Moments In Annalise

Here’s the (filled-out) play aid that I threw together for the JiffyCon Boston playtest of Annalise. Click for full size.

Whenever you get into a moment in the game, the group generates an array of possible achievements and consequences that could come out of the moment. If you read down the paper, you can kinda see the flow of the game based on which achievements and consequences were on hand for the various moments. Which is hella cool!

I plan to revise it into something a little easier to parse at the table (probably with little circles or boxes for assigning dice, with the chart at the bottom that tells you which number means which either relegated to a different play aid kinda thing, or integrated into the sheet in a less obtrusive manner).

Anyway, something I’ve been meaning to post for awhile. In general life news, we’re at the end of the season at the shop I work at, so we’re in the big final build crunch. Lot’s of overtime in the next two weeks, but no free time a’tall. I am waiting on the proofs for the next printing of carry, though, so that is probably the next thing I’ll be posting about.

Also, news soon about my booth at Gen Con!

JiffyCon Boston 08

Wow, what a great time!

This my first time co-sponsoring an event (along with Dev) and it went pretty darn smoothly. We had a good attendance of 30+, including peeps from far-flung NYC and New Jersey (thanks for making the trip, yo!) as well as locals and many representative from Western Mass. We even had more people than games in our morning slot, and Dev got to run a playtest of his game The Dance and the Dawn. So it was, like, Boston designer playtest day, between that, my Annalise, and Jonathon’s Geiger Counter.

I facilitated a very solid playtest game of Annalise in the morning, and played Misspent Youth (again, a playtest) in the afternoon. I think Rob got some good feedback out of that game, so that’s a nice feeling.

And I saw friends and had a good solid chunk of social time! Shreyas and Elizabeth were wonderful houseguests, and it’s always exciting to see the friends I’ve made since getting into this fragment of the hobby. Thanks everyone for coming!

And, without further ado, the pictures:

Jonathon and Shreyas have introspective moments while playing Annalise. Prominently displayed is our third sponsor and official morning fuel of JiffyCon, Dunkin’ Donuts. In the background are Melissa, Kat and someone I can’t make out playing the Dance and the Dawn.

Adam Flynn winds up for another knockout punch while running Spirit of the Century! for a full and (from what I was overhearing at the time) enthusiastic table.

There were some kind folks present who have been filming a documentary on Pandemonium, the game store that graciously provided our venue for JiffyCon. They came by and filmed a couple games and did a couple of interviews, and were generally cool people. Yay, JiffyCon on film! I’ll be sure to put a link when the thing is available.

Two friendly fellows whose names I, unfortunately, don’t remember (sorry guys! though, they were playing characters by the names of Sam and Cornelius, respectively) flank Eppy as he poses for me. Ah, always posing for me, thats my Epidiah. We were playing Misspent Youth, by the way.

My Misspent Youth character sheet and notes.

Emily Care Boss playing Shooting the Moon with John and Deanne Adams. John is aghast at the dastardly deeds of Emily’s shootin’ fingers.

Shreyas runs a playtest of Mist Robed Gate for a packed and super-boisterous table. There were tears AND Kung Fu. Most excellent.

So, again, thanks everyone for coming! It was a blast!

Some #s

Total Sales for 2007

carry. a game about war.: 93 (96 in 2006)

Timestream Standard PDF: 5 (17 in 2006)

Timestream Basic PDF: 8 (9 in 2006)

Timestream Premier Edition (print): 13 (168 in 2006, mostly cuz of sales into distribution)

Timestream Reference Edition (print): 2 (28 in 2006)

Time’s Champions: A Stream for Timestream: 4 (3 in 2006)

I Like It More Now

I finally finished fiddling with my official publisher website. I like it a lot more, and it’s hopefully simpler, easier to navigate, and more informative. And prettier.

So, that’s at hamsterprophetproductions.com

If you have any feedback about the site, feel free to leave a comment.

Another Adventure Begins

I began playtesting my new game, Annalise, last week.

From my current intro:

The games is about creating Vampire stories from the perspective, not of the Vampire, but of his victims, servants, enemies, and others affected by his appetites. This is creating the story of Dracula by playing Van Helsing, Mina Harker and Renfield; it is the story of Lost Boys by playing the younger brother, the two vampire hunters and the grandfather.

We did character discovery and the first scene of the first phase of play, and it was solid. I mean, I took a ton of notes, and I have an idea of stuff to start carving away now, and we obviously have just barely began to engage with the economy and reward cycles, but my group seemed pleased with the core stuff and we’re looking forwards to continuing it (or at least I am).

Anyway, I’m polishing up my notes and procedural rules text into a more human-readable document. The stuff for the first phase of play is all done (with copious examples!), and the second “half” of the game is mostly elaborations and modifications of the mechanics for the first part, so it shouldn’t take so long to finish up.

The point being, by next weekend I should have a fairly usable playtest draft. So, if anyone’s interested in checking it out, lemme know!

Oh, and here’s a first draft of the “first half” character sheet. It’s looking like you’ll need a different sheet for the second half, and this one is actually already out of sync with my latest rules revision, but whatever. I’m digging how it looks so far.

Annalise Character Sheet

I’m excited.

Let Me Tell You About My Character…

So at Origins Mel White and I did an interview with a guy named Mark Van Fleet, who was recording oral histories of roleplaying game character. Mel recorded it for his podcast Virtual Play, and you can check out the interview here. And the general page for the podcast is here.

Carry Errata

The only appreciable change (other than typo corrections and layout tweaks) is this:

Par. 3304-c (page 45) originally read:

c.     If the winner’s action pool included any Burden Dice, the winner MUST spend points inflicting fallout on each of the Grunts that provided a Burden Die, if he has the points to do so. He then gives their Burden Die back to them.

Replace it with:

c.     If the winner’s action pool included any Burden Dice, the winner MUST inflict fallout on each of the Grunts that provided a Burden Die. This does NOT cost fallout points. He then gives their Burden Die back to them. The winner may shell shock, wound or seriously wound each Grunt without restriction, but he may only do one of these per Action scene.

It’s one of those changes thats minor but not really. It worked out really well when we played it that way at JiffyCon, and I think it’s more in line with how I want the Burden/Ranking Officer/Action Scene feedback to work.

Honored

Yet again, the Sons of Kryos kick my ass with their fabulousness.

Jeff named our game of carry as his #2 favorite game of 2006 (AP thread). Wow. I’m honored.

Judd named our Dreamation 06 PtA Hare and Hound as his #1 pick, which I played in as well. Just read the AP thread already! … and in linking, I reread the thing. And got chills all over again.

That game STILL has power over me. Damn.

Static

…page, that is. Up above you can see I added a seperate page to index the RPG Design Handbook stuff.

Oh, and I need to do another print run of carry. Many thanks to everyone who’s picked up the game. I hope y’all get to play it. I’m going to be doing a typo correction re-edit, and I’m adding one rule (it’ll be posted everywhere once I have the wording correct in the text). Feel free to point out typos and other weirdnesses with the text in the comments, if you have a mind to.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Dreamation On The (Mental) Horizon

And here’s what I’m planning to run at Dreamation 2007:

Thursday

Event Title: A Night Of Enticing Stories

System: 1001 Nights

Blurb: 1001 Nights is the game of storytelling, courtly intrigue and self-preservation in the palace of the Sultan. “You play members of the Sultan’s Court, whiling away the sultry nights by telling pointed stories to advance your own ambitions. Navigate the social maze and you could win your heart’s desire; offend the wrong person and you suffer the Sultan’s wrath.” This rotating-GM style game gives everyone the opportunity to tell tall tales and enjoy the parables of others.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Fun

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Friday
Event Title: The Burdens Of War
System: carry. a game about war.

Blurb: carry. a game about war. is a short-form game that follows the story of a squad of U.S. Marines in the Vietnam war. The players take on the roles of soldiers from this squad, and create the weights and issues that they bring with them into the war. As the unit falls apart under both external attack and internal strife, how will you shape the legacy and memories that you will leave behind? This is not a convention scenario; this game is played in its entirety in one 4-hour session.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Serious

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Saturday

Event Title: The Burdens Of War

System: carry. a game about war.

Blurb: carry. a game about war. is a short-form game that follows the story of a squad of U.S. Marines in the Vietnam war. The players take on the roles of soldiers from this squad, and create the weights and issues that they bring with them into the war. As the unit falls apart under both external attack and internal strife, how will you shape the legacy and memories that you will leave behind? This is not a convention scenario; this game is played in its entirety in one 4-hour session.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Serious

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Event Title: The Guardians of Time

System: Timestream

Blurb: It’s a big responsibility, the preservation of history. And those tasked with it have started to slip. Strange events and changes are started to erupt in every era, and now you’ve been tapped as a replacement. Unfortunately, you have your own goals and interests - which may or may not match up with your new duties. Will you and your compatriots be able to stand up to the test of time itself? Or will you let your personal interests get between you? As Time Travelers, Temporal Manipulators and Thralls, the fate of the timestream itself is in your hands.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Fun

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Keepin’ my Sunday open, baby. I’m looking forward to this one.