{"id":1801,"date":"2020-02-19T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:38:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:38:36","slug":"quick-shot-on-the-watching-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2020\/02\/quick-shot-on-the-watching-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Shot on The Watching Book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hi all! Today I have an interview with Sarah Rowan about The Watching Book, a project on Kickstarter for Zine Quest 2 right now<\/a>! It seems really interesting and has a really romantic element behind its creation. Check out the interview below!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is The Watching Book, both as a product and as your vision?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nWatching Book is a diegetic setting zine told as the journal of oracles. It\npresents the religion, culture, and rituals of a fictional people through the\neyes of the women who guide them. Accompanying the zine is a short paperless,\ngm-less rpg. In this, players take on the roll of children to enjoy a game of\nmystery-solving and oral storytelling. Both the game and the zine are in-world\nartifacts that can be used to enhance a campaign setting or be given directly\nto players as found items during a game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This zine is the second foray into the world of Soothsayer<\/em>, my boardgame from 2019. The project started as a gift for my wife, and consequently the world is built around centering the lives and accomplishments of lgbt characters. By using different viewpoint characters throughout, I also get the chance to examine the ways in which the same ritual can take on different meaning to different people, even within the same group. I really wanted the world built by these games to explore real faith in fantasy by leaving some questions unanswered.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This sounds very cool! What are some of the ways you set boundaries and encourage creativity, either mechanically or otherwise, for players in The Watching Book?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nWatching Book is more of a setting than a game in and of itself. But carrying\nthrough from Soothsayer one of my design goals was to make sure to avoid\nencouraging a “dark” look at the world. The problems faced within the\ntext are natural disasters, disagreements, or mysteries rather than acts of\nintentional violence or hate. I primed the world to be not a utopia, but a\nrelatively peaceable sort of place where brutal content is very clearly\nout of place and inappropriate. There are a lot of games and settings where\nthose topics can be explored, but this is not one of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for\ncreativity, I stay away from explicitly answering any of the religious and\nspiritual questions that exist about the world. Are the spirits actually real?\nAre they real, but different than how most people interpret them? Readers and\nplayers in the setting have room to develop their own opinions and explore\nbeliefs without being handed a yes or no answer within the text. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s lovely that this was inspired by your wife. In what other ways than the people is The Watching Book a queer game and product?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made\nsure that at every step of the way I tried to include people of different\noutlooks and communities. Ezra, the artist, describes themself as a Queer\nJewitch Farmer. That’s a material way I’m using my work to give back; hiring\nother LGBT people to work with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally\nI am happy to adopt a policy that’s gaining traction in the ttrpg community; as\npart of the campaign I have included Community Copies of the zine. These are\ndonated copies from generous people that are available to anyone, no questions\nasked. In this way I can make my zine a little more accessible to those having\na hard time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks so much for the interview Sarah! I hope you all enjoyed it and that you’ll check out The Watching Book on Kickstarter today<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi all! Today I have an interview with Sarah Rowan about The Watching Book, a project on Kickstarter for Zine Quest 2 right now! It seems really interesting and has a really romantic element behind its creation. Check out the interview below! — What is The Watching Book, both as a product and as your … Continue reading “Quick Shot on The Watching Book”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[30,10,4,17,25,46,61,8,15,12,23,18,218],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-diversity","tag-game-design","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-interviews","tag-queer","tag-quick-shot","tag-roleplaying-games","tag-rpg","tag-rpgs","tag-tabletop-games","tag-tabletop-rpgs","tag-zine-quest-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/temple.png?fit=997%2C797&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-t3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1740,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2020\/02\/quick-shot-on-campfire-memories\/","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":0},"title":"Quick Shot on Campfire Memories","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"February 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all, today I have an interview with Matt Bohnhoff on Campfire Memories, which is currently on Kickstarter for Zine Quest 2! 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This project is run by non-cis masculine creators and we\u2019re making Apocalypse World and Monsterhearts playbooks, rich backgrounds for D&D characters, and some lovely art, too! Please check it out - we've got some awesome creators working on re-imaginings of masculinity!https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/briecs\/behind-the-masc-zineBehind the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archive"","block_context":{"text":"Archive","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-Xt3mNB1ywKM\/Wz_oXDk6VnI\/AAAAAAAB-ME\/bw7qeV2soHM_gnY6nFPzPH45JcEBEhjpwCLcBGAs\/s320\/BehindthemMasc_Logo_1x.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1783,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2020\/02\/quick-shot-on-winter-harvest\/","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":2},"title":"Quick Shot on Winter Harvest","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"February 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey all! Today's Quick Shot is with Kate Jeanne about Winter Harvest, which is currently on Kickstarter for Zine Quest 2! 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