5MW Rokaner Report #7, with Sam Leigh
RR#7, Pinnacle, July 2024, free 12pg zine!
Hello galactic voyagers,
Wow, July was jam-packed. I joined the team over at The Lost Bay Studio on the Dispatch and YT channel, revisions and playtests continue apace with Twisting Unseen, and development meetings with Violet began for an RV Games-published Cerdo Cycle campaign setting hardback (or maybe box set?)!
And some final fun news, I’ll be volunteering at the PlusOne EXP booth at GenCon in Indianapolis, if people wanna come around to say hello!
I am super excited to have Sam Leigh on the newsletter this month! Editing as Samantha Leigh, she’s tackling projects like The Lost Bay RPG, Rom Com Drama Bomb, and the Outer Rim: Uprising Campaign Handbook (as well as my contributions!). Sam is also a game design powerhouse with an array of extraordinary solo games out–Anamnesis, Outliers, and the recent Death of the Author.
Today, we’re going to chat about all that and the continuing development of their two-player space exploration game, The World We Left Behind.
Interview with Sam Leigh
Chris: Sam, it’s so great to have you on the newsletter. Folks who’ve been following may know we’ve worked together, and I gotta say, each time it’s been a pure pleasure. I’m excited to chat sf gaming with you, especially as I know you’ve been in a long-running Orbital Blues game.
Before we dig into all that, just in case folks might not know you (which would be mind-boggling to me if they read this newsletter), can you tell us about Blinking Birch Games, and your work in the indie game scene?
Sam: Sure, Chris! I first started designing games in late-2020, and the hobby quickly grew into a passion. My best known work in the space is my solo tarot TTRPG Anamnesis, and the videos I make under the handle GoblinMixtape about various indie games. I’ve written for a few different projects such as Cloud Empress, ECO MOFOS!!, and The Zone. I also started editing games a couple years ago, which I’ve found I absolutely love - it tickles a different part of my brain than writing and helps me think about games more critically. Some of my editing work includes The Lost Bay Quickstart, Death Game, Rom Com Drama Bomb, and, of course, your ORU modules.
About a year ago, I was fortunate enough to cut my day job hours at the research lab and start working remotely to dedicate more time to my TTRPG work. I have no regrets - it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Chris: That part-time “real job” split seems like the sweet spot for lots of indie game designers. It’s reassuring to hear it's working out for you and your game writing. For my part, I associate your work as engaging with the heart of the speculative in sf– speculative fiction. It’s a bit funny because your breakout Anamnesis is a bit of an Outlier (ha!) as it’s your only game that’s not explicitly sf. I do realize by and large the ttrpg space is almost de facto a speculative space, but what do you think inspires you to sink players into participating in active speculation in your work?
Sam: I love imagined worlds, and I’m always fascinated by what people are drawn to create when given the opportunity. As someone who loves making speculative work, but also struggles to create something out of nothing, I’ve found I enjoy designing tools that provide the spark of inspiration for other people’s creativity. I also love asking questions that are difficult to ask in realistic fiction, such as “if you were a character, what would you say to your author?”
Chris: Right, it's your incisive perspective like that which brings a magic realism to your work, I feel. We also see this in the day-to-day “job” of an Outliers character, and I feel like Death of the Author might pull from similar work experience, haha, though the player approaches from the opposite direction. Was your work as a games writer and editor a major inspiration for Death of the Author?
Sam: That was certainly part of it! I’d actually say the largest inspiration has been my time playing games, rather than working on them, especially my time as a GM. While writing Death of the Author, I kept thinking about my various TTRPG characters over the years: how they’d try to change their stories, what they’d say to me, and ultimately whether they’d take revenge if given the opportunity. One of the last parts I wrote, actually, was the game’s epigraph, which is a fake quote from me to one of my Blades in the Dark NPCs, a campaign I ran for two years.
Death of the Author is also directly inspired by the trope of giving PCs the most tragic backstories imaginable. Just about every scene prompt puts your character in a worse situation, unless they can change their written fate. The aforementioned BitD NPC definitely falls into this trope, haha.
Chris: I’ve read that book, haha, sometimes the trials and tribulations a protagonist goes through does seem needlessly cruel. Sounds like it’ll be fun to try for some retribution as a character in Death of the Author!
So, I’ve been reading about your Orbital Blues game over on birdhellsite, so naturally I was curious about The World We Left Behind. Plus, its inception is incredible: a 1-5 player science fiction ttrpg that inspired a ballet in NYC! That’s gotta be a world first, it’s amazing. Can you tell us about The World We Left Behind (WWLB) and its upcoming physical release?
Sam: Absolutely! The World We Left Behind is a worldbuilding game about traveling around an alien planet and figuring out what happened to the sapient species that went missing. The original version was specifically written for BalletCollective, a group that pairs together choreographers, composers, and “source artists” to create a ballet inspired by an original piece from the source artist. It was an incredible experience, and the ballet was well-enough received that it’s being performed again during BalletCollective’s 2024 season this fall.
Since writing The World We Left Behind, I’ve had ideas for an illustrated, updated version. I’ve tweaked many of the original mechanics, expanded play from just 2 players to 1-5, and provided a couple alternate methods of play. I’m also working with two incredible collaborators on the art and layout. We’re expecting the physical version to be available in October or November, and I’m excited to see what worlds players create: the game’s premise is great for stories about environmentalism or, as our game went, hubris.
Chris: Haha, yes, WWLB was truly thrilling. The procedure really scratched this itch of “wtf is going on” and unplanned collaborative discovery. I was glad to be an early playtester for the new version, and I hope the readers enjoy visiting the fallout of our planet, Pinnacle, while they wait on the updated release of The World We Left Behind. Thanks again Sam!
Fruit from the Vine, a free 12pg zine
Sam and I played a session of The World We Left Behind to use the world we discovered as the seed for the 5 Million Worlds RPG adventure–another crossover event, haha. The pointcrawl map, creatures and themes are all pulled from our game of WWLB. I cannot overstate how fruitful (ha!) playing the game and collaborating with Sam was. Aaand I went overboard again and made another lil free zine, geez.
Before our WWLB game, I proposed some 5MW Avatar Forms to Sam and they chose the as yet unplayed Flesher. Fleshers are genetic manipulators, transhumans who can birth biotech, influenced by the Oankali in Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood, Kameron Hurley’s The Stars are Legion and the Shapers of Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix.
Instead of imagining the world in its prime for this month’s adventure, the Avatars are sent to Pinnacle following the visit of our WWLB characters, Meld and Umber. And the way the game went, we crossed into the territory of the Distant Authority I mentioned last month: the Serpents. The name comes from superintelligence // superint // serpent. In short, it’s dangerous for human-like intelligences to be around when Serpents “ascend” in the 5MW.
Can you save the stranded souls on Pinnacle before the Emerging Serpent rises?
Check out Fruit from the Vine, a collaborative design exercise from Sam Leigh and Chris Airiau. I’ve also stuffed this zine with art from Perplexing Ruins, Molomoot, Carly A-F, and Francisco Lemos.
Click here to download the zip, as always, the zip contains a digital version and plaintext file. Good luck on Pinnacle, and catch you next time.
Signing off,
Chris Airiau