Yazeba’s Online, an unconventional tabletop RPG and the digital playground of your dreams

It’s been four years Possum Creek games (Wanderhouse) struck the match that would become Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, an innovative, rule-breaking, fun tabletop role-playing game that is undoubtedly the first of its kind. In March, the online iteration of the game was released, Yazeba is online. This version, which also includes the official release of the original Yazebas book in PDF form, combines the new virtual table features of One More Multiverse, the point-and-click adventure of The Secret of Monkey Islandand the terraforming and design freedom of Animal Crossing: New Horizons into one glorious online adventure. It’s a lot to pack into one game, but the end result is a charming, heartfelt playground for your digital escapades.

The core Yazebas experience promises a true-to-life fantasy with themes of queer found family and community care told through new and innovative game mechanics around the table. Set in a magical bed and breakfast run by a heartless witch, the game is played with fully pre-rendered characters. These characters are both long-term residents of the titular B&B and guests passing through. This allows new players to start playing right away without having to be guided through character creation and customization.

Each character has their strengths and weaknesses, as well as so-called journeys to base their roleplay on. Journeys are individual processes of self-discovery and growth; when a character’s journey is fulfilled, players choose a new journey to focus on. The game is divided into short chapters, which are self-contained vignettes featuring specific characters. Chapters can be played in any order and take 60-90 minutes to play. Some chapters and characters are locked and must be unlocked over time, giving the game a “gotta catch ’em all” atmosphere.

The physical game uses a lot of different resources depending on which chapter is being played; coins, tokens and even a deck of playing cards add to the tactile nature of the experience. Unspent resources can be used at the end of a chapter to advance a character’s progress on their individual journey of self-discovery, or to unlock locked materials for the entire group. Players can switch who plays which character, play and replay the same chapters, collecting new ways to play along the way. The physical version of Yazebas also comes with an envelope of stickers called keepsakes. The book is full of empty shelves, and when prompted, players take a keepsake sticker from the envelope and place it on a shelf; filling a shelf usually unlocks a new chapter or character, and when something is unlocked, a key sticker is placed on the lock on the corresponding page.

You play Yazebas by modifying it: checking off items on lists, filling shelves, beautifying page margins, and adding traits and scribbles to character sheets. No two groups will play the same game, which means Yazebas is really yours to play with.

In Yazeba is online, residents are depicted as sprites, and players control them with a mouse and keyboard, drifting in and out of the B&B’s many settings. You can spend hours picking up and putting down every (or, if you’re like me, every) object in sight, inspecting them to reveal taste text and witty gags.

Choose a chapter and the game will teleport you to the room it’s set in: Deal with a veritable pile of clothes in the laundry room in Chapter 3: Wash Cycle, or try your luck at the watering hole in Chapter 21: Gone Fishin’. These settings make the chapters much more real, and there may just be secrets hidden in plain sight, waiting to be discovered. (There may or may not be three new locked characters exclusive to the online edition.) The experience is made all the more immersive by the synthy vibes of the game’s original music, composed by Naked Lake’s Jordan Hartsfield and tuned to the mood of any given chapter – creepy, pensive, or frantic, among others.

The ins and outs of Yazeba is online are a breeze to pick up; playing the tutorial shows players how to navigate the One More Multiverse interface, change and add character blades, and interact with the world around them.

The game’s sticker pad lists the rules for each chapter, along with dispensers for tokens and other resources, and mementos to place on in-game shelves, such as trophies. Like every other part of the interface, the sticker block section is collapsible, so you can open it when you need to, and tuck it away when you don’t.

The housekeeping mechanism built into the game streamlines the process of ending a chapter, directing players to organize collected mementos, view new unlocked materials, and add buffs, scribbles, or notes to character sheets.

Image: One More Multiverse via Keerthi Sridharan

The game’s beautiful pixel art isn’t just a backdrop: it’s the ultimate digital playground, an infinite sheet of digital butcher paper that players can use to expand the B&B’s environment. Players can change the inside of the B&B using tiles, furniture and a pen, with no areas that are not accessible. Another multiverse even pulls spell animations, soundtracks, and additional assets from other systems and institutions into its rapidly growing inventory of custom digital games, which you can use to customize the B&B to your liking. You can also rotate, scale and dress up your characters. And yes, this means you can play an entire chapter upside down and three times taller than everyone else – just like I did.

Image: One More Multiverse via Keerthi Sridharan

Image: One More Multiverse via Keerthi Sridharan

My favorite part is the Polaroid feature: players can take pictures of their on-screen shenanigans and drag them into character journals, with captions and scribbles over them however they like.

The online platform is also infinitely customizable and you can use it to best suit your needs. You can walk your character around the B&B while recounting their interactions with other residents and guests, but if you prefer to stick with the ghost theater you can just Yazeba is online as a card-optional virtual tabletop, tracking character progression, checklists, and resources like coins and tokens using the interface as you play. There’s plenty of room for scribbles and notes in each character’s diary, and chapter lines can be taken from the sticker pad and placed directly in a room for easy viewing. For more comprehensive materials to refer to, Yazeba is online comes with a PDF of the original book.

Image: One More Multiverse via Keerthi Sridharan

Yazebas takes everything you love about games, role-playing and going crazy with your friends and gives it to you on a kitschy, nostalgic platter. Everything about Yazeba is online pushes the lesson at the heart of the original game: Home is what you make it. Use it to play chapters like a video game, keep all your coins and tokens in one place, or just leave it open in the background and let the bed and breakfast vibe wash over you as you play via voice chat. Yazebas is your oyster.