The Angry Update: April 2023

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April 4, 2023

It’s time once again for my semi-regularly scheduled monthly update. And given that it’s April already, time’s sliding irrevocably into the past at an alarming rate.

I’ve got a lot to cover this month, but the brunt of it is the usual skippable crap wherein I reflect on why things aren’t what I want them to be.

The Angry Games Quarterly Report

This is the aforementioned skippable part. It ain’t news. I’m just catching y’all up on what’s been going on. Feel free to scroll down to the next heading.

The first quarter of 2023’s been a mixed bag here at Angry Games. I went into January with a plan to reinvigorate my site with a new series of advanced basic GMing tips and tricks — the True Game Mastery Series — and regular releases of game hacks and mechanics — the Angry Hacks series.

Well, so far, True Game Mastery has been a tremendously well-received project. Angry Hacks? They haven’t even started.

Of course, that’s partly because Wizards of the Coast started their new year off by announcing many new and exciting ways to dick over content creators. I had to put my Hacks on hold and do a bunch of behind-the-scenes work to protect myself from legal action. Considering Wizards of the Coast was eventually bullied into backing down — for now — that was a fantastic way to spend the first three weeks of the year.

And don’t kid yourselves, Wizards of the Coast is still almost definitely planning to screw content creators with the release of DBox One, if not before. WotC didn’t back down by choice; they backed down because ballsy content creators kicked them where it hurt. Hard.

Meanwhile, I needed an alternate plan for Angry Hacks — and for free bonus content for my loyal supporters — and so I decided I could write my own lightweight, crunchy alternative to D&D given a few months work.

Thus, I spent February breaking my ass to design and build a prototype game engine to see if I had something with enough promise to build a publishable game around. Because, in the end, I didn’t just want to file the serial numbers off Dungeons & Dragons and call it my own. What self-respecting game designer would want to do that instead of building something uniquely their own?

In March, I put the Slapdash Engine into alpha testing. I originally planned a quick-and-easy two-or-three-session game to see if the basic rules were any fun. But the one issue I failed to design a fix for was the impossibility of actually playing games according to any kind of schedule. Which is why the alpha test is still ongoing. Kind of. I’m a session-and-a-half from sticking a pin in it and there’s a few elements in there I need to see play out, but the sessions that did get played went really well. So I know the project’s going forward.

March also saw me laid up with the flew and then blindsided me with some very serious personal and family issues.

All in all, it’s been a rough time. I’ve been pushing myself hard, but I failed to consider how totally overhauling my writing style and workflow would affect my productivity. Or how long it would take to turn even a simple alpha design into playable content. I’m not stupid, mind you. I know my output. But my outputs based on a workflow I’ve gotten down to a science over a lot of years. And a style of writing that’s become as natural to me as speaking. So when I figured out how long all this shit would take, I didn’t consider I’d be cutting my daily wordcount output in half.

Live and learn, right?

All of this shit’s left me chasing the urgent. I’ve been pushing against very tight deadlines and benchmarks for three months straight with no wiggle room. That’s why articles keep coming out in deluges at the end of the month. And why my content calendar keeps changing. And why the Angry Hacks keep getting pushed off.

It’s like this: long, complex projects need space between the deadlines. If all you’re ever doing is chasing the next deadline hard, you can’t invest in projects that need a little work each and every day for weeks or months. You can’t work on things that can’t get done in two or three days.

So I’ve been trying to claw myself out of the urgency trap and get a buffer between the deadlines. Which is why April’s content calendar is going to look a little different…

The Angry Content Calendar for April

Here’s what to expect this month…

Angry April 2023 Content Calendar

Production CodeTentative TitleEarly AccessGeneral Release
F0401True Game Mastery: Radically Undefining EncountersFriday, April 7, 2023Thursday, April 13, 2023
F0402Random Bullshit: Fixing the "Swinginess" ProblemThursday, April 13, 2023Wednesday, April 19, 2023
F0403True Game Mastery: Roll InitiativeWednesday, April 19, 2023Tuesday, April 25, 2023
F0404Angry Hacks:
The Tension Pool
Tuesday, April 25, 2023Tuesday, May 2, 2023

There’s two things to note.

First, I’m not trying to release my articles every Tuesday in April. Instead, I’m opening the pressure valve and doing a controlled release. This week’s Early Access article comes on Friday, next week’s on Thursday, the following week’s on Wednesday, and the final one comes on Tuesday.

Second, I’ve changed the True Game Mastery syllabus. Initially, I’d planned to devote four months of content to the topic of Running Games, four more on Managing Campaigns, and the last four months of the year on Building Adventures. But I’m going to extend the Running Games unit. And those lessons — which will extend into June — will be all about running — not building, just running — various types of common encounters.

Angry’s April Mostly Monthly Live Chat

I will host the April Mostly Monthly Live Chat on Wednesday, April 19 at 8:30 PM EDT.

Supporter Discord Access

Those of you who support this site enjoy certain benefits in addition to the warm fuzzy feeling you get from keeping the site online and free for everyone else. That includes early access to articles, audio content, and access to the Angry Discord Server.

Access to the Angry Discord Server is limited to those who support the site at the Angrican Tier and pledge 2.99 USD for each weekly Feature Article or those who support with a once-monthly equivalent pledge. Unfortunately, Patreon’s automated Discord robot did a whoopsie and invited several folks from lower tiers of support into the Discord server. A few of them reached out to me.

I’ve fixed the underlying problem, but there’s no easy way for me to figure out who got accidental Discord access. It only affected a small number of people. As such, I’m going to ignore it. If you’re one of the lucky few who got into the Discord server, enjoy the bonus benefit. But, if you find it valuable, consider increasing your support if your situation allows it.

That said, Patreon’s Discord robot is a flighty thing. I can’t guarantee that it won’t correct the issue itself and remove anyone who shouldn’t have access with the next billing cycle.

As a reminder: if you’re having problems accessing your promised rewards — including the Discord Server — please e-mail patron.support@angry.games . That’s the quickest, easiest way to get an issue sorted.

The Ask Angry Videocast and Podcast

Starting in mid-to-late June, the Ask Angry Mailbag will become the Ask Angry Videocast. And the said videocasts will also be released as audio-only podcasts. They’ll be available to everyone. No support needed. Initially, they’ll be released every two weeks, but I do intend to see if I can step that up to a weekly thing by the end of the year.

What’s Up with Slapdash?

I’m building a light-and-crunchy D&D alternative. I’m currently calling it Slapdash, but that’s just a working title. And, as I noted, I’m wrapping up a pretty successful test of game’s prototype engine. I need to run that prototype through a second, shorter test to address some balance issues. After that, I can start building the game around the engine.

Ultimately, I plan to give the Slapdash Core Game away to Frienemy Tier supporters to make up for those D&D content packs I ain’t doing anymore. And I plan to sell it in the Angry Games Shop.

Over the next few months and until Slapdash is ready for release, I’m plan to provide Frienemy Tier supporters with design updates, previews, special live chat events, and playable demos. I’ll contact eligible supporters through their support platform of choice once I’ve worked out the best way to release those materials. So keep an eye on Patreon and Discord if you’re a supporter.

What About The Tension Pool and Other Hacks

The Angry Hacks series hit a bunch of delays. As I explained in the skippable crap above, the series is one of those things that needs breathing room. Building and polishing systems take extended time and effort.

The Angry Hacks series will launch this month with the Tension Pool rules. Those lay the foundation for a bunch of other hacks to do with running game sessions in town and handling between-adventure downtime. I plan to release a new hack or system every month through year’s end and beyond.

And I still intend to launch the postponed Tension Dice Kickstarter late this summer.

The April Lynchpin

It’s down to this: April’s the lynchpin. My plans for this month are to get myself back onto my regular release schedule and launch the Angry Hack Series. That’ll let me lay the groundwork to eventually release Slapdash and to launch the Tension Dice Kickstarter. I know I’m pinning a lot on one lunar cycle, but I can either piss and moan about being a victim of circumstance or I can do my damndest to turn things around.

It’s your support, readership, and encouragement that keeps me pushing. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for the community I’ve got. Whenever things get really bad and whenever I feel like I’ll never get ahead of things, I don’t need to look hard to find huge numbers of people cheering me on. To find people who believe in me.

I’ve screwed up and I’ve come up short more often than I’d like. I misjudge things a lot. But I’m never going to stop working to earn your support and your faith.

Thank you.


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11 thoughts on “The Angry Update: April 2023

  1. Slapdash sounds interesting. Is it backwards compatible with 5e? Not in a “DBox One” way where it isn’t backwards compatible at all. In a “my homebrew Plumber Artificer subclass fits into Slapdash like a glove” way. Or is it an entirely new system? If it was compatible I could easily pitch it to my players, but I get a lot of push back under the idea of learning a new system.

    • I assume the Slapdash Engine will be able to run fantasy games, so your players will still being playing in familiar settings. It won’t be that hard for them to learn a lightweight system, and remember learning a system for the first time is always the hardest. Players will piss and moan about any kind of change, but ultimately if you put your foot down and tell them you’ll only run Slapdash, and that they have to give it a chance, they will and they will be better off for it.

  2. Very exciting stuff coming down the pipe! I’m quite curious about the Videocasts, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Slapdash to throw it at my players. As always, I admire your perseverance and appreciate your candor. May the wind fill your sails this month!

  3. Going way back in time, all the way back to the “Angry Manifesto”, the content that I have really been waiting for is the Angry TTRPG. Even if it’s “Slapdash”, that’s good enough for me. A humble suggestion is that the “Silverpine” adventure be updated to be compatible with your new system.

    Cheers

  4. Thanks Angry, regarding patreon/discord I have no skin in the game, so to speak, but as a freeloader (that does eventually purchase your products, and looking forward to slapdash and eventually your more complete TTRPG) I really do appreciate you, and those that can contribute to your ongoing public content.

  5. I was a bit skeptical at the start of the year when you laid out your plan since it left very little room for error, but I thought there’s no harm in aiming high. Your plan for April, though, I think you’ve got this. It’s that just right blend of pressure and clarity that I know it’s gonna be a good month. Some stuff might come out at midnight and some typos slip through, but it’s gonna be good f*cking content cause this is the right environment for it.

  6. One thing I have noticed after I moved away from D&D is just how little D&D you need to put into content like adventures etc, and still have a playable adventure.

    Sure the core of how things work, like what dice to roll and how to read those results are all system specific. But, what I notice in the OSR scene is that the content created for it assumes the GM knows the system they are using enough to figure it out.
    Does a module need monster stat blocks like WotC does them? Or do I just need to know the basics. This is where I like the Hit Dice mechanic that most OSR games use a lot, what dice you use is really up to you, but I know that a 2 Hit Dice creature will generally have staying power than a 1 HD one.

    My point is: There’s a lot of hacks that I think are universally applicable if the GM has a general understanding of their own system.
    Of course some systems have things that are cool, but not general. For instance the Shock mechanic in Worlds Without Number, or they have morale and instinct stats. But, it didn’t take me long to figure out a “general gist of things” to make it work.

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