I had wanted planned on doing a wrapup of the first day of PAX this year, but it’s three in the morning, and I’m beat. If I have time, I’ll post tomorrow. At worst, I’ll do a full wrapup when I get back home.
As a side note, I did get to meet Rym and Scott briefly at round two of the Omegathon, which was cool. I’m looking forward to their panel tomorrow evening.
Wow, been awhile since I’ve updated the ol’ blog. Fear not, though; I have no intention of abandoning this site, nor the podcast, despite my lack of posts to either of them. Things have just remained unbelievably busy.
So, the news.
First off, Kristin decided to forgo her commencement ceremony from Chico State University in favor of going to Kubla Con. We have been convinced that we wouldn’t be able to make it this year, but it looks like we’re actually going. Had I been more on the ball, I would have registered earlier, but c’est la vie. Unfortunately, since I just registered the two of us today, I was too late to submit a Shadowrun event like I’d planned to. Perhaps next year. Or, I could always wind up running a game on the fly again. Perhaps I’ll come prepared, just in case.
Kristin also talked to our favorite folks over at Good Omens Games about doing some recording with us. This has prompted me to start looking at the Flip Video Ultra. I’ve been thinking that there is a glut of audio convention coverage in the world of gaming podcasts, so I figured that some con video footage would be appropriate. I have a feeling that I’ll be conning my fiancée into asking the questions, since nobody wants to see the fat guy on camera.
For those who are interested, I’ve been using Google Reader for my news feeds lately, and I’ve been actively sharing a great deal of articles, not a few of them from Pharyngula, the blog of biologist PZ Myers. I don’t think that I’ve ever really made much of an attempt to hide my opinions regarding the teaching of Intelligent Design Creationism in the classroom, but it hasn’t been an issue that’s come up a lot in discussions of RPG design. Suffice to say, if you read Dr. Myers blog, or see the articles I’ve been sharing, you’ll probably have a good idea of how I feel about the subject. I’d also like to encourage everyone to check out Expelled Exposed, a site that addresses the claims of Ben Stein’s anti-evolution film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
This brings up another thing of note - as of next semester, I’m going back to school. A lot of things have changed in my life lately, nearly all of them good, and that’s prompted me to start taking a look at where I’m going in life. With my fiancée graduating from college, I just can’t stomach the thought of living off her residuals after we’re married, so I figured that I should do something to pull my own weight. So, it looks like I have to start trying for a degree in earnest.
To be honest, the thought of going to school as a 30 year-old is a little frightening to me, but I think I’ll manage to survive. Given the comments I’ve posted above, it should be no wonder that I’m seriously considering making an attempt to enter a scientific field. My problem is that I’m far too interested in far too many subjects to make the choice easy. So, I’ll be waffling around with general education courses while I work full time until I manage to come to a decision on what I want to do with the rest of my life.
Wow, my semi-regular blog posting got totally hosed by my recent lack of Internet access. My thanks for that go to AT&T, who seem incapable of sticking to a connection date. Bleh.
Anyway, on to the meat of this post.
I’ve wanted to be a role-playing game designer since I was eight years old. My dream was to grow up and go to work for TSR so that I could write D&D books for the rest of my life. Until recently, I’d pretty much given up on designing my own game .
Fortunately, people like Clyde Roher, Ryan Macklin, Sam Chupp, Mick Bradley, and a whole slew of other folks have re-inspired me to try designing my own game. With that in mind, I figured that I’d start a design diary here on Raptus Regaliter, so that I can get some feedback on where the game is at.
I’m going to keep this particular post somewhat brief, since I’m still working on specific details. I’m just going to outline some of the specific design decisions that I’ve made so far.
This will be a short-form story game. I was directly inspired to write this kind of game after having played John Wick’s Wilderness of Mirrors. I really find this style of game to be both fun and useful. They tend to be either somewhat lighthearted or very intense, and they’re great for just killing time, or for when a player doesn’t show up for your regular game.
All the prep work will be done at the table. I want to design something that can be just pulled out and played. So, everything from character creation to creating the main conflict to playing out the scenario will be handled right then and there. Therefore, all the character creation rules need to be simple. Hell, all of the rules will need to be simple. If it’s made to be played at the drop of a hat, it should be able to be taught to new players easily.
I’d like heavy player authorship. I see the role of the GM in this game as something of a moderator, more than a storyteller. Perhaps his primary role will be to start things off and nothing more.
Finally, there is the actual concept of the game, the answer to the question “What is your game about?”. So the concept is this: all the players have just died, and are waiting to pass on to the afterlife, but first, they have to come to terms with their deaths. So, who’s fault was it that you died, and can you forgive them?.
So far, that’s what I’ve got. Beyond that, everything is simply a nebulous collection of ideas. But, at least I have a starting point now, and can finally move on to some of the more important aspects of designing.
Normally, I wouldn’t post something not RPG related here, but there’s something to be said for the pure, unadulterated awesomeness of an independent musician gaining enough of a following to be included on a game like Rock Band.
I think that the problem is that, with a few exceptions, RPG sessions tend to be boring for those of us who aren’t directly involved. The Game Master Show has a slight advantage in this area - after their games, they actually go through and critique the sessions. This is extremely valuable to me as a gamer. But most other AP podcasts simply go through their sessions, without taking the time for post-game editorial.
Coupled with this is the length of the average game session. I’d say most range between 4 and 8 hours. To conserve bandwidth and storage, most AP casts get broken down into bite sized chunks - 2 hours or so. That, however, seems to be the end of the editing process. We still get the long pauses while someone looks up a rule, the side conversations that get inadvertently picked up by the microphones, and all of the bumps, pops, and clicks from impacts on the table. That makes things very hard to listen to.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to edit those shows, either. 8 hours of audio to listen to? It’s not like an advice or talk podcast that you can slim down to carefully planned points of discussion. I really don’t blame anyone for not wanting to sit through a gaming session twice just to cut out the sound of someone’s dice-tower falling over when another gamer bumps the table en route to the fridge.
I suppose my real problem with AP casts is that, for the most part, I don’t get anything from them. The production is to distracting to really catch the great techniques that the GM’s are employing. The mic is too far away when a player cracks a joke, but plenty close enough for the subsequent peal of laughter to blow out my eardrums. I can’t hear what roll was called for, but I can damn sure hear the handful of dice clatter to the table.
I don’t bring these things up to discourage AP podcasters. And, as I said before, there are exceptions. But it would be both awesome and valuable to see if there are ways around these problems.
Hell, if there are, I’ll probably start recording my own sessions.
My taste in gaming has matured over the years. When I got back into the hobby about two years ago, I found myself looking at my old standby RPG, Shadowrun, in its shiny new edition. It’s satisfied my for about two years now.
However, after listening to a lot of podcasts, and being exposed to new games, I’ve gotten it into my head to run a Burning Wheel campaign. Unfortunately, for some odd reason, my former glut of available players has all but dried up, and I’m having trouble finding a group to play with.
This is one of those things that will have to be updated as things progress. I have a feeling that when I finally get players for it, a BW campaign will be awesome. I’ll keep posting as updates come
