[First published on December 15, 2024 on the former Keskin Woods Blogspot]


Since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I have been creating, designing, and playing games. I remember seeing my sibling's Lord of the Rings decks in the early 1990's and Magic: the Gathering cards in the mid 90's and thinking that looks fun. I want to make some of those. And I created a playable card game. Homemade pencil and paper games were already a staple in my imaginative playtime before I was a teenager. Inspired by computer games of the 90's, I made many types, styles, and genres of games as a creative outlet. And then in pre-teens I found D&D. 


I began playing official tabletop games in 2002 with a group of 6 friends with dungeons and dragons 3rd edition. I was quickly enamored with the fantastic world and the possibility of being somebody else while being a part of a story I could influence. In 2005 I began a group that I played with for almost two decades across a half dozen campaigns and more than a dozen tabletop game systems. 


I started running tabletop role playing games with my current game group in August of 2020 as a means for me to cope with the stress of graduate school. We played a campaign using Into the Odd (a fantastic introduction to Old School Renaissance gameplay) and my old school renaissance game design and philosophy hyperfixation began.


And that's how I designed a game. Makes perfect sense right? (cut to the Futurama scene with The Professor explaining the evolution of homo sapiens from great apes, only to be shown he is missing a critical link).


My dear close friend and unadopted son Elliot (that I ran games for a few years back) and I wanted to play a game together. Scheduling is hard but we found a time to play a duet ttrpg game together. Next, I had to find a system to play in. Solo game systems abound, and there are myriad ttrpg game systems for groups. However duet game systems were not abundant and the systems I found (while interesting and well-crafted) were too complex for my attention span to read through and understand. 


And there we were at a precipice. I could stand atop the mountain and look down over the vast sea of game to learn to play with my favorite person, or I could jump down and see what simplistic but engaging game I could create with the narrow focus of working for one player and one game master. 


Welcome to Keskin Woods, where I am documenting the journey of creating a tabletop role playing game system from top to bottom. My name is Kessie, and I will be your Storyteller, narrator, and pensive philosopher on this journey to creating a system, setting, and introductory campaign.