Storytelling Games
Nat Mesnard writes fiction, teaches storytelling, and designs games. They are faculty at Pratt Institute and School of Visual Arts, and co-founded Scryptid Games. Nat has published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Cartridge Lit, Autostraddle, Bodega, Blackbird, Kenyon Review Online, The Gettysburg Review, Ninth Letter, The Journal, Green Mountains Review and elsewhere. New games include a tabletop RPG, Ball of the Wild, funded on Kickstarter, and a short RPG titled Adventurer’s Respite forthcoming in the 2023 Level 1 Anthology.
Ball of the Wild
$15.00
Ball of the Wild
Ball of the Wild is a tabletop roleplaying game zine where you and your gorgeous, talented, and totally gag-worthy friends tell the story of animals who dress up as other animals.
Beneath the glittering stars, the Animal Queendom is ready to meet for that legendary animal masquerade known as the Ball of the Wild — and it’s time to put on an epic performance!
Create a unique animal performer
Easy-to-learn roleplaying Powered by Polymorph
Gorgeous art by Cole Closser
Funded on Kickstarter during Zine Quest 4
Selected Work
Cauliflory
Short fiction published in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, July 2022
Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop
Intensive two-week creative writing course for talented high school students.
Gods of Rock
Tabletop RPG published in the 9th Level Games 2022 Level 1 Anthology for Free RPG Day.
August, Washington Square Park & Sex
Poetry published in Brink No. 3, Spring 2022.
Mazes Interludes
Short fiction for Mazes Fantasy Roleplaying Hardcover Edition, published Summer 2022.
Queers at the End of the World
A podcast on classic narratives of apocalypse as discussed by nerdy queer and trans folks.
Poly Throuple Technology
Short fiction published on Catapult, September 2021.
Interactive Fiction & Worldbuilding
Continuing education creative writing courses taught through Catapult.
The Life and Times of doomcock69
Short fiction published in Cartridge Lit, August 2021.
Branching Infinity
Essay on the craft of interactive fiction, published in Catapult’s Don’t Write Alone, July 2021.
Video Game Design I
Course taught as part of SVA’s Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects program.
Notes on (AcroYoga) Camp
Short fiction published in Autostraddle, May 2021.
Finding Connection and Resisting Extraction in Quarantine Gaming
Essay published in Edge Effects’ 2020 Visions: Imagining (Post-) COVID Worlds series.
Disasters as Experiences of Care
Essay in Autostraddle on go bags, mutual aid and rethinking queer preparedness.
Data Clustering & Projection in Retrograde
Poetry published in WE WANT IT ALL, an anthology of radical trans poetics published by Nightboat Books.
Storytelling & Interactive Narrative Design
Course taught as part of Pratt Institute’s Game Design & Interactive Media Program.
MU Puzzle & Steel-Jaw
Poetry published in Blackbird Vol. 17 No. 2.
Immersive Insights & Dataspace
Copyediting for academic papers by Marco Cavallo et al. on a hybrid reality environment and related data analysis software.
Game On: Teaching Writing for Video Games
Invited speaker at an AWP Conference panel on teaching writing through video games.
2018-19 Rutgers Camden Digital Studies Fellow
Research for my experimental narrative video game Channel and teaching Introduction to Video Game Design.
The Neuroscience of Games
Invited lecture on learning styles, gendered play, and game design given at IndieCade 2018.
The Half-Sacred Disease
Creative nonfiction essay published in the Kenyon Review Poetics of Science special issue.
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