Observations of the Fox

  So I'm gathering together a bunch of ideas for the new game that I've been developing with Erin. Both of us have been looking at different games across Itch, and plenty of the ideas that we're scavenging have come from all over the place (including plenty of inspirations from the old " Game Mechani(sm) of the Week " series, stuff that was discussed in the " How to Run a Game " sequence, and assorted stuff we've found on Itch over recent weeks). This project is intended for the DURF Jam 2025 , which opens tomorrow. However, even though there are lots of things we like about the way DURF approaches things, there's a few key elements that we don't like, including the core game mechanism or rolling d20 plus a low variable ability factor versus a difficulty. I like the idea of adding or subtracting another die result (a bit like inspiration adding to a roll in 5e D&D), so I tried to integrated this a bit more naturally into the system rather...

    (Click Here) So I've been working on a single resource document for Walkabout and Familiar, and a bunch of those little side projects I've been working on. It was only meant to be a basic thing, maybe 16-pages, a zine. But it's kind of blown out a bit because I've tied in a lot of those old cookbook ideas, and really want people to understand what the game system is about, including knowledge about how the bits work and why they were designed to work that way.  Yeah, I've covered a lot of that stuff here on the blog over the years, but I'd like a coherent piece of documentation that ties it all together. I'm not there yet, but if I don't get something up now, I'll miss the TTRPG Game Manifesto Jam, and then it'll just end up as yet another unfinished backburner project. Hopefully I'll get the chance to update it a bit over the next few days.   

  I love the idea of Game Jams. I haven't really had much opportunity to participate in them over the years, but I'm trying to get back involved in design communities, and this seems to be where a lot of the action seems to be good enough.  One of the fun ones I'm thinking of joining is the TTRPG Manifesto Jam . It looks like a good way to consolidate some idea about how I design games, and more specifically why I design them, and why I design them in the way I do. Maybe a couple of pages, maybe do it graphically... especially since that's a big part of my process.  I'm also really thinking of getting into the Build a Better World Jam , because I've got a bunch of game ideas that aim toward this direction anyway, and it might be nice to refine these ideas publicly, and even just get the ideas out there like I do for NaGaDeMon. I'm starting easy, but once I've dipped my toes in the water, I'll either try to do a few more...or run screaming.