Level Drain Games
Tinkering with game mechanics and pop culture for fun...not necessarily for profit!
Level Drain Games is the RPG design imprint developed by GremlinLegions. I've been putting together game hacks and weird RPG ideas for decades. I write pages of notes and just as soon throw them in the shredder, only to revisit ideas and themes months...if not years...later. Sometimes I come up with good ideas, sometimes I make idiotic stuff, and sometimes I lose all inspiration, but I never give up as long as someone gets some modicum of enjoyment from my efforts.
Over the last fifteen years, I have made some small forays into getting my work published. Whilst I worked at a variety of print shops, I produced a variety of games, such as the earlier edition of Princess Provocateur, that were distributed privately and at the GameStorm game convention in the Pacific Northwest. During the height of the Pandemic, I had the opportunity (thanks to my old boss Steve Ellis) to work with Hunter's Entertainment (of Kids on Bikes fame), Renegade Game Studios, and Oni Press to publish The Junior Braves Survival Guide to the Apocalypse, based on the original Junior Braves of the Apocalypse graphic novel series by my friend Greg Smith and his writing partner Michael Tanner. It's success was...muted. But that's okay, as I've had people share their stories with me, and recently even had a very nice review from John Wick (not the assassin), as well as an interview with the RPGs and Baby Makes 3 podcast!
Now, on itch.io, I am trying to release my ideas into the wild, including updated and revising some of my older games, such as...
- Revision of my World of Dungeons hack, Streets of Marienburg (though with all of GWs IP filed off
- Revisions and updates of my Ghost//Echo hacks, All//Spark and Project:Black
- The most recent playtest iteration of The Wildlings
- GxG, one of my earlier yuri forays into collaborative, narrative games
- An update of my first itch.io game, lifeLESS
- ...and more! (I hope...)
GremlinLegions is a game designer, collector, enthusiast and (now formerly) RPG expert at a certain once-Friendly Local Game Store that got taken over by corporate fiends that have since endeavored to turn my FLGS into a very bad Xerox-copy of a big-box book store. I'm also an illustrator and graphic designer, and have made most of the illustrations and all of the layout of my games. Anything I don't draw myself, I will source from public domain images (such as from Old Book Illustrations), purchase through Shutterstock, itch.io, or commission from local artists...even if those games never get published. Art is IMPORTANT to me. Even on shoestring budgets, I think generative AI is not an acceptable option in published works.
While I try to keep all of my games priced minimally, if not free, I do appreciate any little contribution, especially as I am currently unemployed after leaving my FLGS job...and trying to find ANYTHING that offers a livable wage in this economy is absolutely crap. I don't realistically expect to turn gaming into a full-time job, but if it could at least give me a bit that I can then pass along to other designers for THEIR games (as I collect games like most people collect dust bunnies).
