Dream Askew & Dream Apart - 2 games of belong outside belonging - playtest kits

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Avery Alder and I are gearing up for a Kickstarter for her post-apocalyptic queer game Dream Askew & my Jewish historical fantasy hack of it, Dream Apart. They are PbtA games, but with a "no dice, no masters" system (shared GMing, and the narrative economy of fail/succeed with a cost/succeed managed by tokens).

Playtest kits are here: https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/belongingoutsidebelonging

 

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Munin

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Is Dream Apart the spiritual successor to Klezmers and Kabbalists?

It is indeed! I think at some point K&K (aka "Shtetl World") may actually get finished; it had some successful playtests and some people were excited about it, and I think it's really fun. But it's a big sprawling project and there was a lot a lot of work to be done, mostly to make the content manageable and accessible and not just totally overwhelming for players. When Dream Askew came along I realized it was a perfect fit to take the Klezmers & Kabbalists content and make it into an economical, concise, rules-light game with already proven mechanics and balance.

Technically speaking, the Dream Apart playbooks are from Act 2 of Klezmers & Kabbalists/Shtetl World -- so the Klezmer, the Sorcerer, the Soldier, the Scholar, the Midwife, and the Matchmaker -- which, in the original conception of Shtetl World, would have worked sort of like "prestige classes" that you earn as adults, after completing Act 1 playing the teenaged roles (the Dreamer, the Rascal, the Dutiful Child, etc)...

Very cool.

I just played Dream Askew for the first time last weekend, using the playtest version linked here.

It was good!