Tony Jaa Built The Optional System

I am the Warden!!

Last night, I did something I've been waiting to do for months: I took my in-laws out for dinner. Since my accident, they have been incredibly helpful with so many little things and one of those has been taking my fiancee and I out to dinner every now and then. As a future son-in-law, it's tough to be on the receiving end of such charity when you're still "new to the family," but our situation left us with no other choice (though I suppose saying "no" was an option... no, wait, they don't take "no" for an answer). However, now that things have started to pick up and proceedings are finally moving forward, I made a point to take them out to dinner as a token of gratitude for those previous meals.

Then we did a little shopping. Which brings me to today's topic.

One of the DVDs I bought last night was Ong Bak 3 and if I seriously have to tell you who's in this movie, you need to open up a new window or tab and go to IMDb. Now! My hopes were high as I thought Ong Bak 2 was absolutely brilliant choreography and demonstrated Tony Jaa as a true powerhouse in the Asian martial arts scene. I picked up #2 shortly after I was released from the hospital and watched it three times in one day.

It was because of that film I started to work on the Optional System.

I Love It When A Game Comes Together

I am the Warden!!

After a dozen emails back and forth between players and DM yesterday resulted in our bi-weekly D&D game staying cancelled, it seems I have a little extra time on my hands today. Time leads to wandering thoughts and mine are centered squarely on the results of this past Friday's Killshot playtest and the opening scene of my next game.

To put it simply, the game went off without a hitch. No revisions or difficulties ensued. Whenever the players tried to do something, the game accounted for it. From a players standpoint, everything was perfect. From a Director's POV, I'm still a bit paranoid my text might be a little strict and not encouraging free thinking applications, but that's nothing another pass through Direction can't fix. At this point, I'm thinking of adding sidebars into the books for just such a purpose. What's written so far remains a fairly solid detail on the design of the game; sidebars will allow me to break off topic and go into how you can take that design and modify it according, playing up on Rule Number Two from a Director's angle.

The next playtest with this group will be the big one: a full-out, bullet-riddled action sequence. Mass carnage ensues at the very beginning of the third Killshot job, Final Justice, and if that scene goes off without a hitch, then everything I need to test and certify for this game will be good to go. The Optional System was originally designed as a heavy action packed RPG mechanic capable of handling intense combat while simultaneously breaking away from the all the standards of most RPGs, but such designs come with a heavy toll. By starting off somewhat smaller by designing a more strategic game (Killshot is just as much about planning as it is about execution, pardon the pun), I can build the design level-by-level until I'm positive it can handle a more fantastic setting and theme. I've been able to test the mechanics in a martial arts sequence and was very pleased with the results. Now it's all up to guns.

Canada's Know-It-Alls Know Better

I am the Warden!!

Bear with me for I'm breaking away from my norm today to wag my finger at Canadian TV producers. And since it involves the Discovery Channel and highly intelligent people, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

Last night, I caught the season finale of Canada's Greatest Know-It-All on the Discovery Channel. This is also the only episode of CGKIA (??) I've ever seen, but my fiancee has kept up on the show enough to explain any missing details. For those of you unfamiliar or outside of the Great White North, it's a contest in which 10 self-proposed know-it-alls competed against each other through a variety of mental events to determine who was the greatest. What I saw both pleased and disgusted me.

Disgusted because of the blatant attempts at confrontation the show splattered across the screen, from the host's loudspeaker efforts to demean the contestants to bringing back a truly detested former contestant eliminated long ago for the sole purpose of stirring up shit, it was so obvious the producers wanted confrontation. Count me amongst the minority, but this is why I detest most reality TV. If I thrived on watching people argue, I'd grab a chair at the mall and be one of those people watching couples, parents, and total strangers bitch at each other.

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.

The Killshot Ninja or How To Celebrate IAW's 100th Post

For the 100th time, I am the Warden!!

Ah, the centennial. The last time I marked such an achievement was the 50th post for IAW, it was a reflection on why this blog started and the road it had taken thus far. While I've considered doing the same for today's 100th ramble, that was scrapped to do something fun instead. For not only is today the tenth-squared post, it's also me birthday and the day I reach 2000 tweets. (If you're not following me on Twitter, then what the hell, man? You read my blog and not go the full distance? That's like inviting yourself over for dinner and bailing as soon as the meal's done.)

Those of you in the know are well aware of Killshot and it's progress thus far. To those who don't, go here. Then come back. Currently in development and extended playtesting, the results have been impressive considering this is actually my first original RPG design... ever! Over the past couple of weeks, I've been plugging away at the Director's guide to the game, Killshot: Direction, honing its features and tweaking accordingly under the realization the mechanics are more solid than I had expected. With the design phase complete, I feel like testing it further. Really bashing this thing against the wall and see how it holds up.

Therefore, I'm putting out an open request to anyone reading this sucker: give me an idea and I'll adapt it for Killshot. Even if it's not necessarily an assassin theme, you let me figure that out. As much as I'm setting myself up for buffoonery and wild submissions, that's my challenge to YOU, the reader. Send it to me on Twitter and I'll either reply back with how the existing mechanics already cover that or add it to the list and assemble a new creation in the order it arrives.

Dice Conquers Love (Or The Other Way Round)

I am the Warden!!

I've been holding off on posting this since Tuesday afternoon when a particular playtest wrapped up for the day and it was time to get back to work. If you've been following me on Twitter, I've been teasing it and while it's likely not that hard to guess, the temptation to hold off on going public with it (or as far as posting for 20 people to read can be considered "going public") has been great... but not enough.

Tuesday morning, as I prepared to find my ass groove in my office chair, I was approached with a counteroffer by my fiancee, Chelsea. "If I were to play your game, could I be Mystique?" It's hard to remember every nuance of your reaction when you're in shock, but I'm sure I stopped, blinked several times as if I had an eyelash in my eye, and turned towards her with my tongue hanging out of my mouth.

"Uhh, yeah. Why, were you... thinking of playing?"

"Sure, but only if I get to play Mystique."

How Much Is Too Much?: Struggling With Job Structure

I am the Warden!!

Phew, been a while since I've posted on here, right? To be honest, it's because writing, design, and development on Killshot has been damn near flawless and has flowed from my fingers like a maestro on the piano. Plus I've had the unexpected fortune of a new playtester... but I'll get into that later.

The past two weeks have been spent pouring words into Killshot: Direction, the guidebook for running this RPG as a Director. While I initially expected some hiccups in the writing process as I've never EVER written a basic GM supplement like this before, it's been quite a lovely surprise to see how the fundamentals of Killshot's mechanics can be presented to new Directors. I've even been able to draft up some optional rules for more experienced Directors when the time comes and made notes for upcoming articles in The Killshot Files. At this moment, I have the majority of Chapter 1: Understanding Killshot, all of Chapter 3: Beyond the Job, and the revised draft of the first Killshot job, Dealing Justice, complete.

Today is all about writing the first draft of the second job, Swift Justice. The mark is a city judge, so it's a steep rise in difficulty from killing a piece of shit meth dealer, but perfect to demonstrate how stats like Sense and Mind can be just as important - if not more so - in the game. I've been juggling different ideas for this job over the past couple of weeks and hammered out a plot hook last night, giving me the adrenaline I needed to fire this sucker off to close off the week.