Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Naw Duh, Sherlock!

Heya,

My proof copy for The Holmes and Watson Committee is on its way. Getting used to the way my new printer does things took me a while. It's very different from my old one. That, and I always have trouble with technology. Anyway, I hope to have the proof by the end of the week and to send the game out by the end of the month. I'll be glad when I do.

Peace,

-Troy

Monday, December 3, 2007

So What Now?

Heya,

So where do I go from here? I've got several things to do. I'm hammering out stuff with the Holmes and Watson Committee and a printer. It **should** be taken care of this week. It probably won't be, give my history with printers. We'll see. There's also the next generation of DL-Quarterly. I've gotten the games written and initially playtested, but honestly... they're crap right now.

I really feel I may have cheated my subscribers a little bit with the first DL-Quarterly. I mean, I didn't know any better at the time. I've grown, learned, and matured a lot since I first put forth the idea of a subscription. They're ashcans. I didn't say ashcan when I first started talkinb about it because "ashcan" wasn't even in my vocabulary at the time. I had no idea what it was. Now I do. I also thought, at the time, that if you wrote a game and playtested it a bit, that meant it was fit to publish. Sillyness. I wish I could take some of what I've done back, but what's done is done. Now it's time to learn from my mistakes. So, DL-Quarterly 2 will come out when the games are good and ready, not before. That means getting them to real Ashcan status, not just written and played. It means getting them almost ready for the big time.

And then there's Socratic Design. Of all the things I've done with regard to RPGs, it's the one I am the most proud of. There's nothing that brings me more happiness than helping novice designers with their games. SD still gets a decent number of hits each day even though I haven't posted there in months! That tells me people still use it, and that makes me glad. I'm looking at it now, and it looks good to me... really good. The fourth anthology really sums up everything I thought about RPGs up to that point. So am I going to add more articles to it? I'm not sure. I need to get Holmes and Watson out before I do anything like that. I need the experience of carrying through on a promise before I can talk about design, theory, and publication again. So for now, Socratic Design is resting. Maybe permanently. I'm just updating the links and doing other maintance on it so it's more useable and looks nice. We'll see in another month or two where I go with it.

BTW, thanks to all those who've been sending my your support. I really do appreciate it. :)

Peace,

-Troy

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A Shadow in the Light

Heya,

It's been a long time since I've written anything online. I entered a self-imposed seclusion basically since July. At first, the reasons were many. I had a vacation coming up. I was finishing up my graduate practicum (the second most emotionally trying thing I've done this year). And I was really hyped about Magic: the Gathering's standard format at the time. Then in August, most of those reasons were gone and were replaced by another: my printer had failed to deliver the third game for DL-Quarterly on time.

I submitted it in May. I was promised it in June. Then I was promised it in July. Then in August. Then I heard nothing. After a lot of pestering, I got them to send me the proofs in early October. There were lots of problems. The font was all screwed up. The cover didn't fit the dimensions. Apparently they had known since May, but didn't tell me. I fixed these problems and resubmitted the game a week later.

I was told I'd have the games in a week or less. Then two weeks. Then three. After a bit more pestering, they told me that the spine was messed up, but they could fix it for $15. No big deal. I told them to do that. They said I'd have the books by the end of the week. Then the next week. After even more pestering, they said that they were having trouble lining up the pages. I told them to just print the books and send them to me.

I Finally got them today. 5 months and 29 days after submitting the request. They’ll be in the mail tomorrow. I have never been so ashamed and humiliated in my life. I let a lot of people down. And that disgusts me. I haven't even so much as posted on a message board in that time because I've been so ashamed of missing the deadline. I am really sorry, guys.

The books are passable- for an ashcan. They aren't up to the quality I expect. I don't plan on ever doing business with that printer ever again. Right now I'm so pissed I can't see strait. This whole experience has turned me off big time from publishing. I'm not sure where I'll go with design and publishing after The Holmes and Watson Committee comes out. I'm really not.

To all those who have a subscription to DL-Quarterly, I publicly apologize. I am deeply sorry that you had to wait so long. I regret immensely the delay. I am sickened by the experience.

Peace,

-Troy

Sunday, May 6, 2007

I think I see the light...

Heya,

I'm nearing the end of this term for my grad work. In the last 12 days I have been up late every night without a break writing and revising research papers, resource lists, and case studies. I've had enough. But thankfully, it's all coming to a close. Unless a professor sends me back yet another assignment for revision, I've only got one final left ahead of me. Once that is done, I get a week off before my next and final term. So around mid July, I'll finish my Master's work, get a nice pay raise, and FINALLY be able to get back to writing my games the way I want to. The light at the end of this tunnel is still far off, but at least I think I can see it now.

Peace,

-Troy

Monday, April 30, 2007

So, How did I do?

Heya,

Well, this weekend was busy. My gradschool work got finished (which is way more important than gaming stuff). And I almost got done with the Blood Sands revision. It's rough. It needs a good proofread, but in another 2,000 words or so I'll be done. Ye-hah!

I wish game design were as simple as a Game Chef entry. It's not. This is seriously hard work guys, and there are designers out there who put in way more effort than I do (/wave Ralph Maza). So, once I get this finished its off to another set of eyes to tell me what they think. Thankfully this game's already gone through a couple playtests. It needs more tho.

Peace,

-Troy

Saturday, April 28, 2007

This weekend's Goals

Well, for the first time in a long time I have a weekend at home. I hope to get a lot of work done. First and foremost, I have a research paper to complete for my grad school classes. It's a research paper on how to write research papers. Yeah, that's what a 600 level college course asks you do to.

Once I get that done, I hope to finish up the revised Setting for Blood Sands and tidy up the book for a friend/associate of mine who is looking over my games for Series 2. I'm really excited about imrpoving the quality of DL-quarterly. I see no reason that ashcan-type productions can't be attractive and immediately playable and fun. Hopefully, the improved design will attract my subscribers. I've got some big plans coming up.

Peace,

-Troy

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Originality (Time for a Troy Rant)

Just read a report from Ogre Cave about the GTS (Gamma Trade Show). Looks like two "big time" upcoming CCGs are based on 24 and Stargate SG-1. I'm as much a CCG fan as I am a RPG fan, but seriouesly poeple, COME ON!!!!!!!!!!

Aren't there any companies out there interested in creating games based on their own intelectual property? I mean, where is the origonality we used to see in games like Netrunner, L5R, and Shadowfist? All we get now are games based off cartoons and TV shows. ARGH! To me, it's disgusting that this industry hasn't had a solid, origonal CCG hit since Warlord. And Warlord SUCKED as a game. Blech!

-Troy

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Working...working...working

Heya,

Been a while since I posted. Game Chef, Forge Midwest, and Grad School have all been sucking up my time. Ho-hum. That's the way it goes. Anyway, I'm working on revising one of my games for DL-Quarterly Series #2. I got in a good, three month playtest of Blood Sands (formerly Dark Sands). It showed me I really needed to beef up the Setting and revise a lot of the kewl powerz PCs gain as they advance. The revision of kewl powerz was expected. Any time I work on an RPG the numbers and abilties get changed, revised, and sometimes deleted. No biggie. The Setting part did surprise me, though. I didn't spend much time on it in the text of the game, but I wanted it to be important in play. It turned out not to be. Which actually shouldn't be surprising at all. If you don't spend much time talking about something in your game text, the players probably won't spend much time thinking about it. Duh, Troy! So... that's definately something to remember in the future. Back to work now :)

Peace,

-Troy

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Game Chef

Heya,

I've been quiet lately because I've been participating in The Game Chef competition. It's consuming all the time not dedicated to my job, eating, or sleeping. So it may be a while before I update anything. You can read about my game HERE if you like. Any feedback will be welcome :)

Peace,

-Troy

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Taking Notes

Heya,

Okay, I'm a little crazy. I'm coming out with 4 games this year and 4 games next year. Now, I want to say first off that these games are not polished super-gems along the lines of games like Dogs in the Vineyard, Polaris, The Mountain Witch, or Agon. They're not. In fact, I would look very closely at what Paul Czege is doing with his Ashcan Front. But that doesn't mean I don't take pride in them and work hard to get them as good as I can before they are released.

All that said, I'm still crazy. That's 8 complete and playable games in 2 years. So how do I do that? Well, I am never without a notebook of some kind. I carry it with me wherever I go. While I teach, while I ride in the car, while I work at home, while I play video games, I have a notebook with me. Any time I get an idea, I sketch it down. You'd be surprised (or may be you wouldn't, heh) when and where you get an idea. I make sure I don't lose any.

As a result, I've got dozen of concepts lying around. Sometimes, one will really strike my interest and I'll put it through my system design checklist. If I can do that, I'll work with it some more. Eventually, it might get to the stage where I may be able to draft a game out of it. If so, I work on it some more. But it all starts with taking notes and making sure I always have something to write with.

Hm. Maybe I oughtta develop the idea some more and make a Socratic Design post about this :)

Peace,

-Troy

Monday, March 12, 2007

Dark Sands- 2nd Playtest

Heya,

Got to test the system for Dark Sands again over the weekend. Things went really well. I'll post an AP thread about on the Forge when I get the energy. As for tonight, it's off to gradschool :(

Peace,

-Troy

Friday, March 9, 2007

The Importance of a Method

Heya,

One of my "things" as an RPG designer is to create tools that help me designer better and more complete games. If you ever read my other blog (Socratic Design) you're probably familiar with some of these that I've created:

The Power 19
Troy's 12 Step Process
The System Design Checklist
The Setting Design Jumpstart
Outlines for Design

I create these to make my job easier. Case and point: I was getting one of my games ready for an outside playtest. I had all kinds of notes on it and things that needed to be changed. I started editing the the thing and realized that my organization was awful! I contradicted myself in a few places. I repeated things. It was miserable. I remember back to when I origonally wrote the game and realized that I thought I could forsake using the tools I created and just free-hand it. Well, I can't. I learned my lesson. I'm the type of designer who needs these sorts of help devices to make sure the game I write is coherant, organized, and complete. And that's just to get it into a playtestable form! For me to not use these tools would be stupid.

Peace,

-Troy

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Dark Sands: 1st Playtest

Heya,

You can read my first playtest of Dark Sands on The Forge. I'm pretty happy with the way it went. Expect another next week some time. Feedback is welcome!

Peace,

-Troy

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

My Current Projects:

Heya,

So let me just describe what I'm working on at the moment. First, I'm finishing up the layout on The Holmes and Watson Committee. It will be out in September of this year. It will also conclude the first series for DL-Quarterly. In December, I'll be releasing the first game for DL-Quarterly Series #2. At the moment, I've got five games I'm working on:

Saviours- A superhero fighty game of temptation and esteem
Ballin'- A game about professional basketball players set in the future
No Greater Love- A game of antiheroes and what's important to them
Dark Sands- A raw fantasy game set on a desert planet
The Hunt- A game of Humans vs. The Terrors of the Night

One of these five won't make the cut. I'll take the four best and turn them into issues for DL-Quarterly, the fifth I'll put on my sight for free. I'll talk more about each of them as my time permits. Until next time!

Peace,

-Troy

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Opening A New Space

Heya,

A wise man named Paul said that we should get back to designing in public. The forums at The Forge and Gamecraft are nice, but they don't allow me the freedom and tools I can get with a blog. So I'm opening up a second blog to discuss my actual designs. My first blog, Socratic Design, is meant solely as a place to post and discuss design tools and theory. This is my personal space where I work and talk about my projects. I'll be starting soon, so keep watching :)

Peace,

-Troy
  • Divine Legacy
  • The Forge
  • RPGnet
  • Gamecraft
  • Anyway
  • RPG Theory Review
  • Ogre Cave
  • Story Games
  • Voice of the Revolution
  • Have Game Will Travel
  • Fear the Boot
  • 2d6 Feet
  •