Design Journal 01/19/24

 

I have been writing the new Red Wyvern RPG steadily for months, jumping in and out of the process. Although a challenge beyond anything, it can be gratifying and enlightening.

 

To start off by sharing glimpses of what is to be, I felt a need to embrace what I am creating. At first, this was meant to be like many of the new 5E clonish or alternatives that have been announced and are coming out in droves. But there was one key difference inherent with this build. It will not be that close to those. I came from the ‘old world’ of D&D and still have roots in the past. But I have embraced much of the newer outlooks on what a design can mean to a game and its players. So, in effect, I am berthing something of a hybrid of all past to present babies.

 

The result favors what many like in a game, but is not in the DNA of the current pattern. The current trend is to have simple and fast play. I am targeting to create a play-style with a sense of uninterrupted flow during a game, not bogged down in game mechanics. The flow is important! But so is the one thing missing from the larger projects of recent – options. Like 2nd edition, when the seeds of options started to blossom, I want that again. Large companies are held to certain constraints and answering to the many overseers. I am not. I am bringing the kitchen sink.

 

The Red Wyvern Role-Playing Game will undoubtedly fall into the ‘crunchy’ category by the time it is completed. I wanted each character’s core build not to constantly bleed over with every other build. Sure, there will be some shared features, but each approach should have a sense of being different, contributing in different ways. I will continue with this journal to share where the project is headed and listen to any thoughts and feedback as I go. I hope you will join me in this as we will be a community who will share in these adventures. Because I tell you now, if you are a gamer, you will not want to miss out.

 

 

- James S. Austin

Design Journal 01/17/24

 

Working on these projects is such an invigorating exercise. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to jump between all the publishing hats – writing, artwork, editing, layout… The hardest hat to wear is marketing. No one in the industry would argue this. Reaching the right people can be a challenge. The social platforms can be helpful, but on the latest round, they proves to be also annoying and potentially wasteful. Something that didn’t happen in the past when boosting a post is the constant run of messages from ‘guests’ claiming we are doing any number of things wrong and are to be shut down.

 

But that doesn’t mean they are ineffective for those who might be the right audience seeing the post. You learn that when a lady puts you on blast for having an ad on her feed. At first, I found her anger most unwarranted until I realized I was the one who should be angry. Why was SHE seeing the boosted post? She should have been nowhere near my targeted audience. That means my paid efforts are being lost on people who could care less about what I was peddling. A bit frustrating.

 

 

- James S. Austin

Design Journal 01/08/24

 

This weekend included my birthday, which was intended to force me to take a break… but that was a massive fail. I used a good part of my time to do some housekeeping for the publishing company. I ran through all the projects in the pipeline awaiting a projected release date and found it was jam-packed. I was hoping to establish a schedule for my daily efforts and found I have plenty of material to share at some point, wading through what should be first. To give you an idea, we have at least 90 q-encounters at some stage in the publishing process, and to say over 50 of them are completed. That is thanks to the work of some great writers! And that is the tip of the ‘publishing iceberg.’

 

 

- James S. Austin

Design Journal 01/05/24

 

For this year’s Dungeon24 project, I don’t think I will fully invest the time. After last year, making it a quarter of the way, I know the time needed to invest in keeping pace. It is great fun and keeps the brain inspired, but when trying to also be an active creative, the drain could eventually be too much. So, as a compromise, I plan on doing weekdays as the build days. They can be a morning warm-up. But it also means going back at the end and finishing as I won’t complete all the new creature designs and fluff immediately like I did last time… but at least a complete project when I do.

 

Since a dungeon crawl is the heart of the project in essence, and wanting something slightly different, I am starting with a ‘forest crawl’ with location, that can then lead into smaller dungeon crawls underneath. This will help to keep things fresher for me. And since I am working on the Chronicles of Ballidrous campaign setting, why not drop it there, my most recent dive into the world – the Dyathukha Forest.

 

I’ll post here occasionally to help support the feed and make sure others don’t feel alone when we (hopefully) find ourselves deeper in the dungeon, where it’s darker and scarier.

 

 

- James S. Austin

Design Journal 01/03/24

 

 

For the last couple of weeks, I have been working on two Q-Quests, a new line of adventures. These short quests are meant to be used as intros for new parties. The quests are found around a starter town, so far one for each of the three major starter nations for Ballidrous. I have been enjoying this process, excited to see them in action. And maybe one day, I’ll hear how others used them to launch their grand campaigns.

 

The first one, set in the Lands of Tres, is undead themed and tries to tie in some of the local culture. What made it awesome was working through some of the new Challenges. Even though they will eventually be in the Red Wyvern RPG as core features of the game, making 5E versions has been interesting, and helps to test the bounds.

 

One is the Research Challenge, crawling around in a library, conducting some deep research. The design had me fully working my brain, thinking outside the box. Another was the Exploration Challenge. I wanted something that was not going across a hex map, trying to guess which was the correct one. Instead, I built it to be more ‘theater of mind’ with a system of rolls. And this is just the start of expanding further beyond the ‘combat’ storytelling style.

 

 

- James S. Austin

Design Journal 01/02/24

 

I have officially launched myself into the full-time design world. That means a lot in terms of Tacitus Publishing.

 

1. Material being worked consistently – quicker releases.

2. Pipeline is already full with partial and completed products – a constant flow of releases.

3. Having more time dedicated to having a pen in hand, creating art is not such a timesink.

4. Writing more fiction, building more onto the themes of the Chronicles of Ballidrous campaign setting.

5. Driving hard to complete the robust Red Wyvern Role-playing Game. This is a long game piece but absolutely fulfilling a dream.

6. Seeing the world of Enolia become a reality – all the small pieces falling into place to make a wonderous adventuring setting.

 

The excitement is real, and I hope you join me in this endeavor.

 

 

- James S. Austin

Happy New Year everyone!!!

 

 

I will be spending my time at the Happy Toad Tavern. Enjoy and be safe.