How to Find the Bit in Your Home Game
Plus, The Page That Got Me: Deathmatch Island
Hello, chaos goblins! I’m back with more chaotic game play advice for you. Today, I have some juicy tips to feed you on how to effectively hunt for a bit during your sessions!
First, let’s talk about what I mean when I say “bits.” A bit is a joke that’s small but has more staying power than a one-liner. A bit can be part of a character’s identity, their relationship to the world, or another character. A good example of an in-session bit with staying power can be seen in our My First Dungeon season of Orbital Blues with Kumari. They are the captain of the ship, theoretically in charge, but right out of the gate it’s established that they’re actually a pretty incompetent boss. It’s noted almost immediately that no one attends their morning team meetings (because they’ve all gotten things under control already on their own), with the crew suggesting that they’re just letting Kumari think they’re the boss. This simple establishing bit allows for continued fun moments throughout the season. For instance, when Maria and the crew build a fake control panel and fake communications room for Kumari, while Maria handles all the real communication and the crew the rest of the controls. It gave players a creative vein to explore when debating what move to make next—can I do something funny to further demonstrate Kumari’s pretend leadership?
You don’t need to introduce bits at the start of your game, they can come into play whenever. So let’s get you aware of how you naturally find these bits in your game. The good news is that it really only requires you to do one thing: listen to everyone at your table. Pay attention to how people are talking to each other, how your GM is describing things, and the patterns that are showing up. Here are some tips to help you get there:
There are no mistakes in improvised work.
If you’re recording APs, you can obviously edit out or re-record something if you hate it, but what may seem like a mistake is a ripe opportunity for a bit. Let’s say you’re playing a game and your GM introduces all your characters through an NPC butler. In each intro, the butler enters and offers a meal to the character, and the way they accept or refuse the meal reveals a little piece of who that character is. But let’s say in the final player character’s intro, the GM forgets to make the butler enter. Most people would just not think about it, it wouldn’t be important, or maybe the producer makes you do a pick-up of it. OR you can make it a bit. When the players all reconvene, if the one player who never got a meal says something like, “Hey, does the butler give you all food?” and everyone responds yes, you now have gifted a hilarious long-running bit for the entire group and the GM: a butler that takes care of everyone but one player. Perceived mistakes are actually comedic gifts!
Have a favorite bit from My First Dungeon? Tell us!
Let everyone know what your character wants or doesn’t want.
If you open with a line like, “Man, I hate driving,” you better believe the GM is going to put you in a spot where you are forced to drive. Making everyone aware of what you like and dislike will help apply automatic stakes that will both help drive the story and be a great establishing point for your bits.
Play with motion and place.
Some of the best bits don’t involve dialogue but rather involve your character being somewhere they shouldn’t be. The audience is painting the picture of what you’re doing, and that means you can get away with a lot in actual play. Want your character to pop up behind people to spook them like Izora in our Wildsea season? You don’t have to worry about continuity or blocking that makes sense. The audience will do that for you and believe it fully. Play with physical space, do things that are ridiculous, and give your fellow players something to react to. Bits in real life can be physical, so why not in our games?
Happy bit hunting, my chaos goblins! Go get your bits!
— Shenuque
The Bitcherton Kickstarter Is Now Live!
Have you checked out our newest podcast project Bitcherton yet? Head on over to Kickstarter right now to back our improvised comedy podcast inspired by the game Good Society, the works of Jane Austen, and the Netflix adaptation of Bridgerton. This is an all-or-nothing campaign which means if we don’t make our goal, this show won’t get made. Every little bit helps us whether you can give $5 or $5,000 or simply a 5-star review.
The Page That Got Me: Deathmatch Island
The Wonder of Playing Before Reading
In a first for The Page That Got Me, I got the chance to play this game before cracking open the book. I had so much goddamn fun playing that I immediately needed to dive into the text.
Thus brought me to the absolute delight that is page 25 of this twisted and sardonically comedic game about being amnesia-riddled competitors struggling to survive a reality show/battle royale.
The Voice
PLAY TO WINⓇ. If your Producer (Deathmatch Island for GM) is anything like mine, this is a phrase you will hear a lot in play. The voice of this game is strong, equal parts inviting and terrifying in the cheerful corporate overlord sort of way. The text on this page (beautifully incorporated into the illustration), hints at the exact kinds of choices you get to make as a player. “Every choice matters” whether that’s forming an alliance, backstabbing your fellow players, or choosing to fight back against the game itself. The voice that Tim Denee has put into every bit of writing in this game knows these options and dangles them in front of you as you both read and play.
The Visuals
Photorealism is a style that is very rare in TTRPGs. Denee makes expert use of this throughout Deathmatch Island. We recently spoke to Jay Dragon about Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, specifically how the “game is the book is the bed and breakfast”—all valid interpretations of the same whole. For Deathmatch Island, the book is the reality show is the game is the brand is the island is the deathmatch is the—PLAY TO WINⓇ.
Denee has created a Deathmatch Island brand identity that jumps off the page. Each photoreal illustration feels like a physical prop pulled right off the set of this imagined reality show. Simultaneously, you are reminded how these props play into your gameplay, with subtle design elements from your character sheet incorporated into the image. It’s a small touch that really ties the whole package together.
The Vice Grip (This Game Has Me In)
Did I just need a 3rd V-word? Yes.
I am quickly realizing this may be one of my favorite releases of the year. It’s going for a specific tone and nails it. You can feel the inspiration you love most as you play it. Some will come away feeling thrilled at the Survivor vibes, some enraptured by the Squid Game of it all, and others will be saying how much it reminds them of Hunger Games or Battle Royale—and they’re all right! Deathmatch Island takes all of these delicious ingredients and gives you a multi-layered cake, better than the sum of its parts.
— Elliot
🗞️ News Worthy
Chaotic Wholesome Presents is doing a livestream AP of Paradox Perfect on Juneteenth (4PM PT/7PM ET) with Danielle Radford, Cypher of Tyr, BlackGirlMage, ZaktheDrak, and Candace the Magnificent to benefit Black & Pink National.
CRIT Awards nominations have been announced including BE/HOLD for “The Regret” and a one-shot of Welcome To The Silly Goose Convention with Elliot Davis.
The fifth season of Adventuring Academy with Brennan Lee Mulligan premieres on Dropout on July 1.
🎲 What We’re Bringing to The Table
🎥 Watch: Jordan Brown’s interview with Katie Marovitch about Bitcherton and our Kickstarter campaign.
📚 Read: Rowan Zeoli’s interview with the entire Bitcherton cast on all things regency, comedy, and crowdfunding.
🎧 Listen: The pilot of Bitcherton, an improvised Regency-era comedy podcast, is out now wherever you get podcasts.
🎙️ New From The Studio
My First Dungeon presents: The Wildsea: Episode 4 - Of Trials and Blood