Friendly Distance Bundle
February 21, 2021 4:44 AM Subscribe
The Friendly Distance Bundle The Friendly Distance Bundle is a collection of 14 role-playing and role-playing adjacent games that are well-suited to social distancing and digital contact.
“We've collected these games and offered them to everyone for two reasons.
1) We would like to encourage and support social distancing while maintaining social interaction and healthy relationships.
2) We would like to raise money for one of the many charities that is uniquely positioned to help people right now, but isn't as obviously connected to the most immediate concern for many folks.
Pay what you like for this collection.... What you do pay, will go to helping those in need right now”.
“We've collected these games and offered them to everyone for two reasons.
1) We would like to encourage and support social distancing while maintaining social interaction and healthy relationships.
2) We would like to raise money for one of the many charities that is uniquely positioned to help people right now, but isn't as obviously connected to the most immediate concern for many folks.
Pay what you like for this collection.... What you do pay, will go to helping those in need right now”.
I had to double check I hadn't accidentally clicked on Boing Boing.
posted by fairmettle at 6:12 AM on February 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by fairmettle at 6:12 AM on February 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
Are the games included listed anywhere? I see a very brief description but I'm curious.
posted by dinty_moore at 7:25 AM on February 21, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by dinty_moore at 7:25 AM on February 21, 2021 [6 favorites]
The Larping in Place episode of Imaginary Worlds had some great stories about larps adapting to zoom.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:50 AM on February 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kaibutsu at 9:50 AM on February 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
I spent the latter half of the 90s hanging out with a collection of personality disorders that had somehow disguised itself as a World of Darkness LARP group (if you were LARPing in the Los Angeles area in 1996-2000 you can probably guess to whom I am referring). In late 1998 I realized the situation there was untenable and at the same time moved to a different part of LA where I didn't know anyone; I had the good fortune to shortly thereafter meet some players with whom I've been gaming ever since.
About six years ago a couple core members of our group moved out of the area and I decided to see if it was feasible to continue running the game online. I have two games a week (one of Tuesday night and one on Thursday night) with players in Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle and Boston. When the pandemic hit we already had several years of momentum behind us and we haven't slowed down at all.
One of the things the past year has shown me is how many Americans have let their social lives atrophy to the point where when something like the pandemic hits they just don't have any idea what to do. Without the six hours a week of structured video chats these games provide me I know my mental health would be in a much less enviable place; I am beyond grateful to be living in a time where it's possible to continue running and playing games with the people I love in a safe and responsible fashion. This bundle looks great.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:34 AM on February 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
About six years ago a couple core members of our group moved out of the area and I decided to see if it was feasible to continue running the game online. I have two games a week (one of Tuesday night and one on Thursday night) with players in Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle and Boston. When the pandemic hit we already had several years of momentum behind us and we haven't slowed down at all.
One of the things the past year has shown me is how many Americans have let their social lives atrophy to the point where when something like the pandemic hits they just don't have any idea what to do. Without the six hours a week of structured video chats these games provide me I know my mental health would be in a much less enviable place; I am beyond grateful to be living in a time where it's possible to continue running and playing games with the people I love in a safe and responsible fashion. This bundle looks great.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:34 AM on February 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
The bundle has the cover art and 15 PDFs (14 games & preface), titled and appended with the brief description on their site (assuming same order):
* An Open Book - Living in your favorite piece of fiction.
* Chart of Note - Journaling while lost and finding hope.
* Drive-Ins and DJs - Exploring the lost art of collective music listening.
* E.V.E - Being a stolen robot.
* I Had A Bad Dream - Comforting a child frightened by a dream.
* Inn Story - Being critters in a medieval inn.
* Long Time Listener Last Time Caller - A radio show at the end of the world.
* Modern Masters - Altering details and removing context from scripts.
* Outscored - Oppressive regimes and the betrayal of friends.
* Paper Tigers - Two-dimensional characters.
* Prankster's Dilemma - Keeping mum about a high school prank.
* Respectable Pigeon - Being a very respectable pigeon.
* The Friendly Distance Bundle Preface
* The Real Lesson of Romeo and Juliet - Secret communication between lovers.
* They're Onto Me VIOLET - Discovering magic and hiding it from shady organizations.
The preface said, "We reached out to our friends and our social networks to see if any friends had something they couldn’t publish elsewhere that they wanted to contribute to the project" so you probably won't find too much about each of these titles outside of this bundle.
posted by Seboshin at 11:47 AM on February 21, 2021 [6 favorites]
* An Open Book - Living in your favorite piece of fiction.
* Chart of Note - Journaling while lost and finding hope.
* Drive-Ins and DJs - Exploring the lost art of collective music listening.
* E.V.E - Being a stolen robot.
* I Had A Bad Dream - Comforting a child frightened by a dream.
* Inn Story - Being critters in a medieval inn.
* Long Time Listener Last Time Caller - A radio show at the end of the world.
* Modern Masters - Altering details and removing context from scripts.
* Outscored - Oppressive regimes and the betrayal of friends.
* Paper Tigers - Two-dimensional characters.
* Prankster's Dilemma - Keeping mum about a high school prank.
* Respectable Pigeon - Being a very respectable pigeon.
* The Friendly Distance Bundle Preface
* The Real Lesson of Romeo and Juliet - Secret communication between lovers.
* They're Onto Me VIOLET - Discovering magic and hiding it from shady organizations.
The preface said, "We reached out to our friends and our social networks to see if any friends had something they couldn’t publish elsewhere that they wanted to contribute to the project" so you probably won't find too much about each of these titles outside of this bundle.
posted by Seboshin at 11:47 AM on February 21, 2021 [6 favorites]
My old RPG group's forays into digital table top RPGs have concluded that post-apocalyptic and science fiction games fit the medium best.
I gave digital GMing a go, and found that I could repurpose Inkscape (a free vector graphics package) to a slightly useful digital table top, juggling different documents and layers on the fly. We decided to just trust each other on the dice rolls.
posted by Harald74 at 1:12 AM on February 23, 2021
I gave digital GMing a go, and found that I could repurpose Inkscape (a free vector graphics package) to a slightly useful digital table top, juggling different documents and layers on the fly. We decided to just trust each other on the dice rolls.
posted by Harald74 at 1:12 AM on February 23, 2021
Just now checking these out, and Respectable Pigeon feels like it could be a great road trip game, if nothing else
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:13 PM on February 25, 2021
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:13 PM on February 25, 2021
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posted by cobaltnine at 5:11 AM on February 21, 2021 [1 favorite]