iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Sarah Doom @scorchadoom.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Get the lowdown on Velvet Glove on my latest post, where I describe working with @lackingceremony.bsky.social on system development: www.patreon.com/sarahdoom/po...

patreon.com

Some Velvet Glove Updates | sarahdoom

So the thing I've shifted into working on the majority of the time is Velvet Glove. A Woman's Madness, Thorns, In the Pines, and the other g

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Really love this breakdown of what makes Going For Broke work, especially the focus on the juice you can squeeze out of an opening credit sequence. 💸🏚️

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alex v @alexvalente.fyi · 16/09/2026

i think i like this format of "TTRPG review" i have landed on, as it allows me to zero in on something that may not be the main part of a game but the part that made me squeal with delight the most this time, it's Going for Broke, by @lackingceremony.bsky.social!

playpretend.bearblog.dev

Going for Broke

Going for Broke - by Avery Alder

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My vintage cube takeaway for the season is that everyone is dramatically undervaluing The Wondrous Wasp. It's a perfect tempo threat (a flash flier for two) that can also neutralize a lot of your opponent's scariest win cons. I shouldn't be able to consistently wheel it like twelfth pick.

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Playtest Material Magazine @playtestmaterial.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

New on the website: "Determining a Melodramatic Sensibility in Tabletop Role-playing Games" by writer Kayla Dice. Dice presents an analysis based on based on the presence of heightened emotionality, pathos, and meaningful dichotomies in various TTRPGs.

Two dueling sailors make meaningful eye contact, highlighted in the colours red and blue, with the caption of the article "determining a melodramatic sensibility in roleplaying games"

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I'm 20 cards into this draft, and here are 17 of them. Things are going very well. Guide, Pride, Ajani, Bombardment, Forth!

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

P2P1, do you take Tolarian Academy or Mox Jet? I took the mox, but afterwards felt like I was supposed to take Academy and hope to wheel the Retrofitter Foundry.

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Colin/CoMoo 🔜 Metatopia - Sociable Turtle Games @sociable-turtle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Late to the party, but I've been reading @lackingceremony.bsky.social 's Monsterhearts 2 & it's incredible. The skin descriptions masterfully tell you what they do, the ways in which they can do so, what they represent, & the themes and feelings you should expect in as few as 5 sentences

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Every time I see a Reality Fracture preview in Dimir with the "whenever you scry or surveil" theme, I feel a strong sense of injustice on behalf of my connive commander Kamiz.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Are you smart about materials and handicrafts? I need problem-solving support. I am divesting from ULine by buying a different kraft jewelry box to package The Quiet Year in. This new one has ever-so-slightly different dimensions, making the bottom-of-box sticker not fit by about 1mm. [...]

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Something that I can't comprehend how other people live without is a little spray bottle of plain water. Most of the time when I ask someone if they have one, they look at me funny. But I use mine constantly? Misting plants, making my hair damp before applying products, various lil cooking tricks...

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Freya @severalseals.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

New System Shop: Relationships in play! Featuring very special guest Avery Alder @lackingceremony.bsky.social ! We approach the taxonomic expanse from various different angles - power dynamics, stat(e)s of being, emergent ephemera - with Interesting results! open.spotify.com/episode/2bOk...

open.spotify.com

Episode 14: Relationships in Play

System Shop · Episode

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

My small batch of reprints of Monsterhearts and Dream Askew arrived from the printer today, and they were shipped loose - no shrink wrap, inadequate cushioning. Almost every copy of Monsterhearts arrived damaged. Very very frustrating!

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austin_walker @austinwalker.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Impossible to add up all Avery's done for the medium. But easy to say how much her work helped me come to understand how to play, facilitate, and design games. Also, they're fun as hell, you should buy them!

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

"It's unafraid of itself, and it's unafraid of humiliation. It's, like, protected in that way." I feel so struck by something in this phrase. Like there is a kind of power that Jack Haven is talking about here that I feel very drawn to understanding better. www.instagram.com/reel/Dbt-mD6...

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I had the delight of seeing Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma late last night in a theatre packed with queer weirdos. The energy in that room was so electric. I loved this bizarre, disorienting, funny, sexy, surprisingly tender movie.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Do you love any of the games that I have created? Whether it's Monsterhearts, Dream Askew, The Quiet Year, Going For Broke, or a deeper cut, now would be a great time to hit quote-tweet and tell your friends about it! It's been a slow month. 💕✨ store.buriedwithoutceremony.com

store.buriedwithoutceremony.com

Buried Without Ceremony

My name is Avery Alder, and for the past eighteen years I’ve been designing tabletop roleplaying games. These are games about community, relationships, doubt, queerness, and the collapse of civilizati...

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Aura @aurahack.ca · 22/08/2026

the secret to being really artistically inspired is to surrounded yourself with people 1000x cooler than you are and also be gay

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Brent Jans (he/they)💜🖤🤍 @dorklordcanada.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

If you are a TTRPG creator of any ilk here in Edmonton, join @catlinggun.bsky.social @iamatrex.com and myself at @pemetawe.bsky.social the afternoon of Sunday, October 4 for Hack n Yak, a casual meeting for designer folks to talk and connect. We have snacks so come hangout! #YEG #TTRPG

Text Reads: Are you a tabletop game designer? Have you ever written or hacked an RPG? Have you ever thought about writing one?
TTRPG Designer Hack n' Yak
Meet Local Designers - Snacks on Us!
Drop In, Sunday October 4, 1-4 PM
Pe Metawe Games 11805 94 Street NW
Presented by Worldbuilders YEG

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Plus One Exp @ 🔜 Metatopia @plusoneexp.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Tonight at 8p et join us for Show Me Your Moves as we explore life & design through the lens of PbtA design! Our guest is @lackingceremony.bsky.social, creator of... a whole lot of our favorite games! Also, special guest cohost @seraphimseraphina.bsky.social is joining us! Youtube.com/plusoneexp

A set of skewered dice show Avery's picture on one face and on the other is an animal skull.

Show Me Your Moves
twitch.tv/tonyplusone
With Avery Alder!

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Official AI statement for Buried Without Ceremony games: I am vehemently against the use of generative AI, and will never knowingly use it in my work. I am loyal to humankind and the earth. I will continue to do it myself, human style, ramshackle around the edges.

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Rainbow Die Studios @rainbowdiestudios.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Reminder that we will be playing The Quiet Year from @lackingceremony.bsky.social ! We will be live at 7pm EDT so come watch us create a story about a post-apocalyptic world while creating a map on our channels here: YT: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT_8... T: www.twitch.tv/tabletopgami... #ttrpgs

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Rascal News @rascal.news · 14/08/2026

Defy the Gods by @hecticelectron.bsky.social proclaims itself to be a game of "Queer Sword & Sorcery." A strong Epithet that naturally invites the question: what makes a game "queer?" @lincodega.com does a close read of the text, parsing queer structures that encourage explicitly queer play.

rascal.news

Queer games require queer structures

Defy the Gods makes good on its own epithet of “Queer Sword & Sorcery.”

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The euphemism for Great Depression just dropped.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Do you ever have a snippet of game design that is incomplete but also immaculate, and get stuck in a state of paralysis because the only way to develop further is to make it (temporarily) way more clunky? Mine was: [Voracity] broke the world. The people got [The Village]. The folk got [The Woods].

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Jeff: "We're going to play a game about gay letter-writing." Avery: "Sounds good. I'm going to play a guy who would never actually write a letter because that would be really gay." ✨🎭 But for real this game was the most sad-fun I've had in ages, and I hope you give the episode a listen! 😘

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Jeff Stormer @jeffstormer.gobirds.online · 12/08/2026

You'll dig this episode if you like: Moments in queer history, historical gay romance, the stories told in the margins This is one of my favorite episodes in a while. Getting to share this experience with @lackingceremony.bsky.social was incredible, im beyond grateful.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

The WNBA trans 'debate' stuff lately has me going back to this definitive video on the subject of trans women in sports. www.instagram.com/reel/CMX_u_C...

instagram.com

Instagram

Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I know it's a weird gripe to get worked up over when I'm not even nonbinary, but my eye twitches every time someone asks "What's a gender-neutral term for [concept that props up historically-rooted unjust power relations]?" and people reply with cute suggestions instead of challenging the premise.

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 09/08/2026

if they're drinking nounwine it's fantasy. if they're snorting a verb it's sci fi

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Leopards Eating People's Faces (cavalorn) Candles $3,600 (dril) u don't need to aspire to being low-maintenance because u are a human girl and not a car (moscaddie) y'all ever see a take so bad you are forced to immediately go to sleep? (austin_walker)

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Adventure Dice -> Winnipeg ComicCon @adventuredice.ca · 30/07/2026

Love to see these back on our shelves: games from Canadian designer Avery Alder from @lackingceremony.bsky.social ! In stock just in time for AniRevo in Vancouver this weekend, and hitting our website next week.

A pile of games from Buried Without Ceremony piled on our worktable, including The Quiet Year, Dream Askew / Dream Apart, Monsterhearts 2, and Going for Broke.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

me, on my wedding day, walking down the aisle to boygenius: this rules, we're so fucking cool, this ceremony feels so authentically us me, abandoned by my would-be spouse, trying to ever listen to boygenius again: well, fuck

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Ryan Lynch @outridercreative.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

My spicy TTRPG art and layout take? Consider just straight up doubling your rates and see what happens. Even if you lose half your clients you make the same amount and now have way more free time to promote your stuff.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I learned a strategy for navigating social media last year (from a reel, ironically). I think it was maybe from Magic steamer Maldhound? After scrolling mindlessly, if it felt like a waste of time, put down your phone and loudly exclaim: "wow, that fucking sucked." I've reclaimed so much time.

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

please listen to my actual play podcast @el3phantbird.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

a place to fuck each other is a game you can read for free on @lackingceremony.bsky.social's website. it has a rule that changed the way i think about games and i have not been able to stop thinking about since i read it seven years ago and literally no one i've ever spoken to has heard of it

Header: should and shouldn’t
Scenes end when a Lover acknowledges to herself that “I shouldn’t be here.” This is the phrase, a sort of ritual phrase, that ends the scene and puts its hopeful beginnings in relief. We don’t get to see what she does with that knowledge, or how she might extricate herself from the situation: there is the realisation that “I shouldn’t be here” and that’s that. Play just enough to establish why and how she came to that realization, maybe catching her next expression or gesture, and then end the scene.

You can end the scene on that phrase, or on any variation of it. We shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be here. I don’t know why I’m here. I’ve been here before. You get to choose where the emphasis lies—on the I, on the here.

This might seem like a strange thing—to cut from scenes right when a conflict has been identified. Trust that it will be rewarding to do so. Trust that it will be more interesting to immediately skip ahead, to learn about the ways that these characters reinvent themselves and reimagine their needs from scene to scene.

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Reposted by Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony

Monsterhearts BACKERKIT FUNDED 450%! @ludiclemur.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🩸ENDING @ 9 PM PT🩸 This is your final chance to back #Monsterhearts Welcome to Drowned Lake! 🐺Horror #IndieGame 🎲Spin-off of Monsterhearts #TTRPG 🃏Strategic #Deckbuilder 📖Narrative #VisualNovel elements 🧑‍❤️‍💋‍🧑8 Love Interests 🌈LGBTQ+ rep 📕TTRPG Supplement Add-On 🔁 Please RT & Share! 🔁 Back it here! ⬇️

backerkit.com

Monsterhearts: Welcome to Drowned Lake

Monsterhearts: Welcome to Drowned Lake. Get messy. 🤯 Get magical. 🪄 Get monstrous. 🦇 We are crowdfunding to add controller support to this queer narrative horror deckbuilder.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Been watching more stand-up over the past few years, and something I've noticed pretty consistently: cis comedians can write genuinely funny jokes that mock trans people, but only when those jokes are grounded in actual insights that have been gained through proximity, curiosity, and receptivity.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

board game design quagmire: What term best communicates "adjacent (which does not include diagonals)"? Adjacent, directly adjacent, touching, connected... something else? (I will clarify in the rulebook, but I want the most self-evident term possible. Context: card-based tile exploration game.)

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I had the honour of being a developmental editor/consultant on this game, and it really shook up a lot of my game design maxims and preconceived notions. It's one of those games that challenges the bounding definitions of how roleplaying games can work.

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Side Quest Books & Games @sidequestbooks.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I’m launching a smol Kickstarter for “The Ritual,” my sapphic, tarot-based solo TTRPG about blind love, power dynamics and the seductive danger of ambition — and you can sign up RIGHT NOW! If you love delicious queer drama and The Green Knight with Dev Patel, this is For You™️. bit.ly/3R84RTh

bit.ly

Coming soon: The Ritual: A Sapphic, Tarot-Based Solo TTRPG

AKA "The Shadow Mommy Project," originally created for Fistful of Crits' Romantasy TTRPG Jam!

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Rascal News @rascal.news · 07/07/2026

Evil Hat organizes RPG charity bundle in support of Rae Nedjadi www.rascal.news/evil-hat-org...

Illustration of Rae Nedjadi (name spelled to right) in a striped pattern blouse and glasses with flowers behind. A mosaic of RPG covers fill the majority of the space.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Okay, I may not have completed my single goal for today, which was also my single goal for yesterday, of "complete a rudimentary, playtest-ready prototype of this game," but I DID teach myself to create watercolor-esque renders of stock photos using Photoshop actions, theoretically for said game!

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Convention organizers! As a frequent convention guest, I just want to mention that a thing I always find myself wishing I had was a phone-friendly PDF of flash cards of key event staff, key venue staff, and fellow guests. Just a quick gallery of people with photo, name, pronouns, role, and key info.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I picked up the original Ogor Mawtribes spearhead box while it was still available, as a spearhead force that I might some day expand into a larger force, and now their whole line is getting a sick revamp, and I'm just so pleased for my roly-poly doofus boys.

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Do you have any Quiet Year maps that you've either recorded or clung onto? Would you be willing to potentially have your map be included as part of a book called Speculative Game Design by Mary Flanigan and Laurel Carney, to be released by MIT Press? If yes, reply with a picture of that map!

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

My 5 non-D&D TTRPGs to get to know me (2026 edition): -Bluebeard's Bride -Red Carnations on a Black Grave -Blades in the Dark -Dialect -Dream Askew

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