Filed under: Games, Rogue Games, thoughts | Tags: Dolphin, game design, Rogue Games, thoughts, writing
It has been a month since my last post. Been busy. Life has been really kicking me lately.
Anyway, I have been working on Dolphin, as well as a ton of other things. A lot of writing and a lot of business for Rogue Games.
You do not believe me about Dolphin? Take a gander at this:
What is this you ask?
The draft in progress.
Every thing I write is always done in longhand. James can attest to this fact in our work on a number of projects together. Every draft begins in a Moleskin, which is where my notes are contained. From this collection of notes, I then write the first draft (contained in the larger brown notebook). The draft continues until I am done, and once done, I then begin the rewriting. Rewriting involves my typing in the longhand draft into the Mac.
So there, you can see for yourself, I am writing Dolphin. I hope to have a manuscript done by the end of next month. This will be then be typed up, and the real work will begin.
Filed under: Games | Tags: Dolphin, game design, random thoughts, writing
Though I have been silent the past few weeks about this game, I am still working on it. Slowly but still working on it. To help me collect the scattered thoughts I have about the game, I am going to download my mind right here. This will be messy, and might make no sense, but, it might answer some questions. Still, knowing how things go, it might also create more as well.
- You play a dolphin. Not a magic dolphin. Not monster dolphin. A regular real live dolphin.
- Enemies are sharks, jelly fish, eels, and other nasty things in the sea. There is a big bad, over reaching nasty, but what it is, I will not say.
- The ocean is the world.
- Whales are missing.
- Adventures center around discovery, exploration, solving mysteries, and helping your pod.
- The ocean is known as The Blue.
- The rules are designed to get to the heart of the mater.
Filed under: Games, Rogue Games, entertainment, thoughts | Tags: 12°, design notes, Dolphin, game design, Games, Rogue Games, thoughts, writing
Before I dive into the next post, there are a few questions I want to answer. These are answers to some emails, tweets, and messages I have gotten since I first started talking about this.
Q. Is Rogue Games going to publish this?
A. Yes.
Q. When will this be released?
A. When it is done.
Q. Really, there is no plan to this?
A. No.
Q. You’re crazy.
A. Yes, I know. That is not a question by the way.
Q. Is this going to be a roleplaying game?
A. Yes.
Q. So, let me get this straight. As a player, I play a dolphin?
A. Yes. All characters are dolphins. The entire game takes place under the sea.
Q. Will Dolphin run on 12°?
A. Yes. The mechanic is perfect for a game of this type. Dolphin is more narrative in the type of adventures you run and play in. 12° is a good mechanic, that when you take it to the core, allows for easy task resolution. It does not get in the way, and does not make things too complicated. The type of actions that take place in the game, needs a mechanic like 12° to drive it.
Q. If you are using 12° will this be similar to how the mechanic is used in either Colonial Gothic or Thousand Suns?
A. No. Both of those games are different in tone and the type of rules you need are different as well. Both games need — let alone require — rules allowing for Skills, structured combat, and add on features that a game such as Dolphin does not require. The best example of this is Skills. Both Colonial Gothic and Thousand Suns need them. Dolphin does not. Why? For a couple of reasons.
First, the player characters are all dolphins, and because of this, they pretty much are all able to do the same things. What Dolphin will do is merge Skill Tests in with ability Tests. By that, if you want your PC to fight, it is a Strength Test. Abilities — in Dolphin — set your skills. This is similar to what is done in Toon, but unlike Toon, you will not have a list of skills listed under each ability. Instead, all Tests, are driven by the appropriate ability.
Secondly, these are dolphins after all. I am going for a different tone with this game, and because of this, I do not need the complexity that is found in Colonial Gothic and Thousand Suns.
Q. So what is the tone? You mentioned Finding Nemo before, are you trying to do a game like that?
A. Yes, and no. What I want with Dolphin is a game that allows me to run — and play — adventures that are more drama. I want to run a game that can be more cienamtic, as well as one, that does not bog down the play. What I am doing with this game, and what the players have been doing, is more narrative.
Anyway, this should bring you up to speed on the what and how. Next post will be about the setting.
Filed under: Games, Life, Rogue Games, thoughts | Tags: Dolphin, game design, Games, Rogue Games, thoughts, writing
This is the moleskin that Dolphin currently lives in.
I am torn as to where I should post this. On one hand, this can easily be posted over at Rogue Dispatches, because eventually, this game will be published by Rogue Games. However, the game is not even ready yet, and only exists in a very rough stage.
Game?
Oh, I guess I should start at the beginning.
For the past year or so I have been kicking around a game design idea. Said idea, deals with a roleplaying game, different than what I usually do. The game is one that has the players assume the roles of dolphins.
Yes, dolphins.
The game is more narrative than anything I have done, and deals withe players surviving in the ocean, and dealing with a growing threat. Think of it as Finding Nemo meets Planet Earth.
The idea has been kicking around and every few weeks, I get a bunch of ideas and write them down in one of the moleskins. Eventually these ideas reached their limit, and I began writing the game. Now, by writing, I am talking about the bare essentials, and if anything, the writing is more notes than anything.
Finally about four months ago, I ran the game, as is, and much to my surprise, my players loved it. Oh yes, there were many rough patches, but the over all feeling was simple: they loved the idea, they liked the game, and they wanted me to design more. I was far too busy to do anything with this — after all I was in the final stages of Colonial Gothic Revised and tying up the last of Thousand Suns: Foundation Transmissions — but said I would do more with it eventually.
GenCon comes, and as usually happens when I get together with my friends, we start talking about games and game design. I mention Dolphin in passing, and then I see it, more people who dig the idea. It would not be until we’re back in the hotel room that Ariana states rather simply to me:
You know, Dolphin is a game I would want to play.
My wife is not a roleplayer. She loves board games and all types of games, but rpgs are the one type of game she has never showed any desire, let along interest in. Yet, her simple statement, was a shock to my system. Hence, now I am working on a new game, Dolphin.
Ok, with that introduction out of the way, we are now all up to date.
Dolphin is the new game I am working on. I have no idea when it will be released, how it will be released, or when it will be done. However, I know it will be done, and I am working on it. I know this is a game James and I want to release, but there is no timetable with it yet. This is why I am torn about where to post about this game. For now, I will keep Dolphin posts here on my blog. The rough plan I have is to document the development here, and when it is ready to playtest, move that stage, and the rest of the development over to Rogue Dispatches.
I do not know how this is going to work, let alone where it is going, but I am excited about this game. It is something different for me, and I am having fun working on it. All the reservations I had about it are gone, now the fun begins. I can design.
