Eric Zawadzki

Alternative Systems

The final full chapter of Deep Dive is coming along, and I'm now ready to ask all of you if there are conspiracy mechanics you wish existed but don't. Well, are there? Tell me about it. I might not be able to fulfill every request, but I'll try to include as many reader suggestions as will fit into the word count I've set aside for this chapter.

I'm hoping to have news to report on Black Vans as early as next week. I still have a few things to check off my list before ...

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Derrick Chautkin

This week I'm sharing a total asshole of a Devoted who serves Human Logistics, a Standing 7 conspiracy.

The usual caveat applies: This is a first draft, so there will be changes.

Derrick Chautkin

Quote: “If you’d stayed where you belonged this wouldn’t be happening to you.”

Background: Derrick was born in a small town, but his parents moved to the city when he was 8 years old. After the move, Derrick had difficulty making fri...

Spooky Season's End

Halloween was a success, although we didn't have a huge number of trick or treaters. Our trouble is that there's a stretch of road a block away where absolutely everyone takes the holiday very seriously - like, spider skeleton and 12-foot skeleton seriously - and although the kids talked Beth into buying an animatronic spider that jumps out at you with a hiss when you step on its pad, kids have too much of an appreciation for candy density to have much appetite to walk an entire block to get ...

That's Deep

Work continues on the mechanics and optional rules chapter of Deep Dive. Progress there is slow but steady. I hope to finish that at some point in November. Then comes chapter fiction, which shouldn't be too time-consuming.

Second drafts of conspiracies are just starting to trickle in from writers, as well. I'm not yet ready to do much with those, since I want to finish the first drafts of everything else that remains, but I'll likely begin my second drafts of conspiracies in D...

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Hideki Shimizu

This week I'm sharing the Devoted of the Chinkon Collective, a Standing 5 conspiracy.

The usual caveat applies: This is a first draft. There will be changes.

Hideki Shimizu

Quote: “My name is Hideki Shimizu, and these people are under my protection. Stand down or face my sword.”

Background: Hideki Shimizu comes from a long line of warriors dating back to at least the Edo Period, when his ancestors served as bodyguards protecting ...

The Next Generation

I'm hanging out with the kids this weekend while Beth is at Ohio Valley Filk Fest. Aside from a couple of brief activities, it should be a pretty chill weekend. "Should" is always the operative word here. Sometimes the kids are just as content as I am to spend time on our devices doing various things - whether that's video games, drawing and animation, or writing more of Deep Dive. Other times, they have a lot of needs. Parenting means I need to address either option (or something in...

Nuts and Bolts and Jagged Edges

I'm finished with the various introductions and am now working on the mechanics clarifications and optional rules chapter. I certainly have a fair number of items on my to-do list for this, but I also want to make sure I'm addressing things that make running conspiracies hard or confusing. I posted the following on the Deviant fancord, and if you replied there you don't need to do so here (I've already scraped those suggestions), and I'd love your thoughts on it, as well:

I'm w...

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Aisha Carver

This week's sample character is the spurned and forgotten genius behind the technology that makes the Dark Matter Fellowship (a Standing 2 conspiracy) possible.

As always, this is a first draft. There will be changes.

Aisha Carver

Quote: “I can make you something to do that, yeah. You’ll need to get me everything on this list of electronic components.”

Background: Following her Divergence, Aisha wanted nothing more than to retu...

Getting Physical

I had my regular check-up last week and an additional blood draw, and the consensus was that there's no cause for alarm, but I really need to get back in the habit of exercising regularly again. So, I've been experimenting with fitting an hour or so of walking around the neighborhood into my schedule somehow.

Generally, that's been going pretty well. The blisters aside, the walks themselves are nice. The weather has been mild, and I just listen to audio books I've been meaning to read a...

Introductions All Around

I've finished the main introduction of Deep Dive, as well as the handshake introductions for the local and regional chapters. I'm currently making progress on the global chapter introduction. I expect to get that one and the otherworldly introduction done either before or in the early part of the weekend. After that comes the chapter with all the optional rules and clarifications. That chapter will likely take me through until the flood gates of second drafts open.

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Marcus Laqueus

This week I'm finally sharing the Devoted for the Symposium, a Standing 10 conspiracy using the bootstrap paradox to bring itself into existence as early in human history as possible. I had perhaps a bit too much fun with this one. My goal was to make someone who is absolutely terrifying in combat without being a walking TPK, which makes a high-powered, combat-focused character frustrating for players.

The usual caveat applies: This is the first draft version of him. There will be chang...

Teen Overnight

A few weeks back, I took Arya to the family overnight, which was focused on younger kids and so absolutely needed an abundance of grown-ups there. Tonight is the 8th grader overnight, which permits drop-off-and-drive but also still requires some supervision. Beth took one look at the available volunteer shifts and promptly declared that the 4-7 a.m. shift was pretty much made for me. And though I winced a bit (especially 20-something me who used to go to bed at 4 a.m.), she ...

Introductions

I've been working on the first draft of the introduction to Deep Dive. Something I've learned along the way is that it's essentially impossible to write the introduction to a supplement (especially a large one) until the first draft is complete. Even with a detailed outline, things change, move around, or just figure out their true vibe during early writing. This draft is coming along, albeit a bit slowly. Part of it is things are still moving a bit. I had the intro, a chapt...

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Abigail Petrescu

This week's Devoted is part of Abyssal Pioneers, a Standing 6 conspiracy with its headquarters at one of the deepest points of the ocean.

As with the others I've shared, this is a first draft, so there will be changes as I revise.

Abigail Petrescu

Quote: “You can’t fully appreciate the surface of the sea until you have visited the ocean floor. You will never forget the music you hear there.”

Background: Abigail Petrescu grew up...

If You're Gonna Have X, You're Gonna Have X Problems

It's been a challenging week. Recently, Arya became enamored with the idea of having an aquarium. She saved up money for her agreed-upon share of the start-up costs and off to the aquarium store she and Beth went. After consulting with the local fish experts, she and Beth bought a little 5-gallon aquarium and began the slow process of readying it for fish.

From the start, there were some surprises. One of the plants turned out to have transported a little hitchhiker in the form of a tru...

Into Second Drafts

With the exception of a couple of conspiracies that are still pending first drafts for quite understandable reasons, Deep Dive is now in second drafts. Writers will spend the next several weeks revising their drafts based on redlines. While they're doing that, I'll be writing the first drafts of the non-conspiracy parts of the book, as well as making updates to the conspiracies I wrote.

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Erika Collins

Today's sample character comes from Next-Gen Law Enforcement, a Standing 3 conspiracy. Although most of the characters in Deep Dive are Devoted, Erika is a Renegade.

The usual caveat applies: This is a first draft, so there will be changes.

Erika Collins

Quote: “Not all cops are bastards. ‘Bastard’ is too nice a word for most of them.”

Background: Erika was born into a conservative family. After the second time she w...

99 Nights in the Forest and Sardines

There are many things in Arya's life where only Mom will do. Given the choice between "do you want Mom to take you to the pool or Dad?", for example, she will always choose Mom. But one the strength of that one epic game of sardines last year, the family overnight is one of those things where she actively favors me. So, that's what we're doing right now. I'm writing this while we spend some quiet time doing our own thing until people start waking up. I really have no idea how people sleep so ...

Building Characters

My redlining tasks this week have been mostly concerned with comparing sample characters to make sure there isn't too much conceptual overlap. I did something similar with conspiracies a couple of weeks ago - making sure we don't have three different conspiracies with Curiosity as an Anchor (it's funny, because at one point there were four conspiracies with Curiosity as their Virtue or Vice). In this case, I'm currently looking at Variations and Scars.

I won't pretend that zero...

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Albin Henryka

This week I'm spoiling the signature Devoted of Gustaw's Retinue, a Standing 1 conspiracy that has sprung up around a celebrity-businessman.

I think I've mostly sorted out which conspiracy sections I've spoiled and which are still waiting in the shadows. However, as there is at least one case where I actively attempted to trick myself by posting the history and the Devoted of a conspiracy but not its stats or Nodes, it's possible we might have another Incident before all is said and don...

Sick

I seem to have picked up the kids' back-to-school cold, so instead of getting up and being unproductive (but feeling bad about it), I'm taking NyQuil and going back to bed (in hopes of minimizing this cold's duration).

A Brief Pause for Breath

I've now finished two redlining passes and am taking a brief pause before beginning another. I find that it's important to have a little bit of space between editorial passes - roughly two weeks is generally enough. When we're talking first vs. second pass, there doesn't need to be much of a gap, since the time it takes me to run through the second pass is long enough that the work I did during the first pass is a decent distance in the rear view. That's less true of the second vs. the third ...

Sneak Peek Take Two: Kanata Yamasaki

I apparently need to take a moment soon to make a list of which conspiracies/Devoted I have and haven't shared, yet, because the one I posted today was one I shared back in May. Sorry about that. So, have the Devoted from the Extraordinary Leagues Federation. I don't think this one was shared before (currently at work, so I can't review my lists just now).

First draft, as usual. There will be changes.

Kanata Yamasaki

Quote: “Let’s make it a fa...

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Dr. Alton Page

This week's Devoted comes from Corvalis Chemicals, a Standing 3 conspiracy. I swear, not every conspiracy agent is a charlatan of one stripe or another! But there are a pretty decent number of them in the Web of Pain.

The usual caveat applies: This is a first draft, so there will be changes.

Doctor Alton Page

Quote: “I hate them as much as you do, but they’re holding my wife and children hostage.”

Background: Soon after Alton P...

The Number of the Kaiju

We ultimately settled on giving Kaiju No. 8 a try as our (relatively) serious anime. It held our attention so well that we ended up watching its entire first season.

It had some echoes of Jujutsu Kaisen - a hero who swallows a thing that gives him powers that are going to get him in a world of trouble if he uses them too much - but it also has a lot of shonen trope subversion. For one, the protagonist (Kafka, because what kind of loving parents who wish their children well names their s...

Second Pass in Progress

I'm working through my second redline pass on Deep Dive and am currently a little more than halfway through global conspiracies. Not a whole lot more to report than that, for now. Each reread gives me a clearer picture of what this supplement needs. Some stuff will get discarded, while other parts will be added or expanded - the normal first draft-to-second draft arc, really

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Martin Vlahović

Today I'm sharing the sample character for the Magorum Collegia, a demon summoner who mostly uses his considerable occult skill to run long cons.

Martin Vlahović

Quote: “My daughters and I are visiting your charming town for the first time. Do you know where we can find a clean, inexpensive hotel?”

Background: Martin Vlahović was born to a poor family. At the age of 16, he wanted to attract the romantic attention of his classmate, At...

What We Do in the Shadows

The final episode of What We Do in the Shadows was marvelous, although we're so glad we failed utterly to check the runtime before we started it, because instead of the usual 20-minute episode, it went on...considerably longer than that. This was great because every time you thought the episode was ending, it wasn't; you still had more hilarity ahead of you.

From the jump of watching this show, we couldn't avoid comparing it to the way the Vampire: The Masquerade chron...

Second Time Around

I finished my first redline pass of Deep Dive over the weekend. On Monday, I spent about 10 hours revising the template I've been using for these since late 2024. This was less a "change everything" move and more a matter of taking the patterns that have emerged in the writing of 40 conspiracies and codifying them. The original Devoted template didn't have a line for Forms, for example, and I have a better understanding of why high Standing conspiracies usually have multiple Hierarch...

Deep Dive Sneak Peek: Virgil Medina

Today I'm sharing the sample Devoted for Tavayana, a Standing 1 conspiracy.

The usual caveat applies: This is a first draft, so there will be changes.

Virgil Medina

Quote: “We all dream, but with Tavayana’s guidance you can learn how to dream deeper and to unlock your full spiritual potential.”

Background: When Virgil’s wife divorced him and won custody of their two children because of his drinking problem, it was a wake-up c...