Infinite Quest: Part One ...
Infinite Quest: Part One, in which we take stock and make plans
Seventeen months ago, I penned a post called “Write What You Know” unveiling the new project I was working on: a gamebook-style solo Pathfinder adventure called “KILL VHILL.”
I’d already started developing a cool story set in the Broken Lands nation of Numeria, home to barbarians and laser pistols. I was in the process of commissioning a veteran TTRPG illustrator to create original art. I had a graphic designer in the pipeline to help with layout. And I’d even been researching pricing models for Paizo’s community-publishing platform, Pathfinder Infinite.
I was fired up and ready to go, as the Souls to the Polls crowd likes to say.
(Don’t worry, they’re totally not necromancers. Although I approve of whatever tools they need to deploy to win, whether it be raising dead or otherwise.)
Here’s a hard-copy document I created at the time to guide my workflow, recently unearthed in a stack of papers and shared here for posterity:
Notice anything missing?
That’s right: the work.
I noted earlier this year how Ambush Tactics had transformed, during a challenging season of life, from a TTRPG blog into “a personal, vaguely-Pathfinder-tinged meditation on burnout, failure, and motivation.”
So this recognition of my stalled writing project seems like it’s right on topic!
And so, I would argue, is a plan to resume the work.
I’m calling this intended series of posts “Infinite Quest,” and I’m hopeful that by documenting a renewed effort to transform my original vision into a published adventure, I can create an accountability structure and perhaps even share some relatable insights on seeing a difficult project through to completion.
On the topic of relatability, please earn yourself a Hero Point by binking that heart button up top. I have no idea what it accomplishes, but you get me right?
Here’s the big question: how do I relaunch the work?
Well, I’ve performed a couple of the simple-but-critical steps already:
Locating my original hard copy documents, especially incomplete to-do lists
Reviewing my relevant Word files, which contain story notes and text drafts
Relistening to my “working playlist,” to set mood and trigger subliminal ideas
Luxuriating in Eric Lofgren’s completed art assets, which are so so awesome
That’s right: my artwork for the solo gamebook is already delivered and paid for! Characters, monsters, weapons. Even a dope cover. I owe it to Eric to pick up my end of the project and get this sh*t done.
So what comes next?
The introduction, which sets the scene and raises the stakes before the player begins choosing their own adventure, needs a line edit.
The relevant mechanical entities (PC, NPCs, monsters, weapons, hazards) require balanced statblocks. I’ll use Pathbuilder for the hero, and RPG Superstar’s monster creation engine for the other actors — I can refer to the Pathfinder rulebook to spec out the relevant weapons and hazards.
Ah, but this brings a decision point: I started working on this adventure before the launch of Pathfinder Remastered aka the 2.5 edition. Do I design my mechanics around the Remastered ruleset? Probably, as I think doing away with proprietary is an added benefit which might allow me to publish under the ORC creative license rather than the legally fraught OLG. How does Pathfiner Infinite handle this distinction?
Then there’s the page layout of the final pdf publication … I feel like I drafted a what-goes-where snapshot back in the day. Where is it? I can’t find it anywhere in my hard-copy notes, nor in my Word docs. Something’s missing …
A ha!
Now I’m remembering that I tracked some assets in the Dropbox Paper notetaking app. Let me see … here they are! I’ve just discovered archived documents with the following titles:
KILL VHILL: TEXT
KILL VHILL: PLANNING
KILL VHILL: ART REFERENCES
KILL VHILL: EVENING PAGES
That last doc is pretty important: it’s a vestige of my fiction-writing days, when I would begin my workday with a set of Steinbeck-inspired “morning pages” to reflect on my mindset and project status, plan for the challenges of the day, and get the proverbial juices flowing.
(A brief diversion for those of you who are curious: Steinbeck created this method in 1951 during his work on “East of Eden,” and the warm-up pages were later published in a book that City Lights Bookstore summarizes as follows—
Each working day from January 29 to November 1, 1951, John Steinbeck warmed up to the work of writing East of Eden with a letter to the late Pascal Covici, his friend and editor at The Viking Press. It was his way, he said, of “getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game.”
Steinbeck’s letters were written on the left-hand pages of a notebook in which the facing pages would be filled with the text of East of Eden. They touched on many subjects–story arguments, trial flights of workmanship, concern for his sons.
Part autobiography, part writer’s workshop, these letters offer an illuminating perspective on Steinbeck’s creative process, and a fascinating glimpse of Steinbeck, the private man.
Now you know!)
Let’s see how my “evening pages” (already a bad sign that I was trying to get serious writing work done after putting my child to bed) worked out:
I successfully warmed up on Sunday May 7, then again on Monday May 8.
Ditto for Tuesday May 9, and again on Wednesday May 10. I’m on fire!
Whoops, the final entry of the “evening pages” document is Thursday May 11 and comprises the following in its entirety:
Sick kid. Sprint is over! Woof.
So that’s how the project sprint fizzled. Well, the good news is my then-three-year-old’s fragile immune system has since evolved to become my now-five-year-old’s indestructible immune system. So we’ve got smooth waters ahead!
Authors love deadlines so here’s one: my next “Infinite Quest” check-in on the progress of “KILL VHILL” will appear in your inbox on Tuesday November 19.
Mark your calendars. I’ve got work to do.
THE MINI AND THE DICE
I’ve been saving this one up for the right moment: presenting Big Red aka the 55mm d20 by Koplaw Games, a Boston-based manufacturer founded in 1974 — the same year TSR published the original edition boxed set of Dungeons & Dragons. Happy 50th anniversary to you both!
We used to use Big Red — which is roughly the size and weight of a billiard ball — for the most consequential life-or-death rolls at our table. Think Will saves vs Dominate Person, Fort saves vs Phantasmal Killer, or even the first full-bonus attack by a BBEG against a PC with single-digit hit points.
These heavy rolls always made me nervous at our old apartment where we played on a glass-topped table.
More recently, we’ve used Big Red to track combat rounds, setting it atop the flip-mat and rotating it at the top of each new round to help with tracking the duration of conditions, spells, etc. I’ve got to assume that this dice was bequeathed to me by Jason via Das in the great GM handoff lineage. It’s a little scratched up, but otherwise indestructible. See you next month, Big Red!
LISTEN TO THIS
One more workflow aid I prepped back in my initial 2023 publishing sprint: a KILL VHILL–themed playlist, which I would listen to while working on the story in order to set the appropriate Numerian mood.
I’m not ready to share a link to the entire 2h30min jam just yet — Hemingway’s butterfly wings and hawk feathers, etc — but I can tell you that it’s composed entirely of tracks by the masters of foreboding electro film score work: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
So to honor my science fantasy musical inspiration, here’s a link to Reznor and Ross’s most recent score: the soundtrack to “Challengers.” Because I’m always up for a challenge! (Eventually.)
SCREENSHOT PRESENTED WITHOUT CONTEXT
That’s it for this month, but hopefully not for my quest. And so, as I say at the end of every Pathfinder module I run: this has been Ambush Tactics. I’ve been your Game Master. I hope you had a fun time.
Adventure!