Archive for the ‘Site-Meta’ Category

I have a goal for this blog in 2011, something I’ve been thinking about for the last month.

See, the amount that Rob Donoghue writes continues to amaze me. Something every damned weekday. But I also know my own limits, so it’s not something I can do. In the words of Saint Callahan:

A man’s gotta know his limitations.

I’m going to try for 13 posts a month. That’s 156 posts in the next year. I have a Google doc with a crapton of blog post ideas that I’m going to work out. Knowing that Rob often writes the night before and schedules it for the next day is something I’ll probably do (and did with my Con Burrito post, and doing with this post). That he blogs about whatever is on his mind, from gaming to the iPad, is probably something I’ll avoid — but maybe not on occasion. I dunno.

Importantly, there’s something I told Mick Bradley a few months back:

I will tell you what I tell people who say this: 500 words is the new black.

Try putting a thing on your calendar that recurs one day a week that says “hey, blog about something for a small amount.” Practice. Make it a habit.

More importantly, make sure you enjoy it.

I try for 500 words. I often overshoot. I want to overshoot less, honestly, because (a) that’s a huge time investment for something I don’t get paid for, even if it’s building my brand of whatever, because, hey, my brand isn’t paying my rent, and (b) smaller posts are smaller ideas, and smaller ideas are easier to poke and and understand where my thinking is wrong.

Which brings me to my thoughts on blogging in general:

But that’s me and my blogging philosophy. Your mileage will most certainly fucking vary. But that’s me and what I want to do in 2011.

- Ryan

[1] For those who don’t make the connection: Dirty Harry

If you’re reading this off of my site rather than Google reader or something, you might notice a little something different today. I finally have a proper look to my site, rather than one of the cookie-cutter WordPress themes out there.

Check it out and feel free to leave comments. If you like the design, the credit goes to the talented and patient Mick Bradley. If you hate it, blame me for saying “hey, I like this.” (And if you want to hire him, he tells you how to do so on his blog.) Either way, I’m sure we’ll (or at least I’ll) be tinkering with the site further, since I can’t not — I’m an editor and engineer, two pursuits that cause one to Not Leave Well Enough Alone. :)

Soon, I’ll edit my About page to actually have something meaningful there. But I wanted this done and up first, since one question I get (that I want to answer on my About) is “What’s up with the pig hat?”

Also, a huge thank-you to my friends who helped me critique various stages of the design. Albert & Nancy, Chris, Matthew, Amanda, Jess, those I’m totally spacing on and thus being an asshole to right now, I owe y’all a drink.

- Ryan

Oh my god you guys! You won’t believe this, but yesterday we finalized the contract for Tomorrow the World! Games to produce the RPG for the hit new live-action web comic, Irving Batman: Geriatric Crusader.

It will be very faithful to the original material, and not some uninspired piece of churned out crap like The Dresden Files RPG or The Leverage RPG. No, we’re going to do this one RIGHT. Check it out!

• 20 ORIGINAL classes, including Weremanservant (who doesn’t love Night Alfred!) and Catsmanduex Master
• 50 weapons! Yes, fans, I know you’ll ask for it. So we’ll definitely have stats for Death Pudding!
• Entirely new subsystems for Combat, Social Combat, and Nurse Action!
• Just like the live-action comic, there will be slutty-dressed women everywhere! Who doesn’t love that?
• FULL COLOR! 600 PAGES! HARD BOUND! ONE BOOK FOR ALL YOUR IRVING BATMAN NEEDS!

And more!

But remember, this isn’t just going to be The Definitive Game for fans. No! It’ll be the launching of our new generic RPG: the MASTER system. What does MASTER stand for? I haven’t figured it out yet!

Remember, Batketeers, GO FORTH AND RULE THE NIGHT!

- Ryan

In my D&D 4/e game, two of my three (yes, I only have three!) players are leaving in September. When I heard this, I told them that I’d like to see what paragon is like, as I’ve only seen lower-level Heroic. They were level 2, so we were going to level 11. We were also about to go on a three week hiatus thanks to mismatched schedules, so session before that was built as a chapter close — they were the City Watch, but the city was overrun by the undead, and they had to flee and fire-bomb it from airship.

For those familiar with my dragon-halfling war idea, the PCs were on a Halfling Flagship called Bahamat’s Doom — but they didn’t know the airship they were getting on was a Halfling ship, or the name of it. All they knew was “Man, we need to get to the Dragon Empire, where our new friends are!”  Two of there were (willingly and happily) psychicly bonded to a gold dragon traveling in a water ship below them, the Emir of Light. And they were on the ship that has killed dragonkind. They had a nice “oh, shit!” moment at the end of the session.

Now, we all knew the action would take place back in the city they came from, as they went to go kick a god’s ass and deal with the evil Eladrin mayor. But, I didn’t just want to say “and now you’re back!” or anything like that. I wanted to model a bit of a feel like “hey, you really just spent 9 levels being badasses in the Eastern Continent — what happened?”

So I came up with this Montage system. It’s simple:

• I have an index card for every level with a situation on it.
• Each player has 6 six-sided dice.
• I describe the situation that happened.
• They each describe something they do.
• All of them roll their dice, totallying them up.
• The highest gets to endcap the narration, and in the case of PvP (two people saying they’re doing opposing things), they decide which one actually succeeded.
• The winner hands me one of their dice, so they have fewer going into the next one.

The result was better than I had hoped for. They had a rich story of what happened, with new plot threads and hooks that wouldn’t have happened if I just simply asked “hey, what did you guys do there?”

I’ll describe all nine situations, for those interested in how I used this specifically. After that, I have a question, one prompted by a discussion I had with Leonard Balsera regarding what it means to “play” Fourth Edition.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amy Garcia, co-creator of Empire of Dust, has said some kind words on her blog about Master Plan:

Ryan Macklin’s 50th episode should be airing Tuesday, June 30th.  I believe that this specific episode is about A Penny for My Thoughts with Paul Tevis.  I’m so excited. If anything can be said about Ryan, it’s his undying love and dedication to RPG’s and the roleplaying community.  I’m so grateful to him and all the work he does.  I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to Master Plan and just became completely inspired and empowered to create.

She is indeed correct — that’s the plan for MP #50, date and topic.

Daniel Solis has got something cooking up, apparently. The other morning, I was greeted with this from his blog (as well as a Story-Games thread):

Hey Everybody,

Ryan Macklin’s about to release the 50th episode of the Master Plan. Since 2007, he’s been ladeling out a thick, savory stew of game design advice into our dirty, orphan bowls.

His friends are asking you to send well-wishes, congratulations and otherwise humorous messages in an audio format. Post them online or send them straight to the man himself at:

ryan [at] masterplanpodcast [dot] net

Better hurry! The 50th episode will be released pretty soon and you don’t wanna be the chump sending belated congrats. :)

Y’all are generous with your praise. (The fact that this is text means you can’t hear how everything else is just me blundering and failing to find the words to express my gratitude to my awesome fans — especially with the audio I’ve received since Daniel posted that up.)

Thank you, both. Thank you, all.

- Ryan