2021: A Year in Review

Well, if 2020 wasn’t the year I expected, 2021 was… a year in which the only sure thing seemed to be instability.

What did I get up to in this year of predictable uncertainty?

Freelance Work

I’ve done a lot of freelance work in 2021, primarily on three projects, two of which I can discuss.

The first is Adventures in Rokugan, Edge Studios’ project to bring the world of Rokugan to the experience and mechanics of 5e. This project was a lot like the job I did for years on the RPG team – coordinating with (fellow) freelancers, with Sam Gregor-Stewart, and with the folks at Edge, designing a few core elements for a mostly complete RPG system, and developing a ton of content for said system.

Adventure!

I had never professionally developed in 5e before (though I’ve played in it plenty), and it’s an interesting challenge. The syntax for its mechanics is quite elegant but very subtle – it works as hard as possible to create repetitive structures while seeming as much like natural language as possible. For example, did you know that 5e makes heavy use of contractions? It’s almost always “can’t” instead of “cannot.” This might not seem surprising, but it’s fairly uncommon in games technical writing for whatever reason. Similarly, when presenting an idea, 5e almost always explains the concept, then carves out exceptions after explaining it. If an ability can’t be used on spells “with multiple targets,” it won’t use a parenthetical or inset clause to explain that concept. Instead, after giving the short version, it will include a full explanation carving out the exceptions with examples. This means explanations tend to be wordier, and if you stop reading the paragraph early, you’ll miss key information. Both of these choices create a conversational tone, which is especially noteworthy because of how much it departs from the mechanistic, concise wording of 4e. I’d been playing 5e for years, but until I developed in it, I never consciously realized these things.

The second freelance project I’ve spent most of the year working on is Codename: Lithotaph. I’ve been chronicling my journey working on this game in a design series, but designing a board game from the ground up has been thrilling, to put it lightly. It has been especially amazing watching the game come to life with art, graphic design, and content design falling into place as Brendan and I have assembled an awesome team for the project!

It’s amazing what getting actual artists and graphic designers about does for a game!

One interesting thing I’ve learned about freelance projects, overall, is how much of one’s time as a freelancer ends up dedicated to the logistics needed to make projects happen. This isn’t intellectually surprising to me, but a lot of my freelance design time was spent on pitch decks, reviewing legal documents, talking to lawyers, and communicating with clients. I happen to find this work pretty stimulating, but for those looking at getting into design as a part-time or full-time project, my advice after 2021 is “build more time than you think you’ll need into your schedule for the vital task of document prep and review.”

Game Design Blogging

My game design blogging was, to put it generously, frontloaded toward the first half of the year. This is at least partially because I was busier with the actual design work I write about in the second half of the year. It is also partially because my initial pace was creatively unsustainable. After nearly a decade at Fantasy Flight Games, I had a ton of bottled-up ideas about design I wanted to share but had never had time to publish. I churned through a lot of that backlog early on.

Still, I’m pretty happy with my output across the year. Here are a few highlights (I’m cheating in a few from late December 2020 because they were hits):

• My perspective on the competitive mindset in games, especially X-Wing

• How too many “good cards” can choke an ecosystem

• Design techniques to motivate players to use (and enjoy!) your game mechanics

• An ongoing design series about one of my current projects, Codename: Lithotaph

Personal Game Design

Between the above two categories, I’ve found less time for publishing free games than I imagined I might have back when freelancing was a new, shiny world of possibility. I did manage to to get my X-Wing/RPG Compatibility Guide together and out, though! It’s also a guide for making custom homebrewed pilots, if that’s a thing you want to do.

I have a number of mostly finished simple roleplaying games sitting on my computer that I want to put on my website and perhaps on itch.io for 2022. I just need to hit them with that last bit of polish, which is of course always the most protracted step and even starting it can be intimidating. Still, I’m curious to get a bit of insight into the logistics and economics of Indie RPG PDFs. It’s obviously a vibrant artistic space, but one I’ve always observed at a distance. I’d like to put a few of my concepts out there to get a sense of the field.

I’ve also been working on the Journeys campaign I’m going to run in the new year, including an update with some new features. Like punching!

Any excuse to raid the Getty Open Access Collection.

Hobby Stuff

Ha ha hah. I have been looking on with envy at everyone getting incredible pandemic armies together for Warhammer 40k and other games while my sad Space Wolves sit, not-quite-finished. It turns out I got 60% of my painting done as a social activity and the other 40% in wild, pre-tournament sprints. With casual indoor hobby-shop gatherings off the table most of the year and no tournaments, I got almost nothing done in this sphere.

The best thing I can say to defend myself (wait, why do I need “defending” from not having pursued my hobbies sufficiently?) is that I made some homebrew cards and dials to go with the Battlestar Galactica ships I painted as a gift last year. I also got in the game with them I’d promised, even!

The battle did not proceed well for the Cylon Empire.

Personal Life

The pandemic remains trying, but I’ve been very lucky so far. I’ve been able to get vaccinated and boosted without horrendous waits, for which I count myself very fortunate. I have a job that doesn’t require me to leave the house, and can minimize my risks in most contexts. I miss going to events – running con games and seeing the X-Wing, Armada, and Legion Communities with their stuff on display was always a lot of fun. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things… someday, but I’m also not holding my breath that it’ll be soon. It’ll happen when it happens.

Overall, I’m well. I don’t get into a lot of personal life specifics here and I’m not going to start now – this is fundamentally a website for my professional life – but a lot of folks I’ve communicated with this year have made it clear they care about me as a person, not just about my work and output. I appreciate that! I hope you’ll keep reading and keep reaching out as we move into 2022 and see what this new year brings!