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It started as any normal day, you prepared for your performance, you’ve done it a hundred times before. You’ve trained for years to get to dance on this stage, you get yourself in position, nervous but ready for your first performance but as the curtains open you know it very well might be your last.
Pirouette is a solo horror TTRPG about a ballet dancer performing for an amorphous eldritch horror. Each move in your routine brings you closer to exhaustion, closer to that vital mistake which might just be the last you'll ever make.
Played with a tarot deck and a block tower, Pirouette balances emotional prompts, rising, unforgiving tension; and the art of ballet. Dancers train for years to pirouette professionally, to gain the skill and grace you need to perform ballet, to land a Grand Jete en Tournant without incident. One wrong move can lead to severe injury - The show must go on but how long can you last?
Sweat drips down your cheeks, your foot starts to ache. This routine is finite but the moment has been stretched to the infinite. The silence of this moment is deafening, drowning out the backing music. You just about make the first leap, this is where the dance becomes difficult, where you struggle the most. As you pirouette you feel a cold aching sensation in your face, any minute now your nose will start bleeding.
Pirouette has been written and designed by InnocentGoblin using the advice and guidance of a professional ballet dancer. Another two wonderful creators are waiting in the wings for Pirouette to be funded and the stretch goals smashed!
Michael Sweeney (InnocentGoblin) - Writer and DesignerMichael Sweeney is a TTRPG designer that has worked on other TTRPGs under the name InnocentGoblin such as Grotty Gobbo’s Tea Grotto, Everyone Deserves Shelter and the Crafted in a Shell SRD as well as lesser known games such as The Kaiju Love You and Down To Our Skeletons Again. He is very happy to be the least exciting member of the Pirouette team! | Seb Pines - Layout EditorSeb Pines is a writer and game designer making curiosities into roleplaying games and games into a collection of curiosities. They are also a co-founder of Good Luck Press where they publish experimental roleplaying games. You can find them online most places as @smolghost or their published work with Good Luck at goodluckpress.co . |
Muse En Lystrala - Composer
Muse en Lystrala is a classically trained vocalist, instrumentalist, composer, writer, and game developer. Specializing in dark ambient and alternative electronic composition, she has composed video game scores for several game studios including Omiya Games, Superset Interactive, Queenship Game Studio, Iron Circus, and Ruckus Games. A horror and fantasy enthusiast since childhood and a co-founder at Triplecast Games, Muse authored the horror stories that gave rise to the new gothic/urban horror TTRPG, "The Hidden Keys and composed the "Nightfall" OST series for the game.
Dreading what you're about to do, you launch yourself for the second leap but you land wrong, pain shoots up to your ankle. The Audience crick their heads to the side in uniform, the shadowy silhouettes showing only their hungry maws of yellow rotted teeth bent into crooked smiles. Deep inside you know if you make one more mistake you will be devoured, absorbed into their distorted mass. You push past the pain, forcing yourself to ignore the burning in your ankle as blood drips past your lips. You feel exhausted, like you’ve been dancing for hours, your knees beginning to buckle.
One of the best parts of crowdfunding a game like Pirouette is bringing on board amazing creators to make your playthrough of Pirouette infinitely better! For this campaign, I’ve been given the phenomenal privilege to work with truly amazing people and with your help we can do even more! Final amounts will be listed closer to the launch.
At £600: Improved Layouts
Once this stretch goal has been reached, we’ll be bringing in the wonderful Seb Pines to make the inside of the book look as fantastic as it can be!
At £1,400: Pirouette Theme
The amazing Muse En Lystrala will be coming aboard to compose a 4 minute theme for Pirouette!
At £6,600: Pirouette Soundtrack
Reaching this goal will allow Muse to compose not just one song, but an entire 30 minute soundtrack to act as your routine's backing track!
The routine is close to finished, one more leap and the rest is easy. You jump but your form is off, as you land you hear a hideous snap from your ankle. The Audience stands up, ready for the final ovation, their hungry eyes waiting for you to collapse. Tears pour down your face, mixing with the blood on your cheek as you fall onto the ground. You drift into unconsciousness, hearing the last sound you will ever experience, the warped applause of the malformed Audience.
Perks
Get yourself a physical copy of Pirouette! You will also get a download link for the PDF and your name in the credits.
Shipping costs will be calculated after the campaign is over. At that point, you'll receive an email to double check information. We will endeavour to keep shipping costs as low as possible.
Get yourself two copies of Pirouette. You'll also get two digital download codes for the PDF and your name in the credits.
Shipping costs will be calculated after the campaign is over. At that point, you'll receive an email to double check information. We will endeavour to keep shipping costs as low as possible.
Highlights
See all activity53Standing Ovation SRD
Introducing The Standing Ovation SRD!
Inspired by Pirouette, the Standing Ovation SRD is a simple and easy system for creating a solo TTRPG around the premise of a performance.
The SRD is available for free here!
More information on Pirouette will be coming soon, expect updates about the new layouts, Prestissimo the Pirouette / Primadonna crossover and a Standing Ovation game jam!
I wish you all the best week,
InnocentGoblin
Pirouette has finished funding - 422% funded!
Hello!
The performance has officially come to it's end and not only did we survive, we ended with a flourish! As the Pirouette crowdfundr came to a close, we managed to reach 422% funding!
I want to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who has contributed and to everyone who has supported this weird and wonderful game.
So what happens next?
Pirouette has already been written, it's been sent to the amazing Seb Pines to design the layout of each page. Once the layouts are complete, we'll be sending them to be printed. I should have a full schedule for you all soon for when the printed and digital copies will be sent out to you and when the game will be fully published online.
Due to ever shifting issues like tariffs and shipping tax, the shipping costs weren't included in the tier prices and I'll get in touch with you all soon to let you know what is needed to be done from there. I'm determined to get this game out to each and every one of you so I'm looking into keeping the price of shipping down.
Whilst that's being done, I'm also working on a few additional things for you. The first is a little ballet guide for use in the game, I'm looking into getting stick figures to depict the moves and I've got help from a French speaker for phonetic pronunciations of each move.
The next is the Pirouette X Primadonna crossover I'm writing with the fantastic Kyle Tam. Writing is going strong and I'll be able to send out updates on that soon!
If you want to scratch the Pirouette itch before the game is sent out, Kat The Lore Mistress played Pirouette on stream so please check that out here!
Also, a bit further in the year, the wonderful Maddy Searle will be playing Pirouette on their podcast A Game of One's Own. If you haven't checked the podcast out, please do, it's a great time!
I want to end this email with something I'm excited about. In 7 days, Gast, a horror zine collection will be starting it's crowdfunding. If you like horror, which I assume you do if you backed Pirouette, you'll absolutely love this project! Hatched games is frankly changing the game for horror zines!
Once again, I want to thank you all for the support you've given Pirouette, I'm absolutely floored by the response to it and I can't wait for you all to get your hands on it!
Thank you,
Michael (InnocentGoblin)



Not every horror has to be faced alone, every dancer needs a musician! I am so excited to announce a crossover between Pirouette and Primadonna by the amazing Kyle Tam
This crossover will turn our two solo horror games about performing for a horror into a combined duet.
But we need your help! We can't decide between two different names so please comment below with your preference between:
"Prestissimo" (Going as fast as possible in a routine, like rushing from anxiety)
OR
"Peur de Deux" (Fear of Two)
First Stretch Goal Unlocked!
Fantastic news everyone!
We are extremely excited to announce that Pirouette has hit it's first stretch goal, with that we are bringing the amazing Seb Pines on board as a layout designer!
The campaign is still ongoing and we are now pushing towards the next two stretch goals
These last two goals will bring Muse en Lystrala on board to compose and produce a theme song and the full soundtrack for Pirouette!
Thank you everyone who has got us this far, you are all amazing! If you haven't already, please check out the page and consider contributing, you don't want to miss out on the performance of a lifetime!
Thank you all,
InnocentGoblin
Pirouette is FULLY FUNDED!
We have fully funded in less than 24 hours! I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported this project so far! We are now onto next steps!
Currently, we're half way from our first stretch goal! At £600 we'll be able to get beautiful and improved layouts by the one and only Seb Pines!
Furthermore, we have two more stretch goals that will give us a fully composed theme song and then soundtrack from the amazing Muse En Lystrala!
The more we raise the more amazing this game will become so we ask you now to share as far and wide as you possibly can, let's get everyone talking about Pirouette and the performance of a lifetime!
Thank you,
Michael (InnocentGoblin)

Spotlight
This tab is to give space to some amazing creators and their crowdfunding campaigns!
Satheru the Mayhem Beast by Odd Press:(February 1st) A solo journaling game about a misadventure, a monster, and dangerous paths
The Worlds We Leave Behind by Craig Duffy:(February 2025) A duet epistolary time travel RPG about the butterfly effect and the control of history inspired by the novella This is how you lose the time war .
Against Time and Death by Nick Bate: (February 2025) A two-player tabletop roleplaying game of war, self-discovery, and connection across all of time and space. It is also a love letter to the acclaimed novella This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
Calpini by Fistful of Crits: (TBC) Designed for use with LOOTTHEROOM's ' A Dungeon Game ' system and compatible with MÖRK BORG , CALPINI is perfect for OSR and fans of the rules-lite style of play with a strong horror theming.
Mappa Mundi by Three Sails Studios:(4th February) An exploration and ecology RPG
Ghast by Hatched Games: (13th March) A solo horror zine collection created by Rich & Kathryn Oxenham, Kat 'the Lore Mistress' and Josh Arklin. it's a crowdfund to establish Hatched Games, a publishing startup aiming to produce horror zines in "seasons", showcasing a new tabletop RPG system (SRD) each time.
Vildheim by Awfully Queer Heroes:(March 2025) A new D10 (ten-sided dice) system. Inspired by the aesthetics of Nordic traditions and Gothic settings, games and stories including the Witcher and Bloodborne, this world is home to creatures from Scandinavian legend, and many more foes. Venture into the wilderness and test your skills in this new game for 2-4 players.
For more games check out This Spreadsheet of all the amazing tabletop games crowdfunding!
Activity
Get yourself a physical copy of Pirouette! You will also get a download link for the PDF and your name in the credits.
Shipping costs will be calculated after the campaign is over. At that point, you'll receive an email to double check information. We will endeavour to keep shipping costs as low as possible.
Get yourself two copies of Pirouette. You'll also get two digital download codes for the PDF and your name in the credits.
Shipping costs will be calculated after the campaign is over. At that point, you'll receive an email to double check information. We will endeavour to keep shipping costs as low as possible.
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