Filed under: Games, Life, thoughts | Tags: colonial gothic, game design, projects, Rogue Games, SS&S, thoughts, thousand suns, writing
My title says it all; this is going to be a nice snapshot of my current projects. Playing games is my hobby, but so too is the designing and writing of them. I enjoy sitting with one of my Moleskins and writing and designing games. I love the process – even the editing and revision – no matter how bad my day goes game design makes me happy.
The first part of this year saw me overseeing not only the art direction but the project lead of the last two Thousand Suns books. In addition, I was putting the final touches on the Colonial Gothic manuscript, doing the Art Direction for it, and then getting it to the printer and out the door. When all of that was done, GenCon prep hit. Now with GenCon done, I am rested. It is time to get back to the writing. Some of the below I was working on here and there, but now I am up to full speed. So what is on the list? Here you go:
- Colonial Gothic Halloween PDF: First draft written; now I just need to type it up and get it ready for the editor. This is on schedule.
- eBook Preview of the first non-fiction book: Editing done, just need to lay it out.
- Shadow, Sword & Spell: I love this game. Period. Action chapter done, Magic chapter done. Monster chapter almost done. Equipment chapter almost done. I have a few more odds and ends to finish, and then I will go over James’ stuff. James will do the same with my stuff.
- New Colonial Gothic Demo: Will be running this next month again, as well as a few other times. Once I am happy with the results, and have enough notes, this bad boy will be revised, edited and then put up on the site.
- Colonial Gothic Projects: A bunch of PDFs, and possibly a new book that I did not mention last week. This book will be a published adventure. In addition, a lot of research.
- Thousand Suns Revised: Bits and pieces. This is James’ baby, and I am helping him when he needs it. This is what he did for me with Colonial Gothic.
- Dolphin: This is a new RPG that I tweeted about last Friday. I will have a post about this in a week or so. For now, this is a RPG that has you play dolphins. It is a different game for me, and currently exists in a Moleskin. My players really enjoy the game, and it is they, who convinced me it is worth working on. In addition, this is one of the few games I have done, that Ariana has expressed interest in not only seeing, but playing. This along is motivation enough for me. The game is powered by 12°, but a much simpler version of the mechanic. When the game is done, I will have a more public playtest for it, and then from there, James and I will decide what is next. Print or PDF I am not sure. I do know this is not going to be a big book; the game should not be any more than 96-pages.
- Megadungeon.net: Hold on to you socks, I am writing an entire level. This is being done for two reasons: One, I want too. Two, I really want to make sure this project restarts. James needs help, and this is what we do, help each other.
- Rogue Games Book Publishing: Doing a lot of research and work in getting the original fiction and non-fiction we want to do, finished and published. I mentioned this last week as well, but this is a major goal for us, and I want to do this. There are two non-fiction books lined up, which will see release sometime next year.
So there you go the list. It looks like a lot, but it isn’t. As I said, I love writing and designing, and all of this is fun for me.
Filed under: Life, thoughts | Tags: colonial gothic, game design, Rogue Games, SS&S, thoughts, thousand suns, writing
Last night it hit me — I have not only done a lot of writing, but art direction, editing and general getting books (print and eBooks) out the door. Since the first of the year here is the run down:
Books Done
- Piper (everything but the writing and layout)
- Defeated Dead (everything but the writing)
- Elizabethtown (everything but the writing)
- CG Revised (everything but the layout and editing)
- TS: Foundation (everything but the layout and editing
Books in the Works
- New CG Adventure (final edit and then layout — eBook)
- New CG Demo (final writing for GenCon, then up on website September)
- New CG eBook Sourcebook (writing stage for Halloween)
- New CG eBook Sourcebook (will do art direction, layout, editing this will be released November)
- Shadow, Sword & Spell (writing, on track for next year release. Playtesting starts this fall)
- TS Big Ships (will do art direction and editing when manuscript is in)
- CG Sourcebook (next year release, waiting for writer to finish manuscript)
- CG Soucebook (next year, this is one of two Graeme Davis is writing, editing and art direction)
- CG Soucebook (next year, this is the second of two Graeme Davis is writing, editing and art direction)
- TS Project (early stages)
- Fantasy Project (later this year, editing and art direction)
- CG Enemies (my next book, writing stage and last research being done, release depends, I do not want to crowd next year)
- CG War (research stage)
- CG [title withheld] (research and writing stage, this one I am keeping close to the vest it is a good one)
- SS&S Books (writing with James three of them in early stages of development, game needs to be done first)
Damn, that is a long list.
The thing is, the list does not worry me. It makes me glad that the passion to create, design and write is still with me. It is a lot of work, a lot of long nights, red eyes, headaches, broken promises, but in the end it is worth it. Why? I create. I get to see the ideas James and I kick around, grow and become games that not only we love to play, but others are loving to play. It is rare to hear now in this age, but I love what I do.
Filed under: Games, Rogue Games | Tags: © 2009 Rogue Games, design notes, SS&S, thoughts
Work on Shadow, Sword & Spell is going well. James is busy working on his sections dealing with tone, setting and character backgrounds. For me, I am working on a lot of the rules and gears driving the game. There is still a lot to do, and like any project that is being worked on by us, I am still waiting on James to finish his thinking. (An aside: this thinking involves epic length phone calls where the two of us talk through the things nagging at our thinking).
What we are doing with this game is giving everyone options. By this, like Thousand Suns, Shadow, Sword & Spell, is going to be a toolbox. GMs, and players, have a lot to choose from when running their games. These options are not just setting options, but rules options as well. By this, if you want more lethal combat, then you choose the options facilitating this. If you want a less lethal combat, you choose others. Case in point, here is an example from the Action & Combat chapter. This is still rough, but it is perfect in showing what I am talking about:
Armor
Wearing armor is an effective means for a Hero to defend themselves against damage. All armor has an Armor Value (AV), which a number is telling you how much damage your armor absorbs when attacked. For example, your Hero is wearing chain mail (which has a AV of 35). Any damage your Hero takes below this AV 35 is absorbed by the armor, anything above this value is passed to the hero. For example, your Hero is hit by an attack causing 50 points of damage. The armor absorbs 35 of this, and the remaining 15 is passed to the hero.
Option
This option makes combat a little more deadly, and Armor behaves the same way as above. The only change is that any Dramatic Success has the damage pass the armor and go directly to the hero.
Option
This option, if your Armor takes damage over it’s AV, the AV is reduced by a number of points equal to the overage, and stays this way until repaired.
There is more details to come, but the guts of this is important. By choosing from the offered options everyone can decide on how they want to play the game. There is no “right” way with this, and this for us is important. Every game of Shadow, Sword & Spell is going to be different, though all these games run on the same rules. Mixing and matching options allows you to really make the pulp fantasy game you want, and this, for me, is very cool.
Filed under: Games, Rogue Games, thoughts | Tags: design notes, fantasy, Rogue Games, SS&S, thoughts
I have been silent when it comes to Shadow, Sword & Spell. This has now changed.
For those just joining us, Shadow, Sword & Spell is a new game James and I are working on. The game deals with fantasy, or as James recently put it:
It’s our take on the “humanistic fantasy” of the 1930s through 1960s — Howard, Leiber, Fox, Vance, Pratt, De Camp, and so on. Like Thousand Suns, it’s intended as a “tool box” game, so that each referee can use it to create his own vision of the swords-and-sorcery genre. The full game is scheduled for a Fall release, but a playable preview should be available at GenCon this August.
The first question, and it is one that I have gotten in tweets as well as email, is a simple one:
What is humanistic fantasy?
Without getting philosophical (I leave that for James to do), I am going to share what I feel is humanistic fantasy. This is a topic I have been thinking about for awhile, and it is one predating not only Shadow, Sword & Spell, but Rogue Games. It is the thinking that inspired the creation, in part, Colonial Gothic. In a nutshell, humanistic fantasy is fantasy divorce of demi-humans as playable races. In essence it is putting the emphasis on humanity, and using humanity to highlight the fantasy.
Upon reading Howard, Leiber, Fox, Vance, Pratt, De Camp, Lovecraft and the like, the first thing you notice is that they heroes are humans. Using humans, it allows the fantasy, where it intersects with reality, stand out. Applying this to a fantasy game, taking the traditional (and not so traditional) fantasy races out of the gaming equation, it puts fantasy back into fantasy.
So why are we doing this? Genre burn out. When one plays, or works, with fantasy, there is always the desire to go all out and throw as much as you can into the soup. After awhile it is boring to have just an “elf,” or a” dwarf,” or a “goblin.” You need to have cat people, birdmen, and a every growing hodgepodge of playable races because the same old same old, is no longer fantastical.
So why humanistic fantasy? Is it our desire to be pro human? No. It is about our desire to get back to the roots of fantasy, and allow things to be mystical again. In order to allow for the type of fantasy we want to explore — pulp fantasy — we need to strip away the trappings we are accustomed too. Doing this, allows the fantasy to stand.
So what does Shadow, Sword & Spell give you? The options to play pulp fantasy game inspired by not only Robert E. Howard, but Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft.
Yes, you read that right.
This is not going to be a “Conan Game.” Or a “Deamlands” game. It is going to be a game about tone and feeling. Horror and discovery. Lost and mystery.
It is going to be a game about fantasy.
