Robert's been a little depressed, nooo
And so today I'm gonna try just
Getting up, sitting down, going back to work
Might not help but still it couldn't hurt
I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs
I'm sorry I was gone
But look, I made you some content
Daddy made you your favorite, open wide
—Bo Burnham, Content
Yeesh, my last post was nine months ago. It’s been a tough year, personally and professionally, but between I’ve been building a ladder made of therapy, Prozac, the kindness of friends, and a supportive partner to climb out of this hole.
I got some pep in my step in July when I wrote about arena fights in tabletop RPGs and how pro wrestling is sneaky-good to draw inspiration from. And then Kobold Press founder Wolfgang Baur said nice things about that thread.
Although I haven’t been the most active on social media, I have been working. I’m playtesting a campaign I’ll be releasing in 2024. And I’m at Big Bad Con in San Francisco this week.
Strahdjammer
tl;dr—gothic horror Star Wars.
It’s a direct sequel to Curse of Strahd that advances Strahd’s empire into the worlds-spanning setting of Spelljammer. It also gives Dungeon Masters ways to weave your Ravenloft campaign backstory into this new game, connecting your new player-characters to your old ones.
Plus I have this sick cover art from Claudio Pozas.
We’ve got adventures, subclasses, magic items, monsters, ship rules, and more. It’s a meaty project and the hard part is deciding when to stop making stuff! Fortunately, I’ve put together a great team. Learn more about the project, writers, and artists over on my website.
Big Bad Con
My partner and I are in San Francisco this week for Big Bad Con, and all three of my Strahdjammer writers are here too!
I’ll be running two games of A24’s The Green Knight RPG and catching up with some of my favorite people in tabletop. You can understand a lot of the game’s rules just from reading the character sheet, which has great helper text.
Lastly, special shout-out to Tristan, Martin, and Steven from PAX West a couple weeks ago, who were so excited about my IRL pitch for Strahdjammer that they signed up for this newsletter right in the middle of our Hues & Cues freeplay. Thanks for helping me want to write again, guys!
Your pal,
Rob