Paul Czege
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paulczege.bsky.social
Paul Czege
@paulczege.bsky.social
2.3K followers 310 following 3.1K posts
Game designer. Currently shipping a zine about how to play immersive journaling games:
https://www.paulczege.com/
On Masto as @paulczege@dice.camp
He/Him.
#JournalGaming
#ttrpg
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paulczege.bsky.social
My son really wanted it when we saw it at the thrift store, and it was only $2. He's always liked The Game of Life. And it's less excruciating than the original game. It's quicker. There's more strategic decisions. And the text message cards are occasionally legitimately funny.
A text message card from The Game of Life: Target Edition. Your roomate texts you asking to borrow your phone charger because they lost theirs. You agree. Then they text you to say they lost yours. And then the card forces you to make an unplanned purchase from the electronics department at Target.
November 16, 2025 at 11:19 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
Setting this garish thing up is like giving your kiddo their first practice setting up a wargame. It has lots of little same sized circular tokens that need to be sorted and stacked in different places.
The Game of Life: Target Edition all set up for play.
November 16, 2025 at 8:55 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
Drive an hour up into the mountains from Denver.
Hike for an hour-and-a-half (3.5 miles).
Drive an hour back home.

Worth it? Totally.
My son up ahead on the trail we hiked today looking back toward me. Lots of golden dry grass, mountain conifers, sunlight and shadows, and forested mountains in the distance.
November 16, 2025 at 5:14 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
The how

and the why

of #journalGaming.
A copy of The Ink That Bleeds by Paul Czege, out among trees with the sun rising in the background. It's a zine about how to have an immersive experience playing journaling games. A copy of Inscapes by Paul Czege out among red rocks with a vivid blue Colorado sky in the background. It's a zine about what happens to you when you play immersive journaling games.
November 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
It's been a while, but I'm now in Act 3 of @luciellaes.bsky.social's Cage of Sand and discovering the bodies of murder victims. The first of them is The Star, who is my friend Irah I met in Act 2 and who showed me around, and I'm pretty messed up now finding her dead.

#journalGaming #ttrpg
A home printed copy of Cage of Sand by Luciella Elisabeth Scarlett, along with my current journal, my current orange ink pen, and six face-up cards from the Terra Volatile tarot representing the bodies of murder victims I discover: The Star, the VI of Swords, the Queen of Coins, the Knight of Wands, the King of Swords, and Judgement. It's interesting that all but one of them are Major Arcana. The odds are against that.
November 13, 2025 at 11:05 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
My counter argument is the poorly drawn comics I make with my son. His characters, my scripts, his art, my lettering. This is Princess Maclumpha talking with her bff Shark Girl about her new workout routine.
A comic drawn by my son with a script by me. Princess Maclumpha says: I started a new fitness program at the gym. Shark Girl says: Yeah? What is it? Princess: Giant toad wrestling. Shark Girl: Wow. That sounds cool. How's the burn? The next frame shows Princess Maclumpha about to wrestly a giant humanoid toad. Princess: It's great. The giant toads are super strong. You're terrified the whole time. Shark Girl: That sounds great. Princess: And you can barely breathe for how stinky they are. Shark Girl: Wow. Princess: And their bufotoxins give you a rash. Shark Girl: Huh. And then a frame where the Princess and Shark Girl are just looking at each other. Princess: But it's so worth it. Shark Girl: Yeah.
November 12, 2025 at 6:06 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
I do all sorts of bizarre stuff. I wreck the page numbers. I use unreadable subheads. I obscure stuff with splatters of blood. But I make sure you can read the text, because I want you to play the game.
A page from The Ink That Bleeds. It looks great. There's some text in grey along the margins in a handwriting font, like it's bleeding through from the other side of the page, but it's ornamental, not essential to play. The main text is fully readable. The first page from Two Raw Morsels. There's some blood spatters and a bloody thumb print obscuring the game title a bit, but the main text is fully readable. A page from The Clay That Woke. There are subheads in an evocative, undreadable font, but you don't really need them to navigate the text. The main flow of rules text looks great. A page from The Sneeze. The page number is blown out, like it took a blast of air. And the main flow of rules text uses two different fonts that feel a little odd together, but they're both totally readable and great.
November 12, 2025 at 3:35 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
At what point do Schumer, Kaine, etc, realize they got rolled and now people are going to lose their healthcare and die?
November 12, 2025 at 1:48 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
One foot on land and one in the water. When she comes up she always makes me think of tea.

#tarotSky
The Star from the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck, drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. She is crouched with one foot on land and one in a small pond, pouring water from an ewer in each hand, one into the water and one onto the land, where it flows away in five rivulets. She is nude, and there are stars in the sky, and an ibis in a tree.
November 12, 2025 at 1:23 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
A quote from Paul Czege. It was his reply on Twitter a few years ago to being asked to define game design. It says "The art of getting people to behave as players within your instructions."
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
Possibly I should stop calling it chili. It is more brothy than chili. And the recipe I adapted used white beans not pasta and also tomato sauce. My version is lighter and more remarkable. Maybe I should call it soup?
A bowl of the stuff from the prior photo, but with added penne.
November 10, 2025 at 1:19 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
Satellite photo of the twilight zone of my lovely tomatillo chicken chili.
A pot of tomatillos, tomatoes, chicken, broth, onions, and peppers.
November 10, 2025 at 1:04 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
...run by a counter-terrorism nonprofit. And this was probably the most thought-provoking interactive. It's a rolling poll on four concerns you never see polled. Should law enforcement be allowed to collect and use biometrics. Should more hateful speech be illegal. After you vote it shows you a...
An interactive exhibit at the CELL in Denver. You can see four concerns it's asking you for your opinion about. The three you can read are use of biometrics by law enforcement, restricting hate speech, and data privacy.
November 9, 2025 at 4:34 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
It's pizza topped with mozzarella, rotisserie chicken, sliced tomatillos, and a pesto made from almonds, italian parsley, garlic, and olive oil.
A slice of pizza topped with mozzarella, rotisserie chicken, sliced tomatillos, and a pesto made from almonds, italian parsley, garlic, and olive oil. Serious marriage proposals only please.
November 7, 2025 at 3:12 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
A neighbor left apples out to take from their two trees and then this happened.
A slice of homemade apple pie.
November 5, 2025 at 4:05 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
Early last week I was looking for public domain art for a project, and I found a watercolor painting of a woman that wasn't right for it, but that I loved. Her emotional vibe was so palpable. I wanted to make a journaling game for her, but I didn't know what it should be. Then last Thursday...
A mock-up of a journaling game titled The Marriages of Lucy Alcott, by Paul Czege. The art on the cover is a young woman seated at the shore.
November 5, 2025 at 1:59 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
Playing an immersive journaling game is an act of entering a world and being created by it as a truer self. There is a compelling history of writing about such experiences. You should consider telling about yours.

#journalGaming #ttrpg
The title page of Walden, by Henry D. Thoreau.
November 4, 2025 at 3:16 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
Post a book you love from the 80s. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#BookSky
A copy of Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse.
November 4, 2025 at 2:08 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
Kiddo: "Daddy, do people really play these games?"
Daddy: "Goddamn it, you are my natural born son, show some respect! Yes they do. People love them."
Kiddo: "I'm sorry. I just wasn't sure."

#journalGaming #disrespect
A tween-age boy laying on his back in the grass at the park reading a copy of Two Raw Morsels, which is a journaling game by Paul Czege about your hope to change a situation in your life by consuming a piece of raw meat from the titan Prometheus. I really don't know why he would think people aren't excited to play it.
October 30, 2025 at 11:57 AM
paulczege.bsky.social
You can't get yourself a morsel of Prometheus from the supermarket meat department.

You have to take a very dangerous journey in time and space.

Why in hell would you do such a thing??

Play Two Raw Morsels 🥩 and find out.

paulczege.itch.io/two-raw-mors...

#MeatCircusJam #ttrpg #mythology
A copy of Two Raw Morsels in the meat case at the supermarket.
October 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
Jam deadline is coming up, but I'm feeling good.

#MeatCircusJam ##journalGaming
A home printed proof copy of Two Raw Morsels, a journaling game by Paul Czege he plans to finish and submit to Kienna's Meat Circus Jam this week. It looks good. The graphic design has some bloody fingerprints and spatters on it.
October 27, 2025 at 10:42 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
Spending entirely too much time on layout for my game for #MeatCircusJam.
The first page from Two Raw Morsels, a journaling game by Paul Czege soon to be submitted to Kienna's Meat Circus Jam. The page has graphics of bloody fingerprints and spatters on it.
October 26, 2025 at 9:54 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
Among the quarters from the machine at the laundromat I got a 100 won coin. It's worth seven cents. 🙃
A South Korean 100 won coin.
October 24, 2025 at 6:33 PM
paulczege.bsky.social
"Hi, I'm a street photographer. I take photos of zines I meet on the street and post them online and I thought you looked lovely today. Do you have a couple of minutes for some photos?"

"Really? Okay. Sure."
A lovely copy of The Ink That Bleeds posing at a construction barrel on the street.
October 24, 2025 at 3:06 PM