Nose to the grindstone, building out those four starter adventures. I've got a week off, starting tomorrow night. Then I'll be back at it again, and hopefully with some high-quality updates and fun shit to make into words at y'all.

Thinking of how to get my game in people's hands: Four starter stories, each a variation of a base, meant to run 5 sessions from Season 1-Season 2 (Mundane tier content) as an introduction to the system and setting. Simplified rulebook, pregen characters, campaign guidebook, map. #IndieGameDev

alright. another day off to handle my actual day-job (must at least try to pay the bills, I don't much care to try and work on game dev in the dark, homeless). damn do I hate that I can't afford to just do this until its finished.

A day off from development turns into a day where my first playtesting group ravenously demands that I run a session for them. It feels good to be wanted, even if it does interrupt my plans to bedrot and play video games.

My late-night thoughts and my daytime thoughts don't trust each other, but they do work together when I can force them to get along.

No matter how many consent mechanics are baked right into the game; the moment a player stops protecting their character from consequences is the moment I feel the system actually working. Providing the guidance other storytellers will need to accomplish that? That's tricky. #horrorRPG #indieDev

in my first playtesting group, one of the characters collected so many powerful allies that they turned a very small country into a sheet of glass. Power fantasy still has a place in horror, I think. #horror #GM #RPGs

HEX values vs CMYK values. Did you know that a screen can inherently display more colors than a printed book page can? I have to learn the weirdest shit for the sake of understanding the nuances of the publication process. #gameDev #publishing

I originally decided to run with Fate Core for the base of this game because I needed something that put meaningful narrative authority into the hands of the players. Aspects felt like exactly the right mechanic; and they've worked fabulously in testing. #fateCore #fateSRDs #creativeCommons

here's an example of how I set up a Discord server to run a game. Because QT has narrative units (Scenes, Episodes) baked into the mechanics, doing each channel like a 'set' that characters move between works well for storytelling flow. #QuindecimTimores

Fridge Horror. The game I've been developing is fridge horror. The entire point is that things feel however they feel in the moment, but then looking back on them, the true horror is realized. #horrorRPG #indieGameDev

trauma-aware design is a whole damn thing for an immersive horror setting. My approach is that players need to feel safe enough to have their characters make bad (interesting) choices on purpose; not be cornered in a real-life panic state and pressured into it. #horrorRPG

Is greek cool? Like, the pantheon in my game is all greek philosophy based. Are players going to think this is cool? Or am I wasting too much thought into pulling the cosmology of the setting forward? #horrorRPG #quindecimTimores yeah I know the game title is in latin and the pantheon is in greek...

My first full-length playtest of the game is in the final stretch, and it's funny to see that 2/5ths of the characters will technically 'fail' the game, and are perfectly content with that because the story they've gotten to tell is amazing. #horror #horrorRPG #ttrpgDesign

Lack of third spaces is a real issue for TRPG players and GMs. We live in apartments (or even cars!) and few people have the space to host a game night. This is why I ran my first full-length playtest on discord. Obviously this works best for players who like to write, but it is *a* solution.

Today's work is the style guide for the actual system books. borders, fonts, colors, etc. I'm incredibly fortunate to have a skilled illustrator who is willing to work with me on this, because I'm garbage with stuff like colors. #ttrpgdesign

Quindecim Timores is a game played in four stages. Tier 4 - You are now the warning for others. Humanity has become a thing that takes effort to continue performing. The world is now a mirror. With the veil torn away, it is either ugly or beautiful - a mirror that reflects you, at you. #ttrpgdesign

Quindecim Timores is a game played in four stages. Tier 3 - You have made a deal: become a vector of influence, spreading fear; and you receive power in return. You need it to survive. The mask is off, and things start breaking. Reality, other people, even you. Especially you. #ttrpgdesign

Quindecim Timores is a game played in four stages. Tier 2 - You have been irrevocably changed by your encounters with the Supernatural. Here's where things start to get legibly strange. With belief comes a type of consent, and your ability to really see what's happening has kicked in. #ttrpgdesign

Quindecim Timores is a game played in four stages. Tier 1 - You start off a regular dude, shit is weird Small town vibes work great for this. Urban decay of a once-grand place has also worked fantastic. Small scope, small problems, let the strange unfold as the PCs pull on the threads. #ttrpgdesign

I have no idea how to go about describing my design and writing process in a way that is sensible, palatable, and interesting; and I'm not interested in how an AI would tell me to approach it. So I'm just going to fly by the seat of my pants on this. Anyone have refs? Articles? Advice?

I've run one full campaign from start to finish with a group of five playtesters. Their patience with me adjusting the rules under their feet every six sessions is legendary. The second group of playtesters won't even know how much the floor has been raised for them. #indiegame #horrorRPG

To say this is a passion project that I decided to take seriously is an understatement of magnitudes I cannot even begin to express. #quindecimtimores

I've been writing this system and setting since December 23rd, 2024. Getting ready to run my second full-campaign length playtest this summer. I lost track somewhere in excess of a thousand hours of each on the storytelling and the system design end of things. #ttrpg #horrorgames

so, Quindecim Timores is based in a modified Fate system. It's a strange horror setting, in which the primary arc for the PCs is 'how much are you willing to pay to stay human'. Too many nights up binge-reading SCP entries and r/nosleep, I suppose. #horror #ttrpg #indiegame

Alright. So I'm a writer, not a marketer, but I figure nobody will have the chance to care about my game if I don't give them a chance to know about it. So, first post. Hello bluesky. #ttrpg #indiegames #writer #horror