I will be at Gen Con this year.

Probably hanging out near the IPR booth, running (15 min) demoes of T&J and ZoZ.

(I need to test said demoes with local folks, btw. ALSO, ZoZT&J one.)

After-hours, I might EASILY be convinced to run demoes of S7S. Especially if you ply me with beer.

ALSO: I am looking for a copy of the Ghostbusters RPG (first ed., not GBI) and a non-XP version of The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues.

LASTLY: I am unfortunately susceptible to female wiles. Take that into account.

Tags: asmp, conventions, covet, evilhat, game design, gaming, pdq, s7s, truth-and-justice, work journal, zoz

Have I mentioned recently how gratified I am to see that Truth & Justice and The Zorcerer of Zo seem to have some traction in the game world?

(That is, people are using these games, both as intended and otherwise, for gaming fun!)

I'm glad folks are grooving. I hope to bring more groove with S7S.

Thank you!

http://www.atomicsockmonkey.com/products/tj.asp
http://www.atomicsockmonkey.com/products/zoz.asp
http://www.atomicsockmonkey.com/products/s7s.asp

Tags: asmp, game design, gaming, pdq, s7s, truth-and-justice, zoz

Work Journal: Gamma draft of S7S chapter 7 is done.

No reply from any playtesters whether or not anyone can run a game using gamma chapters 5 and 6 over the next 2 to 4 weeks yet... which is a bit disconcerting.

I can make edits on the introduction and chapters 1 thru 4, but until 5/6 are locked down, can't redo the handouts or boil-down into PDQ#.

In any case, I'm taking tonight the next few days off before I move onto edits on the intro and 1 thru 4.

Tags: asmp, evilhat, game design, gaming, s7s, work journal, writing

Work Journal: I am done with the "gamma draft" of Chapter 6 (Rules) of S7S; both it and Chapter 5 (Characters) have been uploaded to the playtest group.

I hope that at least a couple of the groups will be able to playtest the gamma rules over the next 2 to 4 weeks.

Now, I take a day or so off, before doing some polish and bibliography additions to Chapter 7 (General Swashbuckling Genre Stuff).

After that, I need to go and take my print-outs of the setting stuff -- Chapters 1 through 4 -- that are all marked-up with my edit/revs, as well as the comments of trusted folks.

When Chapters 1 through 7 are stable, I'll re-write Chapter 8 (Gamemastering).

Then, I'll strip-out setting-specific material and boil Chapters 5 and 6 down to basics, so I can publish the new PDQ# Core Rules freebie.

I'll also start thinking about the best way to create handouts, player-resources, and speedy demoes for the game.

There's more even after that, but that's enough for now.

Tags: asmp, evilhat, game design, gaming, s7s, work journal, writing

Work Journal: I am about halfway through the "gamma draft" of Chapter 6 of S7S. Still to come -- Vehicular Challenges and Duels, plus re-writing all of the example text (including the longform Example of Play).

Looking forward, I am hoping to have the gamma version of the rules locked down slightly before Gen Con. Then the Delta Draft can be sent to Ye Olde Editore. The draft that comes back from YOE (and examined by Your Humble) becomes the Epsilon Draft, which will be provided to the Layout Guru.

Note that this schedule gives our artists plenty of time to produce visions of loveliness.

Only after the layout has been completed, and all art has been acquired, will S7S go to publication.

With luck, that'll be early- to mid-winter of 2008.

Tags: asmp, game design, gaming, s7s, work journal, writing

Work Journal: The "Gamma-4" handout for S7S has been uploaded to the playtest group.

This 15 page document is what I've been using to run local gamma playtests. It contains boiled-down setting info, boiled-down versions of the latest version of the rules, and some new art by Dan Solis (Gift/Koldun symbols) and Christian N. St. Pierre (skyships and wingcloaks).

I'll be using this handout as the roadmap for rewriting Chapters 5 and 6, but thought they'd all like to take a look at it. And maybe talk about it, before I dive into the chapter rewriting.

Tags: asmp, game design, s7s, work journal, writing

Work Journal: And so we come to the close of a week of enforced-non work, in an effort to recharge my batteries after the final lap of my DFRPG heavy-lifting.

I spent the time socializing, watching and reading semi-swashbuckling media (Hamlet sort of counts), and generally just trying to chill out.

And now I have a choice: a) work on chapter 2 of my novel, or b) work on S7S.

I'm gonna go with b).

Simply, I cannot:
1. Think about a), since b) is eating brain-cycles.
2. Assemble a local gamma group of appropriate size for the last bits of testing (but hey, plenty of playtesters JUST WAITING for stuff on the list).

Also, the gamma rules for S7S have drifted a bit from the beta, in some ways further out from core PDQ and in other ways back closer to it. (Maybe that's a rotation rather than a drift?)

So, tonight, I'll start on updating the gamma handout for S7S with the "lessons learned" from the last local gamma, and use that as my "roadmap" for recrafting chapters 5 (characters) and 6 (rules) of the manuscript.

Then I'll push the files out to the playtesters with some targeted areas for test.

With luck and sweat, maybe I can have all that assembled by next Friday evening.

Tags: asmp, dresden, fiction-and-poetry, game design, pdq, s7s, work journal, writing

Yesterday, drivingblind and oletheros came over to the De-Luxe Apt in tha Sky-y-y, so I could run the second local S7S "gamma" playtest.

Short form: It went really well.

( details behind the cut )

Huzzah!

Tags: asmp, evilhat, game design, gaming, pdq, s7s, work journal, writing

(Doesn't "spokken" sound particularly METAL?)

In response to my poll, the clear leader for "work during my break" is refining the S7S handout, to enable gamma playtests.

So mote it be.

Tomorrow night, or over the weekend, I'll start redrafting it. Once I have something in hand, I'll populate to my local groups, test, and revise. Only then will I propagate out to the S7S list. (Skyship combat needs a mighty testing!)

Since we're on the topic of S7S, let me reveal some DEEP, DARK concerns I have about the manuscript... ( non-gamers can skip )

So, those are the deep and disturbing issues I'm feeling re: S7S.

Tags: asmp, evilhat, game design, gaming, s7s, work journal, writing

With the completion of my initial work on the Small Favor matrix and some freelance editing, I am taking a short break.

Of course, for me, "break" means I only work on one project, because I iz insaneymans.

But which. One. Spock? Which. One?

Poll #1180446 "Break"
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which "for-fun" project should I work on during my "break"?

Lemme know, f-list. Taking you advice until tomorrow evening.

But for tonight: comicable books and wine, oh yes.

Latah!

Tags: asmp, dresden, evilhat, fiction-and-poetry, game design, gaming, s7s, sekrit projekt, sf&f, work journal, writing, zoz