A new episode has been added to the database: Protect The Child Episode 4: Raising Good Monsters

A new episode has been added to the database: Goldstar Disaster in... Paradox In Prismatia!

A new episode has been added to the database: Episode 55: Contrapasso

A new episode has been added to the database: Podcast This Escape - Revelations

by Rachel Carpenter

Still fighting clouds... ClipChamp is not my favorite software, it's a necessary evil. Luckily, I can do title slides and interrupts in PowerPoint. Videos are going... but this is taking longer than I wanted... Fingers-crossed, I'd still like to get my shop pages live by the middle of the month...

And Eight Elephants & Fireworks for the 4th are still waiting for approval here on BGG...

Game Over On borrowed time...

Happy Tuesday and happy playing!
-Rachel

Thank you for reading my blog. If you liked it; then please click the green thumb [microbadge=23724] at the top of the page. If you really liked it; then please subscribe.

A new episode has been added to the database: [Patreon Preivew] Tommyguns and Fuggedaboutits! GM'ed by Branson!

A new episode has been added to the database: Episode 266 - King of Whose Ship

A new episode has been added to the database: Welcome to the Azarr Steppe! (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #97

A new episode has been added to the database: Episode 359: The Party is at the Party

A new episode has been added to the database: DM-Nastics: C-C-C-Class Breakers

by M Charles

Note: Fair warning -- this progress log will be long-form, in keeping with the vastness and complexity of the project, and my relatively verbose design style.

What-haven?

'Ello, I'm M. Charles, and this is my dev blog for a relatively unique, and rather grand game. A Roguelite (or -like, depending on one's view; only time will tell). If you don't like Roguelites, or at least Roguelite board games, you may still find some usefulness here. I hope you enjoy, however, intimate looks into the dev progress. I decided I should be open, really open. If you're going to create a dev blog, you should share it all -- mistakes, insights, discoveries, and blunders. All of it. That is what I'm offering. And sooner or later, we should also have ourselves a sprawling Roguelite board game!

The title alludes to the fact that my game is going to be a free solo print & play game. Again, I'm sorry if you only enjoy multiplayer games; I'm doing my best to create a really immersive, responsive solo experience. At any rate, I don't care for dungeon masters, and I don't care for book-keeping. We'll see how that goes.

A final comment before we press on: when I say 'Roguelite board game', I don't mean like Dead Cells or Slay the Spire. I mean. Well, imagine if Gloomhaven and Slay the Spire and Spelunky and Dark Souls had a baby... hellooo. That is the vision. If it sounds like too much of a vision for you -- well, what about me? Did I mention the 100,000 words of pre-dev notes yet? I've been here for 300 hours, and I've not even started prototyping yet. I wake up with ideas, I go to sleep with ideas. My ideas have ideas. (On an unrelated topic: send help...)

What is Pre-dev?

Let's start with so-called pre-dev. I have no idea if others use this term. It just helps me, mentally, to think of it this way. It's a bit like pre-production from the world of cinema (and many video games). But instead of building everything up as little models or -matics, etc., I sketch it in my mind, make lists, and create charts and graphs, and write story, and write rules ideas. It's what happens before prototyping. On a normal project, pre-dev is rapid: anywhere from 3 hours to 3 days. Prototyping is vital. But I've been on pre-dev for 3 weeks so far. The project is too big and complex to prototype without the fundamentals.

Tip, by the way, and this will become highly relevant over the next few dev logs: if you have 2–3 good, overarching ideas, but they're not strong enough by themselves, combine them into a larger narrative structure and game concept. (This is famous creative writing advice from Stephen King and others, but I believe it generally applies to board games, as well.)

I'll try my best to create a coherent tunnel through pre-dev, as I'm almost at the prototype stage. From old game ideas and story projects, and all the new notes for this game, I'll dig through my 100,000 words of notes (and hundreds of images, drawings, and charts).

Let's pause. What is this project? Or, more importantly, WHY is this project?

It's not that unusual if you consider the sort of games I like, and the sort of stories I like, coupled with my inability to code video games, and my inability to cast my mind into the realms of TTRPGs (tabletop role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons (1974)). In essence, this project is for anybody who likes the idea of D&D but doesn't actually like playing D&D. However, it's not just a board gamey or miniatures-driven version of D&D -- that already exists in D&D itself, and various TTRPG-like games.


PART I: THE WHIRLING WHEEL OF FATE...

It all -- well, not all; we don't have time for that at the moment -- began last week. Themris and Gripeaway, among others, informed me that my idea was not desirable for a mere Gloomhaven homebrew; it moved too far away from the essence of Gloomhaven proper. (We'll read this idea of 'moving too far away from the essence of a game or genre' later.)

I felt liberated, among other, more conflicting emotions. But liberated. The real advantage in creating a wholly original game (compatible with other game components or not) is that you have total control over what you include. Or, more accurately, the game has control over what you include. As Jung once said, 'people don't have ideas; ideas have people', I must posit that designers don't have games; games have designers. And the amusing double meaning did not escape my notice.

Anyway, the question slowly shifted. If not Gloomhaven, then what? Printhaven, evidently. But that is nonsense -- I only thought of that term for this blog. What was I actually thinking? What was the actual process? That is simple enough:

Question #1: How much Gloomhaven did I want to keep?

Question #2: What is the primary genre of the game?

Question #3: What is the core mechanic of the game?

Question #4: What is the overarching structure of the game?

And literally dozens of other questions (I stopped counting at about 25; because why waste time with that?)

Some of these questions were answered very recently, where others were answered weeks ago (and many of those were recently re-answered. More on this in a moment). You have no idea how things are going to twist and turn, and shape and reshape over time -- pre-dev, prototyping, or post-prototyping.

Honestly? My game was not even going to be a Roguelite (or -like). I dismissed the idea early on. I figured that Roguehaven was close enough, and I figured that my idea wasn't good enough for a solo print & play Roguelite. I planned for a more sandbox RPG direction. Then I got greedy, in a good way. And I remained not only open-minded but truly open-ended. In the end, I rid myself of all biases and preferences. I started from the beginning. I asked the questions again, and again, and again. Slowly hammering the game concept into its current form.

At some point, it hit me: no, sorry. I actually want a Roguelite game. I did the old 'I'll just see if I can make it work before giving up... and then see again, just in case' approach. I used a few other approaches and processes, too.

(1) Never fully dismiss anything. If you throw something away, make sure you only throw it as far as the back of your mind. You will need some of it later, I can assure you of that. And having to dig through your entire life just to find it again, or wait around until you rediscover it is painful and a waste of time.

(2) Process of elimination. Or as I like to think of it, carefully pruning a little tree. This can be more fluid or a carefully considered list, or both. The idea is to remove items that you know -- or think you know -- you don't want. It's a good way, at least for me. Just cut out all the bad ideas. Find the right solution to the problem. Choose the right character for the story. Narrow down your options.

(3) Designing with a hammer. I borrowed this from Nietzsche's idea of 'philosophising with a hammer'. In essence, it means, according to his thinking -- 'cynically and with innocence'. This is my central design philosophy, and I believe requires some explanation.

To design with a hammer means that you metaphorically -- or metaphysically -- hammer an idea into the ground. Every speck and drop. Ruthlessly, and without contrition. Nothing is off limits. Nothing escapes your watchful eye. Nothing cannot be refined and refined again. The game cannot be trusted; other devs cannot be trusted. But more profoundly, you also cannot be trusted completely. But the process of discovery and the momentary bursts of insight can be trusted. That is the cynicism.

The artist is merely a conduit in way of the source, not the source itself. Where I falsely assume to have been the creator, I have not only fooled myself but the most vital process. Regardless, even if I came to the idea independently, it is no more my idea than another's. At best, certain edge cases could be said to be my own novel invention, for you cannot see it anywhere else (even if we suppose a vast sample size). What matters it? The game has informed me more far than I have informed it. You can tell this by the fact we're no longer anywhere near where I started. And half my ideas are already the ideas of my past self, stretching back months or even years; and half of his ideas were themselves borrowed from other sources, either directly or indirectly. No. We are now firmly taking the game's lead. And that's what we want. The dev is the engine, to be certain -- but the game is the track ahead. That is the innocence.

(4) Patchworking or Frankenstein-ing. This simply means that you combine, nest, layer, and blend different genres, ideas, subsystems, and other parts into a new, larger whole.

That will do, at least for now. Before, I said I was 'greedy, in a good way'. What did I mean by that? Well, I not only decided to take Roguelite, but I decided to aim for all its benefits and none of its negatives; and all the benefits of a few other genres, too. Of course, we're going to have some negatives at the end of this. But what's important is that we're getting the positives of multiple different genres, and slowly painting a coherent picture. It's not enough to genre-bash -- you need to adhere to a project vision. The project vision is what makes your game, well, your game. Not any other game. Clearly your game system and your game world. And not only your game in particular, but the best version of that game in terms of what it's trying to achieve. I call that elegance (not to be confused with the more academic type of elegance, where everything other than Hex and Go falls short), when a game archives precisely what it set out to achieve. That is my task, as I understand it.


PART II: LET IT BURN AWAY, LIKE DEADWOOD...

What are the answers to the questions, then? The simple truth is that I don't know, yet. I can only give you the current answers.

Answer #1: As little of Gloomhaven as possible. I realised the moment I heard from Themris and co., that I did not want to use many components, ideas, or mechanics from Gloomhaven. I wanted everything to be print & play, and original to my game system and narrative setting. More on this in a future dev log.

Answer #2: The primary genre is Roguelite (or -like).

Answer #3: I don't know. Really. It's up in the air at the moment. Even then, it's impossible to truly know the core mechanic until the game is complete, or close to it. You think it's one of thing, such as movement or combat, but it turns out to be another, such as list-building.

Answer #4: This is a complex one due to how multifaceted and nested the game is becoming. It's not a Legacy game like Gloomhaven, I can tell you that much. And it's almost certainly going to be very soift Roguelite. In my view, a hard Roguelite contains a powerful metaprogression, where you're much stronger on run 10 compared with run 2, for example.

As the title of this sections indicates, there is another important part of my process: this notion that you must allow the failed areas and bad ideas and broken mechanics and bloated narrative to burn away like deadwood. You have to let them go, let them all go. At least until you need them again (maybe even in another form). If you're overly attached to something, it becomes a kind of ego death and rebirth situation. You don't want that. Let them fade away, and early!


PART III: AFTER-HAVEN?

Ah. That's better, isn't it? We can finally begin to talk freely about the game, as it exists today. We have rid ourselves of Gloomhaven, for the most part. And we have rid ourselves of the trappings of convention.

What next? What is the game, really?

I did something of a reboot in my mind. I didn't plan it, of course -- it just happened. When you remove everything and want everything all at once, you have no choice but to snap back to the beginning, unless you're a wild genius, perhaps. I mentioned 'convention' earlier. Do not infer that I meant some great dance into the Postmodern realm, or Deadpool-like madness, breaking all the fourth walls and such. I don't have the temperament for that. Quite the contrary. Being inspired by Spelunky and Dark Souls -- not to mention The Lord of the Rings and Labyrinth (1986) -- you may understand that I went back to a slightly more grounded, archetypal place.

Like Games Workshop, I started with the miniature, the character (you may use a pawn in your own adventures, or some other miniature). And I started by looking at my collection of -- you guessed it -- Warhammer. It all started with the Imperial Nobility (Blood Bowl). In essence, the humble medieval knight...

by sdonohue

Legendary Villains: Wicked Witches was released in 2017 by Legendary Games for Pathfinder 1E. The designer is Alex Riggs and there is a team of artists.

Presentation
This is available in PDF or print. The print version is 32 pages and perfect-bound. The covers are heavy stock and the interiors are matte. The entire book is full color, including the pages having a blue background. It is richly illustrated.

Content
This book is intended to provide additional options for NPC witches. It starts with a table of contents, then the ogl and credits before we get to the introduction which explains the history of witches and the motivation behind this book.

It quickly jumps into three new archetypes for witches. The Consort of Fiends is a witch who has made a deal with a powerful creature like a demon prince. They radiate evil all the time thanks to their dealings with such creatures and the things they are forced to do. As they progress in level, they gain an improved familiar and later they can better command outsiders they summon. At 18th level, they can use the wish spell up to 3 times per week, but each wish is more likely to be corrupted than the last.

Curio Collectors specialize in objects; they gain the ability to read objects, become experst at curses and learn to create cursed items as they advance in level. They also gain a hex that lets them bind an item so they know where it is at all times.

The Shadow Sister is an archetype that specializes in shadows and darkness. Their powers are more effective against light, they eventually get to see in the dark, to use their own shadow as a spy, and at 18th level, that shadow can be used to possess others.

Hag Matron is a new prestige class for witches who have bound themselves in service to hags. They gain the ability to transorm themselves from their monstrous hag appearance to a more beautiful one, they advance their spell casting, and they gain a number of additional powers. It's a 10 level prestige class. There is a lot of information here about the different sorts of hag blood and the powers it grants to those who have infused it.

The next section covers Patron Oaths and provides nearly a score of oaths for witches. Each oath has a name, a list of acceptable patrons for witches taking the oath, a description of the oath and the benefit the witch gains by taking the oath. There are seven new hexes in the next section, followed by seven witch-appropriate magic items. The book ends with a chapter on lesser familiars. These are creatures from the lower planes which can be taken as a familiar without requiring the improved familiar feat; each of them is given a standard stat block and an illustration.

Evaluation
There is a lot of information to absorb here. The book does a great job of providing some new archetypes for witches that feel right; they remind me of witches in movies. The book intends for all these powers to belong to villains which makes some sense. All the archetypes feel evil. The prestige class, Hag Matron is also very cool but strongly evil. The section on patron oaths might be my favorite. It allows characters to promise a behavior and in return get a boost to some of their spells; it lets one witch be great with cold and another with fire, which is always a good way to make characters unique. The new items are also interesting (who could resist a "Broom of Chastisement"?) as are the hexes and the lesser familiars. The lesser familiars make it clear the character is evil, but they aren't as powerful as improved familiars.

Overall, I'd rate this a great buy for the GM and maybe for players in a game where being evil is part of the fun.