Old Men Running The World

Author: Jim Rossignol

  • On AGON

    Jim’s note: a version of this article appeared on the TEETH RPG newsletter. As I see other games created with this system the more convinced I am of its genius. However, I am aware that has earned significantly less fanfare than Blades In The Dark, despite sort of being the game which really proves that the designer of both systems, John Harper, is a wizard. I can both understand this (the fantasy and reality of the game is somehow less commanding) but also find myself disappointed by it, because it’s a fantastic experience that I got a great deal out of. Creating a game that hacks this system is well up my list of things to do in TTRPGs.

    So yes, rewind back to the summer of 2020, and The Catfail Club (our Tuesday night group formed in the shadow of Covid) are playing AGON, hosted by Failbetter’s Chris Gardiner.

    AGON is a game of Greek myth and legend, but it is, more abstractly and, arguably more importantly, a co-operative game about Who Is Best.

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  • THE ZONE: Surreal Play-To-Lose Horror RPG (is quite good)

    It’s been a Zone Of Alienation time of year as the computer game people enjoy their lovely STALKER 2. But what about those of us who prefer the soft friction of paper, the frisson of GMless role-playing and/or digitially simulated boardgame interfaces? Eh? What about us? Well,the answer came up over on the TEETH Discord. There is actually a Stalker RPG, which I own but have never played, but there’s also THE ZONE. And I have played that, and even wrote about it.

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  • The Most Romantic Thing (On The RPG-mediated search for Experiential Validation)

    A version of this essay was originally published in the TEETH RPG Newsletter.

    A former girlfriend once asked me what I thought the most romantic thing was. Blindly missing the prompt to say something cute, I mused that the most romantic thing would be to die leaving a vast unpublished catalogue of complex and near-indecipherable work for your heirs to discover, so that you became both an enigma to those who knew you and an out-of-time legend whose eccentricities echoed down the ages, like Diderot. She looked at me in a way that suggested that she did not think this was the most romantic thing, which perhaps goes some small way to explaining how that whole situation did not persist. But the important thing is that while I am not casting myself as Diderot exactly, I am likely to leave behind a vast catalogue of near-indecipherable work if anyone remembers to look through the leftover chaos of folders, notebooks and documents once I croak my last. 

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  • Trophy Gold: A Review

    Let Me Take You To One Side And Bend Your Ear About The Fine Role-playing Game Called Trophy Gold.

    A version of this article was originally published on the TEETH RPG newsletter.

    Trophy Gold, by Jesse Ross, is the game that I am most regularly recommending TTRPG people read and play. It’s not what I thought it would be, while also somehow being exactly what I wanted. A complicated feeling! But it scratches quite a profound itch. 

    In the space of the following sentences, I shall try to explain.

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  • An Interview with Jesse Ross, Creator of Trophy Gold

    Gold, GOLD! Etc.

    A version of this interview originally appeared in the TEETH RPG newsletter.

    In this article Jim talked to Jesse Ross, who was the creator of one of our favourite experiences in the past year, Trophy Gold. This is an excellent grimdark horror RPG which in turn is builds on Ross’ success with the horror one-shot machine of Trophy Dark. Go back and have a read if you want some context for what all the fuss is about. Or better still, play a few games of the Trophy games, we are fairly certain you won’t regret it.

    Anyway, here’s a (very slightly edited) transcript of the correspondence between myself and Mr Ross. (And, fwiw, we’re now very excited about forthcoming The Piper’s Call…)

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