The past four weeks have been focused on preparing for the many playtests I’ll be running at Gamehole Con and Big Bad Con. I’ll be running PREQUEL, Chain×Link, and Drawn from the Wellspring. I’ve also been delving into the world of art direction as I write art briefs and search for artists to commission for my many current and future projects.
PREQUEL
James and I are hard at work reaching out to potential illustrators to help establish the visual language and style of the game. I also wrote another blog post, this one discusses the Burden and Legacy mechanic. As always, if you’re interested in getting updates as to when the game will go to crowdfunding, you can sign up to be notified at https://bit.ly/prequel-rpg.
Chain×Link
For preparing for playtesting, I reviewed and revised some of the game rules and put together some pregenerated characters and some notes for a starting adventure. I also did a quick and simple layout of the text in its eventual form factor and realized that I have far too many words to fit what I want into 56-60 pages. This means that I’ll be scrutinizing the rules text in the near future to see how I can be more concise with my words, lean on implied worldbuilding with word choice and style, and make use of layout to communicate complicated topics. I’ll also likely be splitting some of the ancillary sections into separate zines to maintain the “minimalist” design philosophy.
Also, if you like podcasts, Will Jobst and Adam Vass of the Braintrust Podcast recently did an episode on a question I asked while I was writing this game! Listen to them talk about competitive TTPRGs here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0jz0zZgeb65VYnTokzNGKE?si=8RXx9EfmRaWtVTB2wNz5LQ&t=649
Drawn from the Wellspring
Similar to Chain×Link, I revised rules, put together pregens and worked on a starting adventure. DftW is not as well established or formed as Chain×Link, which means I’ve been struggling a bit more as to how to best convey tone, world, and theme to players. This process has emphasized the importance of not just mechanical systems, but also the adventures/scenarios themselves as vehicles for conveying tone and theme. I started my freelancing game design career as an adventure designer, so I understand how much of TTRPG experience depends on the adventure itself, and I’m also fully cognizant that adventure design and mechanics/system design are two different skillsets. It took me awhile to switch my thought process from that a systems designer to an adventure designer to put together a simple scenario for playtesting.
LOOT
Spencer Campbell’s looter shooter TTRPG has successfully crowdfunded! During the campaign, Spencer had this great idea to do a short interview/design stream with each of his collaborators for the project. I had a great time talking to Spencer and brainstorming loot inspired by one of my favorite TV shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender! You can watch the interview here: https://youtu.be/Cu83alDTehY?si=rIVIW9uN_0FaTNX7
Fetch My Blade
Sara Gabler shared a playthrough of the game on her blog. In it, she includes her play report, tracking how the stats change with each dice roll. It’s always such a treat to see how players engage with the Questioning Truths mechanic, and this playthrough has a great example of resolving the final duel using the Friendly Trait. I definitely recommend giving it a read if you’re curious how the game plays. https://saragabler.com/2024/06/04/fetch-my-blade-solo-play/
Gamehole Con
I’ll be running playtests of PREQUEL, Chain×Link, and Drawn from the Wellspring in the mornings of the convention. All of the playtests are full, but you can find me helping out at the Ghostfire Gaming Booth in the Dealer’s Hall in the afternoons! I’m also signed up to play some games, including a game of Vaesen (which I’ve been looking forward to playing for awhile)!
Big Bad Con
I’ll be running playtests of Chain×Link and Drawn from the Wellspring in the mornings, while James is running a playtest of PREQUEL. I’m also helping Nico MacDougall facilitate a Group Game Jam!
Looking Ahead
The second half of October will be filled with conventions, while the first half of November will be devoted to reflecting on playtest feedback and figuring out my to-do list to finish development of PREQUEL and Chain×Link (which, if you’re curious, the × symbol is Alt+0215), and to begin planning out a development schedule for my many projects I hope to start/complete in 2025.