Why did you make GRIM?
When making Pilgrim Cell I kept coming across small revelations of things I needed to remember when making a game that utilized the Pilgrim Cell Rules. So I started putting them in a notes file. After a while this notes folder kept growing and growing with useful tidbits of info to remember. Eventually I decided to make this into a private series of GIF image pages for myself and Red DevGru.

After making some graphs for formulating point costs for basic stats, I worked on coming up with name for this private little project. I eventually figured I wanted to make a fun acronym and set about writing out a large list of game related words with which to construct a proper name. I eventually came up with CRANE ie Character Ready Adaptable Numerical Engine.

After coming up with the name CRANE I buffed up my notes, made an official cover and sent out CRANE 2.0 as a print ready 8 page PDF. After paying so much attention to CRANE I decided to work on it further adding various data I needed to consider when thinking about miniature scales, terrain and so on.

While buffing out CRANE I just wasn't digging the acronym. It was fine and suggested building something ie a crane used for construction but I just didn't picture Red Knight Entertainment when I thought of the name CRANE. It was very modern and city like while I was very fantasy focused themed. So grudgingly I decided to come up with another acronym. I didn't want to since coming up with the acronym CRANE took half a work day. But I knew I would not be happy unless I beat my head on the wall and conjured up another bitch of a acronym. Eventually I compiled a updated list of gaming related words which looked exactly like this:

After doing some thinking I finally gave up and decided to work on my website. While doing so I came across old graphics for the name of a tavern found in Red Reign ie my fantasy game. Tavern Grim is a popular large brawling tavern found in the World of Red Reign. So I just glanced over the name then kinda latched onto Grim. Grim, Grim, Grim. Maybe. I like it but can I make something of it? So after a little thinking I put together Game Ready Idea Machine.... Almost. I then switched out Idea for Input but Machine just was not doing it. So I looked through my dictionary some and tried thinking of related words that started with M and found Mechanics. (I didn't have Mechanics on my list at the time) Bingo! Perfect. Thats a wrap for the acronym. And thus GRIM 1.0 was born.

Next I set about redoing a cover for this new acronym and in doing so I started adding more content since I was inspired by the new name adding a "air" of officiality to the project. Before I didn't like the name. Thats a no go in creating something. Now that I was inspired by the new name I pumped out around 22 pages total in 2 days and by then it was looking so good I decided screw it and made the fun border graphics on every page. I then started working in tracking sheets, tokens and a large multi use RKE Template which immediately became the Pilgrim Cell War Blade.

I ended up just barely hitting 32 pages total which meant I could print the book with perfect bound binding ie like novels instead of stitched binding ie a comic book with staples. Pretty cool, So I would send out little black and white booklets to those in the know and it would be a fun little in-house dealy. But then I started thinking hell, I got this entire little book and I bet some players out there would like to make somethingfor my games or even make thier own games... why not let them use GRIM and Pilgrim Cell to make thier own games they and thier friends can enjoy? I mean, it would be cool to make Pilgrim Cell open to that market. Right? Wrong.

The first answer I came up with immediately was that people would pump out little crap games and thats what Pilgrim Cell would then become known for. Random half assed abominations scattered around the web as incomprehensible uncreative PDF's. Gay for pay in every way. No can do.

The second answer I came up with is people could mirror or mimick my games or officially licesned games using Pilgrim Cell and water down or misdirect the vision using the same exact rules. Again a very strong issue that could get out of hand that would set me off like an enraged gimp with a malfunctioning back door gizmo.

SO, after some carefull consideration I decided:
Just let gamers make games for themselves as long as they keep their games private. That way they can make whatever they want, play whatever they want and at the same time I can contain the quality behind my product name without worrying about a slew of good, bad and downright ugly games impeding on my overall properties and reputation.

On the flip side fans of what I make can create new content and pending approval have the content produced as official purchasable content in a little contest called Foreshadow. Sounds good. With that I worked on GRIM some more adding in credits and other official pages and wrapped that bitch up making it ready for consumption.

Back to your regularly scheduled show...

Why is GRIM not as polished as your other products?
Since GRIM started out as a text list of notes which then evolved into charts and graphs and then a ton of other crap I needed to remember or consider, it was never approached as a "official" product. I did not care about spell checking it, I did not care how correct the information was within. It was really a personal project that I decided to release publicly so a select few could benefit from the wisdom within or the lack thereof.

In the end it feels very down and dirty and direct to the point which I really dig. If had to turn it into the real deal complete with full color graphics, proper grammar and check it over a two dozen times I would just keep it to myself and say screw you all.

In the end I want some cool organized notes that will be easy to update in the future, not another big project. If GRIM would have evolved past that I would have shot it dead. That's just not what its about and thats not why I made it.

Now I did consider doing up fancy graphics and making it full color etc etc. But it's like trying to put raw bloody steak in a gift wrapped box with a silk ribbon. Pointless. GRIM is what it is and it is raw creation material access for me. And that's what it will always be.

The End.... Or not.