Creator - Fleet Detrik (@fleet_detrik)

My Mother’s Kitchen is a solo journaling game powered by tarot, a 10-sided die, and a pair of scissors. This is a game where you print out and cut away recipes from your cookbook and use a blend of creative and tactical thinking to either free your soul or be erased.

This game has been developed into a 38-page zine by Fleet Detrik (they/she) with a system both cozy and haunting. This is the fifth TTRPG coming to Crowdfundr’s Tabletop Nonstop! You can back this awesome game beginning 2/1 at 10 AM EST right here!

4 pages of recipes to cut out, destroy, or preserve in your cookbook.
4 blank recipe cards to build your own gameplay.
4+ pages of solo journaling prompts that span past and present.
A brand new tarot system where creative writing meets card game.
1-page character creation that evolves as you play
A New Game + mode that lets you build on failure.
A historical overview of kitchen tech and the spice trade.
Heartwarming art by Fabian Lelay and Hailee Smith.
Professional editing by Brent Jans.

You play as the author of the original family cookbook, robbed of memory and trapped on Earth as the spirit of your cookbook. You act as a guardian for your family and try to remember why you’re bound to the book as you guide your inheritors through centuries and generations.

Every time someone makes a recipe from your book, you’ll draw tarot cards and roll dice to remember who you are and why you’re trapped. And maybe, just maybe, a generation will achieve what you’ve dreamed of and you can finally rest.

This game was written as my grandmother, Stefanie Kranzler, took a turn for the worse August 2022. I had no way to cope – I was in another state in a full time job, and there was no guarantee I’d make it in time. To cope I did the one thing I knew how to do: I cooked.
My family never had many generational recipes; we’re German Jewish so a lot was lost but some small recipes carried over, like matzo brie and latkes. I wondered what my grandmother would think as I made food she loved, and if she was somehow there with me. That was how I began work on My Mother’s Kitchen.

I wanted to explore the idea of something in us living on when we wrote down recipes that were near and dear to us. When you take on the role of a ghost, it’s meant to be a fun and eerie experience but at the same time, it’s comforting to us on the level of players in the game. It’s self aware since we all come from the lived experience of being cooked for and cooking for others.
This game has grown so much from the care of the TTRPG community, and I’ve been humbled by how much this game has resonated with playtesters. I’ve been told a lot how it made players reflect on the women in their families, and gave them a wider view of their family’s history.
For my part, I hope that people will enjoy this game and find it as fun and freeing to play as it was for me to write.

Check out the preview on itch: https://fleetdetrik.itch.io/my-mothers-kitchen-preview

Keeping it Geekly's Substack

My Mother's Kitchen goes live on Crowdfundr…