Amerikkka: The Game: The Blog

Free Coffee at Starbucks for Voters

2008-11-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

After you hit the polls today, make sure to drop by Starbucks and tell them you voted. They're calling small drips "votes" for the rest of the day, and they're free to voters.

Article on F13

2008-11-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

I wrote an article for schild at f13.net about the design process. Nothing too elaborate:

It took me just around three years to develop a tabletop RPG. That's as long as most AAA videogames. It's not that my game is overly complex or especially novel, and it's not that I didn't have the spare time necessary to develop it fully. No, Shannon Drake, my partner in this particular caper, and I got most of the work done in just two months, including a weekend we ended up burning when we found our way to a hobby shop, bought a bunch of Call of Cthulhu books, and nerded out over horrors unknowable.

Check out the rest here.

We're up on DriveThruRPG

2008-11-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

Check us out on DriveThruRPG. As you can see, the game is currently free there, as well, and it will be Amerikkka's permanent home after the end of the month.

Explaining the Name

2008-11-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

A great post at Wikipedia explains why we chose the name Amerikkka:

The most common usage of the letters "kkk" in politically satiric misspelling is the spelling of "America" as Amerikkka. A reference to the Ku Klux Klan, this is often done to indicate the belief that the United States or American society is fundamentally racist. The earliest known usage of "Amerikkka" recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is in 1970, in a journal called Black World. Presumably, this was an extrapolation from the then already widespread "Amerika".

The spelling "Amerikkka" came into greater use after the 1990 release of the Gangsta rap album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted by Ice Cube.

Also, it's part of the joke.

Welcome to Amerikkka: The Game: The Blog

2008-11-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

Hello, and welcome to the blog for Amerikkka: The Game. Thanks for stopping by. Here's some brief info on what Amerikkka is all about:

Amerikkka takes place in a world where the various aspiring extremist ideologies of the American political scene at the end of the 20th century blossomed as the 21st wore on. Amerikkka assumes the worst of everyone, exaggerating the bad qualities and playing down the good to create a wild world of swirling intrigue and terrible stereotypes. This is a crudely offensive game that shouldn’t be played by anyone who takes themselves or their politics too seriously.

The game was created by two hipper-than-thou jaded twenty-somethings in a burst of genius and pretension as they began a conversation that headed into the absurd ground of “What would happen if all of those guys were right?” It’s based on actual events, using them as a springboard (or a trampoline, if you prefer) into the future. The Free State Project really does exist. There really are religious right nutjobs plotting to move into a state and seize the apparatus of government (South Carolina, so we won’t be losing much, but still). There really are a bunch of pudgy white guys in Michigan marching around in camouflage and calling themselves militia. So what if all of them were right?

You hold the result in your hand, with a satirical and admittedly anarchist-liberal bent. We tried to dish out an equal load of crap to all the nutjobs, from the tree-huggiest hippy to the wife-beatingest, Jesus-worshippingist red stater. Odds are, your personal politics will be mocked roundly somewhere in this book. If you can’t handle it, no skin off our nose, but if you are cool…

Why would you want to play Amerikkka?

Amerikkka is intended as a one-off campaign setting you’d use between your regular games, or when you want to take a jaunt into the absurd. It allows you to flex your gamemaster muscles and torment your players with a bizarre journey into the ruined United States, where former billionaires ride anamatronic bison across the remains of Georgia, and where Ohio is the last hope of the sane. Our game system emphasizes playability over lots of numbers, die rolling, and rules lawyering. Everything is tremendously simplified, because we want you to take time to play your character, rather than arguing over every little thing. Also, math is hard and we are lazy.

For the month of November, and to celebrate this year's election, Amerikkka is available for free download. After that, we'll make it available for $5. Please download and share the game with your friends and political enemies!