Serious Reading
A downloadable journaling game
As featured on an episode of the Friends at the Table podcast's "The Road to PALISADE!"
...She denies him pies these days...
Serious Reading is the only game inspired by the brow-furrowing and spine-shuddering evoked by opinion columns.
It is a comedy-focused, single-page, solo journaling RPG where you take on the role of a grossly overpaid opinion columnist who probably should have quit years ago, as most of them should have if we could only be so lucky. You'll use separate tables of prompts to write headlines for fictional opinion pieces, ostensibly about very serious topics, and excerpts from those articles that reveal little to nothing about their supposed topic but everything about the bizarre, broken life of your columnist character.
Using a bit of William Lentz's Second Guess System and made for the Second Guess Jam, Serious Reading ensures every columnist character will gradually wane in their relevance until they rightly fade into obscurity as culture passes them by.
When you download this game, you get a hyperlinked PDF and a printer-friendly alternative that eliminates the background art for you to save on ink and increase readability.
A limited number of free community copies are available below for those who are currently struggling. Every purchase of Serious Reading will unlock one additional free community copy for another user. If you are feeling particularly generous, you can increase your purchase price, and for every $3.00 above the default price you pay, another free community copy will be unlocked!
UPDATE (Jan. 10, 2022): I've added an expansion, called Seriouser Reading, as a second page to the PDF file! It adds first and last name roll tables for your columnist character and a full second set of Headline and Write About tables, more than doubling the content in the original game. If you already have Serious Reading, just redownload the PDF, and you'll have both!
The prompts this time around tend to be more specific and a bit more bleak, so be mindful of your safety tools and remember that you can just stop any time the Poe's Law–driven comedy hits too close to reality.
If you want more horrifying and traditional roleplaying, check out my one-shot adventures below...
Join my mailing list for free versions of my games, free boardgame giveaways, and exclusive discounts!
Purchase
In order to download this journaling game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this journaling game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
If you're struggling financially but still want to check out Serious Reading, grab a community copy for free. A set number will be available to begin with, and then every purchase of the game will make another free community copy available.
If there are no more community copies available, but you just can't afford the cost, send me an email, no questions asked.
Development log
- Expansion for Serious Reading Released!Jan 09, 2022
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Just played it tonight and had a blast!! The prompts are so funny and the rules easy to get a hang of; it got my inner boomer (who is apparently a columnist by the name of Merchante Kashbagge) really going at some point hahaha
I'd also like to share the best line I've written so far for this game: "Back in my day, you see, it was a different time."
I played with this lovely person as Phont Maulch, the normalest of columnists. NOT A COMMUNIST.
Here is an excerpt from his deep deep thoughts:
Standards for workplace safety, are we focusing on the right things?
The workplace is like a home in many ways, a big family. Sometimes you find out that your wife is just like the OSHA inspector for example, telling you to stop eating pipes. Well, dear reader, what you'll agree with is that it is the fruit of communist propaganda. If your wife starts telling you what to eat, remind her that those pipes are what keeps things RUNNING in this house.
Played the first version and enjoyed it. I boosted the irrelevance each round to make a shorter game. For replayability, I'd want to think hard about different types of collumnists (advice, local flavor, gossip). I can see the game working with multiple players, maybe competing for The Publisher's approval? In conclusion, cargo pants are comfy and easy to wear, by gum.
Fascinated to know that columnist who vents in a real physical newspaper instead of like, going on twitter is a universal experience
Heard this game played on Friends at the Table, it absolutely rules!