So I do 2 trips to the dentist in less than a week (no anesthesia), pain like a mofo during recovery and I'm finally ready to put up the new material when MicroSlop Vista belches and deletes my files. After 2 days of trying to recover files...well...I'm working on it.
So, 3 new entries are being re-written from scratch. I will not let this deter me...and I think the rain is turning to sleet...good times...
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Apologies
Sorry for the piddly postings here lately, but I am right in the middle of some major medical doings and some days it hurts just to look at the screen.
Fear not, between my laptop and trusty p&p binder I have a lot of notes. They just have to be shaped and polished a bit.
More core mechanic listings and hopefully the index listing for the first Blurred Vision release are on the way.
Get your welding kits out...we're about to build this beast :)
Fear not, between my laptop and trusty p&p binder I have a lot of notes. They just have to be shaped and polished a bit.
More core mechanic listings and hopefully the index listing for the first Blurred Vision release are on the way.
Get your welding kits out...we're about to build this beast :)
Update On The Blur Engine
So after working on this that and the other for the core mechanics of Blur I have come to one conclusion-many paths lead to one end. In other words, I'm not going to try and re-invent the wheel. Use whatever engine you like. I will be providing links to some to get you started but use whatever engine you feel works best with Blur. My roots go back to the old AD&D 3d6 concepts while I've always wanted to design around a d100 percentile system. Some of you may be fans of d20. It really doesn't matter. A case can be made for a dice-less system as well. It's whatever you feel you can best apply to the situation. The core mechanics are not the essence of Blur. The play is the thing, as an old bard would tell us. The Blur concept is about radical design and game play, not mechanics. I will offer a set of guidelines (like if you jump off a 10 story building you die-i.e. real world physics). But at the end of the day the core is up to you. I hope everyone shares their experiences using whatever engine they choose. It might help someone who is struggling to get just that right amount of mix of game mechanics vs.playability.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
My Love For You Is Way Out Of Line
In the midst of demonstrating game design problems a small work of genius appeared-A new approach to just what a game can be.
'In this "game," you play out the last day of Bob's clumsy advances towards his co-worker Imelda at the bomb shelter sales office where they work. Not even advances really, just attempts to catch her attention. It's the last day because Bob is going to die.'
This started as a joke, sort of a "What's Wrong With This Picture?" game design. If designers can embed Premise or setting or other details, why not embed characters, situations, actions, micromanaging the whole thing?
But after putting some time and effort into it, I got carried away and tried to make a system that would almost function, in case someone plays it more than once. I'm not sure it's still a role-playing game. More like a board game that yells at you to stay in character.
See what you think. Tell me "What's wrong with this picture?"
-(Quotes from the website)
The website is a nightmare (due to angelfire's idea of how to run a free web host, not the game author), but if you do as I did and just cut and paste the text into a word processor it makes it easier.
This game falls squarely in the new wave of gaming and offers up a new way of approaching the concept of game mechanics design.
Find all the details and definitely read the comments section at:
http://www.angelfire.com/funky/redhausman/ml4u/index.html
'In this "game," you play out the last day of Bob's clumsy advances towards his co-worker Imelda at the bomb shelter sales office where they work. Not even advances really, just attempts to catch her attention. It's the last day because Bob is going to die.'
This started as a joke, sort of a "What's Wrong With This Picture?" game design. If designers can embed Premise or setting or other details, why not embed characters, situations, actions, micromanaging the whole thing?
But after putting some time and effort into it, I got carried away and tried to make a system that would almost function, in case someone plays it more than once. I'm not sure it's still a role-playing game. More like a board game that yells at you to stay in character.
See what you think. Tell me "What's wrong with this picture?"
-(Quotes from the website)
The website is a nightmare (due to angelfire's idea of how to run a free web host, not the game author), but if you do as I did and just cut and paste the text into a word processor it makes it easier.
This game falls squarely in the new wave of gaming and offers up a new way of approaching the concept of game mechanics design.
Find all the details and definitely read the comments section at:
http://www.angelfire.com/funky/redhausman/ml4u/index.html
Turning a can of Lysol spray into a game-Yes, you can.
Think about it. You can do this with any spray can in your house. Pick one. Bug spray, cleaner, it doesn't matter. Look at the directions. What is the product intended to do? How does it do it? What, if any, are the warnings?
Now compose starting with that information. Add other items if you like.
Lysol Scenario- A large spray can appears on earth and begins to dispense a spray that kills humans on contact. The humans have to start to think like mold or bacteria to survive. How do the humans destroy the can? What if more begin to appear? Where are they coming from?
See. Anything can be a seed. This is what is being lost in corporate gaming. The ability to think outside the box.
Next time you are rummaging through your cabinets in search of something see how many things could be used as a seed. You might be surprised. Fresh gaming experiences are everywhere, you just have to open your eyes to them.
Now compose starting with that information. Add other items if you like.
Lysol Scenario- A large spray can appears on earth and begins to dispense a spray that kills humans on contact. The humans have to start to think like mold or bacteria to survive. How do the humans destroy the can? What if more begin to appear? Where are they coming from?
See. Anything can be a seed. This is what is being lost in corporate gaming. The ability to think outside the box.
Next time you are rummaging through your cabinets in search of something see how many things could be used as a seed. You might be surprised. Fresh gaming experiences are everywhere, you just have to open your eyes to them.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Joe in Ten Persons
Joe in Ten Persons is a role-playing game of choices, consequences and being your own worst enemy. It’s designed to be played in a single session for 3 – 5 players running anywhere from two to three hours.
In JiTP, each player will take on the role of one of ten versions of a man called Joe. These versions all come from different times and possibilities. One might be Joe when he was 12 years old, dealing with a school bully. Another might be a 20-something college student with a lecherous boyfriend.
Joe is a pretty obsessive person, so it’s unsurprising that all of his variants are as well. Each of them is obsessed with a particular decision that he has to make, but has avoided making thus far.
All of the Joes in the game have come into contact with a person they know only as Keeton. From one innocuous conversation, they have each gained the ability to meet other possible Joes and influence them and their decisions. Unsurprisingly, after gaining this ability, most of the Joes choose to wander through time and space visiting and watching other versions of themselves rather than dealing with the decision they were avoiding in the first place.
The Joes embodied by the players are different, though. They’ve all become stuck, fixated on one, specific variant that they’ve found in their travels. They’ve dubbed him “Joe Prime.”
Joe Prime is just like every other Joe: he’s obsessive and he’s avoiding an important decision. Unlike the player-characters, however, Joe Prime has not met Keeton.
Joe Prime’s decision has become incredibly important to the stuck Joes. They each want his dilemma to be resolved in a different way, for different reasons. Maybe his problem resonates with their own, or maybe he’s come to represent something about themselves that they hate. Regardless of why, they’ve each decided to marshal their influence amongst the variants and push Joe’s situation towards their chosen conclusion.
But the Joes are risking more than they know. Interacting with variant versions of themselves can begin to take a toll on their sense of self. In the end, they may have to decide which is more important: the safety of themselves and their variants, or the success of their self-imposed mission.
And what of Keeton? What does he want? Why did he give this peculiar power to Joe?
Only time will tell.
This is a free rpg currently residing at 1km1kt.
Find it here.
In JiTP, each player will take on the role of one of ten versions of a man called Joe. These versions all come from different times and possibilities. One might be Joe when he was 12 years old, dealing with a school bully. Another might be a 20-something college student with a lecherous boyfriend.
Joe is a pretty obsessive person, so it’s unsurprising that all of his variants are as well. Each of them is obsessed with a particular decision that he has to make, but has avoided making thus far.
All of the Joes in the game have come into contact with a person they know only as Keeton. From one innocuous conversation, they have each gained the ability to meet other possible Joes and influence them and their decisions. Unsurprisingly, after gaining this ability, most of the Joes choose to wander through time and space visiting and watching other versions of themselves rather than dealing with the decision they were avoiding in the first place.
The Joes embodied by the players are different, though. They’ve all become stuck, fixated on one, specific variant that they’ve found in their travels. They’ve dubbed him “Joe Prime.”
Joe Prime is just like every other Joe: he’s obsessive and he’s avoiding an important decision. Unlike the player-characters, however, Joe Prime has not met Keeton.
Joe Prime’s decision has become incredibly important to the stuck Joes. They each want his dilemma to be resolved in a different way, for different reasons. Maybe his problem resonates with their own, or maybe he’s come to represent something about themselves that they hate. Regardless of why, they’ve each decided to marshal their influence amongst the variants and push Joe’s situation towards their chosen conclusion.
But the Joes are risking more than they know. Interacting with variant versions of themselves can begin to take a toll on their sense of self. In the end, they may have to decide which is more important: the safety of themselves and their variants, or the success of their self-imposed mission.
And what of Keeton? What does he want? Why did he give this peculiar power to Joe?
Only time will tell.
This is a free rpg currently residing at 1km1kt.
Find it here.
The Diceman as Game Manual-LARPing like no other.
Three years before the first D&D publications a book was released that would gain its author a cult following and point the way to not only the roots of LARP but a new way for one to live their life. To turn game into reality. Social experiment into social lifestyle.
The Diceman has been changing peoples lives since first published in 1971 and continues to this day to show a radically different method of dealing with one's own reality and morality
For those not familiar with the book it tells the story of a psychiatrist who begins making life decisions based on the casting of dice. Luke Rhinehart (George Cockcroft) wrote the book based on his own experiences of using dice to make decisions while studying psychology.
Having watched this book make the rounds and seeing the impact it had on its readers (from tearful breakdowns to explosions of creativity displayed by otherwise shy folk) it would take years to understand its relevance in gaming. This is the ultimate game guide to the ultimate LARP:Life. From the creation of on the fly rules to journals kept and studied as guides to chaos patterns, the book shows itself to different people in different ways. Some see only an entertaining read, others, a whole new way of life.
Before it goes out of print (again) do yourself a favor-drop the coins and take the ride. It may just change your life.
The Diceman has been changing peoples lives since first published in 1971 and continues to this day to show a radically different method of dealing with one's own reality and morality
For those not familiar with the book it tells the story of a psychiatrist who begins making life decisions based on the casting of dice. Luke Rhinehart (George Cockcroft) wrote the book based on his own experiences of using dice to make decisions while studying psychology.
Having watched this book make the rounds and seeing the impact it had on its readers (from tearful breakdowns to explosions of creativity displayed by otherwise shy folk) it would take years to understand its relevance in gaming. This is the ultimate game guide to the ultimate LARP:Life. From the creation of on the fly rules to journals kept and studied as guides to chaos patterns, the book shows itself to different people in different ways. Some see only an entertaining read, others, a whole new way of life.
Before it goes out of print (again) do yourself a favor-drop the coins and take the ride. It may just change your life.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Normality-Gaming At The Edge Of Sanity
"Normality is not so much a game as a communicable mental disease."
Those words, from http://youarenowunderthecareofthegoatplan.synthasite.com/normality.php, only begin to scratch the surface of this work, a harbinger of things to come in a world populated by corporate game makers and fans who don't realize they are witnessing the end of the empire.
The fragmented world that congealed in the early 90's of role-playing game companies took gaming out of the gutter, so to speak, and offered the players a new, shiny and expensive method of roleplaying. The hobby that couldn't buy itself a cup of coffee was suddenly being offered in proper book stores and outlets that only a few years before would not have even considered stocking 'devil worship material'.
But recently the tide has turned. Many are returning to the old school of gaming, wherein you deciphered cryptic handbooks and welded together pieces of different systems to create a unique experience. I myself ran games along with 2 other DMs in the 80's and we called it AD&D but each had a completely different view and play method involving homebrew and third party material. A purist would have found almost no true AD&D under the hood of our game machines, but we all looked to AD&D as a root to grow any gaming experience we desired.
Now, we see a new wave of gaming that at its heart is inspired by the old school, but with a post-modern cynicism that is only now becoming evident. Instead of rules there are suggestions and guides. Diceless systems, systems without skills, attributes or traits. No subject is taboo, no line so thick you can't cross it.
And then there is Normality.
In Normality we see a complete break from the old world and a truly new vision in gaming. Words fail to do justice to this game. Starting from its nearly incomprehensible presentation to its complete disregard for anything that came before it, it is the tac nuke of gaming, aimed squarely at the heart of the corporate gaming and everything it stands for.
And its creators are serious about it. This isn't a joke, they are not trying to pull a fast one on you. First, they offer the pdf version for free and after conversations with one of the creators it is very evident they mean it. Every single splattered page of it.
There are other games pushing the boundaries of gaming and many good ones at that, but if you want to experience a work of ergodic genius that blows the boundaries away and sails straight out to the furthest regions of gaming then get this game now (currently housed at 1km1kt, along with a brief Game Master guide-see link below).
The barbarians are at the gate. Open them and look toward a possible future. A future of unbounded creativity and mind expanding altered reality.
The world that is Normality.
(For more information and the pdf downloads-http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/normality)
Those words, from http://youarenowunderthecareofthegoatplan.synthasite.com/normality.php, only begin to scratch the surface of this work, a harbinger of things to come in a world populated by corporate game makers and fans who don't realize they are witnessing the end of the empire.
The fragmented world that congealed in the early 90's of role-playing game companies took gaming out of the gutter, so to speak, and offered the players a new, shiny and expensive method of roleplaying. The hobby that couldn't buy itself a cup of coffee was suddenly being offered in proper book stores and outlets that only a few years before would not have even considered stocking 'devil worship material'.
But recently the tide has turned. Many are returning to the old school of gaming, wherein you deciphered cryptic handbooks and welded together pieces of different systems to create a unique experience. I myself ran games along with 2 other DMs in the 80's and we called it AD&D but each had a completely different view and play method involving homebrew and third party material. A purist would have found almost no true AD&D under the hood of our game machines, but we all looked to AD&D as a root to grow any gaming experience we desired.
Now, we see a new wave of gaming that at its heart is inspired by the old school, but with a post-modern cynicism that is only now becoming evident. Instead of rules there are suggestions and guides. Diceless systems, systems without skills, attributes or traits. No subject is taboo, no line so thick you can't cross it.
And then there is Normality.
In Normality we see a complete break from the old world and a truly new vision in gaming. Words fail to do justice to this game. Starting from its nearly incomprehensible presentation to its complete disregard for anything that came before it, it is the tac nuke of gaming, aimed squarely at the heart of the corporate gaming and everything it stands for.
And its creators are serious about it. This isn't a joke, they are not trying to pull a fast one on you. First, they offer the pdf version for free and after conversations with one of the creators it is very evident they mean it. Every single splattered page of it.
There are other games pushing the boundaries of gaming and many good ones at that, but if you want to experience a work of ergodic genius that blows the boundaries away and sails straight out to the furthest regions of gaming then get this game now (currently housed at 1km1kt, along with a brief Game Master guide-see link below).
The barbarians are at the gate. Open them and look toward a possible future. A future of unbounded creativity and mind expanding altered reality.
The world that is Normality.
(For more information and the pdf downloads-http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/normality)
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Welcome To The Thin Line
I have been a gamer since I was a child and have over the years wrote various systems that always seemed to succumb to the usual bogging down in the ways of old rules while trying to bring something fresh to P&P RPG gaming.
Then a few accidental discoveries and conceptual breakthroughs drew my focus to a new approach to gaming.
The result is Blur.
Agree or disagree with these new styles of rpgs, but gaming seems to be heading in a new direction, after becoming the domain of big publishers who re-issue their books every few years with minor revisions and ever higher prices, to a more grass roots movement out to explore the edges of the gaming universe and bring the energy and excitement of the beginnings of tabletop gaming back to the forefront.
Enjoy your visit here. I look forward to the exchange of new ideas.
Then a few accidental discoveries and conceptual breakthroughs drew my focus to a new approach to gaming.
The result is Blur.
Agree or disagree with these new styles of rpgs, but gaming seems to be heading in a new direction, after becoming the domain of big publishers who re-issue their books every few years with minor revisions and ever higher prices, to a more grass roots movement out to explore the edges of the gaming universe and bring the energy and excitement of the beginnings of tabletop gaming back to the forefront.
Enjoy your visit here. I look forward to the exchange of new ideas.
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