Jared: First off tell us a little about yourself (You can introduce your team, as a whole here, as well)?
Addison: I’m Addison, and I go by Captain on discord. The screen name “Captain” actually came from my first Xbox LIVE gamertag being “Capt Obvious” or some variation of that. People in lobbies would start addressing me as “Captain” because of that, and it stuck. Brandon and I met in 2015 or 2016 when we got together to play D&D3.5e. We fell out of contact for a few years between about 2019 and 2021, but in November of 2021, one of us contacted the other just to catch up. I don’t remember who. Regardless of who reached out, Brandon asked me if I wanted to help playtest a game he was working on called Eureka. I said yes. To keep things short, playtesting turned into rules-writing, and soon I had written as many rules for the game as he had
Ash: I’m Ash, Ashweather on Discord and in some credits. I’m a bit late to the party; I met Addison on the A.N.I.M. Indie Book Club server in late 2023. I was helping out on projects here and there, and sometime earlier this year (I think January) I was asked to help edit the supernatural section of the book. We had a good workflow and realized how much the game (and the team, for that matter) would benefit from an editor, so I was asked to join the team to polish things up.
Blue: I’m Blue, and I’ve been working as an freelance illustrator online for a few years now. Addison and I have been friends for a while and he’s a long-time supporter of my art, and I of his writing. He asked me if I would like to work on Eureka and I said yes, it almost feels weird that we haven’t collabed on a big project like this before.
My online handles are chaospyromancy on Tumblr and chaos pyromancer on Discord (<- Dark Souls lover).
Brandon: I’m Brandon, Chills on discord. I’m just a chill guy. As Captain said, I was looking for playtesters for my original TTRPG, and I had played with him before, so I asked him to help playtest. Since then, he has written far more rules for the game than I have, haha. I met Ash through the Book Club and Blue and Qsy through Captain.
Qsy: I’m Qsy, a French character commission artist. I’ve known Captain for a few years now so when he started his project he simply asked me if I was free to work on it.
Jared: When and how did you get started in tabletop games?
Addison: I got started on TTRPGs in about 2013 or 2014, when I was invited by my friends Elizabeth and Jared to play D&D3.5e with them and some other friends. It was a pretty rough and loose “campaign” of only a few sessions, and we didn’t know the rules very well, but I had a blast.
Ash: I’ve been playing TTRPGs for about 15 years now (since I started high school), and was fascinated by them as far back as I can remember. I was always a nerdy kid into fantasy and RPGs that used D&D as a framework, like the original Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights.
Blue: I’ve been playing TTRPGs for about 5 years on and off, first starting out online and then realizing I was way more comfortable playing in person. I had been wanting to get into it for longer so I jumped on the occasion when Addison offered to invite me in a group of his.
Brandon: One day 8 years ago, I joined some friends in trying out Call of Cthulhu. Someone else was the DM, and it was the first TTRPG experience for all of us. None of us had fun. It was awkward, boring, and seemingly detached from any roleplay. It was just a back-and-forth of “You are in the underground chamber with ancient text.” “I roll to understand the ancient text.” “The ancient text tells you to go to New York.” “I go to New York” and so on, making it seem more like a board game without a board. No character roleplay, no emergent narrative, and no connection between the players and the game. I don’t blame the DM or the players at all, it was their first time doing anything like it, but I thought – I can do better. I’ve actually been into roleplay and interactive writing since I was like 10, from writing in post-by-post forums to making online comics that progress with viewer input to working on collaborative fiction with friends, all the way up to even now. Our group decided to try one more game but with me as DM, and I used my roleplay experience to guide and encourage and reward roleplay, immersion, and being brave enough to connect with the game more than a bit. It was a fantastic experience in which everyone had fun, and since then, I’ve wanted to help other people recreate and spread that joy of creation.
Qsy: I’ve probably played tabletop games the least out of the whole team, but I started working for indie game designers last year and through word of mouth it’s become the bulk of my professional work.
Jared: What made you want to make content specifically for tabletop games?
Addison: Well, I really got my start making “homebrew” stuff for D&D3.5e, because despite having fun with it, it wasn’t really what I wanted. Of course, at that time, I wasn’t really aware that there were other games out there that were what I wanted, so I just kept trying to work D&D3.5e into something it wasn’t. I see many, many people today making the same folly with D&D5e. Anyway, when I was eventually able to work on a game properly closer to the ground level, I did find that I’m actually really good at this, and it’s something I enjoy, so I’d like to make it into a career.
Ash: It’s been an ambition of mine since I started the hobby, really. I’ve always been best at editing, refining, taking the rough shape of an idea and honing it into the best version of itself, so when the opportunity arose for me to contribute to a project I really thought was great, I jumped at the chance.
Blue: Most people come to me with an idea for a character and I love helping them make their little guys come to life.
Brandon: I mentioned above that I have a long history of roleplay and interactive writing, and that I had an experience in which I, as a DM, was able to use my knowledge in the field to help new players really engage with a type of game they had never considered before. I’ve DMed so many people and when it all comes together, I’ve seen players be so grateful, amazed, and exhilarated with what they’re doing, which requires a certain vulnerable connection with the game and their characters within it. However, as I did more research and experimentation with TTRPGs, I saw that I could not find one that truly FOCUSED on that vulnerable connection between player and character; so many games have mechanics that, strictly speaking, only care about the combat or skills of a character, but not who they are, which means that any roleplay is purely extraneous and has no supports to guide it along like I do to my new players. Sure, I’m an experienced roleplayer and writer so I can come up with creative solutions on the fly, but what about people who don’t have that experience but want to engage in the same fun? Should they be left without any useful onboarding or guidance? Is it right for someone to buy a game and then have to look for resources outside of the gamebook in order to learn how to have a good time playing the game? I want to create games that have that connection built in and ready for anyone picking them up the first time, while also providing new and exciting avenues for experienced people.
In the various groups I’ve dmed, most of my players always end up caring about WHO the character is, WHY they do what they do, and how they live in the world around them, but all of that always ended up purely imagined by us with no ties to the actual mechanics of the game; often, I had to really homebrew and make up new gameplay mechanics that allowed for characterization and roleplay to have a greater effect on the raw numbers. Too many times did I and the players get some incredible character moments, only for those moments to not really connect to any of the mechanics in the game unless I really forced it on the fly – and I did a lotta experimentation! I wanted to make something that changed that, something where the character, the favorite part of the game, IS the game, and not just something imagined aside it. And now here we are with Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy. I want to make games that best give the supports possible for people to have meaningful roleplay experiences where the WHO of their character, not just their abilities, matters to the game.
Qsy: Drawing a bunch of characters and props without any backgrounds, what’s not to like.
Jared: Next tell us about the beginning of The Agency of Narrative Intrigue and Mystery?
Addison: From 2021 to the end of 2022, I was in and out of some really bad jobs, that I really just was not cut out for at all. Near the end of 2022, I managed to land a stable part-time job with a really flexible schedule that I really enjoyed doing. However, this job won’t last forever. They have a limited amount of work for me to even do, so in the future I could be right back where I started. I decided I needed to make a job for myself, and I told Brandon we needed to make Eureka into a real game and sell it, and then sell more games, so that I could make this my career. Work started in earnest in January of 2023, with me working 3-9 hours every weekday on every aspect of Eureka.
Jared: Where did the name come from?
Addison: We needed to form an LLC to manage the product and profit and stuff, and so we needed a name. We based the company logo off of the logo for Eureka, and followed with the secret agent/noir detective theme. The name followed. We make mystery games and narratives, so we named ourselves The Agency of Narrative Intrigue and Mystery, A.N.I.M. for short.
Jared: What can people expect coming into the website/social medias etc?
Addison: Right now, our website is pretty barebones. We mainly use it to hold all of our various links to different things and places, like our Patreon, the link to where we host the free Eureka demo, etc. The only place we really have a big social media presence is tumblr, and that’s because we’re a small team with no budget, and tumblr is the only place we know of that isn’t totally hostile to word-of-mouth advertising. Our tumblr blog is equal parts posts talking about Eureka itself, and the sharing of other people’s posts that have the same kind of “feel” as Eureka.
Brandon: Passion. Captain runs the tumblr blog with an intense passion with which he’s always engaging the community, writing long analyses of TTRPG mechanics and play, commenting on ways to make TTRPG play even better, and finding other TTRPGs to uplift and spread the word of. Ash has come up with more and more and more ways to make Eureka even better, and Blue and Qsy are already making such lovely art, which will show up in our website/social media/etc! Everyone on this team cares about TTRPGs and the people experiencing them a LOT, and are always excited to bring more to it, which will show on social media. That really comes through as we discuss and find new ways to help those experiences be better, and as we praise new and great ways for people to creatively express and enjoy themselves through our favorite genre of game.
Jared: What do you see as the future of ANIM? Goals?
Addison: Well in the immediate future we are going to be finishing up and releasing Eureka. We would like to continue to support Eureka for a long time with future adventure modules and maybe even splatbooks. At the same time, we also have several projects on the backburner, such as Mastadon, Deathbed, and another untitled TTRPG. I would like for A.N.I.M.’s games to become popular enough that I can rely on it for a good chunk of my income and thus be able to make it my primary occupation.
Ash: I think the team has a lot of great ideas to share, from new adventures for Eureka to some really crazy original games we have on the backburner, including at least one project I’m spearheading.
Brandon: It is going to be a source of innovative interactive design, immersive roleplay, and new ways for people to enjoy the unlimited potential of TTRPGs. I am very excited for the future adventures that we will write for Eureka and I’m always thinking up of more ideas for them. I want A.N.I.M to help people enjoy narratives in games in brand new ways.
Jared: Tell us about Eureka
Addison: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is a neo-noir investigation-focused RPG with (as you can probably guess from the title) a supernatural twist. Eureka fills several voids we have noticed in the TTRPG space. Eureka supports investigation to a degree we haven’t seen before, ensuring that searching for clues is a granular and player-driven process, but also ensuring that the whole story doesn’t grind to a halt after one single failed investigation check.
Though most PCs will be mundane humans—or perhaps because most PCs will be mundane humans—Eureka also supports playing monstrous PCs, such as a vampire, in a way we have never seen before. This isn’t just a watered-down stat bonus, it’s like playing an almost entirely different game, with all the monster’s strengths and weaknesses to account for while solving the mystery, plus the added incentive to keep it a secret from the other PCs as well as their players.
If you like or are interested in Call of Cthulhu, Monster of the Week, Dresden Files, X-Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Apocalypse Keys, or Gumshoe, you’ll probably find something in Eureka to really enjoy.
Brandon: In addition to the above, it is a game that really makes the investigator someone who has a place inside of their world, in which the mechanics bid them to sleep, eat, and keep an eye on the mental health of themselves and their friends, all while they dive into darker places. In Eureka, a character fills no role, for it is instead their personality and beliefs and ways of interacting with the world that make each character – and their gameplay experience – truly unique because of WHO they are and how that affects what they can do.
Ash: I think they covered it pretty well! The only thing I would add is that, speaking as a long-time TTRPG player of a whole bunch of different systems, I think it’s a very cleanly designed game with a lot of thought put into it. You don’t need to struggle against the rules to tell an engaging story, the rules will naturally facilitate an engaging story and organic decision making from the characters. Don’t let the page count intimidate you, it’s really pretty simple to pick up!
Jared: In addition to Eureka What do you have coming up in projects?
Addison: In addition to adventure modules for Eureka, we also have at least three other games on the backburner that are part-way finished: Death Bed, Bone-Grinder, and Mastadon. Death Bed is an OSR-ish attempt to capture the feel and combat style of Dark Souls in a tabletop format, in response to the tremendous failure that Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game. Mastadon is a is a somewhat goofier TTRPG with a focus on high-speed, tactical action in a realm where dark fantasy and retro-futurism have collided. It takes major inspiration from Quake and other shooters of the 90s.
Ash: I’ve got a module for Eureka in the works which is a very traditional whodunnit (support the Kickstarter if you want it to be the best it can be!), but the project I’m most excited for is Bonegrinder. Where Mastadon is inspired by retro shooters, Bonegrinder is inspired by modern movement shooters like ULTRAKILL. That said, it has plenty of 90s edge and is just dumb as a bag of hammers. It’s the kind of game where killing a demon by whacking its head off with a baseball bat to get impaled on its buddy’s spine is an every turn kind of occurrence.
Blue: I’m working on my own comics & projects that include trying to get published in my country (France), and posting webcomics regularly again.
Brandon: Working on what Captain mentioned, and I am busy thinking and writing up all sorts of new modules and ways for people to enjoy those modules.
Qsy: I’m saving up for an AC so that I don’t die this summer.
Jared: Anything else you would like to add?
Addison: Everything I’ve mentioned so far, especially our plans for future games like Death Bed and Mastadon, can only happen if the Eureka Kickstarter is not just successful, but exceptionally successful. The more stretch goals we hit, the better position we will be in to continue our work and carry on to release more and more awesome games! So each backer we get is one step closer to achieving our dreams. Even $10 helps if you can spare it.
Ash: The community which has popped up around ANIM and Eureka already is extremely cool. I’m proud to be a part of it, and I can’t wait to see everyone’s characters and hear stories about their games!
Blue: Make sure to support Eureka! on Kickstarter and support indie ttrpg creators everywhere 🙂
Brandon: The Kickstarter is full of potential to put your own creative expression into the game! You can write down random encounters into the Hunting Tables ( a delightful monster-connected tool ) that all players could play with! I know I’d jump at the chance to get my own ideas into an official rulebook. For anyone who likes the thought of getting monster-ed, this is a great chance. Plus, there’s making the custom Snoops, the little guys all over the visuals, and we’ve already got a couple of people who got a tier that’ll let them get a full-body, full-color illustration and character sheet of their character into the book! I love seeing other people’s creative expression, and I can’t wait to see more! And then there’s all the other materials, like the three adventures that’ll come with it! Come on and make this book as best as it can be, and help us bring even more narrative innovation to your table!
Qsy: Remember to vote.
Find A.N.I.M at the following:
Website: https://animttrpgs.neocities.org/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheAgencyofNarrativeIntrigueandMysteryPatreon
Eureka Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anim/eureka-investigative-urban-fantasy
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