One project moves to the next stage and the next begins...
The Briar of Learning
The current gamebook I've been writing (working title of "Badgerstone Briar"), since September last year is almost ready for proper playtesting. It's gone through rules developments, playtests with friends, rules rewrites. And lots of incremental, iterations in development and writing.
My own gamebook journey has continued since then too, learning about the good, amazing and bad that have gone before. There was 31 Days of Gamebooks in July, a gamebook group in the 100 Endings Book Club, the continuing Gamebook Interviews, a gamebook community on the Rand Roll Discord and other Gamebook Articles.
And I've also figured out it will be a while before "Badgerstone Briar" is ready for publishing. By itself it would be ready much earlier. But it's an open-world gamebook that's tied in quite tightly to the second book (working title "Citadel of Oak and Rose"). I need to write quite a lot of that one and test out some of the rules in a larger book before I'm happy with Badgerstone Briar to go out into the wild.
So the solution is to write another gamebook, and go smaller again!
Going Smaller with the Isle of Sorcery
And so onto a new book with the working title "Isle of Sorcery"
This one will also be an open-world book, although part of a series of more self-contained gamebooks. And publishing one won't depend on what happens in others! I'm also pondering publishing it as part of an open-world system others could publish books for and connect to this one.
It will be set on an island that's displaced from it's original location. Aiming for 400 passages.
This one will use a simple ruleset than the one I've been working on, with more similarities to something like Fabled Lands than the dice pool system I've been trying out.
I've done a rough first draft, and the aim is to develop it, finish writing it and get a playtest in. To publish in 3 months or so, by the end of February 2026 in digital format.
Mechanics of the Island
I wanted to test out some of the mechanics and ideas I've been using in Badgerstone Briar, in a less ambitious gamebook.
These will include
- Communities for characters to start from. They will get a starting quest, a place to store items and other support. Something that grounds them in the setting.
- Companions who can travel with you, have an in-game effects (a herbalist would help you identify herbs) but aren't the focus. Can die, leave you and trigger some narrative options.
- Encounters tables that introduce NPCs, parts of the world and serve as a cost for moving between parts of the setting. But won't have quests that vital to competing the central quest(s) of the book.
- Random Tables to carry some of the rules load and help with variability and replayability. Such as carousing, random treasures and events.
- Tests that are Success, Fail or Success with a Cost.
- No Combat Rules. Like VulcanVerse, combat will just be a standard Test
- An Inn. I love the concept of a pub or inn as a place to meet people and use as a base in a gamebook. So there will be one playing a prominent role here!
- And the other pillars for me such as no insta-death, ways to increase or decrease difficulty and a central quest that can be ignored for just exploring.Finishing Up
Finishing Up
It's a tight deadline but it will be a learning experience. An update in December!
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