Jason Morningstar

Last updated
Jason Morningstar
Occupation(s)Game designer, game publisher
Employer Bully Pulpit Games
Notable work Fiasco
Awards Diana Jones Award, IndieCade

Jason Morningstar is an American indie role-playing game designer, publishing mostly through Bully Pulpit Games. Morningstar's games often forgo a game master and are set in situations that quickly take a turn for the worse for the player characters. Grey Ranks, for example, is about doomed child soldiers in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and Fiasco is about impulsive crooks pulling heists that are sure to go terribly wrong. With these two games, Morningstar became the only named person to have won the Diana Jones award twice as of 2023. [1] [2] He also won an IndieCade award for Desperation. [3] In addition to designing games, Morningstar works with academia and industry, consulting on using games for teaching and learning in education, with a focus on health sciences. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Games

Jason Morningstar's tabletop role-playing games tend to be GM-less and about events going badly. In addition to publishing multiple products with Bully Pulpit Games, he has also contributed to supplements for GURPS and Trail of Cthulhu, as well as a nano-game to Pelgrane Press' #Feminism anthology. [7]

The Shab-al-Hiri Roach

The game is a GM-less black comedy lampooning academia, and designed for single-session play at the end of which a winner is determined. It is set among the internal politics of a buttoned-down New England college campus in 1919, with the titular roach being a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization. Characters under the control of the roach succeed at tasks more easily, but can not win if they are still under the control of the roach at the game's end.

The game was originally released in the 2005 Game Chef competition, where it placed in the "Inner Circle." [8] It was then published in 2006.

Drowning and Falling

Drowning and Falling is a game about dying by drowning and falling, and proceeds from the sale go to ORBIS International. [9] It was published in 2006.

Grey Ranks

Grey Ranks is a GM-less game about child soldiers in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The game uses narrativist design to evoke the horrors of war. [1] It was published in 2007 and won the 2008 Diana Jones award. [1] Grey Ranks has been published in Italian and Polish.

Fiasco

Fiasco is a GM-less game for 3-5 players about a heist gone wrong. Its focus is on crooks with poor impulse control, inspired by movies such as Fargo. [2] According to the Diana Jones Award committee, this game achieves a "dream" in roleplaying design: a satisfying storytelling experience played in a few hours with practically no preparation. [2] Unlike his previous Grey Ranks, Fiasco is readily playable in a variety of settings. [2] It was published in 2009 and won the 2011 Diana Jones award. [2] Fiasco has been published in Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, and German.

Durance

Durance is a GM-less game for 3-5 players and designed to be played in the spirit of The Prisoner. It was entered into Game Chef in 2011, and published via Kickstarter in 2012. [10] Durance has been published in Russian.

The Climb

The Climb is a game for six players about ascending a virgin peak in the Himalayas, and comes with a 91-minute soundtrack. [11] It was published in 2013.

Night Witches

Night Witches is a game using the Powered by the Apocalypse engine about Soviet Airwomen in the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. Night Witches unites contemporary gender issues with World War II drama. [12] It was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2014 and delivered in early 2015. [13]

Soul-Grinding Adventures in Top-Secret Science

Soul Grinding Adventures in Top-Secret Science is a short tabletop role-playing game published in the 2020 anthology The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book (Simon & Schuster). [14]

Dungeon Squad

Dungeon Squad is a simple game is to provide a set of rules suitable for introducing teenagers to role-playing.

Desperation

Desperation is a boxed set of two survival horror tabletop role-playing games, Dead House and The Isabel. Both games are based on historical circumstances. Desperation won the 2023 IndieCade Tabletop Design Award. [3]

Writing about games

Jason Morningstar also writes about role-playing games.

Beyond the Game Master

The article Beyond the Game Master was published in the Solmukohta book of 2012, States of Play: Nordic Larp Around the World. Solmukohta is a conference where designers talk about Nordic Larp, a specific movement of live action role-playing games that originated in Nordic countries. [15] The article Beyond the Game Master discusses various role-playing games without a gamemaster, including Lexicon, Breaking the Ice, Polaris, Archipelago II, Shock: Social Science Fiction, Geiger Counter, Fiasco, Kagematsu, Microscope, and various role-playing poems.

Visual Design as Metaphor

The article Visual Design as Metaphor: The Evolution of A Character Sheet talks about the design of the character sheet for Jason Morningstar's game Night Witches. [16]

Gaming community activities

Jason Morningstar organized and judged the Golden Cobra competition, publishing 49 new freeform games, many from new authors. [17] Morningstar has been a Special Guest at Lucca Comics & Games [18] and Dragoncon. [19] He was one of the founding members of Camp Nerdly, an annual, family-friendly role-playing game convention at a campground in Virginia. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live action role-playing game</span> Form of role-playing game where participants act out the roles

A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules or determined by consensus among players. Event arrangers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Role-playing game</span> Game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Jones Award</span> Annual award for excellence in tabletop gaming

The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The original award was made from a burned book encased in lucite. The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded to a person, product, publication, company, organization, event or trend – anything related to gaming; second, it does not count popularity or commercial success as a sign of "excellence". The award was first presented in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indie role-playing game</span> Aspect of role-playing game publishing

An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published by individuals or small press publishers, in contrast to games published by large corporations. Indie tabletop role-playing game designers participate in various game distribution networks, development communities, and gaming conventions, both in person and online. Indie game designer committees grant annual awards for excellence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Role-playing game theory</span> Scientific study of role-playing games

Role-playing game theory is the study of role-playing games (RPGs) as a social or artistic phenomenon, also known as ludology. RPG theories seek to understand what role-playing games are, how they function, and how the gaming process can be refined in order to improve the play experience and produce better game products.

Bully Pulpit Games, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a small publisher of indie role-playing games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiasco (role-playing game)</span> Tabletop role-playing game by Jason Morningstar

Fiasco is a role-playing game by Jason Morningstar, independently published by Bully Pulpit Games. It is marketed as a "GM-less game for 3–5 players, designed to be played in a few hours with six-sided dice and no preparation". It is billed as "A game of powerful ambition and poor impulse control" and "inspired by cinematic tales of small time capers gone disastrously wrong—films like Blood Simple, Fargo, The Way of the Gun, Burn After Reading, and A Simple Plan."

David Vincent Baker is a designer and theorist of tabletop role-playing games and the owner of indie role-playing games publisher Lumpley Games, which also hosts the archives of The Forge. He and his wife Meguey Baker designed Apocalypse World, the first game in the Powered by the Apocalypse system. Apocalypse World won Game of the Year, Best Support, and Most Innovative game at the 2010 Indie RPG Awards, and was 2011 RPG of the Year at both the Golden Geek Awards and Lucca Comics & Games. Baker also designed Dogs in the Vineyard, which won the 2004 Indie RPG Game of the Year and Innovation Award and was one of three games shortlisted for the 2004 Diana Jones Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powered by the Apocalypse</span> Design framework for tabletop role-playing games

Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role-playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World and later adapted for hundreds of other indie role-playing games.

<i>Durance</i> (role-playing game) Tabletop science fiction role-playing game by Jason Morningstar

Durance is a science fiction role-playing game by Jason Morningstar, independently published by Bully Pulpit Games, who also released Fiasco. The game was a 2011 entry on the annual Game Chef game design competition, and went on to raise $27,458 of its $5000 goal on kickstarter in June 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Care Boss</span> LARP and tabletop role-playing game designer

Emily Care Boss is an indie roleplaying game designer, theorist and publisher. She was a foundational member of The Forge, an early leader in the indie role-playing game movement and is considered the creator of the American Freeform genre of roleplaying games, which combine indie RPG principles and mechanics with Nordic freeform and American chamber live action role-playing techniques. She has been referred to as the "Dean" of the North American school of structured freeform game design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillfolk</span> 2013 Tabletop role-playing game by Robin Laws

Hillfolk is a tabletop role-playing game designed by Robin Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. It was initially launched via Kickstarter in 2012, with the funding being sufficiently successful that a second book called "Blood on the Snow", containing 33 new settings, was produced as a part of the kickstarter. Reception was positive, with RPGamer saying "mechanics don't so much get out of the way of roleplay as provide a supportive foundation for it to happen." Hillfolk is influenced by the Indie RPGs of the 2000s, and emphasises relationships and interpersonal conflicts among the player characters, rather than what the system calls "procedural" scenes putting the characters against external obstacles.

Cathriona "Cat" Tobin is a game designer and publisher based in West Cork, Ireland. She co-owns the London-based Pelgrane Press with Simon J Rogers and is a significant contributor to the roleplaying game industry in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeeyon Shim</span> Korean American game designer

Jeeyon Shim is a second generation Korean American indie role-playing game and live action role-playing game designer and writer. A former outdoor educator, her body of work is strongly influenced by themes of connection to the natural world. Playing Shim's narrative games often involves creating a keepsake artifact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Roberts (game designer)</span> Canadian role-playing game designer

Alex Roberts is a Canadian tabletop role-playing game designer. Her games typically lack a gamemaster (GM) and include romantic themes. Her games include For the Queen and Star Crossed.

Jonaya Kemper is an American game design academic and game writer/designer. Kemper's work includes LARP, tabletop role-playing games, and computer games. Kemper coined the term and developed the theory of "emancipatory bleed."

Field Guide to Memory is a one-player, narrative, pen-and-paper journaling, indie role-playing game by Shing Yin Khor and Jeeyon Shim about the mentee of a missing cryptozoologist traveling across the United States in search of information about their missing mentor.

<i>Honey & Hot Wax</i> Anthology of role-playing games

Honey & Hot Wax is an anthology of live action role-playing games on the theme of sex and sexuality, published by Pelgrane Press in 2020. It includes games by Sharang Biswas (co-editor), Yeonsoo Julian Kim, Julia Bond Ellingboe, Kat Jones, Lucian Kahn (co-editor), Jonaya Kemper, Will Morningstar, Alex Roberts, and Susanne. It also has a foreword by Naomi Clark, academic chair of NYU Game Center and designer of the board game Consentacle, as well as a chapter on consent by Maury Brown.

Dialect is a tabletop role-playing game by linguists Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalioglu about the language of an isolated community. Players create and use their own language during gameplay. Dialect was published by Thorny Games in 2019 after raising $189,742 on Kickstarter. The game won the 2019 Silver ENNIE Award for "Best Game," IndieCade Europe's award for "Best Game: Tabletop", and the Indie Game Developer Network award for "Game of the Year."

Sharang Biswas is an Indian American designer/writer of tabletop role-playing games and interactive media, a writer of speculative fiction, an adjunct professor of game studies at NYU Game Center, and a freelance games journalist. His work focuses on LGBTQ and science fiction and fantasy themes. Biswas has won multiple awards for his game writing work as both a solo designer and a collaborator: one IndieCade award, four ENNIE Awards, and two Indie Game Developer Network awards. He was an Artist in Residence at the Museum of the Moving Image.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Diana Jones Award 2008
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Diana Jones award 2011
  3. 1 2 "Festival 2023 Award Winners – IndieCade" . Retrieved 2024-10-31.
  4. ↑ Morningstar, Jason. Quick and Dirty Games for Teaching and Learning in Medical Education. Presented at Innovation Learning Network Annual Meeting, 2009.
  5. ↑ Morningstar, Jason. Iterative Games for Nursing Education. Presented at Kaiser-Permanente Nursing Summit, 2010.
  6. ↑ Game Becomes Learning Tool for Nursing Students
  7. ↑ "#Feminism: A Nano-Game Anthology (2016)". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  8. ↑ Game Chef entry
  9. ↑ Drowning and Falling page
  10. ↑ Kickstarter listing for Durance
  11. ↑ Bully Pulpit Store
  12. ↑ Night Witches Official Page
  13. ↑ Night Witches KickStarter Page
  14. ↑ d'Amato, James (2020-12-08). The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-5072-1286-8.
  15. ↑ Boss, Emily Care, Jason Morningstar and Ivan Vaghi. "Beyond the Game Master." States of Play: Nordic Larp Around the World. ed. Juhanna Pettersson. Helsinki: Pohjoismaisen roolipelaamisen seura, 2012.
  16. ↑ Morningstar, Jason. Visual Design as Metaphor: The Evolution of A Character Sheet. Analog Game Studies 1 issue V (2015).
  17. ↑ http://www.goldencobra.org/ Golden Cobra
  18. ↑ Lucca 2010 Special Guest
  19. ↑ Dragoncon past guests list
  20. ↑ "About Us – Camp Nerdly".
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