Hello everyone, happy Saturday!
As the title suggests, this update is to talk about the next chapter for TFT, as it has been a while and I’d like to share a bit in the hopes you might know where I’m at in the process, what to expect in the coming chapter and give a little bit more info on what to expect from the series going forward.
Starting off, let’s briefly go over what Tales From Tabletop, or TFT as I call it, is all about. As a series, it’s my attempt to pull together many of the aspects of tabletop RPG’s I enjoy and use them as tools to craft an engaging story as if it were a campaign to play.
One aspect of these games that I find uniquely interesting from a story writing perspective is the narrative frame it provides. We all have some idea how a D&D or any other tabletop RPG will go. There will be monsters to slay, dungeons to explore, and villains to thwart, often with a grand fantasy world as the backdrop. For TFT, it provides what I consider a fun and zippy structure for the chapters written up to this point and those I expect to write in the future.
Each chapter then acts as roleplaying session, where the characters are given space to act, interact, and react to each other, NPC’s, and the world around them while giving each character their time in the spotlight. The only deviation from this model is that this story is centered around Selene, as she is based on one of my own characters created in a now defunct campaign from several years ago and a key inspiration in creating this concept.
Another aspect of tabletop games I’ve taken to use for this story are the archetypal classes, backgrounds, and races for this story. This is clearly seen in the party, but this also applies to allies and enemies that might lurk in the mists of Syndramire. In the future, I hope to write out character sheets for all relevant characters and creatures as fun side content in between chapters that will be regularly updated to reflect current conflicts in the plot.
While combat has not yet taken place in the story, it will follow common tabletop combat logic. Expect swords and axes clashing with spells and arrows flying through the air. The sole exclusion being there are no commonly found healing items or spells in this world. Healing takes time and death is permanent outside very specific circumstances as I want both pain and death to matter in the story.
Bringing all of this back to Session 4, I expect this Session will be the first to encapsulate all the concepts I want TFT to embody, all the while adding in the occasional lore bits so the greater plot progresses. Session 4 will be the first time we see the party in action and how they fare as a team. It will also be where the party begin finding the answers, both ancient and recent, lurking in the dark depths of Lendrigol.
That’s all I have for now, though. Hope you all have a great weekend and that I have more to share next week!