Friday, October 09, 2009

The update of updateyness, now with updates

Lots of things going on. Like SNOW.

Stupid snow, reminding me that Winter is Coming. We need to winterize the trailer, and clean out the garage so we can park under shelter ASAP. We're also giving the inside of the house the hairy eyeball, and looking at some major reorganization.

In less prosaic affairs, I've got lots of cool ideas for Reality Cops, but they mostly pertain to layout and presentation; the game itself is floating untended at the moment. I desperately need some perspectives that aren't mine, and they aren't coming. :/ I hate chasing after people.

I'm reopening Death's Door as a project; not so much with an eye to republish it, as to use it as a testing ground for rewriting and layout now that I've got that many more years of writing/designing under my belt. It may end up getting republished as a result though, who knows.

And last but not least, Where Are Your Keys is continuing to hold my fascination, such that I've invited a bunch of local people to a workshop to introduce the game, and we'll see what happens from there. I already have some thoughts about techniques and things that I may (will) do differently.

James

Labels: I need a tag for this sort of thing, publishing, Reality Cops, WAYK

Saturday, September 19, 2009

I like InDesign CS4

It's remarkable the features that just come out of nowhere when you upgrade from version 2.1 to version 6.0 . . .

I've created the first rough draft editions of play aids for Reality Cops. You can find them here:

Character Sheet
Real World
Operation worksheet

Enjoy.

James

Labels: publishing, Reality Cops

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Can't talk, leveling.

Champions Online has eaten my soul.

I'd have more to say, about how I'm considering buying the equipment to do POD out of my basement, or about how awesome wundergeek's preview sketches for Reality Cops looked, or about how my long-running battle with Adobe has finally been laid to rest, and I have the InDesign license that I paid for (in January!) finally.

But I can't. Canada is in Crisis, and it's up to Dark Stalker to save it.

James

Labels: geekery, publishing, Reality Cops

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Ye Olde Poste Gencon Report

Gencon was its usual mix of joy and pain.

Many excellent games were played, many games were purchased, in the expectation that they will be either fun to play, or get gutted for their raw design material - or ideally, both. Connected with old friends and new alike, and many kinds of shit were shot. The highlights for me are that I had a lunch meeting with the fantastic wundergeek, and she's agreed to take on some artwork for Reality Cops. This makes two artists whose work I really like on the project, which makes me very happy. Also, she made an off-hand comment which seeded an excellent idea for the cover image. Double win! Finally, about a dozen copies of Reality Cops are now in circulation, and I got it into the hands of most everyone I wanted to.

The pain, of course, balances against that. Indianapolis may be a pretty city, but it's hot and humid and it really stinks. Hoards of people everywhere. Great outpourings of cash. Not enough time to talk and game with everone I wanted to, not to mention those missed entirely. Ah well. To borrow a Jewish aphorism: Next year at Gencon.

James

Labels: geekery, Reality Cops

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The summer, it is full.

So, umm... Where did June go? I swear it was here just a second ago.

Summer is pretty full this year. To borrow from my favorite 6 year old philosopher, The Days Are Just Packed.

I just got back from Go Play Northwest, which was a fantastic weekend of gaming.

I've been doing a bunch of writing for Reality Cops - mostly compiling from various scribbles, playtest notes, brainstorming notes, and the dark recesses of my brain, and producing the text which will be the ashcan edition for Gencon.

From July 18-26 (roughly), we're camping at Greenwater, the first weekend in August is Quad War, the weekend after that is batizado, and then we're back at the previously mentioned Gencon on the week/weekend after that. Then two weeks of breather, and school's in again.

Somewhere in there, I need to finish the brick patio under our balcony, and do a bunch of work on the Quadwar cabin, and hey, it would be kinda nice if we were able to take a few days with the new tent trailer (we're cabin-ing at Greenwater, because we didn't know/weren't sure we'd have the trailer when we had to book).

At least I don't need to fit time in to make more bowls for Blood and Bronze... I re-injured my frakking wrist, which means it will be probably a month or more before I can swing a hammer. So, no new sets of Without Peer for Gencon this year. :(

James

Labels: Blood and Bronze, capoeira, geekery, Reality Cops

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Martin Thompson Story

An excerpt from Reality Cops. This is a fiction snippet, and about 95% of the setting material that is not generated at the table. Most of the setting for the game is created in a brain-storming session at the beginning of the game, with the rest happening on-the-fly during play.

The Martin Thompson Story

Phase Theory

On March 6th, in the year 2217, Martin Thompson applied a revolutionary combination of mind theory and chemical science, to discover that ours is not the only world. He learned that certain minds, under certain conditions, could be made to shift their perception into other realities. Other worlds. Some of these worlds are much like ours, some are very different. He called these alternate realities phases of existence, and proposed that when a mind transitioned between them, the phases met and touched at that single point, much like soap bubbles floating in air. And like those bubbles, they proved fragile, some more so than others. In early experiments, three volunteers were driven insane when the communal phase they occupied broke under the pressure.

On December 9th 2219, Martin Thompson died, went insane, and disappeared, in approximately that order. This was the first recorded incidence of reality subversion.

Transition Threat

From the very early phases of Thompson’s investigations, it was clear that minds in transition could influence, to varying degrees, the phase they moved to. Investigation of his death and subsequent insanity showed that minds in transition and only minds in transition could also influence this reality. Assimilating known history with Thompson’s model showed clear mathematical indications that, at various points through recorded history, reality had been warped. Sometimes it gradually returned to its “normal” shape, sometimes the change became permanent.

Work in other phases had already shown that a strongly focused mind could cause shifts in the structure of that phase. It was theorized that a sufficiently focused individual could, through the connection between the alternate phase and reality, cause shifts in the structure of reality.

Panic spread. In some places, phase researchers were hunted by mobs, blamed for every little thing. In others, they were lifted up like gods, and viewed as the only ones who could save reality. It is from the seeds of this second set that the awareness of a moral imperative to maintain our reality arose. This awareness, combined with a fluke discovery is what led to the eventual formation of the Phase Research and Reality Maintenance Division, commonly known as Reality Cops.

The Burke Dynamic

In the chaos and panic following widespread awareness of reality subversions, many of the organizations researching phases of existence no longer had the luxury of carefully controlled experiments and volunteers were less carefully screened. In late 2223, this resulted in Carmen Burke entering transition while suffering from acute appendicitis. Carmen's account of how simple it was to affect the phase was initially discounted as simply a misconception, but transition recordings and later, further controlled experimentation bore out the testimony.

A mind that entered transition while experiencing pain was better able to affect the phase it entered.

This was the breakthrough that allowed the Reality Cops to effectively carry out their mandate.

Strictly voluntary, the Division gained in credibility and effectiveness until it was an accepted and necessary part of life for more than a generation.

It had been more than twenty years since the last reality subversion.

The Second Thompson Subversion

July 12, 2262. A deranged man breaks into Division Headquarters and transitions illegally. The man dies moments later, without leaving the phase of existence he had transitioned into. Phase researchers become aware that another reality subversion has occurred. As best can be determined, the subversion had two main effects. First, and most obvious, entering transition no longer required complex equipment. Second, and more complex in its effects, was that the Burke Dynamic no longer drew exclusively from an individual's own pain, but was affected by the pain of those around them.

Post-subversion DNA testing indicates the man was, in fact, Martin Thompson. This is not, however, viewed as conclusive evidence.

The year is 2265. You are a Reality Cop.

Labels: pimping my stuff, publishing, Reality Cops

Monday, May 04, 2009

Endeavours

So, deciding to update around here a little more often; we'll have to see how long that lasts... Oh, Facebook, my languishing blog envies you so.

Reality Cops is my current project, and the two-fold goal is this:
1) To have an ashcan at Gencon
2) To have premie/promo ashcans done by Go Play NorthWest, to distribute among that group, and hopefully generate some play and buzz in the lead-up to con season.

I think I'm on track for this. Text is pretty much done, barring an editing pass or three, so I'm starting to shop around for someone to do the ashcan artwork. Layout will start soon, too. Reminder to self: Harrass Adobe for my new version of InDesign that I paid for.

James

Labels: pimping my stuff, publishing, Reality Cops