Let The Judgement Begin!

And so it's time to start up the engine and get this new game out there into the world. On Sunday, I announced the first two phases of Project Phoenix in the 100th post of my regular column on Roleplayers Chronicle. First, there's ScreenPlay, a free supplemental RPG where players take on the role of Writers developing a movie script in co-operation with the Director (AKA the GM). Second comes High Plains Samurai, a mash-up of post-apocalyptic westerns and magic powered by the ScreenPlay engine. You can read all about them straight from the original post. 

That's all the technical talk. For my personal blog, I want to write about the personal challenges of undertaking this project. What crazy crap is going through my mind? What are my worries and beliefs? What are the behind-the-scenes going-ons in the eventual build-up of these games and this system? All of them are the kind of questions I'm looking at posing right here. And the first one is perhaps the most obvious...

What the hell was I thinking?!!

Right now, I'm nervous. It's been a while since I not only had a new game to plug, but maintained any significant presence online. Ever since the start of my new job (ironically as a Social Media Specialist), I've been almost entirely focused on my work's SM presence and not my own. With ScreenPlay (and eventually HPS), I need to get back on the horse and start plugging. Am I confident in my work so far? Definitely. I really like the tone and feel of ScreenPlay and honestly feel very proud of how different it is from Killshot. One thing I wanted to avoid after the Killshot Reloaded Kickstarter failed was failing to develop my game design skills further. I didn't want to limit myself in design styles and there are considerable differences between Killshot and ScreenPlay. With those differences come unique challenges, such as hoping those who appreciated my earlier work will like what they see in my new work.

It's all water under the bridge right now because the 9-page early draft of the rules has been posted for public scrutiny. There's no going back now. The next step is taking those written rules and putting them to practise. The very first ScreenPlay playtest goes down on June 18th with a little dark fantasy script I like to call Ironbound. I'll keep you posted as we get closer to that day. Until then, I have a paper bag to breathe into. 

A New Direction For The Hood

You may or may not know this but I've been writing an online column for Roleplayers Chronicle going on two years now called Under the Hood, dealing almost exclusively with RPG mechanics and the industry from a design/publishing standpoint. While it took a back seat to my brief rest period over the past couple of months, it returned to the forefront this past weekend with a new direction: detailing the entire design process for a new project I've undertaken, tentatively called "Phoenix."

Check it out, if you like. Details are a bit light at the moment and additional posts arrive every Sunday (give or take) on Roleplayers Chronicle. 

Under the Hood Climbs to the Top

I am the Warden!!

Señor Aaron at Roleplayers Chronicle posted the traffic report for his site yesterday and it seems Under the Hood, my weekly RPG mechanics/publishing column, has risen to become its most popular series. I've only seen some of the actual numbers for UTH columns and can only speculate on the remainder from there, but the mere fact that it pops up in many of the lists is very gratifying and I hope all of you enjoy everyone of them.

It's been a challenge keeping this up on a nearly weekly basis (all told, I only missed 6 weeks in 2012, including the entire month of August), but I plan to keep this sucker going for at least another year. It's been incredibly helpful in my own work as a kind of second blog with a stricter deadline to self-analyze RPG mechanics from around the industry and break down how I want them to apply in my own work. Many of the topics I wrote about during the early weeks were very influential in Killshot's designs. The trick now is pumping out new columns without stumbling over old ones.

However, that's enough time to pat myself on the back. Ironically enough, I have this week's column to finish up. (Hint: I'm talking about race mechanics this week, particularly the impoverished humans.)

Climb to the Summit

For the past 15 minutes, I've been staring at my monitor, mentally juggling how I plan to attend Game Summit next month. Will I go solely as an attendee covering the con for Roleplayer's Chronicle or will I step it up a notch and bring a little Killshot with me?

While I could cough up the $90 to attend  for the entire weekend, find a place to stay, all that, my original goal was to take advantage of the Game Designer's Lab (a new addition this year) and interview as many of them as I could. Research, my goal was research. Grafting myself to a table could jeopardize that.

There's also the matter of spending the next month rushing to get a table ready while I'm also working on getting Kickstarter funding started (application's sent, just waiting to hear back), get Broken Ruler's website up and going, and continuing to build up Killshot through various revisions and the like.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying the importance of cons in promoting work. Two years ago, I went during my Emerald Press days to promote/playtest EONS #1: The Endless Vault and it was a blast. The difference here is starting out too public with improperly tested rules can do more harm than good. Hence the massive spotlight something like Kickstarter can help out with - more playtesters!

So why can't I make up my mind? Because the kid in me loves the frosting.