RPG Zine Club October review (Part 1): SuperDillin Double Feature

While attending Big Bad Con 2023 at the end of September, I had the opportunity to sign up for Plus One Exp's RPG Zine Club. This subscription service delivers 1-2 zines (both storygames and adventures) to your door/inbox each month, featuring a wide variety of creators and bringing together artists from around the world. Once I heard about it, I knew I had to sign up, both to build my personal hoard of RPG zines and to see what kind of interesting new games I might find as a result. This is a review of the storygame offering, with the adventure game review to follow in Part 2

SuperDillin Double Feature

Just pretend that says "SuperDillin" instead of "Science Fiction"

Guys in Chairs

Guys in Chairs belongs to the "improv game" school of TTRPGs, a term I have completely made up to describe games that could be pretty easily found in an improv group's rehearsal repertoire. These are relatively simple games guided by strong premises and heavily dependent on players' ability to play off of each other in open-ended scenes. Here, you're playing the not-even-sidekicks of various super individuals (think less Robin and more Alfred) as they try to help their superfriends resolve various significant missions.

These are your friends, and that's you on either end. Yes, you could be Wonder Dog, who's just a regular dog with a cape on.

The rules are simple (simple enough that I won't reproduce them here for fear of giving away most of them for free), but there is some structure lacking that could help players. Anyone not comfortable with improv or unfamiliar with the role of non-superpowered individuals in comic books might flounder a bit in this game. There isn't much in the way of advice in terms of the kinds of conflicts that you might encounter or how you can introduce meaningful action when you're a mundane character in a superpowered world. In short, this is a great game if you're already pretty familiar with roleplaying and comic books, but it doesn't have the scaffolding to help players new to TTRPGs.

Spin the Bottle

Spin the Bottle is the other half of the SuperDillin double feature, a system based on the kissing game of the same name. This is a very clever idea, to take the emotional weight and connotations of an existing object and convert them into an engine to generate those same vibes. This game centers around secrets: you have a crush (determined randomly at the beginning of the game), but no one else can find out. You spin the bottle to decide who your scene partner will be, but even when you're not in a scene you're constantly on the lookout for clues to other players' crushes. The game itself ends when someone correctly guesses another player's crush, so you have an additional reason to pay close attention to every scene.

Characters from Girls With Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto

This game presents more scaffolding and clearer goals for players, making it easier for them to understand how to set scenes and engage with each other. I particularly like the push and pull of trying to connect with other characters while trying to avoid giving away anything about your true intentions. The stakes aren't that high, so players are unlikely to feel truly antagonistic, but it does nicely replicate the strange sensation of being in a highly visible social setting where it feels like everyone is looking at you. Check out this game if for no other reason than to be able to say that you've actually played "Spin the Bottle."

The Verdict

I don't know how exactly I'm going to wrap up these reviews, but I know that I won't be using a score system. No stars, no */10, no tomato-meter, nothing like that. (For an excellent perspective on review scores, check out this blogpost by Spencer Campbell of Gila RPGs.) Instead, an attempt to wrap up my thoughts and give broad takeaways. So here goes:

I probably wouldn't have bought this zine if it hadn't been part of Zine Club. The games just aren't really my thing, and that's coming from someone who would gladly do Guys in Chairs as an improv comedy game. I prefer a bit more structure and scaffolding in games, some more inspiration as to the kinds of characters or scenarios you could work with. My view of game texts has morphed over time to prioritize games that can give me the idea to do something I wouldn't otherwise have thought of myself. And here, using Spin the Bottle as a way of determining scene partners genuinely does that! But the rest of the game doesn't quite support me in helping figure out what happens next. These games are great prompts for players who feel comfortable spinning up full yarns without so much as touching a resolution mechanic, so if that sounds like you I wholeheartedly recommend you check them out.