Hi Reader,

Please come in. Have some ice-cold fizzy water. Yesterday, I went to Yellow Springs, Ohio. From their creek, I brought back messy stalks of orange jewelweed. They're floating in a ceramic bowl of cool water on the table. Little gems.

​Lyla McBeath Fujiwara is brilliant. I recently read her Substack post about playtesting tactics. Lyla has worked at the mind-boggling scale of the Cosmere RPG. She generously shares that experience, with specific, actionable advice for game designers at all scales.

Along the same lines, I recently updated my subscriber incentive, "Five things to know before you make your first game." I added a few lessons from making Defy the Gods—which I made with Lyla's help! That PDF takes a more high-level view than Lyla's piece, so the two perspectives complement each other. Plus, mine has drawings. If it's been a while, go ahead and download it again.

I love sharing my lessons learned.

At no time did I learn more than this summer.

When the Total Chaos Edition fell short of its funding goal, I felt like I'd gotten away from what players need. And, because I was so sure it would fund, I'd paid for art and prototypes ahead of time, and that was an expensive error. So, I recalibrated both my business and design priorities:

Business-wise, I saw what incredible beginner's luck I had with Raccoon Sky Pirates. I should've kept it in print, because you never know how long a game will capture the public's imagination. (But hey, let's bring it back!) The personally rewarding but commercially difficult path of Defy the Gods reminded me how many ideas compete for players' attention.

Design-wise, I saw what a delicate thing the player experience is. The Total Chaos Edition would've been so cool. But it doesn't best serve the players. In a playtest, it takes care to listen to what players need ... spoken and unspoken thrills, frustrations and yearnings. You can't rush that. Games take years before they're ready.

In fact, more often than not, you decide not to release at all. In the excellent Dice Exploder podcast's Discord, Jason Morningstar suggested that a company's reputation depends on all the games you don't see. That's how you can trust stuff from Bully Pulpit.

I'm proud of the games I've released, and the new Raccoon Sky Pirates Kickstarter is ready to go. But I'm listening to Jason's advice, and Lyla's—I may make bracelets that say "WWLD?" I'm even listening to my own advice.

I'm in this hobby for the long haul. Regardless when my next "product" emerges, I'm here to design games. To get more time to do that, while also providing a window into the ongoing process, I'm launching a Patreon.

It's about the basement.

That's where the particle accelerator is—our Large Hadron Collider. It's where we smash fundamental particles of wonder together and unlock new ideas. And it's where you can fund bold new advances in tabletop RPGs.

At the everlasting, neverending game night, I tell you about all the wild stuff I'm working on. At the Patreon, I can finally show you.

Works-in-progress you can playtest. Early access to adventures. And an ongoing lab report (dev blog) that gets messier than our game night—although some ideas will naturally float up to this table. I'll also invite you to the Discord, where you can discuss games more directly with me and others.

And! As a patron, you'll get an exclusive downloadable reward when you back any of my crowdfunding campaigns—including the upcoming Raccoon Sky Pirates Classic.

See you there!

xoxoxo
Chrys

P.S. The particle accelerator drives our game night, and your support keeps it going. The intro tier is just $3/month. You can see my first post before you join at patreon.com/hecticelectron. Thank you!