The Shab-al-Hiri Roach
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The Shab-al-Hiri Roach
''The Shab-al-Hiri Roach'' is a role-playing game by Jason Morningstar, independently published by Bully Pulpit Games. Description The game is GM-less and designed for single-session play at the end of which a winner is determined. Its tone is black comedy, lampooning academia. The game is about the internal politics of a buttoned-down New England college campus in 1919. The titular roach is a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization. A major part of play is which characters are under the control of the roach and its offspring. The goal of the game is to be the player with the most reputation at the end of the game. You cannot be the winner if you are currently under the control of the roach, but being under its control allows you to gain reputation much more easily. Publication history Jason Morningstar thought of the core ideas behind ''The Shab-al-Hiri Roach'' while thinking about both the topic of Lovecraftian horror and his own personal fear ...
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Jason Morningstar
Jason Morningstar is an American indie role-playing game designer, publishing mostly through Bully Pulpit Games. Morningstar's games often lack a Game Master and are often set in situations that quickly go unfortunately for the player characters. Grey Ranks (2007), for example, is about doomed child soldiers in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and ''Fiasco'' (2009) is about impulsive crooks pulling heists that are sure to go terribly wrong. With these two games, Morningstar became the only named person to have won the Diana Jones award twice as of 2013. Morningstar also works with academia and industry, consulting on using games for teaching and learning in education, with a focus on health sciences. Games Jason Morningstar's tabletop role-playing games tend to be GM-less and about things going badly, and published as Bully Pulpit Games. He has also contributed to supplements for GURPS and Trail of Cthulhu, a nano-game to ''#Feminism'', and several games about healthcare. The Shab-al- ...
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Bully Pulpit Games
Bully Pulpit Games, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a small publisher of indie role-playing games. History Their games include ''Fiasco (role-playing game), Fiasco'' and ''Star Crossed (game), Star Crossed''. The publisher is named for Bully pulpit, a phrase coined by Theodore Roosevelt. The site's logo includes a silhouette of the former President. Bully Pulpit Games is a part of the Bits and Mortar initiative. Games * ''Carolina Death Crawl'' * ''Durance (role-playing game), Durance'' * ''Fiasco (role-playing game), Fiasco'' - Winner, 2011 ''Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming'', Winner, Best Support, 2009 ''Indie RPG Awards'' * ''The Shab-al-Hiri Roach'' * ''Fiasco (role-playing game)#The Fiasco Companion, The Fiasco Companion'' - Fiasco Companion – RPGgeek Golden Geek 2012 Best Supplement * ''Grey Ranks (role-playing game), Grey Ranks'' - Joint Winner, 2008 ''Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming'', Winner, Innovation in a Role Playing Game and Indep ...
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1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Seán Hogan during the Irish War of Independence; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States throughout the entire decade; In 1927, Charles Lindbergh embarks on the first solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris on the Spirit of St. Louis; A crowd gathering on Wall Street after the 1929 stock market crash, which led to the Great Depression; Benito Mussolini and Fascist Blackshirts during the March on Rome in 1922; the People's Liberation Army attacking government defensive positions in Shandong, during the Chinese Civil War; The Women's suffrage campaign leads to numerous countries granting women the right to vote and be elected; Babe Ruth becomes the most famous baseball player of the time., 420px, thumb rect 1 1 298 178 Irish War of Independence rect 302 1 572 178 ...
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Academic
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and Skills, skill, north of Ancient Athens, Athens, Greece. Etymology The word comes from the ''Academy'' in ancient Greece, which derives from the Athenian hero, ''Akademos''. Outside the city walls of Athens, the Gymnasium (ancient Greece), gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning. The sacred space, dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, Athena, had formerly been an olive Grove (nature), grove, hence the expression "the groves of Academe". In these gardens, the philosopher Plato conversed with followers. Plato developed his sessions into a method of teaching philosophy and in 3 ...
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Black Comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction, for example, the term ''black comedy'' can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Popular themes of the genre include death, crime, poverty, suicide, war, violence, terrorism, discrimination, disease, racism, sexism, and human sexuality. Black comedy differs from both blue comedy—which focuses more on crude topics such as nudity, sex, and Body fluids—and from straightforward obscenity. Whereas the term ''black comedy'' is a relatively broad term covering humor relating to many serious subjects, ''gallows humor'' tends to be used more specifical ...
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Role-playing Game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal role-playing game system, system of rules and guidelines. There are several forms of role-playing games. The original form, sometimes called the tabletop role-playing game (TRPG), is conducted through discussion, whereas in live action role-playing game, live action role-playing (LARP), players physically perform their characters' actions.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique features: (a) The players physically embody their characters, and (b) the game takes place in a physica ...
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Indie Role-playing Game
An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside traditional, "mainstream" means. Varying definitions require that commercial, design, or conceptual elements of the game stay under the control of the creator, or that the game should just be produced outside a corporate environment. Independent publication of role-playing games Indie role-playing games (RPGs) can be self-published by one or a few people who themselves control all aspects of design, promotion and distribution of the game. An independent role-playing game publisher usually lacks the financial backing of large company. This has made forms of publishing other than the traditional three-tier model more desirable to the independent publisher. Formats Independent publishers may offer games only in digital format, only in print, or they may offer the same game in a variety of formats. Some major RPG publishers have abandoned PDF publication, probably as a counter-piracy effort. Common digital form ...
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Evil Hat Productions
Evil Hat Productions is a company that produces role-playing games and other tabletop games. Chief among them is the free indie RPG, ''Fate'', which has won numerous awards. History Fred Hicks had been working with Lydia Leong, Rob Donoghue, and others to run LARPs at AmberCon NorthWest starting in 1999, and came up with the name Evil Hat for themselves. While on a trip to Lake Tahoe, friends Hicks and Donoghue developed a new game based on a conversation about running another ''Amber'' game and fixing some problems with ''FUDGE''; the result was ''Fate'' which Hicks and Donoghue would publish under the name Evil Hat. Donoghue and Hicks released a complete first-edition of ''Fate'' through Yahoo! Groups (January 2003) then cleaned up the technical writing and slightly polished the system for a second edition (August 2003). Hicks and Donoghue began work on the licensed '' Dresden Files Roleplaying Game'' in 2004, but publication was held up because they decided to use ''Spir ...
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Game Chef
Game Chef was an annual American contest for role-playing game designers. History Jason Morningstar Jason Morningstar is an American indie role-playing game designer, publishing mostly through Bully Pulpit Games. Morningstar's games often lack a Game Master and are often set in situations that quickly go unfortunately for the player characters. ... submitted '' The Shab-al-Hiri Roach'' to the Game Chef 2005 competition, where it was chosen as one of the "Inner Circle" - the group of the nine best games from that year's 28 entrants. Morningstar also wrote '' Durance'' for the Game Chef 2011 competition. With time it evolved into a marketing event which created "national" editions, where small groups of players (generally connected to publishing micro-companies) assigned prizes to friends or game companies for which they worked. Game Chef ended in 2020 due to the low interest demonstrated by the RPG community. Trials to revive it were unsuccessful for the same reason. Reference ...
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Indie Press Revolution
Indie Press Revolution (also referred to as "IPR") is a sales network that acts as a fulfillment house for publishers of indie role-playing games. It was founded in 2004 by Ed Cha of Open World Press and Brennan Taylor of Galileo Games. IPR represents over 100 author/publishers involved in role-playing games. It offers games directly to the public and to game retailers. On June 17, 2010 DOJ, Inc. (which also owns Hero Games) announced that they have purchased a majority share of IPR. Brennan Taylor has stepped down as President and maintains a minority share. Jason Walters is now acting general manager, and much of IPR's energy is currently focused on expanding its convention presence, growing its retailer network, and attracting new publishers. Member companies * 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming * Archaia Studios * Atomic Sock Monkey Press * Bad Axe Games * Black & Green Games * Blue Devil Games * Bob Goat Press * BoxNinja * Bully Pulpit Games * Burning Wheel Catthulhu.com* ...
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Indie Role-playing Games
An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside traditional, "mainstream" means. Varying definitions require that commercial, design, or conceptual elements of the game stay under the control of the creator, or that the game should just be produced outside a corporate environment. Independent publication of role-playing games Indie role-playing games (RPGs) can be self-published by one or a few people who themselves control all aspects of design, promotion and distribution of the game. An independent role-playing game publisher usually lacks the financial backing of large company. This has made forms of publishing other than the traditional three-tier model more desirable to the independent publisher. Formats Independent publishers may offer games only in digital format, only in print, or they may offer the same game in a variety of formats. Some major RPG publishers have abandoned PDF publication, probably as a counter-piracy effort. Common digital for ...
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