Community

Many positive words are said and written about the creative openness of the game design community. My personal experiences and endeavors support this sentiment. In general, people in this industry are helpful and supportive of one another, which contributes to the pleasure of working in it. Even in this friendly social circle, I am especially pleased to encounter truly fantastic people. Pablo and Tove of Worldshapers Board Games are just such people.

In November, I started offering services to the RPG design and development community, particularly the community content creators that publish on the OneBookShelf (OBS) platform. I have had the pleasure of contributing to several projects that have been or are in progress to be posted on the OBS RPG publishing sites DMsGuild (D&D 5E only) and DriveThruRPG (anything RPG). The content there can be available for free, “pay what you want”, or for a fee.

To date, my completed contributions have been primarily as editor and/or proofreader but writing and design projects are in progress. Here is an example of the types of projects: Orpheus Mission Reports Volume 1. I am involved in several other projects and will highlight them as they are published.

Calculated Risks: An Eberron Adventure is an actual play podcast set in the world of Eberron using D&D 5th Edition. Starring R P Davis, Alina Popescu, Mike Suteu, and featuring Dungeon Master Travis Legge. Watch LIVE on Twitch Fridays 10 am CST. Twitch.tv/plasticageplays

I am pleased to be writing the promotional copy for Calculated Risks: An Eberron Adventure. For Season 1, I have written an introduction to the adventure and characters and a season-level synopsis. These are complete and episodic promotional content for Season 2 is in progress (e.g., “previously on”, synopsis, and full summary).

The Dungeon Masters Guild Creators' Circle is a moderated Facebook group for DMsGuild community content contributors. The DMsGuild is a storefront on the OneBookShelf platform dedicated to D&D 5E. Publishing here is under a different agreement than the OGL and there are other restrictions and a higher rate to WotC. If you already contribute or intend to create content for the DMsGuild, you need to be a member of this group. The best and brightest of the DMsGuild creators are active in this group and will impart their wisdom, and community opportunities abound for one who is willing to contribute. If you belong to this group, you will also want to join the Dungeon Masters Guild Facebook group, which is moderated by WotC.

However, if you have a general interest in RPG design or publishing on other platforms, there are groups better suited for those interests. The discussion on DMGCC is limited to the DMsGuild platform. Most of the contributors to this group are active in other groups, so their wisdom will not be hidden from you.

Since early November, we have been participating in the playtesting community for Oceans by North Star Games. Oceans is the next stand-alone game in the award-winning Evolution series by Dominic Crapuchettes and, as voted by the BGG community, is one of the most anticipated games of 2019.

It has been a pleasure playtesting the game and watching it evolve (yep, I said that) into what is certainly not going to disappoint Evolution series fans. If you count yourself among them, or are new to the series, you will want to watch for the Kickstarter in Q1 2019 or for the game to hit the shelves at your favorite online store or FLGS later in the year.

We have been providing multiple services for a few small game publishers that are preparing their projects for Kickstarter. We will announce more as those designs complete and their Kickstarter projects launch. The services provided have ranged from editing rules and Kickstarter pages to playtesting and providing statistics to identify fragility in the design. In particular, we have been providing advice on solo play modes.

No surprise... The Colorado Game Designers Guild (CGDG) is a guild for game designers, primarily from Colorado and Wyoming that provides opportunities to share ideas, playtest, and market their products at local conventions.

Check back for more information on CGDG activities.

See our favorite resource entry for CGDG.