🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
after the fundraising marathon, a sprint to the finish
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Hi Reader, Welcome! Please come in, sit down. Have some cold fizzy water—it's way too hot out there. On the table are echinacea blooms—they're back! Since the Defy the Gods Kickstarter wrapped, I've been keeping a low profile. Writing the text, fixing things, finishing sections that were rough. I mean, that's what I'm doing now. At first, I just took the weekend off. Went to a movie. I found myself working on an old card game idea—a fast-paced sword duel played in real time instead of turns. Clearly, my brain needed a break. But now I'm back to defying the gods with a will! I'm in love with it again—but I'm also clear-eyed about all the things that can't happen till after I get to final text: layout, diagrams, last illustrations, printer's proofs, printing, shipping, distribution. I'm tempted to update the game based on stuff I've learned recently. I feel like I'm learning all the time, and the state of the art keeps changing. But at a certain point, it has to be done. Especially since every new design or mechanic needs playtesting. A lot. How much is "a lot"? Jay Dragon's design diary on Patreon reminded me. Jay's games raise my sights for what's possible. At the same time, it's reassuring to know even Jay can feel daunted after a developmental editor rakes their red pen over the text. Ok, I'm back at it! More soon! Best, P.S. I almost forgot—I set up pre-orders on BackerKit! If you missed the Kickstarter, you can get most of the items at the preorder store! Thanks! |
Everlasting, Neverending Game Night
🌈🚀 Reliable wonder engine. I make narrative role-playing games that imagine a weirder, queerer, more connected world.
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please, come in. There's still a few patches of snow on the ground—winter coming in fits and starts. How are you? Me? A weight is off my shoulders—Defy the Gods is at the printer. You can read more about it in the breathless Kickstarter update I sent out yesterday. In fairness, I was feeling breathless. Or like I was just starting to exhale. The printer is reviewing the files. They'll send a report by the end of the week. I'm gonna pay half the print cost soon, with an...
Hi Reader, Welcome! Please come in. It's rainy and blowy outside, and someone said we could get snow. But it's toasty in here. On the table, we have a pile of decorative gourds. I marked numbers on them with a Sharpie so you can roll them like dice. After months of frenzied work on Defy the Gods, I'm suddenly left with nothing to do. The text is complete, the book is laid out. We're waiting on the index and the last four pieces of art—out of 75! Sometime in the next 10 days, we'll submit the...
Hi Reader, What began as a silent shaking in the earth has grown to thunderous, resounding hoofbeats. The armies of Doom approach. Time to draw steel. That is—the Defy the Gods Kickstarter ends on Thursday! If you haven't read my emails for the last year, or I just didn't tell you, Defy the Gods is a queer sword & sorcery tabletop role-playing game set in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia—a game full of daring adventure, messy romance, and cursed power. It's a game where a single sword stroke or...