Motivation is awesome....

So, I have worked more on the game in the last week or so than I have in almost a year.

It is a nice feeling.

I cannot deny that when Fate Core came out, it allowed me to look at the system again and everything just went from there. I feel great about the direction the game is going in my head and each day brings something new to what I am trying to accomplish. Now there is still a lot to be done and I am excited to take that next step with my friend Chris and move forward.

I even made my first character for the game last night. Keep in mind it is just the first one and I would imagine the end result will look a lot different, but I like the direction the skills have went in the game and I am very excited about working on the magic for the game.

As you know Evil Hat previewed the magic toolkit and a lot of my ideas I had were damn close to what I read. So that gives me a lot of confidence in where to go next. Especially since the game revolves around the four elements, air, earth, fire, and water.

Our game is highly inspired by the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. Still, it is not that world since there are two major differences. .

The first one is that the world of Alera is influenced by the Roman empire. I man A LOT. This is part of what made the books interesting. They took a period of time that a lot of people have knowledge of and added it to this world. I am still not sure yet what flavor our world is going to be, but it isn't going to be Roman.

The second thing is the use of furies in the world. Furies are elemental spirits that characters in the book could use to do things by fury-crafting. Like an wind fury could make you faster, or an earth fury could draw strength from the earth. Also, the fury could take form, usually as an animal, and this would allow the caster to do more powerful things like healing or flying.

These are cool, but not in the game.

Mostly, I just love the elemental world aspect of the books, and that is what we took from it. The rest of it, although cool, not so much. I never wanted to make a Codex Alera game.

We are doing something kind of ambitious. Instead of letting the players create the world at the beginning of the game (i.e. The Dresden Files rpg), we are creating the world from the ground up. This is going to take some time to do and we still have to figure out a lot of how that will look. But the hope is that since the world is already created, you can just jump in and start playing...but also giving you enough information about the world that it gives you a starting point.

As daunting as that is, I like the idea and all those hours of playing Skyrim has helped me look at the world from a new perspective. :)

We are creating a world where there are two major factions vying for control. The Devout, whom just want to take all of the world's resources and use that power to rule...and are on the verge of doing so. And the resistance (don't have a name yet) whom are just trying to survive and take back their world.

Is the idea a new one, no. But it is the type of story I love to read and the type of game I love to play. Also,  I am hoping that with a fully flushed out world created, there will be so many opportunities for you to tell your own story.

Whatever that story may be.

I mean who doesn't love to do that? :)

The last week....

So, this is what has been going on lately.

Chris and I got together last wed night and talked about our game. It was a good evening of talking about setting type things. About how the Fury (a huge storm that ravages and heals the world) is going to work. Which is very important since the entire world is affected by this.

Also, we talked about starting a timeline of the world. To understand the present, you also have to know the past.

We are mostly just brainstorming right now about the fundamental aspects of the world. I am going to be working on Fate mechanics in between our weekly discussions.

The nice part is that I am reading Spirit of the Century now, and bought the Dresden Files rpg (yay!) again, and Diaspora is on its way.

Also, I am about to join a Dresden Files game with some people. I am really excited about that since I love the game so much. It should be fun making a character and actually getting to play Fate. I tend to be the one who runs is, so when someone else does I am very happy.

Other things I want to play? I really want to play the One Ring. I have not been as excited about a game in a while as I am about this one. I still need to buy it at some point and wished I had broken down and bought it on Amazon (it was like 37 bucks dammit).

Notes from todays game design discussion

So, after discussing the game today with  a few things were determined. Mostly due to some good advice from people about collaborating on a game, we decided to split up the duties. Chris is going to work on the layout/geography of the world. I am going to work on mechanics and tweaks on the Fate system for the game. We will both work on the setting itself.

Obviously we will both help each other with the tasks, but just getting some clarification as to where we are going really makes the control freak part of me happy.

I plan on writing a small synapses about the game soon so people can have some idea as to what the game is about. But it is influenced partly by the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher.


p.s. please vote on my Fate poll. :)

Ahhhh....game design!

So, tonight was very productive. Sat with +Chris Whissen and talked game design for a few hours. We have decided to make our game with a foundation of Fate...which made me happy since that is what I have wanted to do since I first played Spirit of the Century a few years ago.

The world is inspired by The Codex Alera in a lot of ways. No furies or anything like that, but mostly a world based on the four elements. Every character will have some link with one of the four and there will be A LOT of political things going on since the focus of the game is a faction that is trying to rebel against the "empire". So there will be betrayal, fighting, exploration, politics, and much more. :)

We worked on this a few years ago and have all of the stuff still, but now we are creating our own world from scratch and trying to decide just how big it should be. But taking things I love from Sotc and the Dresden Files rpg. I still  have to check the OGL on the game and such, but we want to take everything we love about the Fate system and give it at epic fantasy twist. 

For now, I am just very happy to get started again

Fate Part 1. Why Fate?

I will be blogging about different parts of Fate over the next months. I will try to do about one a week (if possible).  Over the next months, I also plan to try to get as many of the fate games as possible. There are a few of them out there now, and I look forward reviewing all of them.

So, I guess the way to start this off is to ask the question, why Fate? Actually, someone else had sent me an email on Google+ asking that question, so it seemed like a great place to start.

My friends and I had been gaming for a while. But the only game we ever seemed to play was Dungeons and Dragons, which was ok for a while. We played 2nd edition, and it has always had a soft spot in my heart, because it was the first game that I ever played and you never truly forget your first, right? But one of the problems with 2nd edition is when we brought new gamers into our group via our book club; it was a very difficult game to explain how to play. Just start with Thac0 and watch their eyes glaze over.

So, over time, I started getting burned out of the game. Tired of just running around killing everything. I had not ever played an “Indie” game before, and we even tried to mix it up a little by playing Vampire: Dark Ages and then later Shadowrun. Which I am not a huge fan of either of those games, especially the later.

Then I joined a group in NYC called www.nerdnyc.com an online community where people meet others that like the same things and you get together and actually do them. Shocking, I know. Now a lot the people on there are D&D fans (which is fine), but it is a very diverse group of people.

So, through them, I found out about a small gaming convention taking place in NYC, and I went. At the con, I stumbled into a game called Spirit of the Century. I had never heard of the game before, and sat down to play it. It was so much different from what I was used too, and it took a bit fore me to get used to the fact that I wasn’t really combat oriented. The use of aspects, instead of your typical attributes was confusing at first. But after playing it for a few minutes, I loved it. It didn’t hurt that SotC is a pulp game, and I love pulp.

So after that, I immediately went online, found their webpage, and learned about other games they had made. Then something crazy happened. I found out they were making a Dresden Files Rpg.  What? At this time, my friends Chris and Amy had already gotten me addicted to Jim Butchers Dresden Files, and I was really excited about this.

The first thing I did was sign up to be one of their play testers and was approved. I cannot even explain how excited I was to hear back from Fred Hicks on this. I created a group on Livejournal so people could talk about the playtest experience and even got my own group to help with it.

At this point, I was hooked on the Fate system. I loved how simple it is for new gamers to actually pick up and play, and there is something awesome about when a player actually gets how the aspects work. You can see the light bulb go off when they truly get it. But the system allows you so much control as a player, which is nice to be able to push the game in the direction you actually want it to go. Not to mention, it is more about role-playing than combat.

The funny part of all this is as much of a fan as I am of the system, I have played SotC four times, and I have yet to play Dfrpg. I am hoping that will change cuz when I start our Dfrpg game up again, someone is going to rotate in, so I can actually play.  I have also recently started reading Diaspora and it is very interesting and very well written.

The problem with mechanics...

After going back and looking at the work, Chris, Henry, and myself did, I realize this is going to be something that needs to be figured out by us.  I know everyone that makes a game goes about it differently.  I know some people like to work on the mechanics first, and then figure out everything else.  While others create the setting and build mechanics around it.

I am not sure since the one part of this I have struggled with the most is coming up with a new mechanics system.  I worked on it for almost a year and every time I came up with something I thought was cool, I saw someone else already had something like it.

That has been the most frustrating part of all of this.  Setting (which I will talk about next) is going to be a lot longer to do, but easier to create.  Maybe easier isn't the right word, but it will be more enjoyable.

There are a lot of people out there that blog about mechanics a lot.  I try to read through them when I can.  I see how creative people can be.  It is nuts, the things people think of.  Then you have the people that take someone else's game, and tweak it.  Like the D20 games or Fate (to name a few).  How do people feel about that?   Is it ok to do that because of how much they like the setting?  I have thought a few times of what our game would like using Fate...but that is cuz of how much I love the system.  I personally have no problem with it since every once in a while someone will do this and a setting will catch my eye (like Bulldogs!).

Then there is the excitement of creating something new. Something we can call ours.  But that is hard since so many people  have already created so many different things.  I still like this idea as well.

As I said, it is issue.  :)  It isn't anything that we figure out today, but it is something I am thinking about after reading what we created so far.

Excitement about getting going again.

So, we have at least starting discussing ideas about the game again.  Well, at least two us have.  :)  My friend Chris lives in Pittsburgh, so basically we are talking about game design in email for now.  It is a start, and although I wish he still lived here in NYC (cuz getting together would be much easier), we do what we can with what we have.  Again, it is a start.  I also love that he seems to be excited to get going as well.  Haven't heard from Henry yet, but I know we will.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this.  We are three different people, that look at things differently.  Not to mention, no work has been done on this game in quite some time.  So, for now, there is a catching up period. A time where we go over the basic ideas of the game and try to figure out where to go.  This isn't something that can be done quickly, and the problem is I am ready to start doing it.  Yes, I am impatient, this is nothing new.  So, for now, I am going to start writing down ideas I have and go from there.

So, I am excited due to the fact that is fun to look over the things we did before.  Some of them I love, and some of them I want to change completely (pending we all agree).  My favorite thing I look forward to is creating this world from the ground up.  But it is a major job.  You have to factor class, economy, religion, just to name a few.  It will be nuts, but a lot of fun.  Not to mention I am already making some contacts that may eventually help with artwork...so I am excited about that as well.

It is all about momentum.

Why am I making a game?

How it came to be.

There are a lot of reasons why people choose to create their own game, so I don’t imagine my reason is going to really blow anyone’s mind with my answer. 

You know the scene.  You are sitting around with your friends and talking about gaming.  Your frustration in how things may be done in the game.  For me it was Dungeons and Dragons 2^nd Edition.  Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of fond memories playing this game.  It was the game that got me hooked into gaming 20 years ago. 

So around five years ago we were playing a bunch of 2^nd Edition, and it started to wear on me.  My problem with D&D has always been that it was a bit too rules extensive, and trying to teach new people how to play the game?  Good luck.  By the time you got to Thac0, it was a mess.  So this is how this started.  We started to wonder if we could make a game that was not as confusing, and easier for new people to learn.  Most of our newer players came from our book club and had no experience in gaming at all. 

So on a trip back from a Renaissance Faire that was rained out, we started talking a script for a movie.  Or Chris did, since he was the one thinking about it.  In the story, people were getting killed by monsters from a rpg they were playing.   After talking about it, we decided to make a game for the movie.  A very simple game.

Or so we thought.

Then all those thoughts  of thinking we could make a game we actually wanted to play started coming out.  The three of us (Chris, Henry, and myself) started wondering if we could design something more.  So, it turned into something much, much, more.  We call it Perdition.

Why it is important?

I miss creating.  I have always felt better when I was creating something.  I am written most of my life, and remember how often my life seemed better while I was actually doing it.  Then came a new type of creation with the RPG. 

It was awesome.

It was a new kind of euphoria.  Because we were creating an entire world.  I will talk more about the game on a later date, but it is a world that the elements are a major force, and the creation aspect of that was something I loved so much. 

But even more than that, there is a sense of accomplishment (even on a game that is nowhere near done) that comes with the creation of it.  Even small parts that you finish can make you feel great about what you are trying to do. 

What does the future bring?

The one thing I have to do is get consistent with all of it.  It has been a little over a year since we have actually done anything, and I am in the process of moving back towards starting designing the game again.  I just have to re-read everything and see where we are. 

The funny thing is when we started we had created a D&D clone without even realizing it.  Then I started playing indie games and fell in love with them.   How simple the games can be, and how they are more about roleplaying, instead of it being all about rules.

But beyond that I am really excited about getting back into the game

Some game designers are truly jackoff's....

I have been thinking about the game Chris, Henry and myself were making a lot lately.  Psyching myself up, in an attempt to get going again.  :)  I am not where I want to be in my life to do this all the time, but I am definitely thinking about it again.  I have already started the beginning stages of this, by going on my google docs page and started reading what we had created thus far. 

So, I got into a conversation today with someone (won't mention who) has actually created a few games and we have talked game design on off for a few years.  But for whatever reason today, they just did nothing but talk about how hard it is to be a game designer.  How no one can make money that way.  How it had been a few years since i did this, and if were really important to me, I would have already done it.  Plus other tidbits of negativity that I just ignored. 

I was stunned. 

I have talked to quite a few game designers over the last few years, and for the most part...they have been really cool people.  Always willing to shoot you an email, or give you a suggestions.  I remember Eloy Lasanta (as his company Third Eye Games was just starting out) going back and forth with me in email about mechanics and other things about my game.  That was an awesome thing.  I live in NYC, and have even got to sit across the table with some people to talk about designs (some awesome people from nerdnyc).  These kind of moments are golden and I truly appreciate them. 

I struggle enough with these type of projects as it is.  It is not as easy thing to do to write a novel.  Or create a game.  If it were, everyone would do it.  But I do believe it can and will be done, and for someone to come at with all that negativity.  Well, it just flat out pissed me off. 

I try to be an optimistic person (not always, but i do try), but when people start saying things to bring you down...it is hard.  Now this isn't going to keep me from anything, but it did stop me for a few minutes.  A few minutes of wondering if he was right.  Then I shook that nonsense off, told him I did not appreciate his negative viewpoint and went back to what I was doing. 

It is what it is.  I realize that.  Not everyone is going to tell you how amazing you are and that you will accomplish all of your goals in life.  That is fine, I can live with that. 

The only person I need to convince that I can finish what I started is me.