One of my greatest regrets is never meeting John M. Ford in the flesh.

One of my greatest blessings is to have interacted, oft-times regularly, with John M. Ford on the Pyramid messageboards and in email.


God grant I am half the writer Mike was, and I will be happy.

Tags: covet, fact, gah, gaming, improvement, mental health, mumbo jumbo, sf&f, writing, wtf?

Master Plan #48: Chad Underkoffler on Setting Design, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies

On this episode, Ryan sits down with Chad Underkoffler about designing setting (and, in some respects, writing in general) with his latest release, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. They touch on how the setting for this setting-rich book was conceived, fleshed out, and trimmed down to aim the right information at the play group. Afterward, Ryan tells you to check out Paul Tevis' A Penny For My Thoughts, because he's frankly damned proud of the work and thinks it makes for a great case study for one school of thought in design.

Direct download at http://media.libsyn.com/media/masterplan/masterplan_48.mp3

(Taste the Macklin!)

Tags: 240 dollars worth of puddin', asmp, evilhat, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, pdq, philosophy, podcast, s7s, vitamin u, writing

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

A Contest of Champions

The main forces of our respective armies had moved off to the south. My regiment remained at the Haiduk Aqueduct, ostensibly to hold it, but really because the Zultanista regiment across the field was still in the area. They, I discovered later, were remaining in the area because we were still there. Ridiculous.

When the idea came for a Contest of Champions to determine who would hold the Aqueduct, I immediately volunteered. One way or another, win or lose, we could then quit this staring contest and return to the real fighting. The Zultanista commander agreed with ours.

Bright and early, just as dawn was breaking, I and my servant climbed the ivy that grew on the crumbling stones of the Haiduk. I saw my opposite number and his servant climbing up the other side.

It was quite a shock when we both reached the top, and looked full into one another’s face across the Aqueduct’s channel. It was the Sandman I had fought alongside Baron Theodoreson in the alley behind Baroness Izolda’s house back in Chansonville! I saw he recognized me as well.

I spoke first. “Good morning, Rahimat. You’re looking well. Care for a spot of breakfast?” I indicated my manservant, who was setting out a dozen eggs, some rashers of bacon, a loaf of fresh white bread, a knob of butter, a small skillet, and a somewhat cracked but still serviceable heatstone.

The Sandman unhooked the veil that covered the lower part of his face, letting it hang free, before he replied. "Leftenant Armandson—-"

“Victor, please.”

He paused before continuing. “Victor, then. I would like nothing better.” He snapped his fingers, and his manservant stepped forward with a wooden tray, bearing a steaming silver pot, a small copper bowl and cover, and a stoneware jug beaded with sweat. “Coffee?”

We smiled at one another.

As is right and proper, we broke our fast together before we tried to kill one another.

—Leftenant Victor Armandson, King’s Musketeer, Knight of Grande Dellaluna

---

This piece of flashfiction is the third part of a sort of triptych of flashfiction: three interrelated bits of story. Of course, they're spread throughout the book.

This moment is an homage, of course, to two -- possibly three -- of my favorite swashbuckling moments. Can you guess which ones?

---

Pre-order the book here!

Tags: asmp, evilhat, fiction-and-poetry, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, pdq, s7s, writing

(BTW, insomnia is GREAT... not.)

While the Great S7S Easter Egg Hunt continues, no one seems to have risen to my earlier hintery re: the Major Islands' names.

Therefore... additional clue.

Barathi = BA*** RATH**** I

Wanna play? Go and respond at http://drivingblind.livejournal.com/438026.html !!!

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

drivingblind made a little post about Easter Eggs in S7S... on Easter, natch.

Those of you familiar with my writing style know that I do drop such things in -- and with S7S being one of the largest things I've ever written in the game industry, there are a bunch.

What I consider an "easter egg" (in my work, at least) includes allusions, references, remixes, mash-ups, reinterpretations, anagrammic games, and pseudo-tuckerizations.

Some of them are obvious (see the example in the comments on Fred's post), some are obscure enough that you'd have to have been there (like the pseudo-tuckerizations of some of the S7S playtesters). Some of them are so deeply arcane that probably only I get them -- mostly because ratmmjess is too busy, and probably too uninterested, to hunt them down.

If you are one of the folks that's already got your PDF, and you think that you've located one of these eggs, head on over to Fred's post and join in the game!

http://drivingblind.livejournal.com/438026.html

And let me give you a starting hint: except for two of them (Crail and Sha Ka Ruq), there's something "eggy" about each of the Major Islands' names...

Tags: asmp, evilhat, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, pdq, s7s, silly, 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.)

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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!

---

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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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!

---

Pre-order Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies here!

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

Duel, Interrupted

I had become embroiled in a duel with Baron Estevan Theodoreson over a woman of high birth who enjoyed both of our acquaintances. The Baron had the temerity to aver that his passion for my mistress was greater than mine! So you can see, I had no recourse than to prove my love for her upon his body with my sword.

As we were crossing blades in the courtyard behind the Church of the City of Light, one of my subordinates came up running. He called a halt to the duel, informing me that a Zultanate agent had entered the home of my mistress, and was threatening her. I, of course, begged the Baron’s pardon for delaying our mutual satisfaction due to matters of state. He concurred with a will, then offered to accompany me and my men to face the Zultanista.

I, of course, readily accepted. We ran down the streets of Chansonville to the home of our mutual friend.

—Leftenant Victor Armandson, King’s Musketeer, Knight of Grande Dellaluna

---

This piece of flashfiction is actually the first part of a sort of triptych of flashfiction: three interrelated bits of story. Of course, they're spread throughout the book. My intent was to use them as a sort of "thread" to help "sew up" a very sprawling concept in the book: the Island of Colrona, with its two nations: The Kingdom and the Zultanate.

Check out the wiki page for this story to see the other two flashfics!

Pre-order the book here!

Tags: asmp, evilhat, fiction-and-poetry, game design, gaming, mad rpg theory, pdq, s7s, writing