[NEWSLETTER] What Even is This Thing
a design brief on what you're getting with the newsletter
If you’re getting this newsletter, it’s because you either:
Signed up for it
Bought one of my products
If you unsubscribed and you’re still getting this, please let me know—I had to switch platforms due to the website migrating so my lists aren’t exactly up to date. Apologies.
With last week’s post, I’ve been trying to think about what my broad goals are for the newsletter. Specifically, I want to know ahead of time, as best as I can, what I can offer to my dear readers in terms of value. Obviously not all writing needs to be valuable per se, but if you’re anything like me reading articles that just meander or pad their point kind of annoy the hell out of me.
I’ve read that when you want to make writing a regular habit (or job, I suppose) you need to go into it with set objectives. These objectives serve as your guiding light, or at the very least as things you can hope to check off your list one day. This isn’t so different than the prep we do for games or systems design—the objectives for the former being running your actual game and for the latter being hopefully releasing the game for public consumption.
Historically-speaking, I’ve always had a lot of trouble figuring out where a regular serialized newsletter fits into my overarching portfolio of projects. On the face, an email or notification-enabled newsletter is one of the most tried-and-true proven methods for engagement and activity. In truth, however, it’s difficult to determine exactly what to write about specifically because your audience is potentially larger and what they value is kind of a shotgun spray of tips, behind the scenes, commiseration, and about a hundred other things.
This time around, since I’m really trying to make this work, I thought it would be helpful to just be transparent with what I’m looking for this newsletter to do. I should also say that I’m interested in what you are hoping for your writing to do this year as well, so please leave a comment if you’ve got big ideas you’re working on.
Goals for Writing in 2024
The biggest goals, in my mind, are the following three things (ordered by what I personally find the most valuable):
To meet and work with other creatives in the hobby
To develop a presence in the hobby (specifically the blogosphere)
To support myself with extra income
Personally, I don’t think there’s a ton of extra income to be made with my writing that’s not turning into actionable materials I’m producing and selling elsewhere like on DTRPG or itch. While I will happily eat those words if that’s not the case, I just think that generally speaking making more money isn’t where I’m hoping to head with this.
Ultimately my biggest objectives are, in an annoyingly corporate sense, to meet, greet, and build relationships. Even more annoyingly, it’s not even necessarily to open up future doors to potentially lucrative or thought-provoking projects (though I’m certainly open to them). The biggest thing I hope to gain is a group of like-minded folks that like the same stuff I do and can’t shut up about them because I’ve annoyed all my “casul” friends with it.
SO, that being said, if you’re interested in something and you want to chat about it, please comment below. I might just respond to you there or I’ll turn it into a bigger article.
Nothing(-ish) is off-limits, so shoot your shot.
This Month: Dungeoneering
I’ve got a game going to crowdfunding next month. Or, I guess, technically I have a game supplement. It’s an add-on for my game, Dungeoneering, that I made in 2021 and have slowly added to since. So that means this month will pretty much be all about that.
In case folks aren’t particularly interested in me pitching you my game (who would be) I’ll also be including some tutorials for how I’m accomplishing some of the layout for the book, including highlighted keywords, typographic hierarchy, designing tables for readability, etc.
If you’re not familiar with Dungeoneering, which seeing as a lot of you were imported from my Kickstarter email list you ought to be, the game is basically a d6 rules-light dungeon crawler that specifically hones in on that procedure in ways that are a) intentional and b) not mind-numbingly boring.
There are four base “classes”, called roles, that align with the four ability scores in the game: Warrior (Might), Magician (Intellect), Thief (Agility), and Prophet (Favor).
Warriors and thieves are fairly straightforward, but Magicians cast spells and Prophets speak prayers. Of course, magic is super dangerous so Magicians are at risks of magical misfires and, worse, magical anomalies based on their rolls (yes, it’s a roll-to-cast system). Prophets, on the other hand, are risk of pissing off their gods by rolling poorly on their casts, thus becoming Forsaken and hunted by champions of the deity until they make some sacrifices or prove themselves (or both!).
I’ve got free quickstart rules available on itch.io if you want to check the game out without spending anything. Click below to head over there:
In 2022 I made Dungeoneering: Wanderers which added two more roles: Scout and Troubadour (basically my game’s version of the ranger and bard). Also made a few d100 tables for adding some flavor and rewards to the dungeons. As part of that crowdfunding effort I also made a megadungeon called The Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar, which technically was written as part of the original Dungeoneering crowdfunding in 2021 but I really hated that version and wanted to do it better.
In February of this year—as mentioned in last week’s post—I’m launching Dungeoneering: Catalysts which introduces 6 new roles (Alchemist, Berserker, Harlequin, Knight, Necromancer, and Sorcerer) thus filling out the roster so that each ability has three roles associated with it:
Might: Warrior, Berserker, Knight
Intellect: Magician, Alchemist, Sorcerer
Agility: Thief, Scout, Harlequin
Favor: Prophet, Troubadour, Necromancer
There will also be some more tables, new magic items, new spells, new prayers, and finally a new dungeon called “The Starlit Spire” that takes place in my slowly growing in-universe setting: The Barren Lands, along with the Underworld beneath them.
In the meantime, that’s all I got. Happy New Year, everyone!
- Nate
I really like the draft cover art for the new adventure, very cool design.
Hey Nate, I'm actually local to your area. We should meet up sometime.