Category: publishing

Oo! Let’s Make a Game! Episode 4: Social Networks!

01:06:30 long & 63.8 MB big

In this episode, Robert Bohl (designer of Misspent Youth) and Joshua A. C. Newman (designer of shock: social science fiction), discuss possible structures for a session of play, talk about how to structure technological and interpersonal relationships, and talk a bit about how mechanics might work. Lots of meaty game design here.

Joshua‘s and Rob‘s homeworks

– Listener feedback: Paul Beakley, Nathan Wilson, Simon C, Doc Holaday
– The book Starfish by Peter Watts
– Discussion of how many players the game should service
– Initialization, a word to be used a lot in the game
– Drop initialization phase created NPC?
– Primetime Adventures
– Spotlight characters, scene order, and whether scenes are about players or characters
– Are there too many scenes? Can you run out of interesting stuff before you run out of time?
– The roles that PCs play in spotlight characters’ scenes when they’re not spotlight
– The Wire
– Introducing new NPCs and new tech, tying Currents to them
– Talking about the tech web
– Separate relationship maps on each character sheet to reflect different visions of relationships
– What am mechanics?
– Joshua = power, Rob = meaningfulness
– Joshua promises a diagram
– Mind control!
– Personality Anchors, and we argue over it
– Richard K. Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels
– Rob keeps talking about “spotlight scene” when he means “spotlight episode”
– Anchors and immunity
– Vincent Baker’s thread where he’s asking for critique on Apocalypse World
– What to call the co-GMs?
– Homework: write up what a scene might feel like, which we’re probably going to do on the forum
– No listener homework

Rob’s during-the-show notes

You can subscribe to the show by plugging the RSS feed URL into your preferred podcatcher. You can also use the one-click iTunes button thingie:

The intro music is “Gotta Whizz” by Boris the Sprinkler, from the album Mega Anal. The outgoing music is I Wish I Was a Boy by Angry Red Planet, provided by Podshow’s Podsafe Music Network.

The Game Design Studio Opens Its Garage Doors

bauhaus

Let’s try a little thing!

I just put up the game design studio here at xenoglyph. It’s a forum specifically for real, grown-up critique.

I will be applying the standards of studio group critique in order to support the creation of better games and better artifacts according to the publication objectives of their creators.

The forum will be heavily moderated. I want it to generate solid work, so any socialization that happens will be within the context of the stuff you’re actually creating. If you want to chew the fat, meet me at the bar at Story Games. If you want to actually work on your game, put on your apron and let’s work on your thing.

Read the rules. If you have something you feel could use work and you feel like the rules might help you, then we’d love to see your rules, your text, your page design, your cover. If you feel like you can help, please come help.

The Un-Store R0xx0rz

I’m very excited to say that my games — and, indeed, all publications, should I ever get around to That Other Stuff — are now available from the Indie-RPGs.com Un-Store. This includes the never-before-sold-outside-of-Gen-Con Shock: Sheets, now bundled with Shock:. You can also get them separately! I thought they were going to be kind of a cute thing, but they were a surprisingly hot item at the con.

They’re pre-printed, double-sided Shock:Issue grids and Antag:Protag sheets. It makes it just that much faster to get down to playing. Plus, you can stick a couple in the back of the book and always be ready to play!

The Un-Store is going to be reaaally interesting. The wheels have just left the runway. But it’s gonna fly.

Beowulf Errata

Hey, folks, if you have questions or want to point out errors in the Beowulf ashcan, please bring them over at the Beowulf errata thread in the Xenoglyph forum. I look forward to hearing back from all the enthusiastic folks who purchased it at Gen Con and before.

I’ve got a couple of copies left. If you want a copy before they’re gone, you should order one quick!

Order Beowulf (sold out.)

So Tired…

Thank you, all you excellent folks at Gen Con for giving me such a good time in Indianapolis this week. I’m totally exhausted and sitting in the genuinely impressive Indianapolis public library, chilling out while I wait to head out to the airport.

On the way, I intend to eat at Major Restaurant, an East African restaurant where I ate with Malcolm Craig, Vincent Baker, and Jim Pinto the other day. It’s right by the airport and man, it’s wonderful. The food here in Indy is so grim, getting something spicy and made on purpose is really great.

I’ll be posting stories over the next few days, most likely. But I want to say thanks a bunch to the Playcollectivists, thanks to Anna, Graham, and Danielle for finally playing with me — my first time with any of you, and all at once!

I had a great time talking with people about building games, too. I look forward to seeing what Will Schoonover does with Out of the Grey and I’m really excited to read what Clyde L. Rhoer has done with Silence Keeps Me a Victim.

Eyes in the Night, Delivered To Your Doorstep

Beowulf. An epic game by Joshua A.C. Newman

Beowulf is off to press on the morrow! I’m doing a very limited run, Ashcan-style, so if you want to read the poem, consider the exegesis, play the game, and give me feedback, this is your chance!

I’m selling it for $14+$5 S&H, or just regular $14 at Gen Con. Since the run is limited, I’ll be selling the remainder at Gen Con that I haven’t sold via my own site, so if you want to make sure you have a copy, preorder and I’ll shoot it off to you as soon as they get to my doorstep. If you want to wait until Gen Con, you can, but I’ve had a few people interested in preorders already, so you take your chances with the Wyrd.

Even better than picking up a copy at the Playcollective or Ashcan Front booths, order one from me, play with your friends, play with me at Gen Con, and give me feedback that will both be fun to generate and help produce a great final book.

It’s 244 pages long, 5″ x 8″, and I’ve made uglier things in my life.

Order Beowulf (sold out. Please give feedback!)