PSYCHODUNGEON, the GMless mindscape dungeoncrawler, is out now!
Available on Itch with physical orders going out soon!
PSYCHODUNGEON, a fantasy workplace action drama, played with no dice and no masters, from the creator of Terminal and Transgender Deathmatch Legend, is available on Itch now with physical orders going out next week.
PSYCHODUNGEON, the latest release from Rat Wave Game House/Kayla Dice, is a post-dungeon fantasy concerning a group of poor cityfolk acting as psychoplumbers. Within an individual delving job there are three asymmetric roles in the game; the Dungeon itself, the Client it's manifested from, and any number of Psychoplumbers who will delve down. The game uses a token-based system built on the Belonging outside Belonging framework, and suits 3-7 players. Players work together to shape the world, set the mood and tone, create trouble and look for solutions.
"PSYCHODUNGEON is a post-Blairite, post-Dungeon, modernist nightmare laced with hope. Imagine if the adventuring party sent to accompany you into the labyrinth spawned from your traumatic past are employed by the same company who decided to skimp on COVID protections for their care homes as it made more money than ensuring nobody living in them died, and overseen by the government department tasked with making sure nurses are as overworked/underpaid as possible. Sure, this band will try their best to help (most of the time). But also, their lives are hard as fuck. They are gonna be messy and imperfect and it is going to get weird somewhere along the line. Truthfully, I'm surprised this game didn't first appear as a strip in 2000AD." - Tanya Floaker (The Connection Machine, Solstice, Be Seeing You)
In PSYCHODUNGEON players delve into nightmarish psychostructures, battle monsters, navigate a hostile domain, and pull a client back from the brink. They do this for a meagre paycheck. On the surface they try to get by living their lives in a busy city that would never miss you if you fell off the face of the planet.
"PSYCHODUNGEON is one of those rare gems of a game that are at the same time strong death-of-capitalism critique and interesting dungeon delving. Most importantly, the way characters are very much not-ok is fresh and stimulating. I want to go and be not well in a psychodungeon." - Paolo of Lost Pages
Available now on Itch, Kayla will be posting physical copies to Kickstarter backers next week and from then on the game will be available on the Rat Wave Webstore. The 84-page book is full of seven exciting playbooks, a complete collaborative dungeon delving procedure, guidance on facilitating the game as both a one-shot or for longer play, and thirteen unique textures for dungeons; reflecting a client's traumas (highlight's include Financial Difficulties, Gender Dysphoria and Parents).
"PSYCHODUNGEON does what some of the best Belonging Outside Belonging games do, which is create a setting that is a powerful mirror to our own, and then weave that setting into the very marrow of the game. The setting, its dungeons, clients, and psychoplumbers are inescapable in the best way possible because you don’t want to escape it. You want to dive in and see and feel everything that the postdungeon city of Glyndain has to offer. And then come out the other side changed by the experience." - Josh Hittie/Ostrichmonkey Games (Vibe Check and DEATHGRIND!!MEGASRUCTURE!!)
Rat Wave Game House will have physical copies of PSYCHODUNGEON at upcomign conventions in the UK, including Dragonmeet and TAGS Fest. Additionally the game will be available as a post-campaign add-on for Kayla's latest campaign; Transgender Deathmatch Legend II, which launches on BackerKit on October 29th.
