I took a wonderful two-week vacation with my family, resulting in this update being pushed back a week. While the vacation was much needed, I’m also wishing I had another vacation after my vacation, since I had less time to write than I naively expected, but alas, such is life 😀
Spells Sold Here!
June 22 was Free RPG day in the States. All participating friendly local game stores (FLGS) that are participating receive free RPG products from publishers to attract customers and foot traffic. This year, I released a free RPG of my own, “Spells Sold Here!” Play as employees of a Friendly Local Spell Shop and earn money selling spell scroll packs. Use a standard deck of playing cards to represent spell scrolls, randomly distributing them into packs of three to sell to your customers. However, as one of the only sources of spells in the land, your shop is the target of many thieves, monsters, and jealous mages. Balance profit with spell-power and decide when to crack open those packs and use the spells inside to protect yourselves and your place of employment! I wrote and laid the game out in a week and I’m quite happy with the result given the project duration. You can check out the game on itch.io, don’t forget to leave a rating if you like it!
Drawn from the Wellspring
I finally cracked the code on the “map-altering” aspect of my game, Drawn from the Wellspring (DftW)! My original iteration of the game lacked focused direction and design philosophy, so it has spent months ruminating in the back of my mind. I’ve started coalescing around a more concrete vision, and the way I’m going about is…dots-and-boxes. A variation of this childhood game serves as the representation of the Wellspring Dimension “seeping” into our reality, and when the boxes are filled, the grid becomes the spatial/tactical representation of the confrontation with the Leak at the climax of each mission. Dots-and-boxes also meshes nicely with the d6/d8 resolution mechanic. Looking forward to playtesting at Big Bad Con this year.
PREQUEL
James and I are working on the alpha version of the full-game text and starting to brainstorm some art direction ideas. Admittedly I’ve had less time to work on this as I’d like, but I’m looking forward to having an alpha version of the game as I think it will help me examine the game wholistically and identify points that will need more work as we enter Con playtesting.
Aetherial Expanse: Setting Guide
Ghostfire Gaming’s Aetherial Expanse: Setting Guide was released in digital form to all backers earlier this month. The Setting Guide includes a variety of my work, including spells, a subclass, and general worldbuilding in the form of plot hooks and diegetic quotes. This product also contains my first production credit and I helped with the the preliminary design of the gamemaster’s screen. One of these days I’ll write a blog post about my experience working on the Setting Guide. I learned a lot about how the freelance writing process integrates with the rest of the production workflow through this project and I’m incredibly grateful to Ghostfire Gaming for the opportunity to work on this amazing project.
LOOT
I’m a contributor to Spencer Campbell’s upcoming looter shooter tabletop roleplaying game, LOOT. I wrote a collection of themed enemies, the Scrap Angels, inspired by P. Djèlí Clark’s clockwork angels and an eccentric junk art sculpture museum I once visited. Spencer’s work and videos were transformational for my game design journey, and his relationship with TTRPGs and the space in general led me to interrogate my own goals and relationship. I’m incredibly honored to be part of this amazing team. Consider following the Kickstarter pre-launch page and back the project when it launches in September!
Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall
I’m a writer for the New Hauntings expansion as part of the Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall Reprint. I wrote a new scenario based on the growth of the American ginseng farming industry in upstate Wisconsin near where I grew up. It’s been a dream to work with Banana Chan and Sen-Fong Lim on this project, and I’m excited to share my scenario with you all. Back the campaign on Backerkit starting Tuesday, July 23!
Gen Con 2024
Gen Con is early next month. I’ve started making plans with a few folks for meetings and to just hang out. (Which reminds me, there’s still some items I still need to prep before arriving…) If you’d like to meet up sometime, please let me know! Otherwise, I’ll be found helping M.L. Wang at her booth in Author’s Alley. If you haven’t yet, I recommend pre-ordering her latest book from Del Rey Publishers, Blood Over Bright Haven. I devoured the book in less than 24 hours!