Check the calendar. ET pubs running the new Frostbite rotation all week.
RPGs where MECHANICS (not setting) help create a dream-like vibe?
previewHello, community! I got some really good suggestions when I asked for pulpy sword-and-planet adventures last time I was here, so I figured I'd dip my toes in again with another hyper-specific request.
There is no shortage of games with trippy, imaginative settings. However, a lot of these games don't really do much to weave that dream-like sense of whimsical, slightly unsettling unreality into the mechanics themselves. For example, Numenera's bizarre distant future winds up handling like D&D but with goofy consumables, and the somber, beautiful Cloud Empress struggles to enforce its themes around the viciously antagonistic Mothership engine.
So, I'm looking for games that achieve the feeling of floating between scenes that evoke a sense of both wonder and mild confusion, where things are just illogical enough to keep players slightly off-kilter, but make enough emotional sense to stay engaged. Something in the tradition of Alice in Wonderland, an 80s fantasy puppet movie, A Wrinkle in Time, or Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Again, not looking for cool settings (those are a dime a dozen), but for mechanical methods to make players feel like they are experiencing an intense trip or especially strange dream.
Please read the other comments before making a recommendation so that you don't all wind up repeating each other. Thank you!