Jason Morningstar

Owner, Creative Director, Lead Designer

Jason Morningstar is a game designer who lives and works in Durham, North Carolina, USA. In addition to tabletop and live action roleplaying games, he has also made games for clients like Google and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His collaborations include the #feminism collection, Fastaval winner The Lesser Players' Tale with Lizzie Stark, Fastaval nominee Old Friends with Ole Peder Giæver, and the popular Love in the Time Of… games with Matthijs Holter.

Jason’s games have been featured at Indiecade and in the Gen Con 50th anniversary museum. He has been a guest at a variety of events, including Ropecon, Gen Con, Lucca Comics and Games, and Dragon Con. Jason was a keynote speaker at the 2016 Living Games conference.

Beyond roleplaying, Jason consults on the use of games for teaching and learning, most recently with UNICEF, the University of California, University of Michigan, Kaiser-Permanente Health Care, and the Innovation Learning Network.

In addition to design, Jason has written extensively on game-related topics. His articles have appeared in the anthologies Analog Game Studies, States of Play, and Unframed.

Game Design

I have over 100 published games including both commercially successful and highly experimental titles. My work is published in nine languages.

Bully Pulpit Games. Star Crossed: Love Letters. Additional writing and game design. 2024.

Six of Hounds. The Gooseberry Marriage. 2024.

Bully Pulpit Games and Dice Exploder. Northfield. 2024.

Six of Hounds. The Pie Trust. 2024.

Bully Pulpit Games. Among the Elves. 2024.

Bully Pulpit Games. Bloody Autumn. 2023. Winner of the Portal larp-writing competition, translated into Croatian, Hungarian, and Polish.

Bully Pulpit Games. Cowboys With Big Hearts. 2023. Winner of 2022 Origins Award for 2D Art and Illustration.

Bully Pulpit Games. Wild Fields. 2024.

Bully Pulpit Games. The People No One Likes. 2023.

Bully Pulpit Games. Desperation. 2023. IndieCade Best Analog Game, 2023

Six of Hounds. We Are Not Vampires. 2023.

Bully Pulpit Games. Time Possum. 2023.

Bully Pulpit Games. American Patriots. 2022.

Bully Pulpit Games. Interview with Some People Who Believe in Vampires. 2022.

Bully Pulpit Games. LOST DOG REWARD. 2022.

Bully Pulpit Games and Six of Hounds. The Wizard's Querulous Dram. 2022.

Six of Hounds. The Broadcast. 2022.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Pigeon Wager. 2022. A winner of the Gaming Like Its 1927 Public Domain Game Jam

Bully Pulpit Games and IKantKoan. House Ghost. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games and Six of Hounds. Four Lovers. 2021.

Six of Hounds. Parting Day In Mossley Wood. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games. Space Ambulance. 2021.

Six of Hounds. CONIFER. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games. Fighting ... And Why It Is Horrible. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Obstruction Method. 2021. A winner of the Gaming Like Its 1926 Public Domain Game Jam

Bully Pulpit Games. Liars Eat Well. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games. Four Liars. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games. Cantilupe. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Black Drink. 2021.

Bully Pulpit Games. Uncle Gordo's House. 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Crushers. 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games. Five Trials. 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games and Diegetic Games. Honor Bound. 2020. Featured larp in Sinking Ship Creations' 2024 season.

Six of Hounds. Grandpa. 2020.

Six of Hounds. Zoom Your Way to Healing, Love, and Intimacy with Shad McConkey. 2020.

Six of Hounds. The Lesser Players' Tale. 2019. Winner of "Best Scenario" Prize and multiple nominee at Fastaval 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games. Perfection. 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games. Sky Deck. 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games. Seat Five. 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games. Space Post. 2020.

Bully Pulpit Games. Radioactive Bison. 2019.

Bully Pulpit Games. Deep Love. 2019.

Bully Pulpit Games. A Green and Narrow Bed. 2018.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Underwater People. 2018.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Fobolex Interstellar Corporate Retreat (With Alex Roberts). 2018.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Dream. 2018.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Blue Way. 2018.

Bully Pulpit Games. WINTERHORN. ENnies Judge’s Spotlight award. Featured at USC’s Emergency and Emergence conference, 2018.

Bully Pulpit Games. Phones of Glory. 2018.

Bully Pulpit Games. Ghost Court. Featured at Indiecade, 2017.

Bully Pulpit Games. Welcome Guests. 2017.

Bully Pulpit Games. First Ride/Last Ride. 2017.

Google Austria. The Vienna Apparatus, a custom-designed installation and group game series.

Threeforged Competition. The Policy of Truth. 2017.

#Feminism Collection. Shoutdown to Launch. 2016.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Skeletons. 2016.

Bully Pulpit Games. Old Friends. Fastaval award nominee, 2016.

Bully Pulpit Games. Night Witches. 2015.

Bully Pulpit Games. JUGGERNAUT. 2015.

Bully Pulpit Games. Out of Dodge. 2014.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Climb. 2014.

Bully Pulpit Games. Durance. 2013.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Fiasco Companion. 2012.

Game Chef competition. Danger Mountain. 2010.

Bully Pulpit Games. Fiasco. 2009. Winner, 2011 Diana Jones Award, Best Support, 2009 Indie Games Awards. ENnies Judge’s Spotlight Award.

Two Games, One Name Competition. The Plant. 2009. Winner, “Out of the Box” award.

Murderland Competition. Bodymore Murdaland. 2008.

Game Chef competition. Dulse. 2008. Runner-up.

Valentines Day Game Competition. Animal Rescue Vigilantes 2008.

Bully Pulpit Games. Grey Ranks. 2007. Co-Winner, Diana Jones Award. Winner, Indie Game of the Year. Winner, Most Innovative, Indie Game Awards.

Game Chef competition. Grover Cleveland. 2007. Runner-up.

Game Chef competition. Terra Nova. 2006.

Bully Pulpit Games. Drowning and Falling. 2006.

Bully Pulpit Games. The Shab al-Hiri Roach. 2006. Winner, Sui Generis Award, Kenneth Hite’s Out of the Box. Top Eight, Game Chef.

Ronnies competition. Xochitlcozamalatl. 2005.

Game Chef competition. The Governor’s Report Concerning the Doomed Assault on the Fire Moon. 2005.

24 Hour RPG competition. Dungeon Squad. 2005.

52 Pick-up column, rpg.net. President of the Galaxy. 2001.

Game Writing

Analog tabletop and live action clients look to me for evocative and well-researched material, often at surprising intersections of history and pathos.

Arc Dream

  • Punch Village (Puppetland)

Black Armada Publishing

  • Zemlya Sannikova (Lovecraftesque)
  • The Wardian Case (Lovecraftesque)

Bully Pulpit Games

  • House Ghost (With Jessica Creane)
  • The Wizard’s Querulous Dram (With Lizzie Stark)
  • Four Lovers (With Lizzie Stark)
  • Honor Bound (With Randy Lubin)
  • Space Station Fobolex (With Alex Roberts) (Star Crossed)
  • The Last Pull (Durance)
  • Bayou Dupree (The Warren)
  • Polygon Wood (The Warren)
  • The Flowery Dream (The Warren)
  • Dark Mode (The Warren)
  • The Skyr Pitch (Larp)

Cubicle 7

  • Postcard to Angela (Cthulhu Britannica: London)

Enigma Machinations

  • The Tiffany Doctors (Undying)

Evil Hat Productions

  • Fight Fire (Fate)

Grant Howitt

  • Revenge Tragedy (Unbound)

Heart of the Deernicorn

  • The Underworld (With Rachel E.S. Walton) (Fall of Magic)

Jackalope Live Action Studios

  • Cultural development (A War of Our Own larp)
  • Siberian Climate Refugee group (Cyberpunk 2020 larp)
  • Night City University group (Cyberpunk 2020 larp)

Keith Baker

  • The Curse Ewer (Phoenix: Dawn Command)

Kyle Simons

  • The Trip to Jeju Island (The magicians)

Learn Larp LLC

  • The Vacant Chair
  • Bad Blood

With J. Li

Neoplastic Press

  • Cancel Christmas (Viewscream)

Pelgrane Press

  • Hollywoodland (Hilllfolk)
  • Many Fires (Trail of Cthulhu)
  • The Black Drop (Trail of Cthulhu)
  • Time Seed: Lydia Litvyak (Timewatch)
  • Additional Tables (Fight Fire)

Photographs of Lightning

  • THE MONSTERS (Monsterhearts Second Skins)

Red Moon Medicine Show

  • The Tale of Hart van Laer (Don’t Walk in Winter Wood)

Sage Kobold Games

  • Juntu’s Floating Ice Hell (Dungeon World)

Sigil Stone

  • Nanga Parbat (Perseverant)

Steve Wallace Art

  • The Ship (No Country for Old Kobolds)

Storium

  • The Wreckers

Thieves of Time

  • Sukakpak (Cthulhu Dark)
  • Marginalia (Stealing Cthulhu)

Thorny Games

  • The Czaten Dacha (Dialect)
  • We Are Alien Now (With Lizzie Stark; Xenolanguage)

UNICEF Office of Innovation

Unspeakable Oath

  • The Ixitpla (Systemless horror)

Articles, Chapters, Forewords

Speaking

  • Morningstar, Jason and Lizzie Stark. "Emotional Design". Generation Analog, 2024.
  • Morningstar, Jason and Diogo Noguira. Weird Games & Weirder People, 2024.
  • Morningstar, Jason and Justin Gary. Think Like A Game Designer. 2024.
  • Morningstar, Jason and TK. Wet Ink Games Podcast. 2024.
  • Morningstar, Jason and Sam Dunnewold. "Transparency". Dice Exploder, 2023.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “You are Already A Game Designer”. Cympub-con, Seoul, South Korea, 2019.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “An Approach To Game Design”. Cympub-con, Seoul, South Korea, 2019.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “The Intersection of Gaming and Theater – A Look At She Kills Monsters”. Owens Community College, 2019.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “Hands-On Games in Medical Education”. Owens Community College, 2019.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “Using Analog Games for Teaching and Learning”. Owens Community College, 2019.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “WINTERHORN”. USC School of Cinematic Arts, Emergency and Emergence conference, 2018.
  • Morningstar, Jason, Steve Segedy, Angela Webber and Richard Malena-Webber). “Fiasco Live”, 2017.
  • Morningstar, Jason for Google Austria: Omnichannel Games. 2017.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “Iterative Analog Games for Teaching and Learning in Medical Education”. Living Games conference, 2016.
  • Morningstar, Jason and Timothy Hutchings. “Ephemera”. Metatopia, 2016.
  • Morningstar, Jason, Ben Morrow and Jay Sylvano. “Ground Truth” Metatopia, 2016.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “Visual Design as Metaphor”. Metatopia, 2015.
  • Morningstar, Jason. The International RPG Scene. Gen Con, 2012.
  • Morningstar, Jason for University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. Pediatric Oncology Orientation Game. In use, 2011. Presented at the Innovation Learning Network Seattle Conference, 2011.
  • Morningstar, Jason for University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health. Distance MPH Capstone Project. 2011.
  • Morningstar, Jason for Kaiser-Permanente Health Care. Academic Nursing Summit Game. 2011.
  • Morningstar, Jason and Saroj Primlani.  “Accessibility of Online Synchronous Learning Space: Challenges and Strategies”. 21st Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference. California State University, Northridge, Center on Disabilities. 2006.
  • Morningstar, Jason and Henshaw, Bob. “Incremental Approaches to Accessible Electronic Content”. Educause Conference. 2003.
  • Morningstar, Jason. “Quick-and-Dirty Usability Testing in an Academic Environment”. Syllabus Conference. Santa Clara, CA, 2003

Guest Appearances

  • Armstrong lecturer and guest residency, Bradley University
  • Big Bad Con
  • Chupacabracon
  • Cympub-Con, South Korea (Speaking on Game Design Principles)
  • Dragon Con
  • Dreamation
  • ECGC (Speaking on Tabletop Design Principles)
  • Gen Con (Guest of Honor and moderator)
  • Go Play Northwest
  • Lucca Games, Italy
  • Mid-Atlantic Convention Expo
  • Metatopia (Featured speaker, 2011-present)
  • PAX Unplugged
  • Pyrkon Poland (Speaking on GMless Design and Play)
  • RopeCon Finland (Speaking on Hacking Games, North American Larp)
  • Viking Con Denmark
  • Washingcon

Campus Visits and Presentations

  • Bradley University
  • Durham Technical Community College
  • NC Literary Festival In conversation with Davey Wreden
  • KADK Royal Danish Academy
  • Owens Community College
  • Ringling College of Art and Design
  • University of Michigan Stamps School of Art and Design
  • USC School of Cinematic Arts
  • USC Games
  • UC Irvine School of Information and Computer Science
  • UC Berkeley staff continuing education
  • UNC Arts and Sciences
  • Elgin Community College
  • Wake and Durham county library systems
  • Wake Technical Community College

International Editing and Localization

I often serve as a developmental and localization editor for translations into English, particularly in the tabletop RPG and larp spaces.

  • Cympub, Korea
  • Crescendo Giocoso, Italy
  • GGStudio, Italy
  • Janus Designs, Italy
  • Labyrinth, PRC
  • Michal Havelka et al, Czechia
  • Narrativa, Italy
  • Pro-Indie, Germany
  • Retropunk, Brazil
  • Studio 101, Russia
  • Thoughtful Games, Denmark

Service

I have been instrumental in creating and supporting organizations that challenge designers, honor innovation, solve problems and build capacity.

  • Camp Nerdly. Founder and organizer, 2008-2015, board member, 2015-2018
  • Sandcon. Founder and organizer, 2014-2019
  • Golden Cobra Challenge, founder and awards committee, 2014-present
  • Diana Jones Award committee, 2012-present