And on my first try at an ARG, no less. Using my first go at an actual play, which was my first time as a DM. I can count the number of TTRPGs I've GMed AND played on two hands.

Here's the original game flow that I made in three weeks in March. Imagine what could have been if we'd had resources.

I made a piece of entertainment media that is entirely unlike anything else. There's no 1:1 comparison between Broken Sky and any existing media property.

Making it real made me an innovator. A trailblazer. Painfully hacking through dense brush in the dark with a dull machete, but a trailblazer.

I’m producing an impact short film. Visit the site and hit the donate button so I can pay my incredibly talented, all-female/femme crew fair wages for their labor. It’s tax-deductible if you do it through BAVC. More info in the pitch deck. Share, please.

www.dancingstickman.com/expectations

💠

When I was studying biz management, I was obsessed with the Grameen Bank’s microlending model, because they demonstrated conclusively that investing in women is a force multiplier that spreads prosperity and opportunity around their communities.

It's me.
Invest in me.

And I paid people. I did it start-to-finish in five months, broke and underemployed, as an outsider to the scene.

I got some petty satisfaction from taking the settlement from the ex who said he resented me for enjoying what I do and using it to pay folks to help me do it, but that's all gone now.

- The curse spreading among the characters and plants
- The Witch Hunter subplot
- A game leading to the Wickedness reprint
- An equity-focused retroactive fundraiser meant to experiment with new, fair compensation structures for the artists involved

Other things you missed:

- The Skywoman/Primacy side quest, with consultation from @coyoteandcrow.bsky.social
- Getting on the @wildmagepress.com newsletter
- Getting hip to @brandesstoddard.bsky.social’s blog

I tried to be responsible and own the outcome in the post mortem, but now that I've revisited Broken Sky to wrap the remaining content, published it, and can put everything behind me, I’ll say this: The issue was never the production.

One thing’s for sure: Jacob and I are some wildly daring, extravagantly ambitious motherfuckers who told a helluva story. And basically 90% of the game we built for y’all remains unplayed at large.

I can't say with certainty if there are many APs out there where they play two different TTRPGs at once, or that have two collaborating GMs. I do know there aren't a lot of games out there that ask the players to be an active part of telling the story.

Ahead of my time, I guess.

I'd say there was a good 50% of Broken Sky that was ready to go but never got played.

I don't know how to feel about it: no use crying over spilt milk, and it was ultimately my responsibility. But at the same time, I took that responsibility seriously and built something innovative and cool.

I've republished the solstice scenes for posterity (and because I'm quite proud of the sound design), but the HEART, SPIRIT, and SOUL scenes were Act Two puzzles that we never got to release because no one solved the Act One puzzles.

When ICE inevitably merks someone during a raid and people start getting *really* angry at the protests, I hope all these boomers are still getting out on the streets.

Maybe if y'all had shown up for your kids and neighbors before, the protests would have been safer and more effective.

Like, yeah, if more people would have shown up for Kamala, but also if more people would have shown up for Breonna and Sandra.