Pretendo Games

People sometimes ask if I plan to make a second edition of Grave to correspond to the updates in the second edition of Knave. 1️⃣ The answer is: sort of, maybe but not quite. But I’m closer to it now than I was a year ago, now that Dungeon23 left me with an adventure to release with it.

One of the adventures I worked on for Dungeon23 was referred to in my notes (and earlier blog posts) as “Exhumed,” taking its name from a pamphlet-sized tutorial dungeon I created for a game jam. 2️⃣ That dungeon serves as the starting point of the much bigger adventure I wrote over the course of a year. 3️⃣ Gradually, though, I came to think of this as an adventure to run with the rules for Grave, and (possibly, maybe, someday) include in an updated Grave second edition.

Now, that’s still just a hope, not a plan: As I noted in my Dungeon23 retrospective, I’m not ready to commit to publishing the results of those notes, I have a ton of projects in my backlog already, and I currently need to prioritize finding a full-time job. Still, I’d like to put some time into cleaning up and running the adventures I wrote, and seeing where that leads.

I have a lot of work ahead of me if I want to make this a reality, though. In the hopes of making that more likely, please pardon me while I think aloud about the steps I might need to take next.

Playtesting

I am excited to run the adventure I wrote! I’m hoping it gives me a sense of how much of it is actually worth sharing beyond my own gaming table.

It’s fine — worthwhile, even! — to drop in-jokes and references into the games you play with your buddies. Some of my best sessions have basically been unabashed fanfic versions of our favorite video games and movies. And the adventure I wrote this year has plenty of homages and soulslike touchstones, including…

• Resurrecting at safe havens after dying
• Souls as both money and experience points
• A big, hidden bird who will trade you for shiny stuff
• A poison swamp (but just one)
• Demons! Lots of ’em!
• Improbably large heroes of old with multi-phase boss fights
• Factions with side quests and mucking about in spirit-form
• A skinny, bald jerk who will sell you things if you let him live after his pathetic attempt to kill and rob you

I think it’ll be fun! But also, I don’t want to end on the wrong side of the line between “lovable homage” and “eye-roll-inducing ripoff.” So I want to try it out and see how it goes.

Plus, as part of a playtest, I want to try out some new rules I’ve been working on over the course of several months. These updates aren’t a “conversion” to Knave 2e, though; they’re just things I think would make the game work better based on my own experiences running it. Still, I did arrive independently to some changes similar to Knave 2e (like simplifying how item quality and encumbrance work), and I expect the rules will be familiar to folks familiar with either edition of Knave. I’ve also written up some tips to help hack or replace my rules with others as desired.

Additional writing

The adventure could be run as-written … if you’re me. Even with a fully filled-out notebook and supplemental notes on my computer, there’s still a lot that’s only in my own head, or that I relegated to “minor details” to figure out later. In particular, I need to finish…

Monster stats: I wrote up very detailed boss fight procedures, and many descriptive things about how creatures attack (like “poison,” “tries to push you off the edge,” and the occasional “d12 damage” or the like). I left out a lot of specifics, though, like hit point totals for most things.

Item descriptions: I love how the Dark Souls series conveys lore and hints through the descriptions of items in your inventory. And so, in my “supplemental notes” on my computer, I’ve already similar details for a bunch of items. (Your character is, after all, walking around with the fragments of other people’s souls; you never know what might spark an unexpected “memory.”) I still have to write descriptions for dozens more items, though.

To keep up my “do a thing a day” cadence, I might set a goal to write one thing from this list each day — one monster stat block, or one item description — until those are all done. I also have additional rules writing to do, but that’s likely to change quite a bit in playtesting, so I’m okay just leaving that as notes for now.

Layout

This is a big task, but the easiest thing to wrap my brain around. I already have a bunch in an Affinity Publisher file built on the Classic Explorer Template. I may start moving words from my notebook and into the template as early as this week, just to see how it all feels.

I’m on the fence about how to prioritize this. To keep a routine going, a reasonable goal might be to get one page laid out a week — but I only have so much energy to spend at a computer in a week, and I have other games I’m eager to finish, too. (I am determined to finish a draft of Wastoid … soon. Or, you know, soonish. Determined, I tell you!)

I need to think about this more, but I think it’s reasonable to set a goal to get a spread of some game wrapped up every week.

Art

Hoo boy, this is a big one.

That Affinity Publisher file I mentioned has some public domain art in places, but I think of that as a placeholder. I could use stock art or public domain art for some things — perhaps the illustrations at the start of chapters — but I’d want to have original art for the cover, and (likely several) maps for the adventure.

Part of me dreams I could get my act together enough to do the art myself, but a “dream” is probably all that is. I’m not very confident in my drawing skills, especially in my ability to hit the mood/tone for what I’d want for this project.

On top of that, my map-drawing skills did not improve nearly as much as I’d hoped this year. Some areas in the game probably don’t need very fancy maps, but if I wanted to reproduce the map-a-week cadence in my original notes, we’re talking over 50 original map illustrations.

It’s possible I could try to tackle that … but unlikely. Realistically, I have so many projects I want to finish writing that I have a hard time imagining I’d take time away from that drawing.

Add that all up, and we’re likely talking about commissioning one or multiple artists for a number of pieces. I’m up for that — but only after I have a full-time job again.

I’m aware that this is precisely what many indie RPG designers turn to crowdfunding for, but I’m extremely hesitant to go that route. I’m not ruling it out entirely, but for my own mental health, I’d really prefer to have a project like this done before accepting any money for it.

Next steps

I’ll reiterate: This is still at the “hopes and dreams” stage, not the “I’m promising to do this” stage. But still, I’m hoping (!) that walking through my thought process will give me some momentum to keep quietly working on this for a while. So, to recap, I’d like to…

• Write 1 item description or stat block each day
• Write and/or lay out 1 spread each week
• Get together a group to playtest as I go … soonish
• (Not think about art until I have steady income again)

Wish me luck! Or, barring that, wish me “figuring out quickly that this doesn’t have legs so I get even more done on other projects.”

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1️⃣ The first edition of Grave is available on Itch.io (where it’s also available for free under “Community Copies”) and DrivethruRPG (where you can view the full text in the “Preview” images). ⤴️

2️⃣ Exhumed is also available on Itch.io (also free community copies) and DrivethruRPG (also free full-text previews). ⤴️

3️⃣ The jury’s out on whether it counts as a “megadungeon,” given how much of it is outdoors, but I wasn’t overly concerned about that. It’s very location-based, though, with multiple paths between locations, looping back to earlier locations, unlocking secret ways, and a sort of walled-in setting overall. What is a megadungeon if not a very big, indoor point crawl, right? (Maybe?) ⤴️