AUGUST 4, 2024

by Keaira

<aside> 🔖 This is my contribution to Autocratik’s event happening during the month of August aimed to talk more about the hobby of table top roleplaying games.

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Even if I try to lie to myself that I pick games based on some other criteria, the amount of books I ordered because of their visuals makes probably for a good half of my collection. They, of course, have other virtues, but good design gets me every time. It is an art form after all. This is weirdly in conflict with my favourite way of actually playing those games - theatre of mind without any fancy VTTs - but about that on some other day, maybe. Today is all about art.

Picking one book has been very difficult, because of the volume of beauty on the pages of RPGs I’ve collected. From the dark comic book style of Spire through green magic of Vaesen all the way to the disturbing pastel palette horror of Solemn Vale. But today I will talk about momatoes, her talent and her two gorgeous games Arc: Doom and The Magus.

In Arc: Doom the theme is apocalypse hanging over the story, as the sword of Damocles, and a real-time clock measures the time untill it happens, adding a sense of urge. While the concept is interesting and the gameplay, that I unfortunately have yet to try, sounds intriguing - supported with published adventures in many different settings, a discord bot for a doom clock and a pile of prompt tables - the stunning art is what sets this game apart for me.

That said, I am looking into running the free adventure The Summer Blooms that brings fairy tales and whimsy of a kingdom full of talking flowers and animals together with much darker themes. Because - not to forget - there is an apocalypse due and heroes have to stop it.

But I will talk more about a different game, one that I actually played, enjoyed and that stands out for its design as well: The Magus.

The art in The Magus uses various works of classical paintings, changing them, playing with them, using multiple different fonts in combinations and thus creating a weird and disturbing design, that supports the theme of the game. The game is currently reworked, after successful Kickstarter for a print version.

The Magus is a solo journaling game. These rarely catch my attention due to the lack of patience I possess. However, somehow, thanks to the engaging series of prompts that really held my imagination in a whirl, I was not able to stop playing, rolling on different spells and bonds, then sacrificing the bonds for more power and I finished the story about a witch, that wanted nothing but to do good and ended up, spoilers, almost destroying the world. The journal of my gameplay is here: Wings of a Butterfly.

In this game, you play a Magus, the Wizard of the Lonely Tower, using dice to move forward in an event list and to pick prompts, which are many (with supplement adding even more possibilities for replayability). There are seven events to go through - spells or bonds - and they are influencing your control over the magic. And sooner or later, it will end in a calamity. Power always comes with a sacrifice, as you will soon understand, as well as the loneliness. Infinite loneliness of power…

All works of momatoes are beautiful and full of creativity, I recommend checking out her itch.