Ithaca in the Cards and What Should We Have Tomorrow? 2nd Editions Launch on Kickstarter for ZineQuest

Aaron Lim, designer of An Altogether Different River and Spectres of Brocken is launching a Kickstarter campaign for updated zine releases of two games:

• Ithaca in the Cards: Second Expedition is a blackjack-driven storygame for 2-5 players about doomed travelers on a perilous journey home, inspired by The Odyssey.

• What Should We Have Tomorrow? Full Course is a solo journaling game about managing your pantry and cooking a week of meals for your loved ones, inspired by What Did You Eat Yesterday?.

Both games have been released in different forms before this, and are now updated to new Second Editions. The core of the games are still the same, but there are various updates to rules and tweaks for clarity, as well as expansion of prompt tables included in the games. 

In addition, there is new cover art and interior art by Xiao Ming Tang for Ithaca in the Cards: Second Expedition, and by Thar Chandran for What Should We Have Tomorrow? Full Course.

Layout design for Ithaca in the Cards: Second Expedition will be provided by Xiao Ming Tang, and for What Should We Have Tommorow? Full Course by Ella Lim.

In addition to the new zines, there will also be a physical reusable vinyl sticker set that comes with the physical edition of What Should We Have Tomorrow? Full Course that allows you to design your own kitchen. This sticker set is designed and illustrated by Yon (4thReset).

Additional themed sticker set will be available as Stretch Goals during the campaign.

In addition, Japanese translations for both games are also available as Stretch Goals for the campaign, and translation services and support will be provided by Malström, a publisher that sells and translates TTRPGs into Japanese.

Check out the Kickstarter campaign below!

About Ithaca in the Cards: Second Expedition:

2-5 Players, 2-3 hours per session, GMless, uses standard playing cards

In Ithaca in the Cards: Second Expedition, you’ll make up characters who have gone on a shared quest and after the completion of the quest, must brave numerous perils on their journey home.

As you play, you’ll take turns narrating how Fate works against you by drawing cards to determine the Trials you face. Each character then narrates how they rely on an Asset, Aim, or Archetype to face these Trials, also drawing cards and comparing their running totals against the total for the Trial. If they fall short, they lose whatever they rely upon and if they lose too many, they die.

Characters also die if the total value of their cards exceeds 21, and the game ends when either everyone but one character dies, all characters die, or any character gets exactly 21. It’s quite likely that player characters will die on this journey, and even survivors will lose parts of themselves on the way. This is a game about tragedy, and what it means to persevere in search of a way home.

About What Should We Have Tomorrow? Full Course:

Solo game, up to 7 sessions, uses standard playing cards

In What Should We Have Tomorrow? Full Course, you’ll create a chef and the loved one(s) they are cooking for. You then draw some cards to populate your pantry, with red cards representing Fresh Ingredients that might go bad after some time, and black cards representing Dry Ingredients that aren’t at risk of spoiling but may run out.

You then draw a couple of cards to work out what your loved one’s mood is like and what type of food they’re after. You can then take some preparation actions to get more cards or increase the flexibility of the cards you have before you make a meal.

You make a meal by combining cards and their represented ingredients, and then work out how happy your loved ones are with the meal. You record the recipes and reflections on cooking for your loved ones in a recipe journal, until you’ve cooked a week of meals.