or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Process.

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Over a month ago, I made a decision to join the 2026 Appendix N Jam on Itch.io. What prompted me to join up, aside from being fan of both the original Appendix N as well as the many superb creative results from the previous year, was mostly a snap decision around the premise that knowing without a deadline or a sense of urgency, my ongoing aspirations of learning/developing the aspects of designing, arranging, distributing, (etc.) TTRPGs were likely to continue hampered by my own listlessness.

I am my own biggest obstacle, waiting for just the ‘perfect’ moment to arrive to do a thing; a moment that often never comes. So I saw the jam with its specific timeframe (a month), along with some of its other stipulations (Being only four A5 pages long and with a fictional title of an Appendix N book to work from) as just what I needed to galvanize me into action.

So I joined up and was soon given the title:
Thaumaturge of the Alizarin Pool

Initially, I felt like I was in way over my head, especially when I began seeing some incredible entries some folks were already submitting after barely a week into the jam. But I reminded myself that comparison is the thief of joy, and so after waffling for a bit through numerous ideas and iterations, I managed to distill them into a somewhat cohesive piece. I then had to re-familiarize myself with the basics of graphic design and take the plunge into teaching myself Affinity Publisher 2. It was all a big learning curve, but it was well worth it:

I submitted the above result some days ago and all submissions closed the night of the July 31st; now its on to the rating and voting phase, by a panel of judges as well as an Audience for their pick. Entries will be evaluated on 4 categories: Writing, Visual Design, Gameability, and Theme.

I feel that the strength of my entry is likely the writing, probably followed by theme or gameability. Visual design is definitely where it’s the weakest. That said, I am content with what I was able to come up with for the cover:

I am aware the design of the interior doesn’t really match with ideal TTRPG visual language (i.e. simple readability), but I was really set on giving it the yellowed page look of a pulp or choose-your-own- adventure book.

All in all, I am very content with the final result, even a bit proud. It ain’t pretty, but you gotta start somewhere.

What I am very confident on is my entry not being particularly notable, especially when put up against the many incredible entries that since that I’ve submitted mine I’ve been able to finally bask in.

I didn’t join this game jam for the competitive aspect, I just wanted to prove to myself I can do it. And I did it! And what’s more, I enjoyed the process and am pretty darn eager to do it again.

P.S. All that said, downloads, ratings, reviews, and/or feedback will ALWAYS be appreciated. 😉

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