I had my first ever paid stilt walking gig on Saturday which meant that I was busy practicing in my new stilts and completely forgot that it was newsletter week!
That’s me on the left in a costume that must have had about 30kg of wool in it. In the middle of Summer. I was the sweatiest I’ve ever been in my entire life after each stint. But on the plus side, people absolutely loved the sight of us and swarmed for pictures for the full 45 minutes of each stint!
And I only fell once 😎
Spirit Tea
My chinese mythology inspired tea-making Apothecaria hack is nearly finished! Just some final additions like Festivals and some symbols, page numbers and then we’re ready for playtesting!
If you wanna know more about it, go have a look at the free post on Patreon.
The game is about 100 pages and I am so pleased with how its come out :) Just look how pretty that spread is!
If you haven’t heard, this game is being designed so that all the profits from digital sales go to the Wandering Warrior Kung Fu school to help our shifu buy equipment, advertise, do extra classes, and generally support the school.
Other News
If you aren’t a member of the Patreon you will have missed out on our recent poll to determine which of these three game ideas I would make into an actual zine size game:
Toy Soldiers DELVE
Taking inspiration from everyone’s favourite green and tan toy soldiers, this will be a drawing game where you sketch out the rooms in your house and add fortifications, buildings, inventions, and the scars of war as these two valiant armies go footplate-to-footplate.
Fun points: Getting to draw a colourful map of your two armies going head to head. Getting to imagine how you would use your home and stuff in creative ways. Potentially getting to bust out your old toy soldiers and play with them again and to tell your partner that Anna made you do it.
Downfoot Abbey
As I’m making Shirefolk, a solo RPG about being a squat fantasy creature that lives in a cosy burrow in a peaceful(ish) countryside, I’ve been thinking about Hobbits a lot. Hence the roadtrip fueled idea of combining Shirefolk with the big fancy dramatics of Downton Abbey.
Play as posh shirelings and their servants in the fanciest burrow in all of the shire. Have scandalous affairs, deal with rumours and gossip, throw a trowel at your master’s head.
Of course, this one may just be a ruse so that I have an excuse to watch Downton Abbey which I have never actually watched.
Fun Points: Non-combat focused RPG with more personal dramatic stakes. Get to do funny voices and argue about things like your son wanting to marry a human girl. How would that even work?!
SexyBack
I’ve talked about this one before and I think this could be a great opportunity to actually sit down and get it made. The premise is that in the year 2004 the warrior poet Justin Timberlake ventured into the wastes to find and return the Sexy. He was never seen again. Society collapsed and in the new unsexy wasteland, tribal gangs seek to become sexy through misguided efforts. Half-Elvis rangers, Sons of Mumf, Kawaiimurais, and many more will oppose you as you seek to follow in the Timberlake’s well choreographed footsteps and finally Bring the Sexy Back!
Downfoot Abbey won with 45% of all votes and so I’ve been watching Downton Abbey and learning all about the sorts of drama and hijinks our fancy shirelings will be getting up to!
My goal is to spend the next 3 months making the game and posting updates on Patreon as I go so if you want to follow along, why not head over there and join for as little as $3?
Once Downfoot Abbey is complete, we’ll be hosting another poll so don’t miss your chance to make your voice heard!
Upcoming Conventions
8/8 — Sequential Scotland — Doubletree Hilton, Glasgow
4/9 - 6/9 — Tabletop Scotland — Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh
Media Of The Week
I have been bingeing Bob’s Burgers this past month. I can’t believe I completely ignored this show when it first came out, it’s one of my favourite cartoons now.
Gamey Bits
We got a few requests for more interactive Apothecaria stuff like the Castle Nowhere event we ran last year where players were encouraged to tackle parts of a multi-dimensional ailment across several real world weeks. As they dealt with each stage, a new part of the story would be unlocked until eventually players discovered Castle Nowhere, a mini-expansion we put out for free for Discord members.
If that sounds exciting to you, get your butt over onto the Discord because we’re going to start doing more stuff like that again real soon!
Honestly, your first paid stilt-walking gig is a pretty good excuse for missing newsletter week. Congrats, that looks like such a fun job. How did it go?
I adore the idea of Toy Soldiers DELVE