End Of The Line

As you may have been able to tell, this blog is pretty much defunct at this point. However, I’ve decided to start a new blog that hooks into my current branding, and will cover my experiences as a designer of physical things as well as games!

The last year has been a pretty fallow one for me, game-wise, but I’ve come out of GenCon 2010 with renewed energy, and I’m starting to feel like I have things to say again. So that will all be on the new blog.

I will also be talking about stuff rising out of my experience in my graduate program as I go through the second and final year. As I go through a formal design education, I make more and more connections between my “hobby” and my coursework, and I hope to talk about both of those things.

One thing I will still be using this space for is continuing the RPG Design Handbook. I’ll post to the other blog when it’s updated, but it will remain on this blog for the time being.

The new blog is simply the ndp design blog.

Thanks again for your attention, dear reader. Onwards!

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.

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!

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.

OgreCave Plug

OgreCave (which is great, and you should follow it if you don’t) very kindly placed Annalise on their digital holiday gift guide. How cool, thanks guys!

carry review on Play This Thing

carry has been reviewed on Play This Thing. I think it’s a pretty good, though I would question the idea that because the text is short(ish), gameplay is less deep than it otherwise would be. Seems like a category error to me. Overall, however, it’s a solid overview of the game, and I really appreciate that it’s up on such a great site (if you don’t read Play This Thing like, all the time, you should).

Thanks to Judd for tipping me off to it, and thanks to Sage for the review.

Some Annalise-Related Content

So I’m finally getting around to my backlog of stuff for findannalise.com. More examples of Claims and Secrets are up, and I’ll hopefully be sneaking in more images for the fiction-contest-that-will-be-happening-eventually. I like the Claims archives for illustrating different tones of games. I like the Secrets archives for giving me ideas to steal next time I play.

Also, if you bought Annalise at some point over the summer and have not received an email from me, let me know.

Also also, if you are a game reviewer-type, I would like to talk to you.

Contact for both of these things: findannalise-at-gmail-dot-com.

Thanks, everyone. The response for the game over the last two weeks has been gratifying, both in terms of sales and comments on the interwebs. I hope some of you get to play soon!

New Personal Blog

So this blog is, obviously, focused on RPG stuff. I’ve been hankerin’ for an outlet for other stuff I’m into, which over the course of a couple of conversations with my brother turned into this. 21dB: Nathan & Kyle tell you whats what.

21dB

So, that’s where my stuff about fashion, media, culture, politics & general life crap is going to be, if you’re interested. Also, links to funny shit.

Consider yourself told.

Annalise Eternal Tears PDF Now Available

As the title says. The 70-page PDF is $12.00, and currently available direct from the website; from Indie Press Revolution; and from the indie rpgs un-store. As it gets up on various retailers, I’ll update that information.

Thanks for the patience from everyone. I’m happy to have it finally available.