Game Design Snapshot: Reckoning

For these snapshots, I seem to be going in descending order of completion.  Now that Parsec is almost done as far as I am concerned as a writer, Reckoning is where my attention has primarily turned.

We've had a lot of trouble finding playtesting groups that aren't just our friends.  There has basically been on "beta" playtesting of this game.  We have run about a half-dozen games, though, and two years ago the system was probably 90% done.  Reckoning is dice-less and very quick and direct, so there isn't a lot of technical work that really has to go into the system.

The main challenge is revising what is now the playtest document, winnowing it down to a rough draft.  Without beta playtesters, though, it is hard to gauge how well we are writing the text as an instruction manual. If Aric or I run a game of Reckoning, it goes really well, everyone has a good time, the system is quickly grasped, and periodically people get scared.  I know, though, that this fact is meaningless with regard to how good the text is at teaching players to replicate these experiences.

Currently, the goal with Reckoning is for us to self-publish it and sell it on a small scale for not very much money.  We'd love to have an artist join us in working on the project for the love of it, the hope of a small-time publication credit, with the understanding that it may not make money after we've paid to produce it.

Another option that I think is worth exploring is looking for a publisher who would be willing to do layout, artwork, and the actual publishing work on the project.  The thing is, we both have day-jobs that take up 50+ hours every week, a number of other writing projects, and for my own part, I'm no longer sure how much I want to learn how to be a publisher.  Maybe finding someone who just loves publishing and is good at that is the way to go.  We will have less creative control of the game, but also a whole lot of new skills we won't have to learn.  We can spend all that time doing more writing and gaming, which is the part that I really love.

Game Publication Snapshot: Parsec

I have a load of writing projects sitting around in various degrees of completion and neglect, and I'd like to take some opportunities to give snapshots of each project - partly to keep me enthusiastic, partly to tighten my focus for each, and partly to help me decide where to put my priorities.

The first project I need to cover is the Parsec RPG I wrote for Jolly Roger Games.  It was released as a PDF last year, and is currently moving toward a second incarnation as a hardbound book with full artwork.  We have an artist, and some of the art he's working on for the book can be seen on his blog here.

Right now, the goal is to put Parsec up on Kickstarter to raise the money for a full print-run.  I have no idea how this will go, but I promise that when it goes up on the site, you will hear about it from me constantly.

I'm still happy with Parsec as a setting, a system and a text.  "Industry" people who read it, the ones I've heard feedback from anyway, tend to get pretty excited about it.  Our artist is psyched, and there is already a writer who wants to put together a supplement for the setting focusing on Mars.

Right now, progress on Parsec depends on other people almost entirely.  Once it's up on Kickstarter, it'll be basically out of my hands (I've been helping the publisher figure out levels of support, rewards for various levels, and so on).  Because of that, I'm still excited about it, but there isn't much I need to do.  As the writer, the contributions I can make are narrowing towards zero...apart from running the game at conventions and talking about it periodically.

Parsec Artwork!

So, the artist we have for the Parsec RPG has set up a blog to show us the art he's working on and to get feedback.  He's said it's ok to post the link (as has the publisher), so I'm doing that.

Here it is.

I'm very excited that we're moving from the very small release in PDF form to putting the game on Kickstarter to go for a full print-run with art and the whole shebang.  More on that later, but seeing more artwork for the game definitely makes this stage more real to me.

I love to see these stages and even to be involved on some level.  I know this isn't always the case, and I'm enjoying it.

Thankless, Obsessive...Obsidian

As anyone who has ever run a roleplaying game knows, it tends to involve a great deal of thankless, semi-obsessive work on the part of the DM or GM or whoever is in the "big chair".  This is no different in the case of the GURPS Midnight game I continue to run whenever all of us can get together on Saturdays.

I've found that I've enjoyed using Obsidian Portal for all of this typing and noodling.  The name of our campaign is "Baden Burning" - I am using Under the Shadow as a resource for the game, but taking it in character-driven directions otherwise.  There are also significant changes that have to be made for me to use GURPS for the setting.  It is well worth the work, however; GURPS is profoundly better-suited to a gritty, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting like Midnight than D20 is.

Anyway, for you reading pleasure, I have the link above to the Obsidian Portal wiki pages for Baden Burning.  Anyone else using Obsidian Portal want to share what you're doing?

My Story

Just got my copy of Your Story from Gamescape North, the world's greatest FLGS.

I am going to tear though this tome and I'm already enjoying.  I haven't read very far yet, but...

That bar for game books?  Raised.