Cover in English
(Illustration: Hannah van den Höövel)

Viva la QueerBar is a slice-of-life story game about a queer bar (or queer café) and the team who runs it. It's a game about the pleasures and struggles of being part of a queer community.

Whether as a fantasy medieval tavern, a cyberpunk underground club, a real-world gay bar in a historical setting, an intergalactic queer bar on a spaceship, or anything else you can think of – the QueerBar lives wherever you want it to.

All you need to play is this zine, a regular deck of playing cards (52 cards), and 1-5 people to play with you. No preparation necessary – just start playing!

Viva la QueerBar is great for complete newbies to role-playing games and fun for experienced TTRPG players alike. It welcomes players of all genders and orientations who are willing to take on the perspective of a queer character for the duration of the game. Since this is a story game more than a role-playing game, however, you will spend more time describing your character's thoughts, feelings, and actions than you will acting as your character.

It's available in English and German, as a printed zine and a PDF.

»VIVA LA QUEERBAR is required playing for anyone making Descended from the Queen games! It‘s well written, carefully designed, and a ton of fun.«

– Alex Roberts, Designer of For the Queen and StarCrossed

In 2023, the German version of Viva la QueerBar won a Crystal Stephan (places 4-10) for Best Role-Playing Game in the "Publikumspreis für Eskapismus, Nerdkultur & Phantastik (PEN&P)", short "Goldener Stephan" (Public Choice Award for Escapism, Nerd Culture, and Fantasy).

Viva la QueerBar is a stand-alone tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) for 2-6 players (no GM), conveniently packaged as a handy zine and perfect for no-prep one-shots of about 2-4 hours play time.

The rules of this Descended from the Queen story game are very simple: At first you read the short instructions out loud together. The text has our recommended consent and safety tools already built-in. During that introduction, you also choose the rough setting of your QueerBar.

Then the core game starts: You take turns drawing a playing card and looking up the question associated with it in the random tables. Over the course of the game, your individual QueerBar, your main characters, some side characters, and details about the surroundings of the QueerBar develop through your answers to the questions.

In the end, all main characters answer: What is your most important wish for the future of the QueerBar?

Due to the random selection and order of the questions (you'll typically use around half of them during a 2-hour game) and the huge variability of possible settings, you can play Viva la QueerBar again and again and have a different experience each time.

Spread: "Praise for Viva la QueerBar" and "About the Game"

Spread: Random table "Hearts"

Cover in English
(Illustration: Hannah van den Höövel)

The core game contains everything you need to play. It's available in English or German.

Format:

• 32 pages in A5 format (148 x 210 mm / 5.8 x 8.3 inches)
• Full color
• Zine: Staple-bound
• PDF: Screenreader-ready with image descriptions, PDF tags, internal references, and external links

Contents:

• Complete instructions for play (consent and safety tools included)
• 4 random tables with questions (13 options for each of the 4 suits = 52 different questions)
• Essay about real-world queer bars (plus 23 mini portraits of famous queer bars and cafés)
• Interior illustrations based on real queer bar flyersof the 1920s-2000s

You also need:

• 2-6 players (no GM)
• Something to write (optional)
• A regular deck of playing cards (52 cards without Jokers, such as for poker). You can also use an online card deck (a template for playingcards.io is available under Downloads).

• Game Design: Sandra Dahlhoff and Andrea Rick
• Essay: Andrea Rick
• Proofreading: Camilla Kutzner (German), Noella Handley (English)
• Cover Illustration: Hannah van den Höövel
  
• Art Direction and Layout: Andrea Rick
• Interior Illustrations: Andrea Rick
• Crowdfunding consulting: Jasmin Neitzel

Orkenspalter TV: VIVA LA QUEERBAR – Erzählrollenspiel auf der Campfire Con mit Eevie Demirtel, Patricia Lürmann, Tatjana, Mháire Stritter und Andrea Rick:

IGRCon 2022: Viva la QueerBar – IGRCon Playtest with Aaron Feild, Joe Beason, and Andrea Rick – ENGLISH:

Shay Igrima: [Viva la QueerBar] Bei Kurt / Chez Cürt mit Jasmin Neitzel, Michael, Shay und Andrea Rick:

Plus One Exp: Viva la QueerBar with PlotBunny Games with Kegan, Rae Nedjadi, Sir Heckalot, Stephen, and Andrea Rick – ENGLISH:

Carabas Crafts: Viva la Queerbar Karos und Cocktails | Episode 1: Wir eröffnen eine märchenhafte Bar mit Brigitte, Cookie, Friederike und Andrea Rick:

• Episode 2: Die beste Crew des Waldes (YouTube)
• Episode 3: So many feelings… (YouTube)
• Episode 4: Vergangene Liebe & neue Anfänge | Finale & Fazit (YouTube)

The Lost Caravan RPG: „Truth, Justice, and Viva La QueerBar!“ A slice-of-life story game about a queer bar! with Sir Heckalot, River, Nikki, Chell, Jason, and Teacup  – ENGLISH:

3W6 Podcast: 3W6 Con (contains an interview with Alex Roberts who talks about designing and playing Descended from the Queen games (from 6:45) and praises Viva la QueerBar after playtesting it and then changing her game design workshop to include it (from 8:57-9:29))

Shay Igrima: [Verlags Talk] PLOTBUNNY GAMES mit Andrea Rick und Sandra Dahlhoff (Viva la QueerBar):

Nerd ist ihr Hobby: Tavernen

Siegessäule: Queers & Dragons – LGBTIQ und Rollenspiele (Artikel von Paula Balov)

Von der Seifenkiste herab: [Kickstarter] Viva la QueerBar

Orkenspalter TV: Masters of Dune, Dune RPG Starter Set und Viva la Queerbar -Reviews (ab 13:20 zu Viva la QueerBar):

zigmenthotep: Zine Month 2023 Week 4 Picks | Zvlog 59 (about Viva la QueerBar from 4:14):

Rollenspielblog: Ratcon Langen 2024 (mit Spielbericht zu Viva la QueerBar)

Also mentioned in the Indie RPG Newsletter, on DiceCourse , and at Cannibal Halfling.