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Shouting Crow

@shoutingcrow.bsky.social

2.9K followers 590 following 1.7K posts

CAWWW! I'm Justin Vandermeer, an indie game designer producing TTRPGs, solo journaling games, and art. I also publish guides on formatting print-friendly projects. https://shoutingcrow.itch.io/ Land Back & Trans Rights supporter. 🏳️‍⚧️ He/They 🏳️‍⚧️

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Apr 29

Hi! I'm Justin. I make a free zine series about designing print-friendly tabletop games called PRINT IT YOURSELF. Every issue is absolutely chock full of diagrams and sometimes I do interviews with really talented and knowledgeable people. Check it out:

itch.io/c/5612213/pr...

Fully illustrated, step by step instructions about how to staple a zine.

Step 1: Stack your sheets neatly in a landscape orientation. The cover goes on top, the centerfold goes on the bottom.
Step 2: Measure and mark the halfway point running up and down on the page. Make a mark two inches from the top and bottom of that line.
Step 3: With a longarm, swivel arm, or booklet stapler, punch staples through the page by aligning the outside edge of the stapler with the 2" mark.
Step 4: Flip the stack over so the centerfold is on top and fold it in half, left edge to right, so the cover is on top and the centerfold pages are kissing.
6: Put a crisp crease on the spine. A bone folder (a small simple tool with a rounded edge) is handy here.
7: If you have scruffy looking pages, you can trim them off carefully with a blade. Guillotine or rotary cutters work better!

A contrast diagram overlaying a gradient of black-to-white letters on top of a gradient of white-to-black squares. Some of them have white or black outlines. It demonstrates how strong contrast makes text more legible.

The text above it reads: BIG VISUAL IMPACT FOR STRONGLY-THEMED PROJECTS
If your game re-iterates on an idea several times and that’s kinda the point of it, you gotta consider using this format. This foldie just oozes drama.
That “constant” triangle that is nearly omnipresent in the top right of this foldie is going to haunt anyone reading this foldie. Take advantage of that fact and put something really important there.
TEXT ON TOP OF IMAGES
This format has a huge visual impact, and art works really well with it-- but if you absolutely have to put written words on a busy background keep it short and to the point. Use a thick, contrasting outline instead of a soft/drop shadow or fade the background out behind the text entirely. Avoid typesets that have very little negative space in some of the letters (center of lower-case ‘e’.) They don’t play nice with outlines.
DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YA...
It takes experience to make text and triangles play nicely with each other, and this format has a few unusually-shaped pages. Artists, this is your moment to shine! Verbose writers, beware. Also, don’t put anything on the “unused interior” except for folding instructions. Yes, even if you pre-fold it. Trust me on this one.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · 11d

Picking up a pen and drawing something every day is a great way to build yourself up, especially when you don’t think of yourself as an artist.
One day, you’ll feel like you’ve earned the title. Eventually you’ll realize you earned it the moment you picked up the pen.
I’m proud of you, Exeunt.

Exeunt Press 💀 @exeunt.press · 11d

#MÖRKTOBER Day 8 - Wizard

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Reposted by Shouting Crow

InnocentGoblin is Ghost Hunting 👻 @innocentgoblin.bsky.social · Sep 17

A lot will be happening over on my Itch page, including a ton of print at home foldable versions of my games inspired by @shoutingcrow.bsky.social

But until they are uploaded, from now you can grab a physical copy of Pirouette and Grotty Gobbo's Tea Grotto!

These are VERY limited, only 7 of each

Pirouette: A Solo Horror Ballet TTRPG by InnocentGoblin

The show must go on, even if it kills you!

innocentgoblin.itch.io

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Reposted by Shouting Crow

PJ Holden @pauljholden.com · Nov 8

A comic about making comics (the alt text took longer to write than the comic did to draw * I drew this a few years ago)

A 14 panel comic, a top tier of five panels shows a drawing of me, and in each of the subsequent panels the drawing of me gets simpler and simpler, with a cartoony drawing, a crude cartoon, then a stick man, then a smily face then a simple blob. Each time I'm saying "Hi"
Tier two, panel one, the smiley face is sad and saying "PJ! I can't draw!" "How can I make comics"
Panel 2, me as a simple cartoon "Oh that's ok, comics work..."
panel 3, me as a very crudely drawn figiure my head tilted at a funny angle and Im saying "No matter your skill level"
Panel 4 more simplistic drawing of me holding a ruler "As long as you can (sorta) draw a straight line " "(I use a ruler)"
Panel 5 even more simple drawing "And a bubble"
next (final) tier
Panel 1
A simple circle with two dots for eyes and a small line for a mouth and a balloon coming from his mouth saying "People can be quite forgiving about the artwork"
Panel 2 the round simple face meets a spikey simple face, spikey says "I'm not - I like GOOD artwork" me - "Oh"
Panel 3 me (still a smiley face, but straight line mouth ) I have two stick arms raised up with little stick fingers and I'm saying "...Sorry..."
Spike says "Bah"
Panel 4 (last panel) Me, slightly better drawn (but only just) "OK - not everyone is quite forgiving about art" "BUT I AM" "Good luck!"

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 29

Hi, Emi! I made a free zine series that is sort of adjacent to this subject, though it’s largely for black and white work: itch.io/c/5612213/pr...

But also, a thing I like to do is sit down with new folks in the industry and walk them through their first zine step by step over discord. DM me?

Print It Yourself - Collection by Shouting Crow

A collection by Shouting Crow

itch.io

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 28

I wouldn’t have seen this if you hadn’t talked about it. Thank you! It looks rad.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 28

Hell yeah, that’s what I like to see! Ink-lite QuickStarts are a great way to get a copy of the basics on the table for each player. Good design, mate.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 27

I did, in fact, read the first post and think “how DOES a peahen walk when she needs to lay an egg?”
I was not disappointed by this thread. Thank you!

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Reposted by Shouting Crow

Steve Lieber @stevelieberart.bsky.social · Aug 25

Been a year. Time to repost this.

YOUR PORTFOLIO CRIT
THINGS I'D TELL YOU IF I WERE LOOKING AT YOUR WORK IN PERSON
1 Violating the 180 degree rule makes this sequence hard to follow
2 A few more incidental overlaps will make this foreshortening clearer
3 Symmetrical compositions with a character dead center imply an important moment. Don't draw every panel like that?
4 This __ looks kind of fake. Take the time to look at reference instead of just making it up
5 An establishing shot will help the reader understand where this takes place.
6 Find a life-drawing session to attend, or practice from photos online.
7 Show these pages to someone who doesn't know the story and ask them to tell the story back to you.
8. Nudge this part over a bit to eliminate that tangency.
9 You flattened out the depth by rendering the foreground, middle ground, & background with the same values. Create depth and direct the eye by organizing them into overlapping planes of light & dark.
10 there are better ways to use your time than rendering every brick.
11 these characters look like they're floating (or falling). Draw figures and bg from the same eye level.
12 Unless this will be a wordless comic, leave more room for the lettering

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 21

Oof, this one’s so heavy, I haven’t been able to commission art for it or finish the work myself. If you wanna feel some kinda way, check out this stream.
Good luck, Wyvern!

A Screaming Wyvern @screamingwyvern.com · Aug 20

I'll be going well out of my comfort zone for this week's #solorpg Thursday - Body to Die For by @shoutingcrow.bsky.social is about body horror, transphobia, body dysmorphia, and death. I've wanted to stream it for a while, but I needed to make sure I could respectfully handle the subject.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 18

I happen to be online, so here’s a link because since Richard mentioned it, I’ve become a fan:

www.podomatic.com/podcasts/gay...

Gay Pulp

This podcast seeks to preserve gay pulp novels--many dating to the pre-Stonewall era and almost all out of print--by turning them into audiobooks. New episodes every Monday morning! https://www.fa...

www.podomatic.com

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 7

So the short answer is: single-leaf mutations are uncommon but possible in certain species, and it’s often the result of a virus!
It is more likely that the nodule for that particular leaf was damaged or did not develop properly, resulting in unusual or incomplete growth.

Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 6

I’m lucky, we have 3 ten gallon tanks and I can just move the brown-and-beautiful skramps into one of the others and spread the joy around!

Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 6

Ahhhh, that’s amazing! I know we’re likely to end up with a bunch of wild type babies, but we think they’re just as pretty. This black one is STUNNING, though— and your tank looks so lush! Well done, mate.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Aug 6

Interrupting my summer of inactivity to say: oh holy crap, one of our blue pearl neocaridina shrimp is carrying eggs!
There’s a little yellow shrimp just below her, to the right. Li’l bonus for ya.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 30

The phrase "Suzuki's guzzlin' ducks" is now circling my brain.

Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 30

Got a lot of new followers today, but I haven’t been very productive this summer.
Please enjoy this (invasive) mollusk shell that my kid found in the river.
We spend a lot of time outside this time of year, but I’ll be back to posting bookbinding, publishing, and TTRPG stuff in September!

A gold triangular bivalve shell with brassy stripes leaning against a piece of driftwood. It probably belonged to a zebra mussel before it was found as a half-shell in a local riverbed. After a boil and scrub, it is now decor in a sandy, well planted, but otherwise unoccupied fish tank.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 23

I table at conventions and my girlfriend does this. Bless her. What would we do without them.

Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 18

Conventions and FLGS for physicals, Itchio for digital, and no thank you not ever to DTRPG.

(I am not American, so IPR doesn’t make as much sense for me. The shipping is very expensive, which is not IPR’s fault.)

Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 18

I would love to hear more! My girlfriend and I play a lot of duet games together and while PBP would be new to us, I now know a lot more about the subject than I used to!

Thank you so much for your incredible, thought out, and beautifully formatted response. I have much thinking to do now.

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 17

I’m not blowing smoke, mate. Genuinely brilliant bit of work. You’re a force to be reckoned with!

Reposted by Shouting Crow

Plus One Exp | Staying Home For PAXU (cause we live in Philly) @plusoneexp.bsky.social · Jul 16

We bully people into great things in the Plus One discord.

Also if you want to support

@vidityavoleti.bsky.social's Longsword
@hipolita.itch.io's RAD
@apesofwrath.bsky.social's Down We Go
Tony's Through The Void

Or one of our other house systems we would love to help you

Sam Armstrong is 4 Goblins in a Tuxedo @samarmstronggames.bsky.social · Jul 16

So after a discussion in a discord server (and being told I'd be a coward if I didn't set this up) here's the Indie Adventure Jam. Make a THING for your favourite #ttrpg that doesn't have enough THINGS. Simple as that, you have two months.

itch.io/jam/indie-ad...

Indie Adventure Jam

A game jam from 2025-07-17 to 2025-09-17 hosted by Sam Armstrong Games. This is a pretty simple premise for a jam. Find a TTRPG that you think is cool but doesn't have enough extra adventures/expansio...

itch.io

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 17

Okay, this is interesting. Say more. As a PBP person, what signals to you that something is going to work well with that play style?

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Reposted by Shouting Crow

Lone Archivist @lonearchivist.bsky.social · Jul 17

I think about this a lot and definitely feel that a game is not truly complete until it has at least one adventure supplement to support it and show what playing that game is actually like.

It's like a video game with no story. Cool mechanics but how do I use them?

Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 17

Critically, the rest of the book is a SAMPLE ADVENTURE. Do you know how USEFUL that is?! Even as a reference for formatting?! If you want people to write adventures for your games, for goodness’ sake, give them an idea of what those adventures should look like, more or less!!

an advertisement for schitts creek shows a woman holding a tablet and says " this is a critical moment "

Alt: Moira, a formerly rich older woman from Schitt’s creek, shouts “this is a critical moment”

media.tenor.com

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Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 17

a close up of a man 's face with the words do it now

Alt: a close up of Arnold Shwartzenegar’s face, greasy, hot, and battered, bloody nosed, commanding the viewer to “Do it now!”

media.tenor.com

Shouting Crow @shoutingcrow.bsky.social · Jul 17

Aw, shucks.