[Tapeworms] an indie rpg taunting indie rpgs

[baron samedi]

Back in 2003, I wrote a one-page RPG about bowel tapeworms as an inside joke among friends on my lunch hour (60 minutes design in all), the original idea being "the craziest setting possible" and "what could happen to someone you don't like".

I decided in 2007 to translate it to English and put it on my website. While bothering with translating and laying out the original text, I chose to make it a tongue-in-cheek parody of emergent "indie RPGs". I'm curious about hearing reactions from the Forge regulars, so here goes...

"The Bowel Tapeworms of..." is available here (it's free), at www.silenceindigo.org. (Just click the big red icon (PDF), can't miss it.) I'm curious for feedback.

Pour les francophones... The original French-language version is available by clicking the France flag.

Enjoy!

Erick

[Roadkill]

trust the french!

but it looks like a fun game, I'm actually considering giving this a go, seriously.

[baron samedi]

I'd love to hear about that!!!

[Mickey]

Fun of gastronomic proportions!

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

It reads more like a parody of early-90s White Wolf to me. The purple, arrogant prose hasn't characterized the games typically promoted or developed here.

Don't get me wrong, though - I like it fine. I love games based on parasitology.

Best, Ron

[baron samedi]

I didn't mean to slash at anyone in specific, Ron, neither at provoking the Forge staff & patrons.

I've also played the part of the self-arrogant RPG designer and LARP manager (of White Wolf games notably) myself at times. It's just good-natured humour aiming that little postmodern yuppie elitist in everyone of us, me included.* For heavy purple prose, I think only Dying Earth beats (purposely) my first published RPG in 2003 (Les Chroniques d'Erdor 1st ed., French), which I'm a bit embarrassed to read today. 

Don't search too deep for meaning; for a game designed during a lunch break and translated in another, I think it's not too deep (just bowel deep).

Have fun and enjoy those raw hamburgers,

Erick

* Another game in development, Elficide aka "No More Elfs" (summary available at www.silenceindigo.org), is much more sardonic in this regard.

[Will]

I have to say, "A Triad of Paradigms" amuses me to no end!

I think I own three or four games from the late 90s that this would feel right at home with.

[anansi]

Hillarious.

Another game about tapeworms and unsightly creatures: http://www.orcsnest.com/blurber.asp?title=Low+Life