Geek Native was able to find out from Guy MacDonnell about the creative challenges and rewards in putting together Pest Laid Plans for PocketQuest.
PocketQuest is DriveThruRPG’s RPG festival, and this year, the theme is heist. The rules are that each submitted must be a complete game and no more than 25 pages. We’ve seen some clever use of formatting and excellent layout design to get the best possible game into those 25 pages.
Pest Laid Plans works as a solo game and one for a GM with between 1 and 5 players.
A group of undesirable animals team up to pull off the most daring of heists. Armed only with junk, they delve into danger.
The hazards they face could go wrong in a variety of ways. The team could alert further security, leave evidence or miss a career-defining opportunity.
Each teammate has a strength; a variety of failure that they simply will never succumb to.
But each also has a glaring flaw; a blind-spot to which they will fall whenever they neglect it.
This is a role playing game of foresight. But proving foresight may be in vain. You know what they say of the Pest Laid Plans.
As a bonus, Pest Laid Plans features art from the talented Dyson Logos.
So, what was Guy’s favourite aspect of creating the TTRPG?
My favourite part of making Pest Laid Plans was getting to grips with the Affinity software suite. Kayla Cline had made some fantastic art assets for PocketQuest and I decided that I’d take inspiration from the art pack and build the game around that. I took a small part of another of my designs, one with plenty of playtesting, and with a bit of computer magic made it into a game book that everyone involved could be proud of. It felt brilliant to get to grips with something new!
I wasn’t expecting software to get a shoutout!
Affinity, now owed by Canva, is an alternative to giant Adobe.
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