I've been thinking about ships in Into The Oort a lot for the last week. I had a lot of fun a while ago writing down names for a d100 table of ship names (it will surprise no-one if they see that table that I like the Culture novels), and I now have a d50 table of "ship classes" too, in the sense that the Enterprise D is a Galaxy class ship, Luke Skywalker flies an X-Wing and so on.
Say you have a random encounter with a ship and roll some thing from a few tables quickly. It comes back with, say, 20 metres long, rocket-shape, stats are 10s across the board except for a thick HULL of 14. Two laser banks. Another quick roll, it's part of a notoriously inept pirate militia - but where did they get their hands on a decent ship like that? Mystery...
Anyway, you roll on the d50 ship class table and that tells you it's a Caliban class ship - and from this point on, if you meet another Caliban class ship you can expect it to have similar stats, shape, size and armaments. Caliban can become a kind of shorthand in your game.
(of course, they might not only be used by pirates: a border patrol for a polity seven hexes over could have a whole fleet that they have retrofitted with fast drives; comet miners might have one with a ridiculously oversized gun installed to deter thieves - the class just offers a broad baseline)
Ship names and classes are fun to think about. Mechanics and shipgen less so. Finding a way to make ships as nice as PCs from a game of Into The Odd, mechanically speaking, is interesting and tricky. If someone rolls stats for a character, they can then interpret them when it comes to describing their physical appearance - and that's OK, because they're going to be playing that role after all. They won't be playing a ship. My original design idea was to have three stats for ships, HULL, DRIVE, SCAN - which almost mirror STR, DEX, WILL from Odd - and to have regenerative shields, SP, replace hit points. So in the midst of a fight the shields then the HULL takes damage, but assuming the power is up and the ship can get away, the shields recover and then the HULL has to be repaired.
But what about crew size? What about ship size? What about cargo space? I'm happy to have black boxes for a lot of features - power, life support, gravity - but I think having something mechanically that determines crew, ship size and cargo space features in ship generation is useful (as well as some thoughts about how that could mechanically impact things in play; how well can someone fly the ship with only a skeleton crew?)
And while it is nice and neat to have stats for the ship, do we need someone who is acting as a pilot or captain? Probably. If the ship takes a hit does everyone onboard roll to avoid taking some kind of damage? Maybe.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. At the moment I'm looking for something simple to generate ships, both for players and for the GM who is creating encounters in play and prepping them before play. I've asked a fair few questions in this post. In the next post I'll try to pull some answers together.
Showing posts with label making things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making things. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 January 2017
Thursday, 26 May 2016
Zine Subscriptions Are Coming
Issue 3 of A Random Encounter is coming along slowly but surely. It's taking longer than the previous issues. Last week I finished one work project and started another the very next day; I've gone from a mentally challenging project to a mentally taxing project. I'm planning then re-planning, spinning ideas around and then seeing what comes back. I'm advertising, sharing and getting out of my comfort zone.
Which hasn't left a lot of time for transcribing, I'm afraid, but it is moving forward, and as it does I'll start the layout process, breaking up the pages and so on. Each issue gets easier and harder to do – easier because I know how it's supposed to look and I'm used to doing certain tasks or looking for certain features; harder because my standards are getting higher with each issue, I want each issue to be even better than the last.
I'll be setting up subscriptions sometime soon though, as this is something that people have been asking about since Issue 1. My plan is to offer subscriptions through to Issue 6, which, all being well, is going to come out in early December. Issues 3 and 4 are in production, with interviews recorded and artists in the loop. I've just reached out to creators to interview for Issues 5 and 6, and gotten positive responses from both.
My plan for subscriptions is that they'll be print and pdf bundles effectively:
Throwing this topic over to you, dear reader, for comments. What else do I need to think about in terms of offering a subscription for A Random Encounter? If you do a zine and have offered a subscription before, what have you found to be the interesting/challenging/valuable points about doing so? What are the non-obvious advantages/disadvantages of doing it? Was it worthwhile for you to offer a subscription? Any thoughts/comments will be gratefully received!
Which hasn't left a lot of time for transcribing, I'm afraid, but it is moving forward, and as it does I'll start the layout process, breaking up the pages and so on. Each issue gets easier and harder to do – easier because I know how it's supposed to look and I'm used to doing certain tasks or looking for certain features; harder because my standards are getting higher with each issue, I want each issue to be even better than the last.
I'll be setting up subscriptions sometime soon though, as this is something that people have been asking about since Issue 1. My plan is to offer subscriptions through to Issue 6, which, all being well, is going to come out in early December. Issues 3 and 4 are in production, with interviews recorded and artists in the loop. I've just reached out to creators to interview for Issues 5 and 6, and gotten positive responses from both.
My plan for subscriptions is that they'll be print and pdf bundles effectively:
- On release day, subscribers will get the pdf sent out to them before it's live on Payhip or DriveThruRPG and print copies in the post before anyone else.
- There will be two subscriber plans for 2016, essentially offering Issues 1-6 (for anyone who has not got the first two issues) and Issues 3-6 (for anyone who has), all with UK, EU and World shipping options built in.
Throwing this topic over to you, dear reader, for comments. What else do I need to think about in terms of offering a subscription for A Random Encounter? If you do a zine and have offered a subscription before, what have you found to be the interesting/challenging/valuable points about doing so? What are the non-obvious advantages/disadvantages of doing it? Was it worthwhile for you to offer a subscription? Any thoughts/comments will be gratefully received!
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Pick Yourself and Pick The Project
I've been watching and listening to a number of talks to help motivate me lately. In particular, I seem to have gravitated towards Seth Godin; I read a number of his books a few years ago, with Poke The Box being a firm favourite, and I get his blog posts in my email every day. I listened to his two hour interview on the Tim Ferriss Show recently, which sparked my attention to go and look for more things of him talking.
A couple of favourites that I found on YouTube and listened to while doing the dishes of an evening include this one and this one - both worth a listen, whether or not you're doing the dishes at the same time. Somewhere in and amongst all of these recent things, two points have popped into my head and won't go away. I'm not sure where I encountered these insights in my listening and reading (I re-read Poke The Box recently too), but know that they came from Seth.
The first thought is about picking yourself: whether you have a boss or not, whatever your profession or job, stop waiting for someone to choose you. Despite being self-employed for years, this has been a hard thing for me at times. Waiting until you hear from someone in order to approach them for work. Waiting until you get this or that and henceforth have the right conditions (they'll never be perfect). Recently I've really accepted this, I've chosen myself to do interesting work - both in my day job, and in this little (for now!) RPG business that I'm running.
The second thought is one that I'm still struggling with, or rather a consequence of the second thought that I got from listening to these talks/books. I think in Poke The Box, Seth Godin raises this idea: "if you want to get better at juggling you have to throw more balls." I.e., if you want to do good work you have to start more projects, you have to start things and work on them and see what happens. You can't umm and ahh over whether or not the idea is the best it could be, you can't wait until you have enough money or no risk or the perfect team or the best circumstances. You have to take an idea when it comes your way and start the project that leads to a new something being in the world.
And I get that: I really do. I don't have any resistance to that concept.
I just don't know which project to pick! Hashtag first world problem, I have so many ideas, what can I do - what a goddamn hack! But this is what has been hanging me up at the moment. A Random Encounter is fine, Issue 3 is underway now that Issue 2 is out and available to buy (hint hint), and I'm probably going to interview for Issue 4 next week. Into The Oort is ticking along in the background, I add about a page a week to my document and make notes on how to resolve some of the mechanical issues with it.
But my brain is telling me that there is something else that I need to do. A small project to break things up. And I have a concept. My brain is jumping up and down and SCREAMING at me that, like a zine which is just an interview with one person, there is something else that I've thought of that is interesting and which I am sure would be interesting to lots of people in the RPG community. I have my concept and I have a couple of variations on the theme that have evolved from that core concept: but how do I pick? I just don't know.
Do I pick the thing that could be done in the least amount of time?
Do I pick the thing that involves fewest collaborators, so there aren't other contributions to keep track of on the production side of things?
Do I pick the thing that would be lowest risk?
Do I pick the thing that I think will be most attractive to others' tastes?
None of these seem like the right approach to finding an answer... So far, where I am, the two questions that have lead me to the small project I'm currently pursuing are:
A couple of favourites that I found on YouTube and listened to while doing the dishes of an evening include this one and this one - both worth a listen, whether or not you're doing the dishes at the same time. Somewhere in and amongst all of these recent things, two points have popped into my head and won't go away. I'm not sure where I encountered these insights in my listening and reading (I re-read Poke The Box recently too), but know that they came from Seth.
The first thought is about picking yourself: whether you have a boss or not, whatever your profession or job, stop waiting for someone to choose you. Despite being self-employed for years, this has been a hard thing for me at times. Waiting until you hear from someone in order to approach them for work. Waiting until you get this or that and henceforth have the right conditions (they'll never be perfect). Recently I've really accepted this, I've chosen myself to do interesting work - both in my day job, and in this little (for now!) RPG business that I'm running.
The second thought is one that I'm still struggling with, or rather a consequence of the second thought that I got from listening to these talks/books. I think in Poke The Box, Seth Godin raises this idea: "if you want to get better at juggling you have to throw more balls." I.e., if you want to do good work you have to start more projects, you have to start things and work on them and see what happens. You can't umm and ahh over whether or not the idea is the best it could be, you can't wait until you have enough money or no risk or the perfect team or the best circumstances. You have to take an idea when it comes your way and start the project that leads to a new something being in the world.
And I get that: I really do. I don't have any resistance to that concept.
I just don't know which project to pick! Hashtag first world problem, I have so many ideas, what can I do - what a goddamn hack! But this is what has been hanging me up at the moment. A Random Encounter is fine, Issue 3 is underway now that Issue 2 is out and available to buy (hint hint), and I'm probably going to interview for Issue 4 next week. Into The Oort is ticking along in the background, I add about a page a week to my document and make notes on how to resolve some of the mechanical issues with it.
But my brain is telling me that there is something else that I need to do. A small project to break things up. And I have a concept. My brain is jumping up and down and SCREAMING at me that, like a zine which is just an interview with one person, there is something else that I've thought of that is interesting and which I am sure would be interesting to lots of people in the RPG community. I have my concept and I have a couple of variations on the theme that have evolved from that core concept: but how do I pick? I just don't know.
Do I pick the thing that could be done in the least amount of time?
Do I pick the thing that involves fewest collaborators, so there aren't other contributions to keep track of on the production side of things?
Do I pick the thing that would be lowest risk?
Do I pick the thing that I think will be most attractive to others' tastes?
None of these seem like the right approach to finding an answer... So far, where I am, the two questions that have lead me to the small project I'm currently pursuing are:
- Which project do I think will be the most fun?
- Which project do I think has the most potential for me to learn something?
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
A Mote In The Oort Cloud
Issue 2 of A Random Encounter is almost ready, but that's not what I want to talk about today!
What do I want to talk about? I suppose the clearest way to put it is words, words and terms. I'm picking up the threads of Into The Oort to take it further, hopefully towards a playtest bundle that people can try in the next month or so. In my day job, one of the workshops I deliver has a bit about the words that people use, how using certain words influences how people think about the topic at hand. The session is about exam preparation, and very often people frame discussion of the exam as "surviving" it - which reinforces negative associations with the event.
One of the last posts that I wrote about Into The Oort was on hexes and distances. When you run the calculations, the region of space that Into The Oort takes place in has around 500 billion hexes, each of which is a vast volume that could comfortably fit the inner solar system in it. Don't worry: Into The Oort is not going to come with a 500 billion hex campaign document! Despite the incredible size of things, these hexes are themselves tiny compared to the total volume of the Oort Cloud...
A word that I've had in mind for a while is the word mote, and as Google helpfully points out this means "a tiny piece of substance; a speck". That's what a hex in the Oort Cloud is, it's a speck, a tiny thing in the vast cosmic perspective.
While I expect that players and GMs will refer to them as hexes, and while I will have hex-shaped divisions on maps in the playtest and in the book, my thought for now is that I will refer to them as motes throughout the book. Because that's what the people living in the Oort Cloud call them, a permanent reminder that they are utterly tiny against the backdrop of the universe.
This isn't the only example I have in mind, but it is the one that I'm closest to a decision on. Aside from posts about A Random Encounter in the near future, I'll try and make some of my thoughts about Into The Oort more concrete by posting them here. If you've got any questions about it then drop me a line and I'll see if I can answer them!
What do I want to talk about? I suppose the clearest way to put it is words, words and terms. I'm picking up the threads of Into The Oort to take it further, hopefully towards a playtest bundle that people can try in the next month or so. In my day job, one of the workshops I deliver has a bit about the words that people use, how using certain words influences how people think about the topic at hand. The session is about exam preparation, and very often people frame discussion of the exam as "surviving" it - which reinforces negative associations with the event.
One of the last posts that I wrote about Into The Oort was on hexes and distances. When you run the calculations, the region of space that Into The Oort takes place in has around 500 billion hexes, each of which is a vast volume that could comfortably fit the inner solar system in it. Don't worry: Into The Oort is not going to come with a 500 billion hex campaign document! Despite the incredible size of things, these hexes are themselves tiny compared to the total volume of the Oort Cloud...
A word that I've had in mind for a while is the word mote, and as Google helpfully points out this means "a tiny piece of substance; a speck". That's what a hex in the Oort Cloud is, it's a speck, a tiny thing in the vast cosmic perspective.
While I expect that players and GMs will refer to them as hexes, and while I will have hex-shaped divisions on maps in the playtest and in the book, my thought for now is that I will refer to them as motes throughout the book. Because that's what the people living in the Oort Cloud call them, a permanent reminder that they are utterly tiny against the backdrop of the universe.
This isn't the only example I have in mind, but it is the one that I'm closest to a decision on. Aside from posts about A Random Encounter in the near future, I'll try and make some of my thoughts about Into The Oort more concrete by posting them here. If you've got any questions about it then drop me a line and I'll see if I can answer them!
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Finally! A Random Encounter #1 is out!
I am very happy to announce that A Random Encounter #1 is here! Check it out:
The pre-orders are now winging their way around the world, and I'm getting envelopes prepped for the rest of the print run. I've ordered plenty of copies - I think - but am happy to be proved wrong by everyone ordering them all.
Issue 1 features an interview with David McGrogan of Monsters and Manuals and Yoon-Suin fame; we talk about when he got interested in games, how he likes to play, how he makes things and more. He told me about the origins and development of Yoon-Suin, and his plans for the future with his forthcoming zine The Peridot. I feel incredibly lucky that Matthew Adams was available to do the cover for this issue, and the rest of the issue features more art by Matt, a piece by Kelvin Green and some tweaked photo art by me.
Click through to the Zines page to order your print copy now, and you can find details of the pdf edition too:
Tomorrow I get back to work on transcribing issue 2 - who am I interviewing? You'll have to buy issue 1 and check the last page!
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| Not pictured: insanely big box of envelopes for future distribution needs. |
Issue 1 features an interview with David McGrogan of Monsters and Manuals and Yoon-Suin fame; we talk about when he got interested in games, how he likes to play, how he makes things and more. He told me about the origins and development of Yoon-Suin, and his plans for the future with his forthcoming zine The Peridot. I feel incredibly lucky that Matthew Adams was available to do the cover for this issue, and the rest of the issue features more art by Matt, a piece by Kelvin Green and some tweaked photo art by me.
Click through to the Zines page to order your print copy now, and you can find details of the pdf edition too:
- you can get it from Payhip now,
- and you can get it from DriveThruRPG as they approved it really quickly!
Tomorrow I get back to work on transcribing issue 2 - who am I interviewing? You'll have to buy issue 1 and check the last page!
 |
| The woman at the Post Office smiled nervously when I said, "See you soon!" |
Monday, 29 February 2016
Oddpool OOP
Following a flurry of activity around Christmas-time it was only a matter of when, not if, I would sell the last copy of Oddpool from my tiny print run. One of the pre-order people for A Random Encounter picked it up the other day and so now all of the Oddpools that I made are gone!
Come to think of it, I don't even have a copy...
As I've said a few times before, Oddpool started as a little gag gift to give to some friends at a games night (Patrick, David and Chris, who were all by that point successfully published in the indie RPG-o-sphere). After their encouragement, it didn't take long for me to see that this was my way to start taking RPG projects forward. And once you start making things, and you realise that you can make them, you realise that the only thing stopping you from making more things is yourself.
(this even extends to blogposts; until recently I would have told you, "Oh, I don't have as much time, oh this is happening, that is happening," but really I'm the only thing in the way)
Anyway, Oddpool is out-of-print, for now at least. I have a couple of ideas for a few other small micro-zines, so I might see how they pan out over the next few months and maybe do a couple of print runs, then offer them all up as a kind of micro-zine pick and mix? That's my current plan anyway.
For now, there are still the Payhip and DriveThruRPG options for getting pdfs, both of which include pdfs for printing Pocketmods and a mobile phone screen friendly version.
Come to think of it, I don't even have a copy...
As I've said a few times before, Oddpool started as a little gag gift to give to some friends at a games night (Patrick, David and Chris, who were all by that point successfully published in the indie RPG-o-sphere). After their encouragement, it didn't take long for me to see that this was my way to start taking RPG projects forward. And once you start making things, and you realise that you can make them, you realise that the only thing stopping you from making more things is yourself.
(this even extends to blogposts; until recently I would have told you, "Oh, I don't have as much time, oh this is happening, that is happening," but really I'm the only thing in the way)
Anyway, Oddpool is out-of-print, for now at least. I have a couple of ideas for a few other small micro-zines, so I might see how they pan out over the next few months and maybe do a couple of print runs, then offer them all up as a kind of micro-zine pick and mix? That's my current plan anyway.
For now, there are still the Payhip and DriveThruRPG options for getting pdfs, both of which include pdfs for printing Pocketmods and a mobile phone screen friendly version.
 |
| Oddpool - go on, you know you want to... |
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Best Laid Plans
The first issue of A Random Encounter should have been in the mail already. I had to go away for work on Thursday and Friday, but had fully expected that when I placed the order for the print run I would be able to dispatch the pre-orders on Saturday morning. And then...
The print run was printed incorrectly, on two counts; first, 98% of the copies had their interiors assembled incorrectly. The pages had all been printed well, but then had been folded the wrong way when they had been stapled in. Meaning that the first page of the zine was in the middle. Not only that, but - in some ways, even worse - the covers had been printed too dark. I hadn't noticed this at first as I was so overwhelmed by the interiors (nearly) all being wrong, but the covers for the print run have come out a lot darker, as if too much black ink has been used. It really overwhelms a lot of the detail that Matthew Adams has put into the image.
It really stands out on the creature, far less detail on the print run, like it has been swamped out by heavier dark lines. Likewise the city in the distance is barely visible in the copy on the left. The only thing that has changed between the two images is Matt adding the title and issue number, the difference is in the printing.
Sigh. Anyway. The printers know about this, I talked with them about it on Thursday, and have been able to send them a full email about it detailing what has gone wrong with the order. They've got that in their inbox and have told me that if they had the complaint in full by 10:30am Monday they would dispatch a corrected print run the same day.
What does that mean? Well, fingers crossed, it will arrive some time on Tuesday and then the pre-orders will be in the mail Wednesday at the latest. Whenever they arrive I'll take them off pre-order, and put the pdf for sale on Payhip and DriveThru. Which means that if you want a print copy and a pdf copy thrown in, now is the time to pre-order!
Thanks again to everyone who has already pre-ordered, you're total stars. For your patience I've sent the pdf copy through already, but if you've pre-ordered and not received this email then get in touch and I'll send it again.
Official launch post coming in the next few days!
The print run was printed incorrectly, on two counts; first, 98% of the copies had their interiors assembled incorrectly. The pages had all been printed well, but then had been folded the wrong way when they had been stapled in. Meaning that the first page of the zine was in the middle. Not only that, but - in some ways, even worse - the covers had been printed too dark. I hadn't noticed this at first as I was so overwhelmed by the interiors (nearly) all being wrong, but the covers for the print run have come out a lot darker, as if too much black ink has been used. It really overwhelms a lot of the detail that Matthew Adams has put into the image.
 |
| Issue 1 on the left, prototype on the right. |
Sigh. Anyway. The printers know about this, I talked with them about it on Thursday, and have been able to send them a full email about it detailing what has gone wrong with the order. They've got that in their inbox and have told me that if they had the complaint in full by 10:30am Monday they would dispatch a corrected print run the same day.
What does that mean? Well, fingers crossed, it will arrive some time on Tuesday and then the pre-orders will be in the mail Wednesday at the latest. Whenever they arrive I'll take them off pre-order, and put the pdf for sale on Payhip and DriveThru. Which means that if you want a print copy and a pdf copy thrown in, now is the time to pre-order!
Thanks again to everyone who has already pre-ordered, you're total stars. For your patience I've sent the pdf copy through already, but if you've pre-ordered and not received this email then get in touch and I'll send it again.
Official launch post coming in the next few days!
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