Elizabeth Little

Bookplay in TTRPGs An essay on how we play with books in ttrpgs

In SPINE, I want players to play with the ttrpg's rulebook in innovative ways.

I wrote this essay to think through the design. It describes the various ways we play with books in ttrpgs, with examples of how we use books as props, as anchors for fictions, and how we recreate them as art.

Aha, there is a book in it. I really want to write the rest of Waking From A Dream one day. Ok, actually done now.

It is a game about foxes. Maybe.

Samantha did indeed post a picture of Charlotte (okay, it's actually just an old picture of me). What a terrible person, right?

Ah, that will have to do for now. I nearly got to the end, but I'm out of time.

Oh, if the fiction was true, this would be a very uncomfortable game. I appreciate not being picked apart. I like most of my parts where they are. However, I agree that it does invite thinking about these things.

Poor KC is just like 'maybe try not to be so weird, huh?'

Despite this, the things she makes are weird and strange. She tries to cut them up and stuff them into a traditional shape and doesn't really understand why that doesn't quite work. She can't really see the thing that she's actually made.

I think Samantha really has a background in more traditional roleplaying games and, although she identifies as an indie, she has a very particular view of what a roleplaying game should be and should look like. She knows the sections and subsections. She knows the tone of voice.

One of my very real editors had thoughts on the discussion of KC's relationship with Samantha lmao.

The fox story! It didn't actually happen on a bridge, but I'm glad that bridges pervaded the text so completely that the image of one appeared here anywhere. I'm glad you enjoyed my prose, Merrilee, sorry it hits quite hard.

It is a game about engineering corpses, that is definitely true. Samantha is trying to connect with and recreate her lost friend through the process of compiling the archive of her words. She is both the grieving father and the necromancer.

Ah, Corpse Engineer, my beloved. Why hide our favourites? We're always going to have them.

The classes were very fun to make. I actually started with the character sheets and worked backwards from there. I don't know how sensible that choice was, but it worked out well.

If you are planning to do a dissertation on You Will Die In This Place, holy shit there's probably better things to focus your efforts on. That sounds like a miserable piece of research. However, do drop me a line if you do it anyway.

Aha, yes, there is a dungeon. The Abyssal Labyrinth. It's the book, it's the world, it's their situation. The Labyrinth exists at every layer of the text. The literal Labyrinth of the game itself is a reflection of all of those things.

I'm really happy the characters came across so well and so distinctively. I feel that characters are so central to any roleplaying experience. One of my hopes would be to inspire and help people to construct and write better characters.

Oh, me too, Merrilee. Emotions are these dull things that I am aware that I have, but I cannot and do not express them intuitively. I have to study other people and learn them. I'm always wearing masks. There's maybe one or two people in the world who I feel safe going unmasked in front of.

Clifford the Big Red Dog unofficial ttrpg? What would that look like?

Jokes! Yes. I can't help myself. There are a lot of them. Page 8 also has a The Beginner's Guide reference in it, which is slightly less obvious than the House of Leaves one that dominates the layout.

Pervasive uneasiness... yeah. Quite a few of my closer friends had to give up on reading it because of that.

Where it does become muddy is how those ideas and mechanics are presented and explained. Samantha is much more inclined to fall back to a more traditional structure and style of writing, which often clashes with what is actually being explained.

My intention was certainly that Samantha does indeed comment in most circumstances where she changes things. Though her methods might be questionable, she has a genuine love and respect for Charlotte and her work, and it hurts her to change things.

I was glad to hear the genuine frustration but also sympathy directed towards Samantha in this take. She may be objectively doing some objectively wrong and morally questionable things, but she is also a victim of circumstances.

Similarly, Samantha sharing my actual last name was a very intentional choice. I think there's a danger of putting Charlotte up on some pedestal as the platonic ideal of this auteur game designer, with Samantha being the hack or a villain exploiting her work. The situation isn't so clear cut.

It was certainly no mistake that social skills and abilities are not gamified within the mechanics. You have to stray outside of what is defined by the rules to solve problems nonviolently, and I think I was interested to see whether players would do that.

I am with you in regards to combat, Merrilee. I often find it to be my least favourite aspect of playing any rpg, despite my involvement in wargaming.

This is certainly an extremely violent game, being the only real mechanical form of communication within the game world.

Okay. Listening through again with a mind to actually post some thoughts this time.

The anxiety of communication is definitely up there in terms of the main things the game is about.

VOID_SHIFT by Binary Star Games Assemble your deck and don't get fired.

VOID_SHIFT is out (digitally)! It's a solo deckbuilder that takes like, I don't know, half an hourish to roll through a job. 30 cards to assemble a 15 card deck, 6 job cards that comprise what you're doing.

binary-star-games.itch.io/void-shift

You are a researcher who has inherited a strange book from an estranged relative… Image: Print copy of SPINE

NEW (FREE) GAME FORTHCOMING:

SPINE is a dark solo ttrpg about losing yourself in a book.

In SPINE, you are a researcher who has inherited a strange book from an estranged relative…