The State of my Many Projects

I’ve been working on a lot of things over the past handful of years, many of which I’ve talked about before. Here’s where most of them are at:

Distorted Domains

The game has been done and playable for a good while now. It has a functional PDF and a website to access the rules for free. The only thing left to do is an example of play comic, and uploading the pdf to additional storefronts. The example of play has been written and re-written a few times as I’ve figured out how exactly to go about it. I’ve had the issue where I want it to convey a story in just a few pages, but in reality, all it needs to do is explain the rules of the game with an actual scenario. It obviously doesn’t need to be a comic, but I like comics and I want to do it this way.

The website currently sits on github pages, which has worked well for me so far. However, github is owned by microsoft and they’ve been continually making the platform worse, so I’m thinking of moving all of my games over to another platform. Right now my eyes are on ReadTheDocs.org using mkdocs. Almost all of my projects live in github, so all of them will need to be migrated over to codeberg and readthedocs eventually. Distorted Domains has been my focus for a long time and deserves to be moved first.

I’ve also got a bunch of additional content ideas for this one like additional domains, a web app to create characters and roll dice, and a webcomic anthology. We’ll see how far I get.

Supernatural Sapphics

This one is done! the pdf is as good as it’s going to get for a while, and the website is up. The rules won’t be changed unless I randomly get inspiration for something. So it just needs the github -> readthedocs migration, and to be put on additional storefronts. I do have some additional content planned for it, in the form of different locations/scenarios like a secret tea house and an elegant ball full of very important and powerful fae.

Dealing with Deities

This one needs a layout overhaul. The first pass got it to “functional” but I think it’s on nearly twice as many pages as it needs. Condensing it down would really make it more playable at a table as well, hopefully with one sheet for table-wide rules and one sheet for each player to make their character

Creatures of Chaos

The second game to use Drawing Destiny, the system I designed to power Dealing with Deities. This one is about what witches familiars get up to when their witch is at her day job. It has a webpage and that’s about it. It’s a pretty minimalist game, so I could reasonably make some cover art and throw together a layout fairly quickly, hopefully I get around to it relatively soon. The rules are also fully written, so it’s ready for a playtest.

Glamorous Gladiators

This is my take on a fantasy action game. It answers the question: What if fantasy adventurers were also influencers? It’s powered by Distortion Dice with some fun new additions like zone based combat and special abilities, it’ll hopefully give the feel of shonen battle anime. The rules are mostly done, and it’s probably ready to playtest. Before I call the rules complete, I need to add some additional setting info and roll tables, as well as some enemy stat blocks and GM advice. This one has been taking a good chunk of my time recently, and it’s going to be a fairly big project for me and won’t be done for a while.

Nel

Nel is a webcomic that I’ve started and it kinda fizzled out because I learned I have no idea what I’m doing on that front. I also think I was trying to write a comic that I wouldn’t read. So we’re revamping, my workflow before was to write a page or two and then to draw and upload those pages and I didn’t get very far with that before learning it wasn’t going to work. Now I’m going to write a decent chunk, like a chapter or so, before I start drawing. I’m also revamping the tone a bit, I figured out that while I set out to make a cozy slice of life comic, the story that I’m trying to tell is more along the lines of drama and adventure. This project has been an incredible learning experience and I know it’s going to help me a ton on learning how to create comics. Which is good, because I have a bunch of comic ideas.

Resplendent Radiants

This one is a video game! a roguelike top down shooter about beings of light fighting a corrupting darkness that has overtaken the forest. Right now I can create levels, I have a player that can move and shoot, and enemies that spawn. Collisions on the projectiles was the last thing I was working on, and I’ll probably get them working when I pick this back up. Then I’ll be one step closer to a functional prototype.

Distortion Dice SRD

I wrote this a while ago and it reads somewhere between SRD and Blog Post and was sitting on my old website hosted on github. I need to re-write it and get it over to readthedocs, especially since I’m hoping to have Distortion Dice be usable by anyone to quickly make a ttrpg with narrative action and dramatic dice rolls.

Other games

I’ve got a whole bunch of other Ideas in various states as well that I haven’t touched in a good while, like Prismatic Princesses, Sprectral Sleuths, The Meowty Mage, Impossible Illuminations, Cyber Crypt, and Exhilarating Expeditions. These get a tiny update now and then, but there’s not a whole lot to say about any of them. I think Spectral Sleuths is the furthest along and has actually gotten playtested once. Here’s a quick rundown of what these are:

• Prismatic Princesses: Distortion Dice game of magical princesses who have color themed powers, inspired by She-Ra and Sailor Moon. Has the first pass of core rules written and a concept of a setting
• Spectral Sleuths: Distortion Dice game of supernatural investigators and how the world of ghosts and cryptids changes them. Inspired by supernatural, x-files, etc. Has core rules written, needs to be refined through playtesting.
• The Meowty Mage: A deckbuilding roguelike about a cat mage saving a village, played on a hex-grid. Formerly a survivors-like, this one got scope creep and I had to revamp the design of the game to focus the experience. No code has been written for the revised design.
• Impossible Illuminations: A play by post game mimicking amateur investigators posting on alien forums. GM-optional, uses a new system I’m calling Dynamic Devotion. Core rules are partially written, mostly still a concept.
• Cyber Crypt: Name still a WIP, this one is about a cyberpunk world with cryptids, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and faeries. Once again running on Distortion Dice, basically at the concept stage rn
• Exhilarating Expditions: Name still a WIP. My take on a dungeon-crawling exploration focused game. Originally was going to be built on Distortion Dice, but now I’m thinking that Dynamic Devotion might be a better fit. Concept stage.

Final Thoughts

It’s pretty clear that I have too many ideas and not enough time. I’ve got the classic problem of starting too many projects and never finishing them. I’m hoping this level of transparency helps me focus and actually get something done. Right now I’ve been thinking mostly about Nel and Distorted Domains. I really want Distorted Domains to finally be “done”. It’ll feel good to have a project of that size finished, and I hope to continue to support the game with additional content. This project has been my baby for years, and it’s honestly a very good game that deserves to be out in the world. It’s so close and I promise it’ll be actually finished soon. If you’re a fan of the game, you’ll be happy to know that I am hoping to have a POD version available once the PDF is finished, because I want to hold a game that I made in my own hands. I’m not currently planning a crowdfund, as crowdfunds seem like stress that I can’t really handle at the moment, but maybe for a future version of the game I’ll consider it.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for your time, and I hope to have some actual content for you to enjoy soon instead of just writing notes for my own future reference.