Observations of the Fox

I've just about finished my "Little Game Chef" entry, those who are familiar with my work will be able to pick it instantly. Then it's a break from my own games. Avalon seems to be fairly professional in their dealings with freelancers. I've submitted an outline for my booklet "How to make a GREAT dungeon", and they seem happy enough with it that they're already interested in offering me some more work. But for my own stuff, it's back to my Quincunx graphic novel, the source of inspiration driving the RPG I've been working on for the past few years. I've had the outline of my story for quite some time, there are notes going back to 2006, and a preliminary version dating back to meeting David Mack during his visit to Sydney Supanova in 2002 (Quincunx began as a homage to Kabuki, a story within that world focusing on one of the other operatives...but then I decided to take the story for my own and introduce some of the other elements I wa...

I've had a habit recently, a coming up with great idea then releasing it to the world through a contest entry. That's the theory anyway. Sometimes the ideas don't take (I like to think that the ideas are simply too revolutionary, and people aren't ready for them yet)...sometimes I probably just don't explain them well enough. Little Game Chef is on now. ...and so, another of my ideas bordering genius and insanity is coming to fruition. But the judges have asked that we work alone, not posting our ideas on the various forums where the contest was advertised. This post is basically a reminder to myself, a chance to reveal the various ideas and research regarding the tool I'm using in my Little Game Chef entry. Suffice to say, it should link into the contests theme of "comedy" pretty well. Especially in an immersionist way.

I'm about to embark on a new journey in the world of roleplaying...a freelance writing gig. I've been in contact with Avalon Games , with regard to their upcoming series of booklets entitled "How to be a Great..." The aim seems to be the production of a series of booklets focusing on different aspects of the roleplaying hobby...from GMing to Playing, Character Writing, Scenario Creation, etc. It's a nice idea and while I put my hand up for "How to be a Great GM", this booklet was taken. So I've opted for "How to make a Great Dungeon". If this works out, I'll be submitting a few more Great Booklets to them.

Just finished generating some artwork for a movie pitch... I thought I'd share.

Traditionally, a character sheet has a range of skills on it. Each of those skills has a value to indicate how good a character is when undertaking a task with the marked skill. It seems simple enough, but it often leads to complications. Some games (like D&D 3rd Ed and RIFTS) create synergies between skills. If you possess skill "X", you gain a bonus to skill "Y" because there is an overlap in their spheres of use. You often need to cross reference a couple of books to get the full range of synergies and bonuses. Some games (like White Wolf's Storyteller System) use general abilities/skills, then provide specialties, or secondary abilities that fill specific niches that the main skills don't cover. Again, those players with access to a wide range of splat-books have an advantage here...and if the GM says that only stuff in the main book is allowed, you end up with play situations where the GM has to make an ad hoc call, or simply say..."Sorry, you ...

Do I put my hand up for this or not? I've got the time... I've got some ideas... But the killer is the theme..."Comedy". I went right off key when I submitted my last Little Game Chef entry, where the theme was "Immersion". If I take too long thinking about it, the opportunity will pass. So I'll consider my options and decide on whether to enter tomorrow.

Thanks for the comments regarding my last post about Forums. I'd like to think that the responses back up my belief that it's good to have different forums catering to different types of designers...in much the same way that we now see a wide variety of games catering to very specific and different play styles. I didn't mention 1km1kt or RPGLaboratory, it wasn't a deliberate omission and I'm interested in some of the stuff happening over there...but like the posts from Forge newbies, a lot of what I see coming from that part of the independent games community seems to be recycled or thinly veiled copies of existing stuff. I haven't mentioned Old-school Renaissance forums (I'm pretty sure there are a few of them around), because that style of play may be valid and may have its fanatics, but it just doesn't interest me as much as pushing in new directions. ...but what about the numerous blogs I mentioned in passing as a final comment. At the time of wr...