BBG Digest - New game release!

A love letter to research

Blinking Birch Games

May 31, 2023

Big update today - my new TTRPG, Outliers, is now available!

The cover image of Outliers. It shows a black & white wavy line on a graph, with the axis lines in orange. — Outlier cover by James Hanna

Outliers is a solo TTRPG about working as a research assistant for a lab that is anything but average. It's a game of absurd comedy, inspired by works like Welcome to Night Vale and Gravity Falls.

I designed Outliers as the creator-in-residence with the Far Horizons CoOp! The entire team was incredible:

Layout and Cover - James Hanna
Art - Carly A-F
Editing - J. Boone Dryden
Proofreading - Marx Shepherd

A drawing of a very funky computer. — An example of Carly’s amazing art

In Outliers, you play as a research assistant trying to do their job in an absurd environment. You’ll journal daily happenings in your lab notebook and try to get more funding before the study is shut down.

Outliers is my love letter to research, and my experiment in merging two of the biggest areas of my life. Each prompt is inspired by real work I've done as a research assistant over the years. Playing this game provides a behind-the-scenes of what lab research is actually like - once you strip away the absurdism, you’re left with an accurate picture of what a research assistant does. There’s even a list of definitions to explain lab terminology (thanks Travis Hill for double-checking those!).

A brief description of the different prompt categories. Hearts - Recruitment – You can’t have a human research study without participants. Create advertising materials, talk to people interested in the study, and make sure the calendar is fed daily. DIAMONDS – Consent & Screening – Participants must know what they’re signing up for. Answer questions about the consent form, screen participants for exclusion criteria, and don’t sign anything that whispers. CLUBS – Data Collection – The bread & butter of science. Walk participants through study activities, administer questionnaires, and make sure the samples stay in this dimension. SPADES – Miscellaneous – When not working with participants, research assistants take care of assorted tasks around the lab. Place orders for lab materials, submit study modifications for approval, and clean the buildup of gray sludge off the table.

Outliers is a Wretched & Alone game, meaning it uses the same system as The Wretched by Chris Bissette. With that said, you don’t need to know anything about W&A games to play Outliers.

You can pick up a copy at itchio and DriveThruRPG! Only digital copies are available right now, but we’ll be releasing a physical version later this year - I’ll be sure to announce when those are out.

As always, thank you for all of the support. I’ll have more announcements coming soon!

~ Sam Leigh