Hey folks, Rhi here! I'm going to start this update with a little game of good news bad news...
Good news: We've been polishing the book, fine-tuning some of the beefier mechanics, and playtesting the campaign mode! We even have some new sketches to show you AND a little surprise from the Tabletop Arts Fund 👀
Bad news: We do not have the updated PDF as promised, as we've been out of action for 80% of the month so far... Between being taken out by a particularly bad bout of Covid for two weeks (despite us still taking precautions! Mask up and sanitise, people), and our dog having to undergo complex emergency surgery, we've been struggling to find the time and energy to keep up progress on Why We Fight. We've also yet to send out the surveys, but we are working on it.
Can you tell he's still slightly sedated here?
We got a grant from the Tabletop Arts Fund!
Back in March, Laurie applied for a grant towards our accessibility consultancy expenses. As a company we strongly believe in making our games as accessible as possible, and have commissioned the wonderful Chris Hopper to help us achieve this! Not only will this grant help with the costs, but the comments from the judges have absolutely made our year.
"This is the kind of debut game I wish I had made: unflinching but hopeful, clear in voice, and not trying to please everyone. The ‘Personality and Hardship’ discoveries are exactly the kind of low-prep, high-payoff mechanics I love."
"The Situation Builder is a narrative scaffolding tool of real quality—it offers enough structure to resist floundering, while being flexible enough to support emergent stories. I think this could work exceptionally well in mixed-media or asynchronous play."
"The tone balances sincerity and joy in a way I found compelling, and the design nudges players to bring vulnerability to the table without demanding trauma as spectacle. It does more with emotional stakes than some prestige games do with 300 pages of rules.”
This is their responses to a preview of the Core Game Book, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't keep us grinning all day. Comments like this tell us we're heading in the right direction with our design, and that the game is being received exactly how we hoped! I'm also very excited to say that the Core Game preview is something we intend to release to our wonderful backers in July! 😍
New Art, who dis?
While myself and Laurie have been going through the wars this month, our illustrator Rob has been carrying the torch for us and has smashed out a BUNCH of new sketches! As always, we're blown away by his ability to take our prompts and run wild with them in all the best ways.
So, without further ado...
First up, we have Mediation - one of the six Approaches crews can take when faced with a Situation. Here we have two faction leaders staring each other down in a very tense situation... In the background, a Community Alliance member is attempting to mediate the scene and find a solution that benefits all sides. This approach has had a lot of work put into it, to ensure players have a clear impact on the Situation, while also creating tension through risk, with narratively satisfying results.
This page is a double spread scene introducing you to Mission Scenarios. It features multiple Community Alliance members organising and preparing for a mission! This piece is going to be utterly stunning once it's complete, there's so much detail for Rob to play around with.
Finally, we have the polished sketch of a drone above our Community Alliance crews! The original sketch has been in our preview PDFs for a long time, so if you've been following Why We Fight on its development journey, you may recognise this one! (You may also recognise some of the faces staring up at you... Let us know in the comments 😉)
Disclaimer: The text and sketches above are not the finished product, and may well change! That said, if there's anything about them that you've noticed seems a little off - please let us know in the comments, on discord, or via email.
Now that we've all oooh'd and aaah'd at Rob's sketches, it's probably time for me to get back to work! Between writing my own adventures and giving feedback on our wonderful guest writers first drafts, I've certainly got a full plate...
