#Sleepaway ttrpg

[bunbunbunni]

Played a few games now I have a better idea of what the horror camp yuri girls look like… sneak peak for the lesbians this is for u

[nosongunsung11]

art fight attack for @courfeyracs-swordcane <3<3

image id under the cut

{Image ID: a mostly lineless, painted image of two people falling through the sky, surrounded by clouds and an abstract white swirl. the image is the dimensions of a phone background and was heavily inspired by the album art for "Don't You Dare (Make Me Fall In Love With You.] The two characters, Echo and Joel, are falling in a vertical line, with Echo taking up the top half of the canvas and Joel taking up the bottom half. Echo is a white, ghost-like creature with wide eyes and no other features, who appears to be dissolving into wind. It is falling downwards face-first, with an outstretched hand that blends into the setting sun. Joel is a young man with pale skin in a white shirt, blue jacket, and short pink shorts who is also falling head-downwards, although only the back of his head is visible. He is reaching upwards towards Echo and seems to have much less intention behind his fall. There is a crown below his head that seems to be falling with him. End ID.}

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played SLEEPAWAY ?

By Jay Dragon @jdragsky

Sleepaway gives us long hazy days, chilled summer nights, kids screaming and chasing fireflies, crackling campfires, and a gaunt, cruel monstrosity forever hiding just out of sight, always asking, “What do you do next?”

In Sleepaway, you play as a camp counselor at a not-so-ordinary summer camp besieged by a Strange and ominous cryptid. In the outside world, people grow increasingly alienated from their own identities, trapped in a miasma of advertising and corporate branding. Isolated from civilization, this summer camp is a beacon of safety, a refuge for misfit kids defined by their marginalization. As time pushes past and the world grows older, this camp also shelters the survivors of the Lindworm.

The Lindworm is a shapeshifter, or so the stories go; a creature that flays the skin of humans and hides within. As counselors of this summer camp, you’ve each been traumatized by the Lindworm, in your own ways.

You remember little of that time.

Just that you don’t want anyone else to experience it either, and you’ll keep this camp safe no matter what.

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Sleepaway

the real monster was in the end, generational trauma

Genre: Horror

Touchstones: Modern and Old horror films alike

What is this game?: Sleepaway camp is a game about fighting against a cryptid serial killer who has harmed you before to protect the generation after yours

How's the gameplay?: Sleepaway is built on the Belonging outside Belonging engine, meaning that there's no GM, players instead control actions, reactions, and consequences by trading "Tokens", which are given by creating consequences or roleplaying your characters well, and are spent to create advantages in the world around you or to show intimacy. The serial killer of Sleepaway, a shapeshifter known as the Lindworm, is not roleplayed by anyone, instead controlled by a deck of cards

What's the setting (If any) like?: A summer camp! in the real world!, there's presumably cryptids and the like, but its mostly just real life, urban fantasy if you will!

What's the tone?: It's a horror story, tone is going to feel dire, dark, and grim, but at the end of the day its a story about generational trauma, so you do get to break the grimness at the end of the day… hopefully

Session length: 1-4 hours

Number of Players: I think maxing out at around 4-5 players is recommended but I'm not a cop, I'm just a humble country-side TTRPG farmer

Malleability: Sleepaway heavily leans on its own setting, malleability isn't LOW but you probably want to stick with the setting in the book

Resources: "Offseason" adds some hints on how to play online (though much of it is fairly self-explanatory, but you also get some bonus goodies for only around $5), Uncanny also adds some extra content, the game is simple enough to not need too much to play, though!

Sleepaway is a great game! its a fun lil time for everyone involved, its mechanics really fit with its tone in a way that not a lot of games try to do, the Lindwurm being entirely outside the player's control being a major example, its a great game that I recommend to anyone who wants something spooky, but still likes those old summer vibes

[s-che]

From the Game Designer Tarot, I'd like to draw JUDGEMENT. Tell me about something you designed that taught you something important, please?

From yesterday's Game Designer Tarot ask game

Judgement — Talk about a game you’ve made that taught you a lot.

In 2022, when I was, like, a year out of college and already pretty burned out by teaching, I wrote the extremely quick and angry first draft of Queen of the Moon, a game which yanked the lindworm oracle from Jay Dragon's Sleepaway, slapped a couple of playbooks in for different the types of children, and said there you go. There's a game. Kids and a thing that hurts them. That's all there is in the world. I was angry with the educational system, I was pessimistic about the craft of teaching, and I wrote a game that was miserable as a result. It was extremely important to me to write it the way I did — to make a point — but it wasn't until last year when I finally started revising it that I realized how little fun there was in playing the thing.

All this to say, I think a lot of people write bit-based games. Polemical games. Games that only exist to make one point. And I think it can be really therapeutic to write that way, or just to write for a joke (God knows Queen of the Moon isn't the only time I've done it — Ritual & Experience, another early game I'd love to come back to and make into something more interesting, basically works the same way). But I do think it's worth considering the limitations of writing one-note games.

I had a really good conversation while helping @jdragsky move apartments a few months back (great setting for design yapping, tbh) about how super duper rules light, one-mechanic games can be extremely restorative to play after dealing with a bloated, clunky, D&D-esque system — but that there's something to be said for the fact that D&D & co. have all those goddamn mechanics in them. There are, whether we like them or not, multiple things to do in dungeons & dragons, and playing a game with that much shit to do in it can be fun! I don't want one universal dice roll -- I want lots and lots of little bespoke systems overlapping nibbling at each other! I like it when there is a lot of games in my games! One good mechanic is still just one mechanic — it might be better than any one of D&D's twenty mid mechanics, but D&D still has 20 of them.

Anyway, I bring up Jay's writing specifically because that's a hallmark of what PCG does — Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast most obviously, but Sleepaway too. It took me a long time to get to a point where I could joyfully make Queen of the Moon less one-note. It's still pretty pared down compared to Sleepaway (although some of that is on purpose), but it's a lot bigger than it was when I started. And that isn't because of bloat: it's because it's good to write more good game.

[ttrpgbookclub]

For our pilot episode, we (re)read Sleepaway by Jay Dragon (@jdragsky). “A game of horror, dreams, and summer camp”, Sleepaway sets an intense, stomach-churning tone just with the text alone.

You can find "Sleepaway" on Possum Creek Games' itch[dot]io linked here.

[temporalhiccup]

🌱 and 💡

🌱 An unreleased/not-yet-crowdfunding game I’m looking forward to. Oh there are so many of these! It's really fun seeing folks work on things over time before unleashing it to the world. Picking one for now, and easily one I'm vibrating in excitement for, is @wildwoodsgames' HARVEST, here's the description for it:

"HARVEST gives us laden orchards and barren fields; desperate fervor and doubts grown thick as weeds; calves born and pigs slaughtered; proud traditions, failing wealth, and hostile stares; juice-smeared lips and dirt under nails; and always the questions echoing down through the generations: whose blood must be spilled to feed the land, and whose hand will hold the knife?

A folk horror game of Belonging Outside Belonging, inspired by The Wicker Man, Midsommar, and Apostle."

The bits and pieces I've seen make me absolutely feral. Luke does some amazing work in the Belonging Outside Belonging space, and their games in generally are criminally underrated. Luke has an ability to describe magic and horror and ground it deep in the earth, in a specific place and time, that I don't see anyone else doing in the ttrpg space.

I also think folk horror is an overlooked genre that just resonates so well with what ttrpgs are naturally good at: intuitive and collaborative story telling in a hushed group that keeps their eyes on each other. 💡 A game that inspired my own design or creative practice. The very cool thing about ttrpgs, and well all art really, is that we're in constant communication with each other. I love seeing us inspire each other and build on each other's work!

In recent games I've loved experimenting with gender and how it interacts with characters and their actions, and the game that first inspired me to do so was @jdragsky's Sleepaway. Here are some amazing examples:

Jay dragon's approach to imbuing quiet truths about the trans experience (without explaining any of it) is incredibly powerful for me.

Drawing upon who I am, in a way vulnerable and open, but powerful and unapologetic, has shaped so much of my design practice and the way I engage with my art.

[windienine]

moreover i like how there is a The Kid option in jay's games. lots of room for kids playing her games to be kids and lots of room for adults to reflect on what youth was (or should be!) like. i like games that expect kids and adults to be next to each other at the table and evaluate their different needs at the same table.

hey kid is my favorite example of such. i'm telling you- you've *gotta* try hey kid at least once.

[queergamelab]

ttrpg players, we're doing an interview study! you will be paid for your time!

[thatoddch1ld]

I want to play sleepaway

I have been thinking about sleepaway the rpg so much, i have nobody who would play it with me but i want to play it so bad, the summer camp horror would be so much fun to roleplay with a group of friends, and honestly as soon as i can afford my bills im probably gonna drop the $70 and order the guidebooks even if i cant play them yet

[ghostofcinders]

Gotta say this is the first summer since I got Jay Dragon's Sleepaway and yup, the need to run/play it in these months is palpable.

Which I feel is a credit to how well it delivers its own special nature.

[bunbunbunni]

Playing Sleepaway by Possum Creek Games with some friends every other Tuesday!

My character….

[nosongunsung11]

Also 🖊️ any variation on Sounder I miss sier

ARIEL-SOUNDER-ECHO-ARIEL THE OUROBOROS EATS ITS OWN TAIL. If you've been on my blog for a while you probably know sier by name I tag sier Constantly. I love talking about Sounder. Here's some Sounder.

Sounder's a PC from a sleepaway campaign that I was gonna play with some friends but never really ended up happening (scheduling issues etc) but we just kind of. ended up writing the entire story of these characters anyway. Including multiple pieces of writing and Significant amounts of art. Ariel is Sounder before sie became human and also a camp counselor. Echo is Sounder after he dies of love. Ariel is Echo after it becomes fucking normal again. If that doesn't make sense I'm about to explain it in detail aldkjfalkjdf

ARIEL was a wind spirit who served at the pleasure of the Underhill King (fae Old World entity that represents the Old Ways etc. big ass bone stag man). Pronouns... uh. Didn't really need them. It/they is close enough. Its job was to rustle the bone charms and bells that the Underhill King wears on His antlers and that was it.

They found Wallace (another PC, goes by Laevis by the time the campaign would have begun) bleeding out and almost dying in the woods, and made a Deal with the Underhill King for the power to heal his wounds and take care of him as he recovered. Laevis wakes up in the forest to see Sounder over him, hands pressing against the shrapnel wounds in his neck.

[Image ID in alt text; the Underhill King's dialogue is written in small caps and His pronouns are written with a capital H.]

Our Crafter for the campaign decided they wanted the magic for this campaign to work via thread crafts, especially friendship bracelets, so Sounder's humanity being granted via friendship bracelet is pretty significant! The bone pendant and bracelet thread make up the necklace that Sounder wears in pretty much all the art I draw of sier, which is the visible symbol of the deal sie made with the Underhill King. Sie never takes it off. The implication in the passage above is that if Sounder ever finds a true home, sier life will end, as sier life and curse are inextricably bound together. I feel like this may be a good point to mention that Sleepaway is a horror-tragedy ttrpg. btw.

That gets us to Sounder (sie/sier and he/him)! ^^ awesome art above is an art fight attack from @klqdraws !!!!! [Image ID: a waist-up portrait of a tan-skinned, blue-eyed man in a white tank top and yellow skirt. Sie has waist-length black hair with a blue tint, part of which is pulled into a short braid over sier right shoulder. Sie has stubble and multiple ear piercings, and sie is singing and holding out a hand to the viewer. End ID]

SOUNDER is a Songleader (one of the character archetypes from the Sleepaway TTRPG.] Gender: Blowing in the Wind, Name: A Name Used Only Here (the character sheets for sleepaway are hella good). Sie is a cryptid of a camp-counselor -- not on the payroll, never heads home on the buses with the rest of the group; sie just seems to show up to help out when camp begins and everyone's just sort of accepted this. Sounder is a camp nickname given to sier; Laevis (who'd lost his voice in the accident that left him bleeding out in the forest) only refers to sier with a handsign of a fluttering bird. Sie's got a playlist here if you want to check it out.

[Image ID: a collection of panels depicting Sounder signing "we're gonna be okay" in ASL, and Laevis, a young man with dark green hair, vitiligo, and small scars all over his body, who echoes the hand signs after them. This is in reference to a mechanic from the TTRPG, the Songleader's hook, which gives characters a mechanical bonus for repeating Sounder's words in a narratively significant way. End ID]

Due to the nature of sier's existence and curse, sie can't stay in human form year-round -- they can only hold human form for so long, turning back into the Wind when they've run out of time to spend with the other campers and counselors. In the off-season, they exist primarily as the wind that rustles through the trees. Laevis, who grew up in the woods with Sounder, has developed a habit of climbing to the top of trees to feel the Wind on his face. He talks to it.

Sie's in a poly love triangle of sorts (souvisel) with two other PCs, Laevis (you've met Laevis) and Joel (or Jay, his camp name). Sounder and Laevis grew up together; Laevis and Joel were childhood sweethearts who never met again after their childhood days at camp together. There's lots of shenanigans here -- Laevis throws Joel into the lake, Laevis falls asleep on Sounder and Joel carries him back to his cabin, Laevis disappears into the woods and Joel searches for him every night because he refuses to believe that Laevis could have died, despite the mounting evidence that he did. Normal polycule things.

Won't spent too much time on Sounder's death since I wrote an entire piece about it; feel free to read it if you're interested (3.5k, about 6 pages)! TLDR; Sounder willingly walks to sier death because sie can't choose to give up the home that sie's found with Laevis and Joel even though it kills sier and Joel wakes up alone in a bed with a discarded flower crown, Sounder's broken pendant, and a wolf who is also his dead boyfriend Laevis. A very bad day to be joel jay sleepaway.

[ID in alt text.]

So. aha. That takes us to ECHO, it/its. It will eventually go by sie/he as well as it/its once it makes its peace with being what's left of Sounder, but that's a ways off. It's got a playlist here also.

[Image ID: Joel, a young man with longer black hair and a short jacket with a broken heart emblem, stares forward with a shocked expression. A white moth has landed on his left eye, covering it. Curled around him is Echo, a translucent white ghostly figure with long hair and a hole where its heart should be. Handwritten text at the top of the image reads "Haunt Me Then." End ID]

Echo is angry. Echo is a spirit of vengeance. Echo is something like the shed skin that Sounder left behind when sie died. Echo's character archetype is Moth Maiden, and it was brought back unwillingly by the moon and is making it everyone else's problem. One of the very first things it does once it begins to exist is kill Joel (somewhat accidentally -- it intended to hurt him, certainly, but Joel was on a journey to the underworld at the time under the condition that touching the water would kill him; its a long story)(you can read the story at the link, credit to @courfeyracs-swordcane , joel's creator, who wrote the story in question).

[Image ID in alt text].

This post is getting pretty long so I won't get too into the Echo relationship dynamics with the rest of the cast (we call them Theseus collectively/as a ship name because they're all dead and different people now. Ship of Theseus kinda blorbos). CJ (Joel after he becomes the Cataract Squire) becomes the Underhill King and Echo is not remotely normal about this. Laevis (who is split into two pieces at the time, Mori and Wolf; it's another Long Story) ascends to a kind of godhood as Hati.

[Image ID: another gorgeous art piece by @lovelandfrogman i received as an artfight attack!!!! The image displays three panels in a descending diagonal from left to right. The first is an image of Sounder and Joel against a backdrop of trees, holding hands and singing together. The second is an image of Echo and Joel against a foggy background. Echo is behind Joel and holding his shoulders; they both seem visibly distressed. Joel is wearing Sounder's necklace. In the final image, Echo, following by moths, holds CJ from behind against a backdrop of the lake. They look tired but somewhat hopeful, and CJ is wearing Sounder's necklace. End ID]

I'm currently working on writing a piece about how Echo becomes Ariel (pt2)(the ouroboros eats its own tail), so I'll probably yell about that later when I get to it, and this post has gotten long enough. If you've gotten this far into the post I love you thank you for reading about my little guy Sounder sleepaway. sie's so important to me <3

I'll leave you with the art Teddy @courfeyracs-swordcane drew me for my birthday of Echo and CJ because it's stunning and I want to put it in here even though I didn't really properly get into the Echo/CJ dynamic (they have a deeply complicated relationship where CJ is wracked with guilt over technically causing Sounder's death and Echo's entire Existence, and Echo hates him for taking the throne of the fae king that cursed Sounder and for the aforementioned Causing Sounder's death, and is fiercely in denial about wanted to be close to them again. They have sex about it. They're almost okay after a few hundred years of this.)(<- from echo's art fight page).

[Image ID: hella good art by @courfeyracs-swordcane of Echo and CJ. Echo is seated side-saddle on a horse and is wearing a flowing white dress and a pink flower crown. It is leaning down towards CJ, who is looking up at it with a scared and hopeful expression on his face. CJ is wearing a jacket over a white binder and ripped jeans, as well as greaves, wrist armor, and a gorget. He has a sword tied to his belt. The background is a forest scene filled with small pink flowers with mountains visible in the background. End ID.]

[tinyabbey]

See you next summer!☀️

(PCs from a motw campaign I run! currently on hiatus but had to draw em for artfight teehee)

[ranseiuniter]

i have so many fun tabletop games that I get from my lgs (which is where I just interviewed, in fact. that employee discount is gonna be dangerous) so like if u ever want someone who will indulge u and play a non-d&d ttrpg with you. i gotchu.

[s-che]

Queen of the Moon is publicly available!

hey folks! the big new version Queen of the Moon, my game about queer kids surviving in a city that hates them, is available on itch right now. I also threw in some new community copies to celebrate.

Queen of the Moon is a gmless belonging outside belonging game, a hack of Sleepaway, about how the world hurts kids and the things they do to make it. There are five protagonist playbooks from the intellectual and otherworldly BUG BOY to the athletic and overworked ACE to the awe-inspiring TYRANT BEE, capturing kids in all their diversity. There are also three miserable setting elements (the glamorous BIG BRIGHT BEAUTIFUL WORLD, the surreal NEVER-NEVER, and the frightening MEN WITH GUNS) and a collection of magic rituals for capturing special moments like first kisses, summoning ghosts, and running away from home.

I'm really fucking proud of it. Go take a look. And thanks, as always, to supporters of my patreon, who got their hands on this game a month ago and make all of this possible.