Merelymatt - Merely Matt

"Woman stressed out at the bottom of the fucking ocean" is an underrated podcast subgenre.

Okay now I'm curious- I try to recommend fewer shows that I think are pretty well known these days, but I wonder if most of them are as well known as I think. Here's my list and my question, remember it's heard of not even necessarily listened to:

The Magnus Archives, The White Vault, Wooden Overcoats, The Bright Sessions, Welcome to Nightvale, The Black Tapes, Wolf 359, Video Palace, I Am In Eskew, Archive 81, Two Princes, Midnight Burger, Brimstone Valley Mall, Woe.Begone, Malevolent, Ars Paradoxica, Eos 10, King Falls AM, The Adventure Zone

Flying Circus

Flying Circus is a game that looks extremely normal on the surface.

Okay, sure, there are biplanes and dragons. But the overall cover aesthetic evokes red box D&D, and there's barely a hint of the wild design choices lurking beneath.

Flying Circus is also a pbta game. This means Powered By The Apocalypse---broadly, a group of ttrpgs that are more narrative-y and story-game-y and collaborative in play.

So the last thing you'd expect here would be pages and pages of highly detailed biplane aviation physics and moves that model the affect of G-strain on the pilot and fuel burning at different rates at different altitudes.

Right?

Flying Circus is a game about running a biplane company in a post-WWI Hayao Miyazaki aesthetic german countryside. And like a Miyazaki movie, it's not non-violent. There's conflict and dragons and and ancient technology and horrifying things beyond comprehension---but there's also rolling hills and swaying grain fields and the overbearing beauty of a world un-industrialized.

Every player plays a pilot, builds their own plane (out of a *lot* of different component parts,) manages their stress levels between sorties, and engages in highly technical, heavily researched biplane combat where altitude is a currency and there's a million ways your plane can stall out, crash, and explode.

To say that Flying Circus is audacious is underselling it.

This is a high crunch game wearing the shell of a zero crunch game like an octopus in a coconut.

But it's tightly built, *very* comprehensive in what it lets you do while flying a plane, and tricky to learn but fun to try and master.

I am not smart enough for it, but I think it might be one of my favorite games I've read this year.

drivethrurpg.com

Flying Circus - Core Rulebook - Newstand Press | Anime-Themed Games | Flying Circus | DriveThruRPG.com

Flying Circus - Core Rulebook - Flying Circus is an in-depth, highly detailed Powered by the Apocalypse-derived roleplaying game of aviation

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Let me introduce you

All right, luvvies? I've been having some exciting conversations about I Need A Miracle this month (to whit: how to get it produced). Too ea

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Foundation was so real for saying that in the far future, glitter art will be considered a form of expression worthy of eternal emperors