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.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
18- Origins
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
17- Art
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
15- Origins and Gencon
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
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
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
16- Drafts, rewrites, revisions
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.
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.
Friday, December 10, 2010
13- Unlucky for some
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.
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.
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