Succession - A Board Game

So David and I were going to do this game as our first DCG, but it just didn't really fly as well as we'd hoped. It was a little too complicated and a little too much, but it was an awesome idea.

I worked it and worked it until it came out as a Boardgame. I've just finished redoing the rules, and now I need to redo the cards, but that should be a couple of days. Then I'll have something playtest worthy.

I think it's going to be awesome.

In which I get interviewed - Dreamation 2010

Hey folks,

There's an interview with the folks from Bacon Ice Cream productions over on Youtube.

Check it out

Bleeding Edge Submitted

I'm a little excited. So excited that I'm able and willing to give the title of the 100k page mammoth book we just submitted to Sanguine Productions. It's called Bleeding Edge and I think it's awesome.

More details are to come the closer it comes to print.

Geasa - A Change for the Better

So I made a slight change to Geasa. Something very small that doesn't change the way the game works, but actually fits more in theme with what's going on.

Originally, the Fae could cancel a use of magic at 1 power. I never really liked that much. It didn't feel all that amazing and it didn't feel like it was much in keeping with the flavour. You want them that first die of power to be some sort of threat rather than just some sort of nebulous kind of, "Well, when you get a 1 I'll screw you over from using it in the future, some nebulous time unless I forget, and then you're safe."

Not much of a threat at all. So, the change is that you get to make a Geis. You can throw a curse at someone in the vein of "You must do X when Y happens or else Z occurs." It can be more elegant than that, but the key thing is that you now force the character into acting in a certain ways, and that might be more powerful than the other options two or three which deal with the stats but that's counteracted with the fact that those two do lead to death.

I'm going to have to find a way to make this all fit. I think one of these days I'm going to sit down and take a camera out to start doing pictures for the game.

Stay tuned for more details.

CyberGeneration - Combat Speed

Combat is one of those things in an RPG that tend to make you pull your hair out, well it tends to make me pull my hair out. Nothing kills the feel of a game of CyberGen than combat, after combat, after combat. It might work for other games, but when you're trying to get a good bit of teenage angst, you want to combat to be quick and dirty.

The current system for CyberGen, Saturday Night Skuffle, is a streamlined version of Cyberpunk's Friday Night Firefight. Now there are some things that FNFF does well, but one of the things it can do it take a long time, especially in melee combat, particularly between two skilled people. The main reason for that is there are a roll where the only benefit that you get is a lack of damage, in the game it's called a defense roll. That means when you get attacked, you don't do anything other than get out of the way with a good roll. If you've got a bunch of people who are doing nothing but rolling well on the defensive side of the battle, then it's going to take forever to finish up.

What I'm going to introduce here, is that in hand to hand combat there is going to be the same opposed roll but the winner is going to come out doing damage, even if you are the one being attacked.

This isn't a unique proposition. It has been used in other games, and I think it would work well here in CyberGen since the stated goal is to make the system get out of the way as fast as possible.

Guest Post over at Geek Feminism - Ableism in RPGs

I've got a guest post over at the Geek Feminism blog.

It's all about ableism in RPGs. You can access it directly here.

You know you've got a bad rule when ...

Starting off this thread, just to see if anyone is interested in playing with me.

"You know you've got a bad rule when ..."

it requires multiple books to explain.

Keep it going in the comments!

These are the Rules, that I've just made up

So, let's have a little moment to breathe about the rules in the game. When I buy a game, I tend to sit down and go over the other stuff and save the rules for last. The reason for that is that I'm a huge proponent of saving the worst bit for the end. I hate rules, I do. I used to love them when I was younger, because they were the structure on which my gaming house was built. They were comfortating, and familiar and if you knew them well you could do whatever you wanted.

Then I got older, and then I realized rules were kind of like the house that you couldn't remodel. Well, you can (I figured out that later) but if you had someone in your game who loved rules above the game itself, doing anything that went beyond the rules was like pulling teeth. It was hard, painful and left you frustrated more often than now.

Now that I'm even older, and I've done this writing a book or two thing, I've come to realize that rules are just there for when you need them, and the less you need them the better. Often times, rules can get in the way of a good story. That's why there's this term called "Rule Zero" which is, when put succinctly is, "if you don't like it and it doesn't work, throw it the hell out."

There are many reasons why a rule doesn't work. It's overly complicated, or overy specific. If a rule can only apply to when you're falling out of a burning building and landing on concrete, then it's a bad rule. If the rule takes you more than a minute to figure out, then it's a bad rule. If you have to dig through three different books to find the various references on those rules to make sure you've got it right, then it's a bad rule. We can play the bad rule game all day, really. It's fun, I should start a thread where we play the, "It's a bad rule when.." game where you fill in the end. It'll probably be just me playing, but I've been known to entertain myself.

Anyway, a friend sent me on towards this website, Story Games. I'd admit that I'm a little hesitant to do it, mainly because while I was lurking I came across the following thread. So someone played an IaWa game and it didn't quite follow the rules of the book. Now, I know this game because I was in it. I was one of the people who got co-opted to be the co-leader for the game. I'm not ashamed to admit it despite the fact that there was a lot of whining on that thread about how we didn't follow the rules.

I kid you not. After the description there was a note from the writer/creator of In a Wicked Age and he said, and I quote:

"Huh. Discouraging.

-Vincent"

My first though was, "Seriously? Seriously? Well, how about you fuck right off."

You see, I'm of the opinion that if you're playing one of my games that's awesome, period ... end of sentence. Have fun, do whatever the hell you want with it. You don't like this rule, or that rule? Throw them out, make a new one! You think the game is good, but it inspires you to write your own because you think you cane make it better. Rock on sister! Just be prepared to have me read what you did and do the same to you because it's going to have the same effect on me.

"Huh, discouraging?"

I've got news for you. I do love In A Wicked Age. However, what I dislike the most about it is the whole fucking rule system. I've read the book several times and the timing issues makes me scratch my head again and again. I don't care if you got it and it's just like this. I've had people try to explain it to me and it still makes me scratch my head. It's like Burning Wheel in that regard, beautiful book wonderful idea but at some point in time I throw my hands up in the air and say, "Screw this noise" and I go back to reading A Penny For My Thoughts so I can understand that I'm not a moron.

When you write a game, and people don't really get it, then the fault lies not with the reader but with the writer for failing to communicate the rules and ideas behind their game. I know this, I fail on a regular basis when it comes to how I write my stuff. Why? Because this writing thing is hard. However, if someone plays a game a certain way I'm not going to tell them to stop. My first words are going to be, "Keep playing!" Because they main reason for all of this is to have fun, and if they're having fun then more power to them and less wanking off for me. It also lets me sit down and know where I messed up and where I need to be better in communicating my ideas.

"Discouraging."

My second thought, "Really? Really? How about you fuck right off."

Signal Boost - RPGirl zine - Looking for Submission

Hey there anyone who reads this thing.

RPGirl Zine is lookin for women to submit articles for the next 'zine.

Details can be found here.

DCG - Abilities - Attack

Not all cards will have the ability to damage others. In fact, unless you specifically make them deal damage, no card intrinsically attacks others. There is no attack value like you would find on a lot of other CCGs. Instead, what we've done is given an Attack ability. When you use this ability, the number next to the attack ability gets added to the damage done in a combat. The downside, like anytime you use any ability, is that the character's defense will drop.

It's a trade off between damage dealing and damage receiving.

Geasa Review - Playtest at Dreamation 2010

Hey Folks!

Diabolik and Rich from Bacon Ice Cream Productions talked about Geasa. They got to play it at Dreamation, and it was a good time. I suggest you should listen to it!

Check out the link for more details.