12- Ready, Set, Go

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!