I'm creating a book of TTRPG horror scenarios!
Hello Friends!
I hope you're all well today. Thanks for signing up to this extremely sporadic newsletter wherein I occasionally tell you about things I am doing.
This is my first newsletter on Buttondown and I'm sending it about a week later than intended. Sorry about that, I was distracted. I hear that Buttondown emails have a tendency to end up in spam folders, so you may need to whitelist this address if you find this missive in yours.
Anyway, things!
Darkened Hill & Dale
On Friday afternoon I launched a Kickstarter! It successfully funded within nine hours, which was nice but rather unexpected—not least of all because I only came up with the idea to launch it 4 weeks ago, don't have 'fanbase', haven't run one before, and haven't promoted it very aggressively. I'm rather lucky, I think, to have friends to reskeet 1 me and compensate for my lack of marketing skills.
Short summary: Darkened Hill & Dale is a zine/booklet2 containing seven system-flexible, horror-themed TTRPG scenarios set in modern Britain with a rural theme. It was six scenarios, but folks have pushed us through the 'bonus scenario' stretch goal already.
If this goes well (in terms of the final product and its reception), I have the notion repeat this exercise to create a series which I'm calling This Blighted Isle.
The campaign is currently on day four of thirty, and I'm intrigued to see how it goes overall. These campaigns always plateau, and I'm seeing that already, but it's all an interesting learning experience and very motivating for getting the project done!
Memo to self: don't blow all of the budget on artwork just because it's really cool.
Find the Kickstarter here if haven't seen it already and want to have a look: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/patchworkfez/this-blighted-isle-darkened-hill-and-dale
Trick or Retreat
Driven by the abject fear of not being able to find a suitable venue for Trick or Retreat in 2024, I booked a venue just before Christmas. As a result, tickets are already available despite the event not being until October! The time and place:
Weds 23 to Sun 27 October 2024
YHA National Forest, Moira, Derbyshire (near Twycross Zoo!)
Find full information and the ticket booking link at https://trickorretreat.uk/
I'm a little disappointed that we couldn't stay in Hebden Bridge3, because it's a great area to be in, but I do think this new venue will work really well. The new place is in the Midlands, purpose-built, accessible, has plenty of space, and actually has enough tables for ~40 people to play boardgames at the same time. It's a bit more expensive than the last place, but everywhere which has both social space and bedrooms is pricey these days.
A few people have already bought their tickets despite it being miles off, which is nice4! Having a venue so far in advance also means I've been able to set up 'pay in instalments' options too, which I'm glad about.
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Anyway, I'll leave this here because I have, as ever, a seemingly-endless amount of work awaiting me.
See you all anon,
Sarah <3
1 'Skeets' are what the community has decided to call posts on BlueSky (which is where I'm most active now).
2 I was prompted to create the DHaD campaign by someone asking me "Are you doing anything for ZineQuest?" which, a) I hadn't heard of, and, b) is a month wherein Kickstarter promotes TTRPG zines. What qualifies as a zine? I'm not sure DHaD meets any criteria I can think of, since it's probably going to run to 60+ pages and will be professionally printed, but it probably won't have an ISBN, so maybe? I'm interested to hear if anyone has a proper definition.
3 If you're wondering why we couldn't stay up north, it's because the venue cost was increasing by a whopping 80% and (as the event is run at-cost) I wasn't prepared to effectively double the ticket price. Hebden also isn't super for accessibility, which is a common problem in hostels because most of them occupy old buildings that were designed back when people didn't give much consideration to folks with mobility issues of any description.
4 ...and also alleviates my fear of not having the rest of the venue cost to hand when it comes due at the end of August.