#32: Errant's Middle Path

I. Dear Reader

This week, I’ve been excited by Errant by Ava Islam - one of the many wonderful games funded through last month’s ZineQuest. What’s surprising about my excitement is that Errant, on first glance, is a fantasy heartbreaker. But as I read the free rules, I realized I was very wrong.

The core mechanic is rolling under your stat but above a difficulty value. For example, ff the difficulty is 4 and your strength is 12, you need to roll between 5 and 12. So the player has to walk this narrow line with failure yawning on either side. Now take this idea and apply it to everything. This game is walking the same line between unhindered creativity and tightly-designed procedures. The magic system is the perfect example - it’s freeform but with a solid framework in place for the referee.

Also, it has a Lockpicking mini-game (?) which sounds really, really fun (?!) and quick enough to not make doors the enemy of storytelling.

Also, it has Position and Effect? And Downtime? And Encumbrance and procedure for Marching Order that doesn’t make me scared?

Yeah, I’m so in.

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II. Watch of the Week

Two videos to recommend this week. First, Dave Thaumavore has a review of Forged in the Dark game, Wicked Ones. You play monsters building a dungeon (which involves sketching a really fun map together).

Also, Batts has another excellent video on the moments where games (video games and tabletop games) go from playing to roleplaying. There’s also a cool section on Gradient Descent, a Mothership adventure, which does a great job of doing what I talked about when I talked about the Believing Game.

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III. Links of the Week

• In an article about playing RPGs online, the New York Times spoke to Monsterhearts designer Avery Alder: “In a year when people are feeling a big, big sense of fear and scarcity and gloom, it’s really important to be imagining other possibilities,” she said. “Even if you’re telling stories about a fantasy world, you’re still telling stories about exploration, connection, hope.”

• On pagan news site, Wildhunt, a deep dive into how witches are portrayed in indie RPGs with input from various designers.

• Lowell Francis continues his exhaustive History of Licensed RPGs, covering 2001-2002.

• A guide to using machine-learning site, ArtBreeder.com, to generate NPC portraits.

• Two bits of insight into the designer/publisher life:

  • Based on his last two games, designer Josh Fox estimates that he spent 300 hours in developing them from start to shipping. Check out his full breakdown. The data, while specific to him, is really useful yardstick for other designers.

  • One of the most funded kickstarters this ZineQuest was a Mothership adventure. Here’s the designer’s detailed retrospective of his entire campaign.

• If you’re interested in making a Forged in the Dark game, Small Cool Games have a really thorough and free guide to getting started.

• Designers from Latin America are hosting a game jam - asking you to build something inspired by their games. Lots of rules-lite games to write adventures for, if that’s your thing!

• Soul Muppet Publishing are looking for indie games to print and distribute. Read their criteria here.

• If you’ve got a zine and want to send it to some zine shops, Daniel Sell (designer of Troika) has put together a list of people you could email. The post is titled, Approachable Loci of Capital, which is both funny and true.

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IV. Small Ads

This section contains sponsored links and advertisements.

• Magonomia, the TTRPG of Renaissance wizardry, is open for late pledges on Game on Tabletop through March 31. Everyone plays a wizard using spells based on authentic sixteenth-century lore.

These ads help keep this newsletter going and I’m very grateful for them! If you’d like to advertise with the newsletter, the submission form with all the guidelines can be found here.

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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.

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