Write What You Know ...

Write what you know, which for me is now androids and zhen worms?!

Once upon a time, I wrote stories about real life: I was a journalist working at two of Canada’s most prestigious print magazines, then a travel writer publishing an e-book about endangered vineyards, then a restaurant critic racking up multiple National Magazine Awards (and acute alcohol poisoning, whoops).

About five years ago, I pivoted: to foster a more family-friendly work schedule, I became a novelist. I joined a prestigious SF writers collective, landed a literary agent, wrote a tech thriller that presaged the rise and risks of ChatGPT, and eventually took my work out on submission to the big publishers in New York …

[ … the sound of 100-pound dire crickets chirping as my novel failed to sell]

Crashing and burning as an author amid all the other horrible stuff going on in the world, I soon failed my Recovery Check (DC = 10 + your current dying value) to stabilize.

My career as a writer felt like it had reached dying 4.

So what do we tabletop gamers do when a beloved character dies?

(Assuming we can’t afford “diamonds worth a total value of the target’s level × 200 gp” to cast Raise Dead.)

Well, I rolled up a new character: Ambush Rakshasa, aspiring Pathfinder writer.

Starting a new campaign (or continuing an ongoing adventure) with a fresh character is exciting. So many novel abilities to select and deploy! So many discoveries to make about who this person is and what drives them!

Plus: you gotta buy a new set of character-specific dice to tie the whole experience together, right?

Ah, but here’s a rub: starting out at Lv 1 can be a humbling experience. As my wife and fellow adventurer Sarah says:

“Playing Pathfinder at level one is the worst. You can’t do anything cool. And if a dog bites you, you’ll die.”

So you gotta grind out those early levels, accumulating XP and trying not to run into any packs of wild dogs.

On the topic of grinding, please earn yourself a Hero Point by tapping that heart button up top. I have no idea what it accomplishes, besides making me feel good!

What are the early levels of becoming a TTRPG writer like? Well, I’d been secretly daydreaming about writing for Pathfinder long before my illustrious writing career nosedived, so I’d kept my ears tuned to all the good advice floating around in the ether.

Here are a few resources for an aspiring Pathfinder writer who’s looking to get started:

• Paizo’s “Writing for Pathfinder” panels, presented at gaming conventions

• Podcasts featuring interviews with writers, like John Godek’s “Presenting”

• “Calls for writers” posted via media handles of Pathfinder’s Narrative Team

• Substack newsletters by industry vets like Sean McCoy and Monte Cook

• Twitter threads by experienced authors on eg. How to write a Pathfinder AP

• Articles on websites like Nerdist about how to break into TTRPG writing

Another thing I did was to start playing games outside of my local friend circles. I ended up meeting Pathfinder authors like Jacob W. Michaels and Nicole Heits, who each ran Pathfinder Society adventures for me at PaizoCon (the actual Bounties they’d written!).

Picking up a play-by-post habit on Discord, I also connected with Pathfinder author Randal Meyer after our respective warpriest and bard bonded around the campfire during an adventure we played in together. Randal was kind enough to answer my questions via Discord DM about breaking into the industry. Writers are friendly people!

So what actions have I been taking lately to advance my own new character?

Well, you’re reading one of them: this Substack is my opportunity to write about Pathfinder for an actual audience, honing my command of the game mechanics and learning more about the ecosystem I’m attempting to navigate.

I’ve also mentioned this one before, but: the RPG Superstar competition, where aspiring Pathfinder writers create and submit original monsters for prizes and publication, is designed specifically to spotlight new talents. There’s a new edition of the contest happening now! Entries close May 28.

You might recall I won two medals in the 2021 RPG Superstar competition, and my monsters are about to be published in the “Battlezoo Bestiary: Strange & Unusual,” which earlier this month shipped its pdf version.

Looking good, my monsters:

(Yeah, they misspelled my name on the Emperor Shark Penguin page. Publisher Stephen Glicker quickly corrected the error in time for the print edition!)

And so now what?

Another famous TTRPG author named Ernest Hemingway (creator of the Lv 6 bard spell “Moveable Feast”) famously opined that a writer ought never to discuss their work in progress:

“ … it takes off whatever butterflies have on their wings and the arrangement of hawk’s feathers if you show it or talk about it.”

You know something? I no longer care what Ernest and the rest of the literary establishment thinks about my life choices. So:

I’m working on a new thing.

It’s a solo adventure, in the gamebook spirit of the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, for Pathfinder Second Edition. You’ll be able to play it on your own, without a GM.

It’s a tale of vengeance set in the nation of Numeria, where the PF1 Adventure Path “Iron Gods” took place, and which the PF2 Core Rulebook calls “the strangest of the Broken Lands”:

“ … in the distant past, the crash of a scientifically advanced starship brought strange aliens, mechanical monstrosities, and technological wonders to Golarion.”

That’s right: we’re talking science fantasy, baby. Androids and laser guns and zhen worms. Oh my.

If all goes well, it’ll have a cool cover and interior illustrations by a veteran Pathfinder artist. We’ve been ironing out details of an art order this week.

It’ll be self-published as a pdf on the Pathfinder Infinite platform over at DriveThruRPG, meaning I get to use Pathfinder’s campaign setting and lore IP in exchange for handing over 50% of sales to Paizo.

I’m calling my adventure “KILL VHILL,” and you’ll be hearing more about it soon. Butterfly wings and hawk feathers be damned.

(I have a secret goal shhhhhhh to get it finished and out by the end of summer.)

So that’s the plan. And hopefully my personal tale of writerly resurrection can inspire someone else reading this post who’s fallen on tough times to roll up a new character of their own.

It’s not too late. There’s still time.

• THE MINI AND THE DICE

Speaking of new dice, I pieced together this laser-friendly neon green set from the $1.25 bulk bins at Gamescape North on 4th Street in San Rafael, across the street from the co-working space where I’ve been writing lately.

You may notice that there are only six dice here, rather than the seven that normally come with a polyhedral d20 set. I told the guy working there that I only needed five dice (a d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20) because Pathfinder Second Edition wisely did away with percentile rolls!

Jordan kindly reminded me that I still needed a d10 for damage rolls. Whoops.

As for the mini, you’re looking at Sajan the iconic human monk. One of my players picked up this primed and paint-ready mini from WizKids’ Pathfinder Battles “Deep Cuts” series, way back when we were first learning the Second Edition rules.

Sajan is standing atop the cover of a PF2 AP volume: the second book of the “Quest for the Frozen Flame” campaign, with cover art of the despicable Sutaki necromancer Ashen Swale illustrated by Pathfinder artist David Alvarez.

(That’s my ultimate ambition as a TTRPG writer: to pen a Pathfinder Society Quest or Scenario, and eventually my own Adventure Path volume. Hey, a guy can dream.)

• PARTY DYNAMICS

Fancy yourself a writer? Here’s your chance to jump into the comments section below and lump together some verbs and nouns of your own.

This month’s prompt:

Beer, wine, or THC at your irl gaming tables lately? Or, favorite sharing snacks?

This week with my home group, I drank a Stone FML hazy double IPA (stands for “Fear Movie Lions,” but also it had been a day), and “shared” a bag of Haribo Zourr Worms with my players, by which I mean I ate 90% of them. (Yes, I have weakness 10 to Haribo. Focus fire on the gummy ooze!)

• SCREENSHOT PRESENTED WITHOUT CONTEXT

That’s it for this month, he wrote with barely a semblance of authority. 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!