Game Design - Tumblr Posts
You guys, working on my Silver Imperium game is giving me so many SAILOR MOON FEEEEELS.
SexyTime Adventures will definitely be published
I ran a playtest of SexyTime Adventures - my crazy satire hack of Dungeon World - over the weekend! It went pretty well - the players had lots of fun and there were only a few rough spots. It didn't do exactly what I wanted it to do, but fixing that is mostly a simple matter of framing player expectations properly, as well as adding in some GMing advice. So overall I was very pleased.
I do have one minor design quandary to meditate on that somewhat affects playability: Female characters have a Treachery stat instead of Strength. Correspondingly, they don't have a traditional melee attack ability. They can either attack at range or feign helplessness to do damage.
The reason for that is that I was mocking the number of games I've played where the only female characters were strictly non-melee. However, it did make things feel very limited for the players of the female adventurers, so I probably need to consider changing that. I don't think it will be too hard to fix; I'm meditating on a few potential fixes right now. I just need to figure out how best to balance the satire with playability.
All in all, it was a useful proof-of-concept - that the game is actually fun to play! Something I was very worried about. (That's the problem with satire, there's always the risk it will fall flat.) So I'm going to go ahead writing some fixes and maybe see if I can find a group willing to run an external playtest once that's done.
In the mean time, I'll probably be posting sketches for illustrations, now that I know this is worth pursuing. Having them read as satire will be an incredible challenge, but one I'm looking forward to.
Moments Frozen in Crystal: Histories That Never Were
...the two opponents circle warily, each looking for an opening to finish their opponent. The taller man darts forward, skewering his enemy with a wild thrust, then falls to his knees sobbing. “How could you?” he cries in anguish, cradling his dying friend. “You were sworn to protect him!”...
...she flinches as it reaches for her with talons of chill shadow, but the light of her mother planet protects her. She draws recklessly on that power, wielding it like a sword against the darkness. “Begone from this place!”...
...the faint rustle of leaves gives her away. Her lover turns, hand to sword, then cries out when he sees her. He throws himself into her arms and she whispers words of comfort, ever the strong one...
...she senses something amiss and gazes intently at the sky. What is this darkness she senses among the stars?...
History fail
I'm in the middle of doing research on medieval religions for my contributions that will be part of the new edition of Dark Ages Vampire. Because I want to avoid the fail of the previous edition that portrayed Abrahamic religions as the only religions in Europe (and even then Judaism and Islam were parentheticals at best), I started trying to Google non-Christian medieval religions. It's incredibly discouraging how many results come back with "Christianity was the only religion", and then go on to detail the history of the early Catholic church.
Yeah, okay. Tell that to the Celts. Or the Finns. Or the Norse. Or the Slavs. But, you know, I guess their beliefs don't count as religions now, because they didn't "win" that religious war.
State of the wundergeek
This always happens with my blogs. I always bite off more than I can chew and then I get quiet. So here's what I've been up to recently.
I AM ALMOST FINISHED with my wordcount for the new Dark Ages: Vampire. Thank fucking god, because it's been kicking my ass. Highlights that I'm enjoying/am proud of:
re-writing The Road of Heaven to not be crazily JudeoChristian to the exclusion of all other faiths. Medieval europe was not a crazy sitcom called Everybody Loves Abraham. (I'm not quite finished with this, but I'm super proud that the new Road of Heaven will not be written in such a way that non-Christian religious characters will be an afterthought.)
re-writing the Setite origin story to not be horrifically inaccurate and also not racist, because saying that the Setites were EVIL BECUZ SNAKES is not just awful but makes no goddamn sense.
re-writing the Lasombra to be the ethnically diverse Clan they should have been all along. Seriously, the Antidiluvian's favorite childe was Masai and their major power center was Iberia. Look it up.
Abyss Mysticism. Holy shit, peeps. So creepy.
I've got about another 3000ish words to finish, but once I finish that I'll be jumping into working on a SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT with both feet. And once the play I'm in is finished, I'll be looking to do some 2nd round playtesting for SexyTime Adventures and some 1st round playtesting for Blood Spilled Upon Crystals - the title I've settled on for my game about the fall of the Silver Imperium.
Oh, did I mention I've got lots of sketches to scan from the margins of my script that I've done at rehearsals? Yeah, I've been a busy little beaver.
Finished my DA: Vampire word count! That means I can work on my own stuff again!
Adding a page on GM Advice to SexyTime Adventures before I look for external playtesters. (Basically - does this game even work? What does it look like in play?) Wrote the following as an intro: ---- It was almost deafening here at the base of the falls. The water crashed noisily on the rocks, the spray hung heavy in the air. Within moments she was soaked to the bone, her leather vest clinging like a second skin. It was hardly the ideal place for a fight, but the goblin ambush had left them little choice. Andromeda carefully nocked an arrow and drew the bow, arching her back and thrusting out her ample breasts in the way of the best Amazonian archers. The cold spray from the waterfall glistened on her skin. She took a deep breath, voluptuous bosom heaving, erect nipples visible through her drenched clothing, and loosed the arrow, cursing when it went wide of the mark. The goblins were almost on them! It was time to go all out. Quickly, Andromeda turned her back to the goblins and planted her feet. Then, thrusting out her rear end for balance, she turned to face the enemy and drew back for another shot. The dreaded Boobs and Butt stance of the Amazons. Those goblins wouldn’t know what hit them.
First draft of Blood Spilled Upon Crystals 100% complete. (Attempting to arrange playtest now. And did I mention I hope to finally scan my sketches I've already done for that tonight?)
Second draft of SexyTime Adventures 100% complete. (Although I want to make proper character sheets before I send it back out.) Character designs for SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT under way, initial sketches 60% complete. So WHY IN GOD'S NAME am I going through Under The Sun (my Game Chef game from the year it was about deserts) and making notes for future revisions? SHUT UP BRAIN. SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP.
(Oh, and did I mention I hope to finally scan my sketches for Blood Spilled Upon Crystals tonight?)
As promised, preview sketches for Blood Spilled Upon Crystals, my game about the fall of the Silver Imperium.
Because I can, and because I don't want to mess with licensing, I'm taking a lot of liberties. I'm changing the names and designs to fit a Greeks versus Romans/Etruscans theme - with the Moon queendom as Greek-inspired and the people of Earth as a mishmash of Romans and Etruscans. The advantage of doing it this way is that I have the opportunity to be inclusive in my artwork while still providing references to the original characters. Also, I've had a ton of fun filling in all the holes in the backstory of the Earth kingdoms and the Silver Imperium! My hope is that it will feel fresh, but still have that TRAGIC SILVER IMPERIUM VIBE, yannow?
I was originally planning on doing the redesigns as all femme, cis, Japanese women - but it was pointed out to me (rightfully) that that's pretty crap. If I'm going to file off some serial numbers, why not do it all the way? Throw in some different body types and ethnicities? Because I can do that and have the redesign aspect still come across - it's just more challenging. And "it's haaaaaard" is a pretty shit reason to not be inclusive.
Above are sketches for Ares and Zeus. Ares is supposed to look Japanese, except I kind of failed.
(It's hard to find good reference on the internet that isn't porn, okay? Google "Japanese woman" and see what comes up. Just.... not at work.)
So I kind of disappeared
The holidays were kind of crazy for me, and I've been hard at work on the SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT. (It's going to be so awesome guys. So, so awesome.) I've been hard at work, though, polishing up some hacks for publication in 2014. Here's what 2014 is looking like for me so far...
SexyTime Adventures is having one final playtest, and then I'm going to finish illustrations, lay it out, and publish it as a PDF. Aiming for release March/April 2014.
After that it will be the SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT'S turn. Expect to hear about that late spring/early summer 2014.
As for Blood Spilled Upon Crystals, I'm aiming for a Fall 2014 release. That's going to be a bigger project because I'm probably going to bundle that with the Polaris rules and have a KickStarter to gauge interest in a dead tree edition. However, I still have playtesting to coordinate, and I want to do some nice full-color illos, which is going to take some time. (It's also worth noting that I'm considering changing the title to The Starlit Kingdom. We'll see. I like them both.)
I'm also working on an Apocalypse World hack of Abyssals Exalted that I'm tentatively calling Death Knights. I think this is probably going to turn into a standalone game like Monsterhearts or Sagas of the Icelanders. It would be super nice if I managed to publish this in 2014, but realistically that is looking more like 2015 as that's going to be a much bigger project, wordcount-wise.
Also, I'm still beating my head against the hack itself, as the Exalted system is so. Needlessly. Crunchy. (Seriously, I like mittfulls of dice as much as the next guy, but Exalted takes it to ridiculous levels.)
At any rate, since it's been so long since I've posted anything, I'm going to be posting previews over the next couple of days just to give a taste of what I've been up to.
Preview time: SexyTime Adventures
The Dude
Adventuring isn’t as glamorous as it’s made out to be. Yes you’re tall, handsome, and heavily muscled, with a chiseled jaw and ruggedly handsome features. And sure, you’re a big strong man traveling with a group of talented and beautiful women. But nobody tells you how bloody heavy plate mail is, and how damned uncomfortable it is being outside most of the time.
In the summer, you get sticky and damp from the heat, autumn rains are cold and make clothing cling like a second skin, and in the spring there’s the mud to contend with. More than one spring battle has turned into a messy, muddy grappling match with combatants covered in sticky mud as they roll around and tumble over one another, their chests heaving as...
You know what? Maybe this is a pretty sweet gig after all.
Optional Character Creation Addition: Paper Dolls
Instead of selecting looks and armor fashion for female adventurers, you may decide to define their characters’ looks by making paper dolls. Be advised that this will add half an hour to forty minutes to needed play time if you are playing a one-session game. Also make sure that you have enough scissors - sharing scissors will not be an adequate solution.
The Dude does not have a paper doll. This is not an omission. It may be that The Dude’s player is envious of the other players, in which case The Dude’s player may put together an unused paper doll. However, you, as the DM, should frown upon this (gently) as playing with dolls (even paper ones) is not a manly activity.
I Said Lesbians
When you make a show of physical gestures of affection toward another woman for the benefit of a watching man, any man who can see you can do nothing but watch. You command their absolute attention. If you choose, you can exempt individual people, by name.
Preview time: Blood Spilled Upon Crystals
The Planetary Soldiers
The origins of the planetary soldiers, the legendary female warriors with the blessings of the planets, are shrouded in mystery. As long as the Moon queendom has existed, the planetary warriors have used their great power to protect the people of the Moon. Nor is it known how the planets select their chosen warriors, for the planetary soldiers can be any sort of woman you might imagine - timid, aggressive, conciliatory, passionate, vivacious, or focused. The only thing they can be said to have in common is their unshakeable dedication and iron strength of will.
It is that strength of will that allows them to wield the power of their planetary auspices, power great enough to shape entire worlds and even change the fabric of reality itself. It takes great determination to wield such a power and not be destroyed by it. Every planetary soldier knows that she may be forced to use her power to the utmost, at the cost of her life. Such great power can only come at great cost, and it is only through their sacrifice that the people of the Moon can be kept safe.
In recognition of the all-consuming nature of the power they have been given, the planetary warriors customarily take the names of their mother planets, leaving their old identity behind to follow their calling.
The Elemental Captains
The Elemental Captains are the four legendary protectors of Elysium’s monarch and heir. Earth’s peace is a fragile one, and Elysium’s rulers have been all too aware of the fact that a knife in the dark could easily undo everything they had worked so hard to achieve. Swordsmen of unsurpassed skill, each of the Elemental Captains is chosen by King Rhadamanthus himself. There is a friendly rivalry among the four as to which of them is the best, but their loyalty to each other runs deep.
As with Princess Selene and the Near Guardians of the Moon queendom, the Elemental Captains are Endymion’s constant companions. More importantly, they are close enough in age to be real friends to the young prince, whom they regard almost as a younger brother.
With the tensions over the Moon queendom, that relationship has been more troubled of late, though they are still on better terms with their Prince than the King. Determined to rebel against what he sees as his father’s xenophobia, Prince Endymion has made the Elemental Captains’ duty all the harder. Since coming of age, he has not hesitated to speak out publicly against King Rhadamanthus’ isolationist policies. And he takes it as a keen betrayal that the Elemental Captains themselves are part of the isolationist faction.
Well aware of the need for guardians, Endymion has endeavored to stay on good terms with his friends by avoiding all talk of politics together. However, determined not to be docile in the face of opposition, he has also taken to sneaking off to visit the Moon queendom as often as he is able, in open defiance of his father’s edict.
Preview time: Death Knights
You were once mortal, with a bright future ahead of you. Full of hope and promise, you were going to be famous, powerful. You were going to change the world. And then disaster. That which made life worth living was taken from you, and your joy in life turned to bitter ashes. You swore revenge, revenge on an unfeeling and unjust universe. You didn’t expect anyone to listen.
Trapped forever in the Abyss, the void outside creation, are the Nihilim, primal entities of void and destruction that seek always to destroy the material world, to return the universe to the state of nothingness from whence it sprang. Unable to affect the material world, they empowered the Nex, corrupted servants of creation, to act on their behalf and charged their servants with amassing enough power to sunder creation itself. The Nex found you.
Give us your name, they said. Forsake life, forsake creation, forsake destiny. Give us your name, and we will give you power beyond your wildest imaginings. Death will have no power over you, and you will serve us through destruction. But know this, betray us and you will never have existed.
Of course you accepted. How could you not?
Under the Sun: my white whale
Under the Sun was the game I wrote for Game Chef a couple years ago, inspired by that year's theme of "desert" and my experience of visiting Egypt in May. It was good enough to be a finalist, but unfortunately I've struggled with getting the system to do anything resembling what I need it to do. (I'm much better at hacking systems than I am at creating them.)
Maybe someday I'll figure out how to do this game. Until then, here's a little drabble from the introduction:
All life is a gift of the goddess who created us and is sustained by the water and the protection of the good spirits. We honor fate, fertility, and ferocity – the three faces of our moon goddess, just as we honor the spirits of our ancestors who have gone before us and the water that makes all life possible. The sun, ever jealous, seeks always to destroy that which the goddess has created. Eternally, it rages at the fact that the People shrink away from it, hiding their faces always from its malevolent gaze.
It is said by the wise people of the clans that the end of all things will come a time when the water runs dry and the People are but a distant memory. It is then that the sun's wrath will scour all life from the face of the earth, leaving it as sere and barren as the sky.
Check it out! A thing I did got published today! Last year I did writing for two White Wolf projects, the first of which - Darkening Sky - was published today.
Description:
The Oath-Truce fell with the darkening sky
In May, 1230, an eclipse overwhelmed the sky, blurring the lines between day and night. What does this mean in the Dark Medieval World? Ask five people, expect ten answers.
Darkening Sky is a series of five stories for the Dark Ages game lines. You’ll find a story for Fae©, Inquisitor©, Mage©,Vampire©, and Werewolf© inside, each with a unique twist on the 1230 eclipse.
I am super, super proud of my contributions for this, and I had a ton of fun co-writing the Vampire adventure:
Under Sevilla sleeps an ancient Visigoth in torpor. Beset by Christian crusaders from the north and political enemies within her own kingdom, the Sultan Gerusha's position is tenuous. She guards this secret for fear it will be used as a weapon unleashed by her enemies. Far more dangerous than her political rivals, however, are those who want only to spread darkness and destruction. They will take advantage of the coming eclipse to loose the powers of darkness and wake the sleeping titan. If Sevilla is to avoid utter destruction, alliances will need to be forged against the awakening of the Visigoth and enmnities forgotten, or at least temporarily set aside...
I enjoyed designing an adventure where the standard Vampire solution of "hit them until they stop opposing you" is clearly the inferior approach. I also had fun writing an adventure set during the Reconquista, because apparently I can't get enough of writing about the Alhambra. (See also: Thou Art But A Warrior.)
Now I'll admit that the tabletop White Wolf system is not to my tastes. However, the adventure I co-wrote is a sandbox structure that would be very easy to map to a different setting. (I imagine FATE or another setting-agnostic system would work well for this.)
And while I'm generally not a huge fan of fiction-as-page-filler in game books, I'm very proud of the fiction that I wrote, both in terms of quality and as an illustration of the sorts of stories these adventures will tell.
ALL THE PROJECTS
I have been doing ALL THE ART lately. Unfortunately, 95% of it has been for the SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT, so I can't show any of it off - which makes me sad. Because I've been super proud of what I've been doing. Happily, however, I will be getting to post a teaser/preview image of the project soon. And hopefully in late spring/early summer I'll be able to announce the details once SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT is ready to crowdfund! Because that is a thing that will definitely happen now!
(Alas, as much as I love the actual title, I'm afraid it won't be as much fun as SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT.)
However, here is some art that I can show you:
(I apologize for the crappy cell phone picture)
This is character art for The Dude - one of the character classes in the soon-to-be-released SexyTime Adventures. The text is 100% done, the book is being laid out, and I should be able to start posting finished illustrations soon; the illustrations are all drawn and inked - they just need shading. I'm aiming for an April/May release, but layout is being kindly donated by the wonderful Josh Roby so if delays happen I won't complain because he is wonderful and not doing my own layout is just the best.
Plus, you know, all those other projects. And did I mention that I'm going to be getting the rights back soon to that Tenra campaign setting I wrote in 2012? And that I'll probably pretty that up with, you guessed it, more art and publish it as a small stand-alone product? Because I needed more projects to cheat on The Starlit Kingdom and Death Knights with, obviously.
honestly I hate “can you pet the dog?!?” not for any of the common reasons but because it was initially interesting as a proposition of “can you interact with the world in a way that is not within the primary mechanical loop” and that very quickly fell away to being “well now any indie developer making a game has to have a pet the dog button or they’re going to get letters”
Meet the main characters of the game I’m trying to work on!
The name of the game is “The SHOW” and here is a quick summary:
You, the Protagonist, are a bartender. Working a normal 9-5, or different hours depending on your shift. You serve drinks, chat to costumers and one day you start noticing the costumers talking about people going missing. You never really watch TV or the news after your shift since you’re too tired to bother but one day, your TV starts showing something without you having turned it on.
From this day on, The SHOW begins.
Customers go missing, you gather clues and meet a detective (the Deuteragonist) and you get paid for helping the investigations. Will you be able to save everyone, end the program and solve the mystery of who the HOST (the Antagonist) is or will you just be another victim in this show?
And here is the Antagonist, aka The HOST! Let’s see if we can find out who they really are.
I’ve been working on a Google Doc with every god in the Lost Omens setting, Paizo’s setting for Pathfinder.
I’ve discovered a bunch of really interesting gods that way, and really gave me an appreciation for religions and their role in world building!
I’ve even made a handful of my own pantheons based off of descriptions of religions in the source books!
(Also holy shit a ton of these gods have daggers as their favored weapon. Like, a massive amount of them)
Hello again! I know this account is mostly my art and weapon designs, but I think it's about time I actually post about the games I write (since Tumblr allows me to make long text posts, as opposed to the burning bluebird site).
I designed this little game built around memories some time ago. You play with one (1) other person, working together to build a stack of rocks, and recalling your past together.
You take turns recalling your memories of each other, and adding a rock to your stack. The more it grows, the more precarious things become.
It's a bit of a wistful one, for those who like to lounge in daydreams, and those who lie bothered by small heartaches at night.
Is it- strange to say that it's a game that I, myself, am afraid to play?
River, mountain, field, or sea- no one knows where a rock may have come from or where it may end up, before and after it crosses your hands.
I don't- I can't- know where I reside in the memories of those I hold dear. Do we hold the same things close to heart? Do the memories we share, which I cherish in my mind, languish and fade in theirs? What is it that keeps people together? What is it that "we" are built upon?
What would it take to break things apart?
You can get it for free (it's pay what you want) on my itch page, here:
