Jonas reviewed The Ink That Bleeds by Paul Czege
Playing journaling games with your subconscious
5 stars
The Ink That Bleeds is a fine zine about playing solo rpgs/ journaling game in a way that allows your subconscious lots of input. Paul Czege does a great job at telling how he arrived at this play style, explaining his thoughts on and analysis of it, and giving examples from his actual plays of various journaling games. The zine has a beautiful cover, a clean layout, and a nice feel to it.
The subtitle "how to play immersive journaling games" might be interpreted that Paul describes THE way to play these solo games immersively, but I'm not sure that's an interpretation he would agree with. I'm no expert at immersion, but I think other ways to immersive journal gaming experiences are possible.
That speculation aside, this zine is an introduction to a play style that sounds very interesting. Paul describes a stance and techniques that invite participation of your …
The Ink That Bleeds is a fine zine about playing solo rpgs/ journaling game in a way that allows your subconscious lots of input. Paul Czege does a great job at telling how he arrived at this play style, explaining his thoughts on and analysis of it, and giving examples from his actual plays of various journaling games. The zine has a beautiful cover, a clean layout, and a nice feel to it.
The subtitle "how to play immersive journaling games" might be interpreted that Paul describes THE way to play these solo games immersively, but I'm not sure that's an interpretation he would agree with. I'm no expert at immersion, but I think other ways to immersive journal gaming experiences are possible.
That speculation aside, this zine is an introduction to a play style that sounds very interesting. Paul describes a stance and techniques that invite participation of your subconscious. I assume that even with practice, the outcome might partly have the surreal quality of dreams that don't adhere to the logical or narrative standards we're taught to expect, but that rather make sense at a deep, personal level that may need getting used to.
However, I totally want to try it out. Now I just need to find more time for journal gaming! #solorpg #ttrpg #journalgaming #sologaming #journalinggame