Favorites
Beach Episode by Emily Zhu
Do yourself a favor and read everything Em Zhu's written, but especially this one. Beach Episode is inserted into the middle of an ongoing tabletop campaign when the characters could use a break to rest and reflect on what they've been through.
Wanderhome by Jay Dragon
On the surface, it's about building landscapes and the travelogues of the animal people traveling within them; underneath that, it's about living in the shadow of recent war and tyranny, and how those things shape youβand how you refuse to let them. Really fun collective setting-building element.
The Luminary and The Sarcophagus by Geostatonary
In a genre liable toward going "wow, cool robot," these two playbooks help ground a story about mech warfare in questions about, well, the ethics of war and the military-industrial complex by providing respectively a genius engineer support character complicit in the weapons of all sides, and a weapon no one should ever use.
Sand in the Gutter by Victoria Cuervo and Coriander White
Searing, painful, and compassionate with smart and incisive mechanics; this is what I want to see from games that want to be about queerness. Isolated queer magic-users in a desolate near-future try to save who they can from their Texas town when war approaches.
Kenzie's Project by Stargazer Sasha
Terrifying, dizzying explorations in academia that hates you, where your closest relationships can help keep your shit together or tear you down better than anyone, and your driving obsession might just consume you. Built on the Nameless Engine (nameless engine my beloved)