Hello world!
We’re Summoning Circle Press. We make magazines about TTPRGs (design/play).
Here are all the places you can find us online: https://summoningpress.carrd.co/
ALT6-fold ward against AI-induced psychosis
Weird Place did a nice overview of Splat 4: Frights on their channel! We love seeing our content out in the world. Every time we see a stranger holding a physical copy of a thing we made, a year gets added to our life span.
(The video above goes through a body horror zine at the beginning so CW for that)
HALLOWEEN SALE
In celebration of Halloween, all our TTRPG magazines are 20% off until November 4th, 2025! Rituals for Dead Games, our newest offering, is only $8!!! We don't have sales very often so don't miss out.
HALLOWEEN SALE
In celebration of Halloween, all our TTRPG magazines are 20% off until November 4th, 2025! Rituals for Dead Games, our newest offering, is only $8!!! We don’t have sales very often so don’t miss out.
i got to talk to the bakers today and i gotta say we are so lucky to owe so much of the hobby to people as nice as those folks
sharing this part of the transcript because i don't know that it'll make it into the video but i did tear up at this anecdote
![VB: That's good. I have a funny story about it. Which is that at heart, I'm sort of a horror game designer. And I had been designing really quite unpleasant games since 2001. MB: That's right, you had! VB: Like really unpleasant games to play. And somebody asked me, "Hey do you only make games that Meg hates?" MB: So true! That's actually really true! We never tell that story, it's awesome that you get to tell this story right now. VB: [doing a mock-defensive voice] I said "No, not only!" So the way our creative process works, very briefly, is that one or the other of us will have an idea. And it's on that person to develop it to the point where we can share it effectively with the other person. And so I was that person with Apocalypse World. And once we can share it and we can work on it together, then it becomes much more shared, and we both have our hands on every part of every game. But for Apocalypse World I was the sort of "first draft" kind of creator. And so I sat down to make a game that for once, Meg wouldn't hate. MB: And it worked. And that's why it says in Apocalypse World, the dedication from Vincent is "For Meguey. The rest of you are just lucky."](/%20https://www.npmjs.com/package/ocr-https-64.media.tumblr.com/1f1bb450fe6e1eb4731aa18375501234/e875705d727bd711-ce/s1280x1920/c036fd3ef8dfd10c96e104c05f282840bb249d9c.png)
ALTit's finally published 😳😳
my 40,000 word thesis on therapeutically applied ttrpgs ... featuring 82 sources with research on ttrpgs, linguistics, psychology, and more
it includes:
- introductions to major concepts in roleplay like bleed and immersion
- a study with 109 participants showing how long term tabletop roleplay fosters emotional resilience
- an analysis of the therapeutic efficacy of 5 different ttrpgs (dnd 5e, new world of darkness, apocalypse keys, wanderhome, & songs for the dusk)
- a discussion of the psychology of ttrpgs and how events and characters in-universe really impact us
- an exploration of how the linguistics of ttrpgs mirror our "real lives"
- an exploration of what a ttrpg made to help people heal from complex trauma would look like, complete with a sample player character and theoretical session
also it's open access, so anyone can read it for free!!
you can find it published on proquest here
and if anyones interested in finding out more about spiritkeep, i've posted about it here and there's a spiritkeep page on my website here!!
ALT
ALTabstract!!
This thesis aimed to further research on a growing method of play therapy, therapeutically applied tabletop role-playing games, and examine its users as a discourse community with shared but unmet needs. Several methods were taken to accomplish this goal. A literature review explored the current state of the research. Then, a study with 109 participants was conducted to deduce the connection between tabletop role-play and emotional resilience. Finally, five popular texts in the tabletop role-playing game genre were analyzed against seven criteria, synthesized from therapeutically applied role-playing game community experts, to determine if currently available texts fulfilled the needs of this community. The texts included Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, New World of Darkness, Apocalypse Keys, Wanderhome, and Songs for the Dusk. This research found that the benefits of tabletop role-playing games are shared between clinical use and home use, but that currently available texts are not ideal for fulfilling therapeutic purposes. Therefore, the thesis includes the foundations of a new text that is designed to be perfectly suited to the requirements of this genre: a game called Spiritkeep, designed to help players heal from complex trauma through long-term play. As the therapeutically applied role-playing field is growing in use by experts as well as in popular attention, the development of this new text has the potential for great impact in the role-playing community.
ALTShop with us in person next weekend, September 6th, in Mississauga!
We should have print copies of RITUALS FOR DEAD GAMES!! Be the first to own it in print!
All of the 25 community copies have been claimed! I will add more once we get some sales. We didn’t crowdfund and need your material support to fund a print run and our next project!!
