Achieving Ego Death

A couple weeks ago I handed over my finished version of Spirit Tea to my partner and editor, Shanice. It’s always harrowing to see someone reading something you’ve been working on for the better part of a year so I left her to it while I got absorbed in other things. While it may not sound like much, I was actually able to be in the same room as she wrote up her notes which is much better than I used to be.

Shanice’s feedback on DELVE actually had to be interspersed with pictures of puppies and kittens because I was such a sensitive wee soul and was too afraid to open the document at first. Now I just get a big list of feedback like a big girl.

The feedback, while overall positive — there are plenty of actual mistakes and structural errors to be fixed which is why we do these passes — Shanice did point out one very interesting thing:

Spirit Tea feels corporatised. Specifically, in my attempts to write the rules as clear as possible, I’ve sacrificed the authorial voice that makes Apothecaria a joy to read. And in hindsight, I can fully see that.

I’m one person, not a company. I see the feedback I get online and when a small but vocal minority start complaining about something, it’s easy to get swayed by them. I do agree that aspects of Apothecaria are not explained as clearly as they could be but also, it’s a game, it’s meant to entertain. The manual for a tumble dryer is written clearly but I don’t trust anyone who has read it from cover to cover. But then again, a backflipping clown isn’t going to show me how to clean out the lint trap.

So now I’ve got this strange situation where I have to go through and turn my fictional tea manual into something that’s actually engaging to read while also trying not to muddy the waters too much and make the mechanics hard to follow.

To show what I’m talking about, here’s a section that I think is too formal and cold:

Functional, yes.

But also very boring.

This on the other hand is much more exciting. It gives the game some character while still clearly explaining the mechanic I’m talking about.

It does complicate things a teeny bit as you get to determine your shīfu’s personality and they might not be as sassy as the book makes them out to be but eh, the same was true for Apothecaria and it’s one of the few bits I haven’t heard anyone nitpick!

So while I had hoped to get Spirit Tea done in time for Tabletop Scotland in September, it seems I’ve underbrewed it and need to deal with the dark spirit known as the Second Draft.

Wish me luck!

I’ll be at Sequential Scotland on the 8th of August in Glasgow! I’ve got a table that I’m sharing with my friend Kayleigh who is selling some of her amazing handmade chainmail jewellery!

Next month we’ll be at Tabletop Scotland in Edinburgh.

And me and Shanice will be quest givers at Whispering Woods again for their September event! Exciting!

Shanice is making great progress on our front room. I’m so excited to get back in there but also gutted that my desk is going to hide some of this amazing mural she’s been doing!

Right now we’re running a crossover event in the Blackwell Games Discord where a medical research starship has crashed into a valley near High Rannoc. It is up to crews from FSCSAW and the witch from Apothecaria to team up and solve this mess before it gets out of hand!

If you’d like to take part, head on over to the Discord and download the free expansion from either #event channel.

Once again Frances Hardinge has blown me away with her storytelling abilities. She’s quickly climbed into my personal pantheon of writers and I can’t wait for her new book later this year. I’ve just finished Skinful of Shadows which is a historical fiction novel about a young girl in England during a war between the Parlimentarians and the Royalists. She doesn’t give a toss about any of that though because she’s got the much more pressing problem that she can see ghosts and they want to possess her.

Absolutely stellar writing that routinely kept me reading till 2 or 3am.