Harper Ferry

@harperferry.bsky.social

139 Followers 125 Following

Indiecade Award-winning Game designer, play facilitator, lifestyle clown, and anti-authoritarian wingnut based in LA. nullandvoidgames.itch.io nullandvoidgames.tumblr.com nullandvoidcomix.tumblr.com

"A time-and-motion engineer watching a bear near a berry patch would not know when to punch his clock. Does the bear start working when he walks into the berry patch, when he picks the berry, when he opens his jaws? If the engineer has half a brain he might say the bear makes no distinction between work and play. If the engineer has an imagination he might say that the bear experiences joy from the moment the berries turn deep red, and that none of the bear's motions are work." Freddy Perlman
A black and white dog in a black harness in front of the sunset
When you’ve had too much caffeine, choose two: You do not snap at anyone You get some work done You do not suffer from stomach issues
You may not deprive anyone of resources You may not engage in surveillance You may not hold anyone captive You may not prepare for violence
"When the most indiscriminate repression comes down on us, we should be careful, then, not to see it as the conclusive proof of our radicality. We shouldn't think they are out to destroy us. We should start rather from the hypothesis that they're out to produce us. Produce us as political subject, as 'anarchists’, as 'Black Bloc,' as 'anti-system' radicals, to extract us from the generic population by assigning us a political identity. When the repression strikes us, let's begin by not taking ourselves from ourselves." - Let's Disappear -The Invisible Committee
During the festival, the Bouffon invert all of the most basic agreements and institutions of Civilization. Disgust & Curiosity decide the fates of each of us. As the festival ends, Order is reestablished and the Bouffon are driven away, violently, if necessary.
Creating Characters Choose up to 3 descriptors from each category (or don't) and write them down. Eyes: wide, wild, sunken, dead, hollow, pleading, suspicious, mechanical, watchful, fiery, piercing, lonely, bleary, twitchy, striking, glowing, etc. Hair: wild, neat, knotted, braided, dirty, long, traditional, shaved, bald, asymmetric, choppy, covered, no hair, etc. Body: dirty, well-kept, fat, thin, amputee, athletic, short, tall, abnormal, mechanical, alien, old, young, etc. Gender: woman, man, fluid, concealed, taboo, cultural, kid, machine, alien, really big hoodie What the emperor took from you: my dignity, my land, my identity, my whole village, my family, something cherished and sacred, my pride, my best years, my innocence, my power, my title, my constant energy and attention, my love, my memories, etc. All you have left: vast patience, (another character's name], a desperate thirst for vengeance, a meticulous inventory of the emperor's crimes, a secret / will utter only in the ear of the dying emperor, the weapon that took the life of a single blood-stained coin bearing the emperor's image, horrifying memories of _ the uncanny ability to make others feel like me, etc.
A screenshot of the final four prompts from the game Matty Groves: “22. Who hurt Lord Daniel more, his wife or Matty Groves? 23. Does Lord Daniel's wife expect to die? 24. Why is Lord Daniel's wife unnamed? 25. Who survives the night?”
When the first thing you do after waking up is to read the headlines, choose one: • You feel frightened by what is happening to people like you • You feel ashamed by what is happening to people different from you
Hevel (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven What is this? This is a conversational story-telling game based on a passage in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes. During the game, players work together to define a community and then describe that community experiencing a variety of events which demand the community to respond in different ways. This is the second Annotate Your Own Adventure game by Null and Void Games.
Setup First, create your creator. The group may make as many selections from the list below as everyone can agree on, and any player may suggest ideas that are not on the list. Righteous, Willingly forgetful, Desperate, Explosive, Achingly alone, Over-confident, Different than before, Mirthless, Musical, Trembling, Continuing experiments even today, Infuriatingly Comfortable, Half-starved, Unforgiving, Sympathetic, Calculating at an appalling scale, etc.
When Parable Partizan walks from his quarters to the bridge / dining room & dance hall of his dreaded ship, The Juke Joint, Choose one: tired eyes, angry eyes, determined eyes, devious eyes, doubtful eyes Choose two: kinda fat, muscular, enhanced, confident, short Choose one: black skin, brown skin, dark skin, radiant skin, cerulean skin Choose one: neat hair, messy hair, cool hat (describe), stupid hat (describe), bald or shaved Choose one: • Crimson Jumpsuit with and flowing cape with chunky purple boots and gloves • All-black catsuit covered in matte-black spray-painted techno-dohickeys • No shirt, mint-colored towel with embarrassing threadcount around the waste, slippers that make his feet look like little alien monsters (describe) • Blue gingham dress with white lacy frills, huge laser pistol slung at hip, black leather boots, black leather jacket • Forest green zip-off cargo shorts, long sleeve blue flannel, brown boots with the laces untied
When you fight to save the body of your comrade from the indignity of looters and wild dogs, say whether you are driven more by Love or Honor and choose 2: You bring glory to your name through heroism, which will ultimately be your doom You recover your friend and are able to perform the mourning rituals they are promised You attract the fickle attention of several deities. Name one who will aid you and one who will punish you
Positive Questions • How does this build trust in the group? • How does this make the group safer? • How does this work toward one of the group's goals? • How does this make the authorities look clumsy, stupid, or senseless? • How does this inspire people to join the group? • How does this empower people to continue? • Who is most benefited by this? • How does this curtail surveillance? • What new goal suddenly seems possible because of this? • What insight or lesson can be learned from this? Critical Questions How does this diminish trust in the group? How does this make the group less safe? How does this work against one of the group's goals? How will the authorities use this action against you in their propaganda? Why does this cause the size of the group to drop? How does this stagnate the group's energy? Who is unintentionally harmed or made vulnerable by this? How does this expose the group to surveillance? What new threat reveals itself following this action? What misconception or bad idea do people learn from this?
Remember, any event can turn violent in an instant if the police decide to intervene. A riot can grow out of a sporting event or gay bar just as easily as from a political protest. What matters is that people are refusing the order to disperse because they want the status quo to change, even if the status quo is just defined as the expectation that they can be ordered home by police. At the same time, this game asks players themselves to think critically about questions with real political implications. The players are not expected to provide the right answers. The game is designed to provide players with a relatively safe and hopefully fun way to practice thinking about these questions in different contexts, ideally so that the players are better prepared to go out and make change in the real world. To that end, don't play this game if you're unwilling to think seriously about the positive and negative consequences of resisting Authority and defying the status quo.
A group of volunteers in hi-vis vests huddle to discuss the buildup of police officers just around the corner. Someone with a wagon full of steaming pots is yelling "Free the October Eight! Free I/ political prisoners! Free soup!" Somewhere, a fiery political speech is being fed into speakers that garble and echo the words so that they are unintelligible. A group of clowns are singing parody songs about the police. Someone throws a firework into the dumpster of a coffee chain id someone else starts screaming at them. Everyone is here in defiance of the status quo and the authorities that enforce it because the status quo cannot be allowed to continue.
The cover of Critical Mass. a hand drawn black and white image of protestors clashing with riot police with the title below and the subtitle: “a riotous game for 1-4 players”
When time begins to heal an old grudge, write down the name of the person who hurt or offended you and describe what they did in 1-2 sentences. Choose one: If you genuinely offer them your trust, they offer an unforeseen insight about a problem faced by you or an ally If you remain skeptical or suspicious of them, you learn of a valuable opportunity which can only be taken at their expense
When Melanie chooses Brad over you, choose 1-3: Hold a torch for her until senior year and destroy what’s left of your friendship by sleeping together Watch how you grow apart and see that you never wanted anything remotely similar in life Wait ten years, transition to womanhood, and get over it
When the first thing you do after waking up is to read the headlines, choose one: You feel frightened by what is happening to people like you You feel ashamed by what is happening to people different from you When you’ve had too much caffeine, choose two: You do not snap at anyone You get some work done You do not suffer from stomach issues When a car comes crashing through the wall, choose one: Something personally important to you is destroyed. What is it? You recognize the driver and they hate you. Why? You recognize the driver as someone you love and they need help immediately. Who is it?
Title panel of a NULL & void comic showing the two walking down a street across from a brick wall.
A black and white sketch of a stag atop of an abandoned and overgrown police car
A NULL & void comic in 3 panels. First panel: NULL sits alone on a couch, thinking “I REALLY DON’T LIKE TO THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE.” Second panel: NULL has turned sideways to lay down and thinks “I JUST DON’T REALLY LIKE MY LONG-TERM CHANCES.” Third panel: Closeup of NULL’s face as they think “I WILL HAVE TO DEFY PREDICTION TO SURVIVE.” Text reads NULL & void 11/21/21 in the bottom right hand corner.
When you finish reading your favorite book again, ROLL 2d6. On a 10 or higher, you realize something about the book you’d never thought of before and it reveals something important to you about your younger self. What did you realize? On a 7-9, reading has served you as an act of self-comfort at the cost of being an act of transformative self-reflection. What hard lesson do you still need to learn? On a 6 or lower, you return to a view of the world you’d already outgrown and it takes hold of you.
A 4 panel comic. 1st panel: NULL & void sit smiling at a table with food below the title of the comic. 2nd panel: NULL says “IF WE HAD ANY GITS AT ALL WE’D SKIP WORK AND SABOTAGE SOMETHING.” 3rd panel: void says “but we have to work…”. 4th panel: void says “so we’ll have to commit our crimes there today!”