Hi there gang.

I've been thinking about TTRPS as a concept for a few months, since before 2025. I seriously enjoy games that are simple and generate a story, as I imagine that a lot of writers here on itch do.

TTRPS is incredibly simple and the first page stands on its own as a complete game. When I finished though, I thought about how the formula can apply to a lot of systems that have win/lose/draw scenarios. The narrative of a game developer, or myself, writing a game and then realizing that the game doesn't work for their intended audience came naturally - most of my friends are not local, so I have to worry about them when I think about game design. 

The spiral out of control came from my desire to find weird edge cases where this formula can apply - the math of creating win/lose/draw scenarios is a lot of fun. I especially like the greater rules for TTTTT. Tic Tac Toe is a solved game, sufficiently knowledgable players will draw every time. Creating a catch for that scenario where a forced win condition based off of tile selection makes the game more interesting. I haven't play tested the game much - but I'd love to see how the gameplay shakes out for that one.

2025, with the election and the following executive orders, has caused me a lot of anxiety. I stopped writing all together. That's not entirely true, I was actually writing a lot, but it was mostly to friends and family, and then to congress people and senators, trying to do my best in a bad situation. I burnt out when I reached out to someone that was having a hard time and their reaction was to attack me for privately inquiring if they were okay. The guilt I felt for not being able to continue was immense - I was supporting a lot of people, and the fear that if I'm not there for them they will disappear is still immense.

I was having a conversation with a friend where I mentioned that I struggle with showing people things I'm working on and then never completing the project. I was specifically thinking of TTRPS, in that moment. It felt very trivial when I talked about it. The premise is very silly, and I am a very silly person, but I was thinking about why I wanted to write at all. I love telling stories, and playing games, and all of the Game-Mastering I do is very weird and wild but deal with concepts of injustice and holding on to each other. TTRPS was already a narrative-based game but I hadn't thought of a conclusion.

So I wrote one that felt important to me.

Thank you to Sarah for encouraging me to write & thank you to River for inspiring me to love TTRPGs, and thank you both for making the stories we tell matter. Here's to telling many, many more.

- Hex "goddamn" Ripley