It’s 14 February, which is both Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. I’ve been mostly off regular social media haunts for several weeks now. Part of that has been work; part of it has been about carving out time for content I have been putting together for Libre SRP on this site.
But there’s been another darker, more private reason. Even after the playtesting, I’d still been full of self-doubt. Libre SRP exists because it scratched an itch for me in a big way. But I was still completely in the dark whether others would find it too difficult, too tedious, or just too far out there.
But for this confluence of two very different holidays, I figured this is the right time to face the music: share in the love or beg for forgiveness? I headed to the source: Lone Wolf Roleplaying in Google Groups, a collection of solo RPG enthusiasts who are as expert as things get on this topic. For anyone who might not know this Google Group, it’s over here, and it is an excellent resource. If the Lone Wolf folks didn’t like it, then it’s time to throw in the towel for real.
I’m breathing a lot easier now. Deathworks DW was kind enough to give his honest impressions and published a review of the book. I am both humbled and extremely grateful. His review is over here, and I would agree with pretty much everything DW says. (By the way on the topic of plot stress: When a yes-no question roll triggers plot stress, nothing is added. Just cut the current level of plot stress in half and round down. Also, add 5 points to plot stress at the very start of a new scene, before making any rolls; yes-no questions before the start of the scene add to plot stress and can trigger an unexpected event, even though the scene hasn’t been opened yet. These sorts of details aren’t critical to follow, but I should have spelled it out more precisely).
Seeing a kind review is awesome. About the only thing I could imagine that would be more awesome than someone reviewing the book cold, would be to see actual play reports from people out in the wide world who put the game through its paces. Well it turns out that’s been done now, too, and the gameplay examples are pretty much on target. (And James Carr, wherever you may be, you are fearless. Even with your correctly adjusting for opponents, encounter scene budgets are a throw of the dice with potentially brutal consequences.)
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that over time there’ll be more examples both of conventional gameplay as well as homebrewed mashups. Reading these stories, I have a warm feeling tonight that the effort to get this e-book out was well worth it.