16- As featured on...

First ad of the day Wednesday May 25th.

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

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.

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.

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.