I’ve been slowly writing and testing out my own OSR Roleplaying Game I call Battle Jacket. This is its development blog. [Part 1 Here] [Part 2 Here] [Part 3 Here]

Recap: I set out to make my own OSR game by stealing the Mörk Borg rules-set and adding a touch of homebrew to it. The home-brew became more elaborate and the thing took a life of its own.

When I first began writing this thing in earnest, my wife switched from a night schedule to a day schedule giving us nights and weekends for the first time since before we dated. That’s when the writing for this game happened. It was part of my evening routine to commandeer my wife’s Chromebook and add more and more to a single word file a bit at a time while she played Animal Crossing on her switch next to me. It was bliss.

My writing process usually includes appropriate music to fit the theme of my writing put on repeat. This is when I discovered Acid Mammoth and the joys of doom/sludge metal. The Under Acid Hoof album was a particular favorite.

I’d have a new idea or an old idea to expand on a few sentences at a time making notes and adjustments to my style guide as I went…

Style Guide Rule #4: Every cool thing in this game will be awesome and awful in equal measure.

Healing potions are a thing, they are magical, and effective.

Apply Rule #4.

Healing potions are also addictive.

And so it went until I had a mighty word document completely out of order and positively riddled with spelling mistakes. However, warts and all, there was a functioning game at the heart of it whose finer points seemed to intrigue my close creative friends.

Time to make that Zine!

When creating/designing any printed product, certain particulars have to be nailed down before any meaningful work can take place. (You hear that graphic design clients?!)  The first particular is what size the final product will be. The size of each page vs. the size of the font vs. the amount of illustration will determine the rough page count.

Standard zine size in the U.S. is about 8.5x5.5 inches. A single letter sized printer paper folded in half. A bit slimmer than an A5 size. The smallest font size I am willing to print is 10 pt. Since this all began as a bit of a lark, and it was happening in the back drop of my regular full time illustration work, I decided this zine would be text-heavy. I would pour through my old sketchbooks and my various inktober drawings for suitable illustrations that I would pepper about the text. I set the personal rule for myself, that I would make this zine using only art that I had already made. Nothing new, but nothing I had used yet, including the cover.

Graphic Design Golden Rule: When designing for page layout, you are allowed to use exactly two fonts. One for body text, one for titles. That. Is. It. Be sure to choose a body font that has as many options as possible. Regular, bold, oblique, light, condensed, ultralight, etc.

Johan Nohr broke the hell out of this rule, as well as several others, but yet so ingeniously that it worked to great effect. I tried to follow in his footsteps in this way. I gathered all my favorite Blambot fonts and tested out different ways to use them and arrange them. In short order I realized that Johan is a graphic artist of the highest order… and I am not.

I chose Marion for my body text for its low X height, the serifs, and the general legibility. After many fits and starts, I settled on Mortuary and Mortuary Deco as the title fonts from Blambot.com (Pro tip: Need a cool ass font? Check Blambot first. Nate Piekos RULES!)

Small format means higher page count, but sparse illustration and low X height drops that page count back down. With these particulars decided, the only thing left is to drop the text in and star massaging it into some kind of order.

The Cover

The cover proved a bit of a challenge. In truth, cover illustrations are a weakness of mine at the best of times, but as luck would have it, I had this guy all drawn up and ready to go.

The title took some doing. Especially considering I hadn’t come up with a name for this game yet. I did understand that I was making “Heavy Metal the TTRPG,” so I began some word associations, word webs, and other brainstorming crap they taught us in grade school. I eventually settled on “Battle Jacket,” the colloquial term used to by bikers, punks, and metal heads to describe their patch ridden denim jackets (sleeves optional).

Title Making is not a strong suit for me, so this was a great opportunity for me to do some learning. The best solution I could come up with was to arrange the text in the title font, Mortuary, and try adding stylizations by hand with ink on paper. Process below.

Conclusions and a free download

I finished this sucker and printed a few copies out from my desktop printer. I sprung for some fancy red cardstock for the covers. It seemed fitting.

I’m not sure if this is a generational thing, or a human thing, but having had an idea, making that idea into substance, and holding that idea in my hand is something of a powerful moment. I had a stupid fun idea, I worked on it, and then I held a complete idea in my hands.

I’ve been self-publishing my comics for more than 10 years now so I figured I’d be a little innured to this bit of the process, but as I held this little zine and reread my lore and ideas, I felt proud. I remember remarking to my wife how I felt so much more proud of this stupid little zine than I thought I would be.

I called some friends, handed them copies of the zine and got a much warmer response than I predicted. They were excited to actually try the game out!

This was the moment it stopped being stupid. This was the moment it stopped being a lark.

Here’s a free download of this first version of the game/zine warts and all.

There have been many play-tests since I first printed this version and, at time of typing, I have printed and tested two more versions as well as written two one-shot adventures for the world.

[DOWNLOAD CORE RULES AND PAY WHAT YOU WANT HERE]

Next time: One-Shots and play-testing!

Thanks for reading,

-Gabe D.