The song your mother sang when she made her chicken matzo ball soup when you got sick. The smell of your grandma’s fried catfish wafting through the crowded halls of her house. 

You’re the original recipe writer.

That’s all you know for sure. Your spirit lives in the family cookbook, passed down from generation to generation. You act as a guide, a witness, and a source of comfort to anyone who opens your pages. And with every recipe they make… you remember. 

My Mother’s Kitchen is a solo journaling game about traditions, change, and cooking. 

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.

A playthrough of My Mother's Kitchen by the writer

Create and haunt kitchens across time.

Major Arcana - These cards become full fledged members of your family when drawn. Each comes with four sets of prompts - two for Upright draws and two for Reverse. Explore both present and past through thoughtful questions, both joyful and melancholy.

Minor Arcana - You have supernatural gifts on your side! Your reality-altering Powers live in your Minor Arcana. Use a hand of five Power cards to influence the present and gain back your memories each time the book is opened.

1d10 - Roll a 1d10 to see if your ghostly powers succeed and help your family grow, or fail and watch them fall apart.

Fabian Lelay Cover Artist Fabian Lelay is a cartoonist and designer who has been in the TTRPG scene since 2021 creating Actual Plays and homebrew content. Nowadays, you can find him performing alongside other amazing players on Itaewon by Night and helming the upcoming channel, Bad House RPG.

Hailee Smith Interior Game Art Hailee Smith is an illustrator and animator who was, tragically, born in the midwest - but that hasn't stopped her from drawing as much as possible! Hailee enjoys telling earnest stories through her work.

Brent Jans Editor Brent (@DorklordCanada on Twitter) is a freelance editor of both tabletop roleplaying games and speculative fiction. Over nearly twenty years Brent has edited for On Spec Magazine: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic as well as Wayfinder magazine. He has worked on numerous roleplaying games and supplements, including The Sudden Storm , What the Ruins Kept , the Black Swan RPG , Not Another Monster Quest Volume 2: Orcs, Gnolls, and Minotaurs , Unbreakable: Revolution , and the first four volumes of the Uncaged Anthology . Mostly recently you can find Brent’s editorial fingers all over Court of Blades , the newly released Tavern Tales , and Paranormal Inc: Bust More Ghosts . And, of course, My Mother’s Kitchen !

Art: $1,100

Fabian and Hailee created gorgeous art from cover to tarot cards in the pages of this game. The art is special to Fleet, specifically since the cards are meant to inspire and one was even based off of their grandmother. This covers both artists and their tips!

Materials/Production: $160

My Mother's Kitchen will be following Zine rules, so we'll be printing staple-bound from Mixam. The cost of 100 copies comes out to around $160 with shipping fees. 

Fees: $500

This is the platform fee for using Crowdfundr! If you decide you'd like to pay them when you pledge, the money will be set aside for more art.

Buffer: Everything else

This is a buffer set aside for surprise costs and the random mishaps that come from indie publishing. Any money that doesn't get used for the book will be split between the people who worked on it.

Our Timeline

Feb 1 - Feb 28: Crowdfunding for the game. Maybe some Valentine's Day cuddling. 

March: Additional art, editing, and layout touch ups. This has been worked on since August 2022 and we begin Crowdfunding at the final stages of the game.

April - May 2022: Printing and fulfillment.

Fulfillment

My Mother's Kitchen is going to be working with Ratti Incatati and Peregrine Coast Press to ship the standard physical copies of the books! Big shout out to them for their help and support.

My Mother's SRD

This game was born from a need to take tarot and make it more complicated. Once the game has been released, we'll create a system reference document so you can use the Major and Minor arcana split for your own game ideas. 

Proud ZiMo Participant