Pretendo Games

Someone asked me on Discord recently whether one of my projects labeled “WIP”—work in progress—was still under active development. I said: I intend to finish it, but it can’t say for sure when. I had to put a lot on hold in the wake of pandemic-related complications, but the good news is that my schedule is opening back up again, and I’m finally finding more time to get back to creative work.

To be transparent, though, that’s my answer for most projects; the tricky part is prioritizing which to focus on. Here, then, are some notes I’ve been taking toward that goal—helping me sort out how to focus my efforts. I share these notes not in the spirit of someone trying to market all these products (noting that you can download all my games free, if you’d like), but as a hobbyist hoping that publicly rambling will encourage self-imposed accountability. I want to finish these games because I enjoy making them and I want to share them with you.

Wastoid. I’m actively playtesting this now with friends, and revising rules along the way. (The next session is tomorrow, and I probably should’ve revised character options instead of writing this blog post. Oh well. Happy New Year!)

QZ revised edition. I’ve put a lot of work into this one.

• Adjustments to visual design, including adapting to A5 pages, and replacing all copyrighted-but-used-without-complaint Beeple art with CC BY Beeple art, among other changes. (I’d also like to commission a cover, but have no concept or artist in mind yet.)
• I fully rewrote character creation based on feedback of how people were playing it, and want to take another pass on it again.
• I revised the lists of Alterations, Items, and Anomalies, expanding the list of artifacts and anomalies to 100 each.
• I rewrote how money works, and created a new currency (called “resources”), that I’m also tentatively using in Agents of the O.D.D.
• I’m still revising multiple other chapters, and adding new material to give some better guidance on how to run the game.
• Eventually, I’ll likely offer it as print-on-demand, unless a publisher offers to handle printing and shipping. I’m not really interested in managing a crowdfunding campaign in my spare time.

Alight. This is pretty far along, and I invested quite a bit in it financially (commissioned art), so I feel committed to getting it out into the world. I really want to do it right, though, not just do it quickly, so it may be a while. I’ve been chipping away at it from time to time, bit by bit, so it’ll have delightfully (or absurdly) long tables of random techno/magic items, creatures, and character options. I also need to devote some real heads-down time, however, to examine and playtest rules and character creation, and revise as needed.

2400 print edition. Also in the category of “I want to do it right, not just do it quickly.” I also want to release a few more 2400 games and write some essays (likely on this blog) before I collect them all in print. Physical format (book? pamphlets?) is still up in the air, but if I have finances in the future, I’d love to be able to commission original art.

AUX. Wait, what the hell is this game called? Yeah, I don’t know either. I reject every name I come up with because they’re always too hard to search for or pronounce (e.g., AUX, A/D, Back//Up), but I’m determined to finish it for similar reasons to Alight: I already paid to license a bunch of art (still need to commission a cover), and wrote most of the rules and character options for a Mark of the Odd transhuman sci-fi/horror RPG.

Agents of the O.D.D. revised edition. I’d like to release a (very obviously unfinished) playtest draft in the near future. It’d then likely go back on the back burner while I focus on other projects for a bit, but I’d be extremely interested to gather feedback.

Grave. I did a soulslike megadungeon adventure for Dungeon23. I would like to try running it with a revised version of the rules for Grave (a Dark-Souls-inspired hack of Knave). If it actually works, maybe I’ll publish those together someday.

Data Loss. Technically, I did two soulslike megadungeon adventures for Dungeon23. The other one was a sci-fi adventure, expanding 2400: Data Loss (and, optionally, 2400: Legends, and/or 2400: Codebreakers) into a sci-fi/survival horror/mystery scenario. Again, I’d love to run that, and if it works, maybe release it as its own thing someday. Depending on how long it is, it might make more sense as part of a 2400 collection.

Other stuff. I have ADHD and too many ideas, so I have other projects I still chip away at from time to time. Some of them are on my Itch page and shown as works in progress, like Illusorati (though that’s on such a distant back burner that it might be more honest/self-aware to take it down, or rename it to a standalone setting generator, or something). Some projects I’ve just mentioned in passing on my blog or social media, like Down Town (which I’ve actually put more work into than many projects people have heard of, since I was doing it “Dungeon23 style,” an entry a day, early this year … and got back to recently). And I’m not even sure I’ve told anybody online about SHIFT, but I ran a whole campaign of that one, and designed it four different ways in a single file over here, so I feel like I should probably release it at some point.

That’s enough “inventory management” for now. For now, I’ll take this one day at a time. Tomorrow, that means running Wastoid for my friends. This weekend, I’ll have this list to look back on and reflect on how I might see some projects through this year.