Fictive Fun

My last post covered artifacts of gaming and how I love them as evidence of an ephemeral experience.  True to my word, I will be posting any artifacts from my TTRPG sessions here on the blog for my enjoyment. Here are some quick descriptions of the worlds created in Ben Robbins' In This World based on the topic of gardening: Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash Audrey 2: Red Roots - A world in which a magical curse made it impossible for plants to grow from the soil. They grow from the people instead.  The Last Harvest - In a dying galaxy, a convoy of generational ships follow the one ship with the last surviving fauna. Daunting Terra - Rampant progress in terraforming science leads to plants with no weaknesses and they are now used as a weapon of war. Flora Nova - Sentient plant species grow their children. They must be protected from the ravages of nature. And now some worlds based on the topic of music: Big Conch - Songs cannot be written but rather must be recorded...

This post is actually two different topics meshed into one post. The other day I got a chance to play In This World   (affiliate link) , a game by Ben Robbins. Ben is well known among indie game developers and players thanks to games like Microscope and Kingdom. In This World is on-brand for him as it is a game that focuses on collaborative world-building rather than characters. I would go as far to say that In This World feels more like brainstorming session rather than a game (I know definitions of the term "game" fluctuate and can be subjective so I won't delve any further here). As a quick take on this game I would say avoid it if you want to scratch the TTRPG itch that involves characters, scenes, combat, and/or story. However, definitely play this game if you want to get the creative brain juices flowing or enjoy worldbuilding games in general.  Unlike many other collaborative worldbuilding games, In This World focuses on a singular aspect of a world, like religi...