Alchemistresses: A tabletop RPG about feelings, queer magical girls and self-discovery

Allison Cole is an experienced game designer, part of the worker-owned cooperative Soft Chaos, has been at the helm of several successfully crowdfunded tabletop RPGs and is back with Alchemistresses.

Alchemistresses is a queer magical girl roleplaying game about reincarnation and feelings. It’s on Kickstarter now and with a CA$7,750 campaign goal.

[Backt his Campaign]

The RPG is collaborative and intended to be played as one season of a magical girl anime. Characters are teens with all the drama that means, at high school with all the drama that means and reincarnations of powerful supernatural beings, which, of course, means drama.

There’s fantasy, monsters, crushes, friendships, self-discovery and all those feelings. Can anyone be a magical girl with those issues? As the project points out, Magical Girl is a job description, not a gender.

Alchemistresses consists of two worlds – the world of the present day and the world of the past. In the present day, you are a regular school kid. You are just trying to make it through your days. You’ll get to go to school dances, participate in talent shows, and try not to fail that big math test.

In the past, you are the Mistress of an Element. You are chosen, marked, and a powerful magic-user. In the past, you will be reliving your dramatic conflict with a great evil force.

You can support this queer-friendly RPG for free just by sharing it on social media or for as little cash as you’re comfortable with, but there are reward tiers.

A digital copy of Alchemistresses is the reward for people who can pledge at CA$20 (about £13).

A softcover of the RPG is added at CA$35, but shipping will need to be added later.

There are many higher tiers; postcards, stickers and game components added.

There’s retailer support, and at CA$125, there’s a limited number of places to get the goodie pile and help design a custom NPC. At CA$250, there’s a private game session, and then at CA$300, you become a consultant on a custom world/worldbuilding project for the game.