Looking Behind the Screen

Last weekend I went to a really cool 'Unconference' in London, hosted by Patchwork Fez Games, where a load of far more talented and cool creators got together and discussed various topics, from what printers to use, game distribution, why game companies don't progress from 'at the weekends' to full-time... and an interesting one about Patreon. 

I've had a Patreon for a while, and you can find it here:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/Autocratik

Part of the discussion was about making money through Patreon and I must admit, it's not something I really thought about. I mean, I set up paid levels on my Patreon, but I've not actually put anything on there that was exclusive to the paid levels, never mind exclusive to Patreon itself - everything that's been on there has been on this blog as well. After all, the number of people who are actually subscribed to my Patreon is in single figures. 

What do you think? Would you like me to reveal some 'behind the scenes' creation processes for my next project? If so, should I just put them on the blog and the free level, or should I try putting them behind that dreaded paywall?

As for what I'm working on at the moment? I've an idea for a second book for WILD, but I'm also working on something I like to think of as Grange Hill meets Narnia... The Magicians meets Excalibur... 

Called Hex Education.

It'll be smaller... possibly... probably... at least, until the ol' scope-creep sets in! 

Anyway, more later. Probably after #RPGaDAY2026... more on that in a few days.

Stay Multi-classy,

D

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played 41-50

Many, many moons ago, I started a series of blogposts listing every tabletop roleplaying game I've ever played - inspired by a post over where the skies are blue (BlueSky) by Kieron Gillen. 

I'm still trying to follow some sort of chronological order. If you want to catch up, you can find the previous posts here:

Every TTRPG I've Played 1-10

Every TTRPG I've Played 11-20

Every TTRPG I've Played 21-30

Every TTRPG I've Played 31-40

And so, onto 41-50...

41) Star Trek Adventures

The cover of first edition Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius

I wrote a long blogpost ages ago about my involvement in Star Trek Adventures. I'm a big Trek fan, and love everything it stands for. When Chris Birch at Modiphius mentioned to me that he'd secured a license that involved a five-year mission I was so excited to get involved. And involved I was. Chris had me developing the game system, how the game would look, suggesting the products, advising on art and graphics, even looking at how the minis were being developed. It was fantastic. I loved every second of working on that. It was just frustrating that I couldn't handle that and a job in retail at the same time. Something had to give, and I reluctantly backed away from Star Trek and faded back into working in retail full time... 

We playtested a bit of the Trek system when we were working on it, playing with my regular gaming group to see how combat and momentum worked. Good times!

42) Spire / Heart

Cover of Spire by Rowan, Rook, and Decard

This is another two-fer, as we played Spire with a lot of its companion game, Heart, involved. This was another huge revelation. The way the experience system worked, accomplishing specific goals to unlock new abilities. Really clever. And some of the themes and motivations were completely bonkers. There was a lot of exploring underground, some investigations into the Spire, and I just remember using my Zenith Ability, my final power that was so powerful it would kill my character. My strange knight's final act was to erase the concept of the Spire from existence. The tower, the elves, the ruling class that brought so much misery, all gone. Forgotten, as if they never existed. As you can imagine, that's where our game ended. I think one of the other characters used their Zenith ability too, for a truly epic finale. Awesome.

43) Aegean

Cover of the Aegean RPG by We-Evolve

This one kinda started as playtesting and we just kept going. Stoo was working on an RPG based on Ancient Greek mythology, and wanted to playtest it. It felt strangely like Runequest in its detail in combat, looking at the reach of weapons, and the usefulness of armour. However, his Aegean RPG incorporated a lot of cool and heroic abilities, as well as the influence of the gods. Top all of that off with some town building mechanics, and Aegean shaped up to be incredibly cool. We played a lot of games of Aegean – including using the game system to play mythic Vikings battling frost giants and elves, and a separate game in a more traditional fantasy setting. The system holds up brilliantly, and it's no surprise Stoo is using again for his next game.

44) WILD

Cover of the WILD RPG by We-Evolve

Another bit of playtesting I'm afraid. Well, you don't spend ten years working on a game and release it unplayed do you? WILD went through a lot of versions, starting off using Vortex like Doctor Who, then a different dice system, then Tarot cards in a variety of forms and styles. Without those playtests it would not have been playable. Thanks everyone.

45) Scum & Villainy / Coriolis

Cover of Scum and Villainy by Evil Hat Productions

This is another one that's a strange mash up of two games. Our regular GM wanted to run Coriolis, but didn't really gel with the game system. This was long before the new Coriolis that uses the Year Zero Engine. Instead, we used the Scum and Villainy ruleset, a game that uses the Blades in the Dark system, and kinda felt like Firefly but incorporated some of the locations and mythology of Coriolis. Again, it was awesome and epic, and it was great to experience the Blades in the Dark system, with its "succeed at a cost" element from PtbA. 

46) Changeling: The Lost

Cover of Changeling: The Lost by White Wolf

Considering I was a massive fan of the old World of Darkness, and loved Mage: The Ascension, it wasn't until well over a decade later that I tried the 'New World of Darkness' in a game of Changeling: The Lost. We played set in Victorian York, and I based my character heavily on Timothy Dalton's character from the TV series Penny Dreadful. It was great, and whimsical, and strange. Trains full of fey markets, and weird spider-ladies. Our knowledge resource was an owl. One of the characters could communicate with the dead, and we were trying to save kids from becoming abducted from the city's orphanage. 

When Covid hit and we were locked-down, playing online meant that the game became a roleplaying experience of going to cafes, sampling cakes and drinking tea, or going shopping, rather than progressing the plot – you know, all the things we couldn't do in reality! 

47) Action Potential

Cover of Action Potential RPG by We-Evolve

This was another bit of playtesting, back when Action Potential was in its early concept phase. Rhi had used the Forged in the Dark ruleset to create a cool RPG of being able to upload your consciousness into new 'sleeves', in a cool cyberpunk weirdness way, like Altered Carbon. We played characters sent to a space station to discover what had happened to the crew, only everyone was dead and — plot twist — the crew were our characters! We were playing backups of our consciousnesses uploaded into new bodies as our originals had been killed on the station.

Rhi worked with Debs to develop these cool character sheets where your sleeves had different stats that overlapped and you could switch them out as you changed sleeve. It was really cool, and well worth playing.

48) Hard Wired Island

Cover of Hard Wired Island by Weird Edge Games

I must admit, I'd not heard of this game before we started playing it, and it surprised me by being really cool. Again, very cyberpunk, and set on a space station that feels very much like what we thought cyberpunk would be in the 80s. I played a hard-boiled detective, like someone from Sin City, who teamed up with a synth and graffiti artist to try to stop thugs from targeting a pro-synthetic club. Was really cool, and I'm definitely going to look into the second edition when it Kickstarts. 

49) Doctors and Daleks

Cover of the Doctors and Daleks Player's Guide by Cubicle 7

Another strange one. I didn't think Doctor Who would work with 5e Dungeons & Dragons, but the team who worked on this absolutely nailed it. They captured the feel of the series, kept true to Doctor's ideals, and introduced some amazing new non-combat conflict rules to 5e, allowing you to defeat an enemy with wits and dialogue. I was on board for the project, bringing my Doctor Who roleplaying knowledge, and did a few playtests, but did play a little on a short actual play run by Zak, which was a blast (especially as I played Graham O'Brien and got to be confused and old, just like me). 

50) ALIEN

One of the tensest games I've played. So many stress-dice being rolled, so much running around panicking. I think, in true ALIEN fashion, all of the characters died, but we destroyed the ship with the xenomorphs in so they couldn't get onto another ship. Very cool, and very evocative of the source material. I'd be intrigued to see how a longer campaign would work, and really harks back to the old Odyssey game that I played waaaay back (see Number 18).

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That's it for this part. Maybe one more batch to go? 

Until next time, stay multi-classy!

Recovering after UK Games Expo

It has taken a week for me to get around to writing something about the hectic (and warm) experience that was UK Games Expo 2025. Was it good? Yeah, I think so... 

Just a fraction of the convention. It was huge.

Getting there was pretty easy, thanks to the way the NEC in Birmingham is connected to the train station (which is brilliant), and the lovely people at the NEC even had places to look after our luggage while we walked around that first day before we checked into the hotel. 

The only problem was, it was WARM. So darn warm. The queues just for the water refill stations were epic. The food and drink places were overwhelmed. Even the Londis in the NEC were struggling to refill the fridges fast enough. But, we arrived, had a very brief look around before deciding it was too warm, and went off for a tea and some fresh air. Then it was back in to meet up with Eleanor from the UK Tabletop Industry Network and the legend that is Joe LeFavi from Genuine Entertainment. Great to catch up with you both!!

The hotel (the Holiday Inn at the Airport) was really nice, and even had a free shuttle bus that connected with the NEC/station. Excellent! Good air conditioning, huge breakfast, and we were back for day two...

Debs' first encounter of Saturday was with some Ghostbusters and someone from Star Fleet.

Day Two was slightly better as the air conditioning in the halls seemed to be better. We met up with Stoo Goff (publisher and creator of Aegean, and publisher of WILD... you may have heard about him on this blog before) and then it was back to wandering the halls. Debs had a great chat on Friday with the lovely folk at Monte Cook Games and really loved the weird hand thing that was in the original Invisible Sun Black Cube, and talked to them about maybe having a demo of the game while we were there. However, the halls were so big, and all blurred into one, we struggled to find their stand again (until Sunday). How is that even possible? Their stand was pretty big! 

The Hand from Invisible Sun

    Anyway, we wandered the halls some more, remembered to stop for cups of tea more often this time, and remembered to keep taking it easy. We caught up with Gareth Sleightholme, the artist who did the amazing tarot deck art for WILD, as well as some of the most striking and arresting art for the upcoming second edition of The Laundry Roleplaying Game, based on Charles Stross' The Laundry Files.

Was a long and exhausting day, topped off with a trip to the bar at the Hilton for the obligatory 'industry mixer' hosted by the lovely folk over at Rowan, Rook and Decard. It was busy, and the queue for the bar was huge, but lots of people were having a blast and chatting, and I got to catch up properly with Gareth and Stoo, and I think Debs enjoyed it all too. 

Sunday was (thankfully) a little cooler again, and we went in with a battle plan. However, we were all tired, and worn out by the whole experience, and by the time it got to around 1pm we'd had enough and started the long (very long) train journeys home. Debs bought some cool vegetation from Gamers Grass, and discovered a couple of cool games that she's going to keep an eye out for when they hit Kickstarter. But thankfully, we made it home and passed out... just in time for me to go back to work the following day. 

What was the final verdict of the convention? 

That's a really tricky question. When we went to Tabletop Scotland last year, it was a lot quieter as you'd expect, but we saw some really cool games and I sat there inspired. My mind was filled with ideas, I flicked through Mothership and was a bit stunned by all of the information. I just couldn't wait to get back home and start doing something. To create. Draw, write. Anything. 

Whereas UK Games Expo was massive. Huge. So busy, I hardly saw anyone I'd promised I'd try to catch up with - either I just didn't see them, or they were just too busy and I didn't want to interrupt. There was so much to see, so many cool games, so many books, I kinda just left the convention thinking 'why am I bothering?' There are so many RPGs out there, no one's going to notice anything I do. And the social mixer on Saturday night was filled with so many new and talented creators that I didn't recognise, I just felt that I'd had my time making RPGs and maybe I should just 'diminish, and go into the West...' 

But I won't. I'm going to keep at it. But it has left me a little unmotivated. Completely the opposite of what I wanted to get out of the convention. 

Still. It was great to catch up with Stoo and I haven't had a chance to really chat to Gareth in years.

Me and Gareth, and a big dice.

Will we do it again? Definitely. But maybe not all three days. I don't think my bank account can take it!

Roll on Tabletop Scotland!! 

Passion! (Turn to the Left)

 

The man, the myth, the legend that is, David Bowie

[No, that wasn't a typo. I'm paraphrasing one of the Bowie's song titles.]

I watch a lot of Youtube. I don't know if it's because I've a terribly short attention-span at the moment, but I do enjoy watching those talented crafters like Studson, Nerdforge, Bill Making Stuff and Dan Does. My wife watches all the videos about painting and art, and frequently I get videos appear in my recommendations about creativity. Inevitable I guess. 

One appeared on my feed recently by someone called Creative Codex, and it was about pursuing ambitious projects. The thumbnail used an image of that great combo of Davids - David Bowie and David Lynch. Of course, I had to watch...

The end of the video features of a clip of David Bowie's interview in 1997 about creativity. It focuses on a quote which I'm sure you've heard many times before - 

"If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting."

- David Bowie

And there was also the rest the video, where it discusses ambitious projects and some creators immersing themselves in a passion project that takes years to complete. It really got me thinking about these passion projects (hence the name of the post) and those times when I got completely and utterly absorbed in a project. When you'd need to keep a notebook close to the bed for those thoughts that surface just as you're falling asleep, or in your pocket for long journeys and your mind wanders and reveals a solution to one of your creative roadblocks. 

It got me thinking of times when I was completely immersed in a project that it completely took over everything I was doing. 

Drowning in Darkness

Cover for second printing
of Drowning in Darkness

Many years ago, we're talking mid-late 80's here, I wanted to write and draw comics. A friend of mine, Pete, decided to start publishing comics under the "Swampland" name, and my first comic, Drowning in Darkness completely consumed my life. It was a small, 32-page A4, comic. Sold a few copies. One comic review magazine called me the "Goth Hergé" which I was really chuffed with. It was a pretty basic story of an ex-government agent turned vigilante taking on vampires. Madness, I know, but I enjoyed it.

Pete wrote a massive sequel called Mirrors of Darkness that I started drawing and inking, but it kinda fizzled out about page 80-something. I also did the usual thing that creatives do, which was to go back and start re-making Drowning in Darkness with new art and an extended storyline. Never finished that one... I still have it all somewhere, though it's probably an embarrassing read. 

Ghostbusters: 'Spooky Science' and 'Back to Transylvania'

Very old illustration I did of me 
typing Ghostbusters adventures.

My two great passions in the late 80s were comics and roleplaying games, and after discovering the Ghostbusters Roleplaying Game by West End Games, I really wanted to write RPGs. More than that, I really wanted to write for the Ghostbusters RPG. This is back before the internet, so this involved writing a letter to West End Games (including 'international reply coupons' to cover return postage from the States to the UK), and waiting months. 

First it was a letter to see if they'd look at some stuff, and get the Release Form which allowed them to look at it without any legal problems (in case they were working on something similar already), and their writers guidelines. Then, days upon days sat over an electric typewriter drafting an adventure for Ghostbusters. 

They weren't great, and their movie-parody style was a little too close to some other major franchises, but the encouraging letter I got back from West End Games gave me the drive to keep going. I spent every spare moment writing those adventures, even doing stupid illustrations for them that they'd never be able to use. 

Missing

Covers for Issues 1, 4, and 2 of Missing

After going off to art school (sorry, University), my desire to write and draw comics was bubbling to the surface. Inspired by Twin Peaks, I became totally immersed in the world of Missing. Planned as a multi arc story over around 90 issues, it featured a wide cast of weird characters thrown together at a hotel on the border between Scotland and England, after England had become a US State, and after global warming had raised the water levels. 

There were multiple plots crossing over, featuring the kidnapping of the President's daughter, a bunch of 'Neuromatics' - surfing highwaymen who were holding up traffic heading for the border. There was murder, betrayal, intrigue, scandal, and more. It was even funded by the Prince's Youth Business Trust. My mind was filled with plot lines, characters, and plans for the future... but after I lost distribution after four issues due to low orders, I shelved the whole thing and haven't gone back to it. I have one complete set, but looking at it now I feel myself cringe a bit. Definitely a product of its time.  

Conspiracy X 2.0

Promotional image for Conspiracy X 2.0

After Missing went... well... missing... I was at a bit of a loss. I started thinking about my next big comic venture which was a post-apocalyptic comic of religion and divine-like alien beings influencing a strange cathedral... but it never went anywhere. I just kept reworking it over and over again. 

However, I'd continued roleplaying, and got talking to the lovely folk at Eden Studios (initially about a potential Conspiracy X comic) after a friend of mine told me I needed to read the Conspiracy X RPG, knowing I was a massive fan of The X-Files. I ended up helping with a number of their games like Terra Primate, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Conspiracy X was amazing, but it frustrated me that it wasn't the same game system as the other games produced by Eden that I'd worked on. 

I put together a pitch and met with George while he was in the UK at one of the last UK GenCon conventions to convince him to let me convert Conspiracy X to a new edition using Unisystem. 

The week after I signed the contract for four books which would adapt and convert most of the existing content into new concise volumes, my father died. I did the slightly unhealthy thing where I squirrelled myself away into our tiny office room, and buried myself deep in the world of Conspiracy X. I contacted American government agencies to ensure everything was up to date after the restructuring with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Pulling in previously unpublished material, I was left to just get on with it and piece together a brand new edition of the game. With the amazing editorial skills of Alex Jurkat, the core rulebook finally came out... and many years later, the remaining three books were released after successful Kickstarter campaigns. 

I may have gone a bit deep on that one, but not only did it produce a game I still love, but it helped during a particularly tough time. Unfortunately, one of the stretch goals for the fourth book (the Conspiracies Sourcebook) was to ensure development of the 'sequel' game called Extinction. Set after the Saurian aliens had returned to Earth and decimated the population, it was announced just as I'd lost my mother - rather depressing bookends for my Conspiracy X career - and I just wasn't in the headspace to work on a title that involved so much death and destruction. I'd hoped that someone would take over on Extinction, but I think the Conspiracies Sourcebook was the final Eden Studios release for the time being. 

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space

Cover of the first edition of Doctor Who:
Adventures in Time and Space RPG

After Conspiracy X 2.0 was handed in (before the Kickstarters for the remaining books), I started talking to Chris Birch, Angus Abranson, and Dominic McDowall about how a good license could bring in a new generation of gamers. One thing lead to another, and we were pitching to the BBC for Doctor Who. Thanks to my day-job working in a bookstore with a Dalek, I'd been excited to see the series return in 2005, and by that two-part finale I knew that a Doctor Who RPG would be amazing. 

Once we had the license secured, I was in the strange position where I was kinda left to it. I recruited a few other writers I knew to help with adventures and some of the sections, but once again I immersed myself in the world(s) and trying to get the game to echo the feel of the series as much as possible. It was kinda weird... a few rounds of massive playtests, feedback incorporated, and then the text went off to Dom and Angus... and then it miraculously appeared in my inbox. A cool boxed set, multiple books, dice, cards. It felt amazing to see something go from pitch to product and hit the shelves. 

WILD: Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming

Cover for WILD

With Doctor Who handed in, I worked on a few of the supplements before it became too big a beast (and an award winning beast at that) and Cubicle 7 grew to accommodate it. I was still working in my little retail job, but came out of the cinema after seeing Inception that opening weekend and my mind was buzzing with ideas. It was like someone had hooked up my brain to a Christopher Nolan's creative drive, and I just had to do something. And thus, WILD was born - Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming, an RPG of dreamshare technology. That was 2010. Ten years later, Stoo told me to stop messing about and to actually get something finished for WILD, so that he could run a Kickstarter for it. 

Stoo was a legend, sorting the printing, commissioning the awesome cover art (above) by Qissus, and the Tarot art by Gareth Sleightholme who I've known longer than I'd like to admit to. Stoo ran the Kickstarter, fulfilled the shipments - let's face it, without Stoo chivvying me and getting the publishing side organised, WILD would never exist. 

--

You know what all of these projects had in common (besides me), was that they were a cool challenge, and maybe a little over my head. But I had the love for the story or property that I wanted to see it through. 

At the moment, I'm just feeling burned out and unmotivated. I want to feel that drive, that passion (beep beep), that desire to completely immerse myself in something that it infiltrates my idle mind, sparking ideas. I miss that. Right now, my mind is like it's tuned to a dead channel and the white noise is drowning everything else out. 

Soon, though... soon. 

I'll finish with another of Bowie's quotes from that interview:

"Never play to the gallery… Always remember that the reason that you initially started working is that there was something inside yourself that you felt that if you could manifest in some way, you would understand more about yourself and how you coexist with the rest of society. I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations — they generally produce their worst work when they do that."

- David Bowie

North of the Borderlands

 Last weekend we ventured north, stayed with friends, and experienced the wonders of Tabletop Scotland.

It has been a while since I’ve crossed the border into Scotland. As a kid, my parents loved Scotland, and one of my happiest memories of my entire childhood was a quiet little self-catering cottage in the middle of a forest in the Borders. I hadn’t been to Scotland for over twenty years, but Stoo from we-evolve invited us to join their table at Scotland’s largest tabletop gaming convention, so that I could help sell copies of WILD, and Debs could sell her Goth-gaming wares from Misery Makes. 

Scotland was just as beautiful as I remembered it. Crossing the border on the train all you could see were green fields, epic hills, sheep, and dry-stone walling. It was the highlight of the 8 1/2 hour train journey that was (on the whole) exhausting. 

We stayed at Stoo’s, his awesome partner Rhi (author of the awesome Action Potential, and A Show of Hands, as well as a host of mini games) driving us and the piles of stock to and from the convention every day. (Thank you both for your amazing hospitality). 

Friday, we set up for the ‘half day’ of trading. We got used to the layout, checked out the other stalls, and managed to sell a few things. I saw a handful of things I liked, but resisted the urge to purchase - it was Friday after all. There were two more days of this ahead of us.

I did, however, find the most amazing dice in the world. I instantly fell in love with these dice, and pondered spending monies on them…

I mean, look at them. They are amazing. So beautiful. And readable too!! Especially important at my ancient age. Unfortunately, by midday on Saturday, they had sold, and my hopes were dashed. One day, I’ll find them again, and I won’t be so slow to snap them up… (I found them on a great stand called Trayed and Tested - I’ll be keeping an eye on that Etsy to see if they return)

Saturday was busy. Very busy. As you’d expect! I got to meet face to face with a couple of my work colleagues (and former colleagues) and a few regular convention faces from other publishers - but as with most of these conventions, everyone is so busy I don’t want to bother them with gossip about the gaming industry. 

Sunday, however, was like a veritable ghost-town for the first half of the day. I think everyone was either gaming, or sleeping off the late night gaming from the night before. I mean, look at how busy the aisle we were on was at 12:30pm…

Weird, huh?

Anyway, it picked up in the afternoon, and before you know it, it was all over. I thought about popping up to the gaming floor upstairs where a game of Doctor Who was being played on Sunday afternoon. Y’know, just to say “Hi, I wrote that!” but I thought it may be a bit weird. If you were in that Doctor Who game, let me know how it went.

Ho well… we just about covered our costs, so it wasn’t a complete wash-out, but it was certainly exhausting and before long we were back on another 8 1/2 hour train journey home. 

All I want is some good with my bad…

While the sales were a little disappointing, it was worth going. There were certainly a couple of highlights, and I’m not just talking about getting to chill with some awesome cats…

In addition to getting to stay with some great friends (and their lovely cats), there were a few other good takeaways from the weekend. 

I bought Debs a copy of Be Like A Cat from the fab people at Critical Kit, along with the super-cute dice with little paw prints as pips. 

Debs, in return, bought me an amazing tie with dice on from the lovely people at Witch Hunt Tabletop Treasures. 

Everyone at the stands were especially lovely, and there was some awesome stuff on display. From super-expensive top of the line gaming tables to low price zines. In fact, speaking of zines, Stoo bought a copy of the Mothership boxed set which was an inspiration to us all. 

I mean, I’ve been ranting about how I wanted to do an RPG about the size of those classic Traveller RPG books from the late 70s, and here comes an RPG which does exactly that. In a cute box with loads of cool stuff…

It set the brain whirring while sitting on that stand. Many notes were made… 

Many. Notes. 

Anyway, I thought our stand looked fab, and Debs put a heck of a lot of work into all that stock. 

Next stop, Dragonmeet. While we won’t have a stand there, I think I’ve convinced Debs to come to Dragonmeet this year to experience the UK’s second largest gaming convention - at least it’s only a couple of hours on the train…

Maybe we’ll see you there.

Stay Multi-classy!!

#RPGaDAY2024 - DAY TEN and ELEVEN: Well Support One-Shot on TV

 

It's the weekend again, and I didn't have the opportunity to type up yesterday's response. So here goes!

Day Ten asked about an RPG you'd like to see on TV. I must admit, I wasn't sure if it was going to be a setting or something from an RPG turned into a TV series, or what game you'd like to see being played on TV? I think the former is probably more interesting, so let's go with Conspiracy X. You know I'm a massive fan of The X-Files, and the setting for Conspiracy X, with it multiple alien species, supernatural weirdness, multiple government conspiracies, psychic powers, and nanotech. It'd be great.

Also, I had a weird dream of WILD being turned into a TV series. Parallel plot lines of Carter creating the technology, and Clarity trapped in the dreamscape trying to escape... but most series I've watched about dreamscapes and dream sharing haven't lasted long (Sleepwalkers, Falling Water, Reverie, etc.). Heck, I even had a cast sorted out in my head, with Peter Outerbridge as Carter... 

Day Eleven asks us to think about an RPG that has well supported one-shots. I must admit, I'm not much of a one-shot person, though I've had a couple of really cool games of Fiasco, and there have been a couple of great one-shots of All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I mean, Cinematic Alien is almost designed for one-shots (or rather three-shots) I think the ruler of one-shotdom, would either be Fiasco, or Grant Howitt's ever growing range of one-page games (Jason Statham's Big Vacation stands out for me). 

#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY TWENTY-THREE: COOLEST looking RPG product / book

 Day Twenty-Three of #RPGaDAY2023, and we're asking about the coolest looking RPG / book. Back when #RPGaDAY launched I took the opportunity to talk about square books. I love square books. There is just something cool about them.

I talked about MouseGuard, and Nobilis, both of which were produced as really cool square books. And I talked about WILD, how I hoped to produce it as a square book too - and thanks to Stoo it was!

There have certainly been a load of cool looking books since that video. Tales from the Loop stands out as being particularly gorgeous. And the graphic design of Flabbergasted is really stunning, but the graphics for the forthcoming Triangle Agency really is stunning. 

#RPGaDAY2023 - DAY TWENTY: Will still play in TWENTY years time

 Day Twenty of #RPGaDAY2023 asks what game you'd still play in twenty year's time. Originally, ten years ago, I talked about my game WILD - 

- and it was mostly because I'd been working on it for three years and hadn't progressed very far with it. Little would I know that it'd be another seven years before the Kickstarter launched and the game finally reached print. Probably would be something I'd still be working on if Stoo hadn't kicked my ass into gear and gave me a deadline. 

But what would I still be playing in twenty years? Jeez, I'll be seventy... I'd like to still be playing, I'd like to still be kicking, but the last few years have shown us how fragile the world is, how easily the world can be thrown into chaos and misery. I'm not counting on anything. 

2021 - A Year in the Rear View

Wow. Two months since my last post. 

I've been really neglecting the blog. Sorry! Well, not that I've had much excitement to post really over the last couple of months - busy working and stressing and working... But as it's coming up to the end of the year, I figured I may as well do my update along with a review of the year (such as it was).

2021 was really more of a continuation of the horror-show that 2020 was, starting the year in lockdown. A time I can safely say was tough on us all. Virus figures were high (though looking back on them now, when you see the figures over the last couple of weeks... jeez) and everyone was worried. I've been accused of worrying too much, and becoming paranoid about the virus, but hell, if I've learned anything from those post-apocalypse movies it's that you can't be too careful. 

Just as things were starting to improve, and things started opening up again, there was that impending worry that I'd have to go back to the outside world - to head back to retail and the stresses of interacting with the public. When luckily, I was saved...

April this year I left my job in retail after many, many, many years and went full-time writing tabletop roleplaying games, becoming a full-time Producer at Cubicle 7 Games, looking after the Doctor Who line. 

Of course, while my days were spent stooped over a computer working away on the Doctor Who RPG's Second Edition, my evenings were spent stooped over a computer working away on the WILD RPG.

We'd Kickstarted the initial book for the WILD RPG (Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming) back in November, but it had been successful enough to expand and require a little more wordage - in addition to this, we were working closely with Gareth Sleightholme to get the art polished off for the cool Tarot cards that were designed to accompany the game.

By May, WILD was complete and released, and Stoo started the huge task of packaging up the books and cards to ship off to the backers. It's still available through Drivethru and Gamefound, just check out the WILD Website for more info.

The rest of the year? Well, we've continued our rewatch of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (in chronological order) - and we're just in the middle of Season 3 of Runaways, so there will be an update on that in the new year, but otherwise it's just been work, work, work...

Doctor Who has progressed nicely, with a great adventure (available for free) called The Einstein Engine, and there's the fantastic Starter Set as well. Everything's coming along nicely, with the Second Edition corebook and the Starter Set at the printers. All exciting!!

I'm working out what to go in a sequel volume for WILD (WILD Book 2 - Even Deeper) and more about dreams within dreams, and I've had this weird idea for a smaller book RPG...

You remember I have this thing about small books - I don't know why, but I had this idea for doing a set of small books, like the old classic SF game of the late 70s, but for a modern day magic game, like Harry Potter, The Magicians, or something similar. 

I'm still pondering about that. I got as far as creating a cover to inspire me (see right), and to remind me of how little we needed as teens in the old days to create years of adventure in pocket-money priced books.

But with the dayjob in writing, and doing an evening class, my time has been limited.

What has 2022 in store? 

Who knows? If the last two years have taught me anything, they have just reinforced my feeling that anything can happen, and it is foolish to plan too far in advance. I hope to continue in the dayjob, do more there, hopefully expand my range a little. I hope to do some more WILD, and maybe the magic thing, and there's my weird desire to write / illustrate my autobiography in a partly exaggerated and humorous way.

Above all, I just hope that things improve globally for everyone. 

So, until my next post, next year, take care of yourself and yours, stay safe, and always be kind.

Dave

Check out mister businessman, oh-oh-oh...

 

Cover for WILD Dream Dive Training Simulation - art by Qistina Khalidah

Been a while, but I've been busy. Sorry! And with the day-job (the NEW day-job) involving a lot of computer work, I've been trying to avoid using it when the working day is done. After all, there's only so much staring at the screen you can do without going a little bananas. 

However, I have been spending the weekends finishing off the WILD Dream Dive Training Simulation that was Kickstarted last year. Hopefully it should be heading to print sometime in the next week (fingers crossed), barring any changes or horrible mistakes I've made. If you're keen but missed the Kickstarter, click that link in this paragraph and it'll take you to the WILD website, which will let you place an order.

So what next? Outside of the day-job, I guess it's building up to another #RPGaDAY in August. Just need to decide on the prompts and the style of the graphic for this year! I still can't believe it's been going for so long.

Otherwise, I'm going to take it a bit easier. I'm still keen to write that autobiography, though maybe draw it so I can keep away from the computer in the evenings, but my art is lacking to say the least. It's been a long time since I drew comics. I need to get over myself and just go for it - be expressive and wacky, and stop worrying about making people look like who they're supposed to be.

In the dim and distant future there's always plans for WILD Book 2 - Even Deeper, looking in more depth at the Collective Unconscious. We'll see how Book 1 goes down! I still worry everyone will hate it.

Anyway, that's it. Stay safe everyone. It's still dangerous out there.

Solstice Greetings and the End of 2020

 

This year freakin' sucked. It's traditional to do a blogpost at the end of the year to discuss what has happened over the last twelve months, and to be honest, it's going to be hard. 

It started badly, losing my beloved cat Marla in January. She really was the most important thing in our lives, and losing her so suddenly hit me really hard, and I'm still not (and probably never will be) over it. 

Then we had a bad case of the flu, I blacked out, and just a month after we'd recovered from that, the rest of the world went to hell as the pandemic swept across the globe. With governments lead by floppy-haired pillocks who wouldn't know common sense if it smacked them in the face, it got out of control. As I write this, the strain in the UK has mutated into an even more contagious disease that threatens to dominate the country. The rest of the world has put us in isolation and our green and pleasant land has become the next Children of Men. 

While we try to survive the last days of 2020, looking back there were some good moments. They were few, but they were there. My wife launched her awesome Etsy shop, where her hand-crafted and upcycled goth coolness has been really busy in the build up to Halloween and Christmas. 

Lockdown (1 and 2, with a 3rd on the horizon) meant I got to stay home and hide. In between therapy sessions for my worry and stress, I managed to finish off a massive project that'll possibly be announced sometime close to the Doctor Who New Year Special - Revolution of the Daleks (hmmm, I wonder what it could be?). 

I also managed to finish off an adventure for EN's Awfully Cheerful Engine, which will hopefully launch next year.

And, thanks to Stoo and 300+ Kickstarter backers, WILD has been funded and will see print around Easter next year too! Just have to finish off those extra bits that were unlocked as stretch goals. Thank you to everyone who backed it or shared it!

We just have to hope there's a next year. The way this year has treated us, there's still the chance of a zombie apocalypse or rogue asteroid to really finish of a really crappy year.

So, I'm signing off for the rest of the year. I'm hiding in my bunker (when I'm not stuck at the dayjob). 

Stay safe everyone.