2013: The Year of Reality

I am the Warden!!

That's right, kids. It's time for yet another blog to recognize the end of 2012 and talk about everything he wants to accomplish in 2013, AKA New Year's resolutions. My mind is flooded with them at the moment and, as I always do in times of uncertainty, I turn to my blog for guidance like a purse snatching victim turns to Batman as the scumbag runs away with her bag.

As much as I could spend time going over the good and bad of 2012 (with much of it awesome, despite the numerous difficulties still going on in my personal life), my focus remains on the coming year. There's great doom ahead; I can feel it. Based on how certain events have closed out this year, I can tell the early months of 2013 will be incredibly challenging and what kicks me in the balls hardest is that I can't talk about them in any detail online or in any public forum. Hell, even being vague is probably not a smart move, but a writer expresses himself through his craft because he knows no other way. The ongoing lawsuit for my accident makes it incredibly difficult and unwise to freely share my views and comments on such matters because it's incredibly easy for such posts to be taken out of context. Don't believe me? There's a giant stack of papers bound in volumes as thick as Senate committee reports for my online posts alone, including my Kickstarter project for Killshot, my Twitter account, Facebook, and everything else. So while I would love nothing more than to include these details as part of my own healing process, it's not a smart thing to do right now. As always, you'll just have to trust me on a few matters and allow the topic to move on without explanation.

Overshooting the Market?

I am the Warden!!

A thought occurred to me earlier today while walking the dogs (as it always does) and I mentally broke down my objectives for the week. Am I expecting too much of Killshot?

Let me explain a little further. My editor, Chris, sent in the edits for Killshot Files #1 and this is what got the ball rolling. I've made a point to stay one issue ahead with article production so that as soon as an issue is released for sale, there are already articles ready to edit for the next. After quickly scrolling through Chris' corrections and suggestions, I started my final consideration on which articles should go into the second issue. All this while adjusting in the work required on the Adventurer gamebook, the BRG website, Killshot: Reloaded and its Kickstarter project, getting the house ready for winter (and a Canadian winter at that), putting up a door to my office, and many other upcoming events.

Now I want to make something perfectly clear at this point. I am not wondering if I've bitten off more than I can chew and thinking about cutting ties with Killshot or the ongoing issues of Killshot Files. Aside from the obvious benefits of putting these products together (and I should finally start making a profit on it by the year's end), the entire endeavour is a huge experiment and effort to gauge some future ideas. One of those ideas is the feasibility of releasing RPGs with only one or two core releases or as part of a large brand comprised of at least 6-12 products. Hence, Killshot Files.

Phase 2: Planning for Reloaded

I am the Warden!!

The Killshot core release is complete. By that, I mean there's no more game design, editing, or layout remaining. All that's left is press production, sales, and the ongoing marketing that remains eternal for all core rulebooks. It's time to start a new project and, in typical fashion, I'm looking at more than one.

Those of you familiar with this blog, BRG, and Killshot in general know the next supplement will be Killshot: Reloaded (and the ongoing Killshot Files, of course). Four alternate themes/setting applying the Killshot RPG: Hong Kong gun-fu, Wild West bounty hunters, CIA operatives, and ninjas. It's a project conceived during Killshot's early days (there's even mention of it in the original Kickstarter project) and has been on the back burner for months waiting for the opportunity to start investing time and energy. Before I can type the first word, I need to know what I want from this book and how to make it all happen through Kickstarter.

What I Learned And Should Have Remembered About Kickstarter, Part 2

I am the Warden!!

With the demo copy arrived and a list of minor corrections/revisions noted and costs for production written in stone, I was finally able to make a complete tally of all costs involved for the production of Killshot's initial release. Remember when I talked about lessons learned from my Kickstarter experience? Now it all comes into play.

As promised, all relevant costs involved in this Kickstarter project will be posted and I'm hoping to provide a bit more information to match. Not just for the sake of updating my backers, but to pay it forward in a way. Learning as much as you can from as many people as you can before setting out on a first project is huge and my intention is to share my experience with others looking to do the same. It's also by sheer coincidence that I was invited to an impromptu podcast interview specifically to talk about this topic and the timing to post these numbers is too perfect to pass up.

Here we go.

A Random Idea: Player vs Player Killshot

I am the Warden!!

Right now, I'm rested across a couch in the cabin listening to the rain fall. It's a rare time to do nothing but reflect in peace and quiet and obviously my mind wanders back to Killshot.

I played a game last night with one of my latest recruits. As always, it's going well and because we're playing next to the beer fridge, everyone else up here takes turns checking out what we're up to. A major scene of the game involved being chased down by a helicopter and this got a lot of the lads interested in what we were up to. The more they saw and learned how it worked, the more intrigued they became until someone shot out this idea.

"Could you play PvP with this like Halo or Call Of Duty?"

It only a second before I answered with "Fuck yeah!"

Director's Submissions: Blaze of Glory, Part 2

I am the Warden!!

I'd like to start this next installment of Director's Submissions with an apology and correction. In my last post, I mentioned the name of the mark written for Blaze of Glory was "Richard Chevalier," but I forgot one crucial detail. One of they key details of the Kickstarter reward level was the mark would be named after the Director (or the Director would be allowed to choose the mark's name). Therefore, the name of Blaze's mark is actually Michael Brightbill and my apologies to the real, unmurdered Mr. Brightbill for that oversight.

Now let's get back to the task of killing the fake Mr. Brightbill.

Yesterday ended up being a rather late day juggling many tasks, but the first draft of Blaze of Glory is done and awaiting my own review. I have to say this is probably the first all-out action job yet written (and if you think Final Justice was steeped in action, you ain't seen nothing yet). It's a job where there's very little detective work for the assassins to do, yet still a major benefit should they try. If anything, the rest of it plays out like a military game with the level of violence and the size of the guns involved.

As I was writing this job, I reflected back to my earlier comments on keeping Killshot a game of grey rather than solid black-and-whites. Was I going back on that promise with this job? If it's just a big shoot-em-up, all the assassins have to worry about is point and shoot and that's about as black-and-white as it gets. Was there a way I could play up on the hidden emotional plight of the situation in the midst of all this violence?

Director's Submission: Blaze of Glory, Part 1

I am the Warden!!

Lo those many months ago when yonder Kickstarter bid put out the call for funds to help make the game known as Killshot a reality, I offered a special perk for anyone who pitched in at least $100 for the Director reward level: a chance to contribute a rough concept for a mark or a job. While not all of those backers have sent in their submissions, the time has come to start working on those that have for use in the early issues of the Killshot Files e-zine.

The first one is entitled Blaze of Glory and was chosen for the sheer reason that it was that first one sent in by Michael Brightbill.

"Here's my rough idea. Figure I'll swing it by you before going to the trouble of getting everything together. Character is ludicrously wealthy. And bored. Has ins in the government, finance, etc. Nothing can touch him and he fears nothing. So he hires the group to try and off him. But he also hires another group to protect him/off the PCs."

Michael's submission was a major inspiration for the third job provided in Killshot: Direction so far as pitting assassins against each other, but it wasn't anywhere close to what's given above. Now it's time for me to put in the work and make this concept a reality.

The Long Arm of the Law

Shh. I am the Warden and I have a hangover. Will I let that stop me from posting on my blog? Almost, so I'll keep this short.

As you may expected, work continues on Killshot and still I cannot keep my mind from wandering. Over the last couple of weeks, Killshot: Direction - the Director's guide to running the game - has forced me to reconsider many aspects of a career from the opposite side of the fence. More importantly, Evidence Points and how law enforcements conflicts with a job.

Around the same time I started popping out words up here, a friend of mine started his own projects and has released one PDF product thus far. That product, Book 'Em, had an interesting premise that's stuck with me as I've developed Evidence Points, yet this brain wonders about taking it a step further. An idea Mark had mentioned was playing a double life campaign. One night, you're the bad guys, the next finds you tracking the villains down. While the premise revolved around a modern crime campaign, it admittedly related to fantasy, sci-fi, and any other genre. Commit the crime, then create another set of characters to track your other characters down and bring them to justice.

I have a rule: if the idea doesn't fade into oblivion within a week, I must consider it. All told, it's been a couple of months at least. Not serious enough to actually consider adding anything to the schedule, but enough to place on my ever-growing list of concepts for Killshot. Having players roll up detectives or FBI agents to hunt down their wicked alternate persona and see which version wins. It's almost the ultimate PvP action for the tabletop.

Obviously, the assassins would step up to the plate first in order to determine how the detectives would follow leads and pick up on Evidence Points in the next game. And the first question I can hear is "What makes you think players would want to arrest their own characters?" I have two answers to that. First, stop yelling, I told you I have a hangover. Second, it's not exactly a career every group would sign up for, making it a perfect candidate for an issue of Killshot Files. Off the top of my head, there would have to be a reward system in place for players who stick to character and pick up the assassins' trail, something which can then translate into the assassins game. My main concern is making the detective side of the career interesting beyond simply following the path of the last game. It's a design creating more questions than answers at this point and the challenge speaks to me.

Speak to me, fair readers. Advice, counsel, share. Anything but dump.