October: One quarter impulse power

Monthly Musings from LunarShadow Designs

Welcome back to my monthly musings, where I discuss my ongoing adventure as a TTRPG designer and micro-publisher. Before I dive into what I’ve been up to this month I want to say a big congratulations to Dave and Matthew of Effekt Publishing following their massively successful Kickstarter for Tales of the Old West! If you missed the campaign then keep an eye out for the public release next year (possibly in time for UK Games Expo).

Back in my own little corner September was a month of convention recovery and change of gears. I attended Tabletop Scotland for the first time and you can find my summary over on the blog. TLDR? I had a great time and I would bet on Tabletop Scotland growing significantly over the coming years. It was, however, expensive and I didn’t come close to breaking even, something I will need to think about when I plan my con attendance next year.

Star Trekking across the gaming verse…

The change of pace has been away from design work and on the playing front: Having failed to survive either of our Alien scenarios I’ve gone from playing back to my usual position as GM, running Star Trek Adventures 2e. Swapping the frantic “we’re all gonna die!” pace of Alien for the slower, considered approach of Star Trek has been surprisingly refreshing but it's not all plain sailing and I have a bone to pick with Modiphus - the organisation of the rulebook is frustratingly bad.

The annoying part is that this isn’t new and while the second edition is an improvement on the first it remains a difficult to use rulebook. For example the full explanation of a how to make a roll is not described until page 253, two thirds of the way into the book and even then it is part way through the chapter. We also get rules on how to advance supporting characters before we’re told how to create them and small paragraphs of text forced onto the same page as large tables/sidebars that they’re not associated with.

It winds me up as both a player and designer.

If I get the time this month my aim is to do a dive into the layout and organisation over on the blog, as I think there’s a lot that I could learn from breaking it apart.

Which leaves me with a question for you: What’s the worst layout you’ve seen in a game from a studio that should know better?

WIP: The Words We Leave Behind

Thank you to everyone that has already signed up to be notified when the Kickstarter campaign for The Words We Leave Behind goes live. While I’m aiming for a February Zinequest launch I really appreciate the early support as I try to get word out about the game. If you missed it the digital edition is available from itch.io and I have a limited print run for sale on Etsy. I’ll also have copies with me at Dragonmeet at the end of November.

My focus this month has been playtesting, which I’m recording as a written actual play over on the blog. The story follows Iapyx and Aion, two Proxies with very different views of the world as they struggle for control of a thread. As this is a playtest I’m taking on both sides of the story, allowing me to get a feel for how the mechanics interact with one another and play out. It’s also a great opportunity to just stretch my creative writing muscles, something I don’t do nearly as often as I’d like. Based on the card draws so far I would estimate I’m about halfway through the game and I’ve already picked up a number of tweaks that I’d like to make, including adding solo rules that follows a Proxy as they undertake their mission to reshape reality.

Links Roundup

• The BBC recently re-aired the brutal 1984 drama Threads that tells the story of a nuclear strike on the UK from the perspective of two everyday families. If you missed it and have access to iplayer you can catch up with it here.

• The TTRPGs for Accessible Gaming charity bundle is supporting the DOTS RPG project in their goal to produce Braille RPG dice. The bundle includes a massive 314 items, all available for only $10 USD.

• Spiel Essen has just concluded in Germany and for the first time ever sold out across all four days! With a total attendance of 204,000 (turnstile) that makes it roughly three times the size of UK Games Expo (65,000 turnstile). Those numbers are staggering and I can’t imagine what the experience must be like.

• The Indie Groundbreaker Awards are open for submissions until the end of October. Celebrating indie designers from across the globe the awards are judged by a dedicated panel, removing the popularity aspect and allowing smaller games to get the recognition they deserve.

The Sign Off

That’s all for this month, I’m off to read up on the Klingon Empire and how to introduce them to my game in an interesting way. Oh, and I suppose I should start prepping for Dragonmeet but more about that next month.

Stay safe,

Craig