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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due

@empathchamber.bsky.social
313 followers 1.5K following 156 posts

Previously Ogrehead. A swedish designer, gamer, and gamer designer. Work in digital product by day, wear the ttrpg/pbta/fitd/fate cape by night. linktr.ee/empathchamber

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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Just released the one-pager of When Tithes Are Due, my next game in the Untethered Shadows setting. You play outlaws who took the woods over the gallows – pushing the fellows you have while the hue and cry rises behind you. #ttrpg #storygames #pbta #fitd #fate empathchamber.itch.io/when-tithes-...
empathchamber.itch.io
When Tithes Are Due One-Page RPG by EMPATH CHAMBER
A storygame about outlaws and brigands surviving the law that hunts them.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
We've just published our Kickstarter waiting list: www.kickstarter.com/projects/emp... #ttrpg #rpg #ogreish #wtad #wfgf #pbta #fitd #fate Join us!
kickstarter.com
Coming soon: When Tithes Are Due RPG
A tabletop RPG about outlaws who fled the gallows for the woods, and now owe their lives to fellows the law can hang for helping them.
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Cats Have No Lord @catshavenolord.itch.io · 02/08/2026
Remember Itch has a handy link to take you to the jam entries that haven’t gotten many (or any) ratings and comments yet. Make sure to give a look to the work from newer folks in the scene that might get missed, not just the big names. #TTRPG #OSR
Screenshot of the Appendix N Jam page with red line and arrows around the link that says “Help rate submissions that have few ratings”
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Thought Punks 🎲 TTRPGs + Punk 👩‍🎤 @thoughtpunks.com · 24/07/2026
It was another 100 for the neurologist. I'm more than broke now. Really could use a hand climbing out of this hole. Immediate need is a grocery run. This ornery body needs fuel.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
In time for our When Tithes Are Due RPG, this trailer is launched. I'm just... wow. This is exactly the touchstone we're working for. It just looks amazing! #ttrpg #rpg www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVkr...
youtube.com
THE UPRISING - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters September 11
YouTube video by Focus Features
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Our next project got waylaid by #onepagerpgjam #1pRPGjam at itch.io – so we took the detour and made a one-pager out of it. "When Tithes Are Due" is our upcoming #OGREISH game, headed for Kickstarter this fall. This one-pager will be a fully playable teaser of it, to be released the coming weeks.
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MegueyB 🔜Metatopia @megueyb.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Only 67 book backers until everyone gets More Art in the form of a new map in the book! Corey's maps a very cool, and I am excited to see what he makes. Looking ahead, if we hit 24K in the next 8 days, I get to give all three artists a bonus, which would ROCK! www.kickstarter.com/projects/117...
kickstarter.com
PsiRun Second Edition
Whoever was holding you captive, you're free, for now. You have superpowers & amnesia. You know they're after you. What could go wrong?
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Decided today to join #onepagerpgjam at itch.io today with a slimmed down version of our upcoming #ogreish #ttrpg . Stay tuned.
itch.io
Download the latest indie games
itch.io is a simple way to find, download and distribute indie games online. Whether you're a developer looking to upload your game or just someone looking for something new to play itch.io has you co...
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Thomas Rey @thomrey.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Hey #PortfolioDay ! I'm Thomas, a French #mapmaker Looking for opportunities in publishing and ttrpg mostly 🌐 wheretofind.me/@thomrey ✉️ thomrey@hotmail.com
The map of a Celt inspired villageA map of the Mediterranean basin showing Odysseus’ travelsA map of Svaalbard with a 69m sea riseAn adorned world map on torn parchment paper
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
This looks really exciting!
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Hey – we've joined the itch.io summer sale if you're curious of Where Fields Go Fallow and its first playset: itch.io/s/188627/emp...
itch.io
Empath Summer Sale 2026 by EMPATH CHAMBER
A bundle by EMPATH CHAMBER, $9.00 for Shadow of Salt – a playset for Where Fields Go Fallow, Where Fields Go Fallow RPG
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Jake @jakeofonline.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
@scenefour.bsky.social has been doing a great series of PbtA-explainer tiktoks in the past couple days
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
For those of you who didn't get a chance to back us last year on Kickstarter, we've now released the full PDF version on itch io and dtrpg com: empathchamber.itch.io/wherefieldsg... www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5... #ttrpg #folkhorror #rpg #pbta #fitd #storygames
empathchamber.itch.io
Where Fields Go Fallow RPG by EMPATH CHAMBER
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Slay-lor Kill-icity @rollforfelicity.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
There are so many beautiful TTRPGs that have so much to say and such interesting stories to tell but people don't play them fully, or don't play them on their own terms, and all that beauty is missed.
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Youngles 🇰🇷🔜PAX Unplugged @youngles.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Hey. Tell people when they do good job. When you like the stuff they make. When you like the characters they’ve created. The stories they’ve told. Nobody hears it as often as you think bc everyone thinks everyone hears it all the time. Trust. They don’t. Tell. Them.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
LOve it!
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Thanks Paul, would love to hear how it all went later! Appreciated!!!
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
I'm opening up for 5 early access testers for my new playtesting platform - sessionnotes.dev It is in an early stage, and the purpose is to see if it works. If you're a playtester who wants to level up your efforts - you can help shaping this tool! #ttrpgdesign #rpgcommunity
sessionnotes.dev
SessionNotes – Playtesting Tools for Tabletop Designers
Capture structured feedback, voice notes, and transcripts from tabletop playtests. Compare GM vs Player perspectives and track improvements across versions.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Do you experience the same phenomena there? I know there were tons of Scandinavian emigrants ending up there.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
In Sweden, the Law of Jante, Jantelagen, is very much a thing. Perhaps not as much in younger generations as on older, but still. It is ingrained in society.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
How many of you game designers out there playtest you comes continuously? If so, how do you experience it?
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Public Kickstarter update for Where Fields Go Fallow: www.kickstarter.com/projects/emp...
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I've started a Substack! Check it out here: open.substack.com/pub/empathch...
open.substack.com
Issue #1 – The Weight of Emptiness
Design thoughts, a new corner of the Lower Princedoms, and tables for your next session.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
We have now sent out our Backer Survey! Please check your email address used on Kickstarter or our latest update there for more information.
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Tania Herrero @thebreadwyrm.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Some of the illustrations I made for the Sickest Witch's wooden minis and upcoming adventure by @justinsirois.bsky.social. Looking forward to seeing these in woodflesh! www.kickstarter.com/projects/jus...
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Kieron Gillen @kierongillen.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Sign up to the Cosmic Dark alert page here, which is a fascinating game of weird sci-fi horror. Tarkovsky, Ballard, Vandermeer: the good stuff. My scenario is called Umbilical, and is basically Superman's origin meets Annihilation. www.kickstarter.com/projects/gra...
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
I player Sorcerers & Sellswords with my kids on one vacation, and it turned out my at the time 5-yo daughter was secretly a murder hobo. It was superfun! Extremely short prep and got into play in just a few minutes.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
The ones I've looked at that inspired me are: - Sorcerers & Sellswords (a L&F hack) - World of Dungeons - 24xx - "Warrior, Rogue, Mage" (only a character sheet) My own additions to the pool are: OGREISH - empathchamber.itch.io/ogreish Where Fields Go Fallow - empathchamber.itch.io/wherefieldsg...
empathchamber.itch.io
Where Fields Go Fallow One-Pager RPG by EMPATH CHAMBER
A storygame about villagers defending their home from a monster.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
That makes feedback easier to manage, and the trajectory of a smaller project is easier to adjust and calibrate. End of rant :) 14/14
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
...the smaller a project is, the faster you can learn if your idea flies with the community, or if it is only great in your own head :) And as a solo designer, I can only say this: don't be afraid to try your ideas, but start small and release often. 13/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
...formatted into a tiny little thing, other players can digest and try out with little effort and time. For me, they were crucial to dare to try to run a Kickstarter again. It's fucking superscary to throw your ideas out there as an indie designer, and...
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
So to answer your question, @squadronuk.bsky.social, for me, one-pagers have been instrumental to channel my creativity into manageable projects that balance risk-taking and design fun. So to me, all one-pagers are valuable, more or less. I see them as expressions of an idea... 11/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
...upcoming project that will coexist, side-by-side with our zine, as a second installment of the engine/framework underneath the game. 10/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
...the beginning. Our bigger monster-hunting game is still in the making, but it had to take a pause production-wise to make room for this little gem of an experiment. And it all started with a one-pager design and our curiosity. Next, I'm soon planning to reveal the next... 9/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
So now, our spinoff design experiment for the one-page jam led us to do a Kickstarter, which funded this game in a Zine format. We're currently working on getting the game ready for print, and I hope to send it out to the backers during the summer. And the cool thing is, this is only... 8/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
We got some really good reviews, and in some player conversations, we learned that we were on the right track. The concept was interesting enough. Besides playing it with my family and some friends, it caught some eyes out there, which made us run it as a ZineQuest Kickstarter this year. 7/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
But what happened next was both something of the most inspiring thing I've done in many years, but also the most challenging. Could we pull it off? It turned out, yes, we could. We submitted the project, as a one-pager, under a name we later had to change. Anyway... 6/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
(ohhh, by the way, I forgot about one thing... the year before I released my ashcan quickstart rules on itch.io, which was a promo thing for the upcoming monster-hunting game, in a very compressed version, inspired by the one-pagers I mentioned earlier. This had some influence on our decision) x/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
We asked ourselves, could we compress a standard-sized game into a one-page playable solution? We had five weeks to do it, and we both had other work and family things to do aside from the game design projects. But something made us jump into the challenge. So we started out... 5/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
So when writing on my next "big" project, I ran into itch.io's yearly One-Page RPG Jam last summer (2024), and got an idea when discussing with my illustrator friend Steven. What if we did a micro-spinoff of our ongoing monster-hunting project, and submitted it? 4/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
But with lessons learned and a few years wasted on a "dream project", I found smaller games really satisfying, both the little I played and also when designing. Inspired by 24xx, World of Dungeons, Sorcerers & Sellswords, Lasers & Feelings, along with Trophy, I got into experimentation. 3/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
...when I got some time off. I did house rules, hacks, cooler thematic stuff. Most were smaller stuff for my own creative satisfaction, but one ambitious project was expensive, in time and effort. That failed miserably (in the early Kickstarter days), even though it turned out really beautiful. 2/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
@squadronuk.bsky.social asked some great questions about #onepager #ttrpgs. Many years ago (about when I became a parent), time for playing games was reduced to almost nothing. I missed playing, but didn't get more than an hour over for my own hobbies. Instead, I started to design games... 1/x
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
I have strong opinions ont his topic, but of course, I'm biased :)
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Simon Burley 🔜 Furnace @squadronuk.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
#TTRPGTHOUGHTS 1 Minimalist/One Page RPGs - clever or throwaway? There are loads of these one-page #TTRPGs around. There are probably 5 more in the world now than when I started typing this sentence. When creating/writing these games, do the authors develop the rules, test them…. 1
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Anto | Icarus Games @icarus-games.co.uk · 03/05/2025
It's #SelfPromoSaturday which means I want to see the #ttrpg stuff you've got available today, whether it's #dnd #pathfinder or #indierpg As always, don't forget; 👍 Like cool stuff 🗨 Engage with folks 🔃 Repost your favorites 🚫 No A.I Though
A happy man says "show me the good stuff".
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jae is not dead i promise 🩸✨ @naladraws.com · 01/05/2025
go.bsky.app/P49WMrb Here’s the starter pack! Please share, boost, and follow these folks! If you are Asian/Pacific Islander pls respond to the post above to be added! If I don’t know you, please link your work! Art/writing/game design/layout/editing/actual play/poscasting/etc all valid!!
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
A Where Fields Go Fallow Production Update: I just finalized the final raw text draft for the core of the game to be handed over to my editor, and @stonedrunkwizard has had the illustration brief updated! Now the refinement of the playbooks starts 😀 #pbta #fitd #fantasy #zinequest #gamedesign
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Connell @constantconnell.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
TTRPG Question of the Day You want to play a "traditional" fantasy game. What system are you using? For a lot of people the obvious answer is D&D, which is certainly an iconic game. But there are many other systems out that can handle the fantasy genre in different, interesting ways.
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Chris Swallow ➡️ When Tithes Are Due @empathchamber.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
I designed my own minimalistic game, OGREISH, after playing PbtA and FitD games for a few years. I wanted a more slick, streamlined engine with conversation-friendly challenges, that was easy to pick up and learn. Today I based my first game on it, Where Fields Go Fallow, which was just Kickstarted!
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