Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 70
April 29, 2011
The Autumn War in Winter
So here's what I might do differently:
Searching for bodies of loved ones on the battlefield is a fair tutorial. I need to go right back to that and hard. You know why you are here and what you want. You'll also know when you have achieved what you want, and you have a chance to meet the others in a way that explains why you might all be working together.
I think, also, though it did not test very well, generation in play is the right way to do it. For now, I am going to chalk my previous complaints as a matter of execution and personal taste on the part of the testers, not a weakness of the concept. I stand behind that concept.
Information that I need to teach.There was an empire that occupied your homeland and made every attempt to eradicate your culture. Or, you were settled in a place by the will of an empire that made every attempt to eradicate your culture and the culture, if not the bodies of the people on whose land you were settled. It's hard to know for certain which is which, for, of all the pogroms that the empire carried out, the one it carried out most effectively and for the longest was the one against history. Even (especially) its own.The empire's founder might have been an immortal wizard or a god or something. Whatever the first emperor was, his or her major power was that of industrialization, which carried forward very quickly to a point, conquered all the other lands the empire could grab, and then stagnated. You had trains and airships and automobiles, but they were the same trains and airships and automobiles for possibly hundreds of years. Part of that is because of magic and part of that is because of the notion that beyond a certain point, the fruits of industry would make the governance of the empire impossible. It's hard to tell how long this situation lasted, and anyway, your people were in the Provinces.Someone stopped the machines. It was magic, but it's hard to tell who did it. Maybe it was the Queen of Ugly Birds. Maybe it was the mysterious blue people from the Shokkal Mountains, maybe it was trickster Sylfie or the dead acting in concert, but anything that relies on fire or electric current to work does not, and when you try to make it, it brings the chiming sound, the sour taste, the ache in the teeth that turns to migraine headaches that can kill you. That's the Gloom. Sometimes monsters come out of it. A lot of magical items are also infected with it. The Gloom is on the margins of everything and is inimical to life. And it's not going away.This was enough to finish the long slow decline of the empire into free-fall collapse. The empire is gone, but the hash it made of the Provinces is still here. Each Province is a different people (actually, in most cases, many different people, cultures, etc.), each, despite the empire's hundreds of years of work has a local language, half-remembered culture and a hunger for a strong, independent identity and what remains for resources in this exploited land.As such, it's been about 30 years of grinding war, as the Provinces have learned to turn their rifles and bayonets back to spears and archers. The death tolls have been very high. The Queen of Ugly Birds brings her castle and her subjects to the epicenter of the worst of the fighting. She has eyes like baneberries, and her subjects are misshapen and horrible scavengers. She is a harbinger or denizen of the Gloom and she rejoices among the slain.This conflict has drawn her. There were two Provinces belligerent and a third caught in between. But this conflict is over, with nothing settled, only no will on any side to fight. Now, all that is left to do is bury the dead, rebuild what is broken and endure the Queen's attention until someone else draws it away.Someone for whom you care is on the field and you are the only one who can retrieve and bury their remains.Skills that I need to Teach Players
What is an Action and what is a Conflict.How to choose the Nature of your Conflict.Riders and how to apply them.Links, how to get them and how to apply them.Strength, when, why and how to use it.Abilities and how to use them.Calls, when, why and how you make them.How to advance a character.Skills I need to teach GMs.How to frame a Scene, and when the Scene ends.What's an Action and what's a Conflict.How to set Opposition.How and when to use Doom (aka GM Fiat).How to react to active players.How to encourage passive players into action.How to direct story from player cues.How much story to direct.Stuff I don't know I don't know.Things to think about.
Searching for bodies of loved ones on the battlefield is a fair tutorial. I need to go right back to that and hard. You know why you are here and what you want. You'll also know when you have achieved what you want, and you have a chance to meet the others in a way that explains why you might all be working together.
I think, also, though it did not test very well, generation in play is the right way to do it. For now, I am going to chalk my previous complaints as a matter of execution and personal taste on the part of the testers, not a weakness of the concept. I stand behind that concept.
Information that I need to teach.There was an empire that occupied your homeland and made every attempt to eradicate your culture. Or, you were settled in a place by the will of an empire that made every attempt to eradicate your culture and the culture, if not the bodies of the people on whose land you were settled. It's hard to know for certain which is which, for, of all the pogroms that the empire carried out, the one it carried out most effectively and for the longest was the one against history. Even (especially) its own.The empire's founder might have been an immortal wizard or a god or something. Whatever the first emperor was, his or her major power was that of industrialization, which carried forward very quickly to a point, conquered all the other lands the empire could grab, and then stagnated. You had trains and airships and automobiles, but they were the same trains and airships and automobiles for possibly hundreds of years. Part of that is because of magic and part of that is because of the notion that beyond a certain point, the fruits of industry would make the governance of the empire impossible. It's hard to tell how long this situation lasted, and anyway, your people were in the Provinces.Someone stopped the machines. It was magic, but it's hard to tell who did it. Maybe it was the Queen of Ugly Birds. Maybe it was the mysterious blue people from the Shokkal Mountains, maybe it was trickster Sylfie or the dead acting in concert, but anything that relies on fire or electric current to work does not, and when you try to make it, it brings the chiming sound, the sour taste, the ache in the teeth that turns to migraine headaches that can kill you. That's the Gloom. Sometimes monsters come out of it. A lot of magical items are also infected with it. The Gloom is on the margins of everything and is inimical to life. And it's not going away.This was enough to finish the long slow decline of the empire into free-fall collapse. The empire is gone, but the hash it made of the Provinces is still here. Each Province is a different people (actually, in most cases, many different people, cultures, etc.), each, despite the empire's hundreds of years of work has a local language, half-remembered culture and a hunger for a strong, independent identity and what remains for resources in this exploited land.As such, it's been about 30 years of grinding war, as the Provinces have learned to turn their rifles and bayonets back to spears and archers. The death tolls have been very high. The Queen of Ugly Birds brings her castle and her subjects to the epicenter of the worst of the fighting. She has eyes like baneberries, and her subjects are misshapen and horrible scavengers. She is a harbinger or denizen of the Gloom and she rejoices among the slain.This conflict has drawn her. There were two Provinces belligerent and a third caught in between. But this conflict is over, with nothing settled, only no will on any side to fight. Now, all that is left to do is bury the dead, rebuild what is broken and endure the Queen's attention until someone else draws it away.Someone for whom you care is on the field and you are the only one who can retrieve and bury their remains.Skills that I need to Teach Players
What is an Action and what is a Conflict.How to choose the Nature of your Conflict.Riders and how to apply them.Links, how to get them and how to apply them.Strength, when, why and how to use it.Abilities and how to use them.Calls, when, why and how you make them.How to advance a character.Skills I need to teach GMs.How to frame a Scene, and when the Scene ends.What's an Action and what's a Conflict.How to set Opposition.How and when to use Doom (aka GM Fiat).How to react to active players.How to encourage passive players into action.How to direct story from player cues.How much story to direct.Stuff I don't know I don't know.Things to think about.
The Step Back and Away
After a disastrous playtest last night, I have been persuaded to walk away from the game I was designing for a while. I've expunged all the files from my work computers and put them all on a disk, which, with my notebooks and papers, I will be giving up to the care of the one who persuaded me.
I hope this means I am walking away from design, because on many levels, I know I have been going about the whole thing the wrong way - I've been designing something that only I want to play and only I can GM. That's pointless. And annoying to everyone else. And a problem I don't know how to solve.
So maybe, just maybe, I will actually start, you know, writing again? That might be a nice change of pace.
Those who are hoping that the Autumn War someday becomes a game they can play (both of you) - I haven't walked away forever. Just a while.
But that is the end of the day. I still have some day left.
I hope this means I am walking away from design, because on many levels, I know I have been going about the whole thing the wrong way - I've been designing something that only I want to play and only I can GM. That's pointless. And annoying to everyone else. And a problem I don't know how to solve.
So maybe, just maybe, I will actually start, you know, writing again? That might be a nice change of pace.
Those who are hoping that the Autumn War someday becomes a game they can play (both of you) - I haven't walked away forever. Just a while.
But that is the end of the day. I still have some day left.
April 28, 2011
Run Blogging
There was some running. I have hit the point this week where I have exercised enough that I am starting to feel some benefits, though my back is killing me.
Submissions Don't Matter
One poem lobbed.
One poem just reached 90 days with no word.
One just reached 150 days with no word.
One poem just reached 90 days with no word.
One just reached 150 days with no word.
April 27, 2011
Exercise and Stuff
Today is a slow work day which has included another trip around the horn on the bicycle with a lot of housework on the side to keep me from boredom-eating everything in sight. Wish I had more mental energy to write or design, or, you know, QA some shit, but I guess I am only a couple of chores away from wishing that in a relatively clean home, so that's something.
April 26, 2011
April 25, 2011
Exercise and Stuff
Yesterday, mowed mom's lawn in an hour (which, if you see it, you will know it counts).
Today, 5K bike ride.
Good start.
Today, 5K bike ride.
Good start.
April 20, 2011
cucumberseed @ 2011-04-19T20:19:00
I runned a little bit.
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