Watch Well Games #78
A hodgepodge of TTRPG items. Also known as "Things for those of us not attending PAX East because we don't live near Boston."
Welcome to another newsletter!
Hi there. I’m K.J. There’s a bit of (almost) everything in this newsletter. You can also call this issue “Things for those of us not attending PAX East because we don’t live near Boston.” Enjoy the newsletter (and enjoy the con if you’re attending)!
Following up from the last newsletter where we covered Age of Vikings RPG, Chaosium announced their shiny new community content program for the game.
Want to connect more with community? I post Notes every 3-4 days to bring us together and share ideas. Join us if you'd like.
📖 Read - Finally!
According to my Goodreads profile, I completed Terry Pratchett’s Fifth Elephant on March 5th. During the 12-week wait to get a library copy (see Note), I listened to the audiobook for True Grit by Charles Portis (in preparation for running a western-themed TTRPG soon) and The President’s Brain is Missing by John Scalzi (Starter Villain was his best book imho). I’ve now been stumped with trying to access a library copy of Night Watch due to limited copies and licensing restrictions. I may have to switch gears and begin Dungeon Crawler Carl.
What are you currently reading? Would you be interested in a (yes, free) Watch Well Games book club?
👥 Created, And Moving On
After a year, I closed the Watch Well Games creators coalition. Or rather, I passed it on to the members. It is now more than just an idea I had late 2024. Despite having done this before with other creative endeavors, I still felt sorrow and doubt. Was I doing the right thing? What if I miss out on being a part of that specific group?
I pondered on this for quite some time after we released The Quintessential Curios, and I know it was the right move. I will not be pursuing the path of game designer, trying to create tabletop roleplaying games in my free time with the goal or hope of being a pro game creator.
The great news is that I will have more time to run games! 🥳
This also means yes, Watch Well Games will still exist to support indie game creatives of all stripes (writers, artist, etc.). I will continue to publish this newsletter and write reviews (I only review it if I play it), share play-through reports, and interview creators.
Speaking of you! If you’re an indie creator and would like to request a review, play-through report, or interview, reach out.
Eventually, I might write adventures for existing systems with open licenses. For now though, I’m enjoying other hobbies that’ve been on the back burner.
✨ Cool Indie Corner
ENNIE-nominated Luke Saunders of Murkdice has rocketed past many of us fellow Pocket Quest peers (which I’m very much okay with, see above post). He, along with Lyndsay Didcote, Jarret Crader, Dai Shugars, and Debbie Deaver, has opened up a crowdfunding campaign (funded with time to spare!) for Inkvein. It’s described as “a caving-centric megadungeon crafted for MÖRK BORG … drowned in inky horror.” This 250+ page “tomb of monochrome terror” will be packed with NPCs, special cave-climbing mechanics, locations, and a creatures. The quickstart offers a 16-cavern dungeon perfect for a MÖRK BORG one-shot.
If you use this quickstart material, I’d enjoy hearing how things went!
TAVERS: Gameplay Primer - FREE Preview PDF - The Kickstarter for TAVERS: The Meow Wolf Roleplaying Game by Meow Wolf and Exalted Funeral has one week left. It’s well-funded and looks trippy as heck. The tagline “Immersive collaborative exploration based storytelling in a universe of multiple worlds” sounds fascinating.
If you’ve watched the How to Play TAVERS video on YouTube, I’m interested to know what you think.
Fomoria – Epic Folk Horror Roleplaying by Tania Herrero (Crown of Salt) and Johan Nohr (Co-creator of MÖRK BORG, CY_BORG, and graphic designer for Into the Odd Remastered, ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition, Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying, and lots more) - Crowdfunding begins April 7th for this game that will be published under Free League's Workshop sublabel. The KS page offers a free quickstart with pre-gens and a short adventure.
I plan on playing this and reporting back soon. If you try it as well (maybe you already have!), let me know your thoughts.
It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned my cartography partner Schlau @ LiD Gaming. For his most recent monthly map release on Patreon, he made a map that’s worthy of attention. The Boss House has multiple rooms loaded with details. The specs: 72 DPI maps for VTTs; 300 DPI maps for printing; day, evening, night, and morning lighting; grid and gridless versions; furnished and unfurnished versions; 32 variations total. 100% human-made using Arkenforge. Pick it the map pack via his Patreon or DriveThruRPG.
🎲 FREE Online Con This Weekend!
If you’re looking to make last-minute weekend plans, John Hedge (best-selling Call of Cthulhu scenario writer on the Miskatonic Repository and Miskatonic Playhouse staff) with co-authors Brian Ashford and Colin Richards are hosting a FREE game convention for their Embers of Humanity RPG (uses a lightweight version the BRP system by Chaosium).
Embers has been featured here before, with me sharing the free, fan-made cookbook in newsletter issue #60, my audio interview with Hedge in issue #45, and even Hedge’s look back on 2024 as a game designer in issue #43.
Join the Discord to see what time all the con events take place (the times will auto convert to your time zone). Be sure to say hi to me there if you decide to join the server.
Learn more about Embers of Humanity RPG here:
Thanks for reading Watch Well Games. Until next time:
COMING SOON - The next “Let’s make a character” video!
Hedgehogs can be quite noisy (scroll down to “Sound production” section).
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Newsletters are free and release every 2nd and 4th Friday.
The Fifth Element is next up on my reading list! Can't wait.