An update on creative things...

So, I have been working on both the game and the book that took place in the world quite a bit lately, and I feel excited about that.

Shadows over Kushara
I mean last night for the novel, I actually wrote 1500 words. I cannot remember the last time I have written that much in one setting. It was an amazing feeling and I really just want to keep the momentum going each day.

To help with that, I bought a few binders and the clear thingies that go with them. I then printed out everything I have written for the novel and put them in them. The reason why this is important is that I work best when I have chapters printed. I then can go over them, and take notes in my notebook. It seems to be the only way I can do this consistently, but you do what you can to get stuff done.

Oh, and I named the main protagonist. Her name is Kira. Yes, I stole it from someone in my circles, cuz I freaking love the name.

Kushara's Fate
The nice thing about working on the novel, is it is helping shape the world as well. After reading +Deborah Teramis Christian's book on world building, it gave me ideas about how I want to start the world building process.

I have thought about the names of the two opposite factions. The ones in power were originally called the Devout, but I really don't like how everyone seems to think it is religious in nature, and for the most part I am avoiding religion in my world. Yes, it is possible my dislike of religion is rearing its ugly head.

But I had a conversation on here a while back with a lot of people and I think it was +Brad Murray that suggested the Doctrine. If it wasn't Brad, then I apologize. :) But the name ha really grown on m over time and I am leaning towards it now.

As for the resistance type group, I am liking the name the Resolute. Which is defined as:

Admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering. It just feels right and is something I have been trying to figure out for a while. I am still wavering on how much of the Fate mechanics I want to use. I am definitely using the aspect and some form of the skill pyramid, but am not sure about the dice. I am not sure it fits in the game. Or I could just be wanting to do something else. I am still trying to figure that out.

 

My review of World Building Tips by Deborah Teramis Christian

My review of World Building Tips by +Deborah Teramis Christian 

This came out of nowhere. I have been struggling for a few weeks as to how to start creating an entire world from scratch for the Kushara’s Fate game we are making. I still love the idea, but just figuring out where to start has been a serious problem.

So, then Deborah posted a link to this book a few days ago. A five dollar expense via amazon was not so taxing so I bought and dug into it. I was excited as the timing of this was amazing due to what I mentioned earlier.

Holy hell, it was awesome.

Now here it the thing about this type of book. They are only tips as you can use them or not. But what is great about it is that it points out things that have been roaming around the back of my mind and brought them to the forefront. That isn’t to say that there aren’t original thoughts in the book, because there are a plenty. My point is that sometimes someone can remind you of something that you know of and it just clicks.

For example. She goes on quite a bit talking about how rivers in a world are very important as the cities along the rivers tend to be places of commerce. This is something I have always kind of known, but not really thought about, but when reading this….BAM! It makes so much sense and really gives me thoughts about the world we are making. It was such a simple thing (in my mind) and she did an amazing job of going into detail just what this means.

This is where the book shines. Deborah talks about things from rivers and how they affect the creation of your world, oceans and capital cities, mountains and rain, the moon, volcanos, fauna and wildlife, guilds, illness and disease, herbalism in the world, currency and/or bartering.

There is so much win here I can barely contain how happy I am to have read this. If nothing else, it has done an amazing job of helping me organize my thoughts and give me ideas.

So, if you are someone that is making a game/novel that entails a lot of details about the world itself, I highly recommend this book.

Get it NOW!

You can also go to their website, where you can sign up for more tips and find out more information about world building. http://world-building.com/

A gaming update...

An update on things going on in my gaming world.

Hangouts. I have not done much of this lately as my life got super busy in the last month or so. I would still like to get some Fate Core in, and am planning on running Dragon Age and Dungeon World soon. The community I started is still going well. You can check it out here. https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/101466247068767710475

I am still trying to find ways to make it better, but that is kind of slow going.

Gaming. Have done a bit of gaming on the weekends, which will continue this weekend at the Gasp gameday here In Pittsburgh.  Going to play a bit of setup for Apocalypse world using The quiet year, then on to Dungeon World and last either some Fate Core, or playtesting a game friends are making.

Fistful of Fate.  I just recently started working on this hack again. There is some interest out there and am trying figure out a good way to do a gunfight (high noon style).  I have made a few of the “classes”, so I am ready to move on with this.

Kushara’s Fate.  I have not done much on our game in the last few months.  Time has been crazy and I have sitting back and watching all the Fate hacks out there.

I do have to say this. I am wondering how much of Fate I actually want to use at this point. The aspects and skills are something I still like. Although I want to change how the skills work since I am a bit tired of the pyramid. It works, but I just want to see something different. Which is why when I played a dragonriding Fate Core game over the weekend, I was surprised to see it did a lot of the same things I was thinking. I am not going to elaborate on that as I don’t want to say too much about his game, but we had a lot of the same ideas.

This is making me wonder if I have waited too long to really make a Fate game? Everyone is hacking it to death and every time I think I have cool idea, I see that someone else has had the same idea. This doesn’t mean I have given up on the idea, but I just want to think hard about how much of it I want to use. There is still a large part of me that wants to use some other kind of dice mechanics (not that I know what), but we shall see.

Either way, I think it is time to start working on the setting itself. We can do that as we figure out what we want to do with the game.

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? :)

Magic System Toolbox preview is here!

Magic System Toolbox

So, Evil Hat released a preview of the Magic System Toolkit yesterday and people went crazy. I don’t mean burn peoples house down kind of crazy, but dropping everything they were doing and reading this like a madman...madwomn...madperson? kind of crazy.

A lot of people (me included) have been looking forward to this, in hopes of seeing what kind of magic systems could be used with Fate Core. Yes, you could always break down the Dresden Files, but the magic system in that game can be a bit confusing for some people and I have not really heard of people going that route all that often.

I know I wasn’t.

I had been planning on using magic as a skill for a long time now. So, when I read the toolkit yesterday and saw that a lot of my ideas were almost identical to the ones that Rob made…well I was both vindicated and irritated. Vindicated cuz it is nice to know that I am thinking along the same lines as the creators of the game. Irritated cuz I had thought I was being original in my thoughts and now I am wondering if I need to twist them around again.

I do have an issue with feeling like I need to make something original. I am aware of the trappings of that, but after years of creating mechanics to only find out that someone had already done them…it is something that bothers me. Yes, I know…I need to let it go and move on. Just find what works and there will always be something you can tweak to make it your own.

I do think a lot of people are complaining about what is not in it. Which is ridiculous since (a) it was only a preview, and (b) it is designed to only help you, not do everything for you. Suck it up people and stop whining.

Last night’s playtest

So, a few people got online last night via hangout and gave the system a test drive.

The magic system was the stormcaller example they gave in the toolkit. The idea is that there are 5 great storms that are constant and our players could tap into those storms with a specific element. My character could call forth lightning and the other three could use earthquake, glacier, and inferno. So, with this magic system you have to choose stormcalling as a skill and you use it do all kinds of things. Set up barriers, attacks, maneuvers, etc.

We were failed government experiments that escaped and were out to find the truth.

My character was Derek Storm (yes, I stole the name from Castle)

Aspects:

Thunder is my name

My ex wants me to die

Shoot first ask questions later

I will clear my name

Walks in the shadows

So, we ended up casing a place that had the information. I snuck in and managed to get lost. The others sat outside and thought of was to get into the building. Ideas were: setting it on fire, calling the cops and then beating them up and taking their uniforms, charging in. They eventually set a dumpster on file and paid a fate point stating they had already procured firemen suits.

So we fought out way to the vault where information was supposed to be. All kinds of elemental stuff happening. The fire guy kept...well setting things on fire. Ice guy used ice to put up a barrier (which trapped me on the wrong side of it with 9 guys and “my ex that wants me to die.”. Earth guy did some cool thing with reaching into the building and opening up walls and such.

We got shot a bit, and I eventually killed my ex...or did I?. She had it coming, so leave me alone. The last thing I did was punch a large hole in the wall and then used air to jump across to another building.

All in all, we had a good time. The system flows much quicker than DFRPG does (which as much as I love the game is a great thing). There is a lot to tweak about it…but that is part of the fun. 

Advice

The one piece of advice I have is that you may want to stop before you run the game and get a clear definition of what you want the magic to do. Not because it is hard to figure out or anything, but mostly so you are prepared for the questions that are likely to come.

To me the barrier thing kind of got confused with how blocks used to work in previous Fate games. I like the block option, since it handles differently than someone having to get past an obstacle to be able to move. But that is just me.

This kind of thing will probably be a non-issue once you have played with it a few times.

Saying that, the barriers are damn cool and a lot of fun to handle in the game. The great thing about Fate is getting to say how you want the scene to go, and adding that to the game makes storytelling that much more fun.

Overall, we had a great time and I am excited about running my own session of this.

Thoughts on amount of skills...

I spend a lot of time now working on Fate. Part of it is just tinkering with a setting (like the Old West one I am making) and another is the actual fantasy game I am making using the system (Kushara’s Fate).

I am still trying to figure out just how I want to go about doing this.

My first question has to do with the amount of skill each player/npc will have. Fate Core’s highest skill rank is +4 Great and you have ten total skills. I both like and dislike this.

I like it because with only ten skills, it really makes you think about what skills you want your character to have. Mostly due to the fact that you don’t have that many to choose from and just makes it harder. It looks like this:

1 Great

2 Good

3 Fair

4 Average

But if your character is a fighter, you will obviously have that skill as your apex skill. Then maybe some kind of endurance or speed skills as well. The rest are just what you want your character to be. This is not an easy decision, since you only have a few skills that you are really good at.

The downside to that is just what I was saying. I sat here making a character last night and I must have played around with the skills for over thirty minutes, just cuz I could not make up my mind. It got a big annoying, but I also overthink things, so the annoyance did not last long. Also, if you don’t do it right, your character can be a bit lacking.

The alternative is to do what they did in DFRPG, which was to make +5 Superb the apex skill. It looks the same for the most part. It looks like this:

1 Superb

2 Great

3 Good

4 Fair

5 Average

This adds five more skills to the games and definitely gives more options to the player. I like this, but it does miss that sense of importance in choosing the skills since there are more to choose. An urgency that is there knowing that there is probably a skill you would like to have that is going to have to be left off due to not having any left.

I am going back and forth on this today.

This is why this is hard. Say my character is a magic user. One idea I have is that they choose the element and put it on what skill level they want. Like +4 Great Fire. That is the level they can cast at. But if they wanted to choose another element, it could be up to half of the higher level. So, they could have a +2 fair Earth. Or something like this. The idea being they have to have at least a +2 Fair to be able to cast a spell in each particular element.

+4 Magic (Fire)

+3 Will, spycraft

+2 Magic (Earth), agility, guile,

+1 Ranged weapon (bow), stealth, rapport, endurance

But if used the superb apex, it could look like this.

+5 magic (fire)

=4 Will, spycraft

+3 agility, guile, rapport

+2 Magic (earth), ranged weapons (bow), stealth, endurance, crafting

+1 wealth, melee weapon (sword), contacts, perception, survival

You get more skills, but I sometimes feel like you are just adding skills at +1 average to get it done. Skills that you don’t think you will ever use, but you have to put something there.

So, I am still undecided on this. I find myself leaning towards the way DFRPG does it, but then again, I don’t want the game to be TOO much like that. Is 10 skills enough for a campaign game? For a one shot it has worked well so far.

Decisions, decisions.

My three Fate Core one shot ideas...

So, I thought I would go into more detail about the three scenarios I am thinking about creating for Fate Core. These are just one shots to get the mind flowing on the system.

#1. The good, the bad, and the Fate.

The setting. It is the Old west. Serenity Hill. A small town in the middle of nowhere. Outlaws owning the roads and robbing the trains. The law doing everything they can just to survive. Six shooters blazing at will. Something lurking in the darkness.

Serenity Hill is a town that was once bustling and thriving in the world. People had a good life and the law made sure it was safe. Crops were bountiful to not only live on, but to trade to the nearest city of Riverwood. Times were prosperous. People were happy.

But as things often do, things changed quickly. Rumors of a vast amount of gold in the west sent a large majority of people off to find their fortune. Because not matt how wealthy one can be, you can always want more.

Now, the town struggles to survive with less people to tend the crops, and the two largest families on the verge of a feud. Not to mention the outlaws that constantly raid the town and demand tithes. Oh and then there are the creatures in the dark…

Who are you?  You are a company that was hired by the governor of the state to bring order to the region. You roam from town to town trying to help people fight the lawlessness that is taking over the world. Sort of like the Dogs in Dogs in the vineyard, minus the religious component.

#2. Fate’s Gambit.

The setting. Kushara. A fantasy world of magic and wonder. A world ravaged by the elements as natural disasters of all types constantly berate the land. A land where the people struggle to survive the harsh elements and those that rules with an iron fist.

Yet, it is a thriving world where the elements themselves can be wielded to do great deeds or cause mayhem.

Magic, however is forbidden except for those that rule. That cabal is known only as the Devout. The Devout have been in power for as long as anyone can remember, and their belief is that only they are worthy to hold such magic. So, they created sentinels to hunt down anyone else that shows any signs of magic.  Bringing them back alive if they can, killing them if they have no other alternative. These unfortunate souls are known as the wicked (yes, the name needs work).

Recently, you have found out that the Devout have learned of your identity. So, they are sending the Sentinels to ravage your home town of Devon’s Cross. You rush home to save your family (and everyone else if possible), or to help defend the town. Then again, it could be a trap.

Who are you?  One of your characters is a child of Fate and born with the power. Your lives have been a difficult one, since you have spent most of it looking over your shoulder. Allies have been made and friendships have made you strong. Yet, you struggle to find a way to fight back. Is now that time? Or are the Sentinels setting up an ambush in that pass ahead?

#3. Murder by Fate

The setting. The backdrop is a large mansion cascaded in shadows. Rain and lightning battering the manor as if nature itself was raging at its existence.

Four people arrive separately to the mansion via limousine service.  Yet, none of you know why you were invited. Your only clue was a letter addressed to each of you requesting your presence on this day, and a promise that the information you received would only further your ambitions.

What you don’t know is that you have been enticed to this place and time because each of you has wronged someone in the past. Someone with enough power to lure you to this place.

Someone who plans on killing all of you.

Who are you? Four strangers trapped in a house on this dark and stormy night. After the initial sequence you are left on your own in the mansion. What secrets does it hold? Who is the person behind this?

The four of you have to decide on how to move forward. You may have survived initially, but the mansion is massive and danger could be lurking around every corner.

Can you trust the others enough to work together to find the person behind this?

Or do the others feel “wrong” to you and you know the only person you can trust is yourself?

The choice is yours, but you must find a way to survive the night.

Do I not know Fate as well as I thought?

Wow, I really need to read more of Fate.

Especially since the game we are making is using the system. This is what happens when you haven’t really gamed in a while and realize that you must play the game to really understand it.

I played the Dresden Files rpg over the weekend. It isn’t that I forgot EVERYTHING. But I did forget enough for it to bother me. I need to know this system, inside and out. I may know 90% of it, but then 10% showed up this weekend and that is not acceptable.

I have to start taking this more seriously. I own four fate games. DFRPG, SotC, Bulldogs, and Diaspora. My plan is to start playing these games more via in person, or google+ hangout. At some point I would really like to get a good tablet, so I can use the pdf’s instead of the books. But that day is not today.

So, here I am. Upset about not being able to remember magical rules and realizing that I need to know the system better. Every bit of it.

Just found the whole thing embarrassing. No one else knew it at the time, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I need to get off my ass and start doing real work on this.

Otherwise it is just yet another in a long line of things that I want to accomplish, but don’t.

Time to get to work.

Discipline or bust...

I don’t know how some of you do it.

One of my biggest problems when I am trying to write my novel, or create the game we want to create, is the fact that I am so easily distracted. Also known as not very disciplined.

It is something I have struggled with for years, but it just pisses me off. I can get rolling on something and things are going great, but it hardly lasts for an extended period of time. This is really noticeable due to the fact that on Google+, I am associated with A LOT of game designers. This isn’t a bad thing, as I have gotten read about other people own journeys in game creation.

But the thing I have noticed is just how many people that can work consistently on their games. I really want to be able to do that, since making a Fate based game is something I have wanted to do ever since I played Spirit of the Century for the first time. It was driven home even more, when I was lucky enough to help playtest the Dresden Files Rpg. So, this is something I really want to accomplish.

But therein lays the rub. I have to find a way to get more disciplined, or it will never happen. It is not a switch I can just turn on, but it something I really am trying to work on.

So, I am wondering what other people do when they feel their discipline doesn’t seem to be enough. How do you keep the momentum going in order to be creative?

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. :)

The first step? Research

So, we finally got started on working on the game again. There are a few things we have to figure out, but overall I am just damn glad to be started. But a name would be nice, and the old name "perdition" just doesn't feel right anymore. The name of the world is Kushara, and I am writing a book that is going to be tied into the game. The name of the book is Kushara's Fate. I have no idea if they will be the name of the game, but we will figure that out eventually.

So, the first thing I realized I had to do when we agreed to make the game with Fate as a foundation? Well, other than creating an entire world and brainstorming with Chris. :)  Next? Read Fate again! I know some of Fate pretty well, since I have played Spirit of the Century, and was part of the Dresden Files play-test. But that doesn't matter, in order to really dig into the system, I have to read it all over again. So, along with those two, I am also going to read: Bulldogs, Diaspora, The Kerebos Club, Legends of Anglerre, and Starblazer's Adventures.

Those are all different games using the Fate system, so reading all of them will give me a feel for how they went about it as well. I especially want to read Legends of Anglerre, since it is the only other fantasy game like mine on the list. It was made by Cubicle7, and they already have a companion book out for it.

So, with each book I am going to be taking notes and trying to come up with ways to tweak the system to fit the world we are making. I will go into more about the world on my next post. But, the question is always how much you want to keep of the OGL, and how much do you want to tweak it. It isn't an easy thing to figure out, and luckily not something we have to figure out today.

Another great thing is Google+. There are so many people on there with so much information and most of them are willing to go over ideas I have for the game. That is just a great source to, and I am damn appreciative.

REALLY, appreciative.

So, now I got back to reading Sotc. :)

p.s. don't forget to vote on my 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

Tie-in novel to game?

So, now that I am back on the creative path (yay life improvement), I can start concentrating on the game again. Just a reminder, the game draws alot of influence from Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, and I for one am damn excited about finishing it at some point. Volitle world, magic galore, good vs evil...blah blah blah. :)

Still, one idea I had, was to write a few novels (or novella's) that take place in the world. I want to do this for a few reasons. 1. I can finally write the novel I have been talking about writing for most of my life. 2. It is a good way to get people interested in the game as well. Well, unless the novels suck, and then it could be very counter productive to say the least.

Still, I like the idea. Two diferent stories from the two main factions of the world. One from the faction that has a stranglehold on the world and looks to make sure that doesn't change...and one from the faction trying to fight for it's freedom.

I have already started writing the later, but am at the beginning stages. It is called Kushara's Fate.

Is this a good/bad idea?