Adam Powell (00:12.902)
Hello and welcome to Snyder's Return, a tabletop roleplay podcast. My guest today has taken us to Ravenloft, Arrakis, Merrygrove Lane, the banquet hall, the art gallery, and many other places in space and time. But now she wants us alone. Late in the day and tuned into her particular frequency of horror, it's time to settle in for the late shift with a difference as we welcome game designer, TTRPG content creator, and the person responsible for the darkness at the brink of Ohio, the supremely talented

Banana, welcome back to the show.

Banana Chan (00:46.11)
Thank you so much for having me back on the show again.

Adam Powell (00:49.176)
It is always a pleasure to get to talk to you, but for those that haven't heard our previous interviews, Banana, would you mind sort of reminding us briefly how you got into tabletop role -playing games, please?

Banana Chan (00:58.142)
Yeah, absolutely. So I got into tabletop role -playing games actually sometime in my 20s. So previously I had played D &D like in my teens, but I didn't really actually get into it until probably my mid 20s when I went to a gaming convention in New Jersey. And I just started playing, I think it was like Monster Hearts was one of the games. It was sort of like a transition from LARP.

and board games into suddenly, you know, tabletop role -playing games. I was playing Monster Hearts, I was playing Fiasco, and several different other games. And so that's sort of what really hooked me into the tabletop space.

Adam Powell (01:42.79)
And you have gone to be prolific within the tabletop space. Some of the work you've done, I've alluded to there in the introduction. What been some of the most exciting projects you've worked on recently? Bring this up to where we are today, please, Banana.

Banana Chan (01:58.878)
gosh. So I've been working on a lot of solo journaling games, mostly because I have discovered that getting a play group together or a play testing group together is just really hard with scheduling. I think it was easier when people were all working from home and, you know, folks had a lot of extra time. But these days, it's just been like a lot harder trying to like, you know, work around people's schedules. And so I've been doing a lot of solo journaling.

games. The last one that I did was Forgery, which was about a disgruntled art forger who recreates a cursed painting. They're commissioned to do so and as they're, you know, recreating this cursed painting, a demon comes to life and sort of tries to give her all of the things that she desires at the expense of her friends and family and, you know, sort of like her humanity as well.

So that was the last one that I crowdfunded prior to this one, which is The Darkness at the Brink of Ohio, which uses a soundtrack element to it. So it's sort of like a radio play in that you're reacting to the radio play as you're journaling. So it's a little bit different from the other games I've been working on.

Adam Powell (03:19.206)
Absolutely, and we will get further into the mechanics, as it were, the thematics almost that is involved in the darkness at the brink of Ohio. But so people can find your content and find everything you're about, where can they go to follow you and support you, please?

Banana Chan (03:23.39)
Yeah.

Banana Chan (03:37.086)
Yeah, so folks can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Blue Sky. I'm also on YouTube. My handle is at the Nanachan Games and you can find my company, which was previously known as Game and Okuri. It's now Read Write Memory. You can find Read Write Memory at Read Write Memory at all of the same platforms on social media.

Our website is still www .gamenocurry .com, but we are working towards transitioning that over to readwritememory .com. So hoping for the next few months, eventually we'll get everything transitioned over.

Adam Powell (04:14.374)
Alright, well I will make sure those links are down in the description below this podcast. So scroll down, follow those links. If forgery sounds like a game for you, you're intrigued by it, you can actually go onto the read write website and download the PDF of the demon there as well. So something to pick up and and colour yourself demonic. That's something for another time maybe. However, moving into the present as it were and the future and

the darkness beyond that, as it were. You and the teams you've assembled over the years have become crowdfunding masters, and this one is no different over on Kickstarter. So what can you tell us about the darkness at the brink of Ohio, please?

Banana Chan (05:00.254)
Yeah, so The Darkness of the Brink of Ohio is a solo horror journaling game where you are playing a late shift worker. So you might be a gas station attendant or a security guard, an office or building, or you are a lab technician. And so those are the three characters that we have so far that you can play as later on as we hit more stretch goals.

we're unlocking, we're trying to unlock the funeral director and the call center tech. So those are like the two other people that we might be able to unlock. But you're playing a late shift worker and you are listening to the radio during your shift and it is DJ Mike who you're listening to and he has this show called Devil's Hour. And as you're listening to him speak on the radio,

He's going through trivia, late night trivia with all the callers. And eventually he plays this curse song and the curse song sort of triggers the events into motion. So as things progress throughout the radio show, he turns into something else without spoiling it too much. So there are some creepy sounds that are involved in the actual radio portion of the game.

Adam Powell (06:18.438)
of course.

Adam Powell (06:26.502)
Absolutely. And I'll touch more on the soundtrack and all the fantastic team you pulled together to work on it. But what is it about using the radio? First of all, why Ohio? And then secondly, what about radio station in smallish city Ohio that really sort of captured your imagination to share with us?

Banana Chan (06:49.438)
Yeah, so I lived in Akron, Ohio for a small period of time, which is where the game actually takes place in. And while I was living there, there wasn't really much to do aside from drinking on weekends and going out to eat, maybe going to a movie theater. And we also had like an art gallery that I was interning at for a short period of time. But other than that, there wasn't really much to do there.

And so that sort of gave me the idea of like, you know, what do you do when there's not much going on? And there are pockets of these small cities, like, you know, or small towns in general, you know, all across the world. And so, you know, what do you folks do when there's like nothing going on? And the other thing that I wanted to explore was the idea of parasocial relationships, specifically the idea of limerence as well. So, you know, infatuation.

with someone that you might not actually have access to, someone that you might actually not know at all. And sort of that idea of like, what is it like when you are isolated and maybe like, you know, a little bit lonely and trying to find connection with other people at when, you know, you're working like a late night shift. So those were sort of the ideas that I had going into the actual project. A lot of it was inspired by,

the video artist Vito Acconci who did this one video piece called Theme Song. This is years and years ago and he's since passed away but the video piece is him talking to a video camera sort of like how like a streamer would or like a you know anyone who does a lot of this kind of stuff where it's like you know you're facing

Adam Powell (08:36.102)
Hmm.

Banana Chan (08:42.27)
an audience, but you don't know who the other person is on the other side of the camera is. And so it was very much inspired by that because the DJ, Mike, he doesn't know who's listening, right? Like callers will call in, but a lot of it is just like, you know, you are hearing this artifact of someone going through this thing, someone, you know, talking to these random callers, someone who is

trying to perform on, you know, through a radio medium. And they have no idea who you are, but you know everything about them. So that hyper visibility is also a portion of the game.

Adam Powell (09:25.382)
Wow. So you gave us one sort of inspiration there. Are there any other sort of media touchstones that people could refer to if they're not familiar with that particular piece?

Banana Chan (09:34.974)
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm gonna go down and see what the... Because there are a few. And I also recently just watched this new movie, or it's not really new, but it was from 2020. There's this movie called Rent -A -Pal. And it has Will Wheaton in it as like the bad, like the antagonist, pretty much. And I watched that today and I was like, whoa, this is just like the, I mean, not exactly like it.

Adam Powell (09:41.286)
You're on.

Adam Powell (10:02.15)
Hmm.

Banana Chan (10:02.91)
but it does touch upon a lot of the same themes that I was thinking about when I was working on The Darkness at the Brink of Ohio. But aside from Rent -a -Pal, which is about a man who's a caretaker for his mother, his mother is sick with dementia, I believe, and he just doesn't have a lot of time to take care of both his own needs and to find...

find like a partner or find like, you know, someone he can relate to. This is, I believe set in the 80s or 90s where he is dependent on like video tapes. So there's like video tape dating was a thing. And so he finds a tape that has Will Wheaton. I mean, it's not actually Will Wheaton plays like a, you know, a character, but the character is trying to like become friends with him. But it's like,

Adam Powell (10:35.942)
Yeah.

Banana Chan (10:59.71)
this weird relationship because it's separated by a screen and, you know, he sort of develops this connection with his character from behind the screen. So it has similar themes to the darkness of the Brink of Ohio. But other than Rent -a -Pal, a lot of other inspirations for this game were altered states in terms of, you know, the body horror aspect into the mouth of madness, again, with the body horror aspect.

Splinter, Color Out of Space, The Empty Man. They're all sort of like the influences for like the body horror that happens in the actual radio show. And I think in terms of overall themes and overall more like mechanics, it was inspired by Pontypool, which is a movie, a Canadian movie from, I believe,

Adam Powell (11:48.326)
Hmm.

Banana Chan (11:56.414)
within the last five years at least, probably five or 10 years. But it is about a radio DJ and his producer. And they're like sort of trapped in like a radio studio as the basically the end of the world happens like outside of outside of the studio, which brings me to like the next game that sort of inspired by this, which is

Longtime Listener, Last Time Caller by Jeff Deterly. That's also sort of similar to Pontypool where in the game itself, there is like a GM or like a facilitator of the game who acts as the radio DJ who receives callers. And then there's like an audience, like there's like a whole, like this happens in real life. This is a LARP sort of game.

where there's this audience and the audience can always hop on and walk onto, whether you're playing on a stage or just two chairs or something like that, one of the audience members can just jump in and be a caller. And their prompts are usually like, try to slowly ramp up into the end of the world. So just create random things that are happening. Like,

Adam Powell (12:52.454)
Okay.

Banana Chan (13:20.99)
For example, maybe you're looking for a missing person who's close to you. What does that look like? And describe that as you're playing this game out. Yeah, so a lot of influences.

Adam Powell (13:30.79)
Okay. No, no. See, when I first saw the radio sort of producer sort of set, I'm thinking like Frasier and Roz out of Frasier. And I thought, well, that's very Seattle and psychological, but that's psychology and not where this game heads. So very different. But that was, that was my touchstone. I was like, I don't think that's, but no, the way you've described it there is, is fantastic. So.

How you mentioned sort of taking prompts using the soundtrack, which is available on the Kickstarter page. You can sort of sit and sort of scan through some of the tracks or all the tracks. Very thematic. So how does that tie in with the journaling side of things with respect to how the game, how one would play the game or experience the game, I guess.

Banana Chan (14:23.742)
Yeah, so that's a great question. So the soundtrack plays out in a way where there are some questions that are built in in the beginning. So those questions in the beginning are asked by Aaron, Aaron Catano-saez, who plays DJ Mike. And he asks those questions intentionally to sort of build a relationship between him and the person who's playing. And so...

After that's done, there are additional questions that are in the actual rule book. And so in the book itself, as they're creating their character, there are different questions that could pertain to one of the three characters that you choose in the game. So say, for example, you choose to be the gas station attendant. So the game would ask you to, first of all, set up your space so it looks like you're sitting behind.

the cash register of a gas station, dress up if you want to, have a beverage, and also pick from one of three images that you can have by your desk, so by the cash register. As you're playing, you're going to answer some questions. Then once you start the soundtrack, you're going to answer the questions from DJ Mike, and that's going to get into the actual show itself.

When music plays, that's when you answer more questions from the book. So you're journaling your, sort of like your day to day as you're working the cash register and also, you know, questions about what's going on in your head as you're listening to DJ Mike and sort of like answering them in a way that, you know, you're journaling out your thoughts.

Or if you're playing one of the other characters, you might be relaying little bits of information or little bits of gossip to the next person who's going to take over your shift. So there are elements of trying to create this weird dynamic between you and DJ Mike, dependent on which character you choose. So I think for the security guard,

Adam Powell (16:28.582)
Hmm.

Banana Chan (16:43.902)
You do have a friend that's going to be going back and forth with you in your messages, but there isn't actually another person. It's just you solo journaling, but the prompts are very much designed to be like, you have another friend that's also a security guard who's going to be taking over your shifts after this. What messages do you tell them? What do you tell them about Mike? That's designed to be like, hey, there is a friend that you have, but that friend,

Adam Powell (16:53.19)
Hmm.

Banana Chan (17:13.662)
parallels who you're listening to. And so it sort of builds up that, it's not necessarily like trust, but it does build like a false relationship with you and DJ Mike who you're listening to.

Adam Powell (17:25.71)
Yeah, fantastic to have Aaron as DJ Mike. He's done some put some things up on Instagram and other other places. Such a fantastic person has been a guest on the show and I'm really glad you managed to sort of get him involved and have him involved as well as some of the other people on well all the people on the team. But there are some standouts. So with respect to what you've described there and how to play the game, other.

Banana Chan (17:31.646)
Thank you.

Adam Powell (17:54.534)
Are there examples, streamed games or sort of pre -recorded games people could check out to maybe sort of try and understand the ebb and flow if maybe they've not quite picked up on the cues you've given over there?

Banana Chan (18:05.726)
Yes, absolutely. So I worked together with a few streamers. They're on the actual Kickstarter page. You can find a streamed game from D &D Impostor, Hama Samakun, and Diana of the Rose. They all did, I think they did, yeah, one of each character. So like, you know, I think D &D Impostor,

They did the lab technician, Hama Samakun did the security guard, and Diane of the Rose did the gas station attendant. And then there were a few others that were added on later, such as Apocromatic. They did one for, I believe it was the gas station attendant. And then there was one more from Alec, Alec the Bard, who I think also did the gas station attendant. So yeah, that was.

Definitely a more popular one, I would say. Yeah. You can definitely check this out on the Kickstarter.

Adam Powell (19:02.47)
Mm.

Adam Powell (19:06.862)
Yeah, yeah, again, I'll make sure there was a link to the Kickstarter page, which at time of recording only has three days remaining. So I'm sure will it be going on tobacco kit? Will there be late pledges and all that sort of good stuff going on?

Banana Chan (19:22.974)
Yes, there are going to be late pledges available for the Kickstarter itself. I think Kickstarter is trying this new thing where it's like, you know, you can do late pledges if you want to. So we've already signed up for all of that. And we're also going to do it through through backer kits. So if anyone wants to, you know, sign up for a game or a pledge for, you know, the physical edition or the digital edition, then they can definitely do that. I think we might be trying to limit the amount of time that we have.

of flexi discs that we have. So there are some special pledges that give you cool stuff. So we have like journals, we have beer koozies, we have t -shirts, posters, flexi discs. And so we're trying to limit the amount of those. So those might not be available. It depends on like how well we do in the last three days. But if it seems like there's like, you know, a lot of folks who want to get those then...

we might build them in later on down the line.

Adam Powell (20:22.406)
I mean, that is fair enough. I mean, just to put that into perspective, it's currently over $12 ,000 raised, over 300 backers. There's clearly a lot of love and interest for this project, mainly because of the quality of your previous work and the unique nature of this particular solo journaling role -playing game.

So that sort of ties up a little bit. We've mentioned the characters you can play, the soundtrack. DJ Mike played by Aaron doing a fantastic job. What's it been like to bring together the very team to put this very stylized, the artwork is fantastic. Please, if you haven't done so, scroll down, follow the link, have a look on the Kickstarter page. The artwork is fantastic for this game. What's it been like to pull together a team for yet another successful crowdfunding campaign?

Banana Chan (21:13.918)
Yeah, thank you so much. So for the illustrations, it's just been like such a pleasure to work with our two illustrators, Michael Croteau and Robert Richburg. I met Michael at an oddities fair out of all the weird cons that are out there. And so we started chatting. I really liked his work. And so I was just like, hey, do you want to like do a cover? And he was fantastic to work with. Robert Richburg is someone that I want to

sort of went to college with. He went to SVA, I went to NYU, but like we just randomly met at a lot of parties. And so we worked together previously on Junsha and I adore his work. So it's fantastic getting him back onto a project. And he's doing all the interior art in terms of the actual text, editing the actual text. It started off with like the script. So the the sort of like the radio show script.

that Yeon -Soo, Julie, and Kim edited. And then the rest of the text is edited by Karen 12. So all of the text is pretty much done, up to the two last characters. Like if we hit those stretch goals, then we'll just have, you know, a little bit more editing to do, a little bit more writing to do. But other than that, everything else is like finished. It's all done. And when we were doing this script, after like, you know, Yeon -Soo had

finished editing it. I started like talking to Aaron, seeing if he'd be interested in doing something like this, you know, we're really close friends. So it's like, it's, you know, we travel together. And, you know, we just randomly do stuff together all the time. So this is like an excuse for me to be like, Hey, Aaron, do you want to do like another project with me? And so he took time out of his very busy day to like, you know, basically do this fantastic piece of work. And he was amazing, like,

It was just so much fun working with him, trying to send him the references of what I was thinking of with the last part of the soundtrack, which was very hard to pull off. Aaron pulled it off. He was amazing. But I understand it was very hard because it's a lot of horror sounds, which is subdued. It's like trying to get someone...

Banana Chan (23:39.358)
sounding like they're in pain and also transforming into something else. So I sent him like a lot of references to the fly like transformation scene, just so that he could get an idea of like what I was going for. Without too many spoilers, but great working with him. Amazing working with Jasmine Bhullar, who is also known as that bronze girl. She and I, we, you know, we live pretty close together. And so like we sometimes like have the opportunity to chat. And so,

Adam Powell (23:46.95)
Yeah.

Adam Powell (23:54.266)
Thank you.

Banana Chan (24:08.734)
just working with her is fantastic. She was phenomenal. Just hearing the clips, I was just like, this is amazing, this is perfect. Yeah, there were honestly no notes when I received the audio from her. And then we also worked with Danny Quach, who you probably know from a lot of his work on social media. He was a social media.

or sorry, community manager for Roll20 for a while. Now he's working with Ravensburger. And so getting the chance to work with him is amazing. Austin Taylor, they're incredible. Like they have a podcast called Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries. So I feel like this was definitely very much in their real house where it's like, you know, you probably experience this kind of stuff sometimes. So this is like your chance to like, you know, do something a little bit creepy, do something a little bit fun.

And then finally, we also had Gavin Stenhouse, who was an actor on an episode of Black Mirror, namely San Junipero. So it's the episode set in the 80s. Well, kind of, I'm not gonna spoil it, but there are, yeah, it was set in the 80s, mostly. And he's also on CW's Kung Fu, and he was also the lead on a spy thriller called Allegiance from a few years ago. So.

Adam Powell (25:19.91)
Thank you.

Banana Chan (25:33.374)
Working with him has been amazing as well. Like his creepy voice, so good, so good. And then along with that, talking to musicians such as Don't Do It, Neel, Omar Starr, they're both in the tabletop space already. So getting licensing from them for their music has been, it was just like, yes, like they were really excited for this. And just like hearing their music, I was just like, this is amazing. This would definitely fit with the soundtrack.

Adam Powell (25:37.99)
Thank you.

Banana Chan (26:02.046)
And then the other person who we worked with in terms of music was David Jones Krauss. And David actually has done a lot of music for actual play stuff. And so recently, you know, we've been working together on soundtracks for games and he's always amazing to work with. He's always just like, you know, so creative and for the, he did the cursed song. And with the cursed song, he asked me to like do a,

Adam Powell (26:23.174)
Hmm.

Banana Chan (26:31.742)
a scream. And so I was just like, I am not good at this. I don't know what I'm doing, but okay, I'll send you a clip. And the way that he described putting the song together was he said that he was trying to get and I'm probably going to butcher this quote, but he was trying to get sounds that sound like things that that shouldn't go together that are just like everyday sounds like the windshield wipers going off, you know,

people screaming in the background, sounds that just like sounds like they shouldn't be a part of music and like putting it into the piece. And so, yeah, it's just so amazing working with him on that weird song. And then in terms of graphic designers, we're working with John Merchant and Ruby Lavin, worked with both of them before on Forgery and Stamos Academy.

They're fantastic. And finally, my partner Herb, he's stuck working production again. So he has to handle working with like the manufacturers. He loves doing it. I'm just like, you know, all the power to you, you're doing, you know, the hard part and handling all the proofing and all that fun stuff. So yeah, it's a good team.

Adam Powell (27:52.71)
Herb, the unsung hero of 106 .6 FM. Now that's such an amazing team, and thank you for letting us see behind the curtain, as it were, or join you in the booth, or whichever analogy we're going to go with. And I'm sure it doesn't matter if you kind of paraphrase the quote rather than butchered it. So that is what we can get from you now. And again, I'll make sure the links are down below so people can.

Banana Chan (27:56.99)
Yes.

Adam Powell (28:20.742)
follow the links and back and support you and the team you brought together there. But what about what's next? With this coming to a close in the next three days at retirement recording and then moving on to Backer Kit where we can continue to support and involve ourselves and experience the game for ourselves, what's next? What's down the line in the pipeline as it were for your good self and any team you draw together?

Banana Chan (28:47.934)
Yeah, so we're working on a secret project that is related to the darkness at the brink of Ohio with Willie Abil. And so Willie's Instagram handle is the willyboo. That's the Willie and B -O -O. And so we've been chatting. We're working on something that's like, you know.

Adam Powell (30:06.086)
Okay.

Banana Chan (30:07.23)
sort of related to the darkness of the Brink of Ohio, trying to cook something up there. But other than that, I am also working on the next installment of the Desperation series. And so the Desperation trilogy is a series of three games, they're all solo journaling games. The first one was Forgery. So like I mentioned, Forgery is about the art forger who's commissioned to recreate a cursed painting.

And then the second one is called Knock Off. And so Knock Off, we're gonna be putting that onto a crowdfunding platform, probably BackerKit, because we're gonna try and experiment with all these different crowdfunding platforms and see what sticks. But we're gonna probably put that on BackerKit. And that is about a man, his name is Marcos, and he works in fast fashion. And similar to Tempest, who was from Forgery,

He's sort of just like disgruntled at his job. He doesn't really like having to work in fast fashion. And he has to come up with some sort of design, either by copying someone from his work, because that's a lot of what fast fashion is. It's basically copying other designer stuff, or coming up with someone, something altogether, that's completely new altogether.

And so you're playing Marcos and as Marcos, you are basically cutting and pasting pieces of fabric over a croquis. And the croquis is, it's like a model, right? It's like a drawing of a model. And as you're piecing this thing together, you are summoning the same demon and the demon will give you the opportunity to either, you know, get...

stuff that you want in life, fame, success, you know, fortune, or lose people in your family, like, you know, family, friends, like, you know, it's just sort of this idea of, like, what would you do at the expensive all of these glitzy and shiny things, right. And so this one's a little bit more

Banana Chan (32:28.67)
gory than the first one. The first one's definitely, forgery is definitely like a little bit lighter. It's a little bit more sarcastic and not as, it's not as like brutal. I think that knockoff is definitely more brutal. It's a lot more gory because it does play with like the idea of, you know, something that you're wearing and, you know, the idea of like who you are as a person. And so,

Yeah, there's a little bit more gore in this one. A little bit more R -rated.

Adam Powell (33:02.15)
Fair enough. Fair enough. It sounds gruesome and exciting, and I'm sure those words normally go together. So no, that's amazing and something definitely for us to look out for and keep track of on, as you mentioned, Backerkit or the crowdfunding platform of your choice at the time. And again, should the opportunity arise, I'd love to get you back on and discuss these future projects, of course, if you'd be willing to come back and join me.

Banana Chan (33:09.342)
Yeah.

Banana Chan (33:28.638)
would love that, yes.

Adam Powell (33:30.63)
So we've.

Wheeling it back around to the darkness of the brink of Ohio. Having given a little bit of time for people to let it sink in and absorb it. Do you have any tips as it were for solo journaling games? It doesn't have to necessarily be the darkness of the brink of Ohio in particular, but solo journaling games for how to immerse ourselves but not lose ourselves in them and things like that.

Banana Chan (34:03.326)
Yeah, absolutely. So I dabble in a lot of horror games. So like, you know, a lot of the stuff that I do is very much geared towards horror. And I think that because they are solo experiences, it could be really easy to just sort of lose yourself. We have a debrief section in...

The Dark Chance of the Brick of Hive, but pretty much like all of the solo journaling games that I might make, there is a debrief section and there's also a section for self -care. It's not necessarily like a session zero for yourself, but it is like that where you're setting expectations going in where you can just know that you can pause the soundtrack at any time.

you know that you can, oops, I just like knocked over my laptop a little bit, but you know that you can stop playing at any time, right? And during the debrief, letting yourself know that this is just a game and you can like, you know, separate yourself, take a break and you don't have to like read back on all the things that you've read, you've written. You can sort of like have the option of destroying the pages.

or just putting it aside and taking some time before you actually read it, if you want to. The rest of it is sort of just talking to someone that you trust about your experience, trying to get into another experience, get into another headspace, going for a walk, trying to just decouple yourself from the actual game. So that's a lot of the debrief section.

But I think going into it, just in terms of the play structure, because it is a shorter experience, it's about an hour and a half, or max maybe about two or two and a half hours, because there is a lot of journaling involved. I would say that in the game itself, it does tell you at any time if you wanna stop or pause, you can do that.

Banana Chan (36:20.638)
and giving yourself that space to not feel like you have to finish it. Like that's, you know, if you're not having a good time, just please step away. Like take care of yourself first. Like don't feel like this is like a marathon or like a, or like a, I don't know, like something that you have to complete, you know? This is like just a game. I mean, you can even stop in marathons. You don't have to finish the entire thing. Like you could just like, you know, take a break.

pay attention to yourself and come back if you feel like it. And so having that understanding, I think it's really important with any sort of media that you can just bow out if you aren't having a good time.

Adam Powell (37:02.022)
Thank you, that's fantastic advice and I hope those that are intending on playing can take on board and I was gonna say play responsibly but that sounds more like a betting site than a Solo TTRPG but the message is pretty much the same in that respect So banana, you know, we've covered your introduction into TTRPG slightly condensed due to Having covered it in previous interviews if you want to listen to our previous interviews, please scroll back through the back catalog and find those with

We discuss fantastic games like the Revenant Society. And well, many of your games, in fact, as we sort of go over the various topics. We have discussed The Brink at the Edge of Ohio, your future projects, and the amazing teams that you have worked with and are working with, especially on this project. Is there anything you haven't covered that you want to bring up now?

Banana Chan (37:55.39)
Ooh, yeah. Three points of inspiration that I do want to cover for this game. The first one is Ribbon Drive by Avery Alder. And that is sort of like a soundtrack game where you're putting together, you're creating the soundtrack. So it's not as guided as the darkness of the brink of Ohio. You have like a lot more control over like, you know, the songs that you pick.

So that's a really interesting game. That was definitely something that was inspired by, that inspired this game. And then there's Juggernaut, Juggernaut by Jason Morningstar. Always an inspiration point for me. That game also sort of has like a little bit of like a soundtrack that you can play that pretends to be like the machine that can tell the future. So you like press start and stop with like the sounds so that that way you can hear the sounds of the machine.

And then Five Nights at Freddy's, FNAF. I mean, that's like, you know, the, you know, you're working a late night shift. That's basically what it is. And so it is definitely inspired by FNAF as well.

Adam Powell (39:05.294)
Amazing, amazing. You mentioned it can be quite challenging to get playtest groups together and things like that. Are you still playing in larger groups, DM to GM facilitated games, or is this more of your current activities?

Banana Chan (39:06.942)
Thanks for listening.

Banana Chan (39:25.63)
Yes, I actually kind of lied. I think I am. So I have playtested two other games that I'm working on right now with folks. The title pending because titles are the hardest thing to come up with when it comes to writing a game or designing a game. Don't believe anyone who tells you that mechanics are hard or lore is hard. Titles are the hardest part.

So the first game that we have is called Cursed Cuisine. That's by Jenea Kemper, Lucian Kahn, and myself. And it's sort of like a party game. It's like a narrative storytelling game where you're chefs who are trapped in a dungeon and you have to cook for a bunch of monsters that are picking at your body parts and eating you alive if you don't cook them whatever they want.

I swear it is a very light and fun game. It's not as gruesome as I'm making it sound, though it kind of is. So there's that. It's good for, I think we play tested it with like four or five people. So it's been good trying to like, you know, get that in front of folks. And then the other game I'm play testing right now with like more people is called Cursed Item TBD. And...

Adam Powell (40:23.398)
Nice.

Banana Chan (40:53.15)
That's because, again, bad with names. And I'm working on that with Stephen Dewey. And so he created, for folks who don't know, Stephen Dewey created 10 Candles. And so we're trying to create a game that's about finding a cursed object and what happens when you find this thing. And so it has...

four or five different settings. We're trying to create one setting as a proof of concept currently, but we play test it and went really well. There are a few tweaks that we have to make, but like other than that, I think we're getting to a point where we're getting close to creating the other settings. So that way we can play test those as well. So solo journaling games a lot easier to play test because scheduling is not as hard, but play testing other games gets a little bit trickier because...

you have to take into consideration scheduling and also different kinds of feedback and also who is this for and yeah, a whole lot of other things that you have to think about but it's a fun process.

Adam Powell (42:01.542)
Yeah, I can only imagine. I'm looking forward to this Cursed Item TBD game. It talks to me and that sounds apt almost. So, but yeah, no, thank you so much. We will keep an eye out and again, of course, you are always invited back on to discuss these projects as and when they come to fruition. I'll try and catch you earlier on in...

Banana Chan (42:08.49)
You

Adam Powell (42:30.822)
in the process rather than with three days to go time of recording on kickstarter but not the point the my lapse of timing does not take away from the quality of your work so i will say that so not at all so having covered all of that and sort of recap those last few bits and again once again i'll make sure there are links down the description but so if anyone listening has forgotten what your links are would you

Banana Chan (42:44.382)
Thank you.

Adam Powell (42:59.206)
Please remind us where we can find you and everything you're associated with. Please be nice.

Banana Chan (43:03.23)
Yes, you can find me on pretty much all the social media platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok. I'm trying not to use TikTok as much because it is such a time sink, but I am on TikTok. And what other platforms am I on? Blue Sky, at Banana Chan Games. And you can find my company, Game and a Curry slash Read Write Memory. We're still trying to transition everything from, you know,

Game and a Curry over to Read Write Memory using that name from here on out. And you can find everything for that company at Read Write Memory on all the social media platforms, except for maybe a few that we're still trying to transition over. So yeah.

Adam Powell (43:49.542)
All right, well thank you for that. I will make sure those links are down in the description below. Please scroll down, follow those links, support Banana, support Read Write Memory, I will get there, and all the fantastic projects and the people that are associated with these projects as well. We mentioned Aaron, Jasmine, and so many others there that deserve support in their own right as well. So thank you for those.

But I've said about three or four times now, I'd love to get you back on the show again in the future to discuss any and all of the projects you've mentioned through the course of this interview. If, of course, you'd be willing to come back and join.

Banana Chan (44:27.134)
Yes, I would love to. I mean, we also have a secret project. Sort of secret? I don't know if it's secret really, but there have been talks about a Jiangxia second printing, so would love to chat about that soon.

Adam Powell (44:43.302)
Yes, please, indeed. We will schedule that as and when the secret project is no longer secret. It's been such a fantastic chance to get to talk with you again. And I'd love to do it again in the future. So thank you so much for joining me today.

Banana Chan (44:58.654)
pleasure is all mine. Thank you so much for having me.

Snyder’s Return

Interview - Banana Chan - The Darkness at the Brink of Ohio - Solo Horror TTRPG

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