Archive for August, 2011

Guys! PAX is upon us! And if you’re going, you must stop by the Indie RPGs on Demand room there. The inestimable Sage La Torra is heading up an epicenter of awesome. I’ll let him take it from here. (With the emphases mine) I’ll be here quite a bit, either gaming or hanging out, so if you want to meet up with me, that’s a good place to look!

What is PAX Indie RPGs on Demand?

I’m glad you asked, writing device. PAX Indie RPGs on Demand is the place to go to play small press, cutting edge games. Show up and we’ll find you a game to play in.

Where is this hotness?

Room 306, just off the escalators on your way up to the main hall.

How do I get in on some games?

Just show up! Games will start primarily on even numbered hours (10 am, noon, 2 pm, etc.) but we’ll sign you up whenever you stop by. Games might even start other times if there’s players and space. You can also find out the latest news by following @pax_indie_rpgs on Twitter.

What kind of games can I play?

Well, it depends on who’s available when you come by, but some games that will be happening include: Apocalypse World, Fiasco, Burning Wheel, Mouse Guard, Dungeon World, Cat, Microscope, Lady Blackbird, Freemarket, The Wildlings, Blowback, Perfect, Maid, Drifter’s Escape, Cthulhu Dark, Tulip Academy, Geiger Counter, Polaris, On the Ecology of the Mud Dragon, Dogs in the Vineyard

So come on by, play some games, and see something new. And if you’re interested in these games you might also want to check out Friday’s The Art of the Table: GMing Beyond the Basics (Noon-1pm, Raven Theater) and Designing and Publishing a Tabletop Roleplaying Game (4:30-5:30pm, Raven Theater) panels.

You can also find out more at:

• The Penny Arcade forum thread about Indie RPGs on Demand
• The Story-Games thread

- Ryan

I recently submitted a few game blurbs to Celestion & Big Bad Con, and I thought that how I come up with blurbs might be useful. Especially because, for some reason, I always stall on this until the last possibly minute. So, codifying my thoughts will help me out, and I hope it helps you, too.

Here are the blurbs for my Celesticon games:

Name: Operation Atomic Wichita
Game: Leverage/Cortex+
GM Provides Characters: Yes, with quick character creation
Power Level: Competent Commandos
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome

World War II is heating up! The Axis powers recently capturing Paris and, with it, France. And it looks like the war’s about to get worse, if what’s rumored is true. A motley crew of Allied commandos are tasked with making their way to an ruined castle where the Nazi occultists known as the Thule Society are working on some sinister project. Maybe they’re deluded, but Command is taking no chances. Get it, deal with the problem, and get out. Salute!

This Leverage game will be drifted to fit WWII commando characters, and with a touch of occult horror added to the mix!

Name: Emerging Threats Unit
Game: Fate 3.0 Horror
GM Provides Characters: Yes, with quick character creation
Power Level: Competent Agents
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome

You’re the elite, secret unit in the Centers for Disease Control known as the Emerging Threats Unit. You’re Earth’s second line of defense against supernatural incursions. You’re who get called in when the local authorities die of mysterious, monstrous entities. And now such an outbreak has happened in the tunnels and alleys of San Francisco. Get to the bottom of this and exterminate the hostiles, before FEMA’s team comes in to trigger an earthquake the “pacifies” the city.

This highly customed Fate game streamlines skill & stunt choices, and adds a layer of investigation & horror to the mix!

And for Big Bad Con:

System: Mythender
Power Level: You’re going to kill a god
Experience Required: no
Maturity Rating: R-18
Number of Players: 4
Game Length: 4 hours
Characters Provided: Will be quickly created

Do you want to stab Thor in the face? Do you want to be a living, breathing incarnation of wrath that will bring the gods of Mythic Scandinavia to their knees? Do you want to remake the world in your image, and burn all those who stand in your way? Then you are a Mythender, destroyer of gods, unmaker of ideas. Come and END THOR with us.

GM: Ryan Macklin
System: Unknown Armies
Power Level: Street
Experience Required: No
Maturity Rating: R-18
Number of Players: 4
Game Length: 4 hours
Characters Provided: Yes

You know Rhianna? That gal that works over at the diner, busting her as for seven-five and crap tips? Yeah, her. So, last night she starts speaking in tongues and the diner bursts into flames. Plenty of bodies…but not hers. Now gents & lasses, we have ourselves a serious situation. A normal got herself immense power & blew up a building. That needs to be dealt with, so I hired you freelancers. You know the Weird, you’ve seen things that crack minds. Go fix this, or you might be next.

First of all, know that I’m writing all this advice after having made those blurbs above. So in writing this, I’m already seeing where I could have done far better.

The basics are pretty easy. You need a name of a game & a description, and to communicate your initial expectations — things like maturity rating, power level, experience needed, game length, character pre-gens/expectations, etc. The latter’s pretty easy, but making that blurb is a real pain.

First of all, the truth: Your blurbs rarely mean shit.

Really. People don’t always read them. They don’t remember them when they get to the table. Next time you run a convention game, ask how many chose your game based on the blurbs. I’ve had people in my games that just showed up “because it was open,” others because the game system seemed neat, or the GM is known to be good. And in indieland, we’ve more or less eschewed blurbs entirely, instead just saying “I’m running Danger Patrol.” So, your blurb isn’t as important as you might think. Part of this is because the skill of blurb writing and of GMing are totally different, thus there’s no guarnatee that the blurb has any meaning. Long-time convention gamers know this.

Still, having one is good, because most convention organizers expect one. And because while a blurb isn’t something to base a game on, there are ways that casual glances at it can trigger sign-ups (even if they have forgotten what the blurb is between sign-up and play).

How long should a blurb be?

65 to 100 words. Usually, just one paragraph. I violated that second bit above, but I also imagine that’ll get edited down. But don’t go over 100 — that’s a waste of your time and of that one person who will actually read your blurb. Don’t go under 65, because that looks anemic, and while people don’t seem to care much about blurbs to pick a game from, they will see and over- or under-written one at a quick glance.

What is the point of a blurb?

Blurbs aren’t about information. They’re about emotion. You need to convey the feeling your game is going to give. Horror? Let’s see some horror in your blurb. Fantasy? Let’s see that. Action? Mystery? Intrigue? Bring it the fuck on. There’s an idea in journalism and fiction writing called “show, don’t tell.” Show us what you plan on the game being about. But that’s “be” advice. Let’s see some things you can do to make that happen.

Start with an exclamation or question

Exclamations get us excited. Questions engage us. While not perfect, they tend to be far better than simple statements. That might turn a simple glance into an actual read.

Start with “you”

If you aren’t going to start with an exclamation or question (because that doesn’t necessarily fit the vibe you’re going for), at least start with “You.” Make the reader feel like they’re the center of that blurb’s universe. Because, frankly, they are. And again, that might turn a simple glance into an actual read.

Tell the Important Three

There are three things that make up the start of a convention game:

• Who the characters are
• What situation they’re about to step into
• What the mood of the game will be

These are the Important Three: the things that matter most to your description and the game. Who the characters are is important because people want to know what they’re going to play. A Call of Cthulhu game where we’re civilian passengers on the Oriental Express isn’t the same as the one where we’re a commando squad on that same train.

The situation in brief that the players can expect is important. It tells us the intersection between character and plan. That Call of Cthulhu game will be different taking place on a train in the 20s than in the sewers of modern-day Chicago. Situation sets up expectations as much, if not more than, characters do.

The mood is also key. That Call of Cthulhu game in the Chicago sewers could be a high-action game, or a high-horror game, or something else. Mood will make or break a game, either when you get a mix of people who don’t want the mood you’re trying to sell or the players actively want different moods. Now, here you might not want to be explicit about the mood; instead, make sure the text reads like it’s soaked in it. That will also help keep your text from being boring.

End with Purpose

If someone reads your blurb in full, the last thing will stick in their mind. So make sure you end with purpose — call back to the emotions & mood you’re working to convey. That will keep your game in someone’s mind as they skim other blurbs.

Finally: It’s Okay To Lie About The Little Things

Yes. Lie. Again, people don’t remember your blurb, and don’t expect your game to hold up 100% to what’s in the program. The first time I ran the Unknown Armies game above, I didn’t have the speaking in tongues part. And asking the initial question didn’t make sense in the game. But what I did have was a group of people, who were part of a secret organization, dealing with some weird shit in a small town. And there was a gal that blew up.

The little details don’t matter. The Important Three and the emotion you’re trying to convey do. So when you’re making up the little details, don’t feel bound to them. It’s better to run a good game that doesn’t happen to involve a minor detail you mentioned in a blurb than to shoehorn one in.

There you have it. And you can apply these ideas to the blurbs I made above, and see how they’re weak. But let’s turn this around: What are some good blurbs you’ve seen? Have any drawn you to a game? Tell us what’s worked — and what hasn’t — for you.

- Ryan

I naturally talk a lot about editing, the benefit of editors, the healing power their hands provide against the sickness that is unclear and troubled writing. But it’s not all sunshine and happiness. There are editor comments I’ve seen that have driven me up the wall as either a writer or product developer. Here are some things to not do as an editor.

These first two come from a couple friends who game me some notes on the Mythender Character Creation draft.[1] I really appreciate their comments[2], because they’ve made me see what was in my head and what I was poorly explaining. That said, these two comments sparked the idea of this post.

From the fourth page of the first revision, under Loremaster:

You are intellect and experience made manifest. There is no such thing as chance to you; when you walk onto the field of battle, you already know how it will end. And you will demonstrate violently that fact to Norden. You are philosopher, scholar, tactician, warrior-poet. As a Mythender, you understand that your true power comes from confidence and sharpness of mind.

Comment #1: Yuck. “violently demonstrate” or “demonstrate that fact to Norden violently.”

Comment #2: *cough* knowledge? *cough*

At this point, I was in hour three or four of revising, having worked through comments from several people. (Some of whom also flagged those spots as needing work.) My mind was a bit tired, and I was pressing on with coffee in hand.

Then I got to that first comment. “Yuck” set me off. It might not have in the first hour, when my brain was fresh and my spirits high. And this is from a friend, who I know isn’t an asshole. But right then and there, I had to take a few-minute break. I went back, saw that I had already changed it in a previous pass, so I moved onto the next comment.

Again, I was set off. This reminded me of another project that I helped develop, where the editor was coy to his and our detriment. This comment, “*cough* knowledge? *cough*” doesn’t tell me shit. It doesn’t tell me why “knowledge” is a better replacement than the text I had there, “confidence and sharpness of mind.” The way it was delivered made it an antagonistic comment. I muttered “fuck you” and moved on, because my gut reaction was to see that as a weak suggestion (which, a day later, I think still is).

Luckily, the rest of the edits didn’t have this snark, but it did make me a hostile reader. That’s a very shitty place to be when reading someone’s edits. When that happens, you have to take breaks from reading the redlines more often, and the ability to read charitably goes out the window. And it could have been avoided with:

• “violently demonstrate” or “demonstrate that fact to Norden violently.”
• “knowledge”?

Like I said, this reminded me of some other editor no-nos. These ones will have to be constructed from memory, though.

From a project some years ago:

BLAH BLAH BLAH TEXT I’VE FORGOTTEN BLAH BLAH

Comment: huh?

My writer was exceedingly pissed off at this, and called me up to rant. I commented later in the draft, as well as in email, the following: “An editor’s job is to give clear comments.”

“Huh?” doesn’t tell us a damned thing. It doesn’t tell me why you think something’s unclear or what you think it might mean to a reader. And it’s presented in a way that just makes you look like a half-assed fuck. Even “This is unclear” is miles better, even if you don’t follow it up with “Do you mean XXX?” or some other query or actionable comment.

The last no-no on my mind comes from a project a bit ago where the editor was giving notes about the game’s design, referencing other games he had read for rules changes. Others of us on staff were getting annoyed, because the comments were unhelpful; the editor was decent at rules language editing, but didn’t know the game well enough to comment on its design nor was hired for that. It was grating to read poor, unplaytested comments. The damage to the rapport was lost as we kept dealing with that, as the writer response to returned drafts was “how much of this will be a waste of my time?” So we eventually let that editor go.

As a game editor, it’s easy to get into a space where you become a backseat designer. But unless you’re asked to do that, check that shit at the door. There’s a blurry middle ground where you’re involved in the language design, but when you’re commenting about how a rule may or may not work, that isn’t the damned time to do so. There’s a different mental process between rules revision and language/text revision, so having to deal with both at the same time, when it’s not asked for, is a detriment to the process.

I’m not saying to be utterly sterile in your comments, but watch when you’re adding words that make your comment something far easier to be frustrated with.

Editor, edit thyself.

- Ryan

[1] Which I’m in the middle of revising.

[2] And perhaps have a funny way of showing it by pointing out what I’m about to, but he’s cool with it.

I announced it on Twitter yesterday, but it’s worth saying with more that 140 characters. Due to a job & apartment situation, I’m looking to move. And with a combination of personal and professional interests, I’m going to leave California and move to the greater Seattle area. I expect this to happen in late October, as I have some things to wrap up here.

So if you’d like to see me while I’m in still in the San Francisco area, here’s where I’ll be. Naturally, if I find a good situation that causes me to move sooner, I may not be at some of these. But right now, this is the plan.

PAX, Seattle, WA, August 26-28

prime.paxsite.com

I’m mostly touristing this one, because it’s such a fun show. I’ll be bumming around open tabletop gaming or wherever find indie designers are sold, chatting with other folks I don’t often get to see, etc.

Oh, and I’m apparently running Mythender there at some point. But that’s all impromptu, shadow con-style.

Celesticon, Redwood City, CA, September 2-5

www.celesticon.com

I’m a special guest at Celesticon, along with a few other folks, including Kenneth Hite & James Ernest. My games haven’t made it onto the schedule yet (due in part because of Gen Con impacting my ability to email people), but I’m planning on doing some Fate & Cortex+ there. Ken & I will also be on a couple panels, one on Compelling Game World and another on Adapting Licensed Properties. It should be a good show!

Endgame 10th Anniversary, September 17th

endgameoakland.com

Endgame has been more than good to me over the years. I’m excited to celebrate their  decadial (if that’s even a word) before taking off for other adventures. (And rest assured, I’ll be back here on occasion. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a second home, because calling a game store a second home makes me like Comic Book Guy, but it does have a special place in my heart.)

Nerdly Beach Party, San Simeon, CA, September 23-25

nerdlybeachparty.org

This is one of my favorite events of the year, and I was bummed to have to cancel the last one. So we’re definitely pulling this off. I can’t personally guarantee that there will be one after this, as it seems to be the curse that NBP organizers flee after running it. :D But I’ll be there will bells on, and we still have quite a few slots.

Seriously, it’s amazingly fun. We’ll be doing planning for it soon, once we get the wiki up. And it’s only $40 for the weekend. How can you beat that?

Big Bad Con, Oakland, CA, October 7th-9th

bigbadcon.com

Sean Nittner’s Big Bad Con is going to be a blast! And I’ll be a special guest! Not that BBC has special guests, per se, but I’ll be a loud-mouthed attendee with a giant flask, and I think that qualifies. Anyway, I’ll be running an Unknown Armies game and a Mythender game there. Sean & I are talking about doing a game design seminar one of the evenings, in the hotel bar. (I also can’t yet confirm another certain attendee appearing, but dude, if he does, you’re all in for a treat.)

Endgame Minicon, Oakland, CA, October 22-23

endgameoakland.com

Game submissions haven’t opened yet, but I’m sure I’ll run & play in some fantastic stuff. As is the way of the Minicons.

And, of course, the Go Play SF Bay nights at Endgame

goplaysfbay.com

August 18th (this Thursday!), September 15th, and October 20th.

I hope to see some of you fine folks there!

- Ryan

Once a person is properly attuned to space, it’s possible to see or chart anomalies like singularities and point masses. Gravity wells, wormholes and curved geometry are second nature. Remember how your math classes told you that a triangle always adds up to 180 degrees? Take a triangle and lay it on top of a globe, with two points along the equator and one at a pole – suddenly, it’s a triangle with three right angles! That’s just the least trick of Correspondence.

- Guide to the Technocracy, p. 49

Correspondence is Data

Cell phones. Wi-fi. Satellite transmissions. Television. Cable.

Before that, telegraphs. The early telephones. Shortwave radios.

Before that, letters. Books.

Before that, our voices.

Information can exist in our minds. It can exist on pieces of paper or hard drives. It can be transmitted through light or sound. It can be corrupted or destroyed. Information can be manipulated by nearly every Sphere, but there’s one Sphere that is information: Correspondence. Information has no sense of space, and yet it exists everywhere. That is the true power of the Correspondence master.

But because data is ephemeral, Correspondence alone does little. It can transfer and move information, which in this day and age of info-warfare is crucial. But with the right combinations of other Spheres, it can do more. Here are a some incomplete ideas about how to use Correspondence for Data manipulation:

Correspondence + Mind

Reading & transferring knowledge from one person to another, spanning distances. To the mind-hacker, your secrets are hers no matter where you are. Two mages with this can communicate with each other over distances, even sharing what another sees, hears & experiences. After all, that’s information in your mind.

This is a key (in my mind) to making the Digital Web 3.0 work. True neural networking, baby!

Correspondence + Matter

Duplicating hard drives or letters, nearby or in vast distances. The old adage that the most secure computer is the one that’s powered off and unplugged is untrue to someone who can just clone a hard drive by thinking about it.

Correspondence + Entropy

Early adepts of this technique are good at disrupting information flow. But the true master uses this to encrypt or decrypt knowledge. Add Mind to this, and suddenly you’ve encrypted thought itself. Necessary in this War.

Correspondence + Forces

Sense and feel information being transmitted around you. Add Mind to it, and you can read the information flowing around you. You’re a walking radio antenna. A walking broadcaster. A walking disruptor.

And nothing scares people quite like suddenly being in an information blackout. It’s like turning out the lights in a horror film. And that’s what the CorFor mage can do.

Correspondence + Mind + Matter

The college dream of sleeping on a book to absorb it through osmosis is not a dream for the Correspondence mage. Information is it Matter, and so it can be in Mind. Of course, that book could be anywhere in the world to someone with proficient enough Correspondence. (Which, by the way, would model The Archive from The Dresden Files.)

This also allows for some very scary Progenitor + Iteration X experiences, like the Enlightened Shock Corps.

Correspondence + Forces + Matter

You’re reading this blog post. Congrats. This rote is something the Masses[1] believe in.

I’ll leave it to readers and to the future to flesh these ideas out. But this is a core part of my Aethertide campaign, since we live in a world so saturated with wireless information. We had to figure out how all that worked, and given the Virtual Adepts and the nature of information, it just made perfect since to link that to Correspondence.

- Ryan

[1] Oops, did my allegiance just slip? ;)