So between items I need to fix for my day job, here’s a few snapshots of things I’d rather be doing with my time this morning.
Poor Lighthouse. I keep meaning to bang out more words in that novel but other things keep coming up. It’s only going to be an e-book, sure, but it’s still going to be something of a publishing credit.
No word from Fritz on the next book signing for Adventure on a Dare. Apparently the next one’s going to be Cabela’s, where all the sports aficionados can ask him about his canoe and the storm conditions. I’ll be there to sign copies for people and get my name out, which means I’ll need to print more business cards. Provided it hasn’t happened already.
I think that IT CAME FROM NETFLIX will, for now, remain a text-based feature. The video I’ll be working on for The Escapist’s Video Contest will instead deal with tabletop gaming. Alexander Macris, co-founder of Themis Group, told me personally that he wants more tabletop content on the Escapist. Days of High Adventure is a good start, and I want to help further the cause of unplugged entertainment. A video series may just do that. If I don’t suck at it.
Speaking of the Escapist, I’m still pitching them articles. It’ll be a couple months before I get a final answer, but I want to stay on their radar. Hopefully I’m doing so as a cool person, and not an annoyance.
I’m going to continue brainstorming my RPG every Monday. That way it doesn’t consume the rest of my time.
Also keeping my eyes peeled for freelance game-writing opportunities. I gotta start somewhere.
Still no word on Blood From the Underground vol 2 yet either. You’d think its release would be close to Halloween.
Back to coding I suppose. Web development might not be as glamorous or intellectually stimulating when you’re just fixing up things in a cart for someone selling silverware, but at least it pays the bills. Sort of.
Since I missed the opportunity during my actual lunch break, and have some time between assignments, I’m going to take 15 minutes and follow some of the advice from David Hill‘s fantastic RPG-making panel last evening. This entry isn’t to be confused with the singularly brilliant work of Cleolinda. Anyway, let’s start the clock.
14:05
Let’s talk about what I’m doing here. I want to create an RPG based on these stories I’ve written. The premise is, humanity’s expanded into the solar system as far as the moons of Jupiter. After getting established on and under the rather inhospitable surfaces of those planetoids, the colonies on the Jovian moons have sued for independence. After a brief skirmish or three, the Earth government capitulated. Some time has gone by, and there’s now a good measure of tension between the Earth government (Terrans) and the colonists (Jovians).
14:08
So we have some backstory. But what are we doing NOW? As players, what will people be trying to accomplish. Well, the Terrans have yet to actually say the Jovians are a fully independent nation. They need the resources of the Jovian moons to keep prices of things like rocket fuel and metals from going berserk. Both sides now have corporations & a military branch. Some corporations are likely to want war in order to make a profit, both governments have agendas of their own to further through force of arms, the military exists to fight, and the people outside these three areas – freelancers – can make some money fighting for either side. Peace, on the other hand, could also be profitable for corporations excepting ones like arms manufacturers. The military can recruit and train without the political pressures of wartime and the governments can work together at things like price control and information gathering, while freelancers can still make money by breaking the law, or perhaps enforcing it.
14:15
I’m starting to run short on time on this today, but players in an RPG always want to do something cool. They want to be cool for different reasons and in different ways. So far I’ve envisioned 4 different classes of characters and 4 different employers, making 16 different professions. The mechanics will all be the same, and the idea is to make sure the characters are invested in whatever’s going on. Rather than different rolls for attacks, skill checks and the vehicle/spacecraft sections, the foundation of the system will start with the characters. The system shouldn’t dominate the gameplay.
So this thing happened to me over the weekend. Here are some of the highlights.
Yes, that’s me with Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation and Paul & Graham of Unskippable over at The Escapist. If you think that Yahtzee is unapproachable or caustic because of his yellow-background minimalist Internet persona, you’re a moron. Paul & Graham are very cool guys who appreciated clever wordplay. I didn’t spend nearly enough time with them for my taste, but I also was trying not to be a pest.
I also got the chance to meet the wonderful Susan Arendt and RussPitts who run a good deal of the show over at the Escapist. Susan, like the wonderful Amanda D’adesky, herds cats like a badass and deserves a very long break after this hectic weekend. On advice from Russ, I will try to be about 25% less clever than I usually am. It’s never good to be more clever than your editor. Also, they love kittens.
I ran demos of D&D 4th edition for Machine Age Productions and they went well. As the weekend wore on I stripped out more and more of the ancillary stuff I had added. The Saw-inspired Flash intro was cool and all, but it was a convention full of very loud noises and even louder off-key rhythm-deficient screeching Rock Band singers, so the effect was sort of lost. Still, folks seemed to have fun. That or they were just amused by my spastic flailing about as I described the damage they did to the zombies they fought.
Speaking of Machine Age, Machine Zeit is a fantastically atmospheric and very free-form game that you will enjoy if you like science fiction, horror, mystery or just plain having a good time.
Finally met Chuck Wendig in person, speaking of cleverness.
Met all sorts of people and I’d love to name them all but I’m running out of time before returning to the rather mundane day job I’m currently holding.
Things will continue to change around here. See that new logo? I did that. I started this weekend with 23 home-made business cards bearing that logo and info to bring people here. I ended with 2.
I mentioned in my last LiveJournal entry that with everything going on, despite working weekends to try and make ends meet, I don’t feel stagnant and things are moving forward. GameX begins tomorrow and I’m very much looking forward to it.
I’m still not settled on the format for the video supplements for my Netflix entries. I originally was thinking of going with an entirely animated format, and then I stumbled upon the delightful Nixie Pixel who shows that the use of a webcam doesn’t have to look pixelated, static or amateur. I think there might be some experimentation in my future, and guest spots from the cats.
I’ve dubbed my RPG project “the Jovian Frontier” and I had great advice laid on me by David Hill: have the system support the feel of the game. The new World of Darkness has a straight-forward system that speeds people through the encounters, as the focus is more on the story than the combat. Rifts on the other hand has a combat system that is cumbersome in its note-keeping and damage tracking as it is tedious. The Jovianstories were meant to be somewhat realistic, exciting and free of techno-babble and the soft science of Star Trek Voyager. This to me means the game should also be realistic, exciting and free of long searches through rulebooks. I’m still narrowing down the overall concept, and in another bit of advice from David, I need to compose a single sentence that describes what the game is, who the characters are and why the game is awesome and folks will want to play it.
On top of that, I’m writing when I can, enjoying the storytelling in Fallout 3, playing D&D and waiting for the next book signing for Adventure on a Dare or the appearance of Blood from the Underground 2 on Lulu.
I will try to sort out a Netflix entry tonight and make reports from GameX, provided they have wi-fi.
So I was planning on getting more work done on the video adaptation of my review of Changeling, and was in the process of getting my web development tasks out of the way when my muse snuck up behind me, sat on my lap and lathered me with inspiration. It wasn’t really appropriate for the work place, but the inspiration lingers.
It’s for a pen-and-paper RPG, using thesestories as background material. I’m going to ‘jot’ down some notes here, just to get them out of my head and continue working on what I’m actually getting paid for.
System
With appropriate credit to Bethesda, I think I’d like to use a version the SPECIAL system for character stats. The skill set will probably be slightly different from Fallout, as I’ll need to include things like Piloting, Astrogation and so on. Perks will also be different, and based on character origin & profession. As far as ship-to-ship combat is concerned, I’m thinking of developing a separate system called MARS that first considers the Munitions being used, factors in the Armor of the target, then the Range and finally takes into account anything Special about the weapon – if it’s made to pierce armor, if it’s radioactive, etc. – before making the rolls.
Characters
Characters will have 2 factions to choose from, Terran and Jovian. Terrans tend to be more intellectual and procedural while Jovians are more inclined towards altercations. The faction choice affects the final outcome of the character’s SPECIAL stats. Further customization comes from planet/moon of origin, with 4 for each faction. Terrans can come from Terra, Luna, Mars or Ceres, while Jovians hail from Callisto, Io, Ganymede or Europa. Planetary origin affects starting skill bonuses and makes some Perks available before a Profession is selected – some people are just naturally inclined towards certain things. I’m going to discuss Professions in the next section to try and keep my thoughts organized – things keep coming to me as I type this.
Professions
So there are four basic class types: Brawler, Shooter, Thinker & Speaker. Brawlers want to get into fights up close; Shooters want to stand back and… well, shoot; Thinkers use their brains both in combat and out; and Speakers talk a lot. But the Profession selection doesn’t stop there. There are also four types of employers: Government, Military, Corporate & Freelance. The type of class and employer the player chooses will determine their Profession, and thus their skill set & perk trees. For example, a Speaker working for the Government will be a Politician, while one employed by the Military is an Officer. Talking for a Corp makes you a Salesman, while working Freelance makes you a Con Artist. All Speakers have some basic traits they share, but the Officer is going to have some training with shooting things while the Salesman has better negotiating power.
Engagements
Both Combat and Non-Combat Engagements will be handled with Skill checks, determined by the roll of percentile dice and affected by Luck & Perks. Space combat will start with a character’s Skill check which factors into the MARS system. Both person-to-person and ship-to-ship combat will have location hit percentages not unlike the V.A.T.S. in Fallout 3. Critical hits will likely have spectacular results, using the tables from Dark Heresy as inspiration.
Imitation, after all, is the most sincere form of flattery.
Ship-to-ship combat will also be interesting to develop. Smaller craft, such as fighters and small transports, will engage each other in “knife-fight” ranges, while capital ships hurl projectiles at each other at much longer ranges provided they don’t rely upon interceptors for protection.
Mood & Theme
The mood of the game will be somewhere between Firefly and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. There’s some space to explore within the solar system and beyond, but most of the drama happens in a relatively small arena, i.e. the space between Terra and Jupiter. There’s politics to hash out, credits to be made, battles to fight and technology to develop. Everybody has an angle and nothing is what it seems. The lack of stable FTL propulsion and any sort of alien species limits the scope of the action but allows for more personal storytelling potential, as well as keeping the mood more in the scope of a personal drama than a space opera.
That’s all I can think of at this point, and there’s going to be more to come as I let this stew.
