RPG Reviews

Some games are silly. Some games have hidden depths. Some games do both. Such is the case with Wyrdsmith‘s 200 Word RPG Go On Without Me. Three or more players play characters in a stereotypical action/horror movie who are trying to sacrifice themselves. Each player identifies his/her character’s strengths and weaknesses (plus a dark secret, of course). A … Continue reading »

Jonathan Cook’s Laughter or a Lit Flame is a haiku game. Apparently, games centered on writing haikus are relatively common within the microgame scene, but whenever I’d come across the concept in the past, the game basically just told you to write haiku. Laughter or a Lit Flame provides structure to those haiku, but in an intriguingly non-competitive … Continue reading »

A lot of 200 Word RPGs lack useful randomization mechanics. You may roll a die, but even there, the result is a normal pass/fail. Today’s RPG, Nathan Knaack‘s Normaleware, is an exception. To start, I love that this game about androids infiltrating humanity not only includes Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, but it condenses them while keeping their clarity. … Continue reading »

Joseph Le May‘s Kataware Doki is a 2-player LARP heavily inspired by a Japanese anime film, Makoto Shinkai’s amazingly successful Your Name. The game just directly tells you to play out the central conceit, of two characters switching bodies. There are no mechanics in the game, just things you’re supposed to do at different times. (That’s okay; … Continue reading »