First newsletter! I’m kicking it off with the bare minimum context before I say a lot of stuff that nobody will understand. First things first though:

What the hell is Bespoke?

Bespoke is my d20 fantasy (except it uses a d10) trpg system that I've been tinkering with for the past 4ish years & seriously working on for the past year, with play testing and everything (waow).

It's currently at the stage where I thought I had a game until I started testing it and realized that I actually had like 1/3 of a different, way better game so now I'm making that one.

Here's what I've learned over the last couple months of playtesting:

The really good parts

• Making little guys is fun. It's probably the best part right now. I’m especially proud of how many systems come together to make generating interesting characters super easy.

• Advancement via player determined goals means players are way more proactive about doing stuff, which makes running games waaay easier (for me).

• Experiences are perfect & players putting xp points in the most ridiculous shit will never not be funny. Highlights include “OSHA compliance” “Headbanging”, a humongous robot with “Balance Beam”, “Masking”, and multiple instances of “I know a guy”.

• Items tend to be more meaningful. This was especially important to me because I like making magic items and I want my players to use them.

• I think my setting is good because the game gets better every time I embrace it.

What needs work

• I've gone through so many iterations of what jobs/classes/whatever they'll end up being called look like that they vary wildly in quality right now. I have managed to sort of figure out how to design good jobs, so now it's just a matter of updating everything.

• Crafting, which is a core advancement system, needs a lot of refinement.

• I'm still learning how to run games, let alone Bespoke games. At this point I'm not sure what's the system strengths & weaknesses are vs mine. Figuring that out is going to involve getting it into the hands of other Guides, which is a terrifying prospect.

The maybe drawbacks

• Bespoke seems to be an obligate sandbox game. The amount of stuff that's player driven means it's been frustrating to try and design/run adventure module style pre-written narratives. This might be a #skillissue, but I found out I prefer sandbox games anyway so it works out.

• Bespoke does not support long campaigns very well. Depending on the scope of the goals players set & how often they're rolling, attributes & experiences can increase or even max out quickly. I could probably mitigate this, but instead I'm running with the idea of having games that’re shorter & smaller in scope, focused on single story arcs that explore a little bit of the world at a time.

All in all I’m very excited/motivated by how much progress I’ve made over the last couple months. I have a pretty clear idea now of what I want Bespoke to be, and it’s only getting better as I move towards that. My next big project is likely going to be codifying Keepsakes/Crafting/Materials, alongside the never ending churn of updating classes.

In that vein, the next newsletter is probably going to be a dissection of the Magician, my first real got-it-in-one of Bespoke. Byyyeeee!