Victoria

Post 28- EXTERMINATE!

2012-03-03T10:28:00.000-08:00

This week Keely Taylor goes "Inside the Roleplayers Studio". We talk about one-shot Cthulhu, marrying a gamer and how Daleks deal with stairs.

Download it directly or get it through itunes.

Next week I speak with self confessed "Indie-game Hippy" Sean Nittner.

Post 27- Karen and the Oakland Gaming Scene Sittin' in a Tree...

2012-02-27T08:30:00.004-08:00

Penny Red Episode 2 is live now.

This week Karen Twelves goes "Inside the Roleplayers Studio". We talk about Fiasco, Dogs in the Vineyard and dating at your gaming table before Karen gets all mushy and sends a love letter to the Oakland Gaming Scene.

Download it directly or get it through itunes.

In next weeks episode I speak with the engaging and astute Keely Taylor.

Post 26- Penny Red Episode One is Live

2012-02-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

I finally finished cutting episode 1 of the podcast yesterday and then proceeded to record episode 2.

The podcast's called Penny Red and it covers roleplaying stuff as well as occasionally touching on Victoria. I quickly discovered trying to do it with just me makes for a podcast that is, shall we say " challenging" for those who struggle to get the right amount of sleep. As a result I got my Mother and Father to help me recall some of the early details of my foray into roleplaying. In the process my Mother calls my friends and me stupid and I go after my father for the lack of parental care he showed for his son's mental well-being.

Episode 2 will go live Sunday and it's a delightful interview with Karen Twelves covering everything from wishing Hackmaster out of existence to using your gaming group as a dating pool.

Download it directly get it through itunes.

Post 26- Podcast and POD

2012-02-14T10:04:00.000-08:00

Over the last week and a half I've been putting together a podcast to support the game. I got a couple of guests to help flesh out some of the details from the early posts in the blog and I've spent quite a bit of time lining up what I hope will be some interesting and relevant interviews for future shows. Judging by how long it's taken so far to put the first one together I'm not sure that I could make it weekly but I plan to do a few shows before committing to a schedule.

It's been an interesting learning experience and a little disconcerting to discover just how many times I say "umm" in any given sentence! I also discovered that with just one person speaking it's a challenge not to drone so the solo parts will likely comprise a limited amount of the show.

The drivethrurpg/rpgnow store front is bringing previously unheard-of levels of traffic to the site and is also having an appreciable impact on sales. As a result I've added a POD version of the book to the products offered through them.

For those considering purchasing the POD version a few details that you may wish to know ahead of time. The book's printed on 50lb paper (thinner) than the 70lb paper used in the print version, its not numbered or signed and there are no maps on the inside covers. The maps are duplicated in the back of the book however, as they are in the print version. Lastly the shipping costs are about $8 less and as they print in the US and England the delivery time may be reduced from what I'm seeing coming out of Canada.

Thanks to everyone for all the support.

Post 25- drivethru/rpgnow

2012-01-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

After a bit of down time I'm into promotion for the book "full time". This just means the time I used to spend writing I now spend answering forum questions and finding outlets for the book in its two forms.

Today I submitted the file to drivethru/rpgnow and have had it approved for addition to the catalog. You can find it here:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=99046

The payment structure is %65 to me %35 to them. If you're reading this, haven't purchased and want to, buying it from me directly is of no advantage to you at all but means I can buy a few extra seconds of dialysis for my sixteen sick adopted children. Well that, or a cup of coffee for me if they've been misbehaving and, you know, spending all my money on that medicine stuff.

Seriously though I don't have sixteen sick orphans, it's seventeen, another one's just been dropped off.

Buy the sweet, life-giving .pdf here...

http://www.hazardgaming.com/buy.html

Post-24 Books in Hand

2011-12-11T18:23:00.001-08:00

Well, I have the finished product in my hand and I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. I knew a proper printer would create a better resolution than I was seeing from the one I have at home but the images look so much crisper than I was hoping for.Altogether they look and feel like the "real roleplaying books" I've been buying for years and it's nice to reach the end of this phase.

Next... promotion!

Did I mention you can buy them here.

The Final Product

What a delivery of 100
roleplaying books looks like.

Post 23- Publication!

2011-12-04T10:00:00.001-08:00

On Friday December 1st I finally handed over the book for printing.

The image right is the "mock-up" including the cover. It's different to the cover I had at Origins and GenCon but I felt this cover better represented the contents of the game.

The other image I have lined up as the cover of the next book Steam Chamber (working title), a steam-punk genre game based, again, on the Hazard resolution system.

The books themselves will be ready to ship by December 9th leaving plenty of time for shipping to those who want it before Christmas. I hear it makes a great stocking stuffer!

Cover Price is $25, $30 if you'd like the .pdf too and $15 for your very own digital copy of the book so you can peruse it before the physical copy arrives or you decide to commit to the hard copy. The "buy now" button for the book is not active yet because of Christmas.

If you want to be sure to get it and you're far afield let me know and I can check out faster shipping.

You can get the details at www.hazardgaming.com.

Post 22- Final Pre-publication Update

2011-11-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Queen Victoria. Age: 18

Another two months on and, no, it's still not at the publishers. This time though I can hold up my hand and say it's not my fault (sort of).

Robert "Admiral Bob: Broomhall

I'm now just waiting for the plan and elevation views of the buildings in the sample adventure. After a few false starts I finally got a great artist to take on the the job. Caitlin Crawshaw is doing some great work under tyrying (timewise) conditions. Once her pictures go in, there will be a little more formatting (it never ends) and then the indexing. Fortunately Word does it automatically, not brilliantly, but much better than I could unless I was prepared to delay publication until next year some time.

I flirted with the idea of hiring someone to do the indexing but describing the book to them made me realize just how unusual a roleplaying book is. I've looked at them for years so they seem normal to me but when you try to size them up from an outsiders perspective they're actually a strange combination of fact, fiction, technical and scholarly writing. This makes it impossible to even send a sample of your writing for quoting purposes as there is truly no representative passage you can send out.

For all those patiently checking back from time to time I present the last drawing sneak peeks. Enjoy, and stand by for publication

Post 21- Odds and Ends

2011-09-05T12:52:00.002-07:00

I'm just coming to the end of my last run through and discovering a few odds and ends I mistakenly believed I'd taken care of: hence the delay to publish.

For those ladies, or women (I'm never quite sure if the former is considered sexist) who valiantly took up a male character because I'd (foolishly) only commissioned one I give you: Kate Guscott, Elizabeth Merriweather and, for those of you who can't get their mind off squid-man; Bartholomew Caxton.

These ladies will appear in the character template section while Squid-man will be a part of the artwork in the sample adventure section.

Once again thanks to Vin who can see pictures so much better than my imagination can come up with.

I've also seen a copyright lawyer, registered my book with the Canadian copyright people and most excitingly, for me at least, acquired my very own isbn 978-0-9877822-0-5 which I used to generate my own barcode. What a handsome little devil it is.

Other than that I've collected quotes for an initial print run of 50 books (be in quick!), inserted the last few images into the text and lastly, but not leastly, tweaked a rule or two after the experiences of playing with you guys at the conventions and reports I've received back from play-testers. Thanks to all you guys.

With all of that in mind, my last couple of tasks are to edit and insert the sample adventure A Victorian Prometheus which conventioneers will be familiar with (although there are a couple of new twists and some extra depth in there) and to generate an index.

I'm not giving myself a deadline but I feel like it's very close to going to the printers. I just have to remember (and flatter myself that what I'm producing qualifies)...

Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Leonardo da Vinci

20- Gencon

2011-08-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

After the trials of getting to Indianapolis it was nice to actually sit down with some great people and actually do some roleplaying.

I'd made a few very minor adjustments to the system between Origins and Gencon and, thanks to the people that played it at origins, a few improvements to the game itself.

The first game of Friday (and apologies again to those that missed out on Thursday) was at 10. After some unpleasantness with inappropriate touching of Anne and Shelly's dice we got underway. Thanks to Pat (not shown below) for her patience and grace. I've not had experience witha visually impaired gamer before and was completely unprepared. Thanks too to Jason who did all the heavy lifting with reading the skills and dice for Pat and played a mean Reginald while he was at it.

It was nice to have Robert along too: a hardcore board-gamer who thought he'd give us roleplaying simpletons with our cute dice and colourful picture books a try.Jason (Reginald), Robert (Isambard), Shelly (Katherine) and Anne (Harold).

The second game of the day went well too. Watkins was in fine form which Patty seemed to enjoy. The John's were earnest but very effective Isambard and Dave driving the group along while James and Matt bludgeoned and threatened anyone that got in the way. Nicely done; the Doctor didn't stand a chance.John (Isambard), Patty (Katherine), John (Dave), James (Saul) and Matt (Reginald)

I was a bit worried about attendance for Saturday morning's game. There was a rumour going around that a gamer had snuck a couple of wine coolers out of their parents basement and brought them to the con.

Turns out my fears were confirmed and three of the six players signed up didn't show. Never-the-less, Keeley, Karen and Sean were all big enough personalities to count for two characters each.

Sean's Reginald proceeded to try drinking the imaginary world dry which must have fortified him somewhat as Keeley's Harold and Karen's Katherine, became progressively more horrified as events unfolded.

I'm not sure if these are smiles of joy or of madness...Keely (Harold), Karen (Katherine) and Sean (Reginald).

Unfortunately there was only one person signed up for my second game on Saturday and Geoffrey was sad...

The last game of the con (for me) was a full house plus Geoffrey from the previous cancelled game. With all the characters taken there was someone finally playing Burt AKA Hannibal. I'm not really sure why he the least favourite character but with the two conventions this year combined this was only the second time he was selected.

In any case, with a full house and no ladies in the game it was a rowdy affair but great fun. Doug's Burt was fabulous and Martin's hilariously inept Harold was a real treat. Geoffrey, Ron and Scott's Isambard, Reginald and Saul kicked some ass and tore a few heads off. All the while Bruce's Dave ran around putting out fires while Paul's Katherine made London unsafe for anything not nailed down.

After the last game I went for a stroll along the street from the convention centre in search of something to eat. Most of the places were full and I was about to give up and head back to the hotel but I happened to go back past the noodle bowl when there was almost no line.

Apart from getting some excellent pad thai I also had the good fortune to catch up with Karen and Sean from earlier on in the day when they graciously invited me to eat dinner with them. It was a good to meet a whole group of people including CJ and Kevin from The Walking Eye Podcast Paul and Jeff and a charming lady whose name I confess I do not recall.

It was the perfect end to my 2011 Gencon convention.

19- Rush; the point of the journey _is_ to arrive!

2011-08-04T12:13:00.001-07:00

So far it's been frustrating and I'm not even there yet! As I type this I am bathed in a sheen of sweat after running (with a suitcase under my arm) the length of Toronto airport only to still miss my flight by a couple of minutes.

I'm not pleased, not just for myself, more for those who have missed out on Thursday gaming because all the other games are full by now.

With this in mind you hopefully found this note at the venue.

Heartfelt apologies I am not there. I know time is precious at Gencon and with this late cancellation you're probably going to miss out on gaming altogether for this time slot. I'm very sorry for that and as disappointed but probably sweatier than you.

Despite it being faster to fly long distances in theory, sometimes it doesn't work out that way and a "maintenance problem" caused me to miss my connection to be there today.

On Saturday at two there are still spaces available for this game so in the unlikely event you're not booked for that time I'd love to see you there. If not drop me a line at victoriarpg.com and give me hell for wasting your time. I'll make it worth your while.

This on top of a flight cancellation that made me cancel Sunday's game has made for a pretty poor run-up to something I had been looking forward to for some time.

Fingers crossed it's plain sailing from here.

Bad things come in pairs right...

EDIT:
Wrong!

The flight I was taking next to Chicago was also delayed which caused me to miss the Indianapolis flight. Fortunately that could be rebooked and I finally touched down in Indianapolis at 12 am.

Phew. Off to the hotel... which had had a flood making 8 rooms uninhabitable and was fully booked.

Being the last to arrive at the hotel meant I had to transfer to another hotel which was unfortunately 30 minutes away and I had to return to my original hotel first thing in the morning to catch the shuttle I'd booked for Gencon.

18- Origins

2011-06-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

Origins was great again this year. It was a little different seeing it from the other side of the screen but it was still a good experience. It is often characterized as being "just the right size" convention, I don't have the benefit of convention experiences extending beyond Origins but I doubt anyone considering attending next year would be disappointed.

I was down for running five sessions of A Victorian Prometheus: two on Friday and three on Saturday. The sign-up was patchy which I understood; having limited time available at a con means you have to make some tough decisions. On that note, thanks to everyone who took the chance on Victoria. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves; I know I did.

Quite apart from having more than a few laughs it was interesting to see how people I'd not played with before responded to the game and the game mechanics. While it is good to have a group you're familiar with in the initial testing phase, the longer you've played with them the more homologous your styles become. Playing with a new group of gamers puts pressure on different elements of the system and shows up any cracks and deficiencies.

Overall things went quite well but there were a few areas I now know I still need to put a little more work into to make it play better. I also discovered that there are far more girl gamers out there than there used to be. I thought I was being clever making one girl character "just in case". It turned out that this wasn't enough. One of players mentioned that gaming was now almost reaching parity between the sexes and that was certainly true for the sessions of Victoria with the gender balance being about 60:40.

It was also good to put the scenario that will be the sample adventure through its paces. I think it improved every time so thanks on behalf of those that will play it in the future and thanks again too from me. A particular thanks on to those that add to my understanding of the victorian era as well as the colour of a "stereotypical Irishman".

Lastly, relating to the game, I was a little surprised at the number of things that people did similarly, and I'm not just referring to the path that the game took (which I freely admit was quite linear) but to the way that people did very specific things the same from game to game. I've kept track of them but in the interests of not spoiling anything for those playing at GenCon I'll save them for my post-Gencon post.

On a personal level it was great to see Fred Hicks from Evil Hat again this year. He looked a bit like he'd had enough of chatting affably so I didn't linger. I just left a proof copy with him and passed on a thanks for saying the right things at the right time to get me to actually write Victoria. So once again Fred, if you're reading this, thanks.

Well that's it for the Gencon wrap-up. You guys were awesome!

Daniel, Mr. and Mrs. X and Lindsay.

Vince, Steve, Karl, Edwin, Bevery and Joey.

Michelle, Matthew, Brian, Aisling and Suzanne.

Oh, and one last thing. If you're going to wear a utilikilt and you're determined to go without underpants, don't use the escalators.

EDIT: Matt from the third group to play through was nice enough to write a review of the session. So if your on the fence about playing it at GenCon check it out.

Matt's a game designer himself with credits across most systems and is currently writing a game himself. Inspired by a cover of John Lennon's Imagine, Curse the Darkness is currently in development and Matt's development blog can be found here.

17- Art

2011-06-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

Getting the artwork right has been one of the most challenging aspects of putting Victoria together. Fortunately as Victoria is set in Victorian times there is a lot of public domain art. It's not just clip art either its mostly period illustrations that fit perfectly with the contents of the book.

One area where I felt it was important to have original art was in the sample adventure. I'm no artist so I contacted a brilliant illustrator Vin Ganapathy, whose work I admired for a while, and managed to convince him to accept a commission to produce some character sketches.

Although I'm not very good at verbalizing the physical attributes of the characters that existed in my head, he got what I was talking about right away and produced images far better than I could have imagined.

The character sketches below will appear in the final product and also in the games running at Origins and Gencon.

16- As featured on...

2011-05-25T19:46:00.001-07:00

First ad of the day Wednesday May 25th.

15- Origins and Gencon

2011-05-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Victoria's making its first public appearances at Origins and Gencon this year so sign up for one of the sessions and be a pioneer of Victoria.

I'll see you there, but in the mean time why not check out where this whole journey began.

Origins
6481 VICTORIA Friday 2pm:: Madison

6575 VICTORIA Friday 8pm:: Franklin A

6644 VICTORIA Saturday 10am:: Champaign

6714 VICTORIA Saturday 2pm:: Fairfield

6747 VICTORIA Saturday 6pm:: Franklin A

Gencon
RPG1117924 VICTORIA Thu @ 10:00 AM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 5

RPG1117926 VICTORIA Thu @ 4:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 1

RPG1117927 VICTORIA Fri @ 10:00 AM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 4

RPG1117928 VICTORIA Fri @ 4:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 1

RPG1117929 VICTORIA Sat @ 10:00 AM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 3

RPG1117931 VICTORIA Sat @ 2:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 4

RPG1117932 VICTORIA Sat @ 6:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 4

RPG1117933 VICTORIA Sun @ 12:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Victoria Stn B :: 1

16- Drafts, rewrites, revisions

2011-05-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

After finishing the first draft I took a break over Christmas, for which I got a laser printer, and then began the revision process. There were actually a few pages here and there that didn't require much revising but I knew the bulk of the work was going to come in the sections where I needed to complete research and didn't have the time during drafting.

Sure enough by the end of March I had only got through about the first 18 pages(probably about 40-50 book pages with pictures and so forth) but they were all pages dedicated to the back story of Victoria. This took a lot of research.

I've written a scientific paper or two and I've also written fiction but I can now say that neither of them are as hard to do as historical fiction. Bending and fictionalizing history while maintaining an accurate timeline is very difficult.

By the time I was finished I'd added about 10 000 words and a layer to the game I'd always wanted in the game since admiring this part in White-wolf's 1ed releases.

Was I successful? That will have to wait until the game gets into your hands.

Through April I went over the skills and rules sections and as May slips away I'm completing the sections on Gming and getting the sample adventure fleshed out for...
Gencon and Origins.

13- Unlucky for some

2010-12-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

I finished the 50 000 words on Victoria and the Hazard system which means I "won". Winning simply means that you beat the target of 50 000 words but as I managed to all but complete a fist draft I feel like I really achieved something.

From experience with other types of writing the rewrite always takes more time than the first draft. Victoria is unlikely to be any different as there are large chunks I have only covered in outline as research is more time consuming than the wrimo schedule will allow for.

Even though it was counter-productive to the timeline I spent quite a bit of time revising rules as I went along too but in all I was able to keep on top of the daily word count. It's a personal achievement I can cross off my list.

Overall I would recommend the process even to a game developer for a few reasons. The first being that as you have to make a certain number of words all those sections you have written in your head, but hate the idea of taking the time to write, now suddenly become your favourite bits to work on. You can now crank out days and days worth of writing getting these down without getting stuck and grinding through unfamiliar territory. Writing 1667 words one day, easy. Writing 1667 words every day for thirty days not so much.

The second reason is that with all the previous work being so fresh you start to see connections and can more easily carry a tone through the work reducing rewrite time. I struggled with what viewpoint to use in the writing. I hope I got it right.

The third good thing about working with this time constraint is, because you are totally immersed, problems from earlier will resolve themselves almost magically. As the issues stay current, rattling around in your head, disparate elements seem to suddenly come together to create a satisfying solution. I find that given enough time a solution will always present itself but the more time that passes the more likely that "solution" will actually clash with other elements you have forgotten.

Now, on to the rewrite.

12- Ready, Set, Go

2010-10-31T23:14:00.000-07:00

I've got most of the pre-production things done and with November 1st being tomorrow I thought as a way to complete two things I've wanted to do at the same time I'd enter nanwrimo and get the first draft of the rules and setting down and try to complete the writing challenge too.

It's probably not in the exact spirit of the "competition" but giving myself this timeline will help me to get it all down and then I can go back and revise.

See you in a month.

11- Nuts and Bolts

2010-10-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

The last couple of months have been productive but not so much in a pen to paper way. Has "pen to paper" become a saying that transcends its literal meaning yet? If not then "finger to key" would be more accurate.

I've done a lot of searching for evocative images, contacting artists and owners of artistic works, and worked on developing a company identity as well as securing various web addresses.

I know this seems a little backwards but as I'm planning to publish electronically at the same time as in paper, getting these sorts of things organized early means I won't have to go back changing logos etc. as I get closer to publication date.

Putting the cart before the horse perhaps...

10- Playtest Two

2010-07-25T15:50:00.000-07:00

As part of the playtesting process I took the partially completed game with me to New Zealand (where I used to live) so that I could test it out with some of my old roleplaying friends. Yesterday was my first serious test of the resolution system and for the concept as a whole as, to quote someone "There is no greater friend than a friend that will tell hurtful truths" and I could rely on these guys to give it to me straight

Thanks to David, Richard, Scott and Sue for helping me test the system a second time. Their input was invaluable and their advice based on about 60 years roleplaying experience spread across a lot of different systems leaves me with a little more tweaking but more importantly with the feeling that I'm onto something.

9- Origins

2010-07-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from Origins. I had a good time and it was great to see a possible future venue for having a booth. The organizers are very accessible and they have a great deal for next year for first time displayers (is that a word?). I'm not sure if I'll be at the vending stage this time next year but certainly the year after.

I got to meet up with Fred Hicks whose advice really crystallized the production model I would use as well as Luke Crane who ran an awesome game of his Burning Empires rpg.

I also played in another couple of game systems which I'd not played before. By the end I was somewhat familiar with the system but I still needed to ask what to roll and how to work out a dice pool which ruined the immersion to a certain degree. Part of it is the GM certainly (I didn't experience this in Luke's game even though I'd not played it before) but part of it is the inherent complexity of the system. I'm hopeful this will be an advantage of the Hazard System.

8- Playtest One

2010-06-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first playtest of the system and it seemed to go fairly well. Part of it was the system but the majority of it was the attitude of the play testers. There weren't too many holes and the ones that there were, were dealt with graciously.

Some issues that arose were:
* more refinement is required in the conflict resolution system especially in a situation where direct contact is not initiated e.g. sneaking up on someone. I have ambushing fairly well defined but "sneaking up" requires a little work. Perhaps some kind of single roll similar to a conflict with an inanimate object.

* definition of what actions can be taken once you were "bested" in a conflict. Besting is an idea I'm working on to reduce the dead/alive ending to a combat. I think it's more dramatic for there to be a final decision when a character has bested someone instead of just ending with a body on the floor.

* characters were underpowered. The players felt that even as starting characters they should be able to rely on 1 or two of their primary skills. Across the board failure is no fun. I should have done more rolling myself.

* there should be a mechanism for deciding who acts first or initiative. This one was a simple fix

* there should also be a mechanism for applying a skill you don't have. Again easily fixed. All characters have a minimal aptitude in all areas.

Some positives were:
* the marker/story point system for adjusting rolls although not well defined was appreciated. Players liked being able to use them to modify a roll after they'd rolled. This is in line with some of the ways I imagined they might be earned. The players agreed that if they were awarded for something meaningful they should have meaning when they are spent not just vanish due to the vagaries of a roll.

* the fact that skills worked in both directions was appreciated

* always rolling the same dice was appreciated as compared with determining dice pools modifiers etc.

One other thing came out of the session, and I would recommend it if you are play testing: as the designer, give the first criticism in the feedback session. It gets people talking about what they liked and didn't like and also removes the stigma of casting the first stone.

7- Playtests

2010-06-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

When should you start playtesting a game?

I think the answer is when you have your system worked out. If you don't have a system just an idea you may have just written a supplement to an existing game.

I still have some concerns with how the Hazard system will play out but as the first play-test is just a couple of days away it won't be long before I find out.

6- Resolution II

2010-06-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

I'm rapidly finding that, for me at least, the more I work at something the more inspiration I get and for the last few days I've been working off and on at turning hazard into a resolution system. It's been a challenge.

I wanted to develop a system that has enough flexibility to create detailed resolutions, particularly for combat, but is very simple to learn. The final design constraint I put on myself was that the system had to be a fast and seamless part of the roleplaying.

So in a nutshell I wanted the game part of Victoria to serve the roleplaying part, interrupting the flow of the story as little as possible or even enhancing it.

Worryingly this puts me completely at odds with Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons and Dragons, who is on record as wanting to minimize roleplaying in his game. His feelings were that the dramatic roleplaying element should serve the game element and he created* the best selling roleplaying game of all time!

Fortunately, one of the great things about roleplaying games is that they fall on a continuum in this respect and so do peoples tastes so maybe it's not so bad.

Anyway, today it finally all came together and a whole slew of other ideas about conflict resolution resolved themselves as well. I think I managed to create a system of dice rolling that is the echo of hazard I was looking for as well as meeting the other points I was aiming for.

Once I had the concept for the system I spent a few hours breaking it down statistically to check that it didn't contain any quirks. Lucky I did because there were a few but they turned out to be a good thing as the solutions to these problems had the unintended consequence of also helping to answer some of the questions I still had about experience points.

Of course play-testing will really show whether this is workable or not.

*I didn't forget Dave Arneson!

5- Resolution System

2010-05-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

A resolution system has the ability to add some flavour to the game so I want to make sure I get this right.

I'm still tossing up (no pun intended) whether to go with a dice system or a card based system.

The card system has the advantage of being catchy and unique and I can tie it to the gambling the raison d'etre of the gentlemen's club, the disadvantage is that I can't think of a really successful system that uses cards for resolution. I'm not saying they don't exist I've just never played one.

The big advantage of a dice system is the familiarity. RPGs and dice go together like email and bacon

The gentlemen's clubs of the age had several popular dice games which might be useful for resolution. One in particular "hazard" has possibilities but I'm having trouble finding a way to streamline it. Stay posted...

4- An Unclubbable Man

2010-05-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

Today I was thinking about how to incorporate the Victorian institution of the “Gentleman’s Club” into Victoria. Today “gentleman’s club” carries different connotations than back then. English readers will partially identify this as being basically a strip club. Back then it meant an inner-city refuge for the elite of society; a place to get away from the trivialities of life... such as women.

Initially my thought was to incorporate them as a flavour of the age but as I delved deeper into their histories, membership requirements (such as they are: the Traveler’s club requires that a prospective member must have traveled at least 500 miles in a straight line from the club) and mandates I began to feel that they could have a more central role to play in the character creation process.

I haven’t really started into character creation yet so I’m excited to see where it will take me. Basing characters in a club has given me the impetus to start into the processing of figuring out what characteristics will define a character in Victoria. Of course many of the characters will be unfortunate “unclubbable” types but proceeding from the expectation that a character will be a “gentleman” is very much in line with the Victorian age.

3- What's in a Name

2010-05-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

I'm fortunate to have worked in web design and I know that having a web presence is vital, particularly as I want to initially publish via PDF as a way to minimize financial risk. With this in mind I needed to get a good domain name that will also be a compelling title.

My first choice for the game was Victoria, so I checked victoria.com, it's strong, and obviously evocative, but, equally obviously, already taken. Postage stamps were first issued around this time so I thought Penny-black might be ok (taken) and then I looked for Penny Red, the second stamp that lasted for about half the Victorian era, also gone.

I went back and looked for combinations involving Victoria and settled on victoriarpg.com and victoriaroleplaying.com. With them I could still use the name I wanted but also have a web address that was easy to remember. Eventually you'll find this very blog linked at that site. In fact you probably already have.

2- What's It All About?

2010-05-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

In the past I played a lot of White Wolf games and the games I ran gravitated towards The Hunters Hunted and especially Project Twilight. They had regular people fighting the supernatural with the opportunity to prevail through stoic single mindedness.

These were people and characters I could relate to, operating in a world I knew with goals I could identify with. This was the idea I started with but I didn't want to just create the same games as I'd played. A few tweaks here and there, a different resolution scheme but essentially the same game wouldn't do it.

It was important to me to incorporate the possibility of the supernatural but use our world as the setting. Historically speaking the last time there was widespread interest in, and acceptance of the supernatural, was during the Victorian era. I did some reading put together a few time-lines and discovered that the setting offers a lot of possibilities even apart from anything supernatural. There's also the possibility that if my game is successful I can write a setting for America, specifically the wild west, at some time in the future.

So that's it. My first full roleplaying game will be somewhat supernatural set in the Victorian age. Old-boys networks, the occult, Jack the ripper, cockney mud-larkls, Dracula and science performed for its own sake on stormy nights.

Now a name...

1- Out of the gates

2010-05-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

Over the last few posts I laid out my history with roleplaying games and how I'd always wanted to write my one game and or be employed in the industry.

What specifically set me on the path to producing my own game was listening to a roleplaying podcast called Fear the Boot that featured an interview with Fred Hicks of Evil Hat in which he outlined the path he took to producing Don't Rest Your Head and Spirit of the Century.

The crucial parts of the interview for me were his discussion of how advances in technology had provided new opportunities for indie publishers to get their game out there and how print-on-demand publishing had substantially reduced the financial risk associated with producing a commercially viable product.

It was the combination of these two ideas in the context of roleplaying that inspired me to finally attempt to independently write and publish my own game.

This blog will outline the trials and tribulations of this process.

Where it All Began Pt. 5

2010-05-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

After those early years I met some people in high school and moved onto Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Middle Earth Roleplaying, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Paranoia, Rolemaster, Car Wars and probably several others. The longest running campaign I played in was Dragonlance which we played up until module 8.

At the end of high school I didn't play very much and then not at all as I went through university. It wasn't until I was in graduate school that I got back into it. On a whim I went to the university's roleplaying group one night and happened to be in the right place at the right time to join a Mage the Ascension game.

The game was part of what White Wolf called "a renaissance of gaming". A little grandiose to begin with perhaps, but in many respects the games did lead the way for a shift in the types of game being produced. Their games were at the vanguard of a shift towards emphasis on character, cohesive backstories and a fleshed out mythos players could legitimately feel their characters had a stake in.

First edition Vampire, Werewolf, Mage and Wraith certainly weren't the first games to place the emphasis here but they captured my imagination like The Mystery of Chimney Rock had. I preferred the style of roleplaying they encouraged but it was the way the GM made it work that really showed me what was possible with roleplaying. We played that game every week for about three years and it was great every time. I still hold myself to the standard he set today.

Since then I've played pretty consistently without too much concern for the exact system. The whole time though, in fact since I knew what roleplaying was, I have wanted to make writing games and playing games my living. This blog is about my attempt to do that and if you're reading this I guess I have succeeded, at least in producing one game, if not fame and riches.

Where it All Began Pt. 4

2010-05-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

Now with dice I could almost start playing Dungeons & Dragons. The last piece of the puzzle was someone to play with at every available moment. So, I did what any normal person would do and tried to run games for my father, brother and mother. These games invariably ended in disaster. If you ask my mother about those sessions all she'll recall was me saying "You can do whatever you want" at the start followed by "You can't do that" as soon as she tried to do something.

The disasters were largely associated with my in inability to convey the fine line between being able to do anything you want and the necessity of the dungeon master to control that freedom through the use of the dice. It seemed like a simple idea to me but perhaps that goes to the heart of why there are so few roleplayers.

I can't be too hard on my mother, she got me my first dice and photocopied large tracts of Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks and character sheets for me at the school where she worked. In fact she had to contend with an evangelical christian lady in the office who, despite not owning the photocopier, refused to allow my mother to use it to copy "the work of the devil". My mother, resourceful as she was, waited until she went to lunch or home for the day to get it done.

Those of us old enough to remember roleplaying in the eighties will recall that admitting you played Dungeons and Dragons meant you were in league with the Devil. The funny thing was that none of the coolness that kids into heavy metal had because they were listening the music of the Devil rubbed off on those of us playing the game of the Devil. Roleplayers were evil nerds. It was quite a time and a lot of that stigma still exists today.

Here's a link to a 60 minutes (!) segment on the evil hobby from that time to get a feeling for what it was like and what the world, to varying degrees, thought of it.

60 Minutes on Dungeons Dragons 1985 Part 1

60 Minutes on Dungeons Dragons 1985 Part 2

Where it All Began Pt. 3

2010-05-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

The next contact I had with roleplaying was through a book called What is Dungeons and Dragons?* by John Butterfield and David Honigmann. I think my Great Aunt bought the book because it was the right size and had a dragon on the front with dice coming out of its eyes. The book was just a somewhat dubious attempt to corral some of the cash being made by legitimate publications, however, it did serve a very important purpose later on.

Shortly afterwards a different friend got the newly released red box set of Basic Dungeons and Dragons and while I had photocopies of what you might charitably refer to as "excepts" from the book I didn't have any of the polyhedral dice required to play, and coming from a small town, no way to get them.

Some time later my mother, for reasons I can't recall, took a plane trip to our closest big city and so, obviously, I gave her the task of getting a set of dice for me. Today doing such a thing would be easy, in 1984, however, it was quite a different proposition.

The first obstacle was that there was no such thing as the internet to track down a gaming store. This meant she had go place to place asking where one was and then, sniffing a potential sale, fielding questions about what she was looking for. Have you ever tried to describe a polyhedral dice to someone? The concept is simple enough but even today, these different shaped dice with their weird sides still fascinate people. The saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" definitely applies to them, fortunately I had that picture!

So, armed withWhat is Dungeons and Dragons my mother went off to get my dice, and whatever else she had planned to do. She didn't fail me. A few days later I had my first, what she called "dungeons dice". 25 years later I still have four of them, a love of roleplaying, and my Mother mother to thank for both.

* As I trawled the internet recently trying to find a better picture than the tiny thumbnail I had of the cover of What is Dungeons and Dragons I discovered a site called muffinlabs.com with a recent review of this book. Thanks to them I have that larger image as well as a copy if The Shrine of Kolchap I've been trying to replace for years.

Where it All Began Pt. 2

2010-05-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

Interestingly my first introduction to a real RPG was not Dungeons and Dragons but Traveller. A fiend of mine's brother had several traveller books and he swore the game was awesome, certainly better than Dungeons and Dragons (whatever that was). I was excited by the idea of the game but after my bad experience with Starship Traveller I was reluctant to venture into space again.

Turns out I was right to be. We spent, what seemed like hours making a characters only for mine to die DURING CHARACTER CREATION just as it looked like we were actually going to play. Space was a cruel mistress and if this was the best Roleplaying had to offer I was sticking with Fighting Fantasy and a date with Zanbar Bone in a little town called Port Blacksand!

Where it All Began Pt. 1

2010-05-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Starting at the start... my introduction to roleplaying came quite by chance care of a "Lucky Books Grab Bag". The Lucky Book Club is, or perhaps was, the New Zealand equivalent of Scholastic Books. Once every few months their thin, cheaply printed, catalog would come around and, if it was your birthday or something, you could get a book or two. If you parents had won the lottery or a magical goose had mysteriously shown up for a few days,then and only then could you get a coveted "Lucky Grab Bag".

The "Lucky Grab Bag" was in hindsight not quite so magical as it contained a "random" selection of books, which were probably under-selling or over-produced titles. In any case, the perception of the 10 year old me was that it was awesome and especially so on the occasion I was lucky enough to get one. Amongst the titles was the book that started it all, The Mystery of Chimney Rock by Edward Packard.

Setting aside my copy of The Star Wars Question and Answer Book about Space I dug into this weird book where you could literally choose your own adventure and it was amazing! I was instantly captivated by being able to move around in the story somewhat on my own terms make my own decisions. I've been hooked on the idea ever since.

From Choose Your Own Adventure titles I moved on to Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston's "Fighting Fantasy" series beginning with "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain". I enjoyed the dice rolling aspect of the combat and the harder edge. I particularly liked "The City of Thieves" and "The Forest of Doom" one that I did not enjoy was "Starship Traveller" and that, as it turned out, was to postpone my entrance into rpg's.