F A Q

Why not charge money? People in economic precarity need the togetherness and good times of conversational games more than anybody. We have only ever been tempted to charge to bust up the notion “ah since it’s free it must be bad”. (This is known as cost placebo, or the Giffen effect).


Where’s that Hounds of Order painting from? It’s a landscape of Azuchi Castle, destroyed in 1582. The artist’s name is lost to history.


Is St. Disma a real saint? It’s the old-fashioned French form of Saint Dismas, the good thief.


Cash is tight right now – any other way I can support? Word of mouth is a massive help. If you tried one of our games and liked it, it would mean a lot if you passed it along in your scene or even shouted us out on social.


What’s up with [game mechanic]? It’s probably less stupid than you think. Maybe. We have a whole page on our design rationale and principles here.


How dare you make a tabletop game about hip hop? We know the human mind prefers what’s familiar, but we can’t not point out that every playtester we had complain specifically that we weren’t running a European fantasy game are also eager to tell you how much it sucks the hobby is so dominated by white dudes. Food for thought.


Why don’t your games have maps? Maps, even fictional ones, are banned in many US prisons and jails.


Did you bite that one 2019 show when you were making Illadelph? No, Illadelph goes back way before that (proof). It was based off a game one of us ran about a bizarre, genre-mashing version of their own city starting in 2008.


How come we haven’t seen you around the usual spaces? Mostly because we’re trying to introduce new people to the hobby, so you’re more likely to find us slinging literature at a basement show than paying $1000 for a table at a convention. We looked into doing light promo with some industry figures, but the major reviewers we found presented themselves as genuinely interested in new indie games and then asked for money to give reviews. Fucking gross dude.