Interview with Speaks and Spells Publishing

Jared: First off, tell us a little about yourself.

Clarke: My name is Clarke Peterson, and I’m a DFW-based designer specializing in Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (or A5e), a backwards-compatible expansion to the 5e ruleset and engine. My wife and I recently welcomed our second daughter into the world, and I’m looking forward to introducing her older sister to her first TTRPG in a few years. I have a longstanding interest in Great Books and World History, a more recent interest in bouldering, and I have yet to find any commercially available hot sauce that can conquer my capsaicin tolerance.

J: When and how did you get started in tabletop games?

C: When we got engaged, my now-wife and I picked out an apartment for us to live in together once we got married and had me move into it, but I had to find a roommate to cover half of the rent up until the wedding when she would move in. The guy I found through Facebook (who was also the only person to reply to my ad) happened to be a practiced GM, and after a few months of feeling my wife and me out, he invited us to start a D&D campaign with him and his then-girlfriend (now wife). I was hooked pretty much immediately.

That friendship progressed so well that even after everyone got married and settled into two separate apartments, we wound up moving back in together and now collectively rent a house. Tabletop games continue to be a through-line in our friendship, and we spend a fair deal of time breaking down the different games we play and analyzing what makes them tick. I consider myself blessed to be a game designer living in such a constructive environment.

J: What made you want to make content specifically for tabletop games?

C: The first spur was probably the moment of disconnect I experienced when I first sat down behind the GM screen and found that a lot of the official options available for the game didn’t quite fit the world I wanted to run. I started writing new monsters and magic items for my home table pretty much immediately, and it wasn’t long before I was trying to create entire rune-weapon enhancement systems from scratch. However, D&D was already a pretty saturated market, and almost any time that I wanted something different I could find someone out there who had already written something at least similar to my idea, so I largely just designed for myself and my friends.

Then in 2022 I discovered A5e just as it was being released, and suddenly there was a whole system available that not only had lots of design hooks to play with, but also vast open stretches of empty design space in a relatively small community. I was attracted to the idea that I could reinvent many of the things that I’d been dissatisfied with in D&D and have the chance for them to be the “definitive” version within the A5e ecosystem. While some of my colleagues beat me to the punch on a few areas where I’d set my sights, I’m proud to say that I’ve left a visible mark on the game. 

I’d encourage anyone else looking to get into design to find these kinds of smaller communities (which are becoming more and more common as people start to look for alternatives to D&D) where their particular vision can really make an impact on how that community grows. While there are certainly advantages to writing for the largest available audience, there’s something just a bit magical that can only be found in more intimate communities, and there’s a certain pride in knowing that if you hadn’t put something out into the world, no one else would have.

J: What is Speaks & Spells Publishing?

C: Speaks & Spells Publishing is my TTRPG sole proprietorship focused primarily on providing 3rd-party support to A5e. I’ve also occasionally been lucky enough to work with other designers to publish content on their behalf, such as in Venture Forth: Over 100 Knacks for the Core Classes, the best group project I’ve ever had the privilege to lead.

J: Where did the name come from?

C: “Speaks & Spells” is a reference to As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the poem my wife and I read on the night we fell in love and which we put on the back of our wedding program. On a surface level, the line references both spoken and written communication, which is very appropriate for a publishing company, and has the lovely pun on magical “spells.” Going deeper, the poem it references regards how all things create meaning and define themselves through their actions, and how that kind of participation in your own creation glorifies God.  As a religious person, this is how I integrate my hobby with my faith: not only am I assisting in creation by offering my particular creative vision to the world, but because I specifically work with TTRPGs, I am also in the business of giving others the tools to offer their own creative visions to the world in the characters they play and the stories they tell. I believe that God delights in seeing his creations fully alive and fully themselves, in seeing each person “act in God’s eyes what in God’s eyes [they are],” and I believe I help people to do that through my work.

J: Next, tell us about your start in helping with the Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition products?

C: One of the great things about A5e is the Gate Pass Gazette by EN Publishing, the official monthly magazine for the game that gives the system a regular flow of new content in between major releases. The GPG takes freelancer submissions, and when I was a brand new designer that fact removed a lot of the major hurdles to getting started. Because I knew that an editor was going to look over my designs before publishing them, I didn’t have to be quite as worried about whether I was “good enough” to publish, and I also didn’t have to worry about all of the ancillary skills needed to be a game designer, like learning to use layout software or sourcing affordable artwork. I just had to make the best designs I could. 

I was so proud when that first article (Exemplars of the Academy, which introduced three new archetypes for the savant class) was featured as the cover piece for Issue #12. When the next call for submissions came around I sent in another series of pitches and received the maximum number of commissions the editor could give any one writer, which was extremely affirming. I’ve written a total of eleven articles for the GPG now, including two sequels to Exemplars of the Academy. This past January my Aspects of Divinity article was chosen as the cover piece for the 2024 Annual compilation. 

For anyone looking to get their start in the A5e design space, or even just publishing TTRPG stuff more generally, I would highly recommend finding a way to contribute to a publication like the GPG or even another 3rd-party project as a way to cut your teeth. In addition to everything I’ve already said, it also means that when you start putting things out on your own, you’ll have a little name-recognition and credibility built up with the community. If you don’t know where to start, don’t be afraid to reach out to a designer that you respect and ask for their advice. Most of us wouldn’t be where we are today if we didn’t have someone to encourage and guide us through those early stages, and you’ll find that most folks are eager to pay it forward.

J: What do you see as your future in TTRPGs? Goals?

C: Over these past few years, I think I’ve found my footing as a designer, and now it’s time for me to start thinking about more ambitious projects. That means taking the plunge into crowdfunding. This is a little tricky to pull off with A5e’s small customer base, but one of its secret strengths is its triple-licensed status under not only the OGL, but also the ORC and CC licenses, which makes it a fantastic “bridge-system” if you want to release a product that’s compatible with other games using the 5e engine. I think I can take advantage of that fact to counter some of the fragmenting of the TTRPG community that we’re seeing in the wake of the OGL scandal, and I hope to be successful enough that people who primarily design for other systems will think twice about what A5e has to offer.

At the same time, my colleagues and I have done a pretty solid job of filling a lot of the open design space that originally attracted me to A5e (at least in the fantasy genre, because the Voidrunner’s Codex sci-fi source book offers its own range of possibilities). While I don’t foresee myself abandoning the system, I am interested in jumping into some other games to explore the design possibilities they offer. Of the options being released right now, I think DC20 has the most potential, and while it will be a few years before that system is finished cooking, I’m already starting to play with some ideas for expanding it, including porting over some of the best parts of A5e.

J: What projects do you have coming up?

C: I’m currently working on Wild Magic Reimagined, a dramatic expansion for Wild Magic for not just A5e, but also D&D (2014/2024) and Tales of the Valiant, which—if everything goes according to plan—should be on Kickstarter in Summer 2025. My goal is to take all of the many little improvements people have tried to make to wild magic over the years and do them all at once, which I think really opens up the space for what kinds of stories can be told with wild magic. 

For example, if you wanted to play a cleric/warlock multiclass whose powers go wild because of the conflict of good and evil within her soul, Wild Magic Reimagined would let you easily create a set of contrasting dark and divine effects that reinforced that narrative. What’s more, you could even set things up so that as your character slowly inches toward redemption they become more likely to receive positive results from the divine effects while the dark effects become more and more punishing. This kind of story just isn’t possible with any existing materials for the game, so I really feel confident in claiming that this will be a must-have resource for players and GMs alike.

If you want to follow the project, you can sign up for updates at presale.speaksandspells.com to be notified when it goes live.

J: Anything else you would like to add?

C: I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to some of my friends and fellow designers who have produced astounding work. Peter Martin of Purple Martin Games is not only talented and prodigious, but also a key cheerleader for everyone in the A5e design community, and if you’re not keeping a close eye on everything Rachel Williamson aka Steampunkette is working on, you’re a sorry fool. Lars Torgersen, the man behind Roll Them Bones Gaming, is perhaps the most deeply principled designer I know, and I can’t forget Jessy Mullins of Plant Witch Press, who unapologetically pursues her distinctive cozy/creepy aesthetic and who is probably my most direct peer in the A5e design world.

I would also urge anyone interested in designing for A5e to reach out to me on Discord (where I go by xiphumor) to learn more about how they can connect with the community. I know I couldn’t have gotten to where I am without help, and I’m eager to pay that forward.