All About Chain×Link - An Interview With Ethan Yen

  An Interview with

Glyphtide Games'

Ethan Yen 

The cover of Yen's fantastic Chain×Link.

Introduction

    I recently conducted an interview with Glyptide Games' founder Ethan Yen about his game Chain×Link via e-mail. As you will see I asked Ethan about his design choices and inspirations, as well as where he is taking Glyphtide Games into the future. I have edited the interview a tiny little bit for readability: changing the questions and answers from a list into more of a traditional conversation format. I hope you enjoy the interview, and if you have any feedback I would love to hear it - good or bad.

Art, Layout, and Graphic Design Questions

Eclectic Dragon: Chains make a massive contribution to the themes, art, and rules of the zine. Was there a specific set of inspirations for the usage of chains as an artistic motif and even in the mechanical system?

Ethan: Chains are an incredibly evocative literary motif. Chains typically represent restriction, binding, and confinement. But the concept of binding can be reinterpreted as something that links us together, a connection that creates a sum greater than its parts. Visually, chains conjure scenes of straining against one another, or anchoring one another as they swing back and forth. Chains are strong in tension, for better or for worse, depending on how they are used. It’s this dichotomy, this study of what brings us down can be repurposed to make us stronger when our convictions are aligned, that CxL explores through play.

Eclectic Dragon: The art, layout, and graphic design are fantastic! There was clearly a unified vision driving these aspects of the zine. What were your artistic design goals for the zine from the perspective of art direction? Furthermore, do you think you achieved those goals and what if anything would you change, artistically, about the final product?

Ethan: The execution of the visuals are all thanks to Tony Tran (art) and Andrew Beauman (layout and additional art). The three of us were actively involved in the visual direction of the game, building upon each other’s ideas. My main artistic design goal was for CxL to separate itself visually from the many dark fantasy dungeon-crawling games in the TTRPG space. CxL is a (reverse) dungeon-crawl game, but its mechanisms and themes are distinctly different from the traditional “OSR” approach. As such, I wanted the art to be reminiscent of the genre through a limited color palette and rough lines, but distinct enough in style to make it clear that this game is not the same. Graphically, I sought to provide a clean layout that was easy to digest, as the mechanisms of this game are new and would need to be clear as possible, while embracing the limited color palette. I interviewed Tony and Andrew on the collaboration process in a blog post on my website.

Ethan: Overall, I think we achieved the goals set out for art and graphic design, as evidenced by our nomination for Best Graphic Design in the 2025 IGDN Indie Groundbreaker Awards. These two aspects of game design are the most expensive for any production. If given a larger budget, I’m confident that we could have produced additional evocative illustrations and honed in on even more distinctive world-building details to truly set the worldbuilding apart from traditional dark fantasy dungeon-crawling.

 

Rules / Design Questions

Eclectic Dragon: Building from the last question a bit; what were your overarching mechanical design goals for the project? As a follow up do you think you met those goals? What was the most challenging aspect of coming up with the systems in Chain X Link?

Ethan: The original goal for mechanical design was to focus on cooperation. Many games have rules for collaboration and combining actions, but these rules are seemingly relegated as afterthoughts, providing an extra die in a dice pool, or adding a bonus to a roll. I sought to make cooperation inherent in the mechanisms of the game through the chaining of contributions, providing both a mechanical and narrative support of working together and building off of the successes of each other. (I call this, “ludonarrative resonance,” as opposed to the term, “ludonarrative dissonance.” RP Deshaies also calls this, “rules bright” design.) The semi-cooperative aspect of the game arrived once I realized the fruitful design space in exploring order and magnitude of contributions.

Ethan: Even as a fairly hefty zine at 64 pages, CxL is incredibly focused in its mechanical design. Everything in the rules refers back to this core resolution system of chaining contributions. In this, I think I achieved the goal to actively engage the players in the intended experience.

Ethan: The most challenging aspect was explaining a completely new system to players. On the surface, the system is simple to explain, “you succeed if your contribution score is greater than or equal to the previous player’s contribution score.” However, the nuances of such a system can feel complicated and overwhelming simply due to the fact that the system runs quite differently from what players of the dungeon-delving genre are accustomed to. I was surprised by how many words I needed to describe the core resolution system which may scare players away, and I think with a finer pen and the assistance of a judicious editor, I could present the rules in a more succinct and inviting manner.

Eclectic Dragon: I really like the mechanics of the trials and how they demand party cooperation yet have a competitive tension in how the last person to succeed becomes the leader of the chain. Moreover, I like that mechanics of the game leave tremendous room for narrative within themselves. I think there is great potential in these mechanics to be hacked into other games and settings. All that being said, do you have any plans on doing more with these mechanics and systems? How would you feel about others hacking this system into another game?

Ethan: I am currently hosting the CHAINLINKED game jam, which encourages game designers to expand the world, write Grave Levels (e.g., adventures), create character options, or design their very own game using the CxL system SRD and associated license. The game jam runs until October, and I’m excited to see what folks come up with, building upon the aspects that excite them, and discarding aspects of the system that don’t serve their design goals. I believe the CxL system is a great framework for creating games focused on cooperation (and competition). I plan on submitting a supplement to CxL with new Reputes, Factions, and Grave Level.

Eclectic Dragon: Something that I think sets ChainXLink apart in a big way is that it has a specific win condition and that the game has an inherent competitive tension between the factions. What made you decide to make a ‘semi-cooperative’ ttrpg instead of a more traditional fully cooperative one? Do you see yourself exploring the space of ‘semi cooperative’ more in the future?

Ethan: I am a big proponent of “few-shot” games that have defined endings. As my friends and I acquire more life responsibilities, playing together becomes a rare and highly prized event, such that I desire sessions that encourage maximum play with a variety of games. I am fascinated by the concept of “semi-cooperative” TTRPGs because they provide a fruitful environment for character and narrative drama. I speak a lot about this “losing mindset” in a blog post. Semi-cooperative play in TTRPGs is not new, with PbtA games using moves to facilitate dramatic narratives featuring characters with conflicting goals. Any dramatic narrative features this. I anticipate exploring this space further in my future games, especially as it pertains to the tension of characters with conflicting personal goals working together. In many ways–that’s just life!

Eclectic Dragon: The examples and flow charts throughout the zine are excellent. They made understanding the underlying rules easy. What made you want to include so many examples and flow charts? Was there a specific inspiration?

Ethan: The core resolution system is new to many TTRPG players, eschewing “skill checks,” “saves”, and “moves” as is common in many dungeon-crawling games. As such, I wanted to ensure that the flow of the core resolution system was easily understood through both visuals and text through flow charts. I did not have any deliberate inspiration, but upon reflection, I realize the figures provided in games made by Exeunt Press, and the MIRU series by Hinokodo served as subconscious inspirations.

Setting Questions

Eclectic Dragon: I found the first two pages of the book to be extremely evocative and worked well at laying the foundation for the game’s setting. What creative sources did you draw on when designing the setting for this game?

Ethan: My main worldbuilding inspiration was the video game, Pyre by Supergiant Games. Pyre is a game where disparate rebels have been exiled into this “otherworld.” The rebels need to team up and participate in “rites” against other exiles, with the winner returned to their original land to continue their rebellion. CxL uses a similar premise, including this concept of relying on ancient magic as a way to facilitate escape, but replaces the eclectic color palette of Pyre with a more minimal color palette and “traditional” megadungeon environment. Thematic inspirations included the criminal and flawed characters of Blades in the Dark and Spire: The City Must Fall.

Eclectic Dragon: I really enjoyed the world building you did through all aspects of the zine, from the rules to the examples it all flowed well and built a solid sketch of both the Grave and the world above. Do you have any plans to do anything else with this setting? Such as with the revolution that is ChainXLink’s win condition?

Ethan: Depending on reception of the game, I may release additional supplements that facilitate implied worldbuilding through additional character options, magic subsystems, and Grave Levels. At least one supplement will be released as part of the CHAINLINKED game jam. CxL excels in its limited scope, so any exploration of the revolution as it occurs in the Life Above after CxL finishes may be better explored through a separate game, depending on the scope of play.
GM Questions

Eclectic Dragon: A question I always am always going to ask developers is - how much preparation should GMs undertake when running this game?

Ethan: CxL relies on a collaborative worldbuilding approach to create the setting and characters through character creation prompts. Once the setting is created, sessions require the GM to prep each Grave Level before play. Each Grave Level is intended to be completed in one 3-4 hour session, so the degree of preparation is fairly limited, especially as each Grave Level features only a couple key NPCs and conflicts that drive play.

Eclectic Dragon: I thought it was an excellent idea to include the miniature adventure for escaping Spadefront in the zine. It illustrates, with minimal word count, how to plot out an adventure for ChainXLink. What drove you to include an example adventure in the zine when many other zines forgo them?

Ethan: A main point of inspiration was LONGSWORD by Videtya Voleti, which also features a starting adventure at the end of a new game. The value of starting adventures is that it conveys what is required to run adventures in this game, provides an adventure to lower the friction of starting a game as soon as possible, and provides a template for the creation of future adventures. In a game like CxL which relies on a very different core resolution system than traditional dungeon-crawling adventures, it was important to showcase how such an adventure would be structured, and how the game mechanisms interface with the adventure. Ideally, a “complete” version of CxL would feature as much as ten different Grave Levels, such that a GM would have even less to prep, and could run the entirety of CxL using the pre-written material, similar to Deathmatch Island or Agon (which were key mechanical and formatting inspirations for CxL).

 

Other Questions

Eclectic Dragon: With a zine page count is often at a premium. Due to this, was there anything left on the proverbial cutting room floor? If so, what was it?

Ethan: As a zine, CxL is already quite large at 64 pages. While I was given the option of producing a perfect-bound book, I wanted to keep the scope contained in the zine form-factor as an exercise in concise design. That being said, I cut out some character options and some worldbuilding lore to fit the form-factor. If there was a “2nd edition” of CxL, it would contain more character options, more examples of play, more Grave Levels, and additional guidance on embracing semi-cooperative play.

Eclectic Dragon: I noticed that Chain X Link was published through Plus One Exp’s Zine club. Personally, I am a big fan of the zine club. But I am curious, what made you decide to go down this route for publication?

Ethan: Plus One Exp is doing tremendous work in supporting burgeoning indie game designers. My main goals for working with Plus One Exp was to meet new creators and collaborators, and to take advantage of the built-in audience that Zine Club provided. Plus One EXP continues to market and sell the game at conventions throughout the year, a feat I would not be able to accomplish with my current life responsibilities. Zine Club allowed CxL to reach a yet unreached audience for my work, and it’s been a joy to see the game reach new players.

Eclectic Dragon: What is next for you and Glyptide Games? What projects are you working on and is there anything about them you would like to share?

Ethan: I am currently working on two games, both only partly announced. “Drawn from the Wellspring” is a regenerative apocalyptic map-altering game using a dots-and-boxes resolution mechanism which I have playtested at conventions the past few years, but am currently re-working the scope and game loop. Another game is a cyber-fantasy dice-battling game that features solo, co-op, and GM-ed play, which I have just begun playtesting this year. I currently don’t have any hard deadlines for completing these games. You can follow my game design journey by subscribing to my newsletter, or following me on bluesky.

Chain×Link - the Chain Gang TTRPG - RPG Zine Club Review - #2

 Ethan Yen's 

Chain×Link: 

A Semi-Cooperative Dungeon-Defying RPG

The cover of my copy of Chain×Link.

Introduction

    Chain×Link (pronounced as chainlink) is a zine by Ethan Yen with art by Tony Tran with additional art and layout by Andrew Beauman. Chain×Link is a game about rebel leaders that have been captured, chained together, and condemned to hard labor in the depths of a vast mega-dungeon, by an impersonal and distant tyrannical monarchy. It is a game wherein the players are forced to work together in order to achieve common goals, while at the same time still struggling for political power in the world above against each other. It is a game whose core mechanics are straightforward and approachable, yet still innovative and unique. Moreover, it is a game that sets itself apart from its old school revival (OSR) and mega-dungeon competitors by its unconventional, but compelling, approach to art and graphic design. It was this combination of unorthodox art and the evocative tagline, "A semi-cooperative dungeon-defying RPG" that drew me initially to the game. It would be the mechanics, and narrative potential it offered, that made me want to play it. 

    In addition to all of the above, Chain×Link is also an excellent example of the kind of 'Adventure' zines that Plus One Exp is publishing through its RPG Zine Club subscription. Furthermore, it is of outstanding quality, going so far as to have been nominated for multiple categories in the 2025 IGDN Indie Groundbreaker Awards: Most Innovative; Game of the Year; Best Graphic Design. That it did not win speaks to the equally high quality of the other nominees and what must have been an extremely competitive award process. 

   Chains and links form a strong thematic throughline within Chain×Link, making their mark on the art and rules in a way that is consistent and well done. They are a predominant feature of the art, with a chain of some sort showing up on every page. Moreover, the idea of cooperatively chaining contributions together in order to achieve a goal is the core mechanic of the game. It's how this mechanism is implemented that enforces the need for cooperation while also giving it a competitive edge. These rules and mechanics are deeply innovative, introducing multiple concepts I have never seen before, and are pieced together elegantly and brilliantly. 

    The art, layout, and graphic design are all phenomenal, working together with the text to create an evocative sketch of a world for GMs and players to flesh out through character creation and play. World building is masterfully done across the entire zine with elements spread throughout the rules, character options, and in the quick start adventure. This introductory adventure serves multiple purposes; it further expands the world building and implied narrative, while also establishing quickly what each level of the dungeon should entail from a GM preparation point of view. 

   

Character Options and Ruleset 

Ruleset

    The back of the zine states that, "Chain×Link uses minimal but evocative rules". This is very true! The rules while 'minimal' do not adhere to traditional notions of OSR or DND rules design, and as such take some explanation to understand. Thankfully, the wonderful flow charts found in the book make learning the rules much easier. Fundamentally, these rules are built around cooperation but have a distinct competitive element to them. They include an explicit win condition - any player who can get their faction to three completed goals, via the Faction Trial mechanics, wins the game as their faction begins a revolution against The Crown. Trials within the dungeon (aka The Grave) are Grave Trials and a leader of the party or 'Chain' can initiate a Faction trial in order to advance their faction goals towards achieving victory. Faction trials represent a fascinating opportunity for players to play out inter-factional politics, coalition building, and develop the wider world in more depth

    Foundationally, trials are about building dice pools of D10s and using them to contribute to collaborative - or competitive - efforts that form the narrative backbone of the trials systems. Assembling the pools is straightforward; assets (items and experiences), and skills can all be used to add dice to the pool, and the GM can subtract dice from the pool based on the difficulty of the trial. To gain the benefit of an asset in a trial a player must stress or sever one of the links in the chain in addition to integrating a key word from the item into the narrative of the trial in a satisfying manner. Once the pool is assembled the player rolls it and picks which dice they want to add to the total. There is a great deal of tactical decision making involved in which die to add, as the next player contributing must add a higher number than the one added previously. This means it is progressively harder for players later in the chain to contribute. An additional wrinkle is that the last player to successfully contribute to the chain of contributions assumes leadership of the Chain. Once the trial concludes the new party / Chain leader distributes rewards and consequences are applied to the players or group. Also if narratively appropriate the leader of the chain can smuggle an asset out to their faction.   

    A further strategic element in the trials system is that each of the PC Breakers has an 'opportunity die'. This die starts at one and each time they do not use their highest roll during a Grave Trial to contribute, the player increases it by one to a maximum of ten. This die can be used during the player's contribution to "seize the opportunity" and replace one of their rolled die with the opportunity die (pg 22). Effectively, this allows a player to potentially upend a trial and seize the leadership spot. I personally think this is a great mechanic that adds a competitive element to the otherwise cooperative Grave trials and opens the way for a great deal of potential politicking and backstabbing. 

    The asset and dice pool systems bear a passing resemblance to Felix Isaacs' Wildsea's dice pool mechanics, and its tracks systems. The dice pool system also clearly draws inspiration from Rowan, Rook, and Decard's masterpiece Spire and the Resistance Engine. This makes a lot of sense given that Yen lists both Wildsea and Spire as explicit inspirations on the title page of Chain×Link. Regardless, of what systems inspired Yen, I find the trial system to be both interesting mechanically and narratively robust. So much so that I think it would be an excellent system for hacking into other settings and games. Yen must think so too, to the point that he is currently running a Chain×Link game development jam until October 4th 2026. 

    Personally speaking, I am unsure of how my home gaming group would handle the semi-cooperative nature of the game, as it is not the sort of thing we have ever really done before. I think semi-cooperative TTRPGs might require a group bought fully into that concept for it to be enjoyable. To some degree semi-cooperative seems like it might have a higher potential to generate 'feel bad moments' or require careful management by a GM especially if being run with a group new to the idea. To his credit, Yen does address this stating, "...all the players win in a semi-cooperative roleplaying game as long as everyone enjoys the experience" (pg 6). So if you plan on running Chain×Link it might be a good idea to reiterate to the table that while the game is semi-cooperative it is not competitive in the same way as poker. 

Character Creation and Options

The art for the 'The Defector' Repute.
Used with permission of Glyphtide Games.

    Character creation is an exercise in collaborative world building in addition to being a fairly simple process over all. First a player selects one of four reputes for their PC or 'Breaker': 'The Crooked', 'The Defector', 'The Dissident', or 'The Heretic'. This represents their background and defines the actual crime for which they were convicted. They next chose one of four competing factions: 'Orizite Freedom Militia', 'Pricebrokers', 'Veranists', or 'Wyrmcallers'. Each PC Breaker was once a powerful leader in the highest tiers of their chosen faction. Finally players add additional details to their character sheets like name and description. 

    Each repute is an interesting mixture of origin and class as it determines the characters starting skills, starting equipment, the crime which the character has been convicted of, and a choice of 'repute ability'. The collaborative world building is in how these elements of the character are determined. Each element is posed as a question to the player and multiple options, each with a short prompt, are given. For example, my favorite repute, 'The Heretic', could potentially be convicted of one of three crimes: "Tempest Worship", "Depict angel", or "Speak with Dead" (pg 42). With each of the individual crimes supplying three unique skills related to the crime. "Tempest worship" assigns the skills of "thunder, storm, direct" to the character. These are not defined further in any way whatsoever leaving interpretation up to the GM and player in the heat of play. This is explicitly the point and encouraged by Chain×Link "Breakers twist and bend the definition and context of these skills to maximum benefit in pursuit of their goals" (pg 10). In practice being able to associate a skill to the narrative within a trial in a meaningful manner allows for an extra die to be added to the dice pool for a player's contribution roll. Unlike equipment or experiences, utilizing a skill in this manner does not stress or sever a link, as skills simply do not have links.

    Factions provide the narrative basis for what a PC Breaker is struggling to achieve. Each provides a list of goals that need to be achieved through Faction Trials in order to ignite bloody revolution and win the game. For example, my favorite faction, 'Wrymcallers', must "Dispel the celestial barrier" along with two other objectives to successfully usher in the return of their dragon god (pg 50). Each faction starts with three assets, and also provides the PC Breaker with an additional experience based around why they joined the faction in the first place. They also provide a powerful ability that is only active when the player associated with the faction is the leader of the Chain. 

    I found the character creation process to be intuitive and easy to follow. I liked that a great deal of the game's world building is integrated directly into this process. I think that doing so is an excellent way of encouraging and even mandating a collaborative world building component to the game. Moreover, given the way the character creation process flows and its relative straightforwardness, it appears to be very easy for a GM to work with players to generate custom reputes or factions based on the shared fiction that the table generates.  

Art, Layout, Themes, and World Building

Art, and Layout

Used with permission of Glyphtide Games.

    Tony Tran and Andrew Beauman's work on Chain×Link is in short - outstanding. The style that predominates throughout the zine is abstract and rough, making use of a limited palate of grays, whites, blacks and shades of imperial purple. A good example of the overall style that permeates the zine can be found above. It is abstract and the unnamed monsters and PC breakers are inverted white / black from one another in a intriguing manner. It is in some ways an iconoclastic style, in that it challenges traditional TTRPG art design choices often associated with OSR or mega-dungeon games. Some of the smaller rougher figures composed of black brush strokes found outside of the larger pieces in the zine reminded me of the cave paintings at Lascaux, France. Even the inverted color monsters in piece above bear some resemblance to the abstract outlines of ungulates found in the caves. I think the level of abstraction is similar in some ways. 

    The layout work done by Beauman is excellent, with the text easy to read and the surrounding art assets integrated very well into the overall product. It is clear from examining the zine that a great deal of care and intention went into the artistic design as well as the rules.

      

    I recently conducted an interview with creator of Chain×Link Ethan Yen, and one of the questions I asked was about his artistic goals for Chain×Link. In the interview Yen describes the overarching goal of the zine, artistically, was for Chain×Link as, "...to separate itself visually from many dark fantasy dungeon-crawling games in the TTRPG space" and that "...I wanted the art style to reminiscent of the genre through a limited color palette and rough lines, but distinct enough in style to make it clear that this game is not the same." I would argue, strongly, that Yen, Tran, and Beauman succeed at this goal wonderfully: the reason I originally picked up Chain×Link was due to the evocative cover art and the unique tag line. Clearly, the TTRPG community agreed with my purchasing choices, as evidenced by Chain×Link's nomination for Best Graphic Design in the 2025 IGDN Ground Breaker Awards. 

Themes 

  There are thematic elements of struggle, power, cooperation and competition mixed throughout the zine. The struggle element is best exemplified by the art of the back cover (pictured below) of a scarred arm pulling itself up by its own instrument of imprisonment. This image immediately communicates that this is game where you will struggle against your situation. Themes of power, cooperation, and competition are integrated into the game throughout. All three are explored effectively through the trial system, the opportunity die, and chain leadership mechanics. Although it is not explored much in the zine, I foresee player groups forming coalitions between their factions in competition with each other in interesting ways that would further explore these themes. The potential for politicking reminds me in some ways of a especially underhanded game of Diplomacy I once witnessed. All of this is enabled by the Chain×Link system. 

The back cover of my copy of Chain×Link.

   World Building

    World building is sprinkled liberally throughout the zine; with the most overt occurring on the first two pages of the zine. The first page establishes the history of the mega-dungeon and the mythical origin of the mineral the PCs are condemned to mine. The second page establishes why the PCs are condemned to a chain gang and the nature of their sentence, while also establishing the brutal nature of their oppressors. It's a pretty impressive amount of world building output for what is essentially a poem and three very short paragraphs. 

    The rest of the world building is sprinkled throughout the rules, character options, and quick start adventure in a satisfying manner that makes you want to explore the implied world more. For example, one of the factions a PC can chose is the "Pricebrokers" whose goal is: "The Church of Evom believes everything has a price. Prove them wrong" (pg 46). We get a little more about the nature of the Church of Evom from the description of "The Heretic" repute, "Rather than giving tribute to Evom, God of Commerce and Production, you find meaning in one of the Old Gods..." (pg 42). These two short sentences imply a great deal about the state of the world and the nature of its religions. For me they evoke an image of a powerful state sponsored religion that ruthlessly hunts down heretics and those it deems lazy and unproductive. The implied socialist struggle against a capitalistic religion is one well worth exploring further.  

    The remainder of the world building across the zine is is integrated into the text in a similar manner throughout; it is elegant and well done, evoking powerful images at the same time the rules and core concepts are explored. How the world building is integrated into Chain×Link is perhaps my favorite aspect of the zine. 

Conclusion and Recommendation

    Chain×Link is a long zine at 64 pages, but even for that length it packs a tremendous amount of material into the page count. This includes an example level of the dungeon that is in many ways a covert means of teaching adventure design for the Chain×Link system. Which is, of course, the point. The art is phenomenal, widespread, and unorthodox for its chosen genre. The focus on collaborative world building within a predefined framework is excellent and one of my favorite aspects of the game. Finally, the mechanics integrate cooperation and competition in a very appealing push-pull manner. This mechanical basis for political positioning and struggle creates fertile ground for additional collaborative world building and narrative development.   

    I strongly recommend Chain×Link to anyone looking for a unique dungeon crawling TTRPG. Despite my reservations about semi-cooperative games with my home group, I plan on trying to run this for them sometime in the fall, as I think the system and the collaborative world building elements are worth exploring. 

    I also encourage people to try their hand at the Chain×Link game development jam currently going on, as I think the underlying system is highly extensible. Yen has helpfully released the core engine as an SRD which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). So if you are someone who, like me, has some ideas for collaborative games but is just starting out with rules design you would be hard pressed to find a better system to hack.