Category: Dev Diary

  • BURNAWAY Dev Log: What is an Embergeist?

    A short development log for BURNAWAY\’s production, focused on the nature of Embergeists.

  • BURNAWAY Dev Log: The Interactive Story Primer

    A short devleopment log for BURNAWAY\’s production, focused on the conceptualization and development of the Interactive Story Primer.

  • Hold The World Hostage – The Mechanics of Stakes

    Shit, Meet Fan Overall, Stars Fall Up is a rather low-stakes game. Death isn’t really possible or ever a potential consequence of any action, even when things get crazy. SFU’s pitfalls are meant to reflect those you likely face in real life, ones that can be emotionally prickly and discouraging, but hopefully nothing life-threatening. The…

  • Does Working Together Really Make Things Better?

    The Mechanics of Collaboration SFU is a collaborative, GM-less ttrpg. Which is interesting, given how, if I had to voice my honest opinion, I’m not a huge fan of such games. I can’t recall if the initial design inspiration had included the game being collaboratively run, but I don’t think it would be the right…

  • Sewing Theme and Mechanics Together

    The Goal Behind Goals I’m ambivalent when it comes to character goals. They feel like a natural thing to include in a ttrpg, and they’re easy to sell to players and GMs who are looking for a deeper roleplay experience. But more often than not I feel like they end up left by the wayside…

  • I Used to be With It, But Then They Changed What It Was

    Now What I\’m With Isn\’t It Re-writing Stars Fall Up in 2021 from its 2016 original version was a more interesting experience than I was expecting. The most prominent change was the game’s subtitle, originally “a mini-RPG for Us Damn Millennials”. When I first wrote the game, I was drawing directly from the life experiences…

  • Drawing Meaning from the Metanarrative

    Who Do I Have to Thank for This? I would have to say the most prominent influences for Stars Fall Up were Scott Pilgrim and Bee and Puppycat. I was really big into Scott Pilgrim back when it was coming out, since I was also right around the age group it focused on. I loved…

  • Why Did I Make a TTRPG in a Format No One Recognizes?

     What the Hell is a Zine? That\’s always the question you enjoy answering from people, isn\’t it. It\’s not the main thing I wanted to talk about, so if you genuinely don\’t know, here\’s a much better answer than I could give you. When I first conceptualized Stars Fall Up as a tabletop roleplaying game,…

  • Dev Diary 4/24/19

    Motivation is a real funny thing. Yesterday I was feeling on the edge of burnout- when your anxiety acts like a wendigo, picking you up by your armpits and forcing you to run faster than you can manage, but never being able to stop until your feet fall off or it, like, eats you or…

  • Dev Diary 4/15/19

    Yesterday I wrote about 2.5k words of world-building for Beyond the Homeworld, the new OWS (Other-World Setting) I\’m whipping up for the Sher\’zade System. Also I guess I\’m changing the acronym of the Sher\’zade System from SHZS to SZS now, cuz I guess SHZS didn\’t really make enough sense to have that extra letter? Also…