The Sometimes Kingdom 🜸 Zine 1: Monsoon (Core Rules)

The Sometimes Kingdom is a high-fantasy Grit System game with a relatable premise: in the magical realm of Seasons’ Keep, any problem rated lower than “imminent doom” is taken care of by the Questing Network, a raggedy “un-profit” network of contracted gig-adventurers. That’s where you come in…

• Play as classic high-fantasy classes – Such as Knights, Unnaturalists (wizard-detectives), Drivers, and Bodywitches!
• No elves, no dwarves – Play as a walking Skeleton, a clever Talking Animal, a rules-lawyer Dæmon, or a sturdy Humanfolk. (To come: teen Giants! Vivid FaE! More undead!) Leave the eugenics horseshit of other magical worlds behind and scoff at propriety.
• Every! Single! Character! Can cast spells! – Build any spell you can imagine using our unique system of spell-forging by selecting words of power: it’s simple, intuitive, and endlessly fun!
• Unexpected encounters in an absurdly original world – Less Tolkien/dragon game, more Phantom Tollbooth/Venture Brothers.
• Redefine heroism as a questing freelancer – Turn your lust for adventure into a badly remunerated career! Save the Seasons from going magically berserk!
• The Grit System – It’s quick to learn, player-empowering, and endlessly flexible. Burn grit to boost any roll!

Monsoon, the first zine for The Sometimes Kingdom, features full rules plus a starter quest to start saving the Seasons straight away!

Grow your ever-mutating list of spells, heal a ghost, die as a Skeleton and come back as… a different Skeleton, confront the most powerful mages in the realm, take a ride on a subway made out of femurs, fight a vampire staircase, be consumed by the horrors of the forest, romance a living automobile—we don’t care, only please, save the Seasons from going magically berserk! Just, you know—FIX IT!

If you love beautiful, queer-friendly fantasy games, The Sometimes Kingdom is for you.

☉☉☉

Writing by Ethan Gould & Wythe Marschall
Art by Ethan Gould
Design and layout by Anthony Grasso
Edited by Wythe Marschall
Marketing and operations led by Sunaree Paiwong

© 2026 Ethan Gould, Wythe Marschall, & Stillfleet Studio