Thanks so much Tyler!!

Nostos is a super cool TTRPG & ought to be funded by now! If you like the weird fiction moon-hopping of Realis, Nostos is like a classical lit island-hopping cousin. Check out the blurb I wrote based on the game's ARC, and pledge the campaign while you still can! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hon...

Hi you all should back this for a variety of reasons including it looks like so much fun but most importantly because I want to hold the beautiful hard copy of it in my grubby little hands one day

Nostos a tabletop roleplaying game about sailing home and saying goodbye.

Nostos is almost halfway funded!! Thanks so much to all the backers who have pledged to bring this project to life, and if you haven't already, please check out the kickstarter and see if this game is for you!

Nostos a tabletop roleplaying game about sailing home and saying goodbye.

Hey hey: historian/game designer/Why We Roll alum Dr. Erica Bridges has launched her very cool post-apocalypse/new world/JRPG/Roman philosophy game, Nostos! @ericabridgesphd.bsky.social

Go back it, please!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/hon...

Nostos a tabletop roleplaying game about sailing home and saying goodbye.

If you'd like to learn more about Nostos, check out our kickstarter campaign, live now!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hon...

At the same time, none of these prompts dictate WHY each of these things happen. A “story about your old life” could be comedic, tragic, sorrowful, sympathetic, etc.

It's all about balance: provide enough specifics to evoke the world AND enough leeway for players to fill in their own gaps.

Each of these prompts is grounded in a concrete action – players are never confused over whether they’ve “actually done” the thing they’re trying to do. Leaving something behind is a totally clear action, as is taking a quiet moment to reminisce.

"You take a quiet moment to reminisce after something reminds you of the past."

"You tell someone a story about your old life."

"You leave something from your old life behind."

"You make a toast or commemoration to something or someone long gone."

Let’s take a look at a Conflict and how it evokes that:

Here are some of the RP prompts in the Conflict “Thinking About The Past”, which is about grieving over and fixating on what’s gone and can never come back.

So, how do you adjust those dials? My approach in designing Nostos’ Conflicts was to keep focus on the “What” of an action and leave the “How” and, most importantly, “Why” to be determined during play.

Define the action, and let the players discover the emotions behind it.

When deployed not so well, you end up with designs where the player feels constrained, unable to sync up events at the table with the rules of the game.

And if your prompt has too little specificity, then it’s probably so nebulous that either it’ll be too easy or nigh impossible to hit.

When deployed well, these kinds of prompts direct players to take actions that align with a game’s design ethos. The best PbtA games do this, forcing players to make choices that evoke genre conventions.

Now, there’s a really important and potential tricky design decision to make when designing prompts like this:

Specificity.

Role-play prompts live and die by their specificity. The more exacting your prompt is, the more it restricts a player’s choices and actions.

A Conflict is a set of Role-play prompts that share a common emotional thread.

When their Ship approaches a new Island, each player picks a Conflict for their character to grapple with. Whenever you hit a prompt, check it off – check off three, and you "close out" that Conflict.

We’re at the end of Week 1 of the Nostos Kickstarter!

Jumping off of that, I thought I’d talk about one of the game’s central mechanics: Conflicts.

Extremely flattered to hear — and serendipitous, since I'm literally running session 1 of an Inevitable campaign tonight!

gogogo! erica is a sharp and inventive voice in rpgs, ride the wave and back nostos today!

I was lucky enough to get an early read of this and it's fantastic! Definitely a campaign to check out.

Nostos a tabletop roleplaying game about sailing home and saying goodbye.

Hey, so you should back this really amazing game.
Get in on the ground floor - like all of us smart folks.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hon...

Nostos a tabletop roleplaying game about sailing home and saying goodbye.

I’m honored to say this designer, Erica Bridges, is part of the Chicago playtest cohort I organize, and she literally can’t stop making some of the smartest games I’ve ever read and played. Don’t miss Nostos.

Nostos a tabletop roleplaying game about sailing home and saying goodbye.

The Kickstarter campaign for Nostos is live!!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hon...

Cover image for HIT! The Blackjack-Powered Space Heist TTRPG. Two silhouettes flee, pursued by a third figure, in front of a futuristic city skyline.

A teaser poster for Nostos, a TTRPG coming to Kickstarter in early April. Impressionist stormclouds thunder over a roiling sea. Caption text reads "Let's find a way home" above the central word, "Nostos". Illustration by Kaysha Siemens.

I'm Erica, designer of HIT!, a blackjack-powered heist zine about idiot space criminals. I'm also launching a Kickstarter for my TTRPG Nostos next week!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hon...

honeycupgames.itch.io

Realis Kickstarter: April 1-30, 2026. A squat frog person smokes a cigar in a sci-fi airport while their berserker companion looks at them with bemused disapproval.

Realis—the debut TTRPG by @austinwalker.bsky.social—arrives this Wednesday, April 1 (no foolin') in a Kickstarter campaign that will run til the end of the month! Bookmark the pre-launch page today to get notified when it goes live: www.kickstarter.com/projects/cru... | featured art by @aurahack.ca

A group of people playing tabletop games in the the meeting room at the Logan Square branch of the Chicago Public Library.

Thanks for everyone who came out to the mini-con today!

I hope you all had a blast. Look forward to more events like this in the future!

Diabolic Dialect Kickstarter Launch Trailer YouTube video by StoryGamesChicago

We’re in our final three days! Join the Kickstarter and you too can experience the wacky, fun spells of Diabolic Dialect at your table!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/sto...

Danse Macabre ☉ The Danse Macabre Rulebook by The Stillfleet Studio Survival & Madness in a World Beyond Death ☉ A Dark Historical Fantasy TTRPG

Danse Macabre: Medieval Horror Roleplaying by @timespace.place is now live on @itch.io!
stillfleet.itch.io/danse-macabr...

If you missed the campaign, you can still add the PDFs to your library.

We’re in the last two weeks now!

Watch the trailer and come checkout the Kickstarter!

There’s still a few earlybird bundles if you and a few friends wanna get the zine for a steal!!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/sto...

We're very excited that friend-of-the-studio @ericabridgesphd.bsky.social is launching her first game, Nostos, which we highlighted on Why We Roll with @timespace.place
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

Nostos is a post-apoc odyssey inspired by philosophy, Star Trek, and JRPGs. Check it out!

"Realis by Austin Walker on Kickstarter April 2026" is layered over a science-fantasy image of four adventures.

Realis—the moon-hopping TTRPG by @austinwalker.bsky.social—lands on Kickstarter April 2026! Featuring 55 classes, 150+ NPCs, 100+ illustrations, expanded GM & homebrew guidance, and much more, bookmark the campaign today at: www.kickstarter.com/projects/cru... | teaser art: @decassette.bsky.social