Back in June, I attended the Origins Game Fair with my friends at Epoch Saga Games. We were presenting Into the Lair, a TTRPG that combines the classic fantasy RPG feeling with intuitive, modern gameplay. Think D&D but with more player agency and less downtime between turns.
It was my first time DMing for strangers, but the players engaged well with the stories. Altogether, I ran over 25 hours of gameplay. Also, because the convention was so spread out, it didn’t feel as crowded as other cons I’ve attended. The more chill atmosphere allowed me to talk to game designers and authors and discover opportunities for my own game designs.
Since the convention, I’ve been working on updating my three most developed board games and creating presentable prototypes:

Party Dungeon Crawler

My favorite board game right now—out of all the games I know, not only my designs—is the dungeon crawler I’m working on. Dungeon crawlers are notoriously slow and support at most four players. This one plays in under two hours and supports up to eight players. There’s even a competitive mode where you complete quests to earn the most gold. It’s an ambitious project. Some of the playable characters have been reworked five times. Balancing so many unique abilities is brain-breaking, especially in a game with multiple modes of play.

Arena Card Game

The design that is closest to presentation-ready is a card-drafting arena battler with cooperative and competitive game modes. The cards represent the weapons and armor you use in battle. Making sets empowers your items for the future. In the featured image, you can see the arena I customized and 3D-printed to hold the zones and audience favors. I think it came out great!

Spies

I know I said the party dungeon crawler is my favorite game, but it only beats out Spies because I think the characters are so cool. Spies is my favorite game concept. It has simultaneous play, social deduction, and even some sleight of hand. You play as a spy on a mission for one of six countries. You score points by completing the steps of your mission, but, if anyone figures out who you’re working for, they can try to take you out. If you’re eliminated, you play as a detective trying to round up the other spies. You can still win; each arrest you make is worth a point and adds to your total.

TTRPG Systems

While I don’t currently have plans to present them, I did perfect the core rules for two unique, strategic TTRPG systems. If my stories ever get wildly popular, I'll release the game systems so that people can play in those worlds.
 
Check out the writing/editing update here >>