''Puppetland: A Storytelling Game with Strings in a Grim World of Make-Believe'' is a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

written by

John Scott Tynes John Scott Tynes (born 1971) is an American writer best known for his work on role-playing games such as ''Unknown Armies'', '' Delta Green'', '' Puppetland'', and for his company, Tynes Cowan Corporation. Under its imprint, Pagan Publishing, T ...

. The game was first published on the author's website in 1995. Its first print publication was in Arcane magazine issue 16 in early 1997, then later by

Hogshead Publishing Hogshead Publishing was a British game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History In October 1994, James Wallis founded Hogshead Publishing, a company which specialised in role-playing and storytelling games. Wallis ba ...

together with ''Power Kill'', a satirical role-playing metagame by the same author, under the title ''Puppetland/Power Kill''. A much expanded edition was published in 2016 by

Arc Dream Publishing Arc Dream Publishing is a small role-playing game publishing company founded in 2002 by Pagan Publishing veteran Dennis Detwiller and editor Shane Ivey after their first roleplaying game '' Godlike: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 19 ...

. A free edition, including most of the game text is available on the author's web site.

New Style

''Puppetland/Powerkill'' was part of a series experimental/alternative role-playing games published by

. Other games in the series included the award-nominated '' The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Münchhausen'', '' Pantheon'', and ''

Violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...

''.

Kickstarter and New Edition

In November 2014, an expanded version of ''Puppetland'' was successfully funded on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

, to be published by

References

External links

Official site

Review by Ron Edwards

Various reviews from RPGnet
British role-playing games Horror role-playing games Indie role-playing games New Style Role-playing games introduced in 1999 {{rpg-stub