Surprise, its my first published game!
Surprise! Well, if you follow my newsletter updates you likely will be by this announcement. I have released my first published game, and it is not one I've written about yet. I released my new game To Whom Shall We Go as a beta version for play test, using a pay-what-you-want model on itch. I want to tell you a little bit about the development of To Whom Shall We Go.
In To Whom Shall We Go, you create Pilgrims seeking Words of Eternal Life. Each Pilgrim carries different and potentially competing beliefs about the nature of one, shared God they believe in. Instead of classes, players roles are determined by what they believe about our God within four core beliefs: Just, Merciful, Transcendent, and Immanent. Each Pilgrim's beliefs shape their Prayers, powerful invocations of God's action to help and aid them on their quest. To Whom Shall We Go leaves setting and details purposefully opaque so that through shared world-building and game play, you may create lore and discover the nature of our God together.
To Whom Shall We Go was written for the Together We Go game jam, a system released by Plus One Exp based on the game Down We Go. TWG is a rules-lite, OSR style game, and the original Down We Go game was released on one simple A5 size sheet. The entirety of To Whom Shall We Go currently fits on an A5.
My baseline idea for this TWG game was that roles would be inspired by Beliefs about a shared God. Players would play characters with different beliefs, all seeking to kind of compete with each other to confirm their own way of seeing their God. I also wanted to make the beliefs competing in the rules, so I made them exist on a sort of spectrum. The four Beliefs are Just, Merciful, Transcendent, and Immanent. As your Belief in Just becomes stronger, this weakens the effects of Merciful related abilities, and vice-a-versa. The same is true for Transcendent and Immanent. However, you could still put points as you level in any Belief, and unlock associated Prayers. Prayers exist like powers that you can use at any time just for holding your Beliefs.
For me personally designing To Whom Shall We Go, it was inspired by my own religious experiences. I dreamed up the game while praying my Daily Office prayers from the Celtic Daily Prayer Book used by my religious order, the Anamchara Fellowship. Every morning in morning prayer I sing the words "to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God." Every day morning and evening I recite the Psalms in a 30 day cycle. During these times of prayer, I kept going back to abilities and powers that you might unlock in this game. However, that was my own personal "skin" of sorts for the game. There does not need to be a celtic flavor or spirit in TWSWG. The potential for what kind of deity you worship and serve and what kind of pilgrimage you take is limitless.
There was one other idea I had, though, that I am excited about for its potential. Since the game is about discovering Truths called Words of Eternal Life that then Pilgrims bring back to civilization and share, I thought it would be fun to share them on a meta level. So I created a spreadsheet so that players could potentially share their Words across games, shaping one Meta-Deity across multiple games, play sessions, and GM's.
As I said, TWSWG is in play test, and so currently exists in a pay-what-you-want model. If you buy the game, you'll get access to further content released for it. I would love to flesh out some of the concepts a bit and even build a "dungeon" of sorts to use for a Pilgrimage.
Check out the game and let me know what you think, especially if you play and have feedback. And I hope you'll consider sharing the game with others. https://apongames.itch.io/to-whom-shall-we-go