Behind The Masc is a series of games and gaming materials orbiting around themes of masculinity.
It's got content for 5e, Monsterhearts, and Apocalypse World, it's got two text adventure games, and it also includes designer notes from all contributors, giving some cool insight into the creation process and the way people connect to their material.
The whole book is 39 pages, with extremely readable layout and a few cool illustrations.
I think the first expectation with a work like this is that it will be ultimately scholarly and analytic, but this isn't. Masc is intuitive and playable, and the 5e, Monsterhearts, and Apocalypse World content doesn't feel like it clashes with any of those games' milieus unless you specifically set out to exclude it.
The writing throughout Masc is also really strong, and while masculinity is the central theme, it certainly isn't the only thing discussed.
Probably my favorite piece in the book is the Monsterhearts Minotaur skin, which deals primarily with the tension between getting involved, helping people, and risking yourself, or staying isolated and safe.
Overall, this is a cool project, and if you're looking for material for any of the named games that deals with, deconstructs, and re-constructs masculinity, I'd say look here first.
This is an amazing zine exploring masculinities through games. From brilliant concepts for D&D 5e, Monsterhearts and Apocalypse World to fantastic self-contained games, there's something here for everyone. Free community copies available for those who identify as queer or non-cisgender masculine. 5/5 stars - outstanding.
Thank you so much for these amazingly kind words! If you'd like to leave a rating on the ratings page, that would be well appreciated. This is just so nice to see!
Glad it made you smile :) I actually gave it a rating about a month ago :) unfortunately, itch.io doesn't really have a workable curation system at the moment - here's a quote from 2014 about ratings: "The rating data is currently only visible to yourself, but as more games are rated this data will be factored into building a system for helping uncover some of the standout games." Source: https://itch.io/updates/you-can-now-rate-games
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Behind The Masc is a series of games and gaming materials orbiting around themes of masculinity.
It's got content for 5e, Monsterhearts, and Apocalypse World, it's got two text adventure games, and it also includes designer notes from all contributors, giving some cool insight into the creation process and the way people connect to their material.
The whole book is 39 pages, with extremely readable layout and a few cool illustrations.
I think the first expectation with a work like this is that it will be ultimately scholarly and analytic, but this isn't. Masc is intuitive and playable, and the 5e, Monsterhearts, and Apocalypse World content doesn't feel like it clashes with any of those games' milieus unless you specifically set out to exclude it.
The writing throughout Masc is also really strong, and while masculinity is the central theme, it certainly isn't the only thing discussed.
Probably my favorite piece in the book is the Monsterhearts Minotaur skin, which deals primarily with the tension between getting involved, helping people, and risking yourself, or staying isolated and safe.
Overall, this is a cool project, and if you're looking for material for any of the named games that deals with, deconstructs, and re-constructs masculinity, I'd say look here first.
Thank you so much for this amazing review!😍😍
Thank you for the cool project!
This is an amazing zine exploring masculinities through games. From brilliant concepts for D&D 5e, Monsterhearts and Apocalypse World to fantastic self-contained games, there's something here for everyone. Free community copies available for those who identify as queer or non-cisgender masculine. 5/5 stars - outstanding.
Thank you so much for these amazingly kind words! If you'd like to leave a rating on the ratings page, that would be well appreciated. This is just so nice to see!
Glad it made you smile :) I actually gave it a rating about a month ago :) unfortunately, itch.io doesn't really have a workable curation system at the moment - here's a quote from 2014 about ratings: "The rating data is currently only visible to yourself, but as more games are rated this data will be factored into building a system for helping uncover some of the standout games." Source: https://itch.io/updates/you-can-now-rate-games
Thanks so much!!!
Exactly my thoughts!