{"id":773,"date":"2025-09-07T17:25:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/?p=773"},"modified":"2025-09-07T17:25:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:25:54","slug":"emergency-playtesting-and-gamehole-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"Emergency Playtesting and Gamehole 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;Bring your ideas, talent and work to us at their best!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That statement has haunted me for a bit. I reread the mechanics section, bonding, and campaign section of Honorbound. It&#8217;s a good game. Like, possibly a great game. Players are weaving dynamic stories that relate to the current adventure. The All-4-One climax roll feels epic. The conflict skill matrix is slick, combining story narrative and easy to use rules. And here I was tossing&#8230;and turning.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Untitled-1024x640.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-775\" style=\"width:334px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Untitled-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Untitled-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Untitled-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Untitled.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>It had been months since I handed off the text to be edited and laid out when I got a chance to look at it again. Not everything was done yet, but it was well on its way. I hated it. Not because it didn&#8217;t work but, because I&#8217;ve had four additional months of playtesting and obsessively thinking about Honorbound. It was driving me mad not being able to make any updates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Will&#8217;s most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/gamenomicon\/honorbound-0\/posts\/4411924\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">recent kickstarter update<\/a>, superbacker Marek Benes dropped an encouraging comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After taking stock of everyone&#8217;s deadlines, I saw my window. If we want to make sure we get all the sketches we originally contracted, we have to wait an additional month and a half. I was set to terminate early to get to a publish date. I tossed; I turned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I don&#8217;t speak for everyone, but I personally prefer a delay to get the best version of your vision as I can over meeting some projected completion date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bring your ideas, talent and work to us at their best!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"428\" height=\"610\" src=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Iliod-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-776\" style=\"width:232px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Iliod-1.jpg 428w, https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Iliod-1-210x300.jpg 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"675\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-780\" style=\"width:111px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image.png 675w, https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Don&#8217;t @ me, Kastaplast for life<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>After some conversations with layout mastermind HTTPaladin and various artists I pulled the trigger. I booked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MbJewrFipHE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">emergency playtest sessions<\/a>, swatted aside contest applications, and mournfully put away frisbee disks as I watch the rest of the season slip through my fingers once again. To say my hair is on fire is understatement. More like K\u012blauea&nbsp;as mechanics, editing, and writing erupt from my fingertips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pressure has reached a fevered pitch as I reset new due dates for each project. I get antsy when I&#8217;m not directly working it. I love it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have already stress tested a different way to resolve conflicts using Low Stakes\/High Stakes and a new way bonds work. Low\/High system works wonderfully for <a title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/?page_id=637\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Legends of the Khurst Riders<\/a>. It does NOT for Honorbound. But now I know. I can cross that off my &#8216;worry index&#8217;. However, the new bonding mechanics are soooo much better. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>This is to say &#8216;Thank You&#8217; for your belief in us as a team.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to see all the new updates in action come play them yourself! I am going to Gamehole Con for the first time this year and I have just a couple more slots open for players in both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameholecon.com\/events#conID=18&amp;eventType=&amp;startDay=&amp;startHour=&amp;groupID=&amp;searchString=jerod&amp;page=1&amp;specialEvents=false&amp;hideSoldOutEvents=false&amp;sortNew=false&amp;isVirtual=false&amp;isKidsTrack=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Goblyn Market and Honorbound.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Bring your ideas, talent and work to us at their best!&#8221; That statement has haunted me for a bit. I reread the mechanics section, bonding, and campaign section of Honorbound.&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/?p=773\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Emergency Playtesting and Gamehole 2025<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paroxysmbydesign.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}