City of Adventure Alphabet Letters List, Weird Game, Paid Subscription?, and more!
More previews of City of Adventure Alphabet, a new game, more findings, and secret stuff!
Weird Tales from the Old Skull
Ok! Substasck is evil! I am gonna try this thing now, as I want to offer paid subscription with some cool features in the near future (access to drafts, monthly game nights, discounted PDFs, occasional mail with RPG stuff).
There is always going to be free stuff, and free previews, and news, and discoveries, like I do with my usual posts in the newsletter. The paid subscriber stuff is all extra, for those who want to see everything, get a little peek behind the curtains, and want to support a weird creator of weird games!
Anyway…
City of Adventure Alphabet Letters List
Here’s the preliminary list of letters that I intend to produce for the City of Adventure Alphabet book. Will I write all of them? I don’t know. It feels a lot, but I am excited.
Got any suggestions for letters and things I can explore in this book? Please, let me know in the comments!
A is for Alleys - Draft written
A is also for Adventurers
A is also for Assassins
B is for Bizarre Bazaar - Draft written
B is also for Bandits
B is also for Bounties
B is also for Burroughs
C is also for Criminal Opportunities - Draft written
C is also for Churchs and Cults
C is also for Coins
C is also for Carousing
D is for Drugs - In progress
D is also for Docks
D is also for Diseases
E is for Entertainment
E us also do Evil Brewing
F is for Fountains
F is also for Festivities
G is for Guilds
G is also for Gardens
G is also for Government
G is also for Guards
H is for Houses
H is also for Heists
H is also for Hideouts
I is for Inns
I is also for Intrigue
J is for Jobs
J is also Justice
K is for Knights
K is also for Kitchens
L is for Lords and Ladies
L is also for Laws
M is for Merchants
M is also for Monuments
M is also for Map of the City
N is for Neighborhoods
N is also for Nightly Occurrences
O is for Opulance
P is for Politics
O is also for Otherworldly Presence
P is also for the Poor
P is also for Pleasures
P is also for Plazas
P is also for Petty Gods
P is also for Patrons
R is for Ruins
R is also for Rumors
S is for Superstitions
S is also for Streets
S is also for Secret Societies
T is for Traditions
T is also for Temples
T is also for Taxes
T is also for Trash
U is for Underground
V is for Vagabonds and Vandals
V is also for Visitors
V is also for Vendors in the Streets
W is for Walls
W is also for Weather
X is for Xenophobic Bastards
X is for Xenomorphic Inhabitants
Y is for the Young
Y is also for the Years
Z is for the Zoo and other Animals
Weird Game for Weirder People
I made a game inspired by my podcast, for my podcast. It’s called I am a WEIRDO because… and it’s a lot of fun!
It’s a party game about being your self, about authenticity, about acceptance, and about celebrating each one’s uniqueness. And, more importantly, it is a lot of fun!
Below you will find the current draft of the game’s text. I intend on fully releasing this game in the future (and paid subscribers - see below - will get this game), both in a very compact format, and maybe even in an actual small box, with everything you need to play! Anyway, check it out, and get weird!
I am a WEIRDO because…
A party game about authenticity, acceptance, and celebration of uniqueness!
By Diogo Nogueira
Introduction
Weird is the new wonderful! For too long weird has been seen as something to be avoided or shunned! Wonderful WEIRDOs of the world, unite!
I am a WEIRDO, because… is a party game about celebrating the WEIRDOs that we all are! It’s a game about being our shameless authentic selves, and enthusiastically accepting other like-hearted WEIRDOs!
The game happens as each WEIRDO shares something unique about themselves and the other participants either celebrate the WEIRDO’s uniqueness, or label them a normie! The most wonderful of all WEIRDOs wins and gets braggin rights for the rest of the night!
What Is Being a WEIRDO?
Being a WEIRDO is just being yourself. Really. Liking what you like. Doing what you do. Thinking what you think. But also respecting, accepting and even celebrating that others do those exact same things differently. Here’s a few things to keep in mind when being a WEIRDO.
Being a WEIRDO is being yourself, shamelessly and proudly.
It’s being curious! Curious about yourself, but also about others and the world.
It’s being thoughtful, caring, and accepting of other people’s uniqueness, while at the same time laughing at their own weirdness.
Being a WEIRDO is being the best person you can be for yourself and others.
What Do You Need to Play?
To play this game, you need very little!
2 to 8 WEIRDOs to play (that includes you).
Lots of tokens, about 10 per player. You can use beans, pennies, poker chips, or anything small and available. These will represent the Weird Points!
At least 1 six-sided dice.
Creativity, authenticity, a little bit of courage, and an open heart!
Playing the Game
The game can be played anywhere 2 to 8 WEIRDOs can hear each other, and around people everyone feels safe sharing their weirdness with.
The Weird Points are put at the center of the table, or anywhere within reach of all WEIRDOs.
When everyone is ready and comfortable the game can start!
The Weirdest WEIRDO Starts
The game starts with the weirdest WEIRDO among the players! How do you decide who is the weirdest WEIRDO? Figure it out! Vote on it, let it be self determined, or anything you can come up with.
1. They Say “I Am a WEIRDO Because…”
In turns (moving counter-clockwise just because it’s weirder), each WEIRDO says a phrase starting with “I am a WEIRDO because…” and completing it with some detail, curiosity, trait, experience, or anything authentic and cool they would like to share. If you need help with what to say, roll 1d6 and try to answer one of the questions below.
Can I Say Anything?
Yes, and no. We encourage you to be as authentic and enthusiastic about yourself as you can be, while also being kind and considerate to the other WEIRDOs at the table (and to other PEOPLE in general). This is not a game to share hatred of any kind. The use of Safety Tools is recommended (see below).
What If I Can’t Think of Anything to Say?
Just say “pass” and the game moves on to the next WEIRDO. All that happens is that you don’t get a chance to score this time, but won’t risk losing a point, and will have more time to think of something for the next turn.
2. The Other WEIRDOs React
After the statement “I am a WEIRDO because…” is made, the other WEIRDOs must react to it. They have 3 options!
“You WEIRDO!”: The WEIRDO shares something weird. They gain 1 Weird Point if their “weird thing” is something familiar to another WEIRDO in the game.
“You Wonderful WEIRDO!”: The WEIRDO shares something wonderfully weird. They gain 2 Weird Points if their “weird thing” is something no other WEIRDO in the game is familiar with!
“Nah, that’s Normie stuff…”: The group is not surprised, or amused by the “weird thing” shared, as it’s a normal, mundane thing anyone does. The WEIRDO loses 1 Weird Point.
The WOW Optional Rule!
A WEIRDO who believes a fellow WEIRDO’s statement to be too good, fun, or entertaining can donate some of their own points to that WEIRDO’s total.
Repeat Until the Wonderful WEIRDO Wins
Steps 1 and 2 are repeated indefinitely until a WEIRDO reaches 20 Weird Points. Now, the game will end at the end of the round. Whoever has the most Weird Points at the end of the game is declared a Wonderful WEIRDO and gets a sticker (you don’t have one? I am sure you can improvise something 😉).
Being a Good WEIRDO
Being a WEIRDO is all about being authentic, curious, empathetic, and accepting. It’s all about being respectful, kind, and an ally to everyone’s safety and comfort.
A good WEIRDO is unapologetic about what they love.
A good WEIRDO does their best not to offend other WEIRDOs.
A good WEIRDO treats other WEIRDOs with kindness and respect.
A good WEIRDO accepts other WEIRDOs, and is open to their weirdness.
Safety Tools
Considering how each WEIRDO can have their own unique perspective on what’s weird, what’s not, and what’s acceptable and what’s not, we encourage the use of safety tools when playing this game (especially Lines and Veils, Open Table, and After Care). For more on TTRPG Safety Tools, go to https://ttrpgsafetytoolkit.com.
Weird Discoveries
I keep posting some really cool stuff on Instagram (you should totally follow me there as well). Here are some of the highlights since my last post.
Heretic’s Guide to Dying Lands
Written by Paweł Kicman and with art by Vault Crawler this Mörk Borg zine is basically a setting toolkit for the game world! Inspired by the way Vaults Of Vaarn presents the setting as tools, this zine takes the setting elements from Mörk Borg’s book and expands it with tables, generators and more! Excellent stuff!
Wraithlands
Written by Leckie, and with art by Paul Jon Milne, this beautiful book is a complete TTRPG and a system neutral weird fantasy setting, all in one tome. Inspired by the Slaine comics, Celtic culture, sword and sorcery tales, heavy metal, and the myths of Scotland, this game brings some very cool elements to tour table, and look at that amazing art! With complete hexcrawl setting to explore!
Wulfwald
Written Lee Reynoldson, with art Francesco Accordi, and the cartography of the legendary Russ Nicholson, this RPG published by Lost Pages is a beautiful boxed set of an Anglo-Saxon mythology fantasy TTRPG. Inspired by old tales and the old-school renaissance, this game brings its own rules inspired the original game, and has 12 unique classes, it’s own weird and fascinating magic systems, monsters, and a lot more! And look at this cloth map! Beautiful!
Get Weird with WG&WP
I also keep having great weird and wonderful chats with incredible creators from the TTRPG sphere (go check out the podcast on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts). Here are a few great episodes since the last Newsletter!
Daniel Kwan
Daniel is a multi-ENnie Award winning Canadian podcaster, game designer, and cultural consultant. You might know him as the co-host and showrunner of the Asians Represent! podcast. As a freelance narrative designer, some of his notable works include Candlekeep Mysteries, the Ultimate Micro-RPG Guide, Avatar Legends, Dark Archive, and the Tian Xia series. As a cultural consultant, he has worked for companies like Dimension 20, Critical Role Productions, and Asmodee. As an independent game designer, Daniel has released products like Wicked Congregation, Ross Rifles, and the Chronicles of Spring & Autumn series. He is currently working on Wandering Blades, a wuxia game of violent melodrama in the style of old school TTRPGs.
Penny Melgarejo
Creative force of the dark pits of hell, Penny Melgarejo is an illustrator, tattooist and sometimes a writer of RPGs from Madrid, Spain, and his works in the RPG scene includes covers and several illustrations for Gallant Knight games, Necrotic gnome, Old skull publishing, exalted funeral, Blackoath entertainment and many more. He usually self publish underground fanzines and is the mind and hands behind the settings of Death&doom and Blackthrone.
Chris Airiau
Chris Airiau is a game writer in France who publishes modules for Mothership RPG, The Lost Bay, and Cloud Empress as 5 Million Worlds Press, and is soon to release their own transhuman space adventure game, 5 Million Worlds RPG: An Avatar's Primer. We talked about his work, his process, inspirations, and weird stories and experiences in our lives!
Paid Subscriptions - Weirdos’ Cool Club
Yes, the money talk. Ugh! I hate it too. Anyway, I need money to make cool stuff, to collab with cool weirdos, to have more time to do more of all that. But what would you get out of this “giving me money” thing? I am glad you asked!
The wonderful and weird Benefits of Becoming a member of the Weirdos’ Cool Club
First of all, you will be in good company! But seriously, not only you will be supporting me, as a creator, allowing me to do my work the best way I can, but you will also get some really cool things. There are 2 options of membership.
Weirdo (6 USD per month)
Access to the current draft of any personal project I am currently developing (right now that would be Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells 2E, the City of Adventure Alphabet, and the I am a WEIRDO because… party game).
Have their names or nicknames listed as “Weirdos” on a Supporters section on the personal projects developed here (like above, you know the ones).
50% discount on all the PDFs on projects developed through this platform (which includes the same list of projects I wrote on the above benefit), and access to text-only PDF versions of all the same projects.
Occasional extra posts where I share ideas, and thoughts I had about games and RPGs in a particular. Are they useful? I don’t know. You tell me. But I have some pretty cool ones, and you can be the first ones to hear about them!
Monthly Weirdos’ Cool Club Online Hangout, so we can talk to each other and get weird. We can talk about what we are working on, getting inspired by, thinking about, or anything really. It’s just great to hang out with fellow weirdos, right? The idea is to schedule a (at least) 1 hour hangout per month, but that can be extended if possible.
Wonderful Weirdo (12 USD per month)
All the stuff the Weirdo gets (see above), but they get a free PDF of all the projects I develop through this, instead of just 50% off, and they will have their names or nicknames listed as “Wonderful Weirdos” on a Supporters section on these same projects.
Monthly Weirdos’ Cool Club Online game night, so we can play weird games together. Normally this will never something I am working on, like a game, adventure or such. But it might be something I am really excited to try out too. This will probably be a 3 hour game per month, and will be something people have to sign up to if there’s a lot of demand, but I will always try to keep the players rotating.
Receive occasional Weird RPG Mail with small games, mini-adventures, stickers, or whatever I can come up with, and that I get to collaborate with someone! The first one will be the I am a WEIRDO because… party game!
Monthly original art giveaway! I will normally giveaway some piece of art produced during the month, but eventually I may giveaway some of my previous pieces! I will may it to you!
Special Offer (LIMITED TIME)
Whoever subscribes the first month, no matter to which of the paid tiers, will receive a copy of the I am a WEIRDO because… Party Game. This will be a full color A4is game pamphlet and it will come with a few “Wonderful Weirdo” stickers!
That’s All Wonderful Weirdos!
Thanks for reading Weird Tales from the Old Skull! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. And if you have any coins left from your latests adventures, please, consider contributing to this newsletter!
Thanks for reading Weird Tales from the Old Skull! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work, or become a paid member of the Weirdos’ Cool Club and get even more wonderfully weird stuff!
Keep it weird everybody! ;)