The ‘beta’ rules that are freely available are probably 90+% of what the finished product will be. I’m mostly working on art and layout, plus some additional material that doesn’t change anything about the gameplay, but might add some options at the campaign level. If you don’t have the rules ping me and I’ll drop the most recent link.
Still “working” on the same projects as I was working on last time, but here’s some updates:
Shroompunk and Space Rangers of the Cosmic Frontier (pending) will be using the same core system, which I am still describing as Player’s Option meets the Rules Cyclopedia with a carefully curated selection of modern D&D mechanics. I’m also planning on releasing this system in a “Generic D&D Retroclone” format as PWYW. Progress is still… sporadic but I’m about to make some major QOL and workflow improvements that might help me focus more.
Untitled, but I’m working for a retroclone of Street Fighter: the Storytelling using the Opening the Dark rules. Again as a PWYW offering, with a commercial version paired with a default setting-- a cyberpunk urban fantasy wuxia affair.
I’ve got a shroompunk novel in the works, The Oathbreaker King: a Shroompunk Tale.
No projections for release dates-- I am still kinda working towards working on these projects.
I’ve begun working on my submission to the Starforged 2023 Jam.
My hope is that this will be a jumping point to my next published product since I didn’t publish anything paid in 2022. At the least, it’s an excuse to work on something, and more importantly, it’s another reason to play Ironsworn: Starforged and get some TTRPG time in!
Working on my linguistic mini-game. Grabbed some Dialect and some Aori and my field linguistics and just ran. And I’m very happy with where it’s going.
It’s just a reskin of Storm at the desert gate inn, but hey: it’s still something
If you like the genre, I’m open to material ideas for the second page.
I just actually typed up and layout some basic framework rules for use with the Roll 4 Shoes rules. It’s an attempt to make a lighthearted fantasy framework to play in.
I hope to actually make it look pretty eventually.
I have put my Aunter x Aunter on hold for various little game poems for the 12 word and Grève jam on itch. I gained confidence when I finished the Youkaghir love letter project, and it made me bold enough to tackle my Saragossa Manuscript project. And it’s going well!
I am a huge fan of Potocki. And what is more, I am friend with Jan Potocki, his great grandson and homonym! My hope for the game is that he would write a little something, so that I could publish the game with “preface by Jan Potocki” written on it. And as always, I don’t gamble: this is a sure shot and it’ll be a great laugh.
The game takes some things from my own Riot! and maybe some from Simon Pettersson & Catherine Ramen’s Nerves of Steel.
In a nutshell: it’s very much a storytelling game where you take turns adding nested stories to framing stories. There’s nothing to win but the game creates occasions to shine by reincorporation. This is my jam and honey!
If you don’t know the Saragosa Manuscript, lucky you: it’s a honey comb you can bite from easily
If you want just a taste:
Hi, no luck on my phone. Progress clocks keep cycling.
I found a copy on the Internet archives. I’m disappointed not to find FONT by Narrative Dynamics, the best Stalker game.
So . . . I’ve got to assume you’ve played the Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom, right?
It’s one of my favourite adventures. I’ve used parts of it in a bunch of campaignst. Done a video on it, and it’s also on sale this week for XRP’s 20th anniversary. https://composedreamgames.com/marketplace/Pod-Caverns-of-the-Sinister-Shroom
Wow, long gap, sorry. I’m talking to my art guy and planning to get publication back on track after some IRL interruptions. In service of this I’m going to try and get a significant amount of playtesting done in that time frame. So if you want to try a game, I can find you a slot.
I have written most of my Shonen puzzle game in one-page modular mini games. I am now working on the most meta part, that’s how to weave character arcs stepping stones (think Jenna Moran’s Chuubo or Nick Wedig’s Baba Yaga) and external conflicts.
I’m excited because it’s a Grail to me: linking external and internal conflict in a symbolic way (exact analogy would kill the interpretative game). Few games do this, and my “formula” promises to be accessible enough and leave sufficient cognitive space to do fun things with the ext/int symbolic relationship.
I hope to hold that promise. I just passed the major obstacle. The problem I see from here is first to pick apart the advice from the rules (eg: stakes setting and raising when how and why). And second to keep it simple, although character progression, harm, and other important subsystems all want to converge into this play phase: Conflict. This will take some analysis (feels like playing Tetris with subsystems). But writing-wise, this means I have too much ideas and they’ll keep coming. All problems I love having.
So I was scrolling through my many, many, folders of PDFs and abortive writing projects and came across the Brindlewood Bay mystery I started for the writing contest and then promptly forgot about. Amazingly, I just kind of finished the first draft without having to gird my loins or it feeling like work (which is why a lot of the projects I put down don’t get picked back up). Anyway, if anyone wants to give it a read, here’s Death of the Author: da PDF
