HELLSITE: A TTRPG Fueled by your Twitter Feed
A sci-fi/occult tabletop roleplaying game focused on the emotions generated by social media posts.
The most important ingredient of any ritual to make contact with the Other Side is a powerful outpouring of emotion. To get the attention, let alone help, of a spirit, god, demon, etc, one has to be ready to pay them in an amount of emotion rarely seen in a single lifetime. This enormous price meant very few throughout history were ever heard, and all matters concerning the Other Side were dismissed as superstition.
Then, the advent of the internet connected billions of strangers, and this price was trivialized.
A TTPRG STAINED BY OUR TIME ONLINE
HELLSITE is a sci-fi/occult tabletop roleplaying game focused on the emotions generated by social media posts. It forgoes dice or cards in favor of the semi-randomness of a Twitter/X or Tumblr feed. With inspiration from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, HELLSITE aims to explore how we curate our online experiences: the strange influences we invite into our lives and the influences we try to push onto others.
HELLSITE is currently funding on Kickstarter as part of Zine Month until March 6. It was funded on its first day, but further funding will go towards hiring more illustrators to collaborate on the game!
Players take on the roles of Summoners- regular people whose smartphones have been connected to the Other Side, allowing them to call upon the power of arcane Avatars. By crowd-sourcing emotion, Summoners use the abilities of these supernatural entities to manipulate the world around them.
To use an ability, the Summoner must first offer up a sacrifice of emotion. The first post on their feed determines the nature and intensity of the powers the Avatar will grant. Over-reliance of these powers have their consequences, though. Exposure to the Other Side will cause Summoners to accumulate Stain, a malevolent blight that affects their psyche and darkens the nature of the powers granted by their Avatars. Too much Stain will leave a Summoner miserable, isolated, or even dead.
How will your Summoner use their newfound power? Chasing petty thrills? Pursuing noble greatness? Or losing themselves to Stain entirely?
THE ZINE
HELLSITE is game for 2-5 players and a game master, meant to be played over several sessions. It is approximately 20 pages, with rules for creating your Summoner, calling upon your Avatars, and building your setting. It features black-and-white illustrations by the designer and further illustrators to be announced.
HELLSITE is designed by Nick Tourville, a professional game designer whose work includes the successfully crowdfunded Hometown Holiday and The NPC Phonebook. The Kickstarter is live until March 6.
