This episode's guest is Jesse Ross, designer of Trophy Dark. Trophy Dark is a narrative game about doomed treasure hunters venturing into a forest that doesn't want them there.

I'm a late discoverer of Trophy Dark; I read it just a few months ago, and it radically changed the way I see and play RPGs. The book delivers such a strong and consistent gameplay experience with a very simple mechanical architecture. You know I like horror RPGs, and Trophy Dark, in a way, is a medieval fantasy forest horror game. It's unique and beautifully designed, with a mesmerizing quality and a set of mechanics that allow for amazing gameplay to emerge.

In this episode, we'll talk about a dragonfly invasion, things Jesse sees in the dark, coping with hubris, and how to build a truly meaningful collaborative gameplay experience.

Jesse's website

www.jesseross.com

Trophy Dark

www.trophyrpg.com

Rooted in crisis website and Kickstarter page

www.rootedincrisis.com

www.kickstarter.com/projects/jesseross/rooted-in-crisis

Store

www.thelostbaystudio.com

Newsletter

www..thelostbaystudio.substack.com/subscribe?

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

www.bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

This episode's guest is Amanda Lee Franck, a really unique voice in the RPG scene. Amanda is both an illustrator and a game designer, and has blessed us with a series of iconic titles like Vampire Cruise, Crush Depth Apparition or You got a job on the garbage barge. In this episode, we will talk about Amanda's origin story and journey as a creator. We'll also chat about pens, inks, museums, why Ships and Boats are ideal for building haunting RPG settings, and the Midwest.

Amanda Lee Franck collection

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/collections/amanda-lee-franck

Amanda's Comeradery

https://comradery.co/amandalee

Amanda's Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/annabellearachne

Amanda's Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/amandalee.bsky.social

Store

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/

Newsletter

https://thelostbaystudio.substack.com/subscribe?

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

https://twitter.com/thelostbay

https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

Today, I'm taking you to Paris, France, to chat with Côme Martin, a prolific and uber-creative French designer. Côme's best-known titles include the iconic Meanwhile in the Subway, Broken Cities, Feathered Adventures, and many more.

In this episode, we discuss Côme's journey as a designer, from the first one-pagers to his most innovative games, how the Norwegian indie scene influenced his work, and the differences between the US and French-speaking indie scenes.

Côme Martin collection

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/collections/come-martin

Côme Martin on itch

https://comemartin.itch.io/

Store

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/

Newsletter

https://thelostbaystudio.substack.com/subscribe?

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

https://twitter.com/thelostbay

https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

David Blandy is the designer of the post apocalyptic weird hope game Eco MOFOS!!

The game is powered by the Into the odd/Cairn engine. Fast rules and character creation. Fantastic art by Daniel Locke. In this episode we talk about David's journey as a creator, and how his work as an artist informs game design. We also discuss Weirdhope, a unique genre of his own creation that teaches us that we can find joy and meaning, even in a strange and at times harsh world.

ECO MOFOS!! collection

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/collections/eco-mofos

David Blandy on itch

https://davidblandy.itch.io/

Store

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/

Newsletter

https://thelostbaystudio.substack.com/subscribe?

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

https://twitter.com/thelostbay

https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

The Parthenogenis of Hungry Hollow is an adventure module and campaing setting for the Mmodern horror tabletop RPG Liminal Horror. In this espisode with returning guest designer Goblin Archives we talk about bees, flesh, a weird baby shower, and an American Pacific Nothwest town being corrupted by an owerwhelmind deity and cult.

The Parthenogenis of Hungry Hollow on Backerkit

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/space-penguin-ink/the-parthenogenesis-of-hungry-hollow-for-liminal-horror

Get Liminal Horror

https://goblinarchives.itch.io/

More Liminal Horror modules

https://liminalhorrorlibrary.com/

First Goblin Archives interview on The Lost Bay podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/goblin-archives-liminal-horror/id1560319393?i=1000579058647

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

https://twitter.com/thelostbay

https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

Yochai Gal is the designer of the forest fantasy RPG Cairn. Right now, Cairn second edition boxed set is live on Kickstarter. In this episode we talk about how Yochai grew the first edition of Cairn into this new expanded RPG marvel.

Cairn Kickstarter

⁠https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1557907976/cairn-2e-boxed-set

Yochai's first two appearances on The Lost Bay Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/yochai-gal-cairn/id1560319393?i=1000514489599

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ttrpg-irl-community-copies-with-sean-patrick-cain/id1560319393?i=1000547197262

The Lost Bay - suburban gothic RPG preorder page

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/pages/the-lost-bay-preorders

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

⁠⁠https://twitter.com/thelostbay⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/⁠⁠

⁠⁠https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/⁠⁠

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

Intro ad music David Blandy

Chris Mc Dowall is the designer of the rules light flavor heavy trifecta of games Into the Odd, Electric Bastionland and Mythic Bastionland. In this episode we talk about Chris' latest game Mythic Bastionland, its sources of inspiration, design process, and the spirit behind its ruleset.

Bastionland blog & Patreon

https://www.bastionland.com/

https://www.patreon.com/bastionland

Mythic Bastionland preorders

https://mythicbastionland.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

The Lost Bay - suburban gothic RPG on Kickstarter

⁠https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelostbay/the-lost-bay-suburban-dark-fantasy-rpg⁠

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

⁠https://twitter.com/thelostbay⁠

⁠https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/⁠

⁠https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/⁠

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

Intro ad music David Blandy

Samantha Leigh is a multi-faceted tabletop RPG creator and has released some of the coolest solo games of the indie scene. She’s been recently kickstarting Outliers, an award-winning game inspired by her own experience as a lab researcher. In this episode we’ll talk about her sources of inspiration, editing secrets, and future projects.

Outliers

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marx-of-high-water/far-horizons-coop-presents-outliers

Samantha Leigh

https://twitter.com/GoblinMixtape

https://samleigh.carrd.co/

https://www.tiktok.com/@goblinmixtape

The Lost Bay - suburban gothic RPG on Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelostbay/the-lost-bay-suburban-dark-fantasy-rpg

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

https://twitter.com/thelostbay

https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

Intro ad music David Blandy

Watt is the designer behind the Nausicaa inspired ecological space fantasy game Cloud Empress. After a successful launch in 2023 Cloud Empress returns to Kickstarter in 2024 with two new books/settings.

In this episode we talk everything shop, from writing and layout strategies to game mechanics and their impact on the players and the gaming experience.

Back Cloud Empress, Life and Death

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/watt/cloud-empress-life-and-death

https://cloudempress.com/about/

The Lost Bay - suburban gothic RPG on Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelostbay/the-lost-bay-suburban-dark-fantasy-rpg

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

https://twitter.com/thelostbay

https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles

Intro ad music David Blandy

Evangeline Gallagher is an illustrator with a taste for dark fantasy and horror. Their art is inspired by 80s and 90s media. Evangeline is one of the most productive and striking artists of the TTRPG scene and beyond. In this episode, we talk about their sources of inspiration, their practice, a mental directory of faces, and why red is their favorite color.

Follow Evangeline Gallagher

https://www.instagram.com/evangelinegallagher/

https://twitter.com/egallagher_art

https://bsky.app/profile/egallagher.bsky.social

Evangeline's store

https://www.evangelinegallagher.com/

The Lost Bay - suburban gothic RPG on Kickstarter

http://thelostbayrpg.com/

Follow the The Lost Bay Podcast

https://twitter.com/thelostbay

https://bsky.app/profile/thelostbaystudio.com

https://www.instagram.com/thelostbaystudio/

https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/

Produced by Iko

Editing Laura Elle

Music Avery Isles