che!

@s-che

bearded woman, grad student, game designer, mostly in that order. writing about religion, play, conspiracies. pay my rent @

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che!@s-che· 11d

once a year I remember I like to write games. REVOLUTION 177X is a super-super-early prototype about resource management, contradictory philosophy, and bourgeois revolt. I've bee thinking about it a lot this year because of, you know, whatever reason.

che!@s-che· Jun 27

"streetwear"

che!@s-che· Jun 13

a single comic panel, captioned "TYPHON IS NEARLY BURNED TO DEATH." below, a lion-headed man wearing a crown spits fire at a collapsing figure in a yellow shirt (and maybe a bubble helmet?).
speech bubble: "HA-HA!"

che!@s-che· Jun 9

che!@s-che· May 2

good to know, thanks

Online Ordination: How It Works

Technically you cannot receive ordination "online" because ordination takes place in the spiritual realm when you answer the Call

che!@s-che· Nov 13

this fishlike creature, featured on ben franklin’s coat of arms and the university of pennsylvania logo, is theoretically a dolphin.

a fishlike creature which does not look very much like a dolphin

franklin’s arms, featuring aforementioned fishlike creature

the upenn crest. once again: the creature is here.

che!@s-che· Sep 30

hmm

archive of our own page showing a list of 3 results for fanfiction involving Émile Durkheim

che!@s-che· Sep 27

ashcan of DEAD INTERNET THEORY, my ttrpg about time travel and how online is a world-ending cognitohazard is now available anywhere you support my patreon. www.patreon.com/posts/dead-i...

several clowns. four are green. four are pink. one is purple.

che!@s-che· Aug 3

starting a phd in three and a half weeks (aaaaaaaa) and i know no better way to celebrate than resurrecting the dream library book club. come read/play/discuss REALIS with us. discord.gg/hVC756XGSd

The Realis cover art, featuring moons and strange windows into other worlds, bug-eyes, castles, illuminated faces, skulls, mustachioed men, and the title of the game in capitals.

"AN INTRODUCTION TO REALIS," a two-page spread from game.

che!@s-che· Jul 9

wrote about last week's Game Changer, games that have other games inside of them, and the joy of using machines to break things from the inside out. also a tiny peek at DEAD INTERNET THEORY, the game i'm working on now.

Talking to a friend about this, I described the episode as Game Changer at its most “gamefull” — a term I mean pretty literally, as in “full of games.” Each of the smallest pieces of the episode (individual rules, prompts, etc.) can be looked at as a little game in its own right, held together by metagames: spinning the wheel, the scoreboard, and so on. The pleasure of playing — or observing — this kind of “game of games” could be called procedural, in that players and observers alike can take joy in the technical intersection of distinct routines, which crash together, swap inputs, and recontextualize each other. The simplicity of each individual game — “NO CURSING,” “WEARING A HUGE COWBOY HAT” — means you can hold any part of the thing easily in your head, but as the venn diagrams of games begin to overlap and the space not affected by one rule or another begins to shrink, it’s the iterative, recombinative process where the game really sings.

If the game doesn’t already exist to your satisfaction, perform game design by:

picking at least one end condition
* the game will end when all players but one are dead
* the game will end when a player scores exactly 21
* the game will end when the curtains draw
* the game will end another way
picking at least one platform
* the game will be played via language, perhaps using email or another symbolic medium
* the game will be played via the material world, perhaps using a rubber ball or another physical object
* the game will be played via another game, perhaps using minecraft or dead internet theory
* the game will be played somewhere else
picking at least one rule
* players always escalate
* players never say the same thing twice
* game actions are always replicated in the real world
* another rule which will always affect they game

Write down your game for posterity, and give it the trigger “When you decide to play ___.” Now play your game.

che!@s-che· Jul 1

she's so girlypop

saruman the white, lord of isengard, master of the council of the wise, surrounded by sparkling hearts and cartoon daisies. in something like 144p.

che!@s-che· May 2

game design

Text from a PBTA-style move: "When you draw fanart, make it sloppy. Wear your heart on your sleeve about it! Or be super cool and ironic. Either way -- send it to someone when you're done. Or -- better yet! Send it to them before you're done. Cash out on their approval before you've finished the thing, and then never finish it at all. Come up with a ship!
I'm not writing bespoke guidelines for a fic. They're the same as art dw about it.
If you send the art to your fellow players, it becomes a (1)..."

shitty mspaint art. A figure with red hair, holding a sword and a severed hand talks to a figure with pink hair and a book. One of them may be saying "the weirdest part of this is theres no capitalism" but it's kind of hard to tell. In the background, a light green figure has collapsed on a green landscape. the caption reads: "i'm literally dying of cancer and yall arebeing gross teenagers!!"

A hot air balloon against a red sunset -- the slow death of a star. Also drawn in mspaint.

a cartoon of a kid blasting off into space edited so that they have the face of a mole. hot air balloons in the background. the text on their cellphone reads "parliamentary democracy is the way of the futuree"

che!@s-che· Apr 30

i did this to myself

the first page of an rpg. Under a section titled "Walkthrough" two narratorial voices each warn you not to trust the other. Under "0.1.1 INSTALL AND SETUP" a list of materials: the rulebook, playing cards, index cards, scissors, tape, paper clips, pens and markers

che!@s-che· Feb 7

this month we're continuing the pastoral party with @riseupcomus.bsky.social's osr game of hobbit nonsense UNDER HILL, BY WATER. already played one session and loved it. if you want to get in on that discussion or the next two weeks of one-shots, well, come on in. discord.gg/hVC756XGSd

che!@s-che· Feb 7

last month my #ttrpg book club kicked off a springtime full of fairies by spending a month with @megueyb.bsky.social and @lumpley.bsky.social's UNDER HOLLOW HILLS. i wrote some thoughts about playing it and also why we play games at all. www.patreon.com/posts/dream-...

A quote from the linked article: "Why bother, then? Why create something special and set aside--and necessarily limiting and restrictive--when those limits are only given substance by our abiding by them? Why create social structures? Why play games?

Well, in the case of that last one: because they're fun. Because effective ritual is effective. It has an effect. In the case of a game, that effect is fun."

che!@s-che· Jan 27

go birds

"The 'harsh and uproarious welcome,' the Public Ledger noted. 'entirely demoralized those in charge of the show." For a Harper's Weekly reporter, the Philadelphians seemed "to be moved rather by the desire to celebrate than to celebrate any particular thing.'" Gary Nash, "First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory"

che!@s-che· Dec 6

don’t worry, it’s really not that complicated

che!@s-che· Nov 22

hey. i'm che. i'm a trans game designer & grad student in religious studies. i write rpgs about queerness, religion, and nostalgia & also academic papers about queerness, religion, and nostalgia. i also run a monthly virtual games book club out of a space called THE DREAM LIBRARY.

the thumbnail for QUEEN OF THE MOON. the background is dark blue. 2/3 of a yellow crescent moon with a face takes up most of the frame.

thumbnail for THE BOOK OF 13 HOURS. the title (orange) is printed in all caps on a cream background. a purple hand holding playing cards — a spades flush — reaches up from the left border

thumbnail for [ three dudes go bowling ]. three anthropomorphic bowling pins are superimposed on top of themselves in blue, pink, and black. one has a mustache, one has glasses, one is fat.

che!@s-che· Oct 1

this month, the Dream Library's rpg book club is digging into Bluebeard's Bride as we continue our unit on intimacy & monstrosity in #ttrpgs. we're recruiting for our first play session tomorrow, come join! discord.gg/hVC756XGSd

che!@s-che· Aug 22

gotta be real, this is a weird one! patreon supporters at $3 or more get to play around with two prototypes of parasitic journaling games, A CALAMITOUS COINCIDENCE and THE ALCHEMIST. #ttrpgs www.patreon.com/posts/parasi...

che!@s-che· Aug 17

this game rules

che!@s-che· Jul 26

threat maps r good

che!@s-che· Jul 19

good morning folks. new article about how every game is a map-making game is up now for patreon backers. come cancel me for design takes i had in middle school. www.patreon.com/posts/two-vi...

che!@s-che· Jul 15

over on tumblr i am talking about playing a one shot of APOCALYPSE WORLD, why you should not play a one shot of APOCALYPSE WORLD, and why APOCALYPSE WORLD is one of the greatest rpgs of all time www.tumblr.com/che-bur-ashk...