The Face and The Future

You ever do a thing in a project where you’re juggling three ideas that explore a similar space but are still their own unique and distinct thing, but you need to still define these boundaries? That’s been me. This months playbook and the next 2 (the fixer and the heart) are all very socially facing playbooks by default. But they’re all very different, that much is certain. I’m just also going “does this story reference belong here or would I like to use it for something else?”

The Face (the playbook in this month’s update) has a very specific role. The Face is someone who navigates social intricacies, negotiation, and manipulation with ease and know how to present themselves. They play to and against people. I think this is the playbook you would go to first if you want friends all over the world, or the ability to talk your way into that fancy gala the villains are throwing.

This upcoming month I hope to work my way through The Fixer. The Fixer is a hustler through and through. They know what people want, how to get it, and the finer points of the worlds of business and negotiation. Useful for back-alley deals to rescue artifacts, talking someone into letting them use their boat, investigating paperwork, budget, and navigating ancient laws and mandates.

HOWEVER I HAVE AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

Last December I took the time do sort of a personal art jam that resulted in me writing the story “Snaggin’ ”. Making multi-hundred page TTRPG on my own takes a long time and I always feel bad and like I’m not delivering enough to you, my dedicated audience that believes in me. As such, I want to make December sort of a yearly art jam where I can put my effort into something smaller but deliverable. (if not that month, but soon after and not taking too much time away from the BIG PROJECT)

Would y’all be amenable to that?

I think, this year, as patreon gets weirder and more needlessly puritan about porn it’s less likely I can write another short story like that (though I have a snaggin’ sequel in my head and ready to go). But I do want to make a different, smaller, more experimental TTRPG.

A while back, I released a small game called “Friday Night Event.”, a sort of small, wrestling themed improv game. Mostly a failure in my estimation, but I learned a lot from it. I want to make another game to help me test and explore some mechanics I’m looking at for my next big project in the same spirit, but definitely not in the same space.

If I was going to retroactively place them in the same line (and I might) I’d call them Untested. Smaller, cheaper, experimental games that are, as labeled; Untested. A do they work? Are they good? Maybe. But they’re at least fun for a night or two and something different than most of the games I want to make.

I want top try making a card game anime tcg whose resolution mechanics are, in fact, a card game. Basically I want to focus on the social game design of emulating a yugioh episode with your buddies. A soap opera world where every card game is a duel. Would you be into that? The design itself is made to be generally applicable or relatable to the three big TCG’s (mtg, yugioh, pokemon).

If I don’t finish it in a month, I want to at least have it in a place where it can make steady progress and eventually release.