THE LEGO PATAPHOR

UPDATED 10th July for greater clarity, thanks to feedback from Dan of Thrown of Salt
 
You might be familiar with the Lego analogy used for the design of roleplaying games.

There's memes and everything.

Designers do some subtly disturbing shit with LEGO

..but I came across it thanks to Monkeys Paw Games:

if you buy a lego set that has a castle on the front of the box and use the lego inside to build a spaceship are you playing lego "wrong?" are you told "no, idiot, you should have bought the spaceship lego, instead!"

interesting interesting

https://twitter.com/monkeyspawgames/status/1432440582790684677

MUTAGENIC HIVE SWARM: ZINI EDITION

 Earlier in the week I posted a play report of a PARIAH mini-game-within-a-game I finally got to the table, Mutagenic Hive Swarm. Players take on the role of pariahs undergoing an intense and terrifying psychedelic experience: re-manifesting inside a bio-mechanical reptilian hive swarm ship in another dimension... as bugs.

I've put a first draft of the "zini" edition up on itch.io. They'll be a few more updates, with the ultimate goal of this transforming into a zine-length mini-setting/adventure/sandbox.

MUTAGENIC HIVE SWARM: OUT[BREAK OF HIVES] NOW!

HAMLET: A ONE LETTER RPG

 …totus mundus agit histrionem

- Petronius

Sometimes it takes a while for me to catch on, and so it was with Hamlet: a One Letter RPG by W.H. Arthur. Regular readers may recall my interview with Arthur back in 2021, but if not please follow the link or have a glance over his itch.io page: he has built up an excellent catalogue of games and material during the two years that have passed since he kindly agreed to be interviewed.

This post very specifically examines one game in particular: Hamlet: A one-letter RPG, inspired by the Business Card RPG Jam and We Are But Worms. You can download the game here:

https://aryl-ether.itch.io/hamlet

Screenshot: a business card RPG, Hamlet

PLAY REPORT: MUTAGENIC HIVE SWARM

This is a play report of a PARIAH sub-game that takes place in the Hive Swarm aspect of The Beyond

However, in truth it is my homage to the now-nerfed forces of Hive Fleet Kraken and my brief, intense love affair with them back in 1998. I miss you x

Prayer to GW: please don't sue me for using this image, nor what you are about to read...

From Sketches for My Sweetheart, The Beyond:

Wisewomen speak of the chaotic immediacy of Dawn in contrast with the rarefied reptilian intelligence of Dusk: within the Beyond, these two realms have conflated. 

The plague swarm is a complex, technologically advanced culture of monstrous insectoid reptiles driven by the insatiable hunger of Dawn to replenish and reproduce. Biomechanical monsters driven by the desire to assimilate all life and reform it in their own image

The civilisation spans millions of worlds and represents the amalgamation of trillions upon trillions of species, dreaming of a reality in which no single element exists outside of their domain, working in unison towards their goal of multiversal omni immortality