National Tabletop Day was a blast. Kiko took some great photos of the event.
In Thornwatch I have a rule called “the miss by one rule” (I am not great at naming rules) and it says that if you miss by one and can describe your attack to me and why it should hit I’ll give you the plus one. So a Sage whose arcane bolt misses by one might explain that she slipped on a patch of moss and her bolt flew off course but ricocheted off the Guard's shield before slamming into the skeleton's chest! It’s a super fun rule and a great way to get people who might not feel comfortable roleplaying at the table to tell a little story.
We had four full tables pretty much all day and a fair number of people just watching.
As of right now all the playtest sets are hand made. With that said I plan on sticking with stand ups for the final game rather than minis. I want the game to feature a lot of 2D artwork and I want it to all feel consistent. The maps are designed to look like comic book pages that you play on and so I want the rest of the tokens and stand ups to compliment that aesthetic.
Each playtest took about two hours and I personally managed to run three in a row before my GM muscle gave out and I collapsed.
I LOVE running the game for people. It is so awesome to watch people have fun playing with a collection of cards and rules that you made up. When I see people play some cool combination of cards or get excited when they really “get” one of the mechanics I just want to jump up and down.
This is what I’ll be doing Firday and Saturday night at PAX East in just a few days.
Speaking of which, if you would like the chance to play Thornwatch at PAX East you’ll want to attend my panel on Friday! I’m doing a panel with Mike Selinker called the The Mike & Mike Show: Why Are There Cards in My RPG? Mike Selinker is a card game making super star. His latest offering, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is on fire right now. On the other hand, this is my very first time making a game and so between the two of us it should make for an interesting panel.
We only have a limited number of tables for Thornwatch at PAX East. If you’re interested in playing it you’ll want to attend that panel for sure.
I leave for Boston tomorrow and we’re still making some minor changes to the game. I have to say after Table Top Day I’m super happy with how Thornwatch is running right now. It’s in a very good place and I’m incredibly excited to show it off at PAX.
-Gabe out
