I’m very pleased to say that all Kodrek sets have now been sent! Some folks may have already gotten them. I’m really looking forward to hearing about peoples’ games — video some and show me! — and how they house rule the game. It’s designed with some deliberate flexibility and commentary on what taking advantage [...]
Category Archives: game design
Kodrek rules, version 1.0
The 1.0 rules of Kodrek are complete! I’ll be sending boards out to all the Kodrek-level Kickstarter backers just as soon as printing is complete. The timing means that I’ll also be entering the game in the 1000 Year Game Challenge. It’s got some stiff competition! Kodrek is a game with a funny background. It comes [...]
Game Design Studio: Doors (forced) Open!
I forgot to open up the doors to the Game Design Studio, but young rowdies are already cramming in there, helping each other, so who am I to stop them? If you’ve got something to submit, read the How to Critique post, and join the rest of the class!
Kodrek, A Game of the Kotaht Archipelago
During last night’s game of Human Contact, there was a scene in a rough ‘n’ tumble bar where there was a gambling game going on between a couple of background characters in the Kotaht Archipelago. There was some hustling going on, so we wound up describing the game a little bit. Vincent wanted there to [...]
Science Fiction Language
Over at io9, there’s an article about languages in science fiction, using as an example how much ours has changed since Shakespeare’s time. It’s neat, and timely, as I’m working on the language section of Shock:Human Contact next. If I do another Preview Edition, it’ll be about language and war. I’m also drawing on The [...]
Academy Law
There are several parts of Academy law that will be broadly applicable to the interstellar expeditions that will be the core of play in Human Contact. I’m interested to see how these are interpreted (and ignored) in the course of play — after all, it’ll be years, or maybe decades (or maybe never!) before contact [...]
Episode 11: THE END OF THE WORLD!
40:30 long & 37.1 MB big In this episode, Robert Bohl (designer of Misspent Youth) and Joshua A. C. Newman (designer of shock: social science fiction) end it all. Just in time for your Dreamation 2010 drive/flight! – You can’t cut a piece off something living unless it wants you to, like one of those [...]
Human Contact
Human Contact is a version of the Shock: system, focused for a far-future, spacefaring setting. Its science is as hard as I can make it while still having fairy dust things like “interstellar travel” work, while at its core, the setting is about culture clash and the moral challenges of being an explorer and being [...]
Choose Your Adventure! [Oo! Let's Make a Game!]
51:04 long & 49 MB big In this episode, Robert Bohl (designer of Misspent Youth) and Joshua A. C. Newman (designer of shock: social science fiction) discuss major changes to the game, spend a lot of time with feedback, and discuss how Jewish someone has to be in England. We took some during-the-show notes. If [...]


