bookrastinating.com

Kevin

Went to Lone Star Zine fest this weekend. There was so much there that I got a little overwhelmed.

I had the intent of searching out specific creators who align with my specific interests.

Instead, I got out of my comfort zone and engaged with creators of all different stripes. That was worth it even if I had walked away with no zines!

Here's what I came away with. I had to reign myself in because I actually wanted to buy one thing from each person.

#zine #LonestarZineFest #SoloRPG

Went to Lone Star Zine fest this weekend. There was so much there that I got a little overwhelmed.

I had the intent of searching out specific creators who align with my specific interests.

Instead, I got out of my comfort zone and engaged with creators of all different stripes. That was worth it even if I had walked away with no zines!

Here's what I came away with. I had to reign myself in because I actually wanted to buy one thing from each person.

#zine #LonestarZineFest #SoloRPG

Void 1680 AM: A solo playlist building game
Cultivating Our Political Gardens: Politicization and protagonization
Kaiju Haiku 1: haiku and illustrated monsters
My Brother(s) & Me: Trauma & Loss: "A zine on a fleeting moment of grief"
Post-Op Androgyne: The author's spiritual experience after getting bottom surgery
Roxy Gets Her Punk On!: Comic about a girl who gets introduced to her local punk scene
The Raven Vervain Archive 1: poetry & prose. she said "I'm proud of this one"
Mew.: love and the author's cat
The Camcorder Diary: stills from the author's camcorder taken from around Austin & Ontario
Free Free Palestine: Free zine about the ongoing genocide
Depression Diaries: writing, poetry, art about the author's depression
Scavengers: solo boardgame with rpg elements

Notebook V2.1:
* Motif oracle, selectable dice labels
* Note taking
* Game dice roller
* View + export to text, md, html
* Robust saves + autosave
* PDF viewer
All you need for #SoloRPG or #TTRPG play notes.

Use it: https://thoughtpunks.com/motif-notebook/
Download it: https://github.com/ThoughtPoliceRev/MotifNotebook

Screenshot of the Motif Oracle Notebook. Shows a text entry field for rolling that says "Swinging my sword at the groin of the billionaire" with a roll button next to it. Below that are selectors for number and type of dice, plus dice modifier. Below that it shows roll results.

Screen of the Motif Oracle Notebook webapp. "Motif Oracle Notebook" at the top with session management buttons underneath. Below that a tabbed notebook style website with main tabs for Notebook, Print Preview, PDF Viewer, and About. In the main area that are further subtabs for notes and a game dice roller with a solo RPG oracle dice roller showing with a field to ask a question above. Results show below along with a text record.

Screenshot of the Motif Oracle Notebook showing the PDF Viewer tab with a PDF open to the cover of the TTRPG "The Happiest Apocalypse On Earth".

Jonas reviewed The Ink That Bleeds by Paul Czege

Paul Czege: The Ink That Bleeds (Paperback, Half Meme Press)

A zine about bleed, immersion, writing to find out, self care, and the landscape of …

Playing journaling games with your subconscious

5 stars

The Ink That Bleeds is a fine zine about playing solo rpgs/ journaling game in a way that allows your subconscious lots of input. Paul Czege does a great job at telling how he arrived at this play style, explaining his thoughts on and analysis of it, and giving examples from his actual plays of various journaling games. The zine has a beautiful cover, a clean layout, and a nice feel to it.

The subtitle "how to play immersive journaling games" might be interpreted that Paul describes THE way to play these solo games immersively, but I'm not sure that's an interpretation he would agree with. I'm no expert at immersion, but I think other ways to immersive journal gaming experiences are possible.

That speculation aside, this zine is an introduction to a play style that sounds very interesting. Paul describes a stance and techniques that invite participation …

The Ink That Bleeds is a fine zine about playing solo rpgs/ journaling game in a way that allows your subconscious lots of input. Paul Czege does a great job at telling how he arrived at this play style, explaining his thoughts on and analysis of it, and giving examples from his actual plays of various journaling games. The zine has a beautiful cover, a clean layout, and a nice feel to it.

The subtitle "how to play immersive journaling games" might be interpreted that Paul describes THE way to play these solo games immersively, but I'm not sure that's an interpretation he would agree with. I'm no expert at immersion, but I think other ways to immersive journal gaming experiences are possible.

That speculation aside, this zine is an introduction to a play style that sounds very interesting. Paul describes a stance and techniques that invite participation of your subconscious. I assume that even with practice, the outcome might partly have the surreal quality of dreams that don't adhere to the logical or narrative standards we're taught to expect, but that rather make sense at a deep, personal level that may need getting used to.

However, I totally want to try it out. Now I just need to find more time for journal gaming! #solorpg #ttrpg #journalgaming #sologaming #journalinggame

Hari

Hey mastodon, would you like to see this promo I made for my new book while I was extremely tired?

-
It’s a small publisher so it feels like a lot of promotion is up to me, and I’m sure this is what they imagined and wanted.

anyway this is (somehow) my job and I'm genuinely very proud of the book, so boosts always appreciated

More info at https://www.hari-illustration.com/into-the-tower
#ChooseYourOwnAdventure #ttrpg #soloRPG #gamebook #FantasyBooks #Bookstodon #QueerBooks

Hey mastodon, would you like to see this promo I made for my new book while I was extremely tired?

-
It’s a small publisher so it feels like a lot of promotion is up to me, and I’m sure this is what they imagined and wanted.

anyway this is (somehow) my job and I'm genuinely very proud of the book, so boosts always appreciated

More info at https://www.hari-illustration.com/into-the-tower
#ChooseYourOwnAdventure #ttrpg #soloRPG #gamebook #FantasyBooks #Bookstodon #QueerBooks

Beside an image of a book called 'into the dungeon' with a classic fantasy vibe cross-section of a dungeon on it: "This other, smaller choose-your-own style book which makes sense if you think about it" followed by a crappy screenshot of it having a 4.5 star rating and another screenshot of the word 'good' from a review.

"COMES ANOTHER THING: INTO THE TOWER"
The cover of the book "into the tower, a choose your own path book by Hari Conner". From a high angle, a very wizardly-looking tower towers over a medeival-looking stone city in the mountains. A big jagged crack full an amalgam of colourful, magical-looking weird stuff splits the tower like lightning.

There are some more photos of the book itself and a wee crop of some of the options ('try to run past the creature - turn to page 75.') Over the top, more vaguely ugly text reads:
Queer
Large
book shape
like a tabletop game but you don't need experience or friends
- art (this drawing by @toadlett but there are tons of artists and they are so good)
- masquerade ball fantasy heist
- meet Creatures
-betray everyone
-topple government
-die horribly but not always (wow just like dnd)
(in huge letters) Into the Tower
out next week. but it where you get books. thank you

a very goofy graphic with a sort of 00s wordart energy with pictures of Hari's art.
Text, most of it in silly colours and bad fonts, reads: "From the creator of GAY WEBCOMICS" over some pictures of Hari's gay webcomics,

"whom you may remember from classic internet hits such as (in huge letters) DRAWINGS... D&D comics with my name cropped off..."