5 Weird Little Games

Publisher: Ghostly Rituals5 weird little games by Lucian Kahn:
Astrology From Hell
Mews Cruise
If I Were A Lich, Man
Stoner Droner
Same Bat Time, Same Bat Mitzvah

* * *
Astrology From Hell
a 15-minute ritual game about self-definition
with images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public domain digital collection
 
FORM:
Players: 2 – 8
Time: 15 minutes
Setting: Hell. (What is Hell? Play to find out…maybe.)
Combines well with a session of: lyric games, ritual games, house larps, freeforms.
 
The group will need:
A quiet room where nothing else is happening, with a place to sit in the center (a table and chairs works best), and enough space to spread out into the corners.
A candle, placed in the center of the room.
Each player will need their own:
matchbook:
You will be striking matches at (approximately) the same time in different parts of the room, so you will each need your own striking surface.

 
CONTENT:
Astrology From Hell is a 15-minute ritual game about using the creativity of self-definition to endure a hostile world. The game is anti-essentialist and rejects the idea that our personalities are determined at birth by the stars. Instead, it suggests an approach for dismantling and repurposing the insights and aesthetics of astrology to suit your individual needs. This is also a metaphor for gender and sexual orientation.
You can play Astrology From Hell on its own, or as a warm-up or wind-down game to open or close an evening of games. Astrology From Hell pairs well with lyric games, ritual games, house larps, and freeforms. 
This game feels like a short ritual with 4 steps and an anticlimactic ending – similar in pacing to the Jewish Shabbat ritual of saying prayers over candles, wine, and bread. This game is different from most roleplaying games, in that the goal isn’t to sink deeply into detailed creation of character, setting, or story. Instead, it will begin and end quickly, with brief gestures toward larger ideas. The experience itself may feel understated at the time but sow the seeds for later thought. Just like a prayer.
You can play this game as an entirely fictional roleplaying game, an embodied philosophical exercise, a magic ritual, or a combo. Similarly, you can play this game in the role of a fictional character, as yourself, or as some blend of both. By design, it is unnecessary for all players to approach the game with the same attitude or beliefs. Astrology From Hell encourages you to form your own individual conclusions after the experience.
 
GAME JAM:
Astrology From Hell was designed for Fraudulent Gays Jam in December 2019 – January 2020. Some uptight gamers on twitter accused some streamers and game designers of being #FraudulentGays for attention, so creative folks turned it into a pro-queer meme. Astrology from Hell encourages fraud.
* * *

Mews Cruise

Cats love to sit on suitcases, but where do they go on vacation??? Mews Cruise is a game you play with your cat and a canvas bag to learn about kitty dream voyages. 
Players:
1 human and 1 cat
Materials:
* a canvas bag or suitcase, larger than the cat
* various stuff to pack in the suitcase
Time:
1 week to 1 month, durational
In honor of chonky cat memes, all cats in this game use the pronoun “himb.”

* * *

If I Were a Lich, Man

Liches are Jewish-coded villains. If I Were a Lich, Man is a one-hour freeform tabletop RPG about a community meeting of liches. The meeting’s agenda has two points of debate: the fate of our phylacteries and our struggle against the lawful good paladins. Liches’ phylacteries (spooky artifacts containing our souls and preserving our undead existence) are based on Jews’ phylacteries (small boxes containing scripture, traditionally wrapped around our arms and heads during prayer). Today, we identify with liches, we fear and resist our oppressors, and like true Jews, we debate our rituals. 
If I Were a Lich, Man was written by a gay, trans Jew in New York City in 2019, about the rise of anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence in the United States. (This is not an allegory about Middle East land battles or nation states.) The paladins, who are heroes in games like Dungeons & Dragons, here represent the present-day horrors of white nationalism, Christian hegemony, and the danger of the US government to its marginalized inhabitants.
4 players
1 hour

* * *

Stoner Droner

You are all members of an enormous queer polycule that spans the world. You are all dating each other. 
You live in a big city. A drone corporation controls most of the city’s wealth. Marijuana delivery is big business. The air is buzzing with weed delivery drones. 
Today’s just like every other day. You’re getting ready to steal one. You are a Stoner Droner.
(This game requires hitting dice with pipe-cleaners.)
3-6 players

* * *

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Mitzvah

200 word RPG challenge finalist 2018!
A short LARP about a vampire accident.
7-13 players
1 hour

Price: $15.00
Go to Source