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Paint it. It becomes real.

Ink Tales is a tabletop roleplaying game about living drawings who shape magic Ink into anything they can imagine. Grab a brush, roll your dice, and remember the only rule at the table: anything goes.

Get the free Quickstart

59 pages, 4 ready-to-play Painters and a full adventure, straight to your inbox. Plus one single alert on launch day.

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The Quickstart is on its way. One more brushstroke: follow Ink Tales on Kickstarter and you will be notified the moment we launch.

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Every word you paint costs Ink

There is no spell list. You describe what your Painter paints, and it becomes real. Each noun and adjective costs 1 Ink and adds one die to your roll. Articles are free. Ambition is not.

Maestro: A Neromorph blocks the bridge, hungry for color. What do you paint?

You: I paint …pick your words below

Paint one object
Add words: each costs 1 Ink
0 words 0 Ink rolls 1 die
You roll 1 Energy die, plus 1 per Ink spent. The Neromorph needs 2 successes (4+).

Roll Energy to smash doors and climb cliffs. Roll Intelligence to find clues and crack machines. Roll Empathy to charm, trick, or convince a door to open, diplomatically.

Cover of the Ink Tales Quickstart, a painted gorge with a tiny adventurer crossing a red bridge

Play your first Ink Tale tonight

The Quickstart is a complete demo of the game, free for the launch list:

  • All the rules you need for your first sessions
  • 4 ready-to-play Painters, each with their Spruffle
  • The Mustacchia Spring, a complete adventure for the Maestro
  • A pencil, paper and a handful of six-sided dice is all you add
English Italiano Available in English and Italian

Send it to my table

The Quickstart PDF by email, and one alert when the Kickstarter goes live.

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Choose your Painter

Four heroes of Inkiostria, ready to play. Each descends from one of the Six Great Painters who colored the world.

Count de Coloris, a tall blue-robed Painter with a long white beard and a brush-topped staff

Count de Coloris

Regy · Empathy 3

A noble so gifted at empathic painting that, they say, he could frighten a dragon or make a tree cry.

Agrilpe, a green-skinned Painter with a tall patterned hat holding two flaming brushes

Agrilpe

Magy · Intelligence 2, Empathy 2

Inventor of the Flaming Ice Lightning. His real challenge is not painting, it is not blowing everything up.

Leeroy Pennel, a red-armored Painter with a tall crested helmet and a banner-like brush

Leeroy Pennel

Guerraz · Energy 3

First into the fight, first to run out of Ink. Usually everyone else's Ink too.

Florinda, a flower-like Painter with pink petal hair, holding a small pear-shaped creature

Florinda

Sylvani · Energy 2, Empathy 2

Kind to the edge of naive. When the black tide rises, you want her brush repainting your wounds.

Never paint alone

Every Painter is bonded for life to a Spruffle, a familiar made of living color. You roll yours on the tables: fluffy or gassy, shy or exuberant, protective or permanently hungry.

A round blue Spruffle with orange ears A fluffy orange Spruffle with a long tail A green frog-like Spruffle with striped eyes A yellow Spruffle with a red mohawk A pink jellyfish-like Spruffle with rainbow tentacles A magenta Spruffle with big shiny eyes A fuzzy Spruffle mid-sneeze

Then the Ink turned black.

From the Heart of Ink came the Neromorphs: ravenous beasts that devour color and erase everything the Great Painters made. The Painters of the Outer Lands hold the line at the borders. They could use a hand. Grab a brush.

A towering black Neromorph looming over tiny Painters in a sea of color

In the Quickstart

59illustrated pages
4ready-to-play Painters
1complete adventure
2languages, English and Italian
D6the only dice you need

Painted by hand in Italy

Ink Tales grew out of years of play at the authors' own tables, with their own Spruffles watching.

Mattia Innocenti holding a hand-painted Ink Tales brush prop

Mattia Innocenti

Project manager, art director, game & graphic designer

Born in 1991 in the Valdarno Fiorentino, rolling dice and building imaginary worlds since his teens. Ink Tales is that lifelong habit turned into a craft.

Marco Mazza looking up, in a houndstooth jacket

Marco Mazza

Narrative & lore designer, copywriter, marketing manager

Born in Florence in 1992, he met roleplaying games at 15 and discovered the power of shared storytelling. At 29 he decided it was worth a career.

Mist Games logo

Every page of Ink Tales is illustrated by Filippo Munegato, Giorgia Loddo and Mattia Innocenti for Mist Games, an independent Italian studio.

May the Ink flow in your favor

The free Quickstart today, the Kickstarter soon. Follow the project, gather your table, and start painting.

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Last call for the launch list

The free Quickstart by email, and one single alert on launch day.

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Check your inbox.

The Quickstart is on its way. Follow the project on Kickstarter to be notified at launch.

Follow on Kickstarter