Pre-failing

While the One Game a Month project has its own, optional theme each month, my personal theme for the project every month has been “failure.” Whether I embrace it or narrowly dodge its fail-soaked bullet, failure looms over every month I try to make a game — and May is no exception.

This month I found a whole new way to fail.

I thought I’d try something different for May. Rather than a video game, I’d cheat a little and whip up a bite-sized, old-school-simple tabletop RPG. The idea of roleplaying in a Lovecraftian post-apocalyptic setting has long appealed to me, and I had some new mechanics I wanted to try for the system.

But then I did a little research and discovered that this sub-niche has already been done. And done again. And yet again.

Now, just because a theme or setting has been used for one RPG doesn’t mean it can’t be used again. But working in such a well-tilled field means finding your own personal sub-sub-niche, and some way to differentiate your work from what’s already out there. It’s certainly doable… but not in the 10 days I have left in May.

This month, I may have failed before I’ve even started.

But I’ve still got 10 days. And those new mechanics I’ve been tinkering with are still perfectly cromulent. Who knows? I might dodge the fail-bullet yet.