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2006-08-22
: Finding our games by Meguey
1001 Nights is for sale through my game company, Night Sky Games.
Breaking the Ice and Shooting the Moon are for sale through Emily's game company, Black and Green Games.
2006-02-05
: Initials and Handshake by Emily
Hi there,
Welcome to Fair Game! What's your name and what initials do you use for marginalia comments? Anything else you might like to share?
2006-05-13
: Movie list by Meguey
Here's where I want to jot down movies I want to see. Comments and *short* reviews, no spoliers please, are welcome. Feel free to reccomend movies, too, with your review.
2008-07-23
: Prototyping
posted by Emily
In an interview from last summer at GenCon, Reiner Knizia talks about Prototyping board games. Thanks to Seth BenEzra for the link. I'm just picking on a small part of this, but the whole thing is worth a read. What he said about Prototypes speaks to me about playstorming, playtesting, and publishing ashcans or playtest drafts.
Creating and testing games is the longest part of the process. It’s important to brainstorm and generate a lot of ideas, and to actually set aside time for creating, and not just between phone calls. That part is freeform, which then becomes much more structured during testing.
This is the playstorming part. It may look something like what the Imagination Sweatshop folks do. Or it might be you sitting in your living room with a notebook and some dice, sweating it out and feeling inspired. We all have to spend some amount of time in this process. Giving it a name and sharing it with others is just giving it a form, and a major boost of energy, that it wouldn't otherwise have--but it would be there nonetheless.
Testing is the process of continuous revision. The designer needs to watch the playtesters carefully for points where there are question marks.
This is the playtest part. Ben talked about how he approached playtesting in his recent interview on The Independent Insurgency. He describes taking a game text that is 90% or as much as possible what you want it to be, and then playing it as written for a full session to see how it operates in full. Luke, Thor and the Burning crew are notorious for putting games through their paces and being merciless in their testing and tempering of the games. It's a process that is critical, but, I think, can come too soon, when people are still in the brainstorming and crafting stage. There are psychological elements to the process of game design that are important as well. If someone loses their belief in their game, they may abandon the project over a hurdle, when the game itself just needed more time.
The designer needs to be both creative when designing and a businessman to understand company needs. When to go to prototype has a sweet spot: do it too early, you don’t know what to analyze in playtest. If you spend too long before playtesting, you’ve wasted a lot of work if it crashes.
Now here's the part that takes a very different look at a similar process. How often do we think of our playtest drafts as prototypes? But that is what they are. They are our ideas encoded in hard copy to allow us to be able to start communicating them with others, and to let us see how they function in the real world. Both in how they work, and in how people respond to them, or understand what you're getting at in the game. I just finished my first long term (2 months) playtest of Sign in Stranger, and so much of what I learned was about having to be sure that what I use to play the game communicates the assumptions of the game: the alien-ness of the world, the specialization of the characters and the empowerment of the players to flesh out those parts of the world.
Actually, this part of his talk makes me realize that he wasn't talking about the same thing as playstorming up above. He was simply talking about brainstorming ideas--the critical piece of playstorming, putting the ideas into motion, was missing until now.
Also, the business model he's dealing with is very different from that of an indie role playing game designer. Making a prototype is as easy as typing out a word document (or can be). It doesn't involve making custom game pieces or boards, and also doesn't represent an potential investment of thousands of dollars on the part of a large company. Just the pennies we save up to make some copies, and the sweat of our brows. Now, the timing and money lost may be similar, but I doubt most of us think of it that way.
But, here's another gem:
However, sometimes partial prototypes are made to test specific parts of a game. And pieces of games can move between different prototypes.
Partial prototypes. Targeted to help test certain parts of the game. For longer, more complex games that could be extremely useful.
Eppy's War Eternal (a dramatic game for Warhammer-esque mini combat) comes to mind. I can imagine a test module that takes you through a battle. Later editions would expand the scope to campaigns and incorporate the portable play he has in mind, where you can take your army and go beat on anybody else's army and tie the storylines you've created in other games together.
Ben's Adventures in the Land of 1000 Kings might be a good candidate. I know you are working on trying to get the world to feel more real and have a sort of weight to it, Ben, that when the players encounter it gives them a sense of awe and discovery that the game hasn't delivered yet. (Though I adore the game and am not having the problems with it that you are). It might be useful to break out this part of play and set up mini-games, taking different approaches that players can use to see if they get the kind of experience you're looking for. (And, f'r goodness sakes, is there no link for this game?)
And I realize I've been planning on doing just this for Sign in Stranger too. The game is long, long term in it's focus, and I'm taking the design stage by stage to get each part functioning right. I've been working on Quick Start rules that you can use to play in one session, at a con or what have you, and am planning on having this for free at GenCon. Sounds like Reiner would approve.
2008-06-27
: JiffyPix
posted by Emily
We had some fun at JiffyCon. :)
More here.
Thanks to Jule Anne for the pictures!
2008-06-12
: Ritual, integration and alphabet soup
posted by Emily
Over at Cultures of Play, schlafmanko (aka Christina) has started up discussion of Meg and my old essays on gaming and ritual and dramatherapy and rp. I'm in the middle of some serious catch up at work, so lamely have only made a token response so far, but it would be great to continue these thoughts.
Do check out Cultures of Play. Ryan Macklin started it as a place to talk about the people parts of role playing, from the impact of culture and society on our games, to the import of the internal parts of play. They've set a nice tone of listening and thoughtful discussion. A nice addition to the conversation.
2008-05-17
: My brother Travis is dead.
posted by Meguey
He died this morning after years of living with cancer. I feel very sad but also fairly calm and peaceful. He was an incredibly strong, brave fighter - a peaceful warrior. When I got married 15 years ago, he surprised us all by saying "I'll be there for your kids." He knew even then that something was not right, even though the cancer would not be diagnosed for another three years. He knew all my children. We got ten more years than we had expected; he ran a business, served on city council, met and fell in love with his wife, and raised a beautiful daughter. I'll miss him for the rest of my life, but I'll feel him near me when the wind blows cool and refreshing, for just a moment, on a hot summer morning.
Travis, we miss you. Arf!
2008-05-05
: JiffyCon
posted by Meguey
Did we mention JiffyCon is on?
Yep. Y'all sign up now, hear?
2008-04-30
: Breaking the Ice and Shooting the Moon in pdf
posted by Emily
Hi everyone,
Just in time for Spring, Breaking the Ice and Shooting the Moon are now available in pdf format. The pdfs include the full text and illustrations from the print versions, formatted in landscape, letter-size pages for ease of printing. I cleaned up the text a bit in each, and Breaking the Ice now features a more pleasing character sheet--that still has all of the usual hints and reminders for playing the game.
You can get the pdfs from me at Black and Green Games as well as from Indie Press Revolution. They've got package deals and bundles, too, at IPR.
Now to get cranking on Under my Skin and Sign in Stranger. Oh! There are pages for each of these games (and other free ones and playtest drafts) at Black & Green, too. You can download the latest playtest versions and see links for play reports. Go check it out.
Happy Spring!
best,
Emily
2008-04-28
: Cool Food Tool
posted by Meguey
My 2nd grader came home a week ago all excited about this game they played in technology class. He told me all about the social and economic impact, as only an 8 year old can.
"You play this vocabulary game and if you get the word right, then they give rice to hungry people -for free!-. That means you learn stuff -and- feed people who need food. I mean, how cool is that?"
2008-04-17
: Cultural shortcomings
posted by Emily
Okay, folks. I'm sadly lacking in my online cultural knowledge. What are the possum awesome web comics out there? I'm a fan of Jenn Manley Lee's Dicebox and the newly re-started Hereville. But I know there is a ton of other great stuff out there.
What am I missing? What do you read?
2008-04-14
: Mist-robed Gate
posted by Meguey
Last night I got to play the most fun game of the year, thus far. Shreyas ran his game in development Mist-Robed Gate for 10(!) of us Western Massive/Story Games Boston types. The theme was a western on Mars, as colonized by Chinese kung-fu masters. Whoo-boy.
Cool things about the game design:
Each character picks a color, weather, and 'kung-fu tell', which turn into points when you bring them into narration.
Because the people not on-screen get to vote as to who's winning the kung-fu fighting, everyone stays engaged even if you're not in the screen.
Yes, the cool rules about the knife include stabbing another player's character sheet as an option.
Cool things about the game play last night:
I don't ever remember being in a game where there was *that* much applause. 11 people who are all quality players makes for a really fun game, even just to watch.
Who's who:
Carrie=Flower Blossom, the oldest daughter of local notables, and a high-ranking water resource manager with a marriage she wants kept secret
Elizabeth=Metal Wind, a bounty hunter, later revealed to be Flower Blossom's little sister
Shreyas=Small Happiness, a Taiwanese/Phobosean spy, works with Flower Blossom at the water station
Jonathan=New World Chen, the cop, with
Kat=Plum Blossom, owner of a saloon called The Grove, she has a painful past
Evan=Misery, the penitent fanatic who drags a ball and chain everywhere, self-styled slave to Flower Blossom
Dev=Old Duck, the simple dirt farmer and moral center of our tale, linked to Plum Blossom's past
Kelly=Sounding Bell, a traveling religious fanatic, head of Misery's sect
Josh=Clouded Glen, tyrannical water system controller, Flower Blossom's boss, now dead at Old Duck's hands
Meg=Fragrant Plum, the hooker with the heart of gold at The Grove, a Party Loyalist
Joshua=Nine Hands Mi, a wandering 'man with a past' who has found in Plum Blossom a reason to stay here
Can you see it? It's all about water control and water access, crossed with secrecy and religious fervor. I spent a lot of time listening at doors and ferrying info to my cop 'friend'. Carrie's prim water manager is *dangerous*! Do Not mess with her!
Best bits, not in chronological order:
Flower Blossom trying to bribe New World Chen to leave the humble farm before recognizing her as something beyond a farm-wife. How do you trust a cop who won't take a bribe??
Sounding Bell's blind-folded monkey.
Nine Hands Mi catching the falling soup bowls - so kung-fu!
Plum Blossom's pimp-coat and arch looks. There's a lady who knows how to run a business!
Clouded Glen's spitting-mad freakishness in smashing the control panels when his authority was questioned, and his threatening dying words. Impending nuclear explosion, you say?
Metal Wind's mono-filament razor ear-rings inscribing twin circles in the stone wall during the sister's fight.
Old Duck's insistence on his town's right to water, and Small Happiness' revelation about all the extra water in Dark Militant Lake. And then death to Clouded Glen!
Misery looking for 3/4 inch pipe, and Fragrant Plum lending him a, um, hand in measuring.
2008-04-01
: Sign up now!
posted by Emily
Looks like Google has gotten the drop on Sign in Stranger and begun the process of colonization of Mars. Always the forward thinkers, they.
Project Virgle