How hilarious would it have been if I completely stopped posting and my last post was titled Part 1?

The reason I stopped blogging is because my life exploded. In fact, the only reason I’m able to blog today is because both my car and my wife’s car have broken down at the exact same time, so I cannot do my job for a bit. I was literally forced into taking days off.

It’s weird to have time. I still want to do this. I still want to get back to it, I just need life to slow down.

Back to Blightfall

It’s weird to be at the tail-end of Blightfall and still be returning to it. I’m about to run the last session of the playtest campaign for the cross-collab class that was unlocked, The Palace, which has been a joy.

I’ve started a company to sell my games through, which became necessary for a variety of reasons. Coming up with a company name was difficult, but ultimately I chose something weird that couldn’t be associated with anything and still had some sense to it. I also avoided the <adjective><animal> trend, though we’ll miss what could have been, Diegetic Beaver gaming.

Besides that, almost everything is fulfilled. I will soon be shipping books (they just arrived and they’re real/gorgeous). And this week I completed another important step, which is putting the full game pdf on my new website, itch, and RPG Trader.

Which brings me to the point of this blog … things are bad.

Things Are Bad

Things aren’t bad with Blightfall or fulfillment or anything, don’t worry. But things are bad with the world. All over.

Climate change is responsible for extreme heat in the UK. Prices keep going up on everything. AI is affecting the environment, causing electronics to spike in costs, and stealing from creators. Trans rights are under attack. People are being imprisoned for protest zines.

Blightfall has only been available online for a couple days and I haven’t made a single sale on the full version. The free version, Blightfall: Bleak Edition, is getting a fair number of downloads, though. And that’s okay. Like I’ve said before, this isn’t about making money. It’s about creating art, having fun, and hopefully giving people joy.

That doesn’t mean that creators shouldn’t be paid for their work, it’s just that I understand that things are really bad right now and I’m glad some people are exploring the free version. It’s almost exactly the same as the full version, just less pretty, and comes with the same VTT and play aids.

With the state of the world as it is though, I’m glad to be moving on from Blightfall soon. It’s a game about people doing the right thing in a bad situation, about sacrifice and hope in the face of doom. Players have a lot of narrative control in the game and the stories we’ve told in campaigns have been emotionally powerful. But I’m so worn down by the sorrows of society that I need a change of pace.

Which brings me to the point of this blog … things are good.

Things Are Good

I’m having so much fun working on this game. It’s different in all the ways it could be from Blightfall. While Blightfall is this amalgamation of Worldbuilding/Player Narrative/Tactical Combat, Deadlift the Devil is an OSR game about Powerlifting/Necromancy (Deadlifting -> Lifting the Dead -> Raising the Dead -> Necromancy, duh).

The rules are simple, the first playtest went very well, and I’m having loads of fun working on it. I’m sure I’ll talk about it ad nauseum in the future, but for now I’ll say that it is a nice turnaround from the pathos and intensity of Blightfall.

It also feels incredible to be at the start of something, to be completely unfettered by anything. It’s a strange feeling, to be proud of something you’ve created and to be ready to move onto the next thing.

There will always be free versions of my games with the full rules available. Things are too hard right now and I don’t want anyone suffering to purchase a game. If you have the means, awesome, throw me a ***your local currency***. But no shame in getting Bleak Edition or pirating my games.

All I ask is that you practice kindness and tear down hate.