TV in the RPG

You saw the Christmas Day Doctor Who episode yesterday, right? Tell me that the coolest thing about the episode wasn't the menagerie of companions surrounding the Doctor. Dude, I want a whole show just about them. An ultra-violent Sontaran, a Silurian and her wife (they're detectives!), the Doctor's hidden TARDIS...all in a backdrop of Victorian London with the creepy Great Intelligence institute behind the scenes...

You wish your gaming group was that cool.

Look, I want to play that Sontaran in a game. I don't care what the game is...crap, it can be f'in Teenagers From Outer Space. Rolemaster. One Ring. I don't care...I want some goddamn laser monkeys.

Laser monkeys. I'm pissed off I didn't think of those.

I finally got around to watching the rest of Blood and Chrome, the Battlestar Galactica "Young Bill Adama Chronicles" mini web series. Damn fine little show. Gunfights. Cylons. Cool piloting. But tell me that the entire series wasn't a gaming session. The quick come-backs, the one-liners, the antagonism between Bill and his 2-month 'till going home copilot...right up to the very end (which, I imagine, introduces the premise of the new show). It was a damn gaming session.

And that's not a bad thing. I know there are people who say a good gaming group should be the A-Team. I'm not entirely certain I disagree.

"I have no conscience, being creative."

A new computer equals a hope that I'll put in a bit more work. So lets hope for the best.

I wrote an article for an SCA publication recently. I've submitted it to the editor of the publication and am waiting to hear back. Writing on the netbook was difficult. My eyes are already starting to go, and there were limited options when trying to edit the document. Plus, I was using Google Drive, which isn't the most intuitive thing I've ever worked with.

Yeah, I'll use that as an excuse for why I'm not producing.

So gamers...what have you done to increase your productivity?

Game project updates, complete with...um...words!

Progress!

Okay, not all that much progress, but some progress, still.

Like I said in a previous post, I'm working on a project for National Game Design Month...a little miniatures wargame that I'm calling, "TAKE THEM TO THE ARENA!" My fist step was to pull together some old notes and try to form one consistent, comprehensive product out of them. I found that while I was compiling everything, there was very little coherency through my rules and ideas for play style. Once I really pinned those elements down, my ideas would just ramble, and eventually dissipate into smoke.

Here's what I came up with: I want a small, simple game that could be played with few additional materials. I want to keep the simplistic aesthetic of the old Ziploc-packaged wargames, or even little-black-box games of the old Steve Jackson Games days. I want rules that have little complication or cross-referencing (two pages would be ideal). I want a game that can be picked up and played at the drop of a hat, something that can take a little bit of time, that can be carried in a pocket. I want it to reflect what I love about playing games, particularly those styles of games.

So everything I write has to comply with the above paragraph. Last night, I wrote out an outline for sequence of play. Its two pages in a Moleskine notebook. Now that I look at it, I may have to amend how many pages I'm willing to take make the rules. Charts will be necessary, but I'm thinking of just adding them to the character dossiers (I would like to make as many things immediately reference-able that I can).

There will now be a short Q&A, where I invite my imagination, subconscious and sense of insecurity to ask whatever they like.

Q: How will your game be distributed?
A: I'm thinking PDF, and then I'll package some in plastic bags. Seriously, I wasn't kidding about Ziploc.

Q: How much are you going to charge?
A: I was always told, "If you're good at something, don't do it for free." So I'm probably giving it away without cost.

Q: What are you doing for artwork?
A: ASCII? Pencil drawings? I have no idea. I'm going to need that. If i have to charge an illustrator, then I may have to actually make a marketable product, so I'm still thinking...

Q: Have a schedule?
A: Yes. I'm hoping to have a playtest available in the next week. Then I'm going to play the hell out of it and tweak it.

More later...maybe even pictures from my notebook.

Short thought about Western Martial Arts

Sunday evening, I took my new hand-and-a-half sword out of its scabbard and took a file to some nicks that were across the edges. I checked each edge carefully, taking different files to the areas that had some burrs or dings. I oiled the blade, and then polished it with an old washcloth.

Its different than with my rapier, where the dings and burrs are much less pronounced. Contact between weapons in the SCA is less dramatic. In this western martial arts class I got to participate in had much more drastic attacks, attacks that were delivered with greater intent And the edges of my sword showed it.

National Game Design Month! Also, I'm Bad At Updates!

Really, was my last post in August? Man, I'm really bad at updates. No wonder I only have five followers.

Hello, people!

For the last bunch of years, I felt sort of bad that I never had enough motivation to finish a NaNoWriMo project. Things always got in the way, I ran out of steam, I'd find something else to amuse me, blah, blah, blah. Yet, this year, I hear about National Game Design Month (http://nagademon.com/).

Okay, this I can get behind.

Do I believe I have enough motivation to take a game from inception to finished product in a month? Sure! Will my game be fun? Possibly! Will it be commercially appealing? Probably not! But hey, what do you want in a month?

The game is a miniatures-based skirmish game, set in a gladiatorial arena. Its inspired by a post I saw on Google+ about an old gladiator wargame designed to fit in a cookie tin. I've been twisting ideas around in my mond for a while after that, and jotted down some ideas. Now, I'm ready to make it happen.

The mechanics are coming pretty easy. I'm using a simple matrix comparing an active and resisting stat for each opponent. The matrix will provide a target numberm which has to be beaten on a single die roll. Die result gives the character result. I'll see how that works out.

I've found the biggest problem so far is in deciding the tone of the game. A gladiatorial game can be pretty grim, but I'm not sure I want to go that route. I'm thinking something a little more farcical. We'll see what heppens when pen gets to paper again.

For artwork, I'm thinking all pen and ink sketches. Give it an old-school wargame-in-a-ziploc-bag feel.

So, I'm off to work on it. Tell your friends to follow my progress, if only to point and laugh.

Artisian Dice Bags!

So excited! My new dice bags from Greyed Out Productions came in the mail today. I'd ordered two: his Ork-inspired design, and a reversable grey/red flat-bottomed bag.

The ork skull looks fantastic. The bag is a kind of linen...not something you expect for a dice bag, especially when felt (and Crown Royal bags, for some of us old-timers) is the norm. There are a couple of layers to the bag; it feels like it will pretty hearty.

The reversable bag is something different. I haven't seen many flat-bottom bags. Its deceptively large; it looks like I could keep a nice bit of my collection in there. The black and gray interior is sharp. I can see myself actually swapping my dice out, just to be able to reverse the bag. Sound odd? Yeah, but I'm funny like that.

The craftsmanship on these bags is extrordinary. The seams are very well-done. There's obviously a great deal of care that's been taken in the design and construction. The positions of the drawstrings, for example, is thought out to make better "seals" when they're drawn. They feel like they will last.

The bags are a little more expensive than I would normally pay for dice bags. However, when I finally decided to make my purchase, I looked at it as buying art. Buy these bags, and you're buying quality products made by an artist.

Check out greyedout.etsy.com for artwork, dice bags, and even shirts.

A month and a half since my last post! How horrible! I fear I may never take this blog seriously enough.

Gaming-wise, I can't complain about my schedule. I'm running The One Ring finally...a friend and I have traded spaces..he gets to play while I run the game. I have to say, running One Ring and planning for it is like writing a research paper over and over. I love the experience (not what you expected, eh?). Castles and Crusades is still going strong.

I've had an on-again/off-again game of Battlestar Galactica going. I don't have the heart to tell my players they're really playing Twilight 2000.

"Don't fear anything for your letters, they are burnt one by one and I hope you do the same with mine."

The above quote was attributed to the French sculptor, Camille Claudel. I can sympathize with the notion. I've burned a lot of letters, as well as notebooks, sketchbooks, blogs-posts, photos...I've never had a problem destroying my own art. It takes a great deal of willpower to destroy letters sent to me, though. I still have birthday cards and letters sent by friends years ago.

There's something special about written correspondence. The feel of the pen across the page is an important element. I go to letter writing with the same spirit I go to a canvas or to a notebook. When I'm letter-writing, I feel like I'm crafting a work.

You real a great deal of letters when you study literature. The correspondences between authors and their friends, professional acquaintances and family provide much-appreciated insight into why their works. I gained a greater appreciation of artists like HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, CS Lewis, Kurt Vonnegut, JRR Tolkien, etc., etc., when I read their personal correspondences.

I recently joined a correspondence club, with the finally getting a chance to use the nice stationery and my fountain pens. I received a nice letter from a young woman in the UK. She likes geo-caching with her family and horseback-riding. I told her about the pine barrens of New Jersey, and sent pictures from a historical site in Pennsylvania. I appreciate the opportunity to share. Great experience, and a good opportunity to share art.

She's been right there, and I never listened

I just discovered that Patti Smith did a very blues-grassy version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." You can almost imagine, in another world, a mid-40's Kurt Cobain nodding to this, with a sense of appreciation born out of a sense of humor about his own product. Its a version that has the same kind of nihilistic overtone, but not as youthful. An anthem for the underemployed post-graduate with two kids.

It has a perfect placement on the compilation album, Outside Society. You feel like you'v followed Patti through her artistic life. After listening through the whole album, you can believe that the same girl singing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is the same one who, years before, sang, "Gloria." You believe her when she groans out, "Jesus does for somebody's sins, but not mine." You can hear what she's seen.

Maybe every artist, once they hit a certain point in their careers, in their lives, should do a cover of that track. Where are you as an artist? Lets hear your "...Teen Spirit."

Deconstruction

I have a habit of destroying things I've put my heart into. Its cathartic, emulating the disturbing satisfaction of a suicide. I can't count the number of pages that have been torn up, thrown out, burnt, shredded, and discarded. Maybe it makes me stronger as an artist, builds up emotional callouses. It gives me the fortitude to stand up to editing, or critiques. Or maybe its just like picking at scabs, never letting something heal. Or maybe its fear of success. Wasn't that disease that was discovered when we were at our most successful? What a uniquely American ailment. Or it could just be that I get tired of something, and the passion runs out.

I don't have that problem when I work with others, though. I feel like I feed on the excitement the other people add to a project. Maybe that's why I don't feel any self-destructive impulses when it comes to gaming. Its almost like I'm cheating as an artist.

After-action for my second Marvel Heroic RPG

Okay, I had an idea...what if Black Tom Cassidy was arrested and tried in London? I jotted down some notes, changed things around when I saw someone posted awesome stats for Purifiers, and moved on from there.

We played half the adventure tonight. Summary: I need to read the rules again. I also need some work with pacing.

Also, I really like the game.

Okay, I'm going to bed now. The cat is acting odd.

Stream of consciousness

I've been working on a new game. Its about ghosts, and people who hunt for them. I have some solid pages down about the mechanics, and character creation. I think I know what I want to look for when it comes to artwork. I know my source material. I know the genre. I've studied what ghost stories mean to American culture. I understand scary stories.

But what does a ghost represent, and why am I so obsessed about stories about them? And why is it so hard to write about them?

My wife talked to me about what ghosts mean to her. She's really practical. To her, the meaning is really simple: its a person's lack of willingness to let go. A ghost is about our baggage. What haven't you been able to release? That's probably what will manifest.

Its elementary, I suppose. If you're going to write a ghost story, think about the stuff that hasn't been resolved.

I haven't been able to get any further than the mechanics. Every time I try to write about the ghosts themselves, about what they represent and about how people interact with them, I'm stuck. I'm not ready to talk, in a game, about what a ghost means to fictional characters.

Here's a funny story...I needed a palate for my paint. I have this old crystal dish that my mom used as an ashtray. As a matter of fact, I only ever knew it as an ashtray; I don't think it ever had any other purpose when it was in my mom's possession. It took effort, but I used it as a palate. I made a dumb comment about it on Facebook, just to ease the tension, a little something to help rip the bandage from the wound, I guess.

Does that analogy make sense? It has to do with my mom, too.

So, we were talking about ghosts. I've been jotting down notes about what ghosts mean in different cultures...about the angry poltergeist, about the Victorian haunters.

I had this professor in college who told us that we'll know what's real, what's true, when it comes to us in the still, small moments in the night. They're the things that wake us up. I'd forgotten about that. He always helped us get over what ever baggage we had when it came to academia. Remember what is real.

Grief is real, sure. But so is the creative process. So is the written word.

Marvel Heroic RPG after-action report

I forgot, I never got to write up that after-action report for my Marvel Heroic RPG.

The characters were chosen some time earlier. Matt chose Cyclops, Chris chose Storm, and Alan chose Cannonball. So there we were, with Team "Team Leader."

To try out the system a little bit, we started with a Danger Room scenario: the team fighting ninja vampires on the rooftops of Neo-Tokyo. The players interacted in an interesting manner...seeing three team leaders interact was fun. XP were gained as a result of the small inter-party confrontations.

We started quickly picking up on how to manipulate the environment by dice rolls. I'd bought a big dry-erase board earlier that day, and jotted down valuable notes for everyone to see (what effects were in use, some stats for bad guys, that sort of thing). We found that keeping the board out there, and constantly writing out the effects we created for everyone to see helped.

We picked up with the mission: Cerebra picked up a new mutant coming into their powers somewhere in the midwest. The first part of the action started at a shopping mall, with a pit of darkforce growing in the floor. The group did a good job moving the civilians out of the area, disrupting the threat from the darkforce, and finding whomever was the cause. The run from the mall, with a young mutant in their arms, was troubles by a couple of black helicopters with anti-mutant folks at the guns. The choppers were defeated, and the new mutant was saved.

The players all picked up the narrative use of the dice quickly. There was only an occasional bit of prompting. If someone said they were attacking, I asked what effect they were looking for. This created a cool, action-filled set of scenes.

We had a transition scene, with the PC's meeting with the new mutant's parents. Storm went to give the "I understand you're going through a lot of changes," speech. Cannonball and Cyclops gave the, "We work at a really cool school...we even brought pamphlets," speech. It was a nice way to get the players to find their characters' voices.

No dice rolls in the transition scene. No one had taken any damage in the previous scene. It was cool, but in danger of going to far.

So, in come the Sentinels. And some Hellions. The fight was cool, with everyone pulling out the best opportunities to do cool stuff and create effects that stayed over the battlefield. Plot points were handed out, the Doom Pool was used to near exhaustion. Ultimately, the Sentinels were defeated, and the Hellions were sent running. The new young mutant agreed to go to Xavier's School, with the blessing from a very nervous, but appreciative, parents.

The dice rolling during combat was quick and loose. Thanks to Christine for having her laptop open, ready to confirm the rules we needed. The biggest wall we'd hit, I think, was how we were supposed to use our Plot Points, and how I was supposed to give them out.