Killshot: Behold, the Cover

I am the Warden!!

Mission accomplished! Killshot's playtest draft has been assembled and emailed to playtesters, making a fitting marker to end 2011. A full year of design and development on the Optional System has lead to a working draft of a game which is completely out of my hands. All playtests conducted so far this year have all been run by me and it's incredibly easy to run a fledgling game when you're the creator - I know what I meant when I wrote the rules. But do the rules makes sense to someone else?

Because I'm a graphic designer, I can't just send off a PDF from a Word file. I need a cover.

Playtesting will take place in January (fingers crossed) and likely continue towards March. During that time, I'll be working on layout and marketing in the hopes of having Killshot listed on DriveThruRPG by April/May 2012, including a Print-On-Demand copy. That's what I can't wait for - to have a professionally printed, bound copy of my first Optional System game. Sigh.

Until that fateful day arrives, I've set up a Killshot page for the blog. As production progresses, I'll keep posts here as well as provide previews, FAQ, and whatever other goodies I can come up with, including a little trick I thought about for a free PDF copy of the game.

The Year of Experimentation

I am the Warden!!

The year is coming to a close and what a dramatic year it's been. While I could easily get into all the personal trials and tribulations of 2011, we'll stay on topic and talk about how the Optional System finally went from being random thoughts assembled from countless dog walks to an actual work-in-progress which has consumed my life. Looking back on this past year, I prefer to call it "The Year of Experimentation."

On January 2nd, the very first dice were rolled for the Optional System with my good friend, Kieron, volunteering to make the trip up here specifically for playtesting. We kept it simple, an undercover drug deal gone wrong with our lone, intrepid hero caught in the crossfire. There were no rules written down and Kieron's character sheet was a collection of scribbles, corrections, and amazing sketches (Kieron's an amazing artist - go to Links and check out his work from there). Oh, and he died twice. Like I said, it was a true work-in-progress.

Rule Number One: Building the First Killshot Job

I am the Warden!!

With Monday as a write-off - the problem with going through rehabilitation and assessments - I was really starting to feel the pressure. Two weeks ago, Killshot was supposed to be ready for playtesting. The boys were raring to go and simply needed the text and time. But something was missing.

Killshot: An Assassin's Journal RPG will contain three adventures, or "jobs," for players to try out in the competitive world of murder-for-hire. What hit me early on in the design process was that I've yet to write down a formal presentation for an Optional System adventure... and now was time to put up or shut up.