Year-End Review: Watch Well Games Issue #43

✨A quick look back from me and those I collab'd with this year.✨

Dec 27, 2024

Welcome to our RPG community newsletter!

Here’s a look back featuring a few creators and writers that I had the privilege of collaborating with in 2024. They make quality content, so I included plenty of links (disclosure: some are affiliate at no cost to them or you).

🎉Zachary Elliott-Hatton - up & coming RPG creator says:

"Revenge of the Has-Beans is the first expansion for the world’s most popular legume-theft RPG [citation needed] Beanjackers. It features three new playable species, two new classes, an alchemical crafting system, and a new adventure that takes the party in to the shrouded, undead-inhabited Undercanopy. Also in the works is a second edition of my first RPG release, Protomancer. The core mechanics have been refined and streamlined, and there’s a raft of new content like player classes, customisable skills, and a setting that is both broader and far more detailed. You can follow me on bluesky to see what I’m up to!"

🎉 John Hedge - Miskatonic Playhouse staff & Embers of Humanity RPG creator says:

“As 2024 comes to a close, I look back with pride on a stellar creative year. Stage Fright is an Electrum best seller, and now available for print-on-demand. The Miskatonic Playhouse goes from strength-to-strength, producing excellent main-stage shows, fascinating little campaigns and community-led twitch games for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu. Finally, my exciting new RPG Embers of Humanity is set to hit the shelves at the start of 2025, bringing a hope-filled post-apocalyptic vibe to BRP and an innovative supporters initiative that will allow the community to help the game grow to it's full potential.”

🎉 Schlau H - cartographer & founder of Light in Darkness Gaming says:

“This coming year I hope to grow the commissions aspect of LiD Gaming. This is both fun and challenging. My goal is to make at least 25 custom maps for individuals wanting to elevate their homebrew or published adventures. I will also be revamping my Patreon to better meet the needs of my supporters. And finally, I hope to build the community with the release of the LiD Gaming Discord channel.”

🎉 Luke Saunders - founder of Murkdice says:

“Murkdice has big plans for 2025. Expect something soon that will make running factions amazing for GMs. And beyond that, we have serious plans for some chunky OSR products this year. Stay tuned.” (You can subscribe to Luke’s newsletter and even join his Discord.)

🎉 Lee Wade - best-selling author of Alone Against Nyarlathotep says:

“With my last CoC solo game spending the last 8 months in the top 3 Bestseller CC on DrivethruRPG, I'm inspired to write another. This one is even more ambitious and involved massive amounts of hard to find historical research. The focus has been on Manhattan in the roaring twenties and the most famous man in the world in that period, Harry Houdini. The solo RPG will allow massive player agency and huge sandbox covering the entire city over 4 year. My initial deadline is the 99th Anniversary of Houdini's controversial death .... Halloween.”

🎉 Śraddhāpa Welsh - founder of Dragonzine (Dragon Cult Games) says:

“This has been an exciting first year for Dragon Cult Games! I've collaborated with so many wonderful writers and artists to publish content for Dragonbane, including a Necromancy supplement, a few short adventures, and two issues of Dragonzine, all of which has been very positively received by the Dragonbane community. I've also had the opportunity to work with Dunderdagar, translating a number of their excellent products from Swedish into English. Dragon Cult Games' products have been digital only so far, but next year I will be moving into producing physical products, with a Kickstarter for a mystery adventure called "The Necromancer's Apprentice" planned for next month. I have several other exciting projects planned for next year, so you can sign up to the Dragon Cult Games newsletter at www.dragoncultgames.com to keep up to date.”

🤔 … And then my own look back before looking forward

Like you, dear readers, RPGs are a hobby to enjoy in my free time. I especially like GMing and telling stories with my players. A few folks close to me said I should write RPG material, so I thought, let’s just try this and see what happens. The two years before 2024 will give some extra context to my conclusion below.

2022:

Tried in 2022 to attend The Storytelling Collective’s “Write Your First Adventure” cohort (when the class was live, unlike today’s version) - had to stop during the second week due to a family emergency.
Became a Beta-tester for the VTT Quest Portal.
Became a playtester for a video gaming service company, reaching VIP level and gaining access to loads of special tests behind NDAs.

2023:

Signed up for the second-annual Pocket Quest. Despite that challenging summer, I published my first-ever RPG something - EXIT STRATEGY, a space-themed pocket adventure based on a short film idea I had a few years before. I remember being so proud that I finally published something. (It’s since earned Silver best-seller metal.)
A few months later, I created a EXIT STRATEGY: Solo edition.
At the end of 2023, I created Watch Well Games (bought a domain, set up a website, email, made a logo, etc. on a shoestring budget).
My first two games

2024:

I began 2024 with an overly ambitious newsletter release schedule (because folks said to post often). I got sick for the first quarter of the year, and my high-level, 3-year-old laptop unexpectedly went into the “blue screen of death” mode off and on for weeks before dying. Setting up newsletters through mailerlite only made matters worse (I do not recommend that provider.)
In February, my entry Moments of Mirth: Vol. 1 - Elora’s Emporium won a spot in a friendly little Discord server competition (Dragonbane server: Dragonburn challenge #2 - before they gave prizes to the winners, sadly). After giving away almost 500 free copies, I recently put a price tag on the product, hoping to fund any other RPG endeavors.
The third game I ever created from scratch - Conscience of a Con - was part of DTRPG’s third-annual Pocket Quest. I’ve shared about my indie game creator experience up to that point here and the Copper best-seller solo pocket adventure both here and here.
Moments of Mirth: Vol. 2 - Captain Coggins’ Chronometer was released in the summer.

For the majority of the 2024, my goal was to pay it forward for the entire year, promoting and supporting others by doing reviews, interviews, playtests, and proofreading - while continuing to create (and improve my making of) RPG materials. It wasn’t perfect, because I am not perfect. (Even large RPG publishers with several paid editors have errata😅) I am a work in progress - always learning, always growing.

🔍 Find a list of projects not behind NDAs that I contributed towards here (scroll down to the “K.J.’s Portfolio” section).

CONCLUSION: What have I learned while on this journey? You can read my short Note here.
I’ll also say this: Create the game YOU want to play. You need to be pleased with your own work. Don’t sell out, compromising who you are for a short-term gain. Keep moving forward in your creative endeavors (even if they’re not RPG-related) and enjoy the journey.

2025:

I’m not sure if publishing RPG content is in my future. I’ve sacrificed parts of my life the last couple of years to pursue this hobby, so I’ve decided to take an undefined hiatus. This newsletter will continue (so don’t unsubscribe please😅), but beyond that, we’ll see.

What about you? How do you feel as we look forward to 2025? 😊

🙏Thanks for reading Watch Well Games. And remember:

Hiatus originally comes from Latin hiare meaning “to yawn.” 🥱