(This is copied over from Twitter (@ThoughtyGames). Please remember to share the itchio page on social media with your friends!)

What is The Man and The Stag?

This is a question I feel I want to answer on Twitter so maybe it will be shared around a bit. The Man and The Stag is my answer to my wish for a two-player game that is flexible between narrating & roleplaying, with simple prompts & mapping!

I designed it to explore connections between humans & nature, destruction & creation, violence & nonviolence, & between parts of the cosmos. It takes between 3-6 hours, depending on how you play, & produces very rich experiences! It's on itchio here: http://briebeau.itch.io/the-man-and-the-stag

I chose to crowdfund on itchio so that customers could get a product right away and I could hopefully invest more into things like art and alternate play methods. I also wanted to get away from the intense hyper stressful environment of Kickstarter, which can be unhealthy.

I've got work coming from John W Sheldon that looks stunning but isn't ready for reveal yet, amazing sketches that will be made into final images by Thomas Novosel (three drawings on one image at present) and a sketch from Mx. Morggo (skull & stag) that is stunning & being finalized.

I also have some of my art in it, but it is more placeholder than anything. I wanted to make this look beautiful, and these artists can really do that - I just can't make that happen all on my own budget without a strain or without favors, and both of those require payback.

This game was thematically partially inspired by the interactions in the TV show #Hannibal. As someone who has experienced hallucinations, the main character's visualization of the black stag stuck with me. But I wanted to design a less toxic game, where you choose intensity.

I elected to do it for #Zinequest3 because I felt like I could fully encompass the game in a zine and it would look great. I want to get it into print on demand, and anyone who backs will get a code for at-cost printing from Lulu if I reach over $1000 in sales before March 15!

There are a lot of other inspirations for the game beyond #Hannibal though. For one, my own childhood experience of almost being run down by a stag - we called them bucks - that I had seen many times before. Humanity's impact on nature. The balance of the cosmos. Beauty in life.

In a playtest we had, the game played through a queer character's (The Man's) love & loss of partners (with varying degrees of tragedy and happiness), & The Stag's attempt to protect the Copse & their herd from hunters. In the end, they traded places, & eventually ascended!

It was one of the best roleplaying sessions I've ever had, and I haven't stopped thinking about it. I want you to enjoy your play experience too! Consider buying The Man and The Stag to help me fill the pages with art & more ways to play this amazing game!

An Addendum

I added the following to the front page to hopefully encourage further backing!

I wanted to add an addendum that I have experience doing crowdfunding and fulfilling including for one of the exemplars for Zinequest, Behind the Masc, and Turn RPG, as well as Homunculus Assembly Line. I also have developed multiple games and zine projects of my own without crowdfunding on itchio, IPR, and DriveThruRPG.