Observations of the Fox

Why write my own, when this post by Dan Maruschak already says almost everything I would want to say on the topic? Why get frustrated that my work generally doesn't get out there, when a number of people have commented that their own work wouldn't have gotten out there if it weren't for face-to-face networking at conventions in North America or the UK? Or just lucky breaks? For the last 10 years, I've been involved in several initiatives to get Australian game designers recognised. In most cases, one or two designers have been raised above the rabble, while everyone else either continues to struggle along in obscurity, or has their profile marginally lifted. In the past six years, I've been studying and my game design has been a backburner project. I'm not actively getting my stuff out there, instead I'm just refining what I do, and getting the rest of my life on track. Most of my stuff can be found on RPGNow/DrivethruRPG , print stuff on Lulu , ...

A game where teams of fragile pilots use giant humanoid weapon platforms to fight against abominations from beyond the outer orbits of the solar system. No dice, no numbers (maybe minimal use of numbers would be better), psychodrama and intrigue galore. Just like an anime, just without the annoying character who everyone hates. Full Size Sheets [ Available Here ] Pocketmod Rules and Playbook [ Available Here ] This is a pre-release beta, only available on the blog. If anyone has any feedback on the game, it would be much appreciated. A refined version will hopefully be available by the end of the year over on RPGNow.

I've run the game through the pdf to pocketmod converter . But now I've been called in to work, to cover someone else's shift. So I guess this is it . The Mandala of All Things is also finished...between that and the indicated components required, the game should be good to play. It's outside the 24 hours, but the game will be uploaded to 1km1kt when I get back from work.

Thanks to the 1km1kt contest this year, there have already been some good things released this month. If I get a chance I might review a couple of them... ...especially that one with the bullets.

1km1kt is running its annual 24hr game design challenge. It runs with an honour system, with participants making a general sportsmanly promise to complete their entry over the course of one full solar day. I'm going to do things a bit differently. I've got a couple of full days available in the next week or two...so I'll dedicate one of them to designing a 24hr game. Over the course of the day, I'll blog my progress live. Hopefully 5 or 6 entries over the period. The first one setting the starting point for the challenge, then a post every two hours or so to provide some ideas on my progress...no posts while I sleep...but then the posts will resume the next day. It will be an interesting experiment to show how my brain thinks while I'm thinking about a game design and refining it rapidly. Does anyone think they'd be imterested in reading this sort of thing?

It's on again, ideas are being gathered . I might even enter this year.

For a long time I’ve been toying with zero sum concepts in games. By this, I mean a limited pool of resources shared among the players, perhaps even extending the concept to a limited pool of resources shared between players and antagonists. There are a few ways you can play with a zero sum environment. Some of which I’ve touched on with “ The Eighth Sea ”, others with “ FUBAR ”, some have been scattered through my unfinished works, and a few ideas  I’ve kept in mind for future projects. Many “euro” style board games incorporate the design methodology, and I’ve been looking at them as a source of inspiration lately. A zero sum environment may be a known quantifiable figure at the beginning of play, or it may be an unknown ecosystem. It may manifest through play in a number of ways. Consider a deck of cards used as a central mechanism for play. If those cards are not shuffled during the course of play, then there are a distinctly finite number of cards that can be ...