifold zine, etc.), it often does not do the game you’re writing justice. Consider reconsidering your format for your second editions of short games, and listen to what the game itself wants from its’ format, rather than imposing a format on the game. To read about this, consider checking out Trouble in Paradisa, Xeno, Foul Play and Tea and Toadstools.

• Prompts in games need to be bespoke, specific, and unique. I read a lot of prompt-driven games this month, and the overwhelming impression is that I wanted the designers to meet me halfway in their design, rather than it being a three-way design discussion between the designer, player and a third media property. My suspicion here is that because so many indie designers are designing indie games in response to a rejection of D&D, and 5th Edition in particular, they’re missing out on the amazing design work being done in module writing (which is of course my bread and butter), and I think there’s a lot to learn in making prompt-based games better by taking design lessons from the best in module writing. To read about this, consider checking out Dead After Dinner, The Cog That Remains and Expect Three Visitors, with supplementary readings in Necromancer Heretic and Hwaet!

• Encapsulated games — those that contain both their rules, their setting, and their “module” in the text in its’ entirety — are where the hobby is going. Bespoke rules are a fascinating trend, and I’d love to see where this goes. If you’re interested in these, consider He Ain’t Gonna Jump No More, Xeno and Wulfwald in the elfgame sphere (although none of those have elves, or The Lost Bay, Arcane Academia and Crank It Up outside of that sphere.

• This one is more of a personal perspective, but I’m really excited to see more larp-like games making their incursions into TTRPGs. One of my favourite games for many years has been Secco Creek Vigilance Committee, and Dawn of the Orcs brings very, very strong and similar vibes, borrowing from parlour larp in a big way. Love to see the mechanical and design scaffolding of TTRPGs introducing people to avenues for live acting!

And without further ado, here’s every game I reviewed this month, and a hint to see if it’s something worth checking out for you!

• Necromancer Heretic, a solo queer romance game in a science-fantasy world where you're fighting the Solar King to resurrect your princely lover! Check it out if you enjoy solo, science-fantasy, or romance!

• Dead After Dinner, a Descended by the Queen game that takes the shape of a murder mystery movie like Knives Out and uses it to tell a story about the toxic relationships in families. Check it out if you enjoy group narratives and twisted family drama, but not for mystery solving!

• Arcane Academia, a minigame-based game, where together you tell the story of a single day in a wizarding school, based on what you remember the story of certain books being like. Check it out if you like wizarding schools and bespoke minigames, although expect to patch it a bit for campaign play!

• Dawn of the Orcs, a parlour larp-esque game akin to Secco Creek Vigilance Committee, with a chapter-based mechanical framework, the just screams bickering wizards. I'm so excited about this game now. Check it out if your friends would love playing bickering, all powerful wizards.

• Eco Mofos, a post-apocalyptic, hopeful, gamma-world-esque dungeon crawler Marked by the Odd game, which I've had sitting in my TBR for some time. Check it out if you’ve always wanted a rules lite Gamma World, but with more hope and a few surprises.

• Into the Blind, a Trophy hack which fixes most of the problems in Trophy, and then brings fresh twists that make playing MoSH modules oh so juicy. It's unfinished and the quickstart is free, so just check it out?

• The Lost Bay is a suburban gothic horror setting, powered by Lumen, that gives Liminal Horror a run for its money. I reviewed the pre-release version, so pre-order the Kickstarter if you’re interested in a modern horror game with a bespoke setting.

• Trouble in Paradisa, is a system-neutral, ostensibly OSR, murder in a tropical resort. This is perhaps the densest module I've read in a while, and a hell of a mystery! Check it out if you like playing games with no rules, or solving mysteries.

• The Curse Lingers is a dungeon crawler inspired by nuclear semiotics, with an absolutely stellar dungeon and theming. Check it out if you want a light dungeon-crawler!

• Hwaet! Is a solo beowulf emulator, that explores themes of generational trauma. Check it out if you want a punishing, violent solo game.

• Wulfwald is a 5-part Saxon OD&D setting, with an amazing set of classes, bestiary and magic, that you could, to be honest, run straight out of the box. Check it out if Wolves Upon the Coast seemed intimidatingly large, or if you’re interested in a more faithful Saxon setting.

• The Cog That Remains, is a Gundam Mecha game, that redeems the Wretched and Alone framework. Check it out if you enjoy solo games, if you’re familiar with Gundam, or if you love the idea of foregrounding the mechanics rather than the pilots in Gundam games.

• Xeno is a reverse Mothership game, where you play horrible xenomorphs, breaking into a human facility reminiscent of X-Com. While I think this would be better as a Mothership hack, check it out if you loved the video game Carrion and wish you could embody some aliens.

• Foul Play is a party game where you play geese ruining the day for some humans out of spite. Check it out if you’re looking for something to pull out at gatherings, to trick people into enjoying roleplaying games.

• Crown of Saint Ormus is a short Mork Börg module in which you raid the tomb of a dead saint, filled with strange, Soul-esque encounters and a lingering horror atmosphere. Check it out if you want a night full of weird horror in your elfgame campaign!

• Bare Threads is a game of cat’s cradle and tense conversations. Check it out if you’re interested in being inspired in new systems of difficult conversations.

• Expect Three Visitors is a shared narrative game, personalising the classic tale A Christmas Carol for your table. Check it out if you want to share grim and difficult tales of sin and misdeeds with each your friends!

• Depths of Dark Bargain is a labyrinthine cave complex for Cairn, with some unique traversal mechanisms and stellar writing and characterisations. Check it out if you’re looking for a beer and pretzels dungeon to add to your campaign.

• Dice Forager is a zine of commentary and games, which sets you up for conversations about game design and art. Check it out if you’re interested in widening your design horizons, reading manifestos, or seeing some interesting little games.

• The Painted Wastelands is an epic setting guide in a strange plane of existence, for Old School Essentials. Check it out if you’re interested in dreamlands settings — this is one of the best — or if you love art-heavy settings books like Crown of Salt and Ultraviolet Grasslands.

• Crank It Up is an action-movie emulator, specifically for the movie Crank, although I think it’s as good for movies like John Wick. Check it out if you’re interested in emulating a specific, improvisational type of action movie, and don’t mind thinks being a little predictable.

• Tea and Toadstools is a solo game of cute woodland creatures having cosy misadventures. Check it out if you love Peter Rabbit and other stories like that, and want to spend time exploring the forest in their shoes.

• He Ain’t Gonna Jump No More is a time-limited hex-crawl based on Wolves Upon the Coast, but set during the Normandy landings. Check it out if you love World War II, or if you’re interested in tournament-style OSR games, or replaying the same scenario repeatedly. This one was really exciting for me.

• Fight or Fright is a Halloween-themed game with some very neat mechanics, that are perfect for playing with the kids on Halloween. Check it out if you don’t mind improvising your adventures with the kids — but you’ll probably only have to do it once a year, and this is a great way to celebrate while still staying in!

• Triangle Agency is a huge, complicated game, walking a threefold line between work of art, innovative masterpiece of game design, and incoherent failure. Which of the three you land on is likely unique to you, but it’s so unique and special that I’d encourage you to check it out if you have a chance!

Phew, that was a bit much, wasn’t it? Maybe, just maybe, I overcommitted last month. But, it was worth it, to get such a broad look at what has been happening in TTRPGs in 2024, and to get an idea of the trends and quality of the stuff being put out there. I hope that the creators got something out of Critique Navidad, I hope that other game designers can look at my reviews of these games and help them change their perspectives on their design goign forward, and I hope these brief summaries and longer reviews helped you find something new that you will be excited to play in 2025!

Happy new year!

Idle Cartulary

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