Good afternoon, Jay would like to know if you would have an email for me to send you a proposal for licensing your games for translation into Portuguese?
if at the beginning of a session the lindworm makes itself known and expresses a desire to play is the lindworm also prohibited from roleplaying the lindworm
If the Lindworm makes itself known and wants to play I recommend you stop playing Sleepaway and instead run. If you choose to continue playing Sleepaway, the Lindworm is not forbidden because it wouldn't be roleplaying. Thank you for asking this question I've been waiting forever for it 💕
Kickstarted this and didn't regret it. After only a few sessions my table formed profound bonds between our characters and the campers they protected, and felt genuine fear with each reveal. The book itself is beautiful and well presented.
I've only played online, but crave the in person experience it offers.
This sounds awesome. I want to play this online with my friends soon, too. May I ask how you folks managed to do the secret card-rearranging and card-shuffling involved in the game? Did you use Roll20, or some other online playing card service?
We used Roll20, and it was fairly clumsy, but mostly because half the table wasn't really computer savvy and the interface confused them. We had to rebuild the deck more than once after we saw some duplicates pop up, but eventually we got the hang of it and it worked out pretty well. (I mean, as well as any game where you're being hunted by a horrible creature doing horrible things to children.)
Glad to hear that! My favorite RPG hosting platform (Role) is going to be entering open beta very soon, and I highly recommend using that instead. (I only didn't recommend it earlier because it's been closed to the public)
Is there a way to keep in touch or communicate interest for a reprint on a soft copy? Looking to see if there's anything coming down the pipeline, though @Jay you're probably busy with the current Kickstarter. Congrats on the success! :)
Aww, thank you much! Indie Press Revolutions is handling distribution right now and I just sent them another 100 copies - I'll tweet about it once they're back in stock!
Unfortunately, Sleepaway doesn't have Roll20 compatible character sheets at the moment. My recommendation is to set up a doc within roll20 where you can take notes and write things down. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, the Offseason supplement is really useful on this front.
I've been putting together a google spreadsheet for a run I'm facilitating in July if you're interested. It has the disadvantage of requiring a second tab be open besides Roll20, but I've entered all the playbook and setting element info in so that you don't need to jump between it and the pdf
i'm sorry, how the hell do you play this game????? i'm so confused. never done a tabletop game before, so that might be the issue, but i've read through everything and i have no fucking clue how to start this.
Hi! You're gonna want a group of friends (in person or online) to start, and then you want to make characters and pretend to be them for a few hours, following the instructions as they're laid out in Part 1 of the book. Please let me know if you have any more specific questions and I'd be happy to help.
Hi!
I would like to run some sessions of Sleepaway with friends this summer. We are new to Belonging Outside Belonging games, and we mostly play with the Fate Core System.
I’ve read the book but can’t exactly figure how to play (probably because I always played with more hierarchized systems). Do you have ressources to help learning how to play? Also, what advices would you give to help us learn smoothly this system and this RPG in particular?
Hi! If the Sleepaway rules text is a particular challenge, I also recommend the rules text for Dream Askew/Dream Apart, which is built for people new to GMless games and approaches the entire topic really compassionately and helps guide you through. Because BOB is so new, it can often be hard to find guides floating around online. If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to help!
I'm going to be facilitating this over on the gauntlet in July and I wanted to check about a quick rules question. When the Lindwurm acts, are the cards that are not picked by the player channeling the Lindwurm placed back on top of the deck, discarded, or something else entirely?
Inventive, deeply unsettling GMless horror TTRPG about trying to survive a summer camp stalked by a nightmarish monster. The prompts strike an impressive balance between strong characterisation, poetic worldbuilding, eerie rituals and terrifying incidents. It also has a fun approach to describing gender, and a real commitment to using safety tools to maximise enjoyment of the game. 5/5 stars - outstanding.
I'm continually amazed and in awe reading this book. I had read BoB games before but none captured such a grasp of the genre like this. It's an amazing game in every way a game can be, emulating counseullor playbooks both in the realistic versions of them and how they would apply to a fantasy world.
hello! i downloaded this and the offseason pdf today, and am very eager to dig into it with some friends soon - no complaints there! i did, however, have a question regarding some strange playbooks that were mentioned, specifically the moth maiden and cataract squire ones that were suggested to bring back a dead player character. they're not part of either pdf, so where can i find these, if anywhere?
its not an urgent issue since we will most likely play a oneshot first. thank you in advance either way!!
Hi! The Moth Maiden and the Cataract Squire were in the limited-edition version (in hindsight I shouldnt've mentioned them in the main text) but I plan to release them (and the other supplemental content) in the next couple of months as part of an expansion!
Hey Jay, I don’t have twitter so didn’t know how else to get in touch. Quick question on Sleepaway. I was looking to pick up a physical copy but not in a hurry as I likely won’t get it to the table for a while anyway. I’m really interested in the mechanics of the game and wondered if the physical copy’s came with a PDF I could start reading.
Hi! Yes it does - the physical copy automatically gives you download access to the PDF. If you want to play Sleepaway online, I also recommend checking out the free Offseason expansion!
Hi Steve, the original playtests of this game, and the vast majority of the times it's been played by myself, were online! I strongly recommend using Roll20 for that - it's easy to set up a deck of cards and a map on there.
1. Give everyone a facedown card from the roll20 deck. Everyone adds theirs to their hand, looks at their own personally, and then puts it back in the deck.
2. Everyone closes their eyes in REAL LIFE, someone moves the card around, then taps on their mic to indicate they're done.
Jay is a game design luminary who expertly layers emotional insight, real occult ritual, human nature, dreamy mythology, and traumatic existential horror into a play experience that somehow manages to be both more ethereal and more tactical than any other tabletop game out there.
It's also, y'know, literally haunted by its own monster, so there's that, too.
Unlike most indie story games, this is a chonky book with a lot to digest, with a gorgeous, easy-to-read layout, and evocative art that matches the lonely, tortured tone of the game. It's easy enough to jump into for a one shot without much prep other than gathering materials, but I think it really shines in the format of a short campaign of 1-3 sessions.
Hi! This looks incredibly cool and is blowing me away, but there's a couple questions I have about some mechanics/procedures. Is this the best place to ask them?
Hey! Sorry for the wait - I found a way to schedule a game of Sleepaway with some friends so I thought I'd try it first! Btw, we had a blast and I'm in love with the game. A couple questions:
- When rituals ask you to destroy a Minor Character card, we assumed that the character dies in the process. Is this correct, or could poor Maximilian have survived?
- On that note, the progession of NPC deaths (animals > adults > campers)only applied to the lindworm's cards, right? or must it be respected in all other circumstances as well? For example, in our Crossing the Waves ritual it made sense for one of the campers to be a stowaway on our boat, so his was the card we sacrificed. No animals or adult npc had been killed so far. Was this correct?
- During the rituals, we kept roleplaying as normal, but we were only using the ritual's available moves, and we were driving play towards those. Is this the correct way to play them? (I initially thought they may play a bit more turn-based, like a minigame in The King Is Dead, but we found a more natural flow)
Other questions I had became clearer in play.
I also spotted a couple typos/oversights, would it be helpful to flag them?
Also, there's a handout/ref sheet that we prepared on the fly (with pen and paper) that would be useful to play the game - would a suggestion on that be welcome?
Hi, that's so great to hear! Thank you for your patience from my reply. In order:
It's entirely your call as to whether the minor character lived or died. I've performed rituals where it meant death, but I've also performed rituals where it meant that the individual in question was disconnected from the camp spirit, or in one case it turned out they were the vessel of the Lindworm!
Yeah, that was correct. When in doubt, trust your own gut over the book.
Yeah, that's sick! I've played it both ways. Whatever feels more natural for your group.
And you're welcome to send me typos/oversights (preferably in private messages) and I'll see what can be done, but I'm actively working on distributing physical copies, so they might not get corrected. I'd love to see what sheet you made.
Hi Jay! Sorry for the long wait for a reply. Thanks for the answers, all very useful. Re:typos, I see the game is getting printed already, but if you think you may, for example, want to update the pdf I can send you a list of what i found via DM.
Re: the play aids we made, it was a sheet helping us remember the available rituals. It gave us the ritual's name, what is it meant to do/feel/convey, and the starting ritual phrase. Given this was a oneshot, it helped us remember that rituals were a part of the game, and remember what specific rituals may serve the scene and how to start them - otherwise we feared we may forget.
In hindsight, I think having the exact same thing for the Setting Elements (maybe 4 columns with name, themes, "pick up when" and "put down when) would have been very useful, too.
Ours was a sheet scribbled in pencil, nothing nice I'm afraid - but I'd definitely say it helped us play and made the game more approachable/accessible.
Genuinely brilliant, and a game no one else could have made. Horrific and heartwarming and deeply weird, it's like all the best parts of Stephen King's "IT" and none of the chaff. A highlight of Big Bad Con 2019.
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Good afternoon, Jay would like to know if you would have an email for me to send you a proposal for licensing your games for translation into Portuguese?
Hi! Please reach out to main(@)possumcreekgames.com with more information!
if at the beginning of a session the lindworm makes itself known and expresses a desire to play is the lindworm also prohibited from roleplaying the lindworm
If the Lindworm makes itself known and wants to play I recommend you stop playing Sleepaway and instead run. If you choose to continue playing Sleepaway, the Lindworm is not forbidden because it wouldn't be roleplaying. Thank you for asking this question I've been waiting forever for it 💕
Kickstarted this and didn't regret it. After only a few sessions my table formed profound bonds between our characters and the campers they protected, and felt genuine fear with each reveal. The book itself is beautiful and well presented.
I've only played online, but crave the in person experience it offers.
This sounds awesome. I want to play this online with my friends soon, too. May I ask how you folks managed to do the secret card-rearranging and card-shuffling involved in the game? Did you use Roll20, or some other online playing card service?
I use Roll20, although anything that can simulate a deck of cards will work well. The Offseason supplement has a ton of tips for that.
We used Roll20, and it was fairly clumsy, but mostly because half the table wasn't really computer savvy and the interface confused them. We had to rebuild the deck more than once after we saw some duplicates pop up, but eventually we got the hang of it and it worked out pretty well. (I mean, as well as any game where you're being hunted by a horrible creature doing horrible things to children.)
Glad to hear that! My favorite RPG hosting platform (Role) is going to be entering open beta very soon, and I highly recommend using that instead. (I only didn't recommend it earlier because it's been closed to the public)
Is there a way to keep in touch or communicate interest for a reprint on a soft copy? Looking to see if there's anything coming down the pipeline, though @Jay you're probably busy with the current Kickstarter. Congrats on the success! :)
Aww, thank you much! Indie Press Revolutions is handling distribution right now and I just sent them another 100 copies - I'll tweet about it once they're back in stock!
I'm also interested in a physical copy, thanks!
They're for sale at Indie Press Revolution! Follow the link above!
This has to be the most wholesome roleplaying game out there, reading the characters creation made my day, it’s just so heart warming. Love your game!
the link for the chromatic chimera stream is dead, it shows an unavailable page.
I never attended a summer camp as a kid, but reading through this game I feel like I did. It’s evocative and inspiring and I can’t wait to play it!
Is it still possible to buy a physical copy of Sleepaway? I have the pdf, but I'd really love to have a book I can take with me and show people.
Yes! Physical copies are for sale at Indie Press Revolutions by following the link above!
Have I become entirely untethered from reality??
Where is this link?
Okay NO nevermind I found it linked in that image BUT it says it's out of stock! Are you ever planning on printing more?
Oh damn! I actually did print more and it arrived at IPR a couple days ago, so they should have more stock really soon.
O:
Cue me refreshing the IPR page every fifteen minutes for the foreseeable future.
EDIT: They restocked baybee!!
Is there any character sheet template you'd recommend using for playing Sleepaway on Roll20?
Unfortunately, Sleepaway doesn't have Roll20 compatible character sheets at the moment. My recommendation is to set up a doc within roll20 where you can take notes and write things down. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, the Offseason supplement is really useful on this front.
This is very useful! Thank you!!
I've been putting together a google spreadsheet for a run I'm facilitating in July if you're interested. It has the disadvantage of requiring a second tab be open besides Roll20, but I've entered all the playbook and setting element info in so that you don't need to jump between it and the pdf
Hey, I'm trying to get a game going with some friends. Would you mind sharing the google spreadsheet with me?
Here, just choose to make a copy to your google drive. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wWpqFL-9xPNsDuSNLgVXtz_lUHhRTwglJVTC6F5u...
That is awesome, thank you so much!
This is great! Thank you, sir!
Absolutely phenomenal resource! Thanks so much!
i'm sorry, how the hell do you play this game????? i'm so confused. never done a tabletop game before, so that might be the issue, but i've read through everything and i have no fucking clue how to start this.
Hi! You're gonna want a group of friends (in person or online) to start, and then you want to make characters and pretend to be them for a few hours, following the instructions as they're laid out in Part 1 of the book. Please let me know if you have any more specific questions and I'd be happy to help.
oh wow i don't remember posting this comment, i must have been drunk. i apologize. thank you ;_;
Hi! I would like to run some sessions of Sleepaway with friends this summer. We are new to Belonging Outside Belonging games, and we mostly play with the Fate Core System.
I’ve read the book but can’t exactly figure how to play (probably because I always played with more hierarchized systems). Do you have ressources to help learning how to play? Also, what advices would you give to help us learn smoothly this system and this RPG in particular?
Hi! If the Sleepaway rules text is a particular challenge, I also recommend the rules text for Dream Askew/Dream Apart, which is built for people new to GMless games and approaches the entire topic really compassionately and helps guide you through. Because BOB is so new, it can often be hard to find guides floating around online. If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to help!
Thanks! I’ll try to read those c:
I'm going to be facilitating this over on the gauntlet in July and I wanted to check about a quick rules question. When the Lindwurm acts, are the cards that are not picked by the player channeling the Lindwurm placed back on top of the deck, discarded, or something else entirely?
Put them on the bottom!
Inventive, deeply unsettling GMless horror TTRPG about trying to survive a summer camp stalked by a nightmarish monster. The prompts strike an impressive balance between strong characterisation, poetic worldbuilding, eerie rituals and terrifying incidents. It also has a fun approach to describing gender, and a real commitment to using safety tools to maximise enjoyment of the game. 5/5 stars - outstanding.
I'm continually amazed and in awe reading this book. I had read BoB games before but none captured such a grasp of the genre like this. It's an amazing game in every way a game can be, emulating counseullor playbooks both in the realistic versions of them and how they would apply to a fantasy world.
I cannot wait to play this awesome game!
hello! i downloaded this and the offseason pdf today, and am very eager to dig into it with some friends soon - no complaints there! i did, however, have a question regarding some strange playbooks that were mentioned, specifically the moth maiden and cataract squire ones that were suggested to bring back a dead player character. they're not part of either pdf, so where can i find these, if anywhere?
its not an urgent issue since we will most likely play a oneshot first. thank you in advance either way!!
Hi! The Moth Maiden and the Cataract Squire were in the limited-edition version (in hindsight I shouldnt've mentioned them in the main text) but I plan to release them (and the other supplemental content) in the next couple of months as part of an expansion!
thank you for letting me know!! i'll look forward to it then :-)
Hey Jay, I don’t have twitter so didn’t know how else to get in touch. Quick question on Sleepaway. I was looking to pick up a physical copy but not in a hurry as I likely won’t get it to the table for a while anyway. I’m really interested in the mechanics of the game and wondered if the physical copy’s came with a PDF I could start reading.
Hi! Yes it does - the physical copy automatically gives you download access to the PDF. If you want to play Sleepaway online, I also recommend checking out the free Offseason expansion!
This looks great, Jay. How easy have you found playing this online?
Hi Steve, the original playtests of this game, and the vast majority of the times it's been played by myself, were online! I strongly recommend using Roll20 for that - it's easy to set up a deck of cards and a map on there.
Brilliant. It looks really good. I'm looking forward to it!
Oh this is great stuff. When you play online, how do you handle these two situations:
1. Selecting a player to act for the Lindworm for the session
2. Drawing and distributing a card when the players invite the Lindworm to act.
Hi, so! Here's how I handled both of those:
1. Give everyone a facedown card from the roll20 deck. Everyone adds theirs to their hand, looks at their own personally, and then puts it back in the deck.
2. Everyone closes their eyes in REAL LIFE, someone moves the card around, then taps on their mic to indicate they're done.
I'm gonna try to write up an online guide soon!
Jay is a game design luminary who expertly layers emotional insight, real occult ritual, human nature, dreamy mythology, and traumatic existential horror into a play experience that somehow manages to be both more ethereal and more tactical than any other tabletop game out there.
It's also, y'know, literally haunted by its own monster, so there's that, too.Unlike most indie story games, this is a chonky book with a lot to digest, with a gorgeous, easy-to-read layout, and evocative art that matches the lonely, tortured tone of the game. It's easy enough to jump into for a one shot without much prep other than gathering materials, but I think it really shines in the format of a short campaign of 1-3 sessions.
Hi! This looks incredibly cool and is blowing me away, but there's a couple questions I have about some mechanics/procedures. Is this the best place to ask them?
Sure, absolutely! You can also privately message me on Twitter at @jdragsky.
Hey! Sorry for the wait - I found a way to schedule a game of Sleepaway with some friends so I thought I'd try it first! Btw, we had a blast and I'm in love with the game. A couple questions:
- When rituals ask you to destroy a Minor Character card, we assumed that the character dies in the process. Is this correct, or could poor Maximilian have survived?
- On that note, the progession of NPC deaths (animals > adults > campers)only applied to the lindworm's cards, right? or must it be respected in all other circumstances as well? For example, in our Crossing the Waves ritual it made sense for one of the campers to be a stowaway on our boat, so his was the card we sacrificed. No animals or adult npc had been killed so far. Was this correct?
- During the rituals, we kept roleplaying as normal, but we were only using the ritual's available moves, and we were driving play towards those. Is this the correct way to play them? (I initially thought they may play a bit more turn-based, like a minigame in The King Is Dead, but we found a more natural flow)
Other questions I had became clearer in play.
I also spotted a couple typos/oversights, would it be helpful to flag them?
Also, there's a handout/ref sheet that we prepared on the fly (with pen and paper) that would be useful to play the game - would a suggestion on that be welcome?
Hi, that's so great to hear! Thank you for your patience from my reply. In order:
And you're welcome to send me typos/oversights (preferably in private messages) and I'll see what can be done, but I'm actively working on distributing physical copies, so they might not get corrected. I'd love to see what sheet you made.
Hi Jay! Sorry for the long wait for a reply. Thanks for the answers, all very useful. Re:typos, I see the game is getting printed already, but if you think you may, for example, want to update the pdf I can send you a list of what i found via DM.
Re: the play aids we made, it was a sheet helping us remember the available rituals. It gave us the ritual's name, what is it meant to do/feel/convey, and the starting ritual phrase. Given this was a oneshot, it helped us remember that rituals were a part of the game, and remember what specific rituals may serve the scene and how to start them - otherwise we feared we may forget.
In hindsight, I think having the exact same thing for the Setting Elements (maybe 4 columns with name, themes, "pick up when" and "put down when) would have been very useful, too.
Ours was a sheet scribbled in pencil, nothing nice I'm afraid - but I'd definitely say it helped us play and made the game more approachable/accessible.
This sounds great, would you be able to share a link?
Ping!
Genuinely brilliant, and a game no one else could have made. Horrific and heartwarming and deeply weird, it's like all the best parts of Stephen King's "IT" and none of the chaff. A highlight of Big Bad Con 2019.