I came across Lucas Walters through his collaborator Chloe Shields. Together they form Gazellig Games, and are in the final days of funding for The Brain Forest on Kickstarter. Earlier in the month we chatted over Discord about their free Cloud Empress module “Cult Capita” and the inspirations for “The Brain Forest.”
Columbary TTRPG: For your first Kickstarter you’ve created The Brain Forest, a rules lite game system focused on exploration and character relationships. You collaborator Chloe Shields has a background in neuroscience, and together you have created a world steeped in nervous-system inspired portals and fauna. Can you tell me a little about how you and Chloe came up with this setting and what pushed you to collaborate together?
Lucas Walters: Around half a year ago, I was asked to take over for another GM pretty last minute. The session was for Cloud Empress, an amazing game that I had - at that that time - only played once before. I had to quickly prep an adventure for a setting I had little experience with but I knew the players are far from new to the game. While I was showering, I was hit with a two-word epiphany: brain forest. A magical place that actively responds to emotions and can manifest memories. This achieves two things: It adheres to the ecological theme of Cloud Empress in an original way, and I can easily improv with the vibrant backgrounds of the different player characters.
While I was preparing the adventure I already went to Chloe to brainstorm some brain-themed creatures. This one-shot quickly turned into an exciting mini-campaign where players actually set up a small outpost inside the brain forest. After finishing the campaign, I wanted to try and turn this idea into an actual TTRPG. I asked Chloe to help and was extremely excited with her wanting to join in on this adventure, especially when she decided she wanted to do the art! With her amazing illustrations we quickly realized that we wanted to give it a bit of different vibe than what I used in Cloud Empress and we decided to make the setting much more cute. Whimsical with a certain amount of unnerving ??? is the perfect theme for the Brain Forest.
Columbary TTRPG: Once I graduated school and found myself beginning to ease my toes into the corporate world I lost a lot of desire to carry my creative passions into work, but I still enjoy learning and creating new things. You have a background in engineering, making innovative virtual reality prototypes projects for larger companies, and recently completed your masters in Game & Media Technology in Utrecht. How do you stay motivated to use the technical skills you learned in school in both work and in your personal creative projects?
Lucas Walters: I realized from my software engineering work that what I really liked most was the puzzles. Running into a specific problem and needing to find my own solution is usually exciting. Luckily, these puzzles also turn up outside of development work, in TTRPG I can also nerd out of specific game mechanics. Finding ways to make thrilling dice rolling rules that - most importantly - are easy to understand is strangely exciting to think about…
Columbary TTRPG: One of the styles of games you play focuses on overland campaigns rotating through multiple GM’s in an open world with an emphasis on roleplaying and improvisation. What drew you towards this open-ended game design, and can you describe how you incorporate multiple game managers into this playstyle?
Lucas Walters: My GM style is very much on the improv side. I love learning about a player character and immediately trying to weave their story into the plot. Sometimes I go with the flow so much that entire sessions are pulled off-track just because I’m leaning into a player’s goals. This style works really well when having new players at your table, and that’s usually the case for these multiple GM campaigns. The collaboration with multiple GMs is really fun to work with. Every session has its own story and for those who join in multiple times there’s an entire over-arching plot. Usually we divide a map of the setting into different GM domains and each GM is free to do whatever they want in their domain so long as they don’t influence others without checking in first. Players can freely move between domains in between sessions and become part of the living world. Here’s a blog post for more info about this playstyle: https://fanterland.blogspot.com/2024/07/one-campaign-totally-different-gms-no.html
Columbary TTRPG: When we spoke earlier over Discord you described the warmth of queer community groups mirroring (if not replicating) the warmth of TTRPG groups, both of which you found while at university. I remember school being a really fantastic way to wrap myself up in new communities of people, but you’ve also found wonderful groups through a games store in Utrecht called Subcultures. Can you tell me a little about the experience of playing and making games with this community?
Lucas Walters: I really love playing TTRPGs with public groups and the RPG night that Subcultures organises here is really something special. It was actually Peter (https://bsky.app/profile/fanterland.itch.io) who fostered this amazing community, putting in work to create a safe space that’s open to anyone. Every table is encouraged to apply safety tools and do check-ins to make sure everyone is having a good time. Playing with random people is definitely not for everyone but I find it really cool to be surprised by the unexpectedly fun roleplaying styles. Besides, it’s a great way to meet new people, many really good friends of mine I have actually gotten to know through these groups!
Columbary TTRPG: In your submission for the Cloud Empress Winter Jam, “Cult Capita,” you’ve created a city district for the skybound metropolis of Upsilon City. Cult Capita is a neighborhood of class and cultural divisions grappling with supporting itself and its neighbors versus working to elevate one’s social and economic status. What experiences have you had that helped inspire this district?
Lucas Walters: Cult Capita was a very improvised idea I got when we were doing a little game jam with the GMs for our new setting inside Cloud Empress. I think the overlap between witchy vibes and cool anarchists are peak pop culture that I tried to channel into this setting zine. It then turned into a city full of superstitious and magically-inclined people, which I really love.
While I was on a city trip with a friend we randomly walked into a store with all kinds of Tarot decks and I really wanted to get one to run Cult Capita with. In that store we found a deck with an amazing white on black design which actually was the inspiration for the Cult Capita zine. I found a bunch of cool public domain art from a medieval book on astrology and used them as the artwork in the zine. That workflow was actually really fun to try out!
“The Brain Forest” Kickstarter wraps up on February 28, please don’t hesitate to take a look at what Lucas Walters and Chloe Shields of Gazellig Games are working on! In the meantime check out both Cult Capita and the other Upsilon city districts of the Cloud Empress Winter Jam.