Hmm, What To Talk About...

I am the Warden!!

Geez, talk about a boring day. Absolutely nothing happened, there's nothing to write about, no reason for me to be excited or proud, to give thanks for or feel great humility.

Oh, wait...

(See the official announcement on Broken Ruler Games for more details. For now, I'm just too giddy to stay in my seat much longer.)

The Trials and Tribulations of Being the New Guy

I am the Warden!!

What's that? Who is the Warden? Hmm, that's a good question, isn't it? In the big scheme of things, I'm nobody. My name only means something to those few who know me and this blog will only be read by a fraction of those friends and backers of Killshot. Aside from one particular post on the old Matrix RPG I was pondering, my best post has garnered 60 views. In the ocean that is the Internet, my ripples are dwarfed by the tidal waves of giants.

That's how it feels sometimes in the struggle to get started and it can be daunting. During the past month as I push and push and push to get as much funding for Killshot as I can, three projects have raised over $1 million and numerous others started by recognized names in the industry and made their goal in 24-48 hours. And we're talking goals in the thousands of dollars. Like I said, tiny ripples.

All that anxiety and disassociation is gone once that glorious email arrives proclaiming the inclusion of yet another backer to the project. Regardless of the amount, it's a herald of victory against all odds because it's a complete stranger taking up the cause. Out of the 26 backers currently slated for contribution, only one of them is a friend or former associate of mine; the remaining 25 are total strangers I could ignorantly pass by on the street.

Plugging Dungeon Crawler

A sample card from Dungeon Crawler.

I am the Warden!!

Busy, busy week last week. And looking to be equally busy this week. While the previous days were spent polishing off the latest revision to Killshot, this week will find me knee deep in writing for RPC (AKA Roleplayers Chronicle) summarizing the Game Summit convention in Ottawa this past long weekend. Specifics will follow on that site within the next few days... which reminds me, I wanted to include a link to all my Under The Hood posts, interviews, and more from this blog. Sigh, the list just got bigger.

But today I wanted to make a special effort to highlight a game I discovered at Game Summit called Dungeon Crawler, an "expandable card game" which gave me cause to commit the ultimate sin: consider playing a card game.

For the first time in its history (brief though it may be), Game Summit had a "Game Designer's Lab" set up for designers to pitch new or upcoming games. The only booth with a really nice set up was by Jey Legarie and his wife (who's name I never caught, unfortunately) complete with banners, playing mats, sample cards, and more. After recording a quick little interview with Jey, we had a good off-mic chat about the process of bringing games to market, the hassles of distribution, shipping, and getting your dream project off the ground. What really struck me about DC was how professional it looked when everything was put together with the same size and ambition of my own work.

As for the game itself, I'll get into that in my official review/interview. Suffice it to say, I've never been one for CCGs and I'm making exceptions for this one in particular. Dungeon Crawler is described as an "expandable card game" built to play like a RPG with adventures and expansion packs to add unique terrain to your ever increasing campaigns. Plus it has a solo play feature for those moment when your friends ditch you because their wife's gone into labour again... sheesh.

If you're a fan of CCGs (or card games in general), supporting Canadian businesses, or have thought about breaking into a card game, seriously check this one out.

6 Months

I am the Warden!!

August 2012. That's when Killshot will officially become a roleplaying game rather than an upcoming roleplaying game. With the Kickstarter drive passing its goal (though I'm not jumping through hoops just yet as there's always something to get in the way; I'll be happy when the deadline's come and gone and the money is actually sitting in my bank account), the realization of putting Killshot on virtual shelves is one step closer. Close enough to start carving this sucker into stone.

Six months might not seem like a lot of time to get everything together, but it's also a huge amount of time to focus all my energy at a single target. The mechanics have already been tested, pulled apart, and put back together enough that I can establish a working system requiring tweaks at the most. With multiple groups having a go at the game for the next while, it's all about making Killshot the best it can be with the tools I have to work within the parameters I've designed it for. Killshot: An Assassin's Journal - the first release - is designed to run Killshot as a one-shot filler on nights your group wants to play something different. A trial run, if you will. While there will be material allowing players and Directors to slowly ramp it up a notch, the goal of the first book will be to get you hooked. From there, the additional supplements will help fill in the gaps. All I need for now is a working foundation upon which to build.

Success!!

I am the Warden and this has been a beautiful day!!

Actually, it's quite crappy outside, but shining like the sun indoors. Killshot's bid for funding through Kickstarter has reached 100% with just two weeks remaining and with 3 slots available for the $100 Directors reward level, there's still lots of potential for a hefty pile of cash going towards artwork on Killshot's initial release. More importantly, the backer driving this project over the finish line is none other than Rone Barton from numerous podcasts. It's kind of hard to remain humble right about now.

I'd like to take this moment to give massive thanks to everyone who's contributed so far and those yet to come. Now that Killshot has nowhere else to go but up, it's up to me to ensure it becomes everything you hope and then some.

A Preoccupation With Death

I am the Warden!!

Apparently, I have a preoccupation with death. (What? The title didn't give that away?) I'm not going to get into where it came from or why that person brought it up, only to say that it came up in conversation nonetheless and with good reason. The comment - an observation, really - was a result of Killshot itself, a game centered primarily on assassins killing people as the primary objective. It didn't strike me as being overly provocative at first until that person clarified their remark.

"Considering the past year-and-a-half of your life has been confronting a near-death experience, doesn't it seem a bit ironic that you're writing about it on a near constant basis?"

The question's haunted me for the past couple of days, burrowed deep inside my consciousness to the point I haven't been able to concentrate on my work. This normally means there's a disturbing truth to it and the issue is not that I recognize it, but that I don't quite understand it. I consider myself a very insightful person, particularly when it comes to my own thoughts and emotions. Nothing slips by me and few and far between are the moments when someone else spots something I failed to catch. Not that I'm trying to brag, but all the observations brought up in recent therapy were not revealed by the therapist, but by me.

Am I only writing Killshot because of a deep seeded need to confront my issues with mortality or because my subconscious lingers on the topic so much that it leaks into my work?

Keep Your Assassin Organised: The Killshot Character Sheet

I am the Warden!!

The Kickstarter project for Killshot has been going phenomenally well, more than I had hoped. When I made the decision to use Kickstarter, it was done with what I believe to be realistic expectations, meaning I expected it to fail. Not horribly, exploding in a ball of fire, but that I wouldn't quite hit the mark. Today is only the 9th day and it's already at 43% of its goal. Not only could Killshot goal of obtaining original artwork come to life, but could exceed expectations on my very first time out.

Today's post is in response to a request by a backer calling himself a "sucker for character sheets." Far be it from me to show off something I'm rather proud of because I like to consider myself a character sheet junkie. I make a point of downloading multiple versions of character sheets, including official releases to homemade fillable forms to building my own to suit my own playing style.

A good character sheet can not only enhance a game for players, it can define it. Particularly in a game with some level of complexity and variable character builds. What you'll see here is still a work-in-progress (much like Killshot itself) but the changes currently slated for this sheet are repositioning only. And whatever else needs changing due to rule revisions. And considering how well things are going, I'll likely bump up the graphics on the sheet.