Jim Rossignol
@rossignol
Writer. Makes books, games. Co-founded Rock, Paper, Shotgun and Big Robot (Sir, You Are Being Hunted). Now: TEETH RPG, MILESHIPS. And email: jim at big-robot.com
I do like it when a cloud appears as hand-painted backdrop for the heart-breakingly beautiful anime of my life story.
On the D&D discourse: I've long planned to run 2e Dark Sun setting with some other system. I mention this in the chat
And find Sir, You Are Being Hunted on all the Switch, Xbox, and PS5 storefronts, today!
About a year after the game had hit v1.0 I was asked to give a talk about it. I turned it down, but I have often thought about my idea for a talked called something like "Game development and how I know less now than I did to begin with." The game remains a testament to the wild faith of youth.
So here we had a confluence of events that is unrepeatable in spacetime. Kickstarter was a viable way to raise good amounts for a videogame project, Early Access was a novelty that everyone wants to check out, Steam was still curated, people were fascinated in the idea of procedural generation.
Some of you, I know, are backers from that original Kickstarter, so again thank you for that. The game genuinely would not have happened with you. Publishers still blink with disbelief when I tell them about the game now, but it worked because we were able to make a playable game with that money.
One of the things that I find interesting, looking back, is that Sir now looks like the very lo-fi "friendslop" games that are popular now. My son commented, while making some videos of Sir, that it "looks very old now." But the thing is *it looked very old then!* We knew we had to pitch low.
James took a screenshot of one of the characters in King Hearts and replaced their face was a sort of red cylon mask. The original sketch has been lost to time, but it was the spark that was needed to allow everything else to fall into place.
We made a puzzle game called Fallen City, in which "Angries", who were enraged by the state of their civic infrastructure, could be calmed down enough to fix things up. Weirdly prophetic! But anyway, there was a couple of grand left and we said hey let's make a fully-featured immersive sim.
Read the handsome and erudite @chrislackey.bsky.social saying stuff like this:
I did a TEETH newsletter, but this time it's a diversion from our usual programming to offer a straight book review of very strange novel, M John Harrison's The End Of Everything. buttondown.com/TeethRPG/arc...
Some invasive rosemary beetles on my lavender. This one has raindrops on his head that look like frog eyes, so that is nice.
Walking around the village has had a sweaty exoticism imposed on it by overwhelming humidity, intense greenery, and my neighbour having acquired an extremely vocal peacock, for some reason.
If our pirates excite you them please also be aware that we have awful medieval bastards, desperate pig-seeking 18th century peasants, hunted pig-fleeing 18th century bourgeoisie, and some ladies attending a ball to find/kill a husband and to Destroy The Blood Shrine. Some are PWYW! teethrpg.itch.io
A book about pirates and sailing ships needs maps, you say? Oh friend, we have maps.
I've been reading through a near-complete version our next #TTRPG book, GOLD TEETH, and while I am not exactly a neutral commentator I can say that @marshdavies.bsky.social is now operating on another level. Do not miss. You can still secure a late pledge copy: www.kickstarter.com/projects/149...
If you were a video game character, what would your health pickup be?
The current game I am running is The One Ring and we have just reached our first bit of Hands of the White Wizard, the Saruman meta-campaign. I am not sure i have (as a GM) ever has as much fun with a non-core book. Inspired concept, solid execution. freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/the-one...
It's rare these days that I feel relaxed enough to take a morning off and just walk into the hills, but I did so this morning and found the rural backlanes of Somerset as beautiful as ever. Sadly the only photo I thought to take was this one of a local farmer planting this year's crop of seagulls.
Again, not hyperbole: the Somerset pits closed in the 60s, some of these people are still around. The spoil heap still looms over the town. (pic from Wikipedia)
Hey, so we recently posted these extremely fine maps and character designs by @marshdavies.bsky.social in an update for our GOLD TEETH backers. Might as well do the same here, because you can still pre-order: www.kickstarter.com/projects/149... Our pirate RPG book should absolutely not be missed!
So @wyrdscience.bsky.social arrived. It's a beauty and that handsome @rossignol.bsky.social guy wrote two articles! You aren't going to want to miss out, so pick up your own copy today: shop.wyrd.science/products/wyr...