Hello outlaws,

As both I, the human man, and Copperhead County, the acclaimed independent TTRPG, rumble back to life, I'd like to get back to updating the devlog regularly. Here we are!

Site & Social Media Sidebar

It's probably not a great idea to silently update your web address and branding and break all of your existing links. Well, who cares. I decided to abandon my branding and revert to my previous branding, which is now my current and permanent branding, of https://zzzwizard.itch.io/.

Anyway, social media, huh? What a shitshow. Back when all this Twitter hullabulloo started, I decided to stop using the terrible website to post jokes and self-promo, but was still tied to the ADHD need to read a constantly refreshing news feed. Finally, that app has become so terrible that I just nuked my account entirely.

This website and devlog remains the primary place for Copperhead County news, if you're interested in such a thing. Otherwise, my social media presence is now solely on bluesky at @zzzwiz.bsky.social. (This would be a great time for Bluesky to start letting people sign up, but I dunno if they know what they're doing over there.) Occasionally, people have asked me if Copperhead County will ever have an official Discord or Reddit or whatever, and the answer is no. I remember once reading some sage advice from Avery Alder which boiled down to, indie creators need to carefully consider the unpaid positions they take on. "Community manager" is not one I'm going to do.

Adventure Hooks

I probably mentioned this on the devlog last year, but I want to revisit the topic. I've always wanted to make sure that Copperhead County the final product had lots of game-ready hooks in it. I've been in the Blades in the Dark community since the very beginning, and a recurring player question has always been, "What should my crew actually do?"

In my wisdom, I've further complicated this in Copperhead County by divorcing crew types from job types. Now, one on hand, I actually think this makes gameplay easier; nobody is stuck looking at the word "SMUGGLERS" and trying to build an exciting campaign out of it. But, on the other hand, a sandbox game needs direction so that it actually goes somewhere.

However, unlike Harper-sensei and friends of mine, I'm not great at writing random tables, and I very rarely actually use random tables to inspire my GMing. My GM philosophy is basically, "Play to find out what happens, and keep doing that." I tend to lay a lot of track, have a lot of NPCs around, and try to portray a living world where events play out organically. Can I explain to you how to do that? Do I expect you to GM exactly like me to enjoy Copperhead County? No. But I can try to write enough shit to make this game interesting!

Anyway, a large part of my remaining additions to Copperhead County have taken that form. I'm expanding the area entries in the setting chapter, and devoting space to both a list of minor locations in the neighborhood, and two local adventure hooks.

Crime fiction runs on bars, restaurants, and sketchy retail stores, so those make up most of the Other Places in each neighborhood. Hopefully, these will prove interesting enough to give PCs a place to hang out, meet people, and expand their business.

Events & Opportunities offer two campaign seeds for each neighborhood. Maybe you'll get a single job out of these, or maybe something can inspire you to build a larger story around it. These aren't always explicitly criminal, either, although in Copperhead County, even legitimate business is often handled illegitimately.

City Primeval

If you're reading this devlog, I assume you're aware of Justified: City Primeval. In my opinion, City Primeval rules. Elmore Leonard might be my favorite novelist, and I love that the Justified team figured out they could keep going if they just put Raylan into other books. Give me five more seasons!

I actually haven't read City Primeval, but if you're looking for something to read, you can basically pick out any Elmore novel and have a good time. The dude did not miss. Some of my favorites are Killshot (a husband and wife face off against a pair of killers, and the cops are either completely incompetent or actively threatening); Freaky Deaky (ex-hippies, bombs, and even a bit of Elmore's interest in film & TV; this could be made straight into City Primeval season 2), and Stick (the sequel to Swag, which is also great, but man, I really love Stick and it has even more Hollywood stuff in it).

Speaking of Books

The best new crime novel I've read in quite some time is Jordan Harper's Everybody Knows, a perfect LA noir diving into the underbelly of our entire present era. It's fantastic, and my favorite thing about it is how current it is. It gives me the same kick I get out of Copperhead County and tackling with shit that is actually happening, now, in the world where we live. No spoilers, but I also love the ending, and how Harper doesn't go for the too-common easy way out in crime fiction, which is to pretend that redemptive violence can solve all of your problems.

See Ya

That's enough bullshit for today. Stay tuned for further news from Copperhead County.