Current projects

Several convergent signs tell me to publish something this year.

1. My spouse and I crafted handmade notebooks as Christmas gifts for the family this year. (Well, I just customized covers of preexisting notebooks, because my skills are far from "crafting and sewing the whole cover and book" yet.) We had tons of fun cutting, gluing, and designing our little artistic zine-like objects ! I want to do this for RPG fun !

2. Nova from Playful Void put out her Zungeon Manifesto : demystifying dungeon creation with approachable procedures, a strong zine spirit, and the value of not hesitating to put something you've made out there, for the public to see.

3. W.F. Smith from Prismatic Wasteland put out a Year of the Beta manifesto of sorts, too ! Publish something unfinished but playable : see if you polish it, let others pick it apart, get it playtested, or just get it out of your system, but in any case : publish something.

So. These elements, resonating between themselves, collide with my strong preexisting desire to publish something, and with my drafts growing bigger every week. And with the fact that, yes, I actually felt confident enough to publish a translation on my itch page ! Knowing that I can do stuff is a powerful feeling.

The question is : publish stuff, yes, cool, very cool. But... which stuff ?

This is the post where I attempt to lay out my current projects.

First, a word about my deplorable workflows.

Nowadays, I try to limit myself to 5 active projects and 10 on the back burner. This is what I can manage without much problem, while permitting frequent rotations — which I need.

You have not seen my stuff yet because I never finish it, for a myriad of reasons I wrote an entire post's worth about, before deleting it and choosing to stay on topic.

But it is changing, hence this post.

 

The active projects

 

Standard OSR heartbreaker #12568214

An ever-changing ensemble of rules and systems designed to accommodate the cool OSR mechanical bits I come across, while staying lightweight and accessible. The current incarnation is a simple, generic base, with individual games / campaign settings / modules riffing on this base and adding settings, character options, rules, variants, etc. I am quite proud of the underlying concepts and the flexibility of it.

What I hope to do with it :

- lay out its theoretical foundations in more blog posts, like I started this summer ;

- develop and publish a zungeon by testing my simple dungeon stocking method (mentioned in the post I linked to) ;

- clean it up, publish it on Itch, perhaps as an SRD, and develop my own game ideas derived from it ;

- actually using it to play, focusing more on gameable content than system tinkering for a while.

 

Cosmo Spleen

Ultra-light d6 engine geared primarily for 1 player, solo or with a GM. Short game. Genre : planetary romance / sword and planet (I'm accidentally discovering that the genre is called "planet opera" in French, and the name has its charm).

The pitch : picaresque space losers find themselves in perilous situations on strange worlds, and can only rely on their wit and luck to get out of them, with precarious resources and constant complications.

What I hope to do with it :

- publish it in its most basic, simple form instead of constantly adding unnecessary small bits to it ;

- finish the solo playtest I have started with an interesting character ;

- develop Magic Spleen, a fantasy version where Ars Magica style wizards constantly get into trouble, both in and out of their wizard tower / academy / coven / HQ ; it looks very fun, is d12-based and of course has new rules and random tables.

 

DUNADRA

 My own version of an OSR+trad d20-but-it's-simple-I-promise fantasy game. Inspired by D&D 5e, and somewhat 2e too, this game aims to provide an exciting fantasy setting for heroic and epic adventures, with an anti-canon design, many adventure seeds, interesting character options that stay simple and accessible, and a modular philosophy. The problem, really, is that I have to attach a system to my collection of random tables and worldbuilding advice... But I prefer doing it this way, because I want my own D&D-like without the cruft (of both fluffy and crunchy varieties) of those systems.

What I hope to do with it :

- putting together a simple, but complete enough, system ;

- develop as many tables, tools, seeds... that I want, but publishing a beta with the basics ;

- see if people think that the name "Dunadra" is too on the nose or not !

These are the biggest things I'm working on right now.

 

The back burner

Various Lasers & Feelings hacks

What it says on the tin. Slowly hacking away at a Final Fantasy one and a Giscardpunk one (yes, that's a genre – basically French 60s-to-80s retrofuturism), but I have other ideas. It's quite fun and easy, but I still can't finish them ! I have trouble deciding some options for the FF one, and the Giscardpunk one got hit by a wave of feature creep. Yeah. I'm paralyzed by feature creep in a Lasers & Feelings hack.

What I hope to do with them :

- finish them without spending too much time on them ;

- publish them.

Oh, and the FF one is called LIMIT & BREAK. You have read it here first !

 

RP6 : Voyageur

A hack of Grant Howitt's one-page RP6 game, which I translated last month (see link near the beginning of the post). It's for a comical & cynical space opera setting, with no canon but lots of things, that I have been visiting from time to time for a few years now. I feel like RP6 would fit it perfectly !

What I hope to do with it :

- actually get around writing it ;

- publish a beta before developing all the stuff (there could be a lot) ;

- playing it with people, because I think it's got lots of potential.

SCAV system

One of my darlings. A simple system for playing in a setting I imagined around ten years ago now : France, 2100, after the apocalypse caused by climate change and subsequent societal crumbling. I just love this setting and the stories you can tell in it. The system is simple. Just gotta work on it. I have a lot of material and inspiration already, and it's one of the few homemade settings I actually GMed for friends.

What I hope to do with it :

- publish some form of beta when it's in a presentable state ;

- develop some adventures and various starting set-ups for it.

 

Zelda RPG (that's not the final name, please don't sue me Nintendo, I have no money)

A game I've been developing for a year or two now, coming back to it from time to time. The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite video game series ever, and I really want to pay homage to it – none of the other existing TTRPG propositions I've seen in that space really appeal to me, for some reason or another. This project is dear to me, and my proposition is very faithful to what I love in the series.

What I hope to do with it :

- finish it with many cool tools for dungeon and puzzle creation, which is a quintessential point in Zelda ;

- use it to fuel the writing of another WIP of mine, a re-imagining of a Zelda fanfiction comics I did when I was 15 (it was atrocious and wonderful) ;

- hope it finds an audience somewhere.

 

Other things

There are other projects I keep in mind, or in notes. Some of which are almost complete (the basic skeleton anyway), some of which are short notes. I could list them all, but this post is long enough as it is. There's an Into the Odd-inspired game tentatively called Giscardpocalypse (adventurers wandering in the brutalist ruins of a former Giscardpunk world), a dantesque "cosmic war" game depicting demons and angels battling at the interstellar level, an ItO / Electric Bastionland hack with Jules Verne & other French vibes called Paradis Électrique, various ideas for generators and tables, and well... many others.

Looking at it, that's more work than I can do in 2025 ! I probably won't start publishing prolifically after so many years of not doing it, but I am confident that some of the stuff can see the light of day this year.

Also looking at it, a certain number of my projects heavily feature French culture, names or folklore. I am not sure why. Perhaps because there are not that many works in that space (even by French authors), or perhaps precisely because I feel the need to engage with my culture and its representations, in a time where it constantly reveals its many dark sides.

Anyway ! Publish stuff this year, do what you can, how you can, and see how it goes. I'll certainly try !

Bluesky presence

Hey, it seems I'm present on Bluesky now.

I never used Twitter at all : it always looked intimidating and exhausting and, frankly, kinda uninteresting from afar.

Bluesky is, too. But I am in a place where it is actually interesting to use for me, now that I care about connecting with fellow TTRPG creators, and now that I have more strength for other causes — and these require some degree of socialization.

And, of course, it doesn't reach the levels of awfulness of the other place, even if not everything is perfect (harmful bullying will never leave the internet, will it ?).

So ! You can find me there : @joyeuxscribe.bsky.social

There's English-speaking TTRPG stuff there, but also in French, and also talks of French politics, Covid / long Covid and my own disability, etc. Making and managing several accounts for different topics and circles of socialization was too exhausting, sorry !

Random table : which OSR are you ?

Just for fun : a quick random table to know which part of the wide OSR movement one may belong to. Heh, that might even be applicable to random NPCs for campaigns set in modern times...

Table 1 : adjective

1, grognard

2, hardcore

3, grimdark

4, artpunk

5, simulationist

6, narrativist

7, improv-heavy

8, hexcrawl / sandbox-focused

9, light-prep

10, mega-dungeon-focused

11, procedure-heavy

12, gonzo

Table 2 : noun

1, OSR (R for Revival / Renaissance) 

2, NSR / NuSR

3, FKR

4, DIY RPG

5, elfgame

6, adventure game

7, SwordDream

8, O5R

9, indie gaming

10, gaming (you just never stopped since the 70s)

11, OSR (R for Revolution) 

12, fantasy wargaming

Don't xander your dungeons, jaquays them !

 Just relaying this article from Anne, over at DIY & dragons.

You know how the OSR sphere talks about "jaquaying dungeons" since that 2010 article from Justin Alexander ?

Well, remember it's actually jaquaysing – my inner proofwriter has always been irritated by that typo –, and that Mr. Alexander really shouldn't rename it "xandering" after himself. Dishonest, distasteful, trans people erasing (the article says it all much better than I could), and it's an ugly word on top of that.

So please, go jaquays 'em dungeons. That's good game design.

(Also, thank you, Anne. You're always doing good work with what I call "community" posts, and I've been reading your blog with interest.)

Where I stand as a creator

 This is a "this is my stance on things" article. And my stand as a creator (or would-be creator) is the same as my stance as a, you know, human being trying to be kind.

These days, everything and everyone is more politically polarized. Perhaps it's bad. It certainly can be. Social networks use outrage to appeal to our attention, and far-right fascists are all to happy to ride this wave while complaining that they're persecuted — fragile little things, they are.

But some good comes out of it, too. Marginalized communities have voices, voices that reach far further than ever before. The real problems can be discussed, nationwide, worldwide, easier and faster than ever before. And now, with a bit of curiosity and internet access, you can know who you give money to. It is possible to vote with your wallet with actual insight.

It's not to say you can't have bad surprises, as some well-regarded creators get to be seen in a new light when their victims speak up.

But now you know. The world of tabletop RPGs in general, and the OSR in particular, are sprawling scenes. There is enough great stuff out there to support good people while playing with quality material. (Heck, there's enough great stuff to play for free for ever, and if that's not voting with your wallet, I don't know what is.)

So there's no reason not to do it. Support good games by good people. Give more money to those who need it (and yes, that can mean keep it to yourself — and play with free material or community copies). Don't encourage or enable awful people, even if they make good games, because there's good elsewhere, too.

As for me ? Whatever the labels, I'll stand with those that the system actually crushes, excludes, marginalizes, in all its accidental and intentional ways. Persons of color, women, children, queer folk, neuro-atypical folk, disabled folks of all kinds, victims of sexual crimes of all kinds, victims of wars and their consequences, etc.
Recognizing myself in a few of these categories, I obviously feel concerned.
Knowing people from all of these categories, I obviously empathize and want things to change.
Living in a world that seems doomed by greed-induced deliberate inaction in front of the coming catastrophes, I am spurred by my will to live.

So yeah. Of course, doing this in the rest of my daily life is far, far more important and far, far more difficult. But RPGs deserve it, too. I won't comment, promote or talk about products made by bigoted people whose views and actions I despise, and that's all. It's quite easy to do, in fact.

#dungeon23 ideas

 I appreciate the #dungeon23 project a lot. It sounds just like the "great days" of the OSR, albeit in a less collaborative fashion, perhaps. But it's awesome to witness such a rush of creativity, sharing, resources, blogging and reblogging, etc. That's the DIY stuff the OSR is made of. (Other resources and relays : on Mazirian's Garden, on HereticWerks, on Reddit...)

As for myself ? I'm awfully bad at doing these kinds of self-imposed, regular challenges. As much as I love writing, I haven't ever been able to participate in NaNoWriMo, for example, much less complete it. And my current life and health would be enough to deter me anyway. 

But, of course, I still find myself bursting with ideas. So here's a random table of #dungeon23 projects and variations ! I know the year has started already, but hey, if there are other people like me out there, some will come late or will want to change the project once started. That's not the goal, but we do what we can...

1, #dungeon23 : the challenge as originally proposed. 1 level per month, 1 room per day.

2, # monster23 : a theme a month, one bestiary entry per day.

3, #treasure23 : same, but with sweet treasure.

4, #kid23 : make good use of the challenge by exploring, in any way you want, a setting that haunts you since your childhood or teenage years. Or do a #dream23 : if you have a dream journal, use bits and pieces from it to fuel your inspiration and flesh out your inner worlds.

5, #ocean23 : each month an island, its secrets, its surrounding islets, atolls, encounters, etc. Can double as #sky23 for floating islands, because of course sky islands are cool.

6, #space23 : each month a world or system in a space opera universe. Build a sector or subsector along the year for Classic Traveller or any space opera game !

7, #spelljammer23 : mixing the best of 5 and 6, it's worlds, islands and weird encounters for your favorite space fantasy setting / Spelljammer ersatz.

8, #pungeon23 : fill your dungeon / whatever with one pun or wordplay per day. Room number 5 is an NPC named Gael Ubo (or is it Ugo Elba, or Gabe Olu ?) dancing the mambo. 

9, #hexcrawl23 : a generalisation of the oceancrawl, each day is a square or hex or point on a wilderness exploration map.

10, #wiki23 : each day, your inspiration must come from a different random Wikipedia page. Or from the featured article of the day, that works too ! 

11, #book23 : each day, you guessed it, your inspiration must come from a different random line or word in a book of your choice. Might be always the same book, might not be. (Heck, I'm half-tempted to try a #bible23 just to see what comes out of it.) Might also come from movie, series, magazines, podcasts or video games lines. (Those kinds of creative constraints might bother some people, but they're also great guides and supports for those that, like me, welcome an external source of focus and discipline. Just like in improv acting or acting in general, or writing or any other artistic pursuit. Just like random tables help the OSR referee imagine and discover what happens next !)

12, #home23 : take your inspiration from around your home, hometown, surrounding region that you know well. Or use it as a pretext / motivation to discover cool things about your region if you don't know it well !

13, #group23 : gather the spirit of the early OSR : find a group and collaborate together ! Each can do a piece, or you can share the days, or one writes and the other draws or proofreads, etc.

14, #saints23 : many religions have saints, some official, some popular, and many have attributes, portfolios or biographies that are ripe with direct gameable material or inspiration. Pick the religion that tickles your interest and go look at its saints ! Better yet, some calendars associate a different saint du jour to each day, so your content is already in place. There are other calendars out there with daily attributions, such as the old French revolutionary calendar with its rural and agricultural focus. 

15, #magic23 : each day a new spell. Dividing the months in schools, themes or spell levels is optional.

16, #misc23 : be less constrained, follow your fancy. Each day, write just a small thing : a room, a hex or wilderness locale or encounter, an item, a magic item, a trap, a spell, a creature, a faction, an NPC, a bit of lore, a small finding, whatever.

17, #city23 : each month a district of your fantasy / sci-fi / cyberpunk / historical city or megalopolis. Or each month is a different city in the same world. Fill it with NPCs, rumors, shops, places to be and to see, scheming factions, hidden corners, looming threats.

18, #people23 : what people are and do. Each day is, to your preference, a fantasy species / ancestry, a faction, a class or subclass, a particular NPC... Here again there's room to theme per month as you wish ! 

19, #lore23 : flesh out your setting with a bit of lore a day, as consequential or trivial as you want. There are many worldbuilding questionnaires and generators out there to give you inspiration, thematics, etc. The more gameable or actionable, the better.

20, #no23 : don't participate, or not all of it, because, hey ! it's just for fun, don't stress about it. Don't be like me.