Hi Reader,

Welcome! Please, come in. Have some fizzy water. I brought back a tall hollyhock stalk from Sweden and put it in a glass carafe on the table.

Don't mind the stray leptons shooting around. The particle accelerator in the basement has lost focus again. I'd tune it, but the leptons show the hollyhock in such a nice light.

This past weekend was Gen Con!

And I wasn’t there!

Instead, I went to the town of Visby, on the island of Gotland in Sweden, to see two dear friends get married.

Walking around the old medieval city, it sometimes felt like being in a Mike Mignola comic. Bronze cupolas piled on top of tile roofs on half-timbered houses. Sprays of cobblestones patched with asphalt.

As I took photos of stone walls, I found myself sometimes taking a certain genre of photos—face-on, with no people or other signs of life. Boring. But it's the kind I used to turn into textures for computer graphics in video games, back in the dot-com boom of the ‘90s, and old habits die hard.

And I wondered if you could ever capture the feel of a Mike Mignola comic in a video game. I don’t think so. All his organic shapes, centuries-old eroded stone, layers of shadows revealing deep vaults and deep time ... and a quirky sense of humor, like someone conscripted a Looney Tunes character into Napoleon III’s army and handed it a shako and a bayonet.

Video games are hard on organic aesthetics like that. You can do it, but it's not easy, logistically speaking. Unless you really love working in that medium/genre/industry, the only things I can think to recommend it are:

• Maybe lots of people will see your game.
• Maybe you'll make a ton of money.

But maybe not. Many more people get into it than succeed at either of the above.

But you could say that about tabletop games, too. It's just that in video games, the pie is a thousand times bigger, so a small slice is bigger, too.

When I worked in video games, I paid off my student loans. I got health insurance for the first time.

But I also wandered in the wilderness aesthetically and culturally, with just a tenuous grasp on who I was.

Sometimes I get frustrated with how little money is in tabletop games, especially in non-D&D RPGs. Sure, the time commitment is bigger than video games. But that just means you get more hours of "entertainment" from $60 of tabletop RPG than $60 of video game. And the singular barrier for tabletop RPGs—getting four to six people to meet regularly for four hours at a time—also makes them more social than most (in my experience) video games.

Even with my frustration, I’d rather cadge out a living making beautiful experiences in a medium I love. I’m too old to go into another business just for the money.

But I want to make the business work. Who wouldn't?

Back in June, when I exhibited at Origins, I had tons of fun. I spent quality time with Cole, who drove out to help with the event. I spoke with wonderful people and told them about Defy the Gods and Raccoon Sky Pirates. Even though we’d canceled the "Total Chaos Edition" Kickstarter by then, we got to show off the utterly gobsmacking prototype.

But I also got a front-row seat for the hustle in a business where D&D has already claimed most of the money. Sometimes, I felt like I was grabbing people by the lapels and hanging on, feet dragging behind me, yammering in their ear as they walked on serenely to the next booth.

Everyone in the industry gets like this at times. I hate how it shapes our choices.

As I try to make sales, the best I can do is try to center making connections.

And community. Sticking around, pitching in, and lifting up other small creators and publishers.

And there are so many great creators and publishers in tabletop RPGs! To name just a few:

• ​Viditya Voleti, designer of the award-winning A Land Once Magic
• ​Elliot "moreblueberries" Davis, designer of The Time We Have
• Felix Isaacs, author of The Wildsea RPG and the new hotness, Pico​
• Tony Vasinda from Plus One Exp​
• Richard Ruane of Moonlight on Roseville Beach fame

At Origins, I had a charming exchange with Viditya: I gushed about how his games had influenced me, and then he said Raccoon Sky Pirates had influenced him! Can you imagine—Viditya Voleti noticing what I do? Starstruck. It's great to be in a community like that.

But back to business: To make it work, I have to clarify the "brand promise" of Hectic Electron. People don't know what kinds of games they can expect from me. Since I haven't published many games yet, it's hard to put into words. But I'm working on it.

I also have to pay attention to what people want. And what people keep telling me they want is the original Raccoon Sky Pirates back in print.

So here we go!

A brand-new Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter.

Publicly, I'm calling it the "Classic Edition," as in Classic Coke. But in my headcanon, it's the "Don't F@#k with It" Edition. As in, if it ain't broke, don't f@#k with it.

And it ain't. So I won't.

I'm planning to offer a few of the components from the Total Chaos Edition as add-ons, to offer more ways to play the game. Brendan and Kate designed awesome maps, and I'd love to offer the hex tiles so you can randomize your voyage. If you already own the box set, you can back it just for the add-ons.

And there will definitely be a retailer tier. Retailers are the core of the original game's success.

Sign up now to hear when we launch! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hecticelectron/raccoon-sky-pirates-classic​

xoxo
Chrys

P.S. Despite all my bellyaching about the business, I love it so much, and I love what people are putting out there.

P.P.S. Be a part of it! I want to keep Raccoon Sky Pirates in stock forever. Sign up to hear when the Classic Edition goes live! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hecticelectron/raccoon-sky-pirates-classic​

P.P.P.S. If you don't want to hear about the new Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter, click this link. You'll miss the game nights that are just about that. Some raccoons will still sneak into other game nights, but we'll talk about other stuff too.