Pro Patria Mori, as the title of this log suggests, was the very first rpg game I ever created! 

Growing up, I wasn't introduced to the ttrpg world. Constantly traveling between countries due to my father's work, I only received fleeting glimpses of the passtime via shows and movies and that was it. Back then, I spent most of my time playing rpg video games like Zelda and World of Warcraft. 

It was actually during Covid Pandemic that my partner-in-crime Ray introduced me to ttrpgs via a number of small rpg games. One of these systems was Grant Howitt's Honey Heist. This 1-page RPG was truly inspiring. I couldn't believe we could draw 1-2 hours of playtime from a single page! It was fun playing bears and trying to achieve one's goals without betraying your friends, or going on a bear rampage. I left the experience happy and, unbeknownst to me at the time, primed with the passion to create roleplaying games of my very own. 

But, it took a little more than that to really push me into game creation. Soon after playing Honey Heist, I ended up watching Sam Mendes' WW1 film 1917. Its "one-shot" nature, following our protagonist on a singular mission through no man's land, muddy trenches, and burning villages, was the piece that completed the puzzle. 

That night, I dreamt of the combat, the grit and the fear. The trenches came alive and terrors all too real. When I awoke, I immediately set about assembling a game in Google Sheets. In a matter of hours, I had Frankensteined together Honey Heist and 1917, creating Pro Patria Mori.  Using the bicameral system from Honey Heist, I added a little flavour via some tables and character sheets. I showed it to Ray who loved the idea and we excitedly did a playtest. 

From there, I recalled my WW1 history studies from high school. I remembered Wilfred Owen's poem, the medals, and the artwork of a generation culled by war. I wanted people who played the game to connect with that time, how it must've felt to fight a war unlike any other. With terrors unimaginable and incomprehensible, relentlessly evolving on the swift wings of technological progress. 

Adding the poem and the artwork was the logical step forwards. A few years later, we decided to kickstart the project as a zine and were able to reach our funding goal! Once the books were printed and shipped, any funds we had left over was given to Military Veterans funds in the US and GB. 

The experience had fundamentally changed me. It pushed me to persevere and keep creating games and experiences. I find a profound enjoyment in exploring worlds and mechanics, and I hope to continue scratching this "itch" as long as it continues to bring me happiness. I hope this story provided some small form of entertainment at the very least. Though I may be aggrandising the potential influence of this log, I would be humbled if it became the inciting incident for someone else to take up the craft of game-making. To be that little push I once experienced, while planning to steal a pot of honey.

- Vince