The Connection Machine

A new RPG from Tanya Floaker and Julia Nevaleinen

February 02, 2023

Three surreal digital collage portraits are in the background. A stylised tesseract logo with the words "THE CONNECTION MACHINE" below sit in the foreground, all in white line with a glowing cyan outline.

Hi all, I’ve moved my Irregular Update mailing list from MailChimp to Substack. This was down to the interface here being a lot more user-friendly. The annual ZineQuest is taking place on Kickstarter, and I’ll make another post in a week to highlight some great games looking for funding. Today, I’d like to introduce a new game, with writing from myself and beautiful digital collage artwork by Julia Nevalainen - THE CONNECTION MACHINE!

The Connection Machine is a science fiction RPG about attachment, trauma and the search for meaningful connection. Explore a dream-like world to create stories about hope, grief, shame, freedom, attachment and love. 

The game specifications:

  • 2-4 Players

  • 1-3 Hours Playtime

  • No Gamers Master required

  • A minimum two six-sides dice (each with a different colour) + writing tools

Mock-up of a book shown in isometric view with cover and spine shown. Cover is a surreal digital collage of the upper body a woman lying asleep. She is wearing a golden breastplate, has one eye socket filled with with electronics, and has cabling going into her flesh all around.

A quantum computer - the titular Connection Machine - has been tasked with maintaining a stable hypercube. A group of specially selected individuals will now step up to physically explore the fourth dimension and the surreal landscape within. However, their brains struggle to grasp the experience, filling in blanks with memories from their collective past as time itself bends and shifts. The characters confront trauma echoing through their lives, given form as PTSDemons. With each wave of trauma, the hypercube becomes less and less stable, threatening to collapse in on itself with everybody inside!

Mock-up of an A4 sheet folded so each half is A5. It shows various glowing coloured symbols.

Each session of The Connection Machine is perfect for creating a powerful stand-alone story while exploring the dream-like landscape of the fourth dimension. Will your character be crushed under the weight of unseen dimensions, or will they return integrated with their demons and better able to go forward?

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