Opening P.A.T.H.: Vietnam to the Community
I have spent much of this year building P.A.T.H.: Vietnam, and too little of it talking to people about what I am making. I had written things, certainly. I had also become very good at disappearing into another round of research, revisions and prototypes. There was always one more thing to fix before I had anything worth showing.
Looking back at September 15–23, I am trying to change that habit. P.A.T.H.: Vietnam (Pivotal Actions Through History) has a website and a growing set of Dispatches, and I have been putting the social channels around them. The next part is learning to use those places like a person who wants a conversation. Apparently creating the accounts was the easy bit.
I would like to hear something I did not think of
I am making a historical roleplaying game about one soldier's tour. That sounds reasonably compact until I start asking people what they expect from it.
A tabletop player might want to know how much freedom there is in a decision. A historical gamer might ask which detail comes from research and which I invented for the scene. Someone who enjoys a good character story may care far more about the letter waiting at camp than the weapon on the character sheet. All useful questions. All capable of pointing out a hole I have walked past repeatedly.
I do not want to gather people simply so I can announce that I have done more work. I want the discussion to go somewhere. I would like to hear what makes you curious, where I have lost you, and what you think I am taking for granted.
LifeP.A.T.H.—Previous Activities, Training, History—is a good example. I can describe a character's background and show how it affects the person who reaches Vietnam. The more interesting question is what makes that background feel like a life to you. A job? Someone left at home? A skill learned for an entirely different reason? That is a conversation I would enjoy having.
Different places, different-sized conversations
The Facebook page gives me a place for a scene, a development note and a question without squeezing every thought into a tiny box. I want Instagram to carry more of the art and the visual choices, with captions that explain what you are looking at. An illustration should invite you into the setting; it should not have to pretend to be a gameplay screenshot.
On YouTube, I want to show a piece of the experience at a pace where you can actually read it. I have no great desire to put dramatic music over an interface so quickly that nobody can work out what happened. A modest walkthrough with one clear point would be more useful.
There is also X for smaller notes and Reddit for the kinds of questions that deserve a longer answer. I need to earn my place in other people's communities. Dropping the same link into every historical gaming discussion would be a very efficient way to make myself unwelcome.
The Dispatches will remain the longer record. I want someone arriving six months from now to be able to follow the decisions, including the ones I changed my mind about. Social posts can open the conversation; the website gives it somewhere to settle.
I have to make the rhythm sustainable
It would be very easy to design a splendid content calendar that leaves no time to build the game. I am trying to avoid giving myself another prototype, this time made entirely of posting obligations.
A few considered updates, a clear question and time to read the replies seem like a better place to begin. I can take one real piece of work and show a different part of it in each place. The art choice belongs on Instagram. The awkward design question may belong in a longer discussion. The thing you need to see moving belongs in a short demonstration.
I am also working out what a useful Patreon presence could offer. I want to begin with a clear account of the work and a manageable promise than invent a tower of rewards I cannot sensibly maintain. The public Dispatches already give me a useful foundation for that thinking.
As for Kickstarter, I am still doing the work that would let me explain a campaign properly. I will share concrete plans when I have them. For now, following the development and telling me what you want to understand is a useful contribution all by itself.
A small invitation
If you are interested in Vietnam War history, solo RPGs, narrative games or the slightly untidy business of making something yourself, there is probably a conversation here for us.
You do not need to know the rules before joining it. You do not need to agree with my decisions either. A thoughtful correction is welcome. So is a question from someone who has never played a historical RPG and simply wants to know what they would actually do for an evening.
The first question I want to ask is this: outside combat, what makes you care about a character in a war story?
I have my answers. Letters, habits, other people, a plan for a life afterward. I have been building toward those for a while now. I would like to hear yours before I spend another month having the whole conversation in my own head.