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Now you can play In This World too

Did you miss the Kickstarter? If so, you can finally get your hands on the early access rules of In This World. When you pre-order the book or PDF, you’ll get the fully playable rules now, and the final version when it is released. Lots of people have told me they only heard about the […]

Ben Robbins | August 8th, 2023 |

In This Life

“I’m tired of characters who are just shallow stereotypes…” We had just finished a delightful session of In This World and were basking in the afterglow. Talk turned to different stripes of gaming, from story games to D&D. Which is when Ace said how tired they were of one-dimensional characters. Characters that were just cardboard […]

Ben Robbins | June 17th, 2023 | , | 1 comment

Combining Worlds: See You Space Cowboy…

We had an urge to play some space cowboys. But what does “space cowboys” even mean to us? There was one way to find out: play In This World and chew on our preconceptions. Our plan was to play In This World to prototype some worlds, and then pick one to use for another game […]

Ben Robbins | June 11th, 2023 | , | 3 comments

Early Access Released

My original plan was to release an early access version of In This World to backers after the Kickstarter ended, so they could get started playing before the whole book was done. But then the other day I was having a great time playing with a new group of people and it made me think […]

Ben Robbins | June 10th, 2023 | | 2 comments

Gameplay Video: In This World

Trying something new! I’ve uploaded a gameplay video of one of our In This World sessions. The topic for our worlds: Vacations! I’ve never tried posting video of our sessions before, but a lot of people have asked to see what all my games look like in action, so we’ll see how this works! It […]

Ben Robbins | May 30th, 2023 | , ,

In This World, In Your Head

or, “Can you play this game solo?” Ever since I starting working on In This World, it has been slowly taking over my brain. I don’t mean I’m working on it all the time, I mean it is working on me! I’m just going about my day, minding my own business, and then something crosses […]

Ben Robbins | May 24th, 2023 |

In This World, Story Games Are Joy

“We started by changing “Story games aren’t about winning,” to “well, actually they are…”” Caroline and Marc took In This World for a spin on a lovely and leisurely Sunday morning. Their topic? Something near and dear to us all: story games! Less Than Three Games: World of Story Games “But what I most appreciate […]

Ben Robbins | May 20th, 2023 | , ,

It’s Raining Mechs

Alien mechs fall from the sky like shooting stars. Their technology is so advanced that even after smashing into the Earth they still work. And just one is advanced enough to change the balance of power. Governments and militaries around the world race to be the first to secure each mech as it falls… For […]

Ben Robbins | May 18th, 2023 | ,

In This World Kickstarter Has Launched!

The kickstarter for In This World is now live. I pressed the button and unleashed the flood.

Ben Robbins | May 16th, 2023 |

One Week Until Launch

The date is set. The kickstarter for In This World is launching on Tuesday May 16, one week from today. That’s my plan, anyway! Because the sooner I launch, the sooner you all get to play the game. I’m also going to be chatting with folks at the Foresight Games event this Wednesday (tomorrow), talking […]

Ben Robbins | May 9th, 2023 |

Calling All Streamers

Want to stream or podcast a game of In This World? I would love to jump on and facilitate a game, or just send you the rules so you can play it, or just talk about this weird little game and how it works. I suspect In This World is particularly well-suited for streaming, because […]

Ben Robbins | May 7th, 2023 |

In This World Prepares to Launch

The Kickstarter prelaunch page for In This World is up. Click that notify button! This is temporary art while we hammer out the finishing touches on the cover. It will be glorious. Since we’re getting closer to release, it’s also time to officially wrap up the playtest. I tend to let these things simmer to […]

Ben Robbins | May 4th, 2023 |

In This World vs The Trident of Progress

I realized I haven’t posted anything about In This World for a while. But I’ve only not been talking about it because I’ve been busy working on it instead. The three prongs of the trident of progress have been: 1) Integrating all the playtest feedback and refining the presentation of the game, 2) Seeing what […]

Ben Robbins | April 29th, 2023 |

Two-Player Creativity Is Harder

Of course not every game of In This World has been magical, but when I hear about sessions that dragged, they often have one thing in common: Only two players. In a high creativity game, the difference between two and three players is bigger than it seems. When there’s only one other person in the […]

Ben Robbins | January 31st, 2023 | , , , | 1 comment

In This World, Playtesters Are Awesome

“This was the first time someone said, ‘I wish this was our world.’” The playtest reports for In This World keep rolling in and I could not be happier with them. Playtesters, you’re doing a great job. I don’t respond to every email unless I have some questions or don’t understand some of the feedback, […]

Ben Robbins | January 30th, 2023 | | 2 comments

God Is the Algorithm

I blame Caroline, for making a world where God decides your social media feed based on your virtues or sins, but is also totally cool with virtue signaling.

Ben Robbins | January 17th, 2023 | , | 2 comments

New Version of In This World Is Ready

Updated rules for In This World has gone out to playtesters! If you signed up and didn’t get an email, scream and shout! (Unless you just signed up in the last day or so, in which case you get a link when the next batch goes out in a day or two) And if you […]

Ben Robbins | January 15th, 2023 |

More Playtesters!

I’m preparing a new revision of the In This World rules. No major changes, mostly clarification and text tweaks. I’m also opening up the playtest for more volunteers. So if you want in, sign up! Playtest Sign-up for In This World If you signed up for the last round, you don’t need to fill in […]

Ben Robbins | January 12th, 2023 |

Santa Walks Among Us…

The Sunday night crew took a break from Kingdom to playtest some In This World. Our topic? XMAS!!! So much fun! And only 50% dark! Check out this write-up by Caroline: less than three blog: In This Christmas And next xmas eve, remember to douse the holiday lights so Santa can’t find your house and […]

Ben Robbins | January 3rd, 2023 | ,

In This World, Two Things Collide

We playtested a slight variation on the rules for In This World: instead of just picking one topic, you pick two that relate or intersect, then make statements about one or both of those things. For example: family + nations war + technology food + ecology I think there are generally two cases you’d see. […]

Ben Robbins | December 31st, 2022 | ,

In This World, You Can’t Stop Thinking

I love how after you’ve played In This World, just hearing real world statements gets your brain juices churning: Pet owners outlive their pets Priests believe in god Food is made of plants and animals Space is mostly empty People apply for jobs Those are totally innocent, factual statements. But once you’ve got In This […]

Ben Robbins | December 14th, 2022 | | 1 comment

In This World, The Playtest Chugs Along

The playtest for In This World is chugging along nicely. We’ve got over a hundred volunteers, which should do very well, so I’ve closed the sign-up for now. I’ve already started getting great feedback. Some very interesting worlds being made, and also a few places where I clearly need to tighten up the game text. […]

Ben Robbins | December 13th, 2022 |

In This World, It’s Time to Game

In This World is out! For playtesters anyway. If you signed up to playtest you should have gotten an email with a download link Friday night. If you don’t see it, and it’s not in your spam, drop me a comment below to make sure you get hooked up. If you signed up after Friday, […]

Ben Robbins | November 19th, 2022 |

Playtest In This World

My new game, In This World, is ready for outside playtesting. I’ve played it a bunch, made some tweaks and refinements, and now it’s ready for you: Playtest Sign-up for In This World It’s a very accessible game, probably more than any other game I’ve made. I think it would work great even for people […]

Ben Robbins | November 13th, 2022 | | 2 comments