It’s been a bit since my last update and I’d love to share some progress on two games drafts, Behind the Magic and Duetta.

Behind the Magic

I’ve run Behind the Magic – my fantasy mockumentary game - three times in the last couple weeks and I am thrilled with how it’s shaping up. Each session has been hilarious to watch and the players seem to have a great time. In multiple games, I’ve seen players literally rolling on the floor laughing – a good sign!

I’ve had the pleasure of testing the game with some phenomenal designers and players who have given me excellent feedback and ideas for improvement. My main goal now is adding extra scaffolding to help players come up with scene ideas; I’ll probably use a deck of scene prompt cards.

With the rules mostly finished, I’m moving into high fidelity design mode. Hopefully I’ll have a draft I can share with my Patreon followers soon. After some broader playtesting, I’ll then publish it online and sell the cards as print on demand. I’m excited to get this game out there and to hear about all the ridiculous misadventures you have!

Duetta

A few weeks back I snuck in a playtest for Duetta – my shared world, persistent RPG. Many players play in the same world but missions take place with one player and one GM at a time, where the results affect the state of the shared world. The playtest went well but the core mission mechanics need some work. The session did yield two ideas that I am very excited about.

First, the players will have access to arcane techniques for forecasting the future, inspired by Psychohistory from the Foundation Series. They will be able to see major events on the horizon (invasion, famine, civil war) and the probability of them occurring. With the limited time available, players can choose which events they want to focus on and try to shape the arc of history in their favor. I think this will provide a great deal of focus and meaning to the larger game.

The second idea is to make a variant of Duetta that veers between larp and RPG. First, players will meet in character to act out a meeting of their secret society and decide which goals and tactics to focus on for the next period of time. Then the players will break into pairs and play out their specific missions. Then, they’ll meet back up to share what happened and plot the next period’s actions. I really like this model and will hopefully get to test it after a little more refinement of the core rules.

As always, I’ll post updates here on the blog but if you want early access to drafts come join my Patreon!

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