Well, November is packed with (writing/editing) work:

* Freelance editing project, at my day-job rate.
* Starting DFRPG edit work Real Soon Now. [1]
* Working on STotC at odd moments. [2]
* UA PDF project progressing. [3]
* Day-job editing of many, many 2 yr old DOCs.
* Once again, pondering Hyperworld. [4]

I think that this weekend is the last anyone will see me in a social context until December.

NOTES:
[1] That would be the Dresden Files RPG.
[2] That would be the Strange Tales of the Century sourcebook.
[3] That would be the Thin Black Line, the Order of Saint Cecil sourcebook.
[4] That would be the revisiting of my "Hyperworld vs. the Invadroids" CiaB. . . and a backdoor new edition of T&J under the PDQ# rubric.

Tags: asmp, ciab, day-job, dresden, evilhat, gah, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, pdq, s7s, silly, truth-and-justice, unknown armies, work journal, writing

In the wake of the multi-year "mostly dead" status of Pen & Paper, and the looming demise of Geocities (where my other publications credits are listed), I have begun to try and assemble a decent CV of my work in the gaming industry over the past few days.

It's harder than I thought it would be (especially for an egotist like me!)... apparently I did not keep adequate track of ALL of the work or award nominations I received.

Still, I can say, with some assurance that, since 1998, I have worked on...

20 RPG books

and wrote

50 articles or columns.

. . .

Whoa.

Still assembling data; will let you all know when the credits page on the ASMP site goes live.

Tags: asmp, books, ciab, dead inside, dresden, evilhat, freelance, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, mnpr-rpg, pdq, s7s, spirit-of-the-season, truth-and-justice, work journal, writing, zoz

This past weekend was Camp Nerdly 3.

Short form: Had great conversations, played fun games, drank regional sodas (Cheerwine and Dr. Enuf FTW!), and made silly faces at well-behaved babies. An all-around win.

Also, for the vid-inclined, Jason Morningstar's One Cool Thing I Saw At Camp Nerdly 3 on YouTube.

Otherwise, the ( long day-by-day breakdown behind the cut... )

SUMMARY: Had oodles of fun. Will try to go again next year!

Tags: asmp, batman, cartoons, conventions, dc-metro, evilhat, firefly, flash, freelance, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, mental health, pdq, s7s, silly, spop, trip, vitamin u, work journal

Download the S7S Errata Sheet PDF!

Despite demiurgent, drivingblind, and myself poring over the S7S manuscript for weeks (if not months), a bunch of errata crept into the hardcover version. Mostly little, irritating ones.

I suspect a good chunk of these are due to MS Word trying to "help" me, with another chunk due to disconnect between my headguts and phalanges, and the final chunk just sloppiness on my part. (Mea culpa; bygones.)

The upshot is that the majority of the errors are typos, "spell-os", and punctuation problems. However, there are four errors that have mechanical impacts; on the Errata Sheet, they are bolded.

Quick Thumbnail Summaries for those four here:
1. All koldun can hex; no specific Technique required.
2. In Vehicle Combat, the character Showing Some Flair gets the die, not the Captain.
3. Vexing Misfortune is an instant 3 Style Dice, not 2d6.
4. A Minion Squad of 6 Pirates uses 6d6, not 4d6.

On the whole, I feel pretty good that there are only 4 mechanical errors in a 320+ page book. (That's like 1.25%... not bad. Probably a better score than my other books.)

An interesting thing arising from the partnership with Fred on this book is that the subject line -- "No Book Goes to Press Perfect" -- has been a repeated phrase from him to me. And a learning curve for me.

I am somewhat of a perfectionist (some say "prima donna") about my work: i want it to be as Quality (in a Pirsig sense) as possible. I tweak and twist and sand and adjust and fiddle, around and around, slowly making infinitesimal alterations as I go madder and madder. Given the exceptionally long development period of S7S, you can probably guess that by the end of December, I was crazier than a snake at a shoe convention.

One of the great things about working with Fred over these past couple years is that he really, really tried to hammer that "perfect is the enemy of good/done" into my skullmeats. And I did need that. NOT ENTIRELY sure it got through, but it did enough that I didn't end up in a soft room with a wrap-around bathrobe.

(Thanks, mang.)

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

Two characters who were important in the Alpha playtest of S7S: Sigur Stormeye and Livia Petro.

(I can only hope people link this on Monday; weekends usually have low readership, and holiday weekends even moreso.)

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Let me give some context -- I ran two separate alpha playtests: "the Musketeers" and "the Pirates." The Musketeers ended up being a group of Crail Falons (involved in politics and finance), and the Pirates... well, they were piratical (involved with revenge and adventure).

I had grandiose plans: two halves of an over-arching story that would let me bring both local alpha groups together.

This never happened: both groups stalled (due to LIFE ISSUES) penultimately.

Dammit.

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The Musketeers met up with Sigur, and saw the terror a Warmaster Griffin could wreak.

The Pirates met up with Livia, who had changed from NPC to PC (because a new player joined that game). Quickly, the PCs figured out that Livia Petro and "Imre Molnar" (sharrukin) had actually been each other's intended.

She fled, and he was enslaved, because of politics related to their arranged marriage.

Rock on.

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Here's the thing: Sigur and Livia were designed NPCs. I more or less knew how they'd react in a situation.

Handing Livia over to Melanie CHANGED that.

In a GOOD way.

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In the penultimate sessions of each group, the "Pirates" were establishing a new, complex Barathi Noble House. The "Musketeers" ended up on a skyship headed for Barathi, ready for mayhem and skullduggery.

---

We never ran the big double-group session. ALAS!

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You wanna hear a secret?

Sigur and Livia are my S7S interpretations of Popeye and Olive Oyl.

Look. See. Comment.

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

Time to look at another Minor Island of the 7 Skies!

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Molnar

[ Extant information on Molnar can be found in S7S, p. 78. ]

What Molnar Is Like

Floating in an oval sea (the Elliptic Ocean), the land of the small island of Molnar is shaped like a trapezoid, more or less.

The narrow side is the Lava Tongue Range, a line of long-extinct volcanoes, each individual peak now sporting a crater lake. Numerous waterfalls splash down the sides of their cones, to run along the foothills down into rivers to the Sang de Roche Plains, irrigating their lush soil. Eventually, all rivers lead to the Wider Shore and terminate in the ocean.

The greatest waterfall on Molnar is Ziegler Falls, which falls four thousand feet and becomes the Jahnef River. Near the top of the Falls is the Grand Mill: a huge water-wheel that drives the works of the largest flour-mill in the entire World.

Molnar is heavily given over to agriculture: wheat (good quality, but in no wise up to the quality of Colronan trigo; however, wheat is the primary crop here, outstripping all other produce), barley, oats, rye, millet, hemp, and rice. Grapes, berries, beans, and squash are also grown here in quantity. Ten square miles of land, a half-day's ride from Millersport, has been given over to the Imperial Wyld (an artificial forest).

A few of the greatest Noble Houses of Barathi maintain small properties here, be they villas, farms, ranches (horse and cattle), or vineyards. Other than the horses and cows, the animal life of Molnar includes rabbits, "qilin deer" (or in the native Molnari patois "giraffa"), several species of rodents, and feral cats.

[ . . . ]

See more at Captain Wiki's Swashbuckling Atlas of the Far Reaches & Less-Trodden Paths of the 7 Skies.

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As I said before, I couldn't fit all of the local playtesters' characters into the manuscript, for various reasons. "Imre Molnar" was the assumed name of a former healer turned pirate captain after being wrongly imprisoned, played by sharrukin. I asked him what "Molnar" meant, and he said "millstone" (an innocuous name, but also with the implication that he would grind away at their enemies and also be a weight around their necks).

I mentioned the interesting iconography of the blazon for this colony island when I talked about the S7S Dingbat font.

No offense to Jon, but I made this island a very calm and basic -- okay, somewhat dull -- place. . . for a good reason.

Tatooine.

Every good setting needs a nice, boring place for farmboys and farmgirls to run away from to go on some damnfool adventure. Or for people to land at and take a break from some damnfool adventure. For the most part, Molnar's like that.

The most part.

However, scratch the surface, and you find this.

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Pre-order Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies here!

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

Time to look at another Minor Island of the 7 Skies!

From the S7S wiki. . .

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Hekuba

[ Extant information on Hekuba can be found in S7S, p. 78. ]

What Hekuba Is Like

A small cloud-island, in the Deasil High Layer and near to the Edge of the World, Hekuba is a small, very flat, cloud-island, covered in vibrant green foilage. Other than the Hekubans themselves, thousands of types of insects comprise the predominant form of animal life here, ranging in size from that of a dust-mote to a small pony (the empusa, a type of large mantis that hunts in packs).

Hekuba is rich in copper ore, tin ore, and coal. Hekuban bronze, pottery, and faience is highly-regarded by the aethetes of the World.


[ . . . ]

See more at Captain Wiki's Swashbuckling Atlas of the Far Reaches & Less-Trodden Paths of the 7 Skies

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In developing the different cultures of S7S, I started with three data points, then asked three questions.

( detailed worldbuilding ideas behind the cut )

Whether or not I was successful in this endeavor -- making believeable yet exotic and playable cultures -- is up to the reader to decide.

Have an opinion? Leave a comment!

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Pre-order Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies here!

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

When I start writing on a new creative project, early on I assemble a gigantic playlist on my iTunes to listen to as I type, set on shuffle and repeat. Since my musical tastes are quite eclectic, this often leads to a really odd combination of songs. I select music based on project genre/tone/theme, then for stuff that inspires me along the lines of the mood I'd like to travel in the journey, then I throw in some stuff that just purely enjoy.

I try to make it a big playlist, so I can listen to it throughout the writing and revising of the work.

(Hmmmm... Maybe this list will inspire folks in coming up with entries in the S7S Logo Remix contest -- just 4 more days until the entry period closes!)

Unfortunately, the crash of my old laptop vaporized the playlist, so the below list is recovered from my own memory. There may be errors and omissions.

( long list of music behind the cut )

...however, there is one piece that is the keystone and touchstone of S7S, that has been present since I first started writing the game lo these many moons ago, and still -- in some way -- embodies something about my mindset about it.

That piece is...

Classical Gas (Mason Williams)

If there was ever to be a "trailer" for S7S, I think that "Classical Gas" would be the music under it. To me, it tells a story, with clashing blades, cliffside swings, sudden reversals, and thundering chases, all the while building to a narrative climax.

Now, maybe no one else sees/hears it that way, but that's what's been living in the back of my head during this process. Take from that what you will.

Comments and opinions welcome!

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Remember: S7S Hardcover preorders are here.

Tags: asmp, evilhat, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, mental health, pdq, s7s, work journal, writing

Yesterday, when talking about the S7S Dingbat font, I mentioned the Minor Islands, and how I was expanding them on the S7S wiki.

Here's an example...

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F'chmelch

[ Extant information on F’chmelch can be found in S7S, p. 78. ]

The name of this island is pronounced “fishmilk.”

What F’chmelch Is Like

A small cloud-island, low in the Dome and close to the Sky of Fire, F’chmelch appears to be a bowl of grey rock covered in threads of blue and green. While no plants other than a few mosses and lichens speckle its land, the banks and beds of its system of creeks, rivers, and small lakes are bursting with vegetal life. Watercresses, ferns, lillies (including the famed blood-lily), several varieties of rice (including wild rice), cattails, water chestnuts, and algaes in all colors of the rainbow, as well as some small patches of interesting breeds of kelp (originally brought from Barathi, but extremely divergent due to genetic drift and mystical experimentation).

[ . . . ]

See more at Captain Wiki's Swashbuckling Atlas of the Far Reaches & Less-Trodden Paths of the 7 Skies

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F'chmelch is named after ericrowe's koldun character. While most of my alpha playtest group's characters made it into the book, in some wise, the characters of Eric and Jon -- that's sharrukin -- didn't: Eric's because he was a little too weird (and quietly weird, which was fun to play with but less fun to try to write against the louder weirds in the book), and Jon's because he was unwittingly Captain Blood with the serial numbers filed off.

So, instead of getting a description of them somewhere in the manuscript, I changed their characters into Minor Islands, and -- on the wiki -- tried to infuse those islands with some of the character of those inspirations.

I hope they like their islands!

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

Take a gander at this:


This is the S7S Dingbats font, which is only available only to folks who enter the logo remix contest or those that order the hardcover.

Let's go left to right, top to bottom.

( very long post behind cut, talking about the set above )

So, earlier, I mentioned Captain Wiki's Atlas of the 7 Skies. This is intended to be an "in-setting" collection of information, plots, plans, characters, mysteries, and stuff like that. The conceit is that Captain Froederik Wiki is amassing all sorts of traveller's tales, skysailing legends, maps, and commentary on the World of the 7 Skies. Look to the blog over the next couple weeks to get a taste, starting with the Minor Islands that have David's blazons. I invite everyone to think about adding to the wiki -- and help build the World! -- with their own ideas, whether from playing or even just reading the book. I've been working with a hand-picked crew to populate the thing for awhile, and think we have a decent seed-crystal there.

Go check it out!

(I'd like to direct alternate and optional rules for the game over to the S7S page on the Evil Hat Wiki; linking between the two wikis can be done, if someone can come up with a clever in-character explanation from the Atlas end....)

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