Spring Cleaning of the Soul

Hello Friends!

It’s been a really exciting couple of years in the independent design and publishing scene, hasn’t it? I started getting involved over the course of 2005 and 2006, while I was developing, and then publishing, my first “real” game, Timestream. Now it’s 2009, I’ve made 2 more major releases (plus a smattering of contest entries, smaller games that I haven’t ever made public, and design noodlings both public and private); became the co-founder and co-organizer of a booth at Gen Con (Design Matters, people!); met, ate, drank and gamed with so, so many great people at conventions, meetups and get-togethers organized around our shared hobby; and made a significant amount of very dear friends. Any one of those things is a cause for celebration! The fact that I’ve managed to enjoy all of them makes me truly blessed.

But things change. My personal situation is worlds away from where I started this journey, and bound to get farther. My design interests have changed and shifted over time. My ability to participate in the online “scene” declines even as my passion for writing and publishing increases. It’s a time of flux, both for me and for our hobby.

This blog was started (in it’s orginal incarnation, over on Blogger) on June 8th, 2005. Almost 4 years ago. Insane! It was part of the so-called Forge Diaspora, at least for a little bit, as the Forge shifted focus away from endless recycling of semi-helpful jargon discussion and (back?) towards actual play, publishing, and independent design work. I wanted to talk about things in my sandbox, and there have been a number of great discussions that I was able to take part in, and even start every so often.

But now, I pretty much only use this space as a promotional tool, and there are better venues for that. My conversations about design occur in person or over email. I find it both difficult and unrewarding to keep up with whats going on in interwebsland on any kind of regular basis. And so on.

So, in short, I’m done with this blog for the forseeable future.

I’m not taking it down, or anything. In fact, I plan to do some cleaning and restructuring to make it more of an archive for things that the occasional wandering soul may find interesting. I also plan to continue working on the Design Handbook project, as that is the most consistently rewarding part of the blog, even if it is rarely updated. But, really, I don’t feel that I have anything particularly interesting to say that I’m not saying in my design work.

This coincides with my decision to rebrand my publishing endeavors and emerge as design label umbrella that will cover not just my hobby publishing, but also more varied projects that I am planning to get involved in over the next couple of years. The shift is gradual, but real. Hamsterprophet Productions will slowly phase out over the next couple of months as I get everything wrapped up and transfer over to the new brand, ndp design.

Thanks for sticking with me this far, dear reader. I really appreciate it.

Whew.

Annalise Interim Edition Available NOW!

Finally, a print edition of Annalise is available. Please navigate to my lulu.com storefront in order to purchase.

The Interim Edition of Annalise is a 66-page perfectbound 9×7 landscape book. It comes in 4 flavors: there are two covers (red or white), and your choice of grayscale interior for $20.00 or full-color interior for $25.00. This edition of the game contains none of the fiction or art that was in the Unbidden Guests Edition released at Gen Con, but the game text is exactly the same. All of the fiction and art that has been made public so far for the game is available for download from the website.

The Eternal Tears PDF edition is also available for purchase from lulu.

Many thanks to everyone who has bought and played the game so far, and my most humble apologies for the egregious delay in making a print edition available.

Annalise New Cover Preview

Annalise White Cover

Books available soon.

Insight

There’s a substantial difference between gamers and designers, or at least designers who publish.

When you play, you’re making something for the consumption of the people who are playing. The whole audience/participant thing.

When you publish, you’re making something for an audience. Full stop.

The lines blur, because they are both acts of creation. But they are not the same.

(sorry Paul)

Dreamation 09 Post Post

Dreamation was very good for me this year! As per usual, I am amazed and humbled by all the of excellent people I got to see, meet, play with, talk to and drink and eat with over the course of the weekend.

The atmosphere was really positive and inclusive this year, I think. I think it was also more relaxed than some Dreamations past. People are a little less intent on cramming in maximum gaming, and happy to take chill time and socialize.

My games all went well. I played in a Houses of the Blooded scenario run by Tom on Friday, and it was pretty neat. I really like parts of the game, and other parts leave me a little cold, but I intend to pick up the PDF soonish. The actual scenario was really neat, though I think there’s a lot of room with that game for a more character-vs-character intrigue kind of thing.

Judd & my Agon Tournement got a little fubared by miscommunication with the scheduling staff, so we ended up with two isolated Agon slots. I ran the first one, for Judd and a new friend named Joel, and it went pretty well. Agon is a little creaky with two heroes, I think, but it was a fun game. I ran Beast of Kolkoris and I totally killed Judd’s character with a Minotaur. We called the game after that encounter, but I think I would have totally killed both of them if we had continued the quest. That’s a really hard quest! Judd ran the second one, a Quest he came up with that involved a Cyclops who forged lightning. I got to play! It was cool! Ralph won the game and I was so mad! Stupid Ralph winning. I suspect that Far-Reaching may be a little brokenzord, though. I need to take another look, but the suspicion is in my brain.

I played a game of Annalise with Kevin Allen Jr., J.R. Blackwell and John Enskot (who did NOT die in a car crash, and that was the best part of the con). It was very good. We established the beginning of a really long, slow-burning game, if we were able to keep playing. I also got a lot of good feedback and ideas about how to structure a 4-hour complete Annalise game scenario.

Speaking of, my new friend Connie ran two games of Annalise without my involvment, which apparently both went well; so did the games of carry ran by Rachel and Adam. You people are all my favorite, and I am just pleased as punch that my games are creating fun.

Overall, just excellent hanging out time and drinking time with my friends. I already miss you.

Also, Amy was the best driving buddy ever, in addition to being a great friend.

As per usual, Dreamation was a sorely needed reset button, and I’m super glad I went. Thanks everyone for doing your part!

Dreamation Aught Nine Plan

• Head down early.
• See all my awesome friends.
• Rachel is running one of my games! carry, 8 pm, Thursday.
• Connie is running one of my games! Annalise, 9 am, Friday.
• Judd & I are running Agon! Step up for the first round of the Kleos Cup, 8pm, Friday.
• I’m running Annalise! 2pm, Saturday.
• Adam is running one of my games! carry, 8pm, Saturday.
• Judd & I are running Agon! Those you made it through the first round are invited to the final round of the Kleos cup, 8pm, Saturday.
• I’m running Annalise! 9am, Sunday.
• Connie is running one of my games! Annalise, 2pm, Sunday – a good parting gift for y’all.
• As per usual, I don’t preregister for other games, but there is a metric fuckton of great games on the slate, and I’m sure I’ll be happy where ever I end up.
• Indie Party Saturday nite.
• Road trip for Pho.
• Staying with Shreyas.
• I will be Twittering updates from the show – follow at ndpaoletta, if you’re interested.
• Yay Dreamation!

Note To Self

wrt the not-so-secret project.

Weapons have three stats: Size, Reliability and Destruction. A starting weapon has one of these at 0, and you probably have some kind of points to spend between the other 2. Outside of fights, Size can apply to your skills that are of the Mind, Reliability can apply to your skills that are of the Heart, and Destruction can apply to your skills that are of the Flesh, if it’s an appropriate situation.

In a Duel, Reliability matters more than Size. In a Melee, Destruction matters more than Size. However, if you’re trying to disarm an opponent in either case, Size matters most.

You can use your Dust to bump any of the categories, with the usual caveat that once you start, it’s hard to stop. If you have a backlash from over-dusting, however, it only affects your weapon.

Weapons can have Weirds independent of you (making it a Weird Weapon), but you need to feed it Dust or Blood if the Weird is powered by either of those. Also, some Weirds require a weapon to be used, though it doesn’t matter which weapon in particular.

Killers & Jokers

Serial Homicide Unit is up for pre-order. This is a crime investigation game where you play the (potential) victims of a serial killer, as well as the investigators trying to bring the killer to justice. I’ve playtested it a couple of times, and it’s really shaped up to be quite a great game with a non-nerdy aesthetic to it. Like, you could play it with your parents and it would be totally neat. I also very much like Kat & Michael (the designers) and Russell (the voice and music master). Voice and music master? The game comes as an instructional audio CD in addition to a written rules document. The physical version comes with all the materials you need for play, in a DVD box; the digital version is already available at IPR. I’m looking forwards to getting my grubby mitts on it.

On a lighter note, check out the MST3K treatment of our favorite Jack Chick tract, Dark Dungeons. I got a few good chuckles out of that one.

Sense Of Wonder

I have this thing where I’m really not into scifi games. I do enjoy scifi as a genre of fiction (though I have pretty specific tastes, and I’m not very well-read overall). But even the dystopia/cyberpunk/modern info-punk stuff that I love to read I have no interest in playing. How weird is that?

So I’m reading this SG thread What makes a good Scifi game? (starting near the end, cuz thats whats interesting to me). And they start talking about the Sense of Wonder, so I start thinking about my game experiences where I felt a sense of wonder. And all of those times, to my recollection, have to do with making myth.

Like, the time in Ganakagok when Gary’s old man spilled out all of his wolf teeth to keep the tribe from fracturing. Or in Polaris when my knight placed his severed heart into the chest of the one he loved. Or in Annalise when Can called the Vampire “Father.”

These were all times when my understanding of the fiction we were making totally spun around in my head and resettled, re-integrating all that had happened up to that point, but creating a new picture, with a new meaning.

I don’t think this is something that needs to happen all the time, but it’s pretty neat when it does happen. But my entryway to wonder seems to primarily be through mythic fiction (Annalise being an edge case), not scifi. Not that this matters. But it’s an interesting thing, no?

Where does your wonder come from?

Annalise Actual Play

There’s a great Annalise actual play over here. Many thanks to Rachel for going to the effort to post it!

Something that makes me pretty happy is that the account of play really does hang together pretty well as a piece of written ficton. I don’t know how much of that is Rachel’s self-editing! But the game is meant to produce fiction, and it sure seems to be making that happen. Which is great.

I’m excited to see how things end up.