Hi Reader,

Welcome! Please, come in. Isn't it beautiful out? Let's sit on the back porch today with some fizzy water and lol at all the dandelions. They get so tall when they’re ready to let go.

I got some great games recently in the mail: Zhenya's Wonder Tales by Jason Morningstar and Last Train to Bremen by Caro Asercion. Slavic folk tales, cozy tragedy, liar's dice and a deal with the Devil!

This is my favorite part of crowdfunding campaigns—when a little box of magic arrives at your door.

Defy the Gods is arriving at lots of people's doors, and I'm thrilled to see it. Have you gotten yours yet? Please tell me what you think!

And then—if we want to play the numbers game—in this overstuffed industry brimming with brilliant ideas, too many to track—you can always tell social media. Any enshittified platform will do.

Last weekend, I drove to Philadelphia. I visited Tony and Richard of Plus One Exp, and I got to sit down for a conversation with the always gracious Jeff Stormer of Party of One. They're all such lovely people.

Then I drove home with a passel of books. I dropped off packages for local-pickup backers.

Next week, Plus One Exp and I will open up orders on our respective websites, and the book will officially be out.

In raccoon news, I got a 3D model of an actual dumpster fire! I'd like to offer a fancy token for top-tier backers to use when you play. What do you think?

We're in an unglamorous phase of prepping for the Kickstarter—putting together ads and other assets. I'm designing the pledge tiers though, and that's fun. I want to give you something special for backing early.

So there's a lot going on. You can see down below that the progress bar has gotten...wiggly. Hang on tight!

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about the player experience.

It's the special sauce. The sacred thing in game design, what I need to hew to always. My ideas—themes—mechanics—they're so secondary.

What do players think and feel when they play? How much does the game foster the experience or just get in the way?

The rules are like a bottle for the special sauce. A necessary obstruction. They have to get in the way a little. But the sauce should excite players enough to get past the rules.

I try not to make the bottle too big. Like, I don't want too many mechanics.

D&D has a big bottle. They also offer a lot of special sauces ... tactics, character moments, a power curve, a narrative arc. God bless them, people go for it. But lots of folks get frustrated when they have to wade through tactics to get to their character moments.

I'm not Wizards of the Coast. I need to pick one special sauce. And deliver.

But for now, I'm just in love with the player experience. I want to observe it closely, over and over, learn its ways. That's how I'll get better at this bizarre art form.

xoxoxo
Chrys

P.S. Have you signed up for the Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter yet? If not, go do it now! I want to be able to give you an early-bird reward as soon as it launches.