November Month Review

Well folks, it's been a few months since I last did a review, but here we go.

I've been chewing on a few projects so far, and honestly, they haven't gotten as far as I'd hoped. Running Late is waiting on more writing. Piece of Work is waiting on a chapter revision and scheduling a playtest. And I feel like posting "I'm still working on it" is just shouting noise into the void. So I've been quiet.

Calling The Crow

That said, I have a smaller project I'm hoping to get out before the end of the year. It's a cute little microgame that's more about sharing an experience than telling a story. I would say it's not really an RPG, not quite a story-telling game, but really more a gamified way to connect with someone and share your life.

In the game, you have one person playing as the Crow and another as the Human. The Human sends the Crow an image representing something in their life that they need. It could be anything. It could be a concrete thing, an emotional thing, or just a whimsical thing. But you don't get to explain the picture, the Crow has to interpret what they think you need.

And then they send you back a "gift" of a different picture. Something they have lying around, something a crow might give. There's a table for interpreting the things the crow sends. For instance, if the crow sends you a flower, it means "timing is critical." If they send you a feather, it means "I, too, have this need." Again, they don't get to explain their response, but the Human interprets what they think it means.

And this goes back and forth a few times with slight changes in the structure, until you part ways. It's going to be a few pages, up for free on Itch at the end of December.

Running Late

I'm still working on it! Currently I need to write about 30 dialog exchanges, and then balance them. I'm hoping to finish up the writing in December, but it's a lot of interlocking pieces and I suspect it'll go until January to finish up the game. At which point, I intend to release the thing on Itch, but I will probably also make a Steam account for publication there as well. For me, I know that I vastly prefer managing my games that way.

Piece of Work

I am making slow but sure progress on PoW. The draft is about 25,000 words right now. For reference, my first RPG Becoming Heroes was about 32,000 words. My second was Scum and Villainy and that one clocked in around 100,000. So it has a ways to go, despite being quite playable. There's a world where an early draft lands mid-2026. My next immediate need is to finish off the city chapter, and then I need to think about chapter ordering and how I'm presenting the content.

December Update

Hell or high water, I will be getting another update out at the end of December to finish out the year. I struggle when it comes to being kind to myself about schedules, even though it's maybe my least leveled-up skill. I just have to remind myself that news is news, even if it's an update full of uncertainty.