ATTENTION: If you're a designer and you haven't seen anything from Bull Press, drop everything and start reading, NOW. Everything from these guys is jail compliant, free, and designed with the needs of the incarcerated in mind. All that, and they're incredible and have a lot to teach us. 🧵 - ThreadSky

200proofgames.bsky.social • 80 days ago

ATTENTION: If you're a designer and you haven't seen anything from Bull Press, drop everything and start reading, NOW. Everything from these guys is jail compliant, free, and designed with the needs of the incarcerated in mind. All that, and they're incredible and have a lot to teach us. 🧵

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hjaywatson.bsky.social•79 days ago

📌

raspberrywoof.bsky.social•79 days ago

📌

phrost.bsky.social•80 days ago

@eyeznteef.com this might be some game you want to research for conversations

eyeznteef.com•80 days ago

thanks! looks like a sweet mission. was there a particular game from their offerings that you wanted to call out?

phrost.bsky.social•80 days ago

No I just saw the thread and I was like "hmm I know someone who might be interested in this"

kithlis.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

sfxprb.bsky.social•79 days ago

Super happy to see someone with more reach in the RPG design community is talking about Bull Press. I got a chance to talk to and play a game with Oliver at Free RPG day at Redcaps Corner in Philly and we had a blast. Great people, great mission, great product.

sfxprb.bsky.social•79 days ago

They have a bunch of free pamphlet adventures as well as books.

friendly-ghost.bsky.social•79 days ago

Would be cool to hear exactly what the contraband rules (usually) are, especially if there's banned themes/ contents not just physicals.

200proofgames.bsky.social•79 days ago

Yeah, I was curious about that too - "juvenile content"

friendly-ghost.bsky.social•79 days ago

Yeah, thought that specific bit was more about getting bullied and drawing heat if you're there playing as care bears in public.

atomicovermind.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

200proofgames.bsky.social•80 days ago

I'm working through Illadelph right now, and what strikes me - besides the smooth, cool conversational style, besides the focus on The Conversation as the true game you're playing - is the TEACH. This is a game that genuinely does not expect that you have played ANY rpg before.

200proofgames.bsky.social•80 days ago

Bull Press does not even describe their work as rpgs. On the page I've linked, they call them "conversational games." I'm having a hard time disputing the wisdom and perspective of the decision. Non-solo games run on The Conversation, so why *not* make that the point of definition? But I digress.

200proofgames.bsky.social•80 days ago

This INCREDIBLE piece of Key Narrator advice is just one example. The book is full of guidance for narrators, delivered with confidence, backbone, and style. The setting is an alt-universe 1994 Philadelphia, introduced to the table with gorgeous scene-setting and BGM.

200proofgames.bsky.social•80 days ago

The first 31 pages of the book are dedicated to an adventure, which when read teaches the Narrator a lot of explicit and implicit lessons about their job at the table. Let me say that again: the BOOK. BEGINS. WITH AN ADVENTURE. And after that? More ideas for scenes, adventures, and continued play.

200proofgames.bsky.social•80 days ago

We designers are always thinking about the proper way to organize a game text. Do you begin with character classes? Character creation? Setting information? Basic mechanics? All of it's important, so what comes first?

These geniuses have decided to lead with the PROMISE.

200proofgames.bsky.social•80 days ago

From one design perspective, the most important thing about a game is that people actually play it and enjoy it when played. If we work from this perspective, we must ask what makes people play games BEFORE we ask what makes people enjoy them. The answer is the pitch, or the Promise.

sandypuggames.bsky.social•68 days ago

This is incredible, thank you for sharing, I've been looking for someone doing this exact work for years

200proofgames.bsky.social•68 days ago

Really!! I’m glad to have helped it get in front of you, then! We make a lot of noise about making the world a better place with art, but man. These guys actually do it

chaosmeister.bsky.social•80 days ago

📌

banalitybob.bsky.social•80 days ago

I'm just gonna casually forward this to a good friend who is a prison rec room director...

goblincow.bsky.social•79 days ago

Absolutely brilliant analysis here, I'm really excited to learn more about them now!

Thanks for writing this, what a joy. This is what it's all about!

200proofgames.bsky.social•79 days ago

Thanks for the kind words!!! I was just so excited when I discovered them earlier today, and I KNEW everyone else would be too once they found out.

goblincow.bsky.social•79 days ago

I literally shook my fist and shouted YES reading this.

It's so inspirational to see analog game designers who are 5, 10, 50 steps ahead because this is exactly a conversation I was having today (about what I want to be doing with design) with some local artists who make interactive installations.

200proofgames.bsky.social•79 days ago

Yeah, it reminds me of that thread about new games that said that a new game doesn't really *contribute* to the hobby itself the way it used to - us Posting in our Little Discords and Bskies doesn't exactly contribute in the same way it maybe did a few years ago. Field work is the next frontier

goblincow.bsky.social•79 days ago

Oh that's a good way of putting it.

I'm actually trying that out for the first time next week with a drop in/drop out taster session of Meanwhile, In The Subway and a grab bag of all sorts of little prompts/mechanics/ideas for a theatre christmas party.

Really curious how they'll respond!

200proofgames.bsky.social•79 days ago

Oh that is SWEET. Have you ever heard of or read By The Author of Lady Windermere's Fan, by chance??

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