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Given the opportunity to write a game, I selfishly wrote one that matched how I love my fantasy games to feel. I'm particularly chuffed that we were able to give characters tools to manipulate the politics around them. I wanted something that would capture the feel of Discworld's Ankh-Morpork...

Oh, sure! Hardcover available now, PDF available September 1. https://pelgranepress.com/product/swords-of-the-serpentine/ And here's a nifty and comprehensive review. https://teletype.in/@lockedroomgaming/sword-of-the-serpentine-review

Back in the early 2000s when I was writing my storyhour here at EN World, one of the locations was the city of Eversink: a highly political swamp city that was oozing with adventure. Well, maybe not "oozing." Because that's gross. But the city was always sinking into the swamp, slowly, meaning...

I think they're hugely relevant to publishers. Not sure how covid will change things, but for many companies, a large proportion of their annual sales will occur during the four days of Gen Con.

Swords of the Serpentine hits all three criteria. Build the heroes with the point-buy for 3 players (even if you occasionally have a 4th); and it's designed for episodic play, like chapters in a paperback book full of swords & sorcery stories. It can do deep mysteries, but there's no need if...

If you remember what I said, maybe I can paraphrase it. MAYBE. :D

WOOO BONUS RESOURCES!

I feel incredibly lucky that I've never gotten a really bad review. I'm still keenly aware that not all games are for everyone. When playtesting TimeWatch, playtest feedback was really good -- except for one playtester group where the PCs literally suicided their characters rather than continue...

I think everyone at the table is responsible for making the game more fun for everyone else at the table. It doesn't always happen, but It's something I encourage.

Ha ha, stole your hat!

Playtested a new adventure. Success! Apparently, I'm unable to write publishable adventures unless I actually run them first, before I put even a single word on paper. Writing AFTER I run them is easy; writing BEFORE I run them is a horrible grind full of second-guessing and paralysis. Glad it...

This game is magic, and I highly recommend it; it's one of my two favorite PbtA games of the 20-odd I've played. It's a different mystery resolution than, say, GUMSHOE. In BB the GM doesn't necessarily know the true culprit of the mystery. The mavens accumulate clues, theorize about them, and...

We debated before our current MnM game; I'm not the GM, and most players had 3e material but not 2e, so we went that direction. It's the sort of thing that annoys me but isn't a deal-breaker; I'm just being whiny. :)

2e MnM mechanics made perfect sense to me; I found them fun, intuitive, and flexible. (I also found character creation to be a giant pain in the ass, but I could live with that.) I still haven't figured out why, but 3e mechanics still don't make much sense to me. I think it's in the book layout...

This looks great.

"My cantrip killed two demons." Okay, this was my favorite moment of D&D in AGES. I'm playing a 13th lvl sorcerer; I recently got the warcaster feat but it hadn't come up yet. We were in the underdark and getting harassed by a glabrezu lord, a vrock, and a greater vrock. My damage rolls had...

My cantrip killed two demons.

When you do, please holler here. I'll spread the word further via Twitter.

I love that you're doing this! I just wanted to flag the one thing that would dissuade me as a freelancer. Can you talk more about the unique layout?