Zine Quest and Zine Month took tabletop RPGs in weird new directions

The best elements in tabletop role-playing are those that can be discovered through experimentation, just like any other creative medium. Once you’ve wriggled free from the bonds of Dungeons & Dragons, you’re able to better observe its smaller designers — the mad scientists and provocateurs working to push the form to see what they can do, or even just get away with. Each year, Zine Month is the perfect outlet for this community of creatives to let their freak flags fly, whether it be through Kickstarter’s Zine Quest or Crowdfundr’s Tabletop Nonstop.

TTRPG zines 2023 featured a wide range of games, including whole games and hacks for 5th edition. There were even a few titles that targeted children. A few projects stood out though, ones that challenged the notion of what a tabletop RPG might be.

Zine Month will inspire many other games that are available to backers for the rest of the year.

My Mother’s Kitchen

Image: Fleet Detrik

Solo games based on the Tarot are an important part of Zine Month, and also the itch.io design community. My Mother’s Kitchen By Fleet Detrik, recipes are used to change the tarot a little. You’re playing as a spirit in possession of a cookbook who’s trying to use written recipes to help recover lost memories.

My Mother’s Kitchen, Role-playing can be as about creating memories as fulfilling them. Drawing tarot cards helps to complete the family tree. These cards give the players ghostly power that can influence the fate of their larger families. Detrik said they designed the game to help come to terms with the helplessness they felt as their grandmother’s health declined due to age and took a turn for the worse, and how cooking helped them cope with it.

Border Riding

Border Riding It is a cooperative history-building game. The setting of the game takes place in a small rural village near two border countries. The game was inspired by designer Jo Reid’s childhood growing up in the Scottish Borders, but it doesn’t need to be set in Scotland. The group will explore the historical development of the area over time, respond to current events, and examine questions about inclusion and how time impacts communities. Players must grapple with determining who is “us,” who is “them,” and how and why those kinds of distinctions are even made. The entire process takes place on an opaque, large-scale, hand-drawn map. Each map is stacked on top of the last to show changes in time. You can even fold the directions into a map shape so that you have everything at your fingertips.

Only between Us

Image: Eli Seitz and Kristen Dabney

Eli Seitz and Kristen Dabney’s Only between Us This role-play is live and can be played for as many as 20 Blues dancers It is a way to look at a relationship. Two narratives are presented by players, Together or Apart. They represent the beginning and end of a relationship. The dancing is quite literal, and rather than being just an action, the dancing is instead used to help players express emotions and feelings in a way that’s quite the departure from other games. To maximize its effect, it even comes with its own playlist.

Horse girl

Image: Leyline Press

Take inspiration from these easy-to-view films. Human Centipede Helena boxing, Samuel Mui’s Horse girl It is quite disturbing to think of a game like this. In this solo TTRPG you play as a woman moving in with your “dream man,” wealthy and handsome, and having your own room in his mansion. One caveat: The caveat? To examine self-destructive practices, the game involves slow and surgical transformations into horses. There are many items that can be used for journaling solo, including a deck, die and a few cards.However, one item stands out: A red marker that you can use to draw on your own skin.

Psychoic Trash Detectives

Zine Month sees a lot more found objects. Coins, sentimental pictures, bones. Brigitte Winter’s Psychoic Trash Detectives asks what you could do with something we all have but probably don’t think to touch: trash. Wadded up tissues, orange peels and empty cans are all possible options. Play as any of the many trash-loving creatures that have a psychic connection with garbage. The different visions you use to create the story include sketching, poetry, and forming memories of trash. It’s possible to create improvisation from almost anything, so let it be a little bit trashy.