Interactive Fiction

The Fog Knows Your Name

The Fog Knows Your Name is a 360,000 word interactive horror novel published by Choice of Games in 2019. You play as a a high school student who must work with their friends to solve the mysteries of the cursed fog that plagues their small town in Maine. Your choices impact the course the story takes and your relationships with friends, enemies, and the fog.

It’s senior year of high school. Your classmate Rex Keller was found dead six months ago, and you were the last person to see him alive. Half the town thinks you murdered him, including his sister, Ennis. The other half believes it was the fog.

In your town, ever since anyone can remember, people die when the fog rolls in. No one knows exactly how or why. Some say the land didn’t want the colonizers, so it sends the fog as an agent of vengeance. Some say the Devil himself lurks in the fog, collecting souls. Others believe the fog simply drives people mad, causing them to enact violence onto each other and onto themselves.

There is one element of the tale that remains the same in every telling: those who perish in the fog are guilty of wronging another without confessing to it. Those who admit to causing harm can walk in the fog untouched. The liars die.

Strange Lusts / Strange Loves

Strange Lusts / Strange Loves is an anthology of short interactive stories/games that all touch on themes of sex and the many forms it takes. This collection features new works by Anna Anthropy, Nibedita Sen, Natalia Theodoridou, as well as by co-editors Sharang Biswas and Yeonsoo Julian Kim. Each story is influenced in some way by interacting with it, and each explores a different facet of sex, desire, and romance. The anthology was funded via Kickstarter in 2020 and was created in partnership with Strange Horizons.

Card Games

Battle of the Boybands

A Janitor Interactive game being published by Game and a Curry in 2020. Featured in the Boston Festival of Indie Games Tabletop Showcase in 2016.

Battle of the Boybands is a sabotage-heavy card game in which 3-6 players take on the roles of producers in the competitive pop music industry. In order to climb to the top, they must assemble boybands and make them compete against each other in special events. The Kickstarter was successfully funded in 2020.

Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Home

Home is a horror roleplaying game in which characters navigate a house plagued with supernatural activity while contending with their own twisted secrets and histories. Players draw a map of the house as they explore it and respond to prompts on cards to propel the story forward.

The print and play files for the game can be found here while the physical edition of the game will be released soon. The game is published by Wet Ink Games and was funded via Kickstarter in November 2022. It was co-designed by me and Doug Levandowski with some amazing stretch goal contributors.

Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game

Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is a two time Gold Ennie-winning tabletop roleplaying game based on the beloved cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. The game is published by Magpie Games and was funded via Kickstarter in 2021.

I’m a contributing writer for this game, having worked primarily on the hefty setting chapter that pulled from the shows, the books, and the comics. The chapter features familiar characters and locations, as well as some new faces and content created specially for the game.

Women are Werewolves

Some families believe things like “men bring home the bacon” and “women are caregivers.” What if you belonged to a family with its own core gendered belief: Women are werewolves? 

What if, on the full moon, your family went deep into the wilds to the Family Home so the women could transform and roam the night while the men stayed at the house?

In a family with such specific gender roles, what if you were nonbinary and neither of those expectations felt right for you?

Women are Werewolves is an Ennie-nominated card-based story game in which players take on the roles of nonbinary characters who belong to a family that believes only the women can transform into werewolves. It is being published by 9th Level Games and was co-designed by me and C.A.S. Taylor.

As Per Your Instructions

As Per Your Instructions is a roleplaying game made for Mote, a text-centered, real-time storytelling platform. It is a one-shot game in which you play demigods tasked with finishing up the creation of a world on behalf of the deities you serve. You can find the PDF for the game on the Mote website here. The beautiful art is by Sajan Rai.

The Tragedies of Waldron Hall – A Thirsty Sword Lesbians Setting

My setting, The Tragedies of Waldron Hall, was a stretch goal for the Thirsty Sword Lesbians Kickstarter that funded in November 2020. This setting is inspired by gothic romances and is full of lesbian vampires and duels with monster hunters.

No Such Place as Koreatown – A Kids on Bikes Adventure Setting

“No Such Place as Koreatown” is an adventure setting for Kids on Bikes that is inspired by the Korean American community in Northern Virginia in the late 1990s. It explores Korean mythology, folklore, and superstitions as well as the unique joys and challenges that come with being part of a growing immigrant community.

The adventure setting can be found in Kids on Bikes: Strange Adventures Volume 2 and you can listen to an actual play episode facilitated by me on the Roll to Play: Level Up! podcast.

Magical Kitties Save the Day: Mars Colony

Magical Kitties Save the Day is an all-ages roleplaying game in which you play kitties with amazing powers. It’s your job to help solve problems your human is facing with creative and magical solutions.

I contributed the Mars Colony hometown which lets kitties explore the first settlements on Mars and all the weird forgotten magic of the Red Planet. You can find this hometown here.

Magical Kitties is published by Atlas Games and was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2019. The digital version of the core game is available for purchase here, and the physical edition is being released in January 2021.

Magical Kitties Save the Day: Fantastica

Fantastica is a Magical Kitties hometown that is inspired by fairytales and folklore from around the world. Players get to explore a fantasy land divided into nine kingdoms, each one ruled by a different famous character of legend. You can find familiar figure such as Anansi, Cinderella, Yuki Onna, and Sinbad roaming about the kingdoms and getting into trouble.

The hometown was part of the Magical Kitties: Level Up Kickstarter and can be found on the Atlas Games shop. It includes some really beautiful artwork by Ekaterina Kazartseva and Anthony Cournoyer, as well as a foldout map.

Magical Kitties Save the Day: Noir

Noir is a Magical Kitties hometown inspired by crime fiction and films from the 1930s-1950s. Players take on the roles of kitty detectives solving mysteries in Sunset City, a metropolis stuck in time due to some nefarious time magic.

This hometown was part of the Magical Kitties: Noir Kickstarter.

Mutants & Masterminds: Time Traveler’s Codex

The Time Traveler’s Codex is a Mutants & Masterminds supplement that helps players to explore different exciting eras that present unique challenges to heroes.

I contributed the sections on the Ming Dynasty (palace intrigue!) and the Golden Age of Sail (pirate adventures!). Play as heroes jumping around between time periods, or explore one era in depth in a campaign. With time travel on the table, villains have a whole new array of trouble they can cause for heroes and era-locals alike.

Mutants & Masterminds is a comic book hero RPG published by Green Ronin. There are tons of powers to choose from, allowing for a lot of freedom in playing out the exact kind of comic book story you’d like. The Time Traveler’s Codex is one of many supplements.

The Bouquet Blunder – A FlipTales Story

“The Bouquet Blunder” is a short adventure for FlipTales, a family-friendly roleplaying game. In this story, players must stop an unintentionally offensive bouquet of flowers from reaching the empress of a neighboring kingdom and starting a war.

Hearts of Wulin: Shadow of Joseon

Hearts of Wulin is a Powered by the Apocalypse game about wuxia melodrama. The game was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2019, and playtest materials are available on The Gauntlet’s website (see link above).

I contributed a setting called Shadow of Joseon which is inspired by martial arts films set during the Joseon dynasty of Korea.

Shadow of Joseon is set during the Joseon dynasty, when tensions between the aristocracy and the citizens they abuse are at at a peak, but hope glimmers on the horizon in the form of outlaws, outsiders, and nobles willing to use their privilege for the greater good. Bands of fighters steal from the rich to give to the poor, but sometimes clash with each other as well. A child king goes on the run until the time comes to reclaim his stolen throne, but soldiers scour the country in search of him, destroying the lives of any who stand in their way. The battle-scarred seek revenge for betrayals that occurred in the heat of the second Manchu invasion, even if it means they will never return to their families. Those who attempt to take a stand against corruption must be willing to sacrifice everything, though their hearts may be pulling them to the homes they left behind or those they would make a future with.

Teens in Space

Teens in Space is a science fiction RPG published by Renegade Game Studios and Hunters Entertainment that uses the Kids on Bikes system.

I contributed the Benthosa alien species, sentient oceans that communicate telepathically. Aside from the core book, I have a Teens in Space adventure being published soon.

Mystic Lilies: Ice Palace Setting

Mystic Lilies is an RPG about vengeful witches. It was successfully Kickstarted in 2019.

I contributed a frozen, bleak setting called the Ice Palace. Keep an eye out for it when the game is released.

Live Action Live Action Roleplaying Games

Pass the Sugar, Please

Pass the Sugar, Please is a LARP about people who sit down to afternoon tea only to discover that someone they have been hooking up with at a secret sex and BDSM club has also been invited. Throughout the game, players must convey a series of messages to their sexual partner by speaking euphemistically about the tea and food items in front of them so as not to say anything “improper” at the table. The game is part of the upcoming Honey and Hot Wax: An Anthology of Erotic Art Games, published by Pelgrane Press.

Pass the Sugar, Please was also run as a digital immersive theater production by Intramersive. There is a very nice review of that production on No Proscenium that you can find here. It made No Proscenium’s “Moments That Defined Immersive in 2020” as well.

The Truth About Eternity

The Truth About Eternity is a LARP that explores a future in which ancestor worship takes the form of uploading ancestors to digital tombs. Players take on the roles of ancestors and descendants in a Korean/Korean American family, and each character must struggle to balance personal needs with the needs of the family. The game was showcased at Fastaval 2019 in Denmark.

Wish you were here

200 Word RPG Challenge Submission (2018).

Wish You Were Here is an RPG about the end of a long distance interplanetary relationship that was born from a dating service that specializes in these connections. It is meant to be played with each player and the facilitator in separate locations.

The Long Drive Back from Busan (Golden Cobra Award Winner)

A two hour long freeform LARP about members of a k-pop boy group struggling with balancing their ambitions with the sacrifices they have made for their careers. Recipient of the 2017 Golden Cobra Challenge award for Best Game That Incorporates Meaningful, Non-Romantic Relationships. You can find the original version of the game on the Golden Cobra website here.

But Not Tonight – Freeform Larp

Boston Festival of Indie Games Tabletop Showcase 2017 and IndieCade Selection 2017. You can buy the game here.

The year is 1986. You are a student at Greenwood High School, focused on living your own life while navigating the inescapable social structures that dictate your daily interactions there.

The nuclear panic resulting from the Cold War has started to subside. They have stopped running the drills, though the fallout shelter in the basement is still stocked with some bare necessities and left otherwise empty in case the worst should happen.

One day late in the afternoon after most of the other students and faculty have gone home, you hear the air-raid siren pierce through the air. You are ushered into the fallout shelter with some of your classmates and told to wait – but no one comes to get you.

What does your social status mean when the world might be ending outside? Are your relationships strong enough to withstand the pressure? Will the prospect of a nuclear apocalypse reveal secrets you’d meant to keep hidden? And – most importantly – how do you hold onto hope when it seems that all is lost?

In But Not Tonight, you play a high school student (or a guidance counselor) who is forced to examine their life, relationships, and past actions in the face of the possibility that there is no future. This is a game about friendship, love, hopes, dreams, facing fears, discovering who you are, and overcoming despair with the help of others. Dark themes are explored, but the focus is on empowering characters (and players!) to live the best lives they can, regardless of whether those lives will last only for a few more hours or for many decades to come.

Credits:

Designed by Clio Yun-su Davis

Illustrations by Casper Avery Lasken

The Human World

200 Word RPG Challenge Finalist (2017).

The Human World is an RPG about malfunctioning androids trying to teach the last human child about the pre-apocalyptic world they will never experience in person. It is played in a shopping mall.

Weird Interactive Narrative Things I Don’t Know How to Categorize

Wilt Thou Remember Me

An immersive live action narrative puzzle game utilizing both digital and physical clues to tell a story about a young woman obsessed with the American Civil War. Over the span of roughly two hours, groups of two to three players must search through a fictional character’s belongings to look for clues while communicating with the missing woman’s sister via voicemail and text message. This was an ITP Master’s thesis project (2015).

Thesis presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaM1k8G4mYc

VR Puppet Murder Mystery

The VR Puppet Murder Mystery is an interactive short film in which the viewer attempts to solve a bizarre and violent crime. The cast is entirely composed of puppets, including the detective that the viewer controls. This project is currently in pre-production and its Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded in June 2018.