Of Swords, Sharks and Sequels

Sports have their "sophomore slumps", music has its dreaded "experimental second album", films, books and other media have sequels.

As I sit here typing -- less than ten days away from premiering the two sequels to my first adventure Six Summoned Swords -- I admit that I am far more nervous and uncertain than I ever was about the first adventure or the second. Isn't this supposed to get easier? I thought it would be and I was wrong.

A tiny bit of history first. The first draft of Six Summoned Swords was written in May 2017, more than year before it was published. Being a new author, I wanted to give the person who gave me a chance to write in the first place some measure of confidence that I could be counted on, that I would produce something, so I had it done early. Over the next year, there were quite a few ups and downs. The mod - for various reasons - ended up moving cons, being delayed, etc. Throughout this, there were many editing passes, several playtests, learning how to source art and maps, learning that the Chicago Manual of Style pales in comparison to the capitalization rules of D&D, etc., etc. It was a lot of work and it was fun work to do.

Maybe it was because it took so long or because the journey was so arduous, I felt hardly any trepidation or nervousness over the publication. At worst, some people wouldn't like it and it wouldn't sell well. The adventure was unusual and purposely went against some of the industry's best practices, so I knew it wouldn't appeal to all. Still, I felt good about it and wasn't worried. Also, by that time, I had already written a second adventure and was well into the work on the next three. Lots of stuff was going on. Publish came and went, sales went better than expected. Fast forward and a month later I had published another adventure in Steamy Shores of Danger. This one was meant to be "more fun", was a bit simpler and had also been a bit less work. It published almost a month to the day after Six Summoned Swords and I had barely a worry about the whole thing.

Then came the customer reviews for Six Summoned Swords. People liked it! Not only did they like it, but when stories started coming back about how they were playing it and what they were enjoying, it exceeded my highest hopes. Before I could spend too much time patting myself on the back, a set of new realizations set in: people knew the sequels were coming (good!), people wanted those sequels (yay!) and people had EXPECTATIONS of those sequels (omg - yikes!).

Something that I should mention here is that "sequel" may not be the technically correct term. The three Swords Below the Moonsea adventures were conceived as one story. Let me be the first to admit that as I write this, I'm picturing some hollywood heavy-hitter giving Access Hollywood the company line of "it was always meant to be a trilogy!" right after a movie no one expected to do well surprisingly tops the box office. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Anyhow, back to those expectations. As things get written, they gain a life of their own - characters develop traits and the story finds its own path, even if the destination was always known (much like a D&D adventure!). As much as I find reading feedback (both positive and negative) to be invaluable and often life-affirming, I'm finding that the details of people's interactions and expectations are inevitably pushing me to re-evaluate the choices I've made in the new adventures. In this way, I consider it to be rather a blessing that the follow-up adventures had already been largely finished by the time that most feedback on the first one came in.

Sidebar: can you even imagine how poor George RR Martin feels with his decades between books and a thousand well-thought-out theories about how those should go? Send that man some cookies.

So why even worry? Well, it's that aforementioned "experimental second album". The story of the trilogy was always going to be the story. It had a beginning, an end and certain development along the way. But in addition to the fictional story, there was also to be development in mechanics. The second and third adventures weren't ever going to be like the first in the structural sense. Each part had a purpose - the purpose of the first was character-building, the goal was to get people invested in the world and characters. The follow-ups feel and play different. They're about providing different experiences en route. The first was a mystery, the second is a puzzle, the third is a fight. So what of those people who liked the mystery, who wanted more of that? That's the heart of doubt for me.

Now - far too late into the process for it to matter - I think of the best sequels out there and their approach. In film, there seems to be no set formula. Some of the greatest film sequels make major tweaks to the formula in order to succeed - Aliens, The Godfather 2. Others like The Empire Strikes Back and the Bourne films stick to an almost identical formula and just give people more of what they want. In books, when I look to my favourite authors - China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell - they either avoid sequels altogether or take things into new and varied directions. I'll take pseudo-validation where I can get it. Music I think is too weird to compare, though some of those experimental albums like U2's Discotheque or Florence's How Big have been amazingly good. So count nothing out.

What about other adventure authors? I honestly can't say. I've played a few trilogies, but they've always been ones that were released together. The most cohesive series I've played is Alan Patrick's excellent Saga of the Worm series, though I feel that its unity of theme is best attributed to the atmosphere they create. It certainly sets a lofty ideal to strive for.

The other part of the weight of expectations is quality. When they expect nothing, one can surprise people with quality or small achievements. Once people have seen something they enjoy, who can blame them for wanting more of the same? Expectations go up. Whether the new adventures meet those expectations and whether the "experiments" find a yet greater audience will become clear over the new couple of months.

I'd love to hear back from folks on what they hope for in sequels to their favourite stuff (in all media) as general fans and from other authors about you own experiences with sequels and whether you figured them out.

Thanks for reading my first evah blog post!

Coming soon!

.