The Firmament is out now! It's a one-session tarot game inspired by cosmology of the ancient Near East with a healthy dash of influence from Kabbalah (thanks, Hebrew school). Stop disgusting humans from crawling through the firmament from their base on the moon, lest they bring ruin to your home, the Chambers of Heaven.

 While there's still some work to be done to get it where I want it to be for print, I'm so excited to have it out in the world (just in time for Bad Moon Jam submission) - it's been stewing in my mind for a while, and I really wanted to find a way to connect the divinatory aspect of tarot with the act of play. It's also a bit of a joke, because in the late 1800s, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn tried extremely hard to associate tarot with the ancient cultures of the Middle East, despite the fact they originated as playing cards in late medieval Italy. 

If you're curious, but not sure about it, I'll have some pictures of play & a few mockups on the itch page soon. You can get a sense of the vibes by the playlist I made for the game.

So, what's next for this game? I have three main goals for updating The Firmament, which will happen over the next few months:

1. Simplify the character sheet. I like that you can basically play the entire game just by what's on the sheet (plus a list of spreads), but it's also information overload. After trying it out a few more times, I'd like to see what's worth keeping and what I can cut.
2. Overhaul the spreads. There's an enormous opportunity for more specific worldbuilding in the 11 tarot spreads that make up the course of play. Unfortunately, I ran out of time pre-jam to give them the love they deserve.
3. Make it prettier. I'm glad I got to use some of my own photography to decorate the zine, but it's not exactly aligned with my vision. That's going to be the last thing I work on after updating the content.

The price will increase once these changes are made, but if you pick it up now, you'll have access to the final version at a reduced cost. Plus, you'll help me make it as good as it can be! If you play it and have feedback, you can let me know here.

Looking to the future,

Ben // Foresight Studio

PS Check out the other Bad Moon Jam submissions! There's some amazing stuff in there.