Less "One Day", More "Day One"

Those of you who follow me on my various social media accounts will be aware, but after five years full time working as a Producer, developing a host of titles for the second edition of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game (updating my original first edition design), and developing the second edition of The Laundry Roleplaying Game (changing game system completely from its original incarnation)... and after nearly thirteen years before that as a freelancer for them... I've parted ways from Cubicle 7. 

So, I guess the big question is... 'What's Next?'

Good question! That's all I can say!

I've had a couple of ideas buzzing around in the back of my head for a few years that I've not been in a position to work on, including a follow-up to my game of dreamshare technology, WILD (Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming), and something completely different (that may also use WILD's tarot card mechanics, only adapted for the setting). 

Strangely, one of the biggest inspirations for this to-be-revealled game comes from the most unlikely places - and it's not even a game. On our bookshelves at home sat this rather lovely book from 1972, The Decorative Illustration of Books by Walter Crane, originally published in 1896. It's simply gorgeous, and a great insight into how Crane thought books should be illustrated. Everything, from the typography, the cover, the art, it's just everything I'd love to produce.

As they say, 'they just don't make 'em like this anymore...' (Wow, I sound old...)

Well, you never know. I've got the time now... just need to up my art skills.

I've been looking into other things as well recently, but alas, those plans have fallen through... 

So, this weekend is UK Games Expo!! It's going to be a new and exciting experience, wandering the halls as a freelancer, and I'm hoping that I get to see as many cool and inspiring games as possible. I remember the feeling of looking through the pages of Mothership for the first time and thinking that this is simply the most inspiring thing I've seen in the TTRPG space for a few years. 

I want to come out of the convention inspired, and excited to get started on something new.

I want to turn those projects that I always said I'd get around to 'one day' into projects that are starting on their 'day ones'. 

Of course, if anyone needs a freelance game designer, writer, developer, producer, or similar in the meantime, let me know. Nerd's gotta eat!!

Stay multi-classy

DFC

Sidequest: Every TTRPG Played 51-57

Many, 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

Every TTRPG I've Played 41-50

And so, onto the last batch, before I catch up to date with everything I've played. I'm sure I missed some out, but this is all I could remember. 

51) The Gaslight Club

Cover of The Gaslight Club by We-Evolve

This was another playtest for Stoo. The Gaslight Club is a weird one – it plays very much like the old Gangbusters RPG from the 80s, all 1920s with gangs and fancy clubs, nice cars, and classy suits. That is, until something bad happens, and you end up injured or killed, only to be taken behind the scenes, waking to repeat the same events over again. You quickly discover you are hosts in a 'Westworld' style theme park who are becoming aware of the abuse you are constantly subjected to from the human guests. It's only a matter of time before the looping narrative becomes a quest to escape. Great stuff!

52) Blade Runner

Cover of the Blade Runner Roleplaying Game by Free League

I wanted to try the Blade Runner RPG not only because I loved the movies, but mostly because I wanted to try out some cool investigative roleplaying, and I wasn't disappointed. Built on the Year Zero Engine as used in more of my favourite games (Tales from the Loop, see number 40 on this list), there are some clever time management elements in there, and delving into your memories for both human and replicant characters. The stories are really well crafted, utilising a lot of props, but the standout moment was when my character (a human) was suspected of being a replicant and was forced to take a Voight-Kampff test... and failed. Was I really human? Or was it all a set-up? 

Brilliant.

53) The One Ring (2nd Edition)

Cover of The One Ring (Second Edition) by Free League

Returning to Middle-Earth decades after playing the old Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game (see number 10 on this list), with another game by Free League (or Fria Ligan). The One Ring RPG (second edition, the first edition was done by Cubicle 7) was an interesting experience. Really loved the 'stances' thing in combat, where you could be on the attack, defence, etc. and they did a great job of making it feel like Middle-Earth and the epic scope of Lord of the Rings. But, man, is it dangerous. I think we had three 'total party kills' in one adventure, and we all got wiped out again in the follow up. 

Despite all of this, looks like we may be returning to TOR in the very near future.

54) FATE

Cover of the FATE Core rulebook by Evil Hat

FATE is one of those games that I've always wanted to see in action, but never really got around to playing. Stoo wanted to run a game based on the TV series "Travelers" (which is a brilliant and emotional series of time-travel and cool sci-fi stuff, which I talked about on an earlier blogpost last year). Lacking a system to play it with, we gave FATE a go – one of those systems that a lot of people really love, but it just didn't gel with me. Sorry. Game was good, but really didn't get to grips with FATE at all. I'm sorry. Had the book sitting on my shelves for years, and it may just go back there. I'd be reluctant to get rid of it, as my dearly departed cat loved to rub her face on the corner of that book, and took some of the sheen off of it. It reminds me of her at least.

55) Mothership

Cover of the Mothership Player's Guide by Tuesday Knight Games

I wrote a little about Mothership last year when we went to Tabletop Scotland. Looking at the cute boxed set of the standard edition – how it had multiple little A5 books, dice, a screen, and more – just inspired me so much, and filled my head with ideas for how to produce games on a similar scale. So darn cool. 

Of course, we had to play it. The actual game experience was very like ALIEN (see number 50 on this list), with the same feeling of fragility in the characters, and impending doom. Space is flipping dangerous, and full of horrific nightmare creatures. It was good! We didn't feel incompetent, the skill level was about right, and we encountered some disgusting monsters. It was just so depressing and ominous. 

Very good, but doom-laden.

56) Harrowhill Point

Harrowhill Point is an RPG I've been working on for a while with a few of my trusted and regular writers. It's survival horror, in the same vein as Silent Hill or Alan Wake, and I can't really discuss much more than that. We've been playtesting it, and the playtests were SUPER helpful and really worked to bring the epic story of horror and weirdness together. Hopefully, it should he heading to Kickstarter through Cubicle 7 sometime next year. 

57) Mythic Bastionland

Cover of Mythic Bastionland by Bastionland Press

And, possibly finally, we are currently playing Mythic Bastionland. Once again, I watched a Youtube video by Quinns (see his Quinns Quest Youtube Channel, it's very good) and was instantly sold on an RPG. It wasn't the subject matter or the game system so much, rather the lovely design and layout. I bought a copy and didn't really expect to play it, I just absorbed the way it was put together and the gorgeous artwork.

The other players in my group were intrigued, especially Stoo who fancied running it, and so we generated characters, created a map, and off we went. 

It's been good so far – the random element feels a bit odd, and once you realise how the game works (with the D6 every hex determining what happens) it feels like you've seen behind the curtain, and all the pressure is on the GM to 'make stuff up on the fly'. The communal combat rolls are an interesting new take, and took a little getting used to. It means you have to think tactically as a group, but I sometimes feel it takes away from the individual drama of a fight, and the crazy random outcomes from a bad roll. 

It's been fun though!

... what next?

What is next? Of course, this is discounting the D&D 5e game I've been playing monthly with my old gaming group from the 80s (still going strong!) but as it's just D&D and I've already listed D&D right at the start (okay, you pedants, I know, that was AD&D 1st ed, not 5e) I didn't think it required listing again. 

Next, I think it's going to be going back to The One Ring, though I know we talked about Slugblaster for a while (another bit of pimping by Quinns inspired that one), along with my constant desire to run something weird an investigative like Masks of Nyarlathotep or Delta Green's Impossible Landscapes. Who knows!

Okay, that's one series of blogposts that I started finally finished. 

I guess I should finish off the #RPGaDAY posts for this year, and go back to my other weird reminiscences.

Until then, 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!! 

Form and Format

 I’ve been thinking a lot about book formats recently. For many, many years, I’ve been wanting to scale down, and do something smaller. I even made a video about it 10 years ago (back before the rebrand and with the old logo). 

There was something about those first Traveller ‘little black books’ - the simplicity of design, and how you could afford to get a new book on what was basically ‘pocket money’ costs. And they were just cool. Probably more complicated rules-wise than I’m used to now, but Traveller has always stuck with me. It was the first RPG I ever played (as covered in a very old blogpost here) and those little books seem to have been seared onto my mind. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love those big core rulebooks, with their glossy pages, colour artwork, and robust hardcovers, but as I get older and lazier, the prospect of something smaller and easier is certainly appealing. 

Hip to Be Square

Of course, the smaller little booklets were not the only thing to constantly bug my mind when it comes to book formats. There is also the lovely square book, a fascination that started with the complete opposite of Traveller’s ‘little black books’ - Nobilis’ ‘big white book’. 

Cover for 2nd Edition Nobilis - aka “the big white book”

Again, I wrote a blogpost about square books here, but before I even started working on the game system for WILD: Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming, I knew I wanted the book to be square. Nobilis had sown a seed of interest in square books, and I couldn’t shake it. The idea that you could have text as normal, but have space in the extra-wide margins (thanks to the square format) for additional guidance and notes… 

Example of page layout from Nobilis, showing the two column layout in the centre of the page, but space in the wide margins on either side for additional notes.

Awesome. Special thanks should go out to Stoo at we_evolve who published WILD for me and ran the Kickstarter, for letting me stick to my guns and go with a square book. (Click that link and you can buy WILD, Aegean, Action Potential, and more…)

Square books are no longer a weird or strange thing – the award winning and incredibly popular Slugblaster RPG is square, as is the recent Sleepy Hollow RPG that uses the Year Zero Engine. 

But I’m getting off track. We were talking about smaller books…

The Mothership Lode

With the recent resurgence of smaller ‘zine’ sized RPGs, it was inevitable that someone would also be inspired by the ‘little black books’ of Traveller, and the most popular of those would be Mothership. 

Same A5 format, same sized box, with a heap of books within - player’s guide, GM’s book, one filled with creatures, one for spaceships, and an adventure… and that’s not all (as Brian Butterfield would say). It also includes dice, a GM screen, a map, and standees. 

So much damn stuff in there! Stoo bought a copy at Tabletop Scotland and I read through the contents with my mind racing about how this was the future. This was what I wanted to do – “remember you always wanted to do Traveller sized books” said the voice in my head. Notebooks were filled, so many ideas for little books in a new range that I can’t really produce at the moment. 

But, I’m planning for the future…

All of this planning has been going in a notebook. A sketchbook actually as I’m doodling artwork at the same time as working on the game and the system. However, the sketchbook is one of my new favourite pieces of stationery, and it’s making me think… or rather, rethink…

A5 Sketchbook next to a copy of original Traveller (book 1)

I mean, that photo makes it look like it’s bigger than Traveller, but it isn’t (it’s just that the sketchbook is chunky - 92 pages of 140gsm loveliness. I may have got a little hooked on buying them from Hobbycraft. They were in a multi buy at the time, so don’t give me that look. 

But it did get me thinking - the idea I have, it would work nicely with a small hardback that size, with smaller booklets like Traveller as supplements or player only guides (the bigger book would be for the GM). You could even bind all the little supplements together to make another hardcover…

…and then along came the Shadowdark RPG Kickstarter. Which does just that. Over a million $1 and it collects six ‘zine’ sized supplements into a book the same size as the core book. 

Well, it’s all a while off. I can’t do anything about it at the moment, but I can make notes and plan for the future.

So what format RPG books do you like at the moment? Are you a traditional D&D hardback sized fan, or are you really into your zines at the moment? 

Comment if you like, I’d be interested to hear what you think.

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Meanwhile, if you get chance, check out this Kickstarter by one of my former work colleagues, Emmet Byrne. He’s put together a rather gorgeous looking 5e setting based on traditional Irish mythology. Looks glorious!! 

Beyond the Woods 5e

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Until next time, stay safe and stay multi-classy.

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!!