Chosen

December Update!
6 months ago – Tue, Dec 16, 2025 at 08:28:48 AM

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

It seems like I've been trying to write this update for weeks now, and something always seemed to come up when I got started on it. The downtime I thought I would have between my last two conventions of the year and my Thanksgiving family trip simply didn't happen. At the end of all that, I got sick too, so I hope you're all staying well this holiday season!

The holidays have always been special to me. That said, the work-time vs. family-time balance has shifted more toward family over the past three weeks and will likely stay that way through Christmas. Finishing the game is top priority, but something about the holidays seems to make spending time with loved ones a bit more special for some reason. I encourage you all to do the same.

As for Chosen, I met with the colleague who will be adding their design skills to the game last Monday, and the format for the exploration tables was finalized. I know them personally, and after our conversation, I'm confident the tables will turn out great.

Speaking of tables, I ran two game sessions of Chosen at Pax Unplugged. I finally had the pleasure of running the game for two backers. We had a blast, and I learned something too. I had no idea how different it would feel to be told how much a backer enjoyed playing the game versus a random player at a convention. It was amazing to hear and makes me that much more excited to get the game into your hands!

Unfortunately, I did not get a picture with Koree and Cobi, but I did get a picture with my second table. Shout out to Paulina, Dan, and Luke for a great game as well!

Anyway, I just wanted to reach out to you all, since I had a moment. As I mentioned last month, with the year's convention schedule wrapped up, I have one more trip to make over the Christmas holiday. Between now and then, the plan is to hammer out as much of Chosen as possible. Then, when I return from my Christmas trip, my only focus will be wrapping up game development.

Because I'm leaving on my family trip next week, it's unlikely you'll hear from me again until January. I realize there wasn't much to report this month, but it's important to me to keep the communication consistent with you guys. Progress is progress.

I think that's all I really have at this moment. I'm so pumped to finish this game! I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Christmas, if you practice that sort of thing. If not, well, I at least suggest you try the Egg Nog Latte from Starbucks. It's back, and it's my favorite! Anyway, I'll write to you again soon.

Sincerely,
Joe Weaver

November Update 1.0
7 months ago – Mon, Nov 10, 2025 at 02:23:31 PM

Hey Everyone!

Not a lot has changed since Halloween. I'm just continuing to transfer the working documents I've been using at conventions to the book and, in many cases, elaborate on them a bit. I don't think you want my scratch notes lol.

Like I said in the last update, I have a busy November. I'll be travelling for the next three weeks, starting this Thursday. Then, I'll be travelling again for Christmas this year. It is still yet to be seen if I can finish the game by New Year's. That is the goal. We shall see.

I did recruit a friend and fellow designer/writer to the project last week. I felt like having an extra body to pick up some of the design slack was a good idea, since I'm so busy. She was the editor for my Chosen short story, The Return, and also works for Goodman Games outside of her day job.

I mentioned in the last update that I'll be at two conventions this month. This week is U-Con in Ypsilanti, MI. I'll be running games (CHEW TTRPG) for my friend and fellow designer, Suffety Games. It's a small con, but if you're attending, they will be at Booth 16.

Unrelated

Also, if you like Mothership, Suffety Games is making a new toolkit that is on its last call for crowdfunding. It's got 32 hours left, as of my typing this. I'll plug the link for you guys to check out, if you want:

What's Next

I plan to get at least one more update out this month. It will probably be two more, since I'll likely do one next week with the Pax Unplugged info and any new information I have on Chosen. Not sure if any of you were affected by the lake effect winter storm that hit last night, but I know I got several inches of snow. Stay warm, people! I'll reach out to you again soon.

Best,
Joe Weaver

October Update 1.1...barely...
7 months ago – Fri, Oct 31, 2025 at 11:02:36 PM

Happy Halloween, Everyone! (It's still Halloween on the west coast, right? lol)

Since I last sent out an update, I've had a wild month of health issues, gaming conventions, and a few other things, but November looks to be even more chaotic. I'm scheduled to work U-Con in Ypsilanti, MI, November 14-16. Then, one week later, I head to Philly for Pax Unplugged. The week after that, I'm heading to Colorado to visit family. This November is by far the busiest I've had in quite a while, so we'll see how it goes.

If any of you are attending either of the conventions I mentioned, I'm always down to talk games. I'll put a bit more info about those cons in the first November update. In any case, let's get to it.

I've been making headway on incorporating the convention working documents, including my monster charts, into the manuscript. There will be a setup like the one below for every contract monster in the game. Minor monsters/creatures will have a much simpler creation mechanic.

Here's an example manuscript entry for contract monsters. In this case, I chose the Witch. I love homebrewing, so I look forward to seeing/hearing which lists players tweak, what they use, and how they use them!

Posting these here, I already see there's a spacing issue with the "Magic Ability Chart" title text blocks. That's an easy fix, and I'll do that right after I finish typing this up.

Just as a reminder, there are six primary contract types: Demon, Vampire, Eldritch Horror, Werewolf, Witch, and Fiend. Abyssal creatures will have a creation table, but they are more of a "hunt for sport and try not to die" type thing. There will also be a "build your own custom monster" table. Monster creation has always been one of my favorite things to do, so I'm really enjoying this part of the design.

If you notice, the Witch has two "solvable" motivations. This allows solo and GM-less players to pursue non-violent solutions when these motivations are selected. A non-violent solution creates an NPC ally. Allies may travel with the player character, teach them something, trade something with them, etc. However, making allies of NPCs you would usually kill will have a negative effect on the PC's morality. As a designer, I'm always looking for ways to give players additional roleplaying options, and this seemed like an interesting one.

I'll likely put out the first November update before U-Con, and then I'll try to make a second one toward the end of the month. I hope all of you had an enjoyable and spooky October!

The next two weeks will be gone before we know it, so you'll hear from me again soon! Until then, happy gaming!

Sincerely,
Joe Weaver - Creator

October Update 1.0!
8 months ago – Mon, Oct 06, 2025 at 03:13:56 PM

Greetings, Chosen!

First, my wife's birthday was on October 3rd. We've already celebrated it, but I would still like to wish her a happy birthday here!!! If not for her encouragement and support, I might not be making my own games. While this has by no means been an easy process, I feel blessed to have the opportunity to create this game for you all and would not want to be doing anything else.

Second, I indicated a few weeks ago that I intended to do more than one update for September. Full transparency, my daughter's homeschooling has necessitated a more active role in her day-to-day education, which severely cut into my time working on the Chosen manuscript the past few weeks. Things appear like they will balance back out a bit here soon, but a Halloween release is looking less likely. I have a busy holiday season ahead of me, but I have absolutely no desire to take this project into 2026. The goal is to finish the year strong by completing the manuscript, hopefully before Pax Unplugged.

By the way, there was a typo in last month's update, where I described the updated Demon Blade ability. I said the ability allows you to control your demon sword "telepathically." The actual wording is, "A psychic bond with the demon in the sword allows for telekinetic control." In other words, you can control your demon sword without holding it. Using it still consumes one of your actions, but it opens up more opportunities to roleplay the character.

Now, for new update material! I have a little more to go, as I've decided I like the consistency of the "full-page scroll" visual versus "text windows" and must finish the conversion of a few other pages. The text window style just limited the use of the space so much. They were hard to work with and were a little distracting when reading the manuscript. However, there are a couple of places in the manuscript where I'm leaving the text window style because it adds character to those locations in the book. The majority of the book will be presented in this style, though.

With a layout like this, the pages are starting to fall in place. No more maneuvering windows to try to fit the text or stressing over how much text is getting on each page. It improves the page flow and frees up space that I, honestly, needed. As an added bonus, it provides an opportunity to drop in more page decoration, this time in the form of alchemical circles.

Alchemical circles play a key role in the world of Chosen. Order blacksmiths in-game build their forges on top of them, which is what allows them to bind alchemical elements to weapons/armor and provide Eclipseborn with top-tier monster-killing gear. If a smith isn't trained by the Order, their shop won't have alchemy-laced goods.

As I intended last month, I would like to release multiple updates this month. That said, I will be at Gamehole Con, which is October 16th-19th. If you attend the con and come by the Imagining Games booth, I'll happily give you a look at the manuscript.

That's all I got for right now, but you'll be hearing from me again soon!

Happy Gaming!
Joe Weaver - Creator

September Update 1.0!
9 months ago – Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 03:56:25 PM

Greetings, Chosen!

This is the first of what will likely be two updates for the month of September. This month has seemed to fly by with multiple birthdays and family events for me and my family. I hope each of you is also doing well!

The first item on the update list is that I've corrected what I considered to be a design flaw in the book's layout. Until a couple of weeks ago, each character path was on a single page, featuring the path's title, artwork, and a brief overview of its abilities. The details of these abilities were to be listed in a separate "Abilities" section.

While reviewing the paths after a game at GrandCon, I realized that having abilities separate could work, but would eventually get on my nerves as a player. It makes more sense to simply be able to open to a path's location and have what I need. Saying it out loud, it seems like this should be a no-brainer, but sometimes you've got to take a step back to see the whole forest instead of just a bunch of trees.

Doing this meant reformatting the layout for half of the abilities and relocating everything to its proper position in the book. It wasn't too intensive, just tedious, but it was worth it. Now, each path features a two-page spread that showcases the path's art (no footer or text) and provides a detailed list of its abilities. Here's an example:

The second item on the update list is directly tied to the path abilities. Multiple abilities were updated during the review and relocation of the Abilities section, including some major changes and some minor ones. The first ability on each path's ability list is considered that path's "signature" ability. Players don't have to choose it, but lore-wise, it is what those paths are known for.

One of my favorite changes I made was the Sentinel's signature Demon Blade (formerly called Sword of Souls). I felt like it was lacking something and decided to try an idea at GrandCon. If you've seen Netflix's Castlevania series, you may be familiar with Alucard's telepathic connection to his sword. Well, I allowed a player to do that at a convention table in Grand Rapids. The result was amazing, so I decided to roll with it. Now, not only do you have a psychic connection to your Demon Blade, but you can also control it telepathically.

I'm currently working on the layout for the section explaining how Chaos Engine works, which I expect to finish before the end of the month. You will hear from me again when I do!

Until next time, happy gaming!

Joe Weaver - Creator