Watch Well Games #53
A dozen new games you want on your radar.
Hi there. I’m K.J.
DriveThruRPG's 4th annual game jam PocketQuest just wrapped up. Indie creators were given a theme (Dreams and Nightmares), two months, and a 25-page limit for their crafting their pocket adventures. Within the ranks of PQ game designers, you’ll find a mix of newcomers and industry veterans.
Today, I'm highlighting 12 of these games that just dropped this past Monday. If you’re in the market for something fresh and want to support indie creators, these are the games to add to your DTRPG cart right now.
Dream Job - CJ Weigel has been a guest writer here chatting about The Record of Lodoss War. CJ brings his A-game here with Dream Job’s clean layout and vintage aesthetics. The game is deserving of being a best-seller soon.
How many players: one (solo)
Genre(s): modern
Age range: teens, young adults, adults
Bottom line: “Manage your Savings and maintain Hope as you strive to find a job before rent is due! Journal your character's journey through random encounters, interviews, and difficult decisions.” Both the softcover book and PDF are available.
I Could Do This in My Sleep - “Painfully British cyberpunk RPG about sleep-hacking and armed resistance.” Zachary Elliott-Hatton already had me at “painfully British”, but then he had to add “cyberpunk” to his description. Lessgo!
How many players: 2 or more players
Genre(s): sci-fi
Age range: adults
Bottom line: “Powered by a flexible skill system and featuring a suite of equipment and worldbuilding prompts. Cybernetic implants keep the masses on their feet and working 16 hours a day, dead to the world around them. You’re one of the lucky ones. Sorta.” [Stay tuned for Zach's design essay in an upcoming newsletter.]
D.N.G.R. (Do Not Get Recognized) - “Light rules. Heavy dread.” OneShot TPK brings us both in D.N.G.R. The front cover is eye candy (pardon the pun), and I can’t wait to see what happens when “the Gaze turns upon you.” Eeek!
How many players: 3-5 players
Genre(s): horror, mystery, psychological thriller, sci-fi
Age range: young adults, adults
Bottom line: The game sounds like a great fit for those wanting creativity and adaptability. “You and your friends dive headfirst into each other’s dreams. Each one is a different world, built from your fears and imagination, and held together by a single secret rule of your design that can never be broken.” My only concerns: a lack of hyperlinks for easy navigation and light text on a dark background for readability/accessibility.
Insomnia: A Roleplaying Game For Sleepless Nights - New to the indie game scene, Steve Anderson’s debut has dropped, and it looks delightful. The game’s premise: “It's been days, even weeks, since you've slept. Waking and sleeping, dream and reality, are starting to blur together. Shadowy figures, staring eyes, whispering voices--all right out there in the waking world. Because you ARE awake... aren't you?”
How many players: 2 or more players
Genre(s): fantasy, horror, genre-agnostic
Age range: young adults, adults
Bottom line: A rules-lite, "weird horror" game about waking dreams. While there’s no preview currently on DTRPG, I feel confident this will be a fun one, because of the creator’s description: “a rules-lite roleplaying game about shared dreams, lucid dreams, and emergent storytelling.”
A Familiar Dream - jess ross and Jen Vaughn are long-time collaborators on multiple ttRPGs like Pugmire, D&D, and Brindlewood Bay. This is their first original game. The premise: “You are the Mage's Familiar. A creepy or crawly, furry or feathered work colleague of a magical, mystical person. Or you were until one day they didn't wake up. Your Mage is stuck dreaming, and it is up to you (and possibly some other Familiars) to save your Mage!”
How many players: one (solo); 2 or more players (group)
Genre(s): fantasy, horror
Age range: all ages, family-friendly
Bottom line: “It’s a narrative-first game of fantasy with some horror elements, using a d6 and d8.” Although I don't usually play GM-less games (because I love GMing!), this will be an exception I’m sure to enjoy.
Sweet Dreams - One of the top winners of Chaosium’s $10,000 BRP Design Challenge in 2024, Sam Robson sneaks in a PocketQuest entry before her award-winning Season of Magic goes to the playtesting and crowdfunding stages (both June and November of this year, respectively).
How many players: 2 or more players
Genre(s): action
Age range: all ages, family-friendly
Bottom line: “In this one-shot LUMEN ttrpg, up to four players take on the roles of heroic toys entering their child's dream to protect them from nightmares.” I sense Toy-Story-meets-Saving-Private-Ryan vibes, and I like it.
And Sometimes Nightmares - “A rules-lite, system-agnostic oneiric story-telling challenge” designed by newcomer Adam Alexander Baxter.
How many players: one (solo), two (one-to-one, aka duo), or 1-4 players +/- a GM (group)
Genre(s): adventure, dream narration, fantasy, horror
Age range: all ages, family-friendly
Bottom line: “Set your creativity free with this framework of simple rules ... The challenge of the game is to find the pattern of a story in these sparse details and to narrate your part to the other players. Together you create your dreams… and sometimes nightmares!”
Time of Dreams - “A dream-themed fantasy world-building RPG with improvisational magic.” It also has worldbuilding. Sign me up.
How many players: one (solo), 2 or more players (group)
Genre(s): fantasy
Age range: teens, young adults, adults
Bottom line: Less than a week since its release, Time of Dreams is already a Copper best-seller on DTRPG. Michael Augusteijn clearly knows how to create games folks like, and this one no doubt will please many of you.
Wakeside: What Dreams May Run - WatcherDM offers us a way to “play as dream agents sent to capture an escaped dream.” Intriguing hook, and I wonder what consequences await if we're unsuccessful in capturing the dream.
How many players: 2 or more players
Genre(s): genre agnostic
Age range: all ages, family-friendly
Bottom line: Agents…are dispatched to bring in Wakesiders from the Wakeside. What is a Wakesider? [F]ugitive dreams [that] slip into the WakeSide, threatening to collapse the veil between worlds. Using susceptible mortals known as Passages, they cheat the ancient boundaries between our realities. Their mere presence in the Wakeside threatens all human sanity.”
Come Out Wherever You Are - Quad Rat tempts me with this 10-word teaser: “one-page solo game about escaping a house of nightmares.” This sounds SO fun, and I can’t wait to dive in. “[P]lay an aspiring monster trying to escape from the Estate - a weird and twisted house, home to many whimsical and nightmarish inhabitants.”
How many players: one (solo)
Genre(s): adventure, horror, mystery
Age range: teens, young adults, adults
Bottom line: It’s a Pay What You Want offering, so you can pick this up for whatever fits your budget. Whatever price point you choose, please leave a kind review to further support the creator.
Dare2Dream - Warren Davidson has published his first official RPG ever, and I’m sharing it here to celebrate. The premise: “Create dreams in a sleeper's subconscious while confronting their nightmares… Players assume the role of a sleeper's subconscious thoughts [and] have a limited time to succeed as they fade back into the subconscious mind of the sleeper.”
How many players: 2 or more players
Genre(s): anything you can imagine - action, adventure, fantasy, mystery, noir, post-apoc, sci-fi, western
Age range: teens, young adults, adults
Bottom line: Although there’s no preview, I’ve seen the incoming artwork for the soon-to-be-released updated version. It’s only a dollar, so grabbing a copy now ensures you’ll have access to the newer edition once it’s ready.
Sleep Therapy - Random Wyvern Publishing brings me so much joy with this childlike game and its cute art. All of us who are still kids-at-heart will appreciate this 3-panel flipbook. Kublai has joined us before to discuss his other creations (also this).
How many players: one-to-one (aka duo), 2 or more players
Genre(s): genre agnostic
Age range: young adults, adults
Bottom line: Kublai has reassured me there is a Nightmare edition coming. Consider me first waiting in line, my friend.
…and yes, for the outro, I’ll mention the thing I made
Hate paying full price? Here’s a limited-time discount on Station 736: Where Dreams Come From so you can buy more PocketQuest games. Enjoy! (30% discount expires May 11th.)
Which of these PocketQuest games are you eager to play?
That’s a wrap! Join us next time for another round of quick-to-pick-up games from PocketQuest. And remember:
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter is about a hedgehog. You can read it and admire the cute artwork for free thanks to The Project Gutenberg.
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Thank you for sharing these games, I might try some