#7 Interview with Jim Hall
We had a chat with Jim Hall, the man behind Brooklet Games and Beetle Knight.
Jim Hall describes himself as an illustrator, dungeon master, and content creator for D&D and other role-playing games. His last successfully funded project was Beetle Knight.
Mario | La esquina del rol: Jim Hall, welcome to La esquina del rol!
I see that you have been actively publishing since 2021, and that your illustrations have appeared on several relevant and award-winning products within the scene. But let's start at the beginning.
Why did you decide to work in the indie scene and how did that decision lead to the creation of ?
Jim Hall: Leading up to Covid, I was really into board games and D&D 5E. So I started trying to create board games. My goal was to make games in public on TikTok, having the belief that anyone can make games. That’s when I started Brooklet Games.
During Covid I started making magic items and releasing them on my Patreon account. Mostly for 5E. Around this time I was introduced to the OSR. I fell in love with the art and innovative feeling of the community on Twitter. It inspired me to write system agnostic items and my “Mysterious Location” adventure hook generators. Around that time I got a hold of Cairn and my first issue of Knock! That sealed the deal and I started writing OSR inspired adventures.
All the ideas and creations from the scene kept inspiring me to make more things, and still do. So I have stuck with it ever since!
Mario: It seems that Covid has brought us all together at the table of the indie scene. Also, I started as 'La Esquina del Rol' around that time, and for some similar reasons.
I am surprised that in such a short time, since 2021, you have so many beautiful and interesting projects published (20 projects). Many of them are illustrated by you. I see that Cairn was a turning point for you. (Also, it was for me).
The themes in your projects are very clear: forests, swamps and really small creatures. What inspires you about them and what has been your creative process to create adventures, mini settings and role-playing games from those themes that seem to be your leading edge?
Jim Hall: The locations and inhabitants of my projects are greatly inspired by those places I have loved the most. The damp, lush environments of my home. I grew up in South-East Michigan, an area with many low hills, marshes, swamps, ponds and streams. These places were my escape as a child. It’s no wonder they should continue to be as an adult in my writing/illustrations.
For my process it usually starts with a simple idea or inspiration. For example, Worldlings was inspired by Okro’s artwork which made me think of tiny spirits. Also, for a while I wrote prompts and had my Patreon patrons vote for their favorite. Then I would write an adventure for the prompt. That’s where Vortex Isles, Escape the City, and others came from.
Next I will usually create some artwork. The act of drawing pulls me into the world and gets me excited for writing. Maps are a useful place to start as well because they provide some structure to the writing.
I try to include some sort of rising tension throughout my adventures. Whether that’s going into more dangerous territory like in Vortex Isles or the dragon triggered spore bursts in Arbon. I also try to keep locations quick and easy to read. The goal is to make something easy to use at the table.
One thing that I enjoy is role play based interactions. Non-combat social encounters are very interesting to me, especially when playing as a group. It’s one of my favorite parts about GMing. Also, it is a fun way of feeding information to the players. So I will usually start adventures in those situations and then raise the risk levels from there.
Writing Beetle Knight, a full game, has been quite a different experience and a much slower burn. It still started with art as inspiration, in this case the work of François Licata. I was inspired to make an illustration, the cover art for Beetle Knight. Next, instead of diving into a map, I started creating mechanics. I had some ideas for dice contest rolls so I decided to write them down and combine them with a bug filled society. Around that time I was also running a bug-centered game. We were playing a wacky Cairn hack but my friends were gracious enough to play test Beetle Knight. That’s when I started iterating on the rules. It took off from there!
Mario: It is very interesting that your creative process is very flexible. Also, apparently, it has given you very good results hahaha! I really like everything I've read these days about your work!!!
But, well, let's talk about those Beetle Knight mechanics. The contest rolls for me are really very elegant. It was what made me fall in love with your game. Tell me, how did you come up with those contest rolls, and what were the elements that inspired you to make them that way?
Jim Hall: Thanks for the kind words!
So, contest rolls are made when you try something with an uncertain outcome. You roll your ability die (like a d6+1 or d10) and the arbiter rolls a challenge die. If you beat the Arbiter’s roll, you’re successful.
Where did this idea originate? I had an idea inspired by Ursula K Le Guinn’s Earthsea novels of two very powerful wizards in distant towers casting epic spells at the other and their surrounding areas. The idea goes something like this: You learn words of power. As you combine the words of power you can build up large combo spells. The opponent can do the same though, and can counter yours as you cast.
At this point I’m trying to imagine how to mechanically represent this. Perhaps each word has a die associated with it. Perhaps you roll against an opponent’s word die using another word die to see if you can counter it. And there it is! A Contest roll.
I had never seen this resolution mechanic anywhere before but it turns out I’m not the first to think of these types of rolls. For example, Lost in Fantasy World by Diogo Nogueira uses a d6 versus roll.
Mario: Ah, yeah!, I remember that game created by Diogo, yes, you're right. But, I think I like the contest rolls even more because of the difficulty levels that are assigned through different dice. And well, that mechanic is very good for solo games. I like that a lot.
Another thing I like is the emblem and resolution mechanic. Tell me a little bit about how it works and what was your source of inspiration for this, which together with the contest rolls make them the heart of the Beetle Knight game.
Jim Hall: Emblems started as something interesting to do during a tie. It used to be that a tie was just a failure. However, they happen pretty frequently so I made two boon tables and had players roll a boon on it on a tie. It made the game more fun. Hooray!
But then I had the opposite problem, it didn’t happen enough. Also, rolling on the tables seemed to restrict player choice and creativity in one of the coolest points in the mechanics. So based on a recommendation from Chris Shorb I created a resource called “Resolve” which builds up when you hit a tie. Resolve is used to activate magical tokens called “Emblems” either as an action by spending Resolve or on a tie. I removed the previous spell casting mechanic and that brought us to the current state. Now, ties are more interesting and players have plenty of options, especially when you start combining Emblems in cool ways.
Mario: I really like to dig into the mechanics of the game. It is very interesting to know those decisions that generated interesting and fun game mechanics...
But, before finishing with the interview, the Quickstart of Beetle Knight will be translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Also, you published the system under an open CC license (for which I thank you).
What plans do you have for Beetle Knight in the future, and what other plans do you have for Brooklet Games?
Jim Hall: Right now, I’m really focused on finishing the accompanying zines to the Beetle Knight core book so that we can ship everything this winter. Those include “Elmroot Glimmer” and the “Litterfall World Guide”.
After that I hope to encourage others to hack Beetle Knight (it is under Creative Commons) and make adventures and other things compatible with the system.
I would like to write more for Beetle Knight too. I have lots of ideas! Also, I have a project in the works tentatively called “True Tales” which is a hex crawl generator through a land of fae magic. Who knows if I’ll ever finish it. Generally speaking, I aim to put out around 1 big project a year for the next few years.
And he is Jim Hall from Brooklet Games. See you next time!
