Kazumi Chin

I am a non-binary, queer 5th/4th generation Chinese/Japanese American living on unceded Ohlone land. I am a student of Ethnic Studies and Cultural Studies, a poet, organizer, and, of course, a TTRPG designer. My work, overall, is in the constant healing of the wounds of capitalist and colonial violence, organizing against the prison industrial complex, and searching for art-making practices that can allow for us to better pursue our goals of abolition and environmental justice.

Part of the work of art is allowing people to envision, for themselves, the better worlds in which freedom from oppressive structures is possible. My work exists in this imaginative, speculative mode. Even when writing something as simple as a game for dungeon crawling, I am always thinking about the implications of the world in which such a game exists. What can our games offer the world? What have they offered already? What stories, what feeling, what agencies become possible when we ask ourselves to imagine differently?

Here, I want to highlight my latest games, which I love very much, and hope you do, too.

Rogue 2E: Rogue is a hybrid OSR & Storygame experience that uses pick lists, narrative-based monsters, and a whole host of improvisational GM tools to create a dungeon crawling experience like no other. It is designed to be extremely customizable and hackable, and can easily run any OSR dungeon with a little translation work.

Invincible Sword Princess: Invincible Sword Princess is a rules-lite game of post-colonial revenge. You play a group of sisters, each with a different tricked-out sword, seeking revenge against the colonizers who killed your mother. It uses a hybrid PBTA/FITD engine to allow players to traipse across a Western-flavored landscape, hunting down their enemies.

Reverie: Reverie is a game about a motley crew of exiles searching for the City of Light. It uses the fifth edition rule set, but foregoes class and race assumptions, instead allowing players to select archetypes reminiscent of young adult fantasy: the youth, the crow, the moon, the ghost, the poet, and the guardian.

You can always message me or tag me on Twitter, and I'll be sure to respond as soon as I can. Work inquiries, speaking requests, and so on are perfectly acceptable through Twitter. Thanks!