Dice Forager

What is this?

Dice Forager is 54 pages of collected essays, designer commentaries, manifestos, and games from me, Sam Dunnewold. It's my attempt at taking my design podcast Dice Exploder and putting it into practice and into print. Maybe it's a memoir from my last 5 years of design work. Maybe you'll even enjoy it!

Dice Forager includes...

• Agendas, Principles, and Moves for while you’re reading this book.
• Couriers, a game about being sad robot cops who either grow out of it or die trying.
• Windfall, a game about streaking across the town of Northfield, Minnesota played in real space in Northfield, Minnesota.
• An alternative version of Space Fam, a game about—you guessed it—being a found family in space.
• This Heart Within Me Burns, a game about a party of fantasy adventurers, one of whom falls under a terrible curse.
• Four manifestos about the creative process.
• An essay about safety, hospitality, and calibration at the table.
• Designer commentaries for each game.
• Other game-adjacent odds and ends, including a one-word game.
• An introduction from my very accommodating spouse who loves me.

Still want to know more? Aaron King interviewed me about it here.

Idle Cartulary reviewed it here. "Dice Forager reminds me of the stuff being put out at the dawn of the itch.io TTRPG community back in 2018 or so. Personal, witty, and clever. But also (and by intent, I think) experimental, incomplete, half-thoughts or older drafts. These are yearnings published as games, but all of them will get you thinking if you’re into game design..."

You can buy a print version here.