David Jackson has written three separate world-building pamphlet games. You can find his project up on Kickstarter here, his itch page here, and him on Twitter @proton_31.
Q: Easy question first: Give us the elevator pitch of your project. Tell us about it in two sentences or less.
A: I've written three worldbuilding pamphlet games that use Takuma Okada's Alone at the Table system. They are designed to be both solo games and game master tools to explore some ways that journaling games can support the game masters solo project of preparing for game sessions.
Q: Is this your first ZineMonth project or have you done it before? If it's your first, talk a bit about what inspired you to give it a shot this year. If you've done it before, what's something you've learned from previous crowdfunding projects that you may be doing differently this time, or, if you're not doing anything differently, talk a bit about your previous projects.
A: Is this your first ZineMonth project or have you done it before? If it's your first, talk a bit about what inspired you to give it a shot this year. If you've done it before, what's something you've learned from previous crowdfunding projects that you may be doing differently this time, or, if you're not doing anything differently, talk a bit about your previous projects.
This is my second Zine Month project. I itchfunded Roguelike Megadungeon last year and have still not completed it, my thoughts on megadungeons have been developing a lot especially with Sean McCoy recently popularizing the idea for 2023 with his Dungeon23 project. I would say that the main lesson I've learned is that there is a sort of chicken and the egg effect in crowdfunding where you need the money to pay artists and editors etc to make a game but that you need the games to get the money to pay people. Last time I pitched something pretty expansive and abstract, where this time I am pitching something very concrete and totally finished using art from creative commons and patreon. In addition to finishing the games ahead of time I also planned out the promotional calendar so hopefully the whole process will be a lot more efficient and less stressful the second time around.
Q: Finally, tell us something about your current project that really excites you but the average backer may not be aware of. Maybe a twist to an old trope, a new way of presenting something, or maybe just something you've never tried before that you're using this as an opportunity to try out.
A: Alone at the Table games are a slice-of-life style of world building game that can be detail oriented while not requiring statistics or governing bodies to be planned out. I think of these pamphlets as an approach to GM prep that is inside-out rather than top-down. So instead of prepping a world or situation from the perspective of its architect, you visit it from the perspective of a traveler or citizen. This can be an easy way to see your campaign world through a fresh set of eyes.