February 20, 2012

Sketch 1: New Æon

I’ve wanted to write New Æon for a while. It’s a chance to cut loose on my own SF game, the sort of opportunity that I won’t get short of the good people of White Wolf cutting loose and giving Ian Watson and I the chance to reinvent Trinity. Since that ain’t going to happen¹ I instead have New Æon.

Elevator Pitch

Mash up the system from Exalted 2E and Trinity with a garnish of bits from Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.², make a setting out of one part DC 1 Million, one part WildC.A.T.S. 3.0, and some of Alan Moore’s ABC work into one big gonzo comic-book-science-fiction mess.

Sketches

I’ve got a D&D game going at work, which is a novelty for me. We’re playing with the 4E rules, hacked slightly to include things like significant wounds that need lots of time or magical healing to deal with. So some of my gaming-based thought processes have become tied up with that.

Yesterday, I turned in the first drafts of Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition, demonstrating to myself that I can indeed churn out 55k in 40 days without going bugfuck insane. That, in turn, frees up some space in my mind.

Æternal Legends News

As Malcolm says, he’s giving Æternal Legends to me. Which is a bit of a weird thing to say, because it’s a creator-owned game. But he created the system it runs on, he developed the book and did all the necessary work to turn my manuscript into a game. We’re working on a way that I can not just keep selling the game, but create supplements and a new edition.

Nothing’s changing just yet. When we get something sorted out, Æternal Legends will move to the Zero Point Information banner in the various places that sell it. Then I’ll get Spheres ready for release ASAP. Once that’s out, I can move on to creating new things for the game. If you’ve got something you’d like to see, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

Stateful

In the time I’ve been quiet:

I’ve written and submitted the Werewolf Translation Guide for White Wolf.
I’ve got some exciting news about Æternal Legends.
I’ve got some more exciting news from White Wolf, which should see me writing for them until March on something that I’ve always wanted a crack at.
I’m wrestling with some design elements that have halted progress on Through.
I’ve got a couple of old ideas climbing out of the recesses of my brain and asking me to write them.

Still Alive

Good evening, cheese weasels.

I’m not dead. I’ve been quiet here not because anything’s wrong but because it’s quite right: I’m working on a book for White Wolf, so don’t have time for much by way of blogging or working on my own games. Such is the life of a freelance writer.

administrivia

September 14, 2011

Infiltrating BLACK SEVEN

The fine people at FlamesRising.com gave me the chance to talk at some length about designing and publishing BLACK SEVEN. I say things like:

Likewise, video games operate on a primarily reactive level: the level and scenario is designed from the start, and it only changes in response to the player’s actions. In terms of pen & paper roleplaying games, that school of design calls back to pre-populated dungeons drawn out on graph paper, without even the thrills of wilderness encounters to add some randomness. I wanted something in place that would limit the GM to setting the scene and then following the rules same as every other player.

Read more... BLACK SEVEN gaming prescriptivist design of subnarrative metalevels