Today looking at a decision to start with a smaller gamebook.
Gamebooks and Guardians
I have a new schedule or plan for my gamebooks. First I will be publishing a small gamebook of 75-150 sections. It will be pay-what-you-want and will lead into...
My second book, a full-size book of an open-world fantasy gamebook series, set in a fairly small region of the world. Think more Steam Highwayman than Fabled Lands. This will be 4-6 books in a fantasy open-world setting.
Then at some point I will start publishing another open-world series. Set in a fantasy adaptation of the South-west of England (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset), just after the equivalent of the Roman Empire has withdrawn. The Snowman empire, that has a good ring to it!
But as yet I've published zero gamebooks, so these are just plans so far (I have published around 100 RPG PDFs though!)
Why the Introductory Adventure
I've got far in the writing of my first main open-world gamebook. It's at 500-600 sections, with rules drafted, ideas solidifying and plots well underway.
But there's a lot of moving parts to an open-world gamebook, from rules to plot to quests to branching pathways. Adding in quests across books, some impactful keywords and roaming NPCs. Then there's layout, proofreading, testing and marketing and booky-stuff that's new to me.
So I decided to solidify this by putting out a standalone introduction book. Not too long and pay-what-you-want. To try out ideas and go through the whole process once. As the book would be digital-only (at least to start), it would be easy to make any changes if needed to layout and rules. And plot if really needed.
I get to test out writing skills, get more of an idea of the atmosphere of the book, see the rules in action, get a playtesting and feedback process and do the layout. Plus see what feedback is like!
I likely won't make much money from it, but that's fine as it's laying a groundwork.
Details of the Introductory Gamebook
The "Starter Book" will be pay-what-you-want, 75-150 sections and set in an enchanted wood. Planning to release on DriveThru RPG in pdf format, as this is where most of my RPG titles are currently.
. You will be the same character role each time (maybe a hunter), seeking to escape the wood, maybe solving its mystery at the same time. The character could then be used to bridge into the first or second book of the main open-world series.
It will include rules for... Skills and Skill Tests, Carousing, Fights, Companions, Archery, NPCs, Titles, Encounters, Codes,
Rules and Elements Missing - Character Generation, Treasures, Markets, Inventory, Experience, Talents, Scoring.
Playtesting
This is the main reason for doing the prequel. To start off the process of finding some playtesters and then getting feedback from them and implementing it. Friends who game, others that don't, people from gamebook community, others from solo rpgs or who like my rpg random tables.
People to give feedback on art, layout, experience, writing, gamerules, and the gamebook. Going to be trying out some. Luckily I'm at Fighting Fantasy Fest 5 tomorrow so can find experiences of other writers there.
Finishing Up
Exciting times ahead. I'll cover playtesting and helping out with it in a future article!
Duncan T
