content warning: harassment, sexual misconduct. reader discretion is advised

Arcadum, or Jeremy Black as many know him, has recently come under fire as more than thirteen public-facing women have come out with allegations of misconduct. From manipulation between supposed friends, sexual harassment towards women he supported financially, to outright cheating on his significant other, Arcadum’s situation has been a mess. There are a handful of videos on YouTube covering it, from Destiny to yours truly, so you can get all the information you want from there.

Even more recently, Arcadum has released a statement confirming this situation as one where he had broken the trust and betrayed the friendships of these relationships.

With his apology, thus ends his chapter.

So what’s next?

In this piece, I aim to analyze the current situation of Tabletop RPGs and streaming and speculate on future projections of the trajectory of the community.

The main issue with any major Dungeons & Dragons / Tabletop RPG streamer being shut down is that it casts a shadow over the entire community as a whole. Any other streamer typically flits between games so if they get taken down, it only looks bad at themselves. However, prior to the advent of Critical Role, Dungeons & Dragons has always been associated with the most negative elements of nerd culture: elitism, gatekeeping, sexism, and asocial behaviors (despite its inherently communal nature). From Dungeon Masters railroading the campaign and forcing players into situations they have no input on, to forcing uncomfortable sexual behaviors onto the players or even controlling the Player Characters in character breaking ways when absent, the history of the DM-Player hierarchy of Dungeons & Dragons has been riddled with horror stories through the decades.

This has led to many people, both among content creators and the general public, avoiding the game entirely.

More than a handful of streamers have indicated within the last year that “TTRPGs seem fun but I don’t wanna get into a game with creeps and weirdos.” This showcases that despite the vast improvements Critical Role and Arcadum have made to highlight the positive elements of Dungeons & Dragons, it has only started to shake the rusty stigma surrounding the blade.

Arcadum, in his rise, had led a community stating “D&D is for everyone,” highlighting that women’s voices have been overshadowed and they should be featured just as well as men have. Despite the truth of that statement, Arcadum’s interest seems conflicted. Moderators and other important members of his community have pointed out that he has a tendency to overshadow male players in favor of placing female players. The latest chapter of the main story of his game which had previously been occupied by important players of the past was notably given to female players with no experience or tie-ins to the game. This seems to align with recent allegations and this suggests that he placed these women in these positions in order to garner favor with them, painting a darker shade to his intentions.

—The Foreboding Future—

Arcadum’s actions, despite his public-facing intentions of making “D&D for everyone,” have impacted the game in a negative manner, casting a cloud of doubt on Gamemasters that rise to prominence in the community. A certain situation involving Adam Koebel comes to mind. Both situations involved highly influential streamers, both loud feminists that have angrily called out sexism in social media, and both were involved in the misuse of power over female players.

With 250k followers on Twitch and 93k subscribers on YouTube, Arcadum’s influence and subsequent fall are not unfelt. As he commonly reached out to major streamers (from AdmiralBahroo, Lilypichu, Disguised Toast, Ironmouse, and many more) for games, he had potentially introduced D&D to millions of prospective players.

Is it possible that this dark narrative can cast Dungeons & Dragons into the darkness, the corners of nerd-dom where no one fears to tread? Are we doomed to be shunned back into our basements, running dice under poorly lit tables and arguing about Rules-As-Written vs Rules-As-Intended?

Not a chance.

It’s unlikely because, despite the hiccup here and there, the major influence of Critical Role and other more positive creators still shine enough of a good light on the rest of us. However, being the 2nd most subscribed D&D streamer (having topped 15,000 subscribers on Twitch) is no joke. It is most certainly a major step backward for the community and mainstream acceptance, placing many prospective players and creators on the defensive.

Dungeon Masters worldwide — at least those with players aware of Arcadum — will have to effectively prove themselves all over again, even if they or their players had never even witnessed an Arcadum stream. This sort of thing presses forward into the mainstream and the wide umbrella of hobbyists will have to take the flak in fallout. This, in many ways, is somehow even worse than the Adam Koebel situation as it points to a systematic observation of Dungeon Masters, their perceived ego, and flagrant misuse of power. Any trawler of the r/RPGhorrorstories subreddit will tell you that there is often a weird correlation between Gamemasters and ego. And, unlike Adam K., Arcadum had a major influence across major streamers and many communities past the centralized tabletop RPG scene.

I believe Tabletop RPGs will always have a niche market, with Dungeons & Dragons primarily leading the charge into the mainstream. Prominent creators will eventually arise and bring attention to it, but likely not to the massive success certain games have with far less history behind them — games such as Among Us comes to mind. This works as a dual-edged blade: those seeking a game with a rich history in its creation and in fandom will find Tabletop RPGs to be perfect for them. Yet at the same time, this history will always hold its progression back. From decades of racist caricature that’s only been recently retconned as non-canon and outdated, to a history of Dungeon Masters taking advantage of players, to toxic players ruining the game for everyone, we will always be struggling to shrug off our tainted history. Hopefully, as the hobby expands into the mainstream, more players will come in and that history will long be left forgotten… At least until the next prolific Dungeon Master lets power get to their head on stream.

—Final Thoughts—

Tabletop RPGs are still a niche hobby, regardless of their (mostly 5e) surge into the mainstream. Every single major mover and shaker is a pioneer in this budding environment. A power vacuum has erupted from where Arcadum plotted his castle and the next big D&D streamer is going to rise in their place. Assuming there even will be one. Let’s just hope that the next figurehead has better intentions.

Until then, the Dungeons & Dragons category is still a fairly popular Twitch category (at least compared to the more accurate but woefully underpopulated Tabletop RPGs category — honestly it’s far more effective to stream non-D&D TRPGs but use the tag anyways than it would be to use the more general tag but this is an ENTIRE rant on its own…) just waiting for those to populate it. From prep streams to AMAs (ask me anything), to Season 2 Episode 15 of some group’s campaign, you’ll hopefully find a new favorite to watch. One far less likely to be run by a creep.

Hopefully, that favorite is me (psst it’s twitch.tv/dicequeendi).

Signing off,

— Di.

Following the widespread protests kicked off by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by police while in their custody, a number of tabletop game companies have responded by speaking out against such injustice. In the best cases, they’ve also taken steps to help. While it’s becoming less rare for this industry to unite and stand up for a cause, this occasion feels especially noteworthy. Here are some examples of such companies rallying to support racial equality earlier this month.

Paizo made the following statement, pledging (among other things) to start a new charity to help black communities:

Wizards of the Coast donated to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, and Black Girls Code, and released the following statement:

pic.twitter.com/x4EY622Z2t

– Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) June 2, 2020

Steve Jackson Games donated to four charities in Austin, Texas: Austin Area Urban League, Austin Justice Coalition, Project ROAR, and 400+1 Bail Fund. They posted this statement:

Goodman Games posted this inspirational image:

Green Ronin Publishing‘s Facebook account went silent for a day to make room for other voices.

Magpie Games posted a tweet standing with Black Lives Matter, and also shared a list of black leaders in gaming.

All of us at Magpie Games stand with the protestors fighting against police brutality. Black lives matter. Power w/o accountability always leads to injustice.

Black leaders in gaming are speaking out. Follow them: @BGGameWorks @OmariAkil @eric_lang @EloytheSaint @cypheroftyr pic.twitter.com/uf7RqQ1w01

– Magpie Games (@MagpieOfficial) June 1, 2020

Evil Hat Productions donated to Black Lives Matter and released the following statement:

As one step, we’ve made a donation to Black Lives Matter. We encourage you to do the same.https://t.co/YwBVk0vbqM pic.twitter.com/tfCJQi6H3H

– Evil Hat Productions (@EvilHatOfficial) June 2, 2020

Chaosium is donating a portion of the proceeds from their latest Call of Cthulhu book to National Bail Out.

Chaosium stands with all those working to end racism, fascism and inequality.

NBO – https://t.co/LHTUzW7620
Chaosium – https://t.co/tqY4PMDRZx
DTRPG – https://t.co/t5d1PTMt8w#BlackLivesMatter

– Chaosium (@Chaosium_Inc) June 5, 2020

Schwalb Entertainment donated $1,022 to the Bail Project, explaining that “saying something without doing anything is useless.”

Since founding this company, I have made it a point to keep my personal politics and my company separate, believing that my customers generally don’t care for whom I vote or what causes I support. But the time for my silence is over. #BlackLivesMatter.https://t.co/eN0PzZagHa pic.twitter.com/Io6H0VdMEh

– SchwalbEntertainment (@schwalb_ent) June 7, 2020

Arc Dream Publishing donated to the Northwest Community Bail Fund in Seattle, and the publishers of Delta Green put their extensive research into criminal justice into perspective:

It’s long past time for America to treat criminal suspects with humanity. For the next three days Arc Dream Publishing (@ArcDreamLLC) will match donations to Seattle’s Northwest Community Bail Fund (@NWComBailFund), up to $846 a day. We hope you’ll join us. pic.twitter.com/xsdclKznhV

– Shane Ivey does Delta Green & stuff (@shaneivey) June 3, 2020

Monte Cook Games has made the following offer on their recent Cypher System adventure Heist on Miracle IV: “Now through June 30th, all proceeds from sales of Heist on Miracle IV will be donated to blacklivesmatter.com. Monte Cook Games will make a matching donation for the first 500 copies sold during this period.”

NEW RELEASE: Heist on Miracle IV–aliens, synths, and a caper aboard a space station!

Our amazing intern @DomSDickey penned this sci-fi adventure for the #CypherSystem!

All proceeds in June will be donated to their selected charity, @Blklivesmatter.https://t.co/WDfsspYar5 pic.twitter.com/jOHGV9DHkg

– Monte Cook Games (@MonteCookGames) June 3, 2020

Pelgrane Press donated $1,000 and 10% of their June web store sales to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. They also released a longer statement on their website.

In response to the murder of George Floyd, the latest in a long list of Black people unjustly killed by police, we are donating $1000 and 10% of all our webstore sales in June to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Read our full statement here: https://t.co/eFNTRXuc19

– Pelgrane Press (@PelgranePress) June 4, 2020

R. Talsorian Games made $2,000 donation to the Bail Project, which provides bail assistance to protestors. The company announced this with a statement; the full version is in a blog post, but the short version fit in the tweet below…

We couldn’t fit our statement on an Instagram-friendly graphic so we wrote a blog post. Here’s the tl;dr if you don’t want to click the link.

1. #blacklivesmatter
2. We despise racism.
3. We made a donation.
4. There’ll be more words from Mike later.https://t.co/j2ANjMv9Yn pic.twitter.com/GwyAiOj8s5

– R. Talsorian Games Making Cyberpunk and Witcher (@RTalsorianGames) June 5, 2020

Did you spot any game companies speaking out (or taking action) on behalf of racial equality recently? We probably missed some, so let us know in the comments!

Drive-Through RPG is an important fixture of the RPG industry. It is the largest consolidated site for electronic RPG products, mostly in the form of PDFs. There has been a lot of discussion about the suitability of PDFs for the delivery of RPG material, and this isn’t likely to be a matter settled any time soon, but the site is now introducing a new format – the Phone PDF.

The Phone PDF format is not a format that the site itself creates, but is a new format that has several common traits, which a few companies have created to show off the format’s features. In general, the traits are:

• Specific format with larger fonts, usually only displaying a few paragraphs at a time
• Bottom navigation buttons with “back” and “contents” links – these move the PDF back a page, or display the table of contents of the PDF
• Heading hyperlinks in the index to navigate quickly to multiple sections of the PDF

Within this format, there is some variation. In this instance, I looked at the Phone PDFs for Masks, Pugmire, and Zweihander. Because of the special formatting of the pages and the larger font sizes, the number of pages increases greatly in these PDFs. The already huge Zweihander balloons to over 2200 pages in this format.

A Tale of Three Layouts

Pugmire has the most “standard” setup of the three PDFs. All of the above bullet points are true of the PDF, and several hyperlinks allow for quick navigation from the table of contents to the various headers in the book. While it is difficult to do an in-depth read of each page on short notice, one particular oddity of formatting I noticed in the Pugmire PDF was the sideways oriented “average monster statistics” table, which is also spread across two pages.

Masks has several custom-built landing pages in the PDF, and has an overall more visual navigation system. There are specially formatted landing pages for topics like playbooks or villain rules, and the book can be navigated by both standard index and newly organized topics pages. The addition of the specialized landing pages still does something similar to the standard additional hyperlinks, but they feel like a more self-evident, guided manner of presenting the same options.

The Zweihander Phone PDF has its own customizations compared to the “standard” elements of the Phone PDF construction. It has a “back” and “contents” button at the bottom of the page, but there are also letters lined up on the right-hand side of the pages, and clicking on one of the links on the side takes the reader specifically to the index, to the letter indicated by the letter touched.

Playtime 

I took some time to use these PDFs using different PDF readers, and using them on phone, tablet, and PC. For anyone wondering, I’m still rocking the Galaxy S7 for my phone, and using a Galaxy Tab 10.1 for my mobile devices. The PDF readers I used were ezPDF reader, Adobe, Foxit, and Xodo on my phone and tablet, and Foxit and Adobe on my PC.

The recommended PDF reader for Zweihander is Xodo, although the “back” button doesn’t respond in this format. I’m also not a fan because if Xodo has a “read out loud” feature, I was hard-pressed to figure out where it is. Additionally, while the Foxit reader works fine for PC, the Foxit app won’t open the Zweihander PDF.

Aside from the above issues, I didn’t notice a great deal of difference between the formats. ezPDF’s default screen usage causes some issues, as the interface often covers the bottom of the page, making it difficult to navigate the buttons at the bottom.

While I haven’t used any of the PDFs “in play,” I did write down a few topics, and then tried to see how quickly I could track down data on that topic. While I can’t speak to use at the table yet, I can say that it was much easier to jump to a topic after a few clicks in all of the formats than it was to use the search function. Part of this is that the format makes multiple hyperlinks a necessary addition to the document.

Between my fingers and the phone cover, I had a few clumsy moments navigating the PDFs on my phone, because the navigation buttons are so near to the external buttons on my phone. Despite this, it wasn’t too bad to deal with, and was less of an issue with PDF readers that aren’t fighting to take up real estate in the same area. The tablet navigation was much easier, with more room to click on links and less potential for accidentally hitting multiple screen items at once.

Clicking on the links by mouse on PC was extremely fast. While the PDFs are formatted for Phones, the additional hyperlinks and contents pages (as well as the landing pages and index shortcuts on some of the PDFs) made navigating the topics fast.

Ghosts of PDFs Past

While the Phone PDF format is new, some of the features are not. Nova Praxis and Titan Effect are both RPGs that have “enhanced” PDFs. Instead of just having a few hyperlinks in the table of contents, both of these PDFs have navigation bars at the top or sides of the pages.

Nova Praxis, specifically, is formatted for a horizontal display, with topics along the left-hand side, and sub-topics that pop up along the bottom of the page for navigation. Titan Effect has a more traditional layout, but there are multiple topics displayed across the top of the page that allow for quick navigation to different sections of the PDF.

My Two Crypto-Currency Bits

My credentials as a “futurist” are probably not particularly strong, but when it comes to mobile access to game data, it has been my feeling lately that proprietary apps that can be tailored to the needs of the game rules being displayed are the most likely way forward. These apps may even incorporate tools like token tracking, dice, or cards that are native to the game being played.

From the various press releases and discussions of this format, it takes a considerable amount of effort to reformat PDFs for this particular style. I’ve never laid out a PDF in this manner, nor have I ever created an app, but I do wonder how much extra effort it creates to move in one direction versus another.

I can’t deny that the Phone PDFs were far more useful for reference than a standard PDF. I have several times wondered if the RPG industry could realign to accommodate the idea there is some worth to publishing rules that are primarily a reference document, versus a core set that exists to introduce and teach the game. While the Phone PDFs released have the same content as the standard rulebooks, the “meta-construct” of the Phone PDF navigation buttons, to varying degrees, merge “reference” to “teaching document.”

Varying Opinions

Reading comments from various gamers over the last few days, I’ve seen comments like “I don’t think this is for me, since I view PDFs on my PC.” I’m wondering if the marketing of this format as specifically for phones is undercutting the advanced navigation tools that the format is adopting.

I have also seen some discussion about the wisdom of creating this format, which is static regarding page size and font, versus epub formats. I’m not an expert in this area, but every RPG epub that I have seen loses some of the trade dress of the game in favor of the flexibility of the format, and while some gamers may not care if the epub of the game looks like other epub books they are reading, sometimes part of the “experience” is to see how the book was designed to look.

This preservation of trade dress is another reason I wonder about the “third way” of proprietary apps. While it doesn’t yet have the full functionality of the desktop site, the D&D Beyond app allows for some of the customizations of font size and page set up, while retaining the “look” of the D&D book from which the content is derived.

The Digital Road Goes Ever On

 I can see them being popular in the “short term,” as others are developing the next generation of data presentation. That said, the RPG industry is very good at hanging on to old ideas for a very long time. 

I don’t think that Phone PDFs are the wave of the future, but I do think that the functionality of the format may introduce players to options that they want in electronic rules references in the future. I can see them being popular in the “short term,” as others are developing the next generation of data presentation. That said, the RPG industry is very good at hanging on to old ideas for a very long time.

I also have the odd concern that if this format does become popular, it may end up being a potential issue for some independent publishers. While there are more and more tools that allow a single newcomer to produce impressively formatted products at a reasonable price, the amount of time it might take to add the extra functionality, which is largely comprised of a web of interconnected hyperlinks, may end up creating some expectations that can’t be met at the entry-level.

Overall, I’m excited at the increased functionality, and I hope it heralds a change in mindset regarding teaching and introduction versus referencing information, but I wonder if the specifics of delivering this new functionality will prove to be more cumbersome than as yet undreamt of future paradigms might provide.

We’re super excited to announce a new Staff Writer here at Gnome Stew – Camdon Wright! We’re going to let Camdon say hey in his own words, and you’ve probably read some in the guest posts he’s done himself or with other gnomes or from some of his most recent work like One Child’s Heart or Madness and Desire.  Join us in welcoming Camdon!
– John Arcadian, Head Gnome Who Can’t Think Of  Witty Tagline Right Now

Hi everyone! I’m Camdon Wright and I’m currently living in Westminster, Colorado. In this wonderland of thin air and plentiful sunshine I create games, tend to my children, and ride motorcycles as often as possible. I do my best to be honest with my words and vulnerable with my emotions. My mother is an immigrant from Ethiopia who moved to the United States when she was a teenager to go to high school. My father was born in Arizona and is of German heritage.

I’ve been reading TTRPG books since the late 70s but didn’t actually get to play anything until the mid-80s. I’ve made money writing ad copy, grants, website copy, and anything else people would pay me to do. Haikus, game adventures, and half-finished short stories dominated my personal writing projects. In the last year I’ve really committed myself to game design; pushing forward projects that I love.

I’ve found my best friends at a gaming table. I learned to speak from my heart and embrace the truth of others while telling imaginary stories. The family of my choosing that I discovered while gaming fought for me, told me I was worth loving, and reflected the best parts of me so that I could see them too. When I say that I love games I mean it from the deepest part of my heart. People make the hobby and people will be the reason it survives into the next generation.

I’m looking forward to bringing my voice to the chorus of amazing writers already at Gnome Stew. As a biracial man I feel like I can add a different perspective to the conversation about TTRPGs. It is my firm belief that inclusivity and representation must be at the foundation of the gaming world as we move forward. That won’t happen by accident so I work to challenge expectations in gaming culture. I support LGBTQ+, women, and people of color on their journey and include them in mine.

TLDR: There’s a new Gnome in town. I came here to write blog posts, feel emotions, and eat the stew. I’m all out of stew.

The original Pathfinder roleplaying game beta launched at Gen Con in 2008. At the time, I was one of the volunteers for the brand-new Pathfinder Society, and attended the “Future of Pathfinder” seminar held that year. Now, in 2018, I was at Gary Con, when it became clear that the “Future of Pathfinder” event being held there was going to be a seminar on the direction of the 2^nd edition of the Pathfinder roleplaying game. It seemed fitting to attend.

The event was hosted by Paizo Senior Designer Stephen Radney-MacFarland and Paizo Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn. This was a two-hour seminar, which was about half presentation, half question and answer. The summarized information on the design directions of Pathfinder 2^nd Edition is organized into broad themes that developed from the discussion, rather than being presented in the chronological order in which the information was presented.

The Look of Future Products

Wayne Reynolds, the artist that worked on the original Pathfinder core rulebook, as well as many other products, will be returning to detail key images for Pathfinder 2^nd Edition. Paizo has often used named iconic characters to illustrate various classes, as well as using them as the “stand in” adventurers for illustrations in adventures. There were a few details given about the iconics going forward.

• Seoni, the iconic sorcerer character, will have a redesign that will be “less salacious,” but will highlight her signature tattoos more prominently
• Characters like Valeros and Harsk will be given different gear to highlight how new class features work (for example, Harsk has two axes and Valeros will be carrying a shield)
• An iconic goblin alchemist is being added to the core lineup, to highlight that both goblins and alchemists will be in the core rulebook

Playtest Schedule and Products

The playtest will start in August of 2018, at Gen Con. A PDF of the rules will be made available, as will a PDF of a playtest adventure, and a PDF with a selection of monsters available, which will not be included in the playtest rulebook. The playtest document will be similar in size to the 2008 playtest for 1^st edition Pathfinder.

• There will be pre-orders for soft-cover, hard-cover, and commemorative leather-bound copies of the rules, as well as physical copies of the adventure and map sheets specifically highlighting locations in the adventure
• The adventure will have specific surveys asking directed questions about the parts of the game highlighted in various sections, to make feedback more directly actionable
• There will be further playtest adventures as the playtest continues, with their own surveys
• The playtest timeline will assume play of a specific section, and will move on to a new section approximately every two weeks
• Each section of the starting adventure is predicted to take about 6-8 hours to complete

Guiding Principles of Design

Both presenters mentioned that it is very important to Paizo to capture the proper feel for the game, and for it to meet the expectations that players already have for the game. They mentioned cases where the game is not intuitive in its design, such as with skill points or in some sub-systems that only affect certain classes. All the classes and what were previously known as races will be in the core 2^nd edition rulebook, with the addition of goblins and alchemists, due to their popularity.

They noted that many players enjoy the system mastery elements of a more complex system, so their goal is to design a game that is complex, but logical, where multiple systems work in a similar fashion, while still allowing players to enjoy building characters based on “corner cases.”

Core Rules and Resolution

The core gameplay experience of the game will still be the same, with characters taking actions and resolving those actions by rolling a d20 and adding a bonus to measure against a difficulty number, but the way actions work, as well as the range of bonuses and difficulties, will be changing.

• Instead of having a move action or a standard action, characters will now have three actions they can take per round, to do any action they wish, although repeated attacks with have penalties
• All characters will have a reaction, which may trigger under different circumstances and do different things, based on class
• Some characters may have multiple reactions that they may set up by taking a specific type of action on their turn
• Difficulties and armor classes will have their ranges shifted to a different range of numbers–it was specifically noted that a wizard with some armor bonus would still have a statistically relevant benefit from that bonus within the new range, which is not currently the state of the game at higher levels of play

Modes of Play

The game was stated to always have multiple modes of play, but the new edition with quantify those different modes of play with different rules to support them, and to give the GM more guidance in how to move between them. In addition to the modes of play, a bit more time was spent discussing structured encounters and initiative resolution.

Encounter mode will be in structured time, with rounds that take approximately six-second intervals, and characters keeping track of initiative order. Exploration mode will be any time where characters are taking more specific action, investigating, and moving, but not in a manner that requires strict turn order. It was stated that the GM has more freedom to state time intervals based on the requirements of the adventure in exploration mode. Downtime mode is the time between adventures, where adventurers state the way they spend this time and various kinds of training and crafting that they might engage with.

• Some critical social encounters may be run in encounter mode, with an initiative order
• Initiative is now primarily determined by perception, which is a score which all characters have and is no longer a class-specific skill
• Depending on what the character was doing in exploration mode, they may use different skills to determine initiative (such as a rogue that is scouting using stealth as initiative, or a bard using perform when they attempt to assassinate a noble at a gala)
• The core rulebook may give a suggested amount of downtime to award at each level, and specific adventures may call out specifically expected downtime allotments as well
• One downtime activity will be retraining, so that characters are not permanently locked into the decisions that they have made at a particular level
• One reason for increasing the importance of downtime is to alleviate the feeling that characters go from low-level characters to being among the most powerful adventurers in the world in a few months’ time

Classes, Ancestries, and Character Creation

At the seminar, it was stated that both the witch and the oracle nearly made it into the core book, but the alchemist was added so that the alchemy rules could be added as rules that anyone can interact with, not just members of that class. Alchemical items will scale over levels, and the alchemist will be using their own system instead of defining their abilities in terms of spells. Alchemists will still have bombs and mutagens as other abilities are added to them.

Races will now be referred to as ancestries, and goblins will be added to the list of core ancestries. It is noted that player character goblins will most likely be outcasts from goblin society, so that the core concepts of goblins as monsters do not change.

Character creation was stated as following ABC, picking ancestry, background, and class. Backgrounds will be replacing the trait system that was previously introduced in Pathfinder products, and in addition to backgrounds in the core rulebook, there may be adventure path specific backgrounds available to tie a character more closely to a storyline.

• Archetypes will still be part of the game, and there will be archetypes introduced from the start
• When asked about multi-classing, the response indicated that you would be able to get “things” from other classes–the importance of sticking to a theme instead of cherry picking rules elements was mentioned
• Background will grant a specific Lore, which is similar to a specialized knowledge skill, such as Lore–Alcohol being granted to a character with barkeep as a background
• Classes will have abilities that highlight what they do–specific examples given were that spellcasters will be impressive on their own turn when casting spells, rogues will have surges of damage dealing, and fighters will be able to “lock down” opponents

Gear

When discussing gear, a “dent system” was brought up. Shields are specifically being designed to take damage and to be more disposable, but also more functional. The dent system is not likely to interact with all gear, but only gear that might have specific rules interactions outside of a single purpose. The encumbrance system is also going to be reworked to measure bulk, and to be more directly based on the strength score, rather than a separate chart.

• One of the previously mentioned actions that might “load” a specific kind of reaction is readying a shield to absorb damage as part of a reaction
• The encumbrance system was mentioned as being similar in concept to how the topic is handled in Starfinder
• The terms “light bulk” and “heavy bulk” were used, but not further examined
• In some circumstances, a character may have “signature gear” that they choose which can level up with them
• Some downtime activity may relate to repairing “dented” items

Skills

Skill point calculation was stated as being one of the most complex aspects of the game, and one of the least intuitive to process. A future blog post on Paizo’s site will be dealing with the skill system in more detail, but skill points are “kind of” gone.

• Still a limited range of skills to pick for starting characters
• Characters will likely pick some skills to have access to them, and pick other skills that they want to improve over time

Spells and Spellcasting

There was a broad discussion of some aspects of spellcasting, and the role that spellcasters play in the campaign. Questions were asked about whether the game addresses the usefulness of spellcasters versus non-spellcasting classes, as well as how spellcasting will specifically work.

• Cantrips will be more broadly useful across the life of the character
• Shield is a cantrip, and can be “loaded” for a reaction in a manner like physical shields, and can react to magic missiles
• Most spells will cost two actions to cast–they may get an extra boost to power if another action is added, and some will only cost one action to cast
• Spellcasting actions are related to what is currently listed as spell components–if a spell has a verbal and somatic component, it will take a verbal action and a somatic action to cast
• The intent is to make spellcasters “cool on their turn,” then let the spotlight move
• Some changes will be made so that spellcasters have limited ability to encroach on the niche of other classes outside of their turn in combat

Monsters

The game will aim to make monsters easier to create on the fly, and to make the underlying math simpler. Examples of what a monster should have for stats at various levels will be given, as well as adjustments based on the creature’s role (for example, making a monster that is hard to hit, but goes down quickly, and how those stats should be adjusted).

Monsters will have unique reactions native to them. For example, if fire magic is used near a red dragon, they may use a reaction to control the fire magic. Jason Bulmahn also stated that he created a reaction on the fly in a game where a serpent creature received a reaction to strike anyone moving next to it regardless of turn order, because it felt appropriate to the creature. The goal is to create monster reactions that will be logical for the monsters, but will make them fresh and surprising to use in a game.

Influences

 It will be interesting to see what problems are isolated as the most important to address, and what the solutions to those problems might be. 

During the question and answer portion of the presentation, a question was asked about games that may have been an influence on the design direction of the new game rules. It was stated that the team looked at many games, not just roleplaying games, to help develop their direction. They also did not look at any game for rules inspirations, but for ideas on what problems they were addressing and how they handled elements like narrative structure or rules presentation.

Some specific games were mentioned, including the following:

• Dungeons and Dragons 5^th edition was not an influence, beyond seeing what problems were being addressed in that game and where similar problems overlap with Pathfinder, but they are aware of the game and interested in solving those problems in their own way
• Stephen Radney-MacFarland mentioned being a fan of Shadow of the Demon Lord and friends with Robert Schwalb
• The original white box edition of Dungeons and Dragons was mentioned as a source that the team consulted as they developed design goals
• Magic the Gathering was stated as a game to look at for how to present rules and rules interactions
• Historical miniatures games were also cited as something the team looked at, analyzing rules and how the various games resolved combat and movement
• Tales from the Loop and Star Trek Adventures were both mentioned as games that the team looked at to see how they utilized narrative structures

In the next year, there should be ample opportunity to participate in the playtest and have the chance to shape the game going forward. It will be interesting to see what problems are isolated as the most important to address, and what the solutions to those problems might be.

Now that you’ve seen the roadmap that Paizo is following in this new edition of Pathfinder, what do you think? I’d love to hear from you, and if you are going to follow along with the playtest, participate, or wait for more news. If you left the game, are you going to come back? Looking to check it out for the first time? Let me know in the comments below, and thanks!

Frank Mentzer, gamer and game designer who started working at TSR in 1980, has launched a Kickstarter for a new game setting: Worlds of Empyrea.  Here is the Q&A we did discussing this new project and his thoughts about the OSR.

Q. Let’s start with the title itself: “Worlds of Empyrea.”  Not the kingdom of Empyrea, not the continent of, nor even world of, but “Worlds.”  So how broad and far-reaching is this setting?

Greetings! Yes, it’s plural. For the first time in tabletop gaming history, a setting is being released for ten different game systems. You choose your favorite game when you order it, and all the statistics in the set are for that system.

We collect all the crunch in one System Book. When you need the crunch, you’re probably headed for action, so you switch to the System Book.  Once things settle down again, you go back to the main book, bigger maps, and so forth.

Adventures have more action, so you can’t separate the crunch. A setting is far less dependent on the numbers, being more about verisimilitude and historical context. Each character and monster has to have its relevant data, and things must be described using the right words and terms. Thus, each ‘world’ is the Empyrea of that game system. We’ll have dedicated sets for each of the following: D&D 5e, 1e/2e, and BECMI (my ‘red box’ series); Runequest and Savage Worlds; and five major D&D variants (Open Game License aka OGL games) Pathfinder, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Castles & Crusades, Swords & Wizardry, and Hackmaster… Ten Worlds of Empyrea.

If this works as planned, the next step is actively modifying that version of Empyrea to reflect the game system, not merely ‘patch’ it with stats. This is a longer project, to be undertaken with the cooperation of each creator and/or publisher involved.

Q. If I may … publishers and game creators today are very specific about defining how their settings and hobby games fit in terms of genre and play style, mostly so they can directly target their intended audience. But from what I’m hearing, does Empyrea hearken back to an era when audience interests in fantasy, sword and sorcery,  horror, adventure and science fiction more freely overlapped?  Or is this something completely new?

With its roots in the 1970s, Empyrea has Old School origins. But most of the development has been from 1990 to present, while watching the exciting new developments in the hobby, both mainstream and Indie.

The core campaign is so ‘pure fantasy’ that Tech items are actually Forbidden by the gods. Of course that implies a black market, and a source in the first place … which leads us to orbit. Future projects will look at this planet from outside, and the intent is to address Traveller, Starfinder, and other great SF RPGs as we’re doing Fantasy on this round.

Q. The FAQ on Empyrea states it has three main premises. Can we take them in turn and can you elaborate on what each means for the players whose characters will inhabit the setting?

Each premise affects vast parts of society, so I’m glad you focused on the players.

First, “Magic instead of Technology?”

The church distributes magical light pebbles and a recommended curriculum for home education. Simple elemental transformations (removing water from mud, or earth from air) produce superhighways and a fire suppressant, respectively. To the average player character, this has all been normal for a century at least, and is all taken for granted. That’s the focus of the ‘quickstart’ adventures we provide in the set.

A sentient but indifferent planet?

A group of cultists (druids) can smooth-talk it into revealing valuable clues. One was “since you can talk to animals, ask them what THEY want,” which produced animal crossings, less farm trouble, and more cooperation all around. Again, this produces more general effects than character-specific.

Royals who place quality of life above the unbalancing mass whims like war and wealth?

The people always get shafted when a power group rises. They want life to be both worthwhile and fair. Life isn’t fair, but if everybody tries, they can make it better. Royals encourage Diplomacy vs. war, People vs. greed, Quality of life vs. consolidated power. The Arts are subsidized, and creativity flowers.

 

Q. Much of that sounds almost idyllic. What’s the source or sources of conflict in the setting? What threatens this way of life? What impels adventurers to strike out?

Enjoy it while you can; the end is prophesied. The east and west are impassible, north is mountainous and hostile, and south is deepwood where the Evil One is gathering armies. And a nearby Orc realm is trying to become civilized, and all the Dragons are tired of being hunted by adventurers. And more ….

Q. Gnome Stew readers are mostly game masters. Speaking directly to them, what are the elements of Empyrea that you would dangle before them as an enticement?

It’s easy. It can become your “other setting” for your usual game, with a very short and easy learning curve. It contains almost no new game details. The epic plot elements are continental, not personal, and become a background to your own character stories. Many new concepts and details will inspire you to create your own Empyrea adventures.

Q. Can you spare a few moment to discuss your association with Gary Gygax and how that relationship fits with regard to the setting?

I lucked out when, unemployed in the Philadelphia suburbs in the 1970s, I was hired by TSR in 1980. He soon picked me to start the RPGA, and a friendship evolved. My fourth RPGA adventure to be published, “Doc’s Island” (R-4), had a background that involved Gary’s campaign. We discussed his, mine, and ours, and decided to add it to TSR publishing plans. One routine document (at the time) approved the ‘history’ part, placing both campaigns on the same planet. However, they were to have no interaction, primarily due to a great sea between them. (Actually we wanted to keep the Intellectual Property elements entirely separate and thereby more controllable.)

Sadly Gary was ousted in 1985, and Empyrea never got to the TSR drawing board. I wasn’t going to do it at TSR without him, since I created it before TSR (1977-80) and that would simply give it away. Gary would have taken care of me, but now I was alone. So it had to wait.

Throughout the 1980s I worked for game companies, and everything I wrote (and everything Gary wrote as well) belongs to the publishers thereof. We have no quibble with that, and we don’t steal from others. This is not a Greyhawk product; it’s all new, all original.

Q. Is this an appropriate moment to ask about the OSR movement?  What does the Old School Renaissance mean to you?  What contributions is OSR making that are having an impact on rpgs, either mainstream, third party or even personal press?

In many ways, corporate methods have controlled the D&D game, and many other RPGs, for decades. We all understand that means bigger and more widespread (distribution and support primarily). “Better” is a value judgment, so let’s just say ‘different’ artistic styles have been left for the OSR and others, categorized as “Indies” or small companies or just folks with day jobs.

Lower overhead brings lower prices and encourages volunteerism, amateur, and semi-pro efforts of all kinds. Some who scorn corporate productions will flock to sincere and different offerings, seeking the obvious creativity and freedom from big-market shackles. Many don’t seek corporate success; they just want to have a voice, to contribute. It’s great that a method exists for this; it’s a broad, rich, and vital part of our hobby.

Q. While not a universal sentiment among game designers, I have had several confess to trepidation when packaging their personal setting for publication. Sometimes it’s the social ties to the players at the table that hold them back, in others, it’s a proprietary concern, they are just reluctant to see it released into the wild, so to speak. They are perfectly willing to work up something from scratch for publication, but that personal game is another matter. Where do you, and Empyrea, fall on this spectrum, and have your thoughts on this changed over time?

I felt that way decades ago. Now I’m 67, and don’t have time to hold it back. Empyrea has been in the playtest lab for 25 years online, and existed in 4 major incarnations – 1970s Philadelphia area, 1980s Lake Geneva, 1990s Online, and 2000s Chicago area. As game masters, all of our ‘home games’ are in rough shape, nobody writes them like published stuff. So there’s a lot of typing still to tackle.

Q. Share with us what you can about your partners in this venture.  Publishing is a collaborative enterprise. Who are some of the people on your team and what are their various responsibilities?

Although I’ve been preparing for this for decades, the activity team started forming this summer. (The following list doesn’t include the 20 or so Legendary Names from the history of D&D, our contributing authors and artists.) Loxley Enterprises is the parent company; Empyrea is the project. For that, Darlene agreed to be partner and graphics manager as well as producing the big campaign map herself. Ted Fauster, my aide (creative and organizational), was the first hired, and will work with me and TSR veteran Tim Beach for text and development. I invited Peter Bradley, Don Higgins, Ogmios, and Mark Quire for our general art needs, plus Alyssa Faden and Anna Meyer for cartography. Mike Myler is our crowdfunding engineer and media coordinator, and TSR veterans Steven Winter and Anne K. Brown will handle the editing. Finally, former GAMA president Chris Wiese is handling contracts and other business aspects, and Kevin “Doc” Wilson is Mr. Organization, managing the flow of the many sub-projects. We still need a business manager and some accounting support.

Q.  I’ve got D&D rulebooks with red and blue covers that, I know now, were largely the result of your efforts. At the time, I didn’t care who wrote them, only that they were the source material for a game my friends and I spent countless hours playing.  We had fun, together, at the game table. Do you have similar hopes for Empyrea? That it too, can be a source of hours of game play in a magical, timeless setting?

I hope for far more. The invention of roleplaying as a pastime triggered a major change in games. Before that, everything was competitive, from racing to sports to checkers. This was a whole new world for millions … and then it got better! It taught us how to verbalize, to compromise with others and form a team, and how to improve at numbers and visualization. In the process, we befriended others, and the resulting bonds are precious in our hearts, no matter how much time passes. These games add depth to our lives.

All game companies have to focus on paying their own people and bills, and they just can’t address games they don’t publish. In offering Empyrea for 10 game systems, Loxley is encouraging community. If we all have a common setting, it’ll be easier to try new game systems. If we have common interests, that may spur outreach and dialogue. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I know the potential is there, and that most gamers are smarter than most non-gamers, and can transcend their minor differences. Together we can do this.

We can do this, and we will. See you in Empyrea.

Thank your for your time, Best of luck with Empyrea and the Kickstarter, which begins Oct. 2.

Links

• 26.5 Shades of Scarlet
• Buy 26.5 Shades of Scarlet
• J.T. Evans
• Sasgeek

Sneak peek cover art by Cecilia Reis

Your Vampire might sparkle, might sip daintily from her V Juice box, or might be an ill-advised and off-the-books member of MI6. Your Witch might cast spells using animal bones, bulk quantities of tealight candles, or a telescoping thermos/bong. These are mere details, for some of us. The fundamental mystery we all really want to know is:

…will there be kissing?

Monsterhearts is a much beloved game about being teenagers in a dark and confusing world. Also, you’re secretly monsters (called Skins), such as vampires, ghosts, ghouls, fae, and witches. You try to navigate your place in the world and understand yourself and figure out what the hell Stella meant when she said you weren’t her type and… I’m getting carried away.

Hark, a Kickstarter!

Famed also for The Quiet Year, Ribbon Drive, & much more, Avery Alder is making a return to game design from that far-off land called Life to refine and Kickstart Monsterhearts 2. Already funded past its goal, the Kickstarter is creating new tools to facilitate quickstart play, includes new sections on asexuality and safety, and tightens the Monsterhearts experience. Stretch goals fund quickstart locations called Small Towns written by some of my personal favorite designers – back it now to help us reach those goals by the Kickstarter’s end on November 30th! A sneak peek of the new game can be found on the Kickstarter front page.

Monsterhearts is powered by the Apocalypse World engine and tailored with its own bells & whistles, such as Strings: the power you have over specific individuals. Another feature of the game is that you don’t have a labelled sexual orientation. When you’re a teen, you’re still figuring that out, and it can be frustrating (and dramatic) not to know who or what is going to turn you on at a given moment! This design choice can lead to some really fun and silly storytelling, but gets at a deeper insight about the human condition, which is what I’d say generally of designer Avery Alder‘s games.

Avery kindly stopped Gazing Into the Abyss re: the Darkness threatening Windyvale High, just long enough for an interview with Totally-Not-A-Witch Darcy Ross. Enjoy!

Darcy Ross: Monsterhearts is held very dearly in the hearts of many gamers I know. Why do you think it speaks so strongly to people?

Avery Alder: There are a couple answers that come to mind. The first is that it is often praised as an especially lucid text, for which I owe large thanks to Daniel Wood (my editor) and folks like Jackson Tegu (my dear friend and design conspirator). I worked hard to make sure that Monsterhearts was a good introduction to the whole genre of teen monster drama, that it elucidated its principles and perspectives. That’s perhaps the easiest answer to why it speaks so strongly to people, that the text communicates a unifying vision that helps put all the mechanics in context. Good editors make a huge difference.

But I think the most important reason is that this is a game that gives people permission to explore their ghosts and their demons. It asks you to wade into the confusion of adolescence, the clutch of dysfunctional relationships, and the turbulent process of queer awakening. It asks you to root for people who are flawed, who have caused harm and will cause more harm in the future, but who we ultimately see ourselves reflected in. The overwrought tone and monster metaphors help lower our defense mechanisms and engage in challenging stories.

DR: Monsterhearts 2 development looks like a convex lens, streamlining and refining the original game, while so many RPG Kickstarters behave like a concave lens, adding ever more character options, spell sections, bestiaries, etc. as stretch goals are reached. You explain your goal for streamlining in this update, but was it difficult to come to this choice, especially when consumers are so used to more, more, more? How did you figure out which content was most central to the experience, and which needed to be reworked or left out?

AA: That’s a great question! Gamers really love the idea of more. In the first couple years after I released the first edition of Monsterhearts, I was asked repeatedly whether I was going to release a supplement of some type (beyond The Blood of Misty Harbour). But when I probed, it was clear that there wasn’t a sense that something was lacking from the original text. There was just an excitement about the idea of there being more. I think that instinct is worth examining critically, both from a consumerist perspective and as a design goal. The only things that I feel like Monsterhearts needed more of were more clarity, more contextualization, more refinement, and more social tools to ensure that everyone at the table felt safe and centered. And so those are the things I am working to add more of. It’s maybe less sexy than saying “there are seven new kinds of monsters in the new edition!”, but I think it’s what’s best for the game.

As for what content was the most central, I feel like the bigger question I implored myself to explore was “what content should be central, that’s getting stuck on the sidelines?” The answer that emerged most clearly in my mind was Strings, the representation of power and persuasion that you have over others. People excitedly collected Strings on others, because those mechanics were solid and exciting. But then they’d just sit there on the character sheet getting dusty, especially when it came to new players. The mechanics for spending Strings were just a little too wordy and bulky. And so part of my design process this time around has been working to make sure that the spending of Strings is simple, central, and exciting.

DR: Small Towns are new shiny things being introduced in Monsterhearts 2: “Each town is a one-page quick-start guide for playing Monsterhearts 2 in a different setting and evoking a different vibe.” As stretch goals get funded, new towns will be written by a diverse bevy of fantastic designers and writers. How did you come up with this idea? How do you imagine these tools will impact play?

AA: I’ve talked about how Monsterhearts 2 isn’t adding much in the way of new content, and is instead focused on refining and clarifying what’s already in the text. Small Towns are the big exception.

The origin story of these quick-start micro-settings is simple enough: people have often stumbled when it came time to figure out where the game was set. Sometimes people would even forget this step altogether, and then twenty minutes into play be like, “Wait, where even are we? Is this a city, or a tiny village, or what?” A lot of groups stuck with a sleepy town in the woods. I love playing Monsterhearts in a sleepy town in the woods (and one or two of the Small Towns are totally being written in that vein!), but it seems like sometimes the game defaults to that place because it’s the first thing that comes to mind, whether people are actually excited about it or not.

Sometimes, the small town you choose will have a small impact on the stories that get told. Sometimes it’ll be a huge, driving part of the plot. I think both are great.

DR: Your design philosophy is outlined on your website – you aim to make games that are simple and shareable, meaningful and thoughtful, near and dear to your heart. Your games have innovative mechanics (I love Ribbon Drive’s use of mix tapes, the Quiet Year’s building of a semi-symbolic map), explore various topics (community building, otherness, vulnerability), have fun takes on cultural references (Monsterhearts). I could see the seed of a game starting in any of these places, or more, but where do you tend to start with game design?

AA: Different games have started in different places. For Monsterhearts, it started with a mounting annoyance about how grown-up, college-educated men were publishing scores of think-pieces about how Twilight was bad and anyone who liked it was dumb. It got under my skin because the majority of Twilight fans are either teen girls or young women, and those sneering dismissals were rife with sexist privilege. I was thinking about that a lot, and I was also thinking about how amazingly good Apocalypse World is, and the two started interacting in my brain. I made a forum post and it grew from there.

DR: Many games are designed to facilitate players and characters getting on the same page, so that they can navigate away from internal conflict and focus on conflict against Big Bads, the environment, the mystery, etc. Your games expect and mechanically interact with internal conflict. The Quiet Year has Contempt Tokens to communicate tension and frustration within the community based on something a player did to the community. Monsterhearts has Strings to indicate emotional hold your character has over people (including PCs), and its basic moves largely revolve around social conflict (e.g. turn someone on, shut someone down). What are the advantages and dangers of designing mechanics that facilitate party conflict? Do you have advice for those interested in designing along these lines?

The advantage of telling stories about group internal conflict is that you build skills for handling that kind of conflict. And, if I can just get intense and moralistic for a second, the other advantage is that you aren’t telling yet another story about rallying together to hurt or kill a common dehumanized enemy, which is great because that story has already been pretty exhaustively told across every single artistic medium ever invented.

The disadvantage of telling stories about group internal conflict is that most of the time you don’t emerge feeling triumphant. Stories about group internal conflict or community strife are often filled with compromise, sacrifice, damage control, and consequences. I think those stories are important! I get a lot out of telling those stories with people! But it can definitely feel like you are giving your heart a strenuous workout sometimes.

DR: You’ve spent a little time away from games to focus on other aspects of your life. How are you changed since coming back?

AA: One major change is that I’m returning as a mother of two. That means returning to design with new priorities and time commitments. I’m still figuring out how that will impact my design and publishing practices, but I know that it will. So far I notice myself tagging in more collaborators, rather than trying to figure out how to do everything myself. I’m relying on external playtesting a lot more, an option that I am pretty privileged and lucky to have. I’m quicker to accept and incorporate design feedback from trusted peers, where in the past I might have been more stuck on my own darling ideas.

DR: What hopes do you have for your game creating future?

AA: I’m still not sure if there will be more projects after Monsterhearts 2. If I decide to make this return to games a permanent fixture in my life, the next project I’m considering is a book-length revision and expansion of Dream Askew.

DR: That’s really exciting! Dream Askew is a queer take on the post-apocalyptic genre, where you play people living in a society that keeps getting changed through the apocalyptic process. If you’re queer, go download the current version for free, and if not, consider a $5 donation!

A mere 8 days remain for you to back the Monsterhearts 2 Kickstarter, which ends just as the final hours of November wink out. Stretch goals have continued to pile up, funding diverse Small Towns by excellent creatives in the community, and I fully expect that to continue until the very end of this exciting ride.

For those of you who might be queer teens yourself, or if you are in poverty, the Kickstarter has a discount pledge level for you, based on the honor system. I think it’s such a good idea that I’m bumping my pledge up a bit to offset it, but you do what your finances allow!

I can’t stress enough – play this game, explore feelings and identity, and tell really fun stories with friends. You won’t regret it, and the new version is going to make it even easier to play.

Explore more of Avery Alder‘s games and ideas through her website, Buried Without Ceremony, or follow her on Twitter. I heartily recommend trying out Teen Witch by yourself on a rainy or snowy afternoon, and let me get you started:

• Step 1: Ensure that you are both a teenage girl, and a witch. If you are not currently a teen witch, become one. (Don’t worry, Avery will show you how.)

Influences for Monsterhearts include movies and shows like Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Misfits, etc. What are some other media inspirations you can think of? Which Skin or monster trope do you most want to play?

“You put the key in the lock… You turn the key. You open the door… You go inside. The door closes behind you.”

I’ve been haunted by the mere prospect of a game for 7 months. Lurking in my podcatcher are three episodes that I could neither delete nor endure: an Actual Play of the tabletop roleplaying game Bluebeard’s Bride, from the One Shot Podcast episodes (parts 1, 2, 3). I have started it and re-started it and re-re-started it, but I still struggle to bear the horror and atmosphere created by GM Sarah Richardson, who is one-third of the epic Bluebeard’s Bride designer & writer trio, along with Marissa Kelly and Whitney “Strix” Beltrán.

Bluebeard’s Bride is massively super-funding on Kickstarter until November 20, published by Magpie Games. It is a game of “investigatory horror,” based on the fairy tale of the same name, in which a young woman weds a wealthy man only to find that he has a pesky penchant for murdering wives. In Bluebeard’s Bride, players take on the roles of different aspects of the Bride’s psyche called Sisters, and lead the Bride through Bluebeard’s mansion of upsetting horrors (unless it’s all in the Bride’s mind…).

There’s lots more to unpack (Modified Apocalypse World Engine! Trauma & shattering of Sisters! Additional playsets! Roll20 support! Art prints! Oh my!), but today we have Bluebeard’s Bride designer/writer Whitney “Strix” Beltrán on the Stew to help us discern realities.

Strix is a juggernaut of storytelling; she brings her Master’s degree in Mythological Studies to bear on her many creative projects, which include writing and narrative design for both analog and digital games, and running a joyful and insightful Twitch show on the Hyper Rabbit Power Go channel called “Weekly Affirmations“ that explores indie and free-form RPGs and related topics. Check out Part 1 of Strix running Bluebeard’s Bride on the show, and tune in THIS FRIDAY at 3pm PST for Part 2!

Now, step into Strix’s own game designer psyche to hear her thoughts on the design process, how the trio joined forces to create Bluebeard’s Bride, and what she hopes this game will inspire (or perhaps scar) in game designers yet to come.

Darcy Ross (DR): For those just tuning in to the buzz of Bluebeard’s Bride, could you give our gnomes the pitch?

Whitney “Strix” Beltrán (WSB): Sure! Bluebeard’s Bride is a feminine horror RPG based off of the original terrifying fairy tale. The players take on aspects of the Bride’s psyche as she explores Bluebeard’s home using fantastical (in fact, magical) keys while trying to discover if he truly loves her, or if he’s an evil murderous psychopath. The players always know the truth beforehand, so the game is not about beating Bluebeard. Rather, it’s about occupying the space of a person who cannot escape. It creates a powerful and bone-chilling experience.

DR: You’ve trained as an academic in mythology — what has it been like to channel and translate this background into game writing, design, and playtesting, especially with collaborators? For instance, Bluebeard’s Bride is based on the Bluebeard fairy tale, but is not beholden to that particular story. Was it difficult to decide which elements to keep as game constraints/core components and which to leave out?

As far as the fairy tale itself, my training gave me the context to know that all fairy tales exist as variants. There’s no “one true telling” of any of them. Fairy tales, unlike myths, live at a local level. They’re attached to the geography. They speak to whatever is right there. So we let the fairy tale speak to us where we were. We decided to work with one of the darker variants as our base model for the game.

DR: What has been the hardest part of designing this game? What are you most proud of?

WSB: The hardest part was getting the depth and cadence of the horror right. There is so much terrifying stuff packed into the box of feminine horror, that unless we were careful, the game could completely overwhelm players.  We had to make sure everything was carefully dialed in and we had to give the GM the tools and guidelines they needed to facilitate a powerful, moving game. We overstepped the bounds a lot in the beginning, and there were a ton of playtests (more than 2 years worth!), but through trial and error we honed it to a place we are really excited about. It is still intense, while being extremely fun to play.

I’m most proud of the fact that we doggedly persevered through more than two years of dev work to make a beautiful game. We were three designers who had never planned to work together, two of which had never even met before we started on this project. Who ever hears of that happening? Through all the ups and downs we stuck with it. It is a testament to our sheer tenacity as individuals as well as our ability to be flexible as a team.

DR: There’s a physicality to Bluebeard’s Bride — while there are pdf-only pledge levels, you say regarding the physical books: “Our goal is to create a display-worthy book, with every detail carefully thought out.” Higher pledge levels include a silk Bride sheet, dice, tokens, a Ring of Submission, and cards to help determine objects and people found in Bluebeard’s home. The art for all products is stunning. What were your considerations in creating this aesthetic, and what do you think the physical components add to the gaming experience?

WSB: I’m only speaking for myself, but I think Marissa and Sarah would agree. I find the visual aesthetic of a game to be deeply important. Art speaks in metaphor. It packs a magnificent punch in communicating what you’re getting at succinctly. We gunned for our artists pretty hard, and I was so, so happy when we locked down the people that we had been thinking about to do the art for more than a year.

DR: I’ve heard that this game started in a game design workshop – can you tell us that story of how this collaboration came to be?

WSB: To be honest, it was purely by chance! Sarah and I both showed up at a game jam for women at Gen Con two years ago, and happened to sit at the same table. I’d never met her in my life before that day. For the purpose of the jam, we tried to decide together what we should come up with. I told her that I had a graduate degree in mythology, and she said that she loved fairy tales. So we were like, okay! What kind of fairy tale game should we make? We both stewed in silence for a moment and then I blurted “Bluebeard!” To which she responded, “YESSSSS.” We got cracking on it, and that’s when Marissa came over to help us. She was a facilitator for the jam. We were trying to figure out what rule structure we wanted to go with, and it was Marissa that suggested hacking the Apocalypse World ruleset. We struggled on just how we would make this work for multiple players. That’s when I came up with the idea for splitting up the Bride’s mind into distinct archetypal figures. So those two very integral pieces happened right there in those first hours at the jam.

When the jam was over we knew we had something. We could just feel it. We pitched it to the room, and everyone in there knew we had something too. The three of us were gripped. We looked at each other and we said, “We’re doing this right?” All of us nodded in unison. We never once looked back. Not in two and a half years!

It was only hours before other folks I knew at the con started coming up to me and saying things like, “I heard that you’re going to be making this game! It sounds awesome!” Really, it’s been that way ever since. It’s kind of surreal. This game is a product of work. A lot of work! But we have also tapped into something magnetic that speaks to a lot of people, speaks to them in the right way.

DR: There are some mean Actual Plays of Bluebeard’s Bride out there already: Sarah Richardson ran a recent AP for the Big Bad Con Kickstarter, and you ran Part 1 of Bluebeard’s Bride for Hyper Rabbit Power Go’s “Weekly Affirmations” show. Fellow gnome Phil Vecchione and I have been wondering how we can hope to run the game as well as you folks! I suspect the cards will help evoke the tone that you all use, but will there also be helpful GM advice in the book?

DR: The GM resource sheet is in the early access packet available to Kickstarter backers now, and is super useful! Check it out.

DR: You’re a woman of color in game writing & design, and you’ve done tremendous work helping others create inclusive communities, games, and art. Do you have some advice about structures or behaviors that we in the community (as fans, creators) can enact to produce a safer and more supportive place for marginalized creators?

WSB: That could be a book in itself! There’s so much to say. There are some really basic things that I think everyone can do.

Directly and explicitly invite minority folks to your events, to write for your game, to do critical analysis, to consult, to lead. DIRECTLY INVITE THEM. CONSISTENTLY. This is one of the biggest things you can do. Make sure that the spaces you’re inviting them to are safe(er) for them. That means having a defined standard of behavior/harassment policy, and enforcing it. It means not allowing bad actors access to that space, and being prepared to deal with things that come up by having an organizational playbook on hand. Representation matters. It matters in the art for games, it matters in the types of games you play, the types of settings you explore, and the types of characters that occupy it. I’ve said a lot about this in particular elsewhere. Check out my article “Why Minority Settings in RPGs Matter.”

DR: Thank you! Those are some great, actionable pieces of advice.

DR: Bluebeard’s Bride has been blazing through Kickstarter stretch goals since its first few hours, and it’s clearly made a big impact on many who have read it, heard it, or played it. How do you hope this game will influence future games and designers?

I hope that this game demonstrates that people of all stripes can create from a place of deep authenticity. That they don’t have to sacrifice their perspectives informed by their lived experiences in order to make a game more appealing. Make a game that speaks to you, that matters to you. Don’t lose the thread of what makes it special. The gaming world is hungry for new experiences and perspectives, new ways of telling stories. Please, oblige it!

DR: Thank you so much (for the nightmares) Strix, and thanks to the other authors, Marissa Kelly & Sarah Richardson, and publisher Magpie Games.

Follow Bluebeard’s Bride and its creators on Kickstarter, ending November 20th, at Magpie Games, on Twitter, or at the game’s G+ community.

I highly recommend checking out the Kickstarter stretch goals and add-ons such as the new playsets (Dark Carnival, Condemned Asylum, and Boarding School), art prints, Roll20 support, Deck of Objects, Tarot of Servants, and more. Many stretch goals enhance and expand the core books and pdfs!

Whitney “Strix” Beltrán can be found:

• on Twitter
• on her website
• on Hyper Rabbit Power Go’s “Weekly Affirmations”, Fridays at 3pm PST. Tune in this week for more Bluebeard’s Bride! (Part 1)
• voice acting in Voice of Free Planet X
• working as a diversity and inclusion consultant for Gaming as Other
• writing for various analog and digital games
• moonlighting as a time-turner mechanic (presumably)

Have you survived an Actual Play of Bluebeard’s Bride? When you are the Bride, will you open the final door? The one Bluebeard forbade you from entering? What will you find?

However, we won’t be able to get our grubby hands on it until August 2017! As we gnomes are famously short on patience, I decided to acquire the next best thing: James L. Sutter’s precious time and energy.

The wonderful James L. Sutter, Starfinder’s Creative Director, gave a great interview delving into many of the details of this new game – from fluff to crunch to game support. Gnome Stew fans suggested lots of questions over social media, and for that I thank you all! Some questions were answered in Christopher Helton’s EN World interview, so I’ve left those off as an exercise for the reader.

Without further ado, enjoy James’ peek into this star-studded universe of adventure and discovery.

Absalom Station. Credit: Paizo

Feel and Flavor

Darcy Ross (DR): How would you describe the tone/flavor of Starfinder’s setting?

James Sutter (JS): It’s science fantasy, so if you’ve got a spectrum with Spelljammer on one end and Star Trek on the other, we’re right in the middle. Tonally, I think that Star Wars is a pretty decent comparison–while we’ve got significantly more magic than just Jedi, and I like more moral ambiguity than Star Wars usually presents, I think that feeling you get the first time you watch the Mos Eisley cantina scene is key to bringing you into the mystery of a huge, diverse universe. There are a ton of different styles of science fiction and science fantasy being blended together in Starfinder–everything from space horror like Alien or Event Horizon to Firefly-esque comedic escapades to the political drama of The Expanse–but at its heart, this game is really about exploration, seeing worlds no one’s ever seen before.

If we could do for space opera what Shadowrun did for cyberpunk, I’d be thrilled.

DR: What will the interplay between technology and magic be in this setting? Is there a gradient there, or are technology and magic fairly distinct?

JS: Technology and magic are still distinct practices, but there’s plenty of fun blending there–you can slap a magazine emblazoned with magic runes into your laser rifle to change what it does, or cast a spell that shorts out someone’s power armor. Magic’s become less common due to the rise of technology–it’s still around, it’s just not everyone’s first choice for everything anymore.

DR: Pathfinder has taken some great steps toward LGBTQ+ inclusion in its diverse representations of characters, and showcases characters that draw visual inspiration from non-Western regions. Can we expect to see more of this in Starfinder? Presumably the thousands of years of separation between “modern-day” Golarion and Starfinder will present interesting options to really play with how culture has changed and how totally new alien cultures have materialized. 

JS: Absolutely! The issue of representation is hugely important to me, and to a lot of people here at Paizo–we want to reflect a game world that’s as diverse as our audience. (Or more so, really–I’m assuming there aren’t a ton of alien bug-people or floating brains out there buying our books, but you know, no judgment.) So you’ll continue to see us doing our damnedest to present characters of different ethnicities, genders, sexualities, ages, body types, and so on.

I think it’s actually even easier to do so in a futuristic setting like Starfinder, because human cultures are no longer constrained or defined by geography, and suddenly you’ve got all these aliens around. In my experience, people tend to define “us vs. them” based on whatever the largest visible difference is. So while prejudice doesn’t cease to exist in the setting, if your next-door neighbor is a reptoid or a giant talking rhino-thing, are you even going to notice the skin color of another human? Are you going to care about your brother marrying a man when your sister’s marrying a sentient jellyfish?

People sometimes ask if we’re pushing an agenda at Paizo, and my answer is always: Oh my, yes. Our agenda is that RPGs are for everyone, and we’re gonna try our best to make everyone feel welcome. Period.

DR: How do you intend to deal with the tricky balance you need to strike between careening across different planets and providing local plot hooks? Is there a general philosophy of where you will leave room for players and GMs to world-build vs. important established locations?

JS: While Pathfinder is in many ways about exploration, Starfinder puts an even greater focus on it. In Starfinder, you’re going to have Golarion’s solar system as the well-defined core of the setting–your home base, which defines what’s “normal.” Beyond that, we’re going to give you a smattering of known worlds to get your creative engine pumping, and of course we’ll be detailing new locations as they get explored in Starfinder Adventure Path. But one of the core principles of Starfinder is that it’s outward-facing–your society has only recently gotten access to faster-than-light travel, and there are a hundred billion potential worlds out there for you to explore. So while some people may opt to play games that stay within the solar system, and we’re going to pack that setting section with ripe adventure hooks, our assumption is that most folks are going to want to blast off for points unknown at least occasionally. Which is great, because as a GM, creating new worlds and adventure locations is one of the best parts of the game!

DR: A key feature of Starfinder’s setting is that Pathfinder’s homeworld, Golarion, has vanished (perhaps in a puff of logic), and the giant Absalom Station sits in its place. This makes integrating Pathfinder proper a bit interesting – will Starfinder have advice on integrating with existing Pathfinder campaigns, or blending the two settings in interesting ways?

JS: Starfinder will have advice on converting certain rules aspects–we expect people to be able to grab creatures from the Pathfinder RPG Bestiaries and use them in Starfinder with minimal effort–but we’re not assuming people will straight-up integrate their campaigns. Starfinder, while similar to Pathfinder in many ways, is a totally standalone game with key differences–if your Pathfinder barbarian runs around the space station with a sword and no shirt, he’s gonna get torn up by some first-level soldier with an assault rifle. As he should. Plus, this game is set thousands of years in Golarion’s future, so while there will be plenty of elements carried forward–some overtly, some with a wink and a nudge–the characters living in this world aren’t generally going to care about what happened on Golarion in 4716. Do I expect that people will want to do time-traveling games that jump back and forth between the two systems? Undoubtedly, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun. But first and foremost, we’re building Starfinder to be Starfinder.

Credit: Paizo

Gears

DR: Changes are coming to the mechanics. Do you feel like there’s a trend that the new system details are moving toward, for instance toward heavy or lighter rules? Toward fewer or more rules?

JS: It’s really easy in game design to say “more options is always better,” especially when there’s a vocal crew of players willing to pay you for them. But what often gets overlooked is that the same complexity that enchants some gamers presents a huge wall to others who just want to sit down and play without wading through a million options. So while I wouldn’t say that the rules are necessarily heavier or lighter, I am really dedicated to taking a look at how many options the system actually needs. If you can make a game fun and robust with 150 feats, can you do it with 100? That’s also a very practical question for us, because we’re trying to squeeze a game system that’s in some ways *larger* than Pathfinder–because it includes starships, etc.–plus setting material into a single core rulebook. So I’d say that we’re looking to make the rules more streamlined where possible, but still making sure people have plenty of toys to play with.

DR: Are these changes accommodating the difference between fantasy and space-fantasy, or are some of the changes more general improvements on an engine that’s been out there a while?

JS: The Pathfinder RPG engine is really, really interconnected, which means we have to be careful which threads we pull, especially since we’ve still got backward compatibility as a major goal. For the most part, the rules changes are all about finding ways to better model a science fantasy world and create fun new features. But whenever we find something that could be improved relatively easily without breaking anything, we’re of course exploring that option.

DR: Will Starfinder use or draw on any of the experimentation in alternative rules from Pathfinder Unchained?

JS: Unchained definitely informed the way we’re thinking about things, but we’re not doing a lot of direct lifting.

Supplements/Support

Credit: Paizo

DR: Will there be a Starfinder Reference Document, like the Pathfinder Reference Document?

JS: That’s the plan!

DR: It’s great to see that Starfinder will have an OGL license, allowing for 3rd party products. Will it also be establishing anything like the DriveThruRPG Community Content programs, like the Dungeon Master’s Guild, or offering other kinds of community support?

JS: It’s still pretty early days yet. We’re really committed to making it easy for third party publishers to work with the Starfinder rules, and we’re all about community support, but right now we’re honestly running around like muppets just getting the game together!

DR: Pathfinder’s Adventure Paths have been well-made and hugely popular, and it has been announced that Starfinder will have APs coming as well. Can you speak on the direction the team is taking for Starfinder APs? Will there be a subscription service?

JS: Starfinder APs will be very much like Pathfinder APs, and we hope that you’ll subscribe! They’ll come out every month, so you’ll be getting two complete adventure paths a year, just like with Pathfinder. The books themselves will be a bit smaller, but they’re going to be your primary vector for all things Starfinder–in addition to the adventures, they’ll also have setting information, new rules systems, new monsters, etc. Unlike with Pathfinder, where we have a bunch of different product lines, Starfinder’s going to have a much smaller number of releases–mostly just the adventure path. So instead of getting your rules from one line, your setting info from another, and so on, you can subscribe to just one line and get pretty much everything.

DR: Are there any plans (or hopes) for expanding into a line of fiction, like Pathfinder Tales, or Pawns?

JS: Of course there are hopes! As the guy who’s been in charge of the Pathfinder novels since their inception, I’d love to bring my two babies together. But as I have to keep reminding myself: Make the game first. If the game’s popular, well, then the sky’s the limit!

Final Thoughts

DR: What would you say to folks on the edge of buying in to the brave new galaxy of Starfinder?

JS: It’s space mages with laser guns fighting cybernetic ninjas with energy blades. It’s rat-people and androids exploring new worlds, digging up ancient supertech and making first contact with weird aliens. It’s spaceship dogfights and god-run megacorps. And if you know how to play Pathfinder, you already know most of how to play this game.
If that doesn’t hook you, well… we’ll just have to agree to disagree. If you change your mind, I’ll be over here in the corner, quietly making “pew! pew!” noises…

DR: Thank you so much James! Consider me strongly #TeamPewPew.

Can’t get enough Starfinder? Follow James on Twitter @jameslsutter and keep an eye on Paizo’s Starfinder blog posts.

What do you think about Starfinder? Will you be a pew-pew-ing with me and James next summer?