SAVE GAME NIGHT.
SAVE HUMANKIND.

If you are reading this, it can only mean one thing: session is at risk of being cancelled—or worse, it’s already happened! Someone has posted in the groupchat and your well-laid plans have fallen through. Whatever the excuse might be—exams, car trouble, ““work,”” you can trust that all of this is a guileful plot. Your friends would not bail on you! No. Never. This can only be their work.

HOW’S NEXT WEEK is a solo journaling anti-game that begins, spontaneously, whenever the scheduling for your regular play session falls through. 

HNW is intended for one player and an average play session will likely take between 30 and 90 minutes (or, roughly the length of a cancelled TTRPG session). To play, you will need access to a smartphone (or other web-browsery device), a journal (physical or digital), and solitude.

At first glance, their reasoning seemed so honest and mundane. But you are wiser now. One too many times, you have been left bereft. No more. There is one reasonable conclusion: your friends have been replaced, possessed, or taken. This can only be the work of wretched beings from beyond this world: THE INTRIGANTS. 

In HNW, you will become a Probationary Field Agent (PFA) working for the Allied Network for Xenolinguistic Surveillance (ANXS) to identify, decipher, and resist the subterfuge of INTRIGANTS from another reality. Your task:

• Detect signs of intrigant interference among members of your regular game group.

• Designate possibly compromised members of your group as Subjects-Under-Surveillance.

• Decipher the codes hidden in their excuses and messages.

• Deduce the nature of the INTRIGANTS who have possessed, bodysnatched, captured, or psyionically manipulated your friends.

• Document your findings and protect yourself from subliminal influence using a mnemonically-sealed journal.

HNW uses multiple materials, including a handbook, and a mobile application. To play a session, you will need: 

• 1 cancelled game night.
  
• A smartphone, tablet, or web-browsery device.
• A physical or digital journal. 
• A private location.

Hazardous Materials: The writing and audiovisual media in HNW references the following: body horror, blood, gore, insects, parasites, censorship, and global catastrophe. It engages themes of gaslighting, alienation, loneliness, delusion, and cults.

Precautionary Measures: HNW is likely to provoke feelings of discomfort. This is probably a good thing! HNW is about wrestling with feelings of disappointment, abandonment, betrayal, and anxiety that surround being in community with other players. The game has intended “breaks” and a built-in aftercare process. That said, be kind to yourself. You can stop playing and call a friend at any time.

How's Next Week? is part of The Trans Games Digital Zine, a community-led project funded by an ALCS Digital Justice Seed Grant. 

The game is also a part of PB's forthcoming book project Unplayable Games, which is supported by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant. 

This project would not have been possible without the help of many friends, colleagues, and abettors. Endless gratitude to all of you. 💖

Co-conspirators: Madison Schmalzer • Brandon Blackburn • Jess Rowan Marcotte • Tabletop Research in Practice • The CRYPT Lab

Playtesters: Ari Gass • Teddy Pozo •  Adrianna Burton • The Trans Game Zine Collective 

Note: This project is newly released! Expect some bugs and issues and more content to come. :) You can leave feedback on the project at this link: https://forms.gle/MHDMqKZPuLP2uwL98

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