All journeys begin with a first step. What’s unfortunate is that the original step is usually miniscule compared to the entire journey that you’re embarking on. This little blog post is that first tiny step. We feel a little timid about it, and there is an overwhelming amount of quiet anxiety involved, but we’re doing it.
Welcome to AbyssalBrews
We want to make homebrew. It’s as simple as that, but it’s still much more complex in practice. There are dozens of amazing homebrewers creating work only describable in exclamatory phrases of excitement. The tabletop community has exploded over the last dozen years. It’s exciting, yet scary to realize the growth the community has gone through. We see all the amazing things others are producing. Yet, we are also trying to insert ourselves into a scene that is already teeming with amazing work.
Bringing the content that we make for our own campaigns to the community is our primary focus. The lion’s share of the content here is being produced by two individuals. The first being Fernando, our resident illustrator and purveyor of gorgeous art. Also, there is me, Matt, writer of things and graphic designer by trade. I would like to think it is fate that I’m named Matt, as there are several amazing Matt based Dungeon Masters out there. Yes, I’m looking at you, Colville and Mercer!
Our Approach to Homebrew
Fernando and I feel a core tenet of the fun that is had at any D&D table is in game mechanics that don’t impede the characters. There is a market for systems that are steeped in minutia. Those systems have made their way into my tables over the years. AbyssalBrews is our attempt at creating satisfying systems devoid of deep crunch or dozens of dice rolls.
We want to ensure that the DM can understand our content and systems in one or two read throughs. Our goal is to make content that is teachable during your session. We’re enthralled by making systems that are playable without needing additional handouts. If we can make the experience seamless for the players, we believe we can make for a less tacked on feeling for our systems.
You’ll find classes, class options, races, backgrounds, spells, magic items, and all of those wonderful things that players want to get their hands on. We intend to approach those by making things that feel enjoyable to play without causing them to interrupt the flow of the game. Driving the identity of a class using the mechanics of it is a core philosophy.
Quality is Core
Fernando and I are visual people. As he often likes to say, “I’m a drawer, I draw things”. It is essential we release content that provokes feelings of professionalism and quality. Our brews will always have an eye for visual fidelity. Frankly, it’s just really important to us to put out content that is visually striking and feels enjoyable to read.
Graphic design is my day job, I pressure myself to create things of a sufficient visual caliber. I’m also lucky enough to have people in my life that have an amazing eye for detailed sentence structure and grammatical correctness. By those powers combined, we hope to create things you’ll want to peruse.
Getting someone to stop and look at the brews we create because of their striking visual motifs is part and parcel of our planning. Beneath the visual appeal, we’ll work to include systems that make the read worthwhile.
Giving Back is Where It’s At
I have been incredibly fortunate to take part in the tabletop RPG community for over 15 years. In that time, I have consumed extreme amounts of awe-inspiring content. There have been many systems, adventures, items, and more that I’ve included into my own tables that became beloved. My sincerest hope is we can start giving back to that community.
Putting this content out into the scene and letting others use it is rewarding in its own way. Someone using our work at their table is a reward unto of itself. While we are clueless what the future may hold, we hope that our content brings joy to at least one other table.
We’re preparing a list of some of the content that is coming. You’ll see that in our next post, followed shortly after by our first actual system, The Cycle. Yeah, we’re pretty freaking excited.
