Return to Wonderland and more with Elizabeth Chaipraditkul and Steffie de Vaan
Posted on January 14, 2019 by Flames
Hi everyone,
We’re Elizabeth Chaipraditkul and Steffie de Vaan, and we wanted to tell you about our newly launched RPG Patreon. We’ve been active in the RPG industry for some years now. Liz was the lead developer for the Crescent Empire book for 7th Sea 2n Edition, author of the Book of Lore for Bluebeard’s Bride, and owns her own Indie company Angry Hamster Publishing which published Witch: Fated Souls. Steffie wrote for the Changeling the Lost 2nd Edition corebook, Beckett’s Jyhad Diary for Vampire: the Masquerade, and is the developer for Promethean: The Created and the upcoming Legendlore RPG. So you’d think we have lots of creative outlets. And we do. They’re just… still not enough. Hence our Patreon, to finally release our bottled ideas into the world.
We’re doing a limited run Patreon: 12 games over 12 months. Or possibly, as life sometimes gets in the way, 12 games over 15 months. But the 12 games is set in stone, and you will absolutely get those. We’re writing mini tabletop games, one-shot LARPs, and freestyle RPGs. Most of our games are in the horror and fantasy genre, though a later slated game ventures into cyberpunk. Our opening game is a dark sequel to Alice in Wonderland, set in 1879 after Alice and her fantastical friends fled Wonderland to escape a terrible tyrant–only to eventually admit they have to go back and set things right. You’ll see that theme of (re)claiming your power and destiny a lot of that in our games. A few games are more whimsical–expect unicorns guarding a magical realm, and kittens training to be witch familiars.
We’ve set up our Patreon so you support per game, and can choose which games to back. We do an announcement and two sneak previews (one public, one for Patrons at any level) every month. You pick and choose which games you want to support, and which to pass, based on that. We do hope you’ll join us for the full limited run, but that’s completely up to you.
We’ll leave you with this sneak of Return to Wonderland.
My story didn’t end the way you heard it. I never defeated the Queen of Hearts. I didn’t reach the end of the chess board. Instead, my friends and I fled to the world of mortals with our bodies scarred and minds broken. We abandoned Wonderland to bleed at the hands of a terrible tyrant.
No more.
We sit in the dark of our London apartment, as I blow out the candles on the birthday cake I baked myself. The cat hasn’t spoken since we arrived in the mortal world. The rabbit is lost in his clocks. We’re shadows of ourselves. And I proclaim: No More. It’s time we return to Wonderland.
Return to Wonderland uses a standard deck of cards as resolution system. Every suit represents a way to solve an obstacle, or, if you’re the GM, set up a challenge. Each character has a predetermined hand size, and a favorite suit.
– Hearts is the suit of Spirit. It represents friendship and enmity, resolve and fatalism. Hearts as an obstacle is a person whose alliance is murky, or a gloomy forest. The Caterpillar is a character of Hearts.
– Diamonds is the suit of Mind. It represents both immense cleverness, and foolishness. Riddles and logic puzzles are of the mind. Alice is a character of Diamonds.
– Clubs is the suit of Convey. It’s impressing enemies with your cleverness, rallying your companions with a speech, or telling undetectable lies. The Cheshire Cat is a character of Clubs.
– Spades is the suit of Absurdity, which you need to survive the Lands. Absurdness often represents as luck, such as finding just the right potion to shrink or grow. Playing croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos is also absurd. The Hatter is a character of Spades.
Sound good? Then give us a follow at Patreon.com/lizandsteffie
Tags | indie rpgs, rpgs