John Harper

John Harper

@johnharper.bsky.social

Game designer and graphic artist. Blades in the Dark, AGON, Lasers & Feelings, Lady Blackbird. johnharper.itch.io

9,892 Followers 765 Following 1,188 Posts Joined Jul 2023
19 hours ago

YES

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23 hours ago
Preview
Bikes are Magic: Goat Town! - ZineQuest 2026 Bicycles, a Hellmouth, and Goats, Oh My! A creepy-cozy journaling solo RPG set in a magical village.

Almost done and we crushed our goal! Thanks for your support!

Bikes are Magic: Goat Town! - ZineQuest 2026 by Ellen Exacto on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/ell...

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1 day ago

Yep. This is an old Hollywood challenge: "realism" looks unbelievable on screen because it doesn't match intuitions. The unrealistic version actually makes the fictional world feel more real than adherence to physics or facts would.

"Make Apocalypse World *seem* real." A simulation might not do it.

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1 day ago
Preview
Grand Guignol 2E by gamesfromthewildwood A London gothic RPG about monstrosity, queerness, & community

Grand Guignol gives us crooked alleys & foggy squares, charged touches & words left unsaid, lavish parties & faceless crowds, bloody hands & dangerous smiles, and always the darkness without & within asking ‘What lurks in the secret corners of your heart?’.

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1 day ago

Now in overtime. Last call!

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1 day ago
Stretch goal for Blades '68: GM Roundtable. A two-hour livestream featuring designer Tim Denee and a panel of experienced GMs sharing their best tips, tricks, and advice on running the game and bringing the vibrant world of Blades '68 to life.

We got there! Looking forward to being on this panel with Tim.

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1 day ago
YouTube
Difficulty in Apocalypse World YouTube video by Sean Foer

Love this short video by @scenefour.bsky.social explaining degrees of difficulty in Apocalypse World (also applies to similar games).
youtube.com/shorts/sbH_f...

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1 day ago

This is how I experience every piece of media, so I'm really looking forward to this.

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1 day ago

it's a very good video

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1 day ago
Mockups of:
The Blades '68 book featuring a colorful cover of 60s inspired charactes in concentric rings of black, blue, orange, and yellow.
The Doskvol 968 City Map, featuring a 60s style render of "modern" Doskvol.
The Player Gazette, with the illustration of a crew walking together shoulder to shoulder in a line.
The Faction Deck, where each faction has its own "business card"
and
The Trouble Cards, designed to help you generate complications for your crew.

🕜🕑🕝 Less than 6 hours left!
Inspired by Deathloop, powered by Blades in the Dark - Blades '68 catapults you into a technicolor world of bold action and shadowy conspiracies.
Over 6,000 fans have unlocked 47 stretch goals!
Download the FULL text the instant you back!
www.backerkit.com/c/projects/e...

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1 day ago

Rain City Games (Vancouver BC) and Ratti Incantati (Ontario) are taking pre-orders as part of the campaign and offering the items we won't be shipping outside the US. Reserve now before they sell out:
Rain City
www.raincity.games/search/blade...
Ratti Incantati
rattiincantati.com/collections/...

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2 days ago
The cover of Blades '68. Colorful characters inspired by the 1960s are illustrated in bright shades of blue, orange, and yellow. Caption: Final hours on BackerKit.

24 hours left!
Blades '68 turns a bright, electroplasmic light on the grimy streets of Doskvol and catapults your crew 100 years into the future. Racers, Radicals, Swingers and shadowy Operatives all mix in this mind-bending retro-dystopia.
The future...
...is now.
www.backerkit.com/c/projects/e...

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2 days ago
A spread from Blades '68, showing a scientist testing out a human-amplifier (a big robot claw exo-skeleton thing). A spread from Blades '68 showing a computer terminal, ashtray, rolodex, and dot matrix paper on a desk. Some reel to reel machines arein the background.

The final 24 hours for the Blades '68 campaign!

To celebrate, a couple of new pieces:

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2 days ago
Preview
a black and white cartoon of a man holding a sign that says ' sickos ' . Alt: it's the "ha ha ha... YES" sickos meme
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2 days ago
Mockups of the Limited Time Rewards for Blades '68: A fold-out City Map, Player Gazette, Faction Deck, Trouble Deck, Score Pad and a copy of the Blades '68 on an iPad.

🚨🚨UK Fans🚨🚨
@leisuregames.bsky.social has come onboard to take pre-orders for Blades '68
If you're looking for the City Map, Faction Deck or the other exclusives from the backerkit campaign, you can reserve your copies here and have them delivered to you in the UK
leisuregames.com/search?q=bla...

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2 days ago

that one is me :)

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3 days ago
Preview
FixForce on Steam Leap, climb, and launch your friends in this chaotic co-op extraction platformer for up to 6 players! Use your drill-wrench to build your way across a vibrant post-apocalyptic world, find replacement ...

Your next goofy co-op game is arriving in just two days!

We've been working with Surgent Studios on FixForce via our work for hire arm, Lost and Found.

It's a good time and you should throw it a Wishlist if you're interested so we can get it in the popular upcoming games!

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3 days ago

Self-insert is a Blades illustration tradition. 😉

(although, sometimes people think I was the model for some pieces when I wasn't... 🤷)

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4 days ago

It's so horribly stupid, odds are it's an AI generated article.

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4 days ago

This is the last. fucking. straw. The shambling corpse of the so-called NYT is finally dead and buried.

And fucking Blood Meridian of all things! The hubris!! These idiots got in the ring with Muhammad Ali like they had any chance at all. Shame. SHAME.

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5 days ago
Spotify – Web Player

Check out our latest interview with @olddog.games about Blades '68 and how Tim approaches wearing many different artistic hats while designing a game.

open.spotify.com/episode/5vmO...

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1 week ago

new lifestyle unlocked

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1 month ago
Preview
Coming soon: Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG – 2nd Edition Navigate the pitfalls of romance, reputation, manners, and marriage in the sumptuous new edition of this award-winning regency rpg.

A new edition of Good Society is set to grace the ton!

With revised rules and additional sumptuous art, this new edition will be useful, usable and scandalously good looking.

Check it out and help support this unique game of regency romance, scandal and drama!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/sto...

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1 week ago

hell yeah 🖖🔥

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1 week ago

The rules and rulesets you create don't have to answer to people who don't choose to use them. They have to answer to the people who do choose to use them.

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1 week ago
Preview
Dungeon Master of None: 393 - Ride or Die with John Harper We don't have games, we got family.  Have you ever wanted to play a Fast & Furious-inspired TTRPG? (of , , and fame) has got you covered. Welcome to Ride or Die, a fast-paced, double-c...

I chatted with Matt & Rob of @dmofnone.bsky.social about Ride or Die, the Fast & Furious movies, classical heroes, and refusing to acknowledge physics when they get in the way of fun. Check out the podcast here: dmofnone.libsyn.com/393-ride-or-...

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1 week ago

I think I see a light gem... ;)

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1 week ago

I had not! Thanks. :)

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1 week ago

hell yeah 🤘🔥

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1 week ago
Preview
a cartoon of a skeletor with the words laughs in evil below him Alt: skeletor with the words "laughs in evil" below him
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