Extra Life (Solo) TTRPG Weekend

I had intended to run games during Extra Life’s official Tabletop Weekend a few weeks ago but health issues got in the way. But every weekend can be Tabletop Weekend if you believe.

So join me April 26-28 for my Extra Life Solo TTRPG Weekend! I’m playing solo TTRPGs and chatting, most importantly I’m raising funds for Extra Life. Every donation enters you in a draw for signed copies of My Mother’s Kitchen, as well as DriveThruRPG gift cards. For the signed books I’ll need your mailing address (I’ll send them anywhere) and for the gift cards I’ll need your email address.

As for the games, it’s going to look something like this:

Friday at 6:30pm MST

I’m starting the weekend out with my usual Solo Friday, playing Eli Hauschel’s Ghost-Fi. Ghost-Fi is a game that explores themes around death and loss. Eli’s product page says it best:

“Death is a tool of storytelling. A necessary one. The most human thing we can do as storytellers is to show how to deal with moments in life, no matter how difficult they may be.”

Saturday starting at 10am MST

I’ve lined up a mix of some favourites along with games I haven’t played before. I’ll be taking breaks in between each session, both to get food and break the VODs up so I can edit them for YouTube a little easier. The day will look something like this:

• The Mysteries of Addy Sea by Lirio Blackburn. A solo journaling game of exploring all thirteen rooms of a haunted bed and breakfast.
• To Swear on Your Honor by Cat McDonald. What sort of legacy will my valiant knight leave behind?
• My Mother’s Kitchen by Fleit Detrik. Playing as a spirit trapped in a family cookbook, can I free myself and continue my journey?
• Remember Us by Mallorie Mize. Explore death, grief, and tragedy through the lens of an adult coming back to their childhood home.

Maybe a bit heavy, but I think this will make for an entertaining day of solo games.

Sunday at 2pm MST

Sunday is a Dead Belt Survival Run! A game of desperate salvage by Navi and Shawn Drake, I’m going to roll up a character and then we’re going to see how long my neophyte belter can survive exploring derelicts ships all alone in the black. I might give myself some plot armor for the first hour or so, so we don’t have too short a stream. But after that the gloves come off and my character lives and dies by the luck of the draw.

I hope you can make it out for some or all of the weekend. Stop by to check out some excellent solo TTRPGs, and of course make a donation to Extra Life. And spread the word, the more the merrier!

Over at The Rat Hole

I swear I planned to post more, I swear. But the facts don’t lie and my previous post was in January, so…

Anyway. Hello! I’m back! SAD and executive disfunction are a hell of a drug.

Keeping it simple for today, head on over to The Rat Hole and check out my interview with Eli Hauschel, the Kanaka Māoli Creative Audio Professional, Gamemaker, and Award-winning AP producer. Eli has a lot to say about tabletop games, design, actual play production, and more.

And keep your eyes pealed here Wednesday.

2024 Challenge

Less than three weeks into a new year and already I need to call in my fellow cis white mascs for an educational huddle. I swear, y’all must have made being a clownshoe a resolution or something.

Here’s my 2024 Challenge to you all:

Make 2024 the year you stop shitting on someone’s joy like it’s your fucking job.

When someone on social media talks about something they love, whether that’s a book, movie, TV show, play, game, dog breed, type of food, whatever, your way into the conversation is not to reply or quote retweet them and crap all over it. Who do you think you’re impressing when you do that? Do you think the person will suddenly decide you’re right because you were an inflamed asshole to them? When has that ever worked in the history of ever?

Now, there is a tiny possibility that some of you think you’re legitimately adding to the conversation, that you think a longer conversation will grow from you spewing toxicity all over someone’s joy. If that is you, I need to you to focus up right now and believe me when I tell you: you add nothing  and will get no where by dumping on folks.

And I say “folks” but let’s be crystal clear, most often and recently it’s non-white, non-masc folks who bear the brunt of your foolishness. Because *I* have posted about things I love and never heard a fucking whisper from any of you. But let any of my BIPOC and/or non-masc friends and peers post the exact same opinion and it’s like they stepped in fire ants, y’all come swarming out from your keyboards ready to sting the shit out of someone for, let me just check my notes, LIKING SOMETHING YOU DON’T. You aren’t subtle about it and it is fucking wearying.

Hey, it’s okay not to like a thing another person likes, just like it’s okay to like something nobody else does. The only caveat I put on that is “as long as it isn’t non-consensually hurting anyone”. And no, someone liking something you don’t does not, in fact, constitute harm. It affects you not at all until you decide to bunch your own underwear over it, and frankly that’s a self-inflicted wound, sport.

I know a lot of my fellow cis white mascs don’t need to be told this, and you might read this, the self-evidence forcing a weary nod. Another chunk of you, assuming you made it past the first use of cis above, are working yourself into a self-righteous tizzy. That’s fine, I never really expected to get through to you but I had to try because that’s my flavour of whiskey.

But for the small group of you that are *actually* trying to have a conversation when you crap on someone’s joy, here’s a few things you can say instead that might not you instantly blocked, that may actually get you a good conversation:

• “Huh, I admit I never looked at the show like that before. Is there somewhere I can start watching that will help me see it like you do?”
• “I bounced off that book the first time I tried to read it, but your point is interesting. Do you have a favourite part that shows that off best?”
• “Yeah, that series wasn’t my cup of tea but I watched [other series] which I think is close. Have you watched that? What did you think?”
• Nothing

That last is important, because honestly you don’t have to comment at all. If all you are doing is commenting to crap on them, I promise you their day will be greatly improved by your absence. Just jog on. If you crap on them anyway, you deserve every bad thing about to happen to you and I hope a wasp stings your nether region.

But the above quotes are meant to demonstrate two things. One, it is possible to disagree with someone and not be a one-handled greasy toolbag about it. And two, showing genuine interest in what they’re saying is a better way into a conversation than the verbal equivalent of Agent Orange. It is important to note, though, even if you ask someone a question in good faith, you are not owed an answer, now or ever. If they decide to answer and keep the conversation going, that is a gift. Accept it in gratitude and enjoy it while it lasts.

The long and the short of it, fellas? The world is shit and you have the choice to add to that or try to decrease it. If you do the former you’re a fissured arsehole and not worth my time; I block y’all as soon as you pop off. If you aim to the latter, however imperfectly, we’re cool. Keep it going.

My Only New Year’s Resolution

I don’t normally make new year’s resolutions. But when Prismatic Wasteland issued their challenge to bloggers to create a new resolution mechanic, how could I say no? We love a good resolution system around here, but I hope you’ll accept this instead.

The Any Two System – When the GM gives you the difficulty number for a check, add any two numbers from your phone number (including area code) together. If you can add two numbers and beat the difficulty number, you succeed. If you can’t, you don’t. Zeroes count as “tens”, and you can only use a number once per encounter (however your game defines an encounter). Once you have used all the numbers, if the encounter is still going on, drop the lowest and highest number and continue.

I envision this as particularly useful for playing games while waiting in line at conventions, or sitting in the audience waiting for a panel to start, maybe on the bus; any time you want to play something but it’s inconvenient to roll dice.

If you have a resolution of your own or want to check out what other folks have come up with, head over to Prismatic Wasteland and check them out.

Brent’s 2023 Wrap-up

I generally pull together a list of everything I’ve done in a year. It helps me when I need to update biographies for this and that, and it’s easy to forget things and let them slip through the cracks. I honestly didn’t expect this year’s list to add up to much, though. It seems like the last year has been one struggle, like wrestling wet sand into submission.

But when I put it all down on the page…I did a bunch, actually. Maybe less than previous years but not nothing. And given the year I’ve had I not only felt proud of everything I managed, I wanted to show it off. Not to pump myself up, but as a reminder to myself that even when I feel like things aren’t happening, they progress. That as long as I keep putting in the work there will be forward motion, and I can slow down and look after myself without coming to a full stop.

So I made this handy 2023 one-sheet for myself. Especially during this period of seasonal depression it’s helpful to have an at-a-glance way to refute the brain goblins when they crawl from the shadows to tell me I’m worthless. Because if this is what I’m capable of when I’m “worthless”, I shudder at what I will accomplish when I finally have those goblins contained.

As necessary a reminder that is, however, it’s more than that. The most important thing to me about this list of accomplishments is not the things themselves. It’s that every line represents a connection to another person. Seasonal depression, every type of depression, is isolating. I’m depressed, therefore I’m no fun to be around, so people don’t want me around, which makes me depressed, therefore I’m…

But this list reveals the truth behind that lie as well. The actual plays would never have happened without folks coming together to tell a story. Every book I listed is a talented creator who trusted me with their words. All “my” highlights happened because of another person or groups of folks who trusted me and wanted to work with me, and believed I was worth their time. In many cases they also represent friends I’ve made, or friendships solidified. Not all, and I think that’s an important thing for folks in the AP space especially to learn: you can work with folks, get along with them and do good work, and that doesn’t mean you have to be friends. Folks can just be respected colleagues and that’s okay. I’m friendly to everyone I work with, I’m friends to a valued few.

I was going to do a detailed breakdown of this summary, but really I posted about the main stuff while it was happening. You can find links to most of the publications on my Need an Editor page, my stuff for The Rat Hole is unsurprisingly available at The Rat Hole, and if you scroll back through this page you’ll find me talking about pretty much everything else.

2023 was a tough year. It took a toll on my health, my finances, my relationships with friends and family. In a lot of ways I’m looking to 2024 as a rebuilding year, of working on new things, yes, but also a chance to get my legs under me again. Before you run you have to stand, and I need to sort where I stand.

The only thing left to say is thank you. Thank you to everyone who made this list possible. You helped me take what could have been a complete write-off of a year and make it something I can look back on with something in the wheelhouse of pride.

The new year approaches. Let’s get it, yeah?

Updating the Ko-Fi Shop

Every once in a while I go over old creations and see if there’s room for improvement. I don’t have a set schedule for this, it usually happens when some other thing I’m doing reminds me they exist. This week I used swarms of bees and the Hedgicorn I created in a charity game I ran Monday (make sure to follow the link, there’s another one Thursday you don’t want to miss). Naturally this got me looking at these two stray thoughts I brought to life for my D&D games a while back.

Coinciding with this, I have been looking at making my Ko-Fi Shop more active, so folks have another venue to grab the things and services I offer. So this week I added both The Hedgicorn and The Oath of the Hive to my Shop. I’m in the process of updating my popular Editing for TTRPGs: A Primer for Non-Editors and once I’m done that will go up as well. I’m also planning out a short course I can present to go along with the Primer; when that’s ready I’ll list it in the Shop as well.

I plan to be more active in creating games and supplements in 2024, and my Ko-Fi Shop is going to be where most of that goes. Stay tuned!

Supporting Palestine

You might remember my friend Jes from our interview back in July, when they were releasing their excellent Uncaging Nicolas on Itch. One of the things we touched on in that interview was Jes’ commitment to supporting charity through tabletop gaming on their channel. So it comes as no surprise, with the atrocities committed against Palestine in recent weeks, that Jes wouldchoose to lend aide to these beleaguered people.

Tonight and next Monday, join Jes and friends on their Twitch channel as they play games to entertain and raise much needed funds for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

First up tonight at 5pm PST is a special Oops! All Flumphs! D&D One-shot, featuring @TTRPGifs, @annethegnome, @BeeZelda, @jesthehuman, and @Br00TaLDaN as the titular flumphs, with myself in the GM seat. Join our heroic flumphs as they navigate a world they don’t understand to safely return a child to it’s family. And by child I mean owlbear cub, and by safely…well, that’s open to interpretation. Some of the best players in the AP space are going to bring these flumphs to life. And if that weren’t enough, your donations can affect the story; grant the players rerolls, auto-successes, and even rolls on the Wild Flumph Table! It’s going to be a thrilling evening of aberrant adventure you don’t want to miss!

If you miss us tonight or didn’t get your fill of excellent AP, join Jes again on Thursday, November 16 at 5pm PST for another special evening of D&D, led by @tulokthe and featuring the talents of Jes, @KP11Studios, @Timelordswife, @phaseknight_, and @Persephiroth as they play jesters/entertainers on their way to a gig on Jolly Roger’s Jolly Roger! Hilarity will, without question, ensue! And like Monday’s game, your donations will affect the course of the adventure (minus a roll of the Wild Flumph Table, of course, but there are some sweet/salty boons and banes up for grabs).

As an added bonus, not only will your donations let you join the fun, they put you in the running for some amazing prizes, donated by generous TTRPG companies and community members. What sort of prizes? How about:

• Colour portraits courtesy of Hurmly Art
• Dice sets courtesy of Dirgesinger Dice
• A set of cute-teas dice from Odd Duck Dice
• A tarot deck and sets of dry-erase cards from Alderdoodle
• A pdf copy of Monster Care Squad by Sandy Pug Games
• Kevin Ruddell is donating a copy of Betrayal at the House on the Hill
• A Gift Card to Things Grandma Kept
• Physical and pdf copies of Haunt of Erminsk courtesy of Legends of Athelu
• Digital copies of Locus, Stacks of Goblins, and Coffee & Chaos from Cobble Path Games
• Vineyard RPG pdf copies from @isFridayTV
• Stickers from Ashlee Craft
• Gift Cards from Modern Artifice
• A 3D printed mini courtesy of Arcane Whiskers
• Bolarus D&D setting pdfs from Bogus Cheesecake
• Gifts Cards from Talon & Claw
• A set of velcro tiefling horns made by The Shady Sail
• A set of goblin minis and inspirations coins courtesy of MPI Creates
• A Green Leaf Geek Gift Card
• Nettle Rosemary Hair Growth & Scalp Oil and Carpathian Moonwater Ink courtesy of Night Forest Botanical
• A Friday Afternoon Tea Gift Card
• Doctor Who MTG Commander Boxes courtesy of TTRPGifs
• A colour portrait from Tricksy Wizard

Whew! But we aren’t done! Up to $1250 total in matching donations are available from the generous folks at @ParadicePro, @BogusCheesecake, and Clouds into Earth. So not only can you affect play and get in with a chance at some amazing prizes, but donate early enough and your impact is doubled! You don’t have to wait for the streams, you can head right over to Tiltify now and make your donation to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

Don’t miss out! Join Jes and friends this week and show your support for a Free Palestine! Help make a difference where it’s needed most.

Wandering to NJ Web Fest

May of 2022 I had a Twitter conversation with two friends that changed my life.

I didn’t realize it at the time. Life changing moments masquerade as totally normal moments, only revealing themselves when you look back at when it all went so right/wrong. In the moment Anne and I were wishing Krissy a happy birthday and Anne hoped they could collaborate on something sometime. Half joking, I offered to run something. The rest, as the old saying goes…

That’s how we got to recording and airing Ways and Wanderings: The Beginning in December 2022. Along the way I met Abadonne and Wowzerz, got to know Jes better, had one of the best roleplaying and actual play experiences ever, and created something we were all really proud to call ours. And we started thinking about a Season Two.

Enter life-changing moment number two. My friend Cat helped start Rainbow Roll Fest and I wondered out loud if Ways and Wanderings might be a good fit. Cat gave me an enthusiastic “Hell Yeah!”, which always means I should do that thing. So I submitted it, glad that more folks would get to see these characters tell their cozy little story. Oh, and there was a judging component and maybe we’d win something? But mostly I wanted more eyes on this cast so I put that out of my mind.

We won Rainbow Roll Fest’s New Jersey Web Fest 2023 Direct Selection.

A huge honour, one we were never expecting but so well deserved for this cast of players. We were all of us excited that Ways and Wanderings was going to be seen by an even larger audience at a prestigious festival, and that we might have more interest for Season Two, which we were still plotting and planning. Oh, and there was a judging component and maybe we’d get nominated for something? But mostly I wanted more eyes on this cast so I put that out of my mind.

Last night NJ Web Fest announced their nominees. And Ways and Wanderings was nominated.

Once would have been unexpected, twice riches beyond compare. Even considering three would be the greatest act of hubris since Oedipus said, “I’m going to marry that girl!”

We were nominated five times. Five. What. What?!

In case you don’t want to follow the link, Ways and Wanderings was nominated for:

• Best Ensemble Cast of an Actual Play (Video)
• Outstanding Actual Play (Video)
• Best Series Premise of an Actual Play
• Best Family Friendly
• Best Overlay Design of an Actual Play (Video)

Of those five (WHAT) Allie and ATG Studios deserves all the credit for the last one. Their design for our Season One overlay is cozily thematic and a perfect compliment to the characters and the game. Frankly, if you can hire Allie to do your design, do that. My one regret for Season Two so far is that we aren’t recording clad comfortably in Allie’s designs. I will fix that as soon as I’m able.

I am so incredibly proud of this show and especially this cast of players. Abadonne, Anne, Jes, Krissy, and Wowzerz, you filled the moments spent recording this show with laughter, imagination, and delight. It was and is my absolute privilege to play with all of you.

Thank you to Danielle for the recording work on Season One, making us all sound so good and helping us air the darn thing. Thank you as well to Lukas for the amazing character art and helping bring these characters to life.

I said at the start Ways and Wanderings has been life changing for me. That’s not exaggeration. This project came along at a point where I had pretty much decided the actual play space wasn’t for me. I didn’t feel I had anything to offer and after a string of rejections from various projects it seemed the AP space agreed with me. What I took on as “one last project, go out on a high note” has instead reinvigorated my love for actual play as an art and a unique storytelling medium. It helped me rediscover skills I had thought long dormant. Perhaps best of all, it brought and strengthened friendships unlooked for, a rare gift anywhere but in this space especially.

But most of all Ways and Wanderings clarified a belief I’ve carried since I worked in theatre, a belief which will mindfully inform all my work in this space from now on:

Surround yourself with good people, treat them fairly and with respect, approach the work with enthusiasm and honesty, and the result will make you proud however it turns out.

If Ways and Wanderings brought me nothing else, this would be riches beyond worth.

***

I want to congratulate all the other shows sharing our nominations and nominated in other categories. There is so much good work being done in the Actual Play space right now and so much of it is represented in these nominations. Ways and Wanderings is in great company and I wish us all luck on awards night.

But mostly I’m just glad we’re getting more eyes on this cast…

Summing Up: Writing a Campaign Synopsis

This past Sunday I wrote a thread on Twitter I thought might be worth posting in a clearer format here. We’re putting out the casting call soon for [REDACTED] so I needed to pull together the campaign synopsis, which is one of my favourite exercises for a new campaign. They are an absolute necessity for actual plays, ensuring everyone is on the same page coming into the project. But I used to do them for my non-AP campaigns as well, it’s a great tool for player buy-in and a point at which to start discussions in the Session Zero.

But writing a synopsis if great for *me* as well, because it helps me focus on only the most important details. If I have to be concise, what aspects of my campaign are vital for a potential player to understand and get a feel for what we’ll be playing? I can’t tell them everything up front (ssssecrets!), but I want to give applicants enough information that, if they are cast, they don’t feel they were mislead about the campaign when we get to Session Zero. And of course I want applicants who are excited for the particular brand of whiskey we’ll be imbibing together.

Here’s what I included in my synopsis:

• summary statement
• campaign details
• media touchstones
• content warnings
• character death
• about the game system

Let’s expand on these.

Summary Statement

I start with a few lines describing the central idea of the campaign, with as much of the tone and overall feel as I can. It helps me to think of this as the back cover blurb on a TTRPG book; if the player picked up this book in a game store, what would I say to grab their interest? I keep myself under 100 words because concision is key here. Not only is there plenty of time to expand later once the shoe is cast but keeping it this tight forces me to really think about what is most important in communicating the game’s themes. This part more than any other will also be useful later when we begin marketing and promoting the show.

Campaign Details

The name of the campaign, the type of game and which game system we’re using, the basic setting, and how many players I’m casting. In this case I also mentioned the possibility of guest players, and talked about aspects of how the show will be produced (live-stream versus pre-recorded, other media elements, costumes or no, etc).

Basically, the nuts and bolts of what we are doing together as a cast. Along with questions later in the casting form, this helps give applicants an idea of their time commitment and let’s them decide if what we’re doing is interesting to them. Hopefully more than interested, my goal is to get four players who are as excited about the campaign as I am.

Media Touchstones

What media inspirations am I drawing on for this campaign? Listing them is a great shorthand to let players know more about mood, setting, themes, cultural influence, and so on. As an example, while in the campaign description I said it was a horror game, horror is a broad umbrella. Listing both Alien and Event Horizon as media touchstones, however, gives players a better sense of what kind of horror I want to incorporate. And specificity is good! A player may have no issues with ghostly horror, but bounce hard off slasher horror. 

Not everyone watches movies a bunch, but may read voraciously. So I also try to include multiple media types: books, TV, movies, music, as well as what cultures I might draw upon. In my case, while we are dealing with the Fae in this campaign, culturally I am drawing on specifically Scottish folklore and traditions, as opposed to the Irish, Welsh, Scandinavian, etc.

Content Warnings

This campaign is running on Exquisite Corpse Presents and they are an excellent channel, so safety tools are a mandatory part of all productions. But because this is a horror game and I am telling stories around themes particular to Fae folklore, there are certain aspects I know will be part of the campaign ahead of time. This is where I list those, so players for whom those are definite Lines can make an informed decision about applying. While this might decrease the number of applicants overall, I would rather not waste anyone’s time later on or accidentally place them in a situation which is not safe for them. Better they opt out now rather than be forced to opt out at Session Zero.

And you don’t have to be running a horror game to do this. If insects are an integral part of your game/campaign, mention it here; folks with phobias will thank you. Maybe you’ll have themes around adoption or abandonment in your game. Mention it here so potential applicants who might be working through some of that stuff in real life can decide if they want to engage with it on screen.

I don’t specifically mention safety tools in this section because the form mentions them later on. But this would be an excellent spot to include them if they aren’t mentioned elsewhere. Of all the sections, I think this is the one in which you want to be as detailed as you can.

Character Death

I like to be as explicit as possible about this up front. In some games it won’t be an issue, so I would say that. In my game I felt it important for applicants to know that it’s on the table. But also, under what circumstances it might occur.

If the campaign is going to be a “let the dice fall where they may, death comes on swift, silent wings” situation, say that. If character death is not necessarily permanent, mention that. If character death can be avoided or delayed somehow, mention that. As with content warnings, this is a time to be as explicit as possible. Next to content, I think this topic is one which is the most polarizing for players, so give them as much information ahead of applying as you can.

About the Game System

This is where I talk about the game system we’re using and what changes I am making to it, if any. This can include restrictions in character creation (no bards or aboleths!), a change in the game’s base setting (Call of Cthulhu but in the 1620s) or any special leveling rules (only on non-consecutive days with a “T”). Since we’re live-streaming, if I know that the audience is going to affect game play somehow I would mention that here; not everyone likes to play a game where viewers can muck things about.

Again, I want to give applicants as much information as I can so they can make an informed decision about applying or not. It would be a shame to have someone apply to join my Call of Cthulhu game with their heart set on sweet Prohibition-era Mythos, if we’re 300 years earlier.

If there are problematic aspects of the game system, this is also where I talk about how we plan to mitigate those aspects. Keeping Call of Cthulhu as my example, the sanity mechanic is still a clumsy and ableist method of representing the effect the Mythos has on characters. I don’t use it, so here I would tell players that, and talk about what we might use in its place.

I didn’t include a section discussing accommodations for folks who might need them, because the application form covers that already. If it didn’t, it should be included here. Ensuring your applicants know what accommodations can be made for disability is important. Think about your campaign through a disability lens to make it as inclusive as possible for all involved.

And that’s pretty much it. There are details you may need to include particular to your campaign, so no list like this will be comprehensive. But this will get you started. Even if you aren’t planning an actual play anytime soon, I highly recommend doing this for your next home game. I think your players will appreciate it, and it will help get your campaign off to a great start.

At The Rat Hole

Another week, another interview over at The Rat Hole! This week I had the distinct pleasure of talking with Cassi Mothwin, a brilliant designer of TTRPGs ranging from the cozy to the horrific. Her latest solo TTRPG, Carved by the Garden, launched on Kickstarter tomorrow. We took an hour to talk about the TTRPG space, accessibility, and why folk horror and tabletop games make such a wonderful pairing. Enjoy!