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Dragonfly Motel – A French Surrealist TTRPG

On Kickstarter for #ZineQuest, February 1–28

Lucas Falk

Lucas Falk

— 3 min read
Dragonfly Motel – A French Surrealist TTRPG
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“Think of the weirdest game you’ve ever played. This one is weirder. It shouldn’t be good, but it is.”
Simon Pettersson

Bläckfisk Publishing is proud to announce Dragonfly Motel, a tabletop role-playing game about reckless travelers lost in a surreal trap of dreamlike slices of life. It is an English translation and revision of Dragonfly Motel, written by Thomas Munier. This imaginative French creation offers one of the more unconventional experiences in tabletop role-playing.

The Kickstarter campaign aims to raise €4,000 to produce the physical zine—the more funding received, the stranger it becomes.

About the Game

  • You have the right to say illogical things.
  • Inconsistency is tolerated—several contradictory realities coexist.
  • When you say something, it's true. But not even death is irreversible. 
  • Show, don't tell. For example, don't recount the past—travel there.
  • Don’t try to understand what is happening. Savor it. Let go.

Dragonfly Motel promotes an improv style of play where you build on each other’s ideas and play to explore what happens next.

Each player controls a main character inspired by randomly drawn attribute notes. For example:

  • Wound: Tears hard to conceal.
  • Attachment: An old suitcase that contains everything I own.
  • Beauty: The joy of the present moment.
  • Motivation: Finding the courage to talk to my mother.
  • Question: Who do these flowers belong to?
  • Destiny: Pushing someone in a wheelchair.

It’s a game about surrendering to surreal impulses. It plays on the logic of dreams and that familiar feeling of drifting through weirdness that almost makes sense. Then suddenly, absurd elements align and form something coherent and strangely satisfying.

Pledges and Stretch Goals

Backers can pledge at two levels:

  • Digital-only: Pay what you want (suggested €5).
  • Physical zine: €22, including the digital version.

Stretch goals unlock enhancements of the physical zine—UV-coating, folding endpapers, and more.

Check out the Kickstarter

About the Creators

Thomas Munier is a French author of games set in the Millevaux forest and in dreams (Inflorenza, Oriente, and Highway of Tears, among others). He runs Outsider, a blog about creative energy and handcrafted worlds. He also enjoys Prévert-style collages, dark music, cinema, logical vertigo, and kittens.

Bläckfisk Publishing is a Swedish duo of brainstormers, dreamers, and workhorses. Previous releases include Knight Forlorn (story game about a lone wanderer on a futile quest), Heroes of Cerulea (pixelated dungeon crawl TTRPG), and Blood Feud (Viking story game exploring toxic masculinity).

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