The Adventure Gaming Periodical - Issue #11 - Writing in new Genres

My Journey Into Adventure Gamebooks

This week’s AGP is about my development process for writing Cassette X, the solo cassette adventure accompanying Joshua Justice’s upcoming mothership zine Hecate Cassette Archive.

When we started the project, we knew that we wanted to include a solo adventure in the liner notes for a cassette.

Cassette X Mockup

However, I didn’t know what form of solo adventure this would take. I’m a big fan of programmed adventures like Death Test for The Fantasy Trip and all of the games from Dark City Games. I’ve even developed a Mothership version of these in the form of my Microgame The Progeny. I thought about creating a miniaturized version of this type of game, but as I thought through the fiction for this prequel module, something with a map and combat was not the experience needed for Cassette X.

I then thought about a straight choose-your-own-adventure format. This helped me sort out some of the fiction in my mind, but it wasn’t feeling enough like Mothership to really make it stand out.

Enter the Adventure Gamebook

This is when I turned myself towards a genre I knew of but didn’t have much experience with: the adventure gamebook, a genre that most notably includes the Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf series of books. I am an academic, so whenever I’m writing a game, I’m also reading a ton of reference material in the form of vintage and modern games, books, movies, and music, so I went to the Internet Archive to dive into examples.

Both Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf showed me what I was looking for even though their systems didn’t exactly fit what I was going for. They still have some necessary math for combat and include more combat than what I wanted to write for Cassette X. However, they gave me the correct framework.

In about an hour of writing time, I was able to assemble a Panic Engine Pocket Mod for Mothership derived adventure gamebooks. I’m really proud of how I captured the feel of Mothership with its Stress and Panic systems while still letting the fiction guide the way more than the game. This gamebook system is now part of our funded and upcoming book Advanced Rules as well, and you can see an early draft here.

Workflow

I knew that I could write an adventure gamebook manually, but from prior experience with other projects I knew that I should use Twine to help me write branching interactive fiction.

Cassette X Twine WIP

Within Twine, I chose the Story Format named AdventureTome because it is designed specifically for playing in a browser with rules and a character sheet. It has built in dice widgets as well. This makes it really easy for me to develop and play through my draft since it makes for an interactive test bed. AdventureTome does not provide good support for making print versions of the text, though, so I am planning on using Gordian Book for exporting for copy and line editing. We’re going to provide the following versions for Cassette X, and this workflow will enable this.

1. Interactive HTML

2. Screen and print friendly PDF

3. Cassette tape physical edition for Kickstarter backers

Physical Edition

Once I figured out my game structure and workflow, the scenes needed for the module became easy to figure out. When I figured out this format, I was then able to develop the physical format for Cassette X. I was able to settle on using a 7-Panel J-Card for the adventure.

7-Panel J-Card

This 7-Panel J-Card allows for the tape to have a traditional liner, but we will have lines indicating that you should cut out the extra roll over panels. You cut out two panels for a mini booklet with the character sheet, rules, and Panic table. You cut out another two panels for a mini booklet with a title and intro to the scenario on the cover, and then a scene on each of the other four pages. You can then tuck these two mini booklets into the cassette case for storage later. It will be a super slick little Pocket Mod.

Moving Forward

Now that I have a system and a workflow figured out, I would like to write and publish more Panic Engine gamebooks. The system is part of Advanced Rules, which is Creative Commons licensed, so I welcome other creators to make gamebooks in this system as well. Just like RV Games Microgames, this gamebook system is a different sort of OSR than the ttrpg version.

Crowdfunding

Hecate Cassette Archive - 1 Week Left on Kickstarter

A supernatural Mothership 1e adventure of anarchy and analog audio

Hecate Cassette Archive Cover Mockup

• Written by Joshua Justice

• Art by Amanda Lee Franck

• Layout by D.N. Wilkie

• Maps by Justin Vandermeer

• Published and Distributed by RV Games

• The highest pledge tiers also include a tape of audio and a solo prequel adventure in the liner notes.

Cassette X Cassette Adventure Mockup

Quality Assurance (QA) - Late Pledges Open

An orbital disaster, a race against time, and one very special robot. Escape with the target, save some lives, or die trying.

QA Cover Mockup

• Written by SL Perry

• Editing and Layout by D.N. Wilkie

• Maps by Sam Wildman

• Art by Conner Fawcett

• Distributed by RV Games

Return to Perinthos - Still Able to Donate

A 200-page memorial book of megadungeon tiles in the memory of Jennell Jaquays

Return to Perinthos Cover Art

Proceeds from this Crowdfundr go to Jennell Jaquays family and Trans Lifeline. The official campaign is closed, but you can still donate by purchasing a book until we order the print run.

We are still looking for community volunteers to help us complete editing and layout of this book. You can get more information at the Return to Perinthos Volunteer Site.

Advanced Rules - Late Pledges Open

A 100-page community compendium of house rules for Wardens and Mothership creators

Advanced Rules Cover Mockup

• Written and Compiled by Violet Ballard

• Edited by Roz Leahy

• Published and Distributed by RV Games