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I have bought the HRT Harm Reduction Toolkit Bundle and checked out two titles new to me first: Breakfast Cult and #iHunt: The RPG. Here are my first impression from reading about the books.

Breakfast Cult: "a Fate Accelerated TTRPG about cosmic horror mysteries and high school drama. " The art is colourful and cartoon style, which I think fit the game theme well. The book presents the setting and rules very clearly. Each character has a secret agenda so they may work at cross purpose amid cosmic horror investigation and teen drama. Depending on the game, the secret can range from more silly and high school drama trope (eg: Crush on X) to more serious (eg: Secret cultist). It provides pre-gen characters and scenarios so you can start a game easily. If you like Buffy, Harry Potter, or Soul Eaters, I think it'll serve well.


#iHunt: The RPG. "Killing monsters in the gig economy": It's a much darker game than Breakfast Cult. You play monster hunters who are also gig workers barely surviving on what they earn, dealing with sales tax and banking trouble. The book is thick - ~329 pages. The starting fiction set the setting's grim and depressing mood. The text (including the rules) is written in a more angry conversational tone, which YMMV whether you like it or not. There are robust advice about creating monsters, setting and the game rules. I think it does its focus very well.

Overall it's a worthwhile purchase for a good cause.


Current charity bundle bundles on sale:

HRT Harm Reduction Toolkit Bundle (30 items for $25): "100% of the proceeds of this bundle go directly toward Distribute Aid's efforts to supply kits of 1 year's necessary medical equipment into the hands of trans people in needs for free." #iHunt and Breakfast Cult are among the offers. Offer ends in 9 days, 21 hours.

Link from [personal profile] stepnix. Thank you!

California Fire Relief Bundle (Buy 422 items for $10) All proceeds, minus processing fees, go to CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), a Los Angeles-based organization which offers direct monetary support to survivors of the fires, and supports projects for fire resilience in affected areas (and potential disaster zones). Offer ends in 11 days 23 hours.

You can check out this Reddit comment to see highlighted video game offers with good review on Steam.


RPGs for Accessible Gaming
(247 items for $10): "Money raised from this charity bundle will help fund production for sets of d4s, d6s, d8s, and d10s of DOTS RPG Project's Signature Braille Dice." If you haven't already got the games, Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, Neon Nights and Glitter Heart are among the bigger titles. Offer ends in 20 days, 23 hours.

Also Link from [personal profile] stepnix:
Amor per Valencia / Love for Valencia Bundle ($5 for 771 items: 179 video games & 493 tabletop RPG):

On October 29th, the Valencia region received a year's worth of rain in just eight hours, which devastated much of the towns in Valencia, Spain. It's the worst natural disaster to hit Spain this century. Over 230 people were killed. The donations will go to Projecte Butterfly, a project that seeks to help those affected to recover their homes. Offer ends in 1 month, 29 days.

Solo But Not Alone 5! Solo Tabletop RPG Charity Bundle: 107 items for $10. Offer ends in 2 months, 19 days. I posted a signal boost post about the bundle.
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"Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names" is an interactive text fiction game set in Werewolf the Apocalypse 5e setting. You play a werewolf who have to defeat a dangerous spirit that manifests as a lie that everyone want to believe. It's on sale until 2nd of May.

Setting: What I know about Werewolf the Apocalypse is from osmosis: werewolves are angry ecoterrorists and the 5e release has made controversial changes, good or bad. However, I feel that the writer allows me to immerse in this world that werewolves have to earn a basic living and their constant rage both a curse and a power source. There's in-game glossary which explains the setting term.

Plot: There's really a lot to do: rebuild the pack, fight evil corporation, get to know the spirits and the other characters, fight the boss, etc. You can solve problems with different methods. Some challenges are hard to overcome. The plot sometimes goes dark with graphic textual descriptions of violence, and trauma to bodies and souls, but you can earn a hopeful ending.

Characters: I love the cast of characters. They are screwed up, traumatized, imperfect, but colourful and interesting. Even the minor characters have their thought and lives on their own. As per the norm, your PC and the love interests can be any genders.

Game Play: It's a choice of game title, so no save/load feature. You can choose to allow PC death to make it more challenging, but the normal mode is enough to me. If your werewolf has high rage, skill checks will be penalized, so it's more of a challenge to play a charming character focusing on social skills. There's a storyteller mode to let you know what stat to use, so it's clear what you need to succeed.

There's a free game demo for the first 4 chapters, so you can see if you enjoy it.

Update: It's quite buggy right now and has costed me a playthrough. :( I hope that it'll be fixed this week.
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Emoji Kitchen let you merge two emoji to create a grand new one. You can start playing by entering "Emoji Kitchen" in google search, or use this alternative emoji kitchen creator

Murdle: Daily logic puzzle to solve mystery

Drench: ‘Drench’ the entire board in one single color within limited turns

Dungelon: guess the dungeon composition in 6 guesses



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Beecarbonize is an environmental card strategy game with climate change as your opponent.

Research cutting-edge technologies, enact policies, protect ecosystems, and modernize industry to cut down carbon emissions. Manage your resources well and you might survive.


Beecarbonize is fast paced, educational and fun. It requires you to balance resources and researches and races against the clock to save the world while dealing with anxiety inducing crisis. The world will explode when you try to balance long term development and solving crisis. The game play is smooth. The way it visualizes the tipping point of climate crisis is neat. It's also anxiety inciting when multiple crisis break out at the same time to deal with. It really makes you think about the environment.

For such a polished game, it's totally free and available on Android, ios, Steam & itch.io (PC)

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"Today, smash your heroic nemesis! Tomorrow, build a doomsday device to take over the world! But, wait, are your henchpeople going on strike?!"

Top Villain: Total Domination is a 228,000-word interactive comedy supervillain novel by Brandon Greer, which you play a supervillain planning world domination in Saturday cartoon style. The main character (MC) has to deal with the interplanetary hero Matchless Man (which the MC can choose to have foeyay with), an intrepid reporter caught snooping in their lair, and a surprise inspection from the supervillain organization Multitude of Murderous Malcontents, with rules against world domination. And MC's henchpeople went on strike.

And MC's mum was calling.

Review:

It's silly and endearing fun, a love letter to the colourful and weird Saturday cartoons. I love a lot at the jokes in the games. It's very forgiving in stat check, but the plot is linear, so it may affect the replayability. Matchless Man and the reporter Whitney Wang had a lot of depth.
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In this enchanted sexual escapade, will you revel with mysterious rogues, wily Fae, the Prince, or the Princess? Where will your heart and loyalty lead you as the kingdom trembles on the edge of war?

Their Majesties’ Pleasure is a 225,000-word interactive text based erotic fantasy novel by Leia Talon, which you plays a royal guard with duty to protect the royal heirs, who in turn leads your character (PC) to revel with mysterious rogues and wily faes. However, the country is now at the brink of two sided wars thanks to the king's stubbornness, and you are pivotal to build peace for your country. It's available on Steam, Android or iphone/ipad.

The PC can be a man, woman or non-binary. The romantic interest includes the prince, the princess, the fae queen, the fae crown prince and the rogue. Everyone but the princess is open to poly relationship, but you can choose a monogamous route too. It is very freeing that PC can flirt and have sex with everyone before deciding their route, and it's OK in the game.

The plot is very solid. Both the romance and the political plot are interesting. You can really enjoy the hedonistic atmosphere, and the description of food and the surroundings is sensual. The RO and non-romancable NPC are distinctive in their personalities, and I really enjoy when my PC befriends everyone. The romance can be very hot or sweet depending on your taste.

For game mechanic, the challenges are reasonable and it's clear what stats the challenges are testing. The cost of failure is never so high that a single mistake ruins my play through. 

Overall, I find it very enjoyable.
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Fallen Hero is a text based interactive novel series that you play a powerful telepath ex-superhero who returns and is now the newest supervillain. There are two games: Rebirth and Retribution so far in a planned 4 game series. There are loads of identity porn (the player character can possess other people and am juggling two bodies and three identities), hurt/comfort, complicated messed up relationship with other characters with hidden depth, and interesting world building. You can play a male, female, or genderqueer character and dates an evil scientist, the PC's former teammates, the young hero idolizing the PC, or The PC's most dangerous opponent on the team, or at the same time.

What I like about the series is the wide variety of freedom and story variables. You can play a mass killing monster, or a soft hearted villain who the others suspects that they aren't villain at all. The replayability is high because you can choose the PC's motives, their method of supervillaincy and their choice in different missions. I'm often surprised by how I miss when reading others' playthrough.

Free Demo to the Fallen Hero series
Fallen Hero: Rebirth (The first game)
Fallen Hero Retribution  (The Second game)

Post of links to helpful Guides

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If It Please the Court is a Heart's Choice interactive lesbian romance novel where the player character is recruited from the slum to be a royal spy in eighteenth-century Versailles. There are three love interests: a spymistress, a poet lady-in-waiting, or a traitor to the king. 

I have to admit that I always pursue the route of the spymistress because I love her best. Charlotte is a competent and ambitious woman who seizes the chance to attempt to shape the politics of the country. She is smart and cautious, but I love how much she's willing to trust my player character when they're in love.

The other love interests are interesting too. Geneviève the poet lady-in-waiting is guarded, quiet but a very insightful friend. Katharina is a dangerous and ruthless enemy spy, but very seductive. In fact the game has very good writing and interesting characters. 

It can be played free with watching ads, so you can try and see if it's to your taste. 


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All are free, no ads and open source, unless specified otherwise

Heriswap: a match-3 game with soothing background music and graphic. It has 3 different game modes (score race, time attack and 100 seconds) and 3 difficulty settings. Available on F-droid only

Simon Tatham's Puzzles: a collection of 40 single-player logic puzzle games including minesweeper, sudoku, and bridges. Puzzles are generated on demand and adjustable. Available on Google play & F-droid. There's a web option too.

Mindustry: a hybrid of tower defense, RTS, and factory game very popular on Steam. Available on Google play & F-droid

Shattered Pixel Dungeon: a traditional roguelike dungeon crawler with pixel art graphics, randomly generated levels, and lots of variety and replayability: Available on Google play & F-droid

Unciv: "An open-source reimplementation of the most famous civilization-building game ever". Available on Google play & F-droid
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  1. Sherpa RPG: a game designed for outdoors. The rules can fit on a business card. You only need the stopwatch function on your digital watch/phone to play. There is a free web version of the rule
  2. Munchkin: a comedic card game that you compete with your friends to kill dungeon monsters and collect treasure. There are 33 themed variants of the games including cooking battle, horror films, kungfu, Marvel and Disney Duck tales and more than 70 expansion packs..
  3. Out of Dodge is a four-person, “American Freeform” live-action game about desperate criminals on a car ride to nowhere. It's designed to be played in a car.
  4. Dungeon Janitor's Apprentice: a free two-page tabletop rpg that centres on two people arguing with each other
  5. Hey, this song reminds me of you: a 200 word experience about two players sharing songs with each other 
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Freshman Magic: Spellbooks and Tangled Sheets is a male/male text based choose your romance game set in a magic university with dueling, murder mystery and five potential love interests. You play a gay freshman who has to secure his magical dueling full scholarship, balance his school life and social life and meet love interests from a wide spectrum. However, students are missing from the school and the player character can be the next victim if he isn't careful.

Gameplay wise I really enjoy it because of its good writing, lots of meaningful and clearly worded choices, and interesting potential love interests. When dueling, you can choose different magic style and tactics to win. You can decide what approach to tackle exams or assignments. You can choose to how hardworking your character is. The mystery isn't hard to solve but the tension is well depicted.

The romance aspect is good too. There are lovable jock, shy tutor, rich sexy librarian, mysterious senior and loyal best friend, which adds to the replayability. What I like most is that your character can choose to flirt and have casual sex with different guys before going steady (or not), or romance his prospective boyfriend by hanging out rather than hooking up.

I have really enjoyed the game and replayed it a lot of time for all the achievements. Definitely recommended to fellow text based m/m romance game lovers.
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"Beyond the Chiron Gate is a text-based space exploration roguelike. Explore an endless universe filled with exotic planets, strange life forms, and ancient civilisations. Manage a crew of space explorers and upgrade their ship with new technology. Brave dangerous worlds to gather the data you need to reach the home system of the mysterious Gatebuilders."

Paid game // available on Android, ios, Windows, Linux, and Mac.

~From game publisher's description

Review:

Every time the player choose who and which system to send from the limited options, and explore as much or as little as you like balanced against the restraint of limited ship energy, limited no. of times of gate travel and how many damage and injury the crew and the ship can withstand. The procedural generation of systems and planets means that every time is a new experience. The updates to get, the civilizations to see, and the discoveries to make can vary a lot. The games also gets emotional as however competent the crew members grow, they are fragile in this dangerous universe and can die any time. The random factor can be very frustrating (I have once had my entire crew killed in their second mission twice consecutively), but it's addictive to race against yourself for better record. Playing with music on is recommended as it really matches the game theme.
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I love playing idle games, simulation games and puzzle games on my phone. Here are my favourite found this year so far.
  • Broki: a block puzzle game with nice aesthetic, six different types of game modes and daily challenges
  • Cards of Terra: a fantasy themed solitaire-like card game in which we attempted to remove cards by dragging one over another to let them engage in a battle. With many kinds of card units with different effects, it gradually becomes challenging
  • Coromon: the Pokemon RPG that Nintendo will probably never gives us.
  • Grimoire Incremental: an idle game that tells a story of unearthing ancient magic and grappling to understand and wield it.
  • I Love Hue Too: a relaxing game that seriously challenges your sensitivity to colours.
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 Aka I suffer so you can be warned

Cinderella Phenomenon:

The heroine is hated by everyone from birth without knowing why. Her father doesn't care about her and favours her stepsister way more than her. He forces the heroine to go with the stepsister to the town because the stepsister wants it. Who cares if the heroine will get bullied by the townfolk? Her so sweet stepsister surely does nothing when it happened right next to her. From the flashback even her mother didn't treat her well when alive.

The heroine's  only companion is a doll given by her dead mother, so she fires a maid when said maid breaks her doll. While it is not nice for the maid, does the heroine deserves to be driven out of home and forgotten by her father? Does she deserve to die because of that?  The witch who curses her  gives a condescending lecture how the heroine deserves this. However, said witch is a voyeur and just watched the heroine through the doll's eyes throughout the heroine's life. ( which I found pretty creepy)  And the heroine is called cold-blooded. 

I gave up after this point out of rage. It was the first time I played a game that the player character was the designated villain. Sadly, it wasn't the last time.
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The Hosted Games label is for user submitted games, so the quality and the content varies more than the Choice of Games label.

My Top Five: Kiss from Death, Donor, Wayhaven Chronicles series, The Parenting Simulator, A Study in Steampunk: Choice by Gaslight (sorted by publishing date)

ExpandRead more... )
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Continuation from yesterday's list. Part II includes Siege of Treboulain, Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road, Tally Ho, I, Cyborg, and Choice of Magic

Siege of Treboulain:

ExpandRead more... )

Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road
:

ExpandRead more... )

Tally Ho
:

ExpandRead more... )
I, Cyborg
:

ExpandRead more... )

Choice of Magics:

ExpandRead more... )
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Choice of Games is a company that specialized in publishing text-based, multiple-choice games. Growing up, I really love Choose Your Own Adventure books and Give Yourself Goosebumps, where your choice can determine the story outcome. I also really enjoy Lone Wolf Gamebooks Therefore I play a lot of games in their Choice of Games labels, Hosted Games (user submitted games) and Heart's Choice label (romance focus games).

My general like: Games that focus on character relationship, a lot of freedom for players to shape the game outcome, sf&f or unconventional setting

My general dislike: games that force a certain outcome on players, games that a wrong choice can result in game over or doesn't tell the players clearly what they are expected to satisfy the requirements, games that requires an excel sheet to figure out resource allocation, fake choices,

It's very difficult to rank my favourite among the 106 Choice of Games I have played, but here's part one of my top ten list, not sorted in any order:  Mask of the Plague Doctor, Chronicon Apocalyptica, Cannonfire Concerto, Choice of the Deathless, and Choice of Robots

ExpandRead more... )


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I like playing Twine games and choice of games, and daydream about writing a simple one some day. Here are some links about writing interactive fiction. It's interesting to compare the similarities and differences from writing stories.

General 

General Writing FAQs and Resources: a very massive list of writing resources including plot, characterization, structure and game design specific resources. Useful to general writers too. 

Standard Patterns in choice based games

NPC Characterization by Emily Short

Make Good Choices: A Guide to Decisions in Videogames

Scoping for Game Jams: How to finish a game within 48 hours


Twine

A Total Beginner’s Guide to Twine 2.1

Top Twine Games Make the Most of Interactive Fiction

I really like the games choices. Queers in Love at the End of the World, The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, and With Those We Love Alive are all great games that make good use of Twine. They are all distinctive in different ways. 

Choice of Script related

Small Plotting Trick for Choice-of Work: How to make character arc distinctive

End Game and Victory Design

How We Plan a ChoiceScript Game
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Sengoku Basara is a crowd fighting game with a playful take on Japan Warring State period and basically runs on the rule of cool (case in point: It has gundam and machine gun) I like its playfulness and for a fighting game, the character are surprisingly complicated and interesting. The strong theme of loyalty is also what attracts me here. My current favourite relationships are Date Masamune/ Katakura Kojuro and Ishida Mitsunari/Ōtani Yoshitsugu.

In Sengoku Basara, Date Masamune is energetic, ambitious and confident young ruler of the Date Clan. However, he also has a quiet and thoughtful side outside the battleground and heed the counsel of his serious retainer Katakura Kojuro, who's a quiet, reliable and intelligent strategist. Date Masamune trusts Katakura Kojuro enough that Katakura Kojuro is called the Dragon's Right Eye. (Date Masamune lost his right eye when young due to disease and thus despised by his mother.) They have a great rapport with each other and there's a lot of hurt/comfort fodder between them. Katakura Kojuro vows to never let Date Masamune regret anything and only he can stop Date Masamune in a fury.
Further Reference:
Historical personality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_Masamune
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakura_Koj%C5%ABr%C5%8D
Sengoku Basara 3
Sengoku BASARA 3 All Date Masamune Cutscenes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBeb5MN7PUE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGIhKYtJCv0


Ishida Mitsunari appears in Sengoku Basara 3 and is a determined avenger of his lord. He 's tragic in a sense that he's so driven by his revenge that he has nothing other than that. Ōtani Yoshitsugu is his friend and often takes command of the West Army for him. He's dying of leprosy, which causes him to be shunned and rejected by the others, and leads him to say that he wishes misery upon everyone (including himself) equally. However, Ōtani Yoshitsugu cares about Ishida Mitsunari deeply and protects him. There's a historical incident that at a tea party, after Ōtani Yoshitsugu drinks from a cup of tea, no other people drinks from it as customary except Ishida Mitsunari. Ōtani Yoshitsugu is touched. It's said to be one of the reasons he joined Ishida Mitsunari's cause.
Further Reference:
Historical personality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ctani_Yoshitsugu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishida_Mitsunari
Sengoku Basara 3
Ishida Mitsunari (English cut scenes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTEvgd9plc0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTEvgd9plc0
Otani Yoshitsugu (English cut scenes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FGJvkFJAnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijcOeo8SN4Y
Personal Blue Route (Japanese and Chinese dubbed)
http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_5071144.html


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Project Aon: contains most of Lone wolf books
Choice of your game:All are gender friendly and sex orientation friendly.
  1. Choice of Dragon, Play as a dragon
  2. choice of romance Romance and intrigue at court
  3. choice of Broadside Age of Sail war and honour
The Outbreak: Interactive zombie movie
Zebulon: a humorous space opera CYOA story

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