What The Hell Am I Working On?

It’s been two months since I became unemployed and started picking up a couple of freelance jobs to occupy the time and bring in some cash to keep things afloat. My original expectation was to have a couple of minor jobs here and there in between working on various Broken Ruler projects, including Duel and HPS Legends… but things have been much busier than expected. In a good way, don’t get me wrong.

So I thought I’d share the stuff I’m working on and what I’ve finished up recently to showcase some of the exciting stuff that will release in the coming months. Strap in, kids, ’cause this one’s gonna take a while.

Adventurer Conqueror King: The Heroic Fantasy Handbook and Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu

If you’ve ever done layout before and haven’t tackled an OSR game like ACKS, it is a major challenge. Not just because games like ACKS are a couple hundred pages each with hundreds of spells, monsters, etc., but because character styles are crucial in presenting the game to players and GMs. Each of these games presents spells in italics (or bold, as the case is with ACKS), for example, and there’s no room for error there. Starting mid-December, I started work on the Heroic Fantasy Handbook for the line and with the near-final copy in backers’ hands right now, this is a project I’m happy to list on my Everything I’ve Done page. This week, I started on the Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu supplement and the tricks and tactics learned from the last book have already helped me pick up speed on the layout for this second book.

Third Eye Games

It dawns on me now that I didn’t make any kind of announcement here on the blog, so let’s make it official for those of you who haven’t heard yet. I’m now the Design Manger for Third Eye Games, which means I’m in charge of the graphics for everything produced by Eloy Lasanta’s company. New and updated logos, marketing, and more. We’ve already updated their main logo (as you can see on the right), created one of the Darklands supplement for the Mermaids Adventures line, started work on the H.P. Lovecraft Preparatory Academy RPG (launching on Kickstarter next week), and began designs on the Pip System Starter Box set. While this position is part-time (about 10-15 hours a month), there’s no shortage of work with 3EG, that’s for sure. You can check out my handiwork on the 3EG site as it’s released. 

Fragments: Duel and By The General’s Hand

After some additional, last minute revisions and Vince’s editing touches, the layout on Duel is complete and this free mini-game should be ready to release in the next couple of weeks. You can learn more about this game on the BRG site. There have been some really sweet goodies added into this game with the help of Ryan Hennesy, including some divine influence from the gods who will either approve or disapprove of your duel. I’d like to spoil some more but you’ll just have to wait a couple more week to see for yourself.

This game’s the first in a line of free games called Fragments. They’re my shot at smaller games normally outside my wheelhouse, each one using a unique system that’s either been sitting in my brainpan for a while or simply came to mind at the drop of a hat. The next one is called By The General’s Hand, a letter-writing RPG where two players take on the role of generals presenting the results of an ongoing war. The unique feature is that each letter is actually written to a fictional loved one back home with the results of a player’s dice rolls encoded into the letter. I’m hoping Vince and I can start a playtest of General by next week and include our correspondence in the final version of the game.

Synthicide: Regenesis

After responding to an open call for adventure writers last month, I had a great call with Dustin DePenning on a one-shot/convention game for his dark sci-fi RPG, Synthicide. It’s about a future where robots have more rights than humans and players take on the role of sharpers working on either side of the galaxy and the law. As much as I’d like to spoil the plot behind this adventure, that’s not gonna happen just yet. What I can say is that the PCs will have to confront a plot involving corporate espionage, cloning, and the very nature of humanity vs. synthetics as they are falsely accused of a crime they didn’t commit. My plan is to have this finished by the end of the month so Dustin can add in the mechanical goodies, artwork, layout, and more. I’ll keep everyone posted on how this project progresses.

High Plains Samurai

There’s only a little more than a month until the first official HPS book, Legends, launches as a free PDF (with the option to buy a full colour or B&W softcover copy). I’ve mentioned this a lot lately, so you can learn more about HPS Legends right here. Vince and I are working on proof copies with a goal to have physical copies available at Breakout, Indie Press Revolution, and maybe even a few local gaming stores.

But there’s more going on too. Remember the name Ryan Hennesy from above? Well, Ryan is working with me on designing a website for HPS. It will not only become the main website for the game but the home to the Atlas of the One Land, a special feature unlocked during the Kickstarter. The Atlas will provide additional locations, supporting characters, monsters, legends, and anything else we can think up from actual games played by anyone. Think of it as the expansion of the One Land. It’s a project I’m very excited about and having Ryan working on the web design will create something far sharper than I could design. For now. 😉

There’s also the looming deadline to finish the core rulebook and I’ll admit this particular one may bleed over into March. I’m working on the settings chapter on and off over the past couple of weeks before polishing off the players/GM advice chapter and wrapping it up with an unlocked chapter on playing villains in the One Land. That one’s gonna be fun. Add on all the marketing that will go into plugging Legends and this project is really starting to take on a life of its own. Kind of in a do-or-die moment right now, which makes me so happy to have a team on board to help cross the finish line.

Fraser Ronald’s Patreon

I love me some sweat equity deals. So when Fraser was looking for some help with cover and logo designs for his Patreon games and I was looking for writers to add content to the Atlas of the One Land, a deal was struck that would shake the world! Or at least help both of us out in a pinch. Right now, I’m working on the cover design for Broken Tiger, a Korean action RPG based on Fraser’s Nefertiti Overdrive (you can check out the current low-res draft of the cover to the right).

The Unread Files

Finally, I’d like to share a pet project of mine on G+. If you’ve ever downloaded PDFs of games, odds are you have a collection of them that have maybe been opened but never read. Yeah, same here. So I started up a community called The Unread Files as an RPG book club for older RPGs that have never been read. For our first month, we’re discussing fantasy heartbreakers, including Old School Hack, OSRIC, Barbarians of Lemuria, and Circle of Hands. Check it out and join in on the discussion; we’re also going to set the theme for March in the next week or so.

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Ok, wait… is that it? Not exactly. There are a couple of small design projects for freelance clients not worth mentioning here (because they’re not cool RPGs), but suffice it to say my list is rather extensive. It’s been nice to have a lot to work on and while this freelance thing may only be short term, living the dream for even a couple of months has been it’s own reward.

These things won’t finish themselves. Time to get back to work.

 

OGP Episode #20: Heading In The Right Art Direction

You know those moments when you smack yourself across the head for not thinking of something sooner? That’s what happened this morning when I start writing posts on G+, Facebook, and all that to plug the 20th episode of our podcast, the Ottawa Game Publishers. (I know, snazzy title, right?) Then it hit me… why not post it on the blog you never use and it will automatically populate the other feeds? Duh-doy!

So here it goes. Myself, Jason Pitre, Mark Richardson, and Joshua Kitz discuss the troubles of doing your own art direction and how it’s harder than expected. Plus the show notes include links to the art direction for Headspace, Simple Superheroes #0, and High Plains Samurai. Enjoy!

Freefallin’: Art Direction on HPS’ Cover

For the 20th episode of our OGP podcast (and if you have no clue what I’m talking about, click on the OGP page for this blog), we talked about art direction and mentioned how we’d provide links to some of our own examples in the show notes. With the show notes primed and ready to send out to Fraser so the show can go live… um, yeah, I totally forgot that I had some rather extensive WIP photos of the work Kieron and I did on the cover for both the High Plains Samurai core rulebook and for Legends (releasing next month). While most of the interior art pieces were hashed out in a couple of face-to-face meetings or phone calls with Kieron (and he certainly provided more than what I asked for in all those cases), the cover art was a different matter. I had something very specific and intentional in mind.

Cover art is about more than a great pic that grabs a potential buyer’s attention. It’s a preview of what you’re offering in the game, a glimpse into the kind of things possible and plausible in the game. Pretty covers without any context into the game’s purpose/function are fine, but they need to somehow reinforce the juicy text inside. For HPS, I needed the cover art to do the following.

• Show a dangerous, action-packed moment in a possible story where it’s clear only one of the characters is going to make it out of there alive
• Demonstrate qi powers in action
• Showcase an extreme situation
• Highlight the combination of guns and swords
• Feature a man and a woman in equal balance at this particular moment in the scene where either one could be the villain or the hero

What I wanted was a pair of qi warriors fighting tooth and nail as they fell off a roof in the city of Yung Zhi. I was very specific about its composition, even down to the angle at which we saw them falling, and I’m happy to say Kieron delivered (as he always does). And because the first book in the HPS line is coming out, like, really damn soon, it seemed like a good time to wake up a little early on this chilly Tuesday morning and show you the step-by-step process Kieron and I went through to make this cover happen. And if you haven’t seen the cover for the High Plains Samurai Roleplaying Game core rulebook yet… then you’re in for a treat.

Step 1: Kieron’s first rough sketch showing positioning of the characters. Here, the two warriors are quite far apart and highlight was placed on the woman to sell the action.

Step 2: A second rough sketch with more emphasis on the background (tall buildings in the ragtag section of Yung Zhi known as the Shell). After this, we felt they needed to be closer together to show their physical struggle better.

Step 3: Now we had a fight that showed them free falling hundreds of feet to the ground and a qi power in use (the bullet phasing through the woman).

Step 4: From here until Step 6, Kieron and I played with the angle these character were falling at in relation to the cover, as well as positioning them on the page.

Step 5: Another version where the characters were falling straight down.

Step 6: To help Kieron with positioning, I send this a titled version of Step 5 with the HPS logo masked in behind them.

Step 7: Now for some details. Here, you can see the gunslinger has a qi power too as the bullet is wrapped in flames.

Step 8: The central characters are inked and locked into place.

Step 9: Kieron starts adding on the background.

Step 10: The backgrounds are inked as a separate layer so we can move things as desired.

Step 11: The cover is fully inked and locked. The red checkmark is my 100% thumbs up.

Step 12: Now in colour! But I felt the colours were too bright for HPS…

Step 13: …and that’s when Kieron desaturated them and this sucker was done!

Now that the cover art was complete, I played around with some filters, motion blurs, and other effects to make it grittier, a little darker, slap on a logo or two… and voila!

The cover for the High Plains Samurai Roleplaying Game (as of late January 2018).

For High Plains Samurai: Legends, I simply masked out the qi warriors, stole a little of the Yung Zhi background, and placed them over top the map of the One Land created by Jeff Brown… and voila!

The cover for High Plains Samurai: Legends.

Two covers worth every penny.

Of course, you can learn more about HPS on the Broken Ruler Games website.

HPS Kickstarter Review I: Breaking Down The Numbers

As I write this very first sentence, it has been nine days since the High Plains Samurai Kickstarter campaign ended and the rush of victory has faded to an overall sense of accomplishment to an awareness that it’s time to start putting a finished game together. It’s more than, “Oh, now I can finish what I started.” That was the original intention. During the course of the Kickstarter, I started thinking of ways to improve what’s already been done, flesh out areas that may not be as clear as originally written, and reset a few switches to ensure a better game. While a vast majority of the previous content in the KS will remain, I’m treating this final version of the game as a new project based on a previous one rather than a continuation.

But before any of that can begin, the first step is to break down the numbers and see what we’re working with. Unlike the early stages of this project, there is a set budget in various departments to consider and that includes writing. Paying an editor means I have to keep the additional words added into this book within a certain amount. Because one of the big promises I made to my backers was transparency and because I’m a big believer in indie publishers showing off their numbers – no matter how big or how small – making this public gives others an idea of what to expect under similar circumstances. Plus dissecting data via a blog post really helps me break it down into concise thoughts and bullet points as I move forward. This will be part of a small series on the Kickstarter itself and what that translates into dollar wise. As the months go on, I will continue to post more updates and detailed numbers on this project.

A Slow and Steady Climb

The final goals checklist from the Kickstarter. 

Let’s start off with the main numbers in any Kickstarter: the total money raised and the number of backers who made it happen. High Plains Samurai raised $6,411 CDN with 273 backers in 31 days. Our goal was $3,000 CDN (something like $2,225 USD) and we hit 213% of our goal.

When I set the goal for $3,000 (after great deliberation), my true hope was to not crawl over a finish line. I wanted to at least get halfway between stretch goals or fall right underneath. When you just make it past the main goal or a stretch goal, you’re still working with the bare minimum you’re willing to accept to get something done. Sure, we weren’t about to produce Black Scorpion’s Revenge just yet, but this is about as high as amount as I planned to make the four core products now possible through this KS. If we had just raised a little over $7,000 to make BSR, it would have meant a leaner version of the product. Still very plausible, but it’s always nice to make a little more than you need to feel good about your work. This is borderline greed and I’m sure Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman will walk into my unusually darkened home one night to investigate this deadly sin but it’s the truth about crowdfunding. Your goals are the baseline version of your ideas and raising a little more in between gives you a buffer to account for unexpected hiccups and add on a little more than you needed to pull off your idea.

Reaching those goals though… man, they can be a nut buster. Below is the progression chart of this Kickstarter. It’s not necessarily indicative of other campaigns, but there are some popular trends among your average ones that don’t blow the walls off the gaming world. Beneath that, I’ve provided a table detailing exactly how much was raised each day and the orange rows indicate when the primary goal and $5,000 stretch goals were hit.

Day	Date	Money Raised	% of Goal	New Pledges	Adjustments	Cancelled Pledges
1	2017-05-30	$2,028	68%	90	2	0
2	2017-05-31	$884	97%	37	0	0
3	2017-06-01	$488	113%	20	2	1
4	2017-06-02	$330	124%	12	0	0
5	2017-06-03	$110	128%	6	0	0
6	2017-06-04	$122	132%	6	2	1
7	2017-06-05	$105	136%	6	1	2
8	2017-06-06	$207	142%	6	3	0
9	2017-06-07	$124	147%	5	1	3
10	2017-06-08	$44	148%	3	1	0
11	2017-06-09	$88	151%	4	2	0
12	2017-06-10	$49	153%	3	0	0
13	2017-06-11	$0	153%	0	0	0
14	2017-06-12	$9	153%	1	1	0
15	2017-06-13	-$1	153%	3	1	0
16	2017-06-14	-$26	152%	2	1	1
17	2017-06-15	$2	152%	3	2	2
18	2017-06-16	$36	155%	3	0	0
19	2017-06-17	$12	156%	1	0	0
20	2017-06-18	$0	156%	1	0	1
21	2017-06-19	$19	158%	3	0	4
22	2017-06-20	$19	158%	2	0	0
23	2017-06-21	$58	160%	3	0	3
24	2017-06-22	$58	166%	5	1	1
25	2017-06-23	$42	164%	3	1	3
26	2017-06-24	$44	166%	3	1	2
27	2017-06-25	$67	168%	5	1	3
28	2017-06-26	$209	175%	9	2	1
29	2017-06-27	$326	186%	19	1	3
30	2017-06-28	$477	202%	25	1	2
31	2017-06-29	$365	214%	20	2	4
	TOTAL	6411		311	29	37

See that 17-day flatline? Damn thing crawled so slow there was a trail of slime on my screen. Undoubtedly this was the most stressful part of the campaign as it crawled along. While there’s no question the midpoint crawl of every crowdfunding campaign applies, there’s also something to say for the crowd’s overall opinion on the next stretch goal. In this particular case, I started to wonder by Day 10 if backer were not as interested in unlock a short story involving an upcoming villain. When I posted an additional stretch goal, the Atlas of the One Land, to also unlock at $5k and the crawl continued, those fears were pushed aside.

Here’s the same table rearranged by order of most money raised.

Day	Date	Money Raised	New Pledges	Adjustments	Cancelled Pledges
1	2017-05-30	$2,028	90	2	0
2	2017-05-31	$884	37	0	0
3	2017-06-01	$488	20	2	1
30	2017-06-28	$477	25	1	2
31	2017-06-29	$365	20	2	4
4	2017-06-02	$330	12	0	0
29	2017-06-27	$326	19	1	3
28	2017-06-26	$209	9	2	1
8	2017-06-06	$207	6	3	0
9	2017-06-07	$124	5	1	3
6	2017-06-04	$122	6	2	1
5	2017-06-03	$110	6	0	0
7	2017-06-05	$105	6	1	2
11	2017-06-09	$88	4	2	0
27	2017-06-25	$67	5	1	3
24	2017-06-22	$58	5	1	1
23	2017-06-21	$58	3	0	3
12	2017-06-10	$49	3	0	0
26	2017-06-24	$44	3	1	2
10	2017-06-08	$44	3	1	0
25	2017-06-23	$42	3	1	3
18	2017-06-16	$36	3	0	0
22	2017-06-20	$19	2	0	0
21	2017-06-19	$19	3	0	4
19	2017-06-17	$12	1	0	0
14	2017-06-12	$9	1	1	0
17	2017-06-15	$2	3	2	2
20	2017-06-18	$0	1	0	1
13	2017-06-11	$0	0	0	0
15	2017-06-13	-$1	3	1	0
16	2017-06-14	-$26	2	1	1

The first thing to point out is that the five busiest days are at the beginning and end of the campaign. Days 1-3 brought in the most money, followed by Days 30-31. The reverse side of that coin shows the least amount (and in some cases negative amounts) were brought in during the middle phase of the campaign. This is not new information to anyone who has run a Kickstarter before, but what was a discovery for me was watching the total drop during the middle phase of the campaign. Day 16 saw the bar drop by $26.

If the middle is so damaging, it’s made me wonder why run a 30+ day campaign to begin with? If crowdfunding’s reputation is to slow down to a dead crawl in the middle… take out the middle! This is something I’ll be playing with during my next KS. Try out a 20 day campaign, maybe even 15 days. There are a couple others who have done so, especially when they’re dealing with smaller amounts or niche products in a larger market (such as Goodman Games’ scratch-a-box character sheets).

What Did Everyone Buy?

Below is a table containing the various backer levels for HPS as well as my initial prediction on possible backers per level. When I say “stacked” on the Rewards column, it means the rewards for lower levels include those listed on the rows above too (in most cases).

Backer Level	Rewards (stacked)	Projected Backers	Actual Backers	Money Raised per Level	After Backer Reward Costs
Raw Apprentice ($1)	Access to the current draft (PDF)	20	8	$8.00	$8.00
Rogue Scholar ($7)	Legend of the High Plains Samurai (PDF)	40	11	$77.00	$77.00
Noble Warrior ($12)	High Plains Samurai core rulebook (PDF)	60	125	$1,500.00	$1,500.00
True Believer ($25)	High Plains Samurai core rulebook (softcover)	50	74	$1,850.00	$1,480.00
Hardened Outsider ($50)	High Plains Samurai core rulebook (hardcover)	30	47	$2,350.00	$1,645.00
Rogue Scholar ($100)	24” by 36” map of the One Land, signed book	20	6	$600.00	$360.00
No Rewards		0	2	$21.00	$21.00

Based on these initial numbers, after Kickstarter takes its cut of roughly 8%-9% for commission and credit card processing fees, and assuming ~2% of them won’t process due to overdue balances or whatnot, this means I can expect to have approximately ~$5,300 available to arrive in my account. Ah, but it gets a bit more complicated than that and I’ll get into that in the next installment of this mini-series.

When you offer both print and PDF backer levels, the general rule of thumb is to expect half of your backers to take PDF. HPS saw 46% of its backers go for PDFs only. 44% of backers went for a physical copy. This was the part that really boosted my confidence in this project. To me, buying a physical book means you not only like the concept, you want to have the opportunity to play it some day. Physical books, in this industry, are still a good indicator of actual play rather than purchasing a game for casual reading. It’s not indicative of actual sales once the final product is out in the world, more of a measure of positive interest in the game and it’s potential (pardon the pun) to reach a few tables.

PDF backers mean you basically get to “keep” 100% of their pledge. Creating a PDF is part of the production process and you skip the part where it goes to paper. Physical copies require a printer, shipper, and a few extra hands along the way. That dips into those pledges and that causes the overall funds applicable towards paying for editing, artwork, and more gets a little smaller. That’s where pre-campaign estimates really pay off. Because I have a few quotes on all the possible options available to me, I can expect roughly $1,500 will go towards backer rewards. This leaves me with $3,500 to finish the game. (All this remains guesswork. The next post will involve the actual numbers at hand once the money makes it into my account and I’ve received updated quotes from printers.)

That’s right. Of the $6,411 raised, I can expect only 54.5% of it to go towards making the game. And when you’ve already calculated that percentage long before you press the start button, you can set your pledge levels accordingly and still walk away with what you need to get the job done.

Below is a chart I’ve been plugging away on for months. It contains all the possible outcomes for this KS with the amounts expected for the actual money raised in red.

Funded	Estimated Dropped Backers	Assorted Fees (averaged to 14% of total funding, including BackerKit)	Profit	Estimated Development Costs (editing, artwork, layout)	Remaining Funding After Development Costs	Estimated Production Costs for Backer Rewards	Remaining Funding After Backer Rewards
$3,000	$0.00	$420.00	$2,580.00	$1,250.00	$1,330.00	$500.00	$830.00
$4,000	$0.00	$560.00	$3,440.00	$1,250.00	$2,190.00	$1,000.00	$1,190.00
$5,000	$1,000.00	$700.00	$4,300.00	$2,250.00	$2,050.00	$1,250.00	$800.00
$6,000	$0.00	$840.00	$5,160.00	$2,900.00	$2,260.00	$1,500.00	$760.00
$6,411	$130.00	$900.00	$5,381.00	$3,500.00	$1,881.00	$1,500.00	$381.00
$7,000	$0.00	$980.00	$6,020.00	$3,500.00	$2,520.00	$1,750.00	$770.00
$8,000	$0.00	$1,120.00	$6,880.00	$4,000.00	$2,880.00	$2,000.00	$880.00
$9,000	$0.00	$1,260.00	$7,740.00	$4,500.00	$3,240.00	$2,250.00	$990.00
$10,000	$0.00	$1,400.00	$8,600.00	$5,000.00	$3,600.00	$2,500.00	$1,100.00
$11,000	$0.00	$1,540.00	$9,460.00	$5,000.00	$4,460.00	$2,750.00	$1,710.00
$12,500	$0.00	$1,750.00	$10,750.00	$7,500.00	$3,250.00	$3,000.00	$250.00
$13,000	$0.00	$1,820.00	$11,180.00	$7,500.00	$3,680.00	$3,250.00	$430.00
$14,000	$0.00	$1,960.00	$12,040.00	$7,500.00	$4,540.00	$3,500.00	$1,040.00
$15,000	$0.00	$2,100.00	$12,900.00	$7,500.00	$5,400.00	$3,750.00	$1,650.00
$16,000	$0.00	$2,240.00	$13,760.00	$7,500.00	$6,260.00	$4,000.00	$2,260.00
$17,000	$0.00	$2,380.00	$14,620.00	$7,500.00	$7,120.00	$4,250.00	$2,870.00
$18,000	$0.00	$2,520.00	$15,480.00	$10,000.00	$5,480.00	$4,500.00	$980.00

As you can see, I was prepared for this thing to go nuts! In hindsight, it was presumptuous to assume this thing would hit $18k, but not preparing for it and suddenly finding yourself in that predicament was not a situation I wanted to be in.

That last column is my safety net. It’s a bit smaller than I would have preferred but I do have the benefit of not worrying about shipping costs. That will be covered when I use BackerKit to collect the data and shipping fees from all backers early next year.

The Lost 37 Backers

Over the course of the KS, 37 backers changed their mind and cancelled their pledges. That’s 12% of the total backers ended up pulling their plugs. In a couple cases, within the same day they backed HPS. Now, a few here and there is manageable and doesn’t play with your ego too much. After a dozen, you start to wonder if there’s a trend here. After two dozen, you start to worry if this is more of a epidemic. Once you climb above that (and have days where there are more cancellations than backings), you really start to panic.

There are numerous reasons to account for this, the most common one being the simple fact they changed their mind on backing HPS and found another KS instead or they simply realized funds are too tight right now. Not a problem. There is also the fact that a free preview was made available to all backers and a portion of these 37 did not like what they read. So let’s assume that. Let’s say 20 of them read through the rules and hit the big red cancel button as a result of the game itself. That puts us at roughly 6% of readers not liking the rules that much. But we’re really dealing in paranoid abstraction at this point, so I’m going to run off a very simple concept that 10% of people who check out HPS will not like it based on these numbers. And by not like it, I mean they’d give it a 1-star rating on DriveThru in a heartbeat.

See? This is what losing backers does to the creator. It inserts doubt into their work and it’s a very large mental hurdle you have to overcome. There are two days where I lost more money than I raised and a couple more where we started off with a few new backers only to watch them drop back down as the day progressed. It fucks with your head and while dealing with the slow crawl of any KS’ midpoint is tough to emotionally manage, losing backers is far worse.

Because here’s where it really adds in: the money lost from those lost backers. For this, I’m only including those who cancelled outright and not those whose adjustments caused their pledges to go down. $835 was “lost” during this KS, which means I theoretically could have passed our $7,000 stretch goal and ended up with a total of $7,246. This is exactly what was going through my mind during these cancellations and it’s an extra reason why they hit so hard. The majority of them were for print copies, a neck-in-neck tie between softcover and hardcover backers.

Yet when it comes down to it, there are 273 qi warriors who I’m honoured to see as proud backers of this game and their enthusiasm quickly trumps any paranoia. And 273 is a far bigger number than 37. That means my job is two-fold: make those 273 backers proud and make the other 37 regret backing out on this project. Nyah!

Next: From Projections To Dollars

As I wrap up this post and get ready to dive into the next phase (which I gotta admit gave me great pleasure typing “Version 2.1”), the money has just arrived in my account. It’s time to start working with real money, real problems. Budgets, breakdowns, putting it all into something real and staying ready for unexpected. That’s what I’ll get into next time. Whenever that happens. Soon. Promise.

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You can still see what’s on the HPS Kickstarter page here.
Learn more about High Plains Samurai from the Broken Ruler Games website.

This Week In Kickstarter Prep (Part 2: It Pays To Start Early)

You know those times when you’re frantically running around to try and finish something upcoming and it feels like you’re not even close to meeting your deadline. Then something happens and you have to come to a dead stop, only to realize you’re actually right on pace or ahead of schedule. Yeah, that happened this past week and that’s a damn good thing because the thing that made me stop to learn this was having my Mac suffer a significant technical issue. Since I was working on updating the text and layout for the Kickstarter draft of HPS, a short burst of panic soon became a long, slow breath of fresh air.

If there’s a theme to this update, it’s progress against adversity. Failing forward, if I can use a gaming term. Not everything can work out, especially when it comes to prepping a marketing campaign for anything. Your time is always restricted by the deadline and sometimes, just like in game design, you have to kill your darlings in order to hit that deadline. It doesn’t make it less of a campaign, just one that won’t having synchronized mermaids in an underwater musical number. Sigh.

For this second update on the Kickstarter prep for High Plains Samurai, it’s all about the layout, video editing, and a little Ballad in the works. There’s been some work on the KS page itself but I’ll get into that once there’s something locked and ready to preview.

HPS: The Kickstarter: The Video

Being a film school dropout and needing to put together a crowdfunding video can only spell trouble. Any chance a film school dropout has to pick up the camera and start shooting something – ANYTHING! – they’re going to try and rewrite history. And for a short while, that looked like it was going to happen and I totally blame (and thank) Kieron O’Gorman for almost making it happen.

When you’re promoting an action game, you need to provide a sense of action. And when you have a lot of martial arts/wire-fu combat in your game, you need to show that too. And an eclectic cast of character? Duh, ya gotta have that too. To help pull this off, there was a group of local cosplayers who were more than happy to step in and appear as extras. We had a location, I had a crew of volunteers, I had an idea. Unfortunately, due to a combination of late planning and Ottawa Comic Con (meaning there is no such thing as a cosplayer not standing on that convention floor that weekend), it was not to be. Not to say it will never happen, just not in time to meet the deadline for launching this Kickstarter.

What I’ve started on now is something that will really play up on the marketing campaign as well as tease things about the game. That’s all I’m going to say for the moment. The rest would spoil the fun.

Updating the Kickstarter Draft

I read my games to my son at bedtime. Yes, including Killshot. I read High Plains Samurai to him and made some notes for the exclusive backers only copy available to everyone when they back the project. It went into layout so everyone could see what the game will look like when it’s ready. That layout is 96% done. And yeah, computer issues. A PDF is only a few minor alterations and an export away from completion but the has now been moved to the final weekend before launch date. The video (and the page itself) need to be submitted by Thursday, May 28th. The PDF can wait.

There are some differences and additions between this draft and the Rehearsal Edition (which has now come to a close). The biggest one involves motivations, now divided into three types to help players establish some baseline connections between characters as well as the story. Plus some little tweaks here and there. While this version does not indicate the entire game (the whole version of the Kickstarter is to determine exactly how in-depth this game will get), it will provide everyone with a clear vision for what High Plains Samurai will be all about.

Ballad of a High Plains Samurai

Last week, my good friend and fellow game designer, Fraser Ronald, announced he had written four chapters of an origin story for one of the One Land’s central villains, Black Scorpion. This story will be posted during the course of the Kickstarter to help showcase this complex and vital character as being more than just a cold-blooded killer. It’s also a teaser for the first stretch goal, because Fraser will finish her story if I can raise at least $5k. Everything accounting for her time with the monks of Heaven’s Peak, how she learned to control her qi power, fall in love, and settle into a peaceful life before the warlords and their combined military might brought back the Black Scorpion.

Fraser’s submitted these first four chapters and my editor, Vincent Harper, is doing his thang. I’ll be releasing one chapter every Thursday during the Kickstarter on the BRG site.

Keep On Keepin’ On…

Right, time to get back to it. Tonight, I’m being interviewed by Jason Cordova from The Gauntlet podcast and after that I’m taking a breather from some prep work as it’s Cangames weekend. Seeing as I’m on the committee and there’s always a buttload of work to do for any con during the final days, that mistress definitely requires some time. If you’re an Ottawantonian, hope to see you there. Otherwise, until next time…

This Week In Kickstarter Prep (Part 1)

The countdown is on! On my fridge, there’s a little reminder every morning and right now it’s telling me there’s only 25 days exist before this sucker goes live and High Plains Samurai‘s Kickstarter is in full swing. There’s still a fair amount to get ready and seeing as this is getting my marketing engine all fired up (it is one half of what I do for a living, after all), I thought it appropriate (nay, required!) to post weekly updates on how the KS prep is going and what you can expect when the project launches.

To bullet point what I’ll cover this week…

• There’s the Kickstarter page itself
• Revising and updating what was the Rehearsal Edition into the Kickstarter Draft of the game
• Making HPS feel more inclusive and open
• Changes to the KS video

The Kickstarter Page

Truthfully, I started working on the KS page over a month ago and now it’s about locking down the information and presenting it the best way possible to sell the game. Feel free to have a look and comment, if you like. Thanks to a couple members of the IGDN (of which I’m a proud member), the text is tighter and better organized than before (information that will be copied over to the BRG website when finalized). Plus I’ve been playing around with some of the banner designs and this page is really starting to pop.

The Kickstarter Draft

Everyone who backs the KS will receive access to High Plains Samurai‘s Kickstarter Draft. Very much like the Rehearsal Edition but with some revisions made over the course of playtesting these past few months (and some others mentioned below). There will also be an open preview (you don’t have to back the KS to download it) available for anyone curious about the game to get a look at the first chapter, discover more of what it’s all about, and get an idea of how it will look when done. After making some text revisions and a few minor corrections, I’ll be working on the layout this weekend.

Making HPS Inclusive

Two factors into why this is coming up. One, I had a very interesting and enlightening discussion with Kate Bullock recently in my quest to understand others and the issues they face in the RPG community. The second is that going on Misdirected Mark has truly made me realize just how many people have a chance to discover HPS now.

What I mean by this is that HPS, as it reads now, is very dude heavy. While there’s nothing in the mechanics that favours any one gender, the setting itself is very dude heavy and it’s something Fraser Ronald, who is authoring a short story on the origins of Black Scorpion, mentioned this week. He added more female characters to his story because the setting material felt a bit sparse on gender diversity. And he’s right. So I wanted to demonstrate a shift in that part of the game because I want this to be a game for anyone who loves action films, not just people like me. That’s why Black Scorpion is now a woman. And when the time comes and her qi power is revealed, this change will make the character deeper and more profound, not just “a guy who can really kick ass.” Editorially speaking, this is a minor change in text but I feel a significant shift in how the game looks its characters (particularly the major supporting characters who will help highlight the various KS updates planned throughout June).

The Kickstarter Video

Due to scheduling issues and a sudden realization that filming the KS video as originally planned could actually push back the launch date to May 31st (or later), we’ve had to scrap our original video and I’m now working on something else. Anyone who knows me and has watched the previous KS videos for Killshot and Killshot: Reloaded will know that I’m not one for simply sitting at my desk and talking to the camera directly. No way. The original video was going to involve a cast of Ottawa-area cosplayers dressed as assorted characters who could easily be from the One Land but May is a busy month for everyone. With the Ottawa Comic Con next weekend and Cangames the next (and I’m on the committee, so that weekend is definitely claimed on my calendar), May 27th was the earliest date we could shoot. When I noticed the button on the top right of the KS setup page said projects were approved in 3 business days, a hard decision had to be made.

Not to say this particular video will never come to be. Just not for the Kickstarter. So stay tuned.

My Door Is Always Slightly Ajar…

That’s this week’s update. If you have any questions, comments, or observations about any of this stuff, comment below. You can imagine I’m running full steam ahead on this project and I’m psyched for everyone to finally have a chance to show their support and get the ball rolling on something that’s been four years in the making. It’s gonna be sweet and I can’t wait to experience this process with everyone.

Nathan: A 200 Word RPG Submission

The 2017 finalists for the #200WordRPG contest were announced today and out of the 700+ entries submitted this year… mine was not one of them. Considering it was my first attempt at a 200 word RPG (and how tricky it’s always been to keep high school essays at the word count limit), I’m quite proud and pleased to have crossed this one off my list. Plus, I’m quite happy with what this game could become that I’m considering a “full version” of it in the near future. Whenever that can happen.

For now, I’d like to share it with you. Have a read, maybe even try it out one dark and stormy night. The game is called “Nathan” and involves a group of friends arriving at a cabin in the woods only to find a note on the door with only the name “Nathan” on it. Oh, and the note is stuck to the door with a hunting knife. It’s a survival horror/slasher style game that uses a 3-minute sandglass/hourglass/egg timer to determine turn duration. Enjoy!

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“NATHAN”

Four friends arrive at a cabin. A hunting knife hangs from the door with a note and a name written in blood.

“Nathan.”

Someone plays Nathan; all others are friends.

Each friend offers a theory for the note. Write each theory on an index card; one card has already been marked “TRUE” on the back. All Nathan’s friends will know the truth.

Turn over a 3-minute hourglass. Everyone will describe their character as the killer picks them off one-by-one. Before the sand runs out, a player must reveal a scary moment and choose a playing card.

Black = false alarm

Red = danger!

When a friend receives their third red card, they die. Dead friends can now play the killer and place red cards on characters.

Start the next player’s turn by flipping the hourglass as is.

When only Nathan remains, every black card becomes a wound to the killer. When the killer receives 3 black cards, the killer is dead. Nathan dies when he receives his fifth red card.

If any player fails to complete their description before the hourglass runs out, their character is instantly killed and the hourglass restarts at full.

30 Days and Counting…

Today is May 1st.

Time to start the countdown.

High Plains Samurai‘s Kickstarter launches May 30th.

(Warning: This post assume you know what I’m talking about when I mention High Plains Samurai. If not, you need to go here.)

I’ve been aiming for a May release over the past couple months after making the decision to give myself a couple more months to get all the ducks in a row and I’m very glad I did. There’s still a lot of work ahead to get this sumbitch ready but the KS is going to be that much more solid as a result. Not just because I’ve been able to improve the game, locking down the target and stretch goals, establishing a video that will be more than just face time with the camera asking for money (like there’s going to be a cast for this video, folks), even how the campaign will function and how rewards will be handed out have all made the extra time worth it. Strategically, this KS will be off to a stronger start than if it had launched in March.

Unless the news/teaser deserves to go straight to the BRG website, I’m going to use my blog to share updates on what you can expect on the HPS KS over the next 30 days. And I’m gonna start with two things. The first is the swanky new main graphic for the KS page because that’s the stage locked down this past weekend: graphics.

Yes, yes, very nice. What I’m really psyched to share with everyone is the swanky launch party event. It’s going to be broadcast live on Twitch and can then be downloaded for anyone to learn as much as they want about Samurai. Plus there will be a lengthy discussion on narrative combat, the techniques and best practises for using descriptive elements to create an intense and exciting fight scene in your RPGs. Oh, and it will be on the Misdirected Mark podcast on launch night. Featuring yours truly as the night’s co-host.

Allow me to repeat that. I’m going to co-host Misdirected Mark with the crew on May 30th starting at 8:45pm EST (7:45 the Queen’s time). To rephrase that in ultimate geek out fashion, I’m going to co-host my favourite podcast to talk about my game and any topic of my choice. They’ve basically done the equivalent of asking a Star Trek fan to write the next movie. It’s been close to a week since the date was confirmed and I’ve been jumping up and down with excitement. Hope you can join us to hear me make a complete ass out of myself… and have fun doing so.

If you’ve never heard of MMP before, apologies made be submitted after you learn about them here.

Get ready, kids. These next few weeks are going to be awesome.

The Lazy Man’s Guide To Sunday At Breakout

And so here we come to it. The final day of BreakoutCon in Toronto. If this is your first discovery of my ongoing coverage of this awesome con, welcome and also where the fuck have you been? You can read Part 1 and Part 2 by clicking them links.

Today’s instalment does not involve running any games, playing any games, or even rolling dice, filling out character sheets… I don’t even think I opened a book on Sunday. Yet this final day became my favourite and it’s going to be a tradition I will keep up for any con I attend in the future (or at least whenever possible). Because I did jack shit on Sunday. I hung out with people. People I knew before Breakout and people I now know because of Breakout.

To be honest, this was my personal goal in attending. I’ve heard so many stories and connections established by fellow Ottawanians and podcast co-hosts, Jason Pitre (Spark) and Mark Richardson (Headspace), as they name drop infamous figures in the industry. “I remember Ken Hite once told me this joke…” “So I’m talking with John Wick and he’s showing me these early concept maps for 7th Sea…” Etcetera. If you’re picking up a jealousy in these words, then I wrote that correctly. Yeah, jealous. I wanted to meet other designers and publishers, talk shop, and otherwise get the opportunity to spend an entire day talking with people who shared the same passion and obsessive need to create games as myself.

And I was not disappointed.

Todd No Function Good No Coffee

Originally, I was scheduled to play Swords Without Master with its creator, Epidiah Ravichol, but he had to cancel due to an illness and wasn’t interested in starting the ultimate LARP of Pandemic. Rather than jump onto another game, I decided to take it easy and see what happens. So while I did miss out on meeting Epi and trying out Swords, the rest of the day made up for it.

Not to say this wasn’t a casual day of fucking off and drinking at the bar. In fact, now that I recall, I think I had one beer the entire weekend (and zero alcohol of any other kind). Huh. But anyways, Sunday morning was original intended to be a sleep-in day with the option to sign for a couple of last minute games in the afternoon. Instead, I found out about a free continental breakfast for the other con guests and so I dragged my sorry ass out of bed for that. Seems the ass dragging was very apparent when I showed up in the room because half of the folks in there immediately said, “Uh-oh!” and pointed to the coffee setup.

Being as chatty as I am not without a couple cups in me, it took a while to join in any conversations. Until Hamish Cameron (The Sprawl) and Dana Kubilus (CyberKittens) said hello from the other table and I snapped to attention. We shot the shit, they seemed to share my appreciation for letting the caffeine work its magic, and it was nice. I’ve heard a lot about both games and it’s always nice to have faces and pleasant experiences to go with titles. We were later joined by one of my numerous OGP co-hosts, Joshua Kitz (Simple Superheroes), and tried to figure out just what the hell people from Ottawa are called. The day was off to an excellent start and while our time was brief, it was nice to meet them and find other people to discuss matters like sleeping on a dead man’s mattress. (Yeah, you had to be there.)

Once everyone had to move on and start their games, I had enjoyed the idea of just hanging out with these designers so much that I moved straight into the lounge (see this series’ first post for that setup) and simply made myself available. Even to the point of applying Jason Morningstar’s open chair approach: you simply try to make sure there’s always a chair pushed away from the table to entice and encourage others to sit with you. Damn effective and highly recommended.

Look, Ma, I’m Mingling!

There are three purposes to this post. First, to serve as a permanent record of the experience once my mind eventually turns to poo. (P.S. If you are Future Me reading this and you’re not aware of the fact that you have memory problems, this is your moment of truth. If none of this sounds familiar, it’s official. You got your memory from your mother’s side of the family.) Second, to help showcase the impressive talent this con was able to collect in its second year. Third, to brag. Hey, when I stop to think about how long it’s taken me to get to a point where I’m an invited guest at a con I’ve never been to before, I think I get to earn a little bragging rights. Hmm, I wonder if this means I have to drop out of The Imposters project now. What do you think, Josh?

To keep things simple (or as simple as can in the third “chapter” of a blog post), I had the pleasure of sharing a table with these new comrades-in-arms. Due to the public nature of a creator’s work and the fact that they have either publicly stated they would be at Breakout or were publicly listed on the con’s Guest page, I’m only listing some of the people I got to hang with on Sunday. Those excluded have not been forgotten (unless it’s Future Me now and in which case you’ve likely gone the way of my car keys).

• Chris Challice (Vanagard)
• Fraser Simons (The Veil)
• Jason Pitre (Sig, Posthuman Pathways)
• Mark Richardson (Headspace) and his family
• Fraser Ronald (who is currently kickstarting Sword’s Edge… ahem)
• Chris Sniezak and Bob Emerson of the Misdirected Mark Podcast (and friends)
• Andrew Medeiros (Urban Shadows, The Watch, and 72.3% of all PbtA games on the market)
• Derek Gour (creator of possibly one of my favourite card games, Hope Inhumanity)
• Corey Reid (Dino-Pirates of Ninja Island)
• Joshua Kitz (Simple Superheroes)

Despite the awesomeness and inclusion of everything else at Breakout, this is what made it special for me. This is what I like doing and it was so great to sit around and talk shop with other people who felt like they had hacked their way into this event and some who are already legendary figures in the industry (and especially turned out to be really easy going and approachable). This is the day that made the whole weekend worth it.

Now you’ll notice a serious lack of women’s names in the list above and that’s not because there were none there. There were none who approached the table I was sitting at and joined in. Check out the Guest list for Breakout, they were there. Was it because there was a table full of dudes and they didn’t feel like joining in despite my efforts to keep an open table? Perhaps. So I’m going to say this now and mark it as a goal for next year: I want to meet with a more diverse crowd of designers. Right now I’m in this small, immediate bubble and I want it to get bigger. Consider yourself warned, RPG designers of alternate genders and backgrounds. I’m coming to get you.

Um, in the whole, “Wow, it’d really be great to meet you and talk about design” kinda way. Sheesh, seems the awkward teenager never truly goes away, does it?

In Stores Now

One more thing before I go and prepare to wrap up this trilogy. I sold book to a physical retail store! Thanks to Fraser Ronald for literally tracking me down and dragging me into the room to meet with 401 Games in Toronto because now they have four physical copies of ScreenPlay on their shelves. Virtual too. Oops, wait, now it’s three copies. This was another added benefit and one I did not expect so preparations are already underway to ensure I can deal with retailers again at the drop of a hat.

Time To Wrap It Up…

After nearly 5000 words and three individual posts, I think it’s safe to say my experience at Breakout was a rousing success and all I’ve heard from anyone there during and post-con was praise and full-on joy. It was also really nice to have a con with these kinds of meetups without crossing the border. Plus, after sales at both the Breakout Indie Store and 401 Games, the entire weekend only cost me $160. Kind of a no-brainer that I’ll be back again and again. And again and again. And I recommend you do so too.

I want to give my immense thanks to Kate, Rachelle, Rob, and all the volunteers there for doing a fantastic job. It’s really helped set the bar for what I want to help accomplish with Cangames (taking place in Ottawa this May long weekend – plug!) and what I will expect from any con in the future. If there was one quick and easy way to define my time at Breakout (really, after 5000 words?), it would be “a definitive moment in my career.” After this weekend, I don’t feel like a hack hoping my work would be noticed. I know feel like a hack who stands a chance at being noticed.

Baby steps, people. Confidence doesn’t just fall out of the sky.

 

Rollin’ Bones at Breakout

You thought I was done talking about BreakoutCon 2017? Foolish mortals, we’ve only just begun because now it’s time to talk about the main reason for going: running my games!

Come on, Broken Ruler Games at Breakout. It’s a match made in heaven. And oh was it ever.

I ran four games in total: two playtests of High Plains Samurai, one for Ironbound, and one trip down memory lane as I ran some Killshot for the first time in a couple years. Let’s review them one-by-one-by-one-by-one, shall we?

High Plains Samurai

Oooh, baby. I ran two playtests of High Plains Samurai this weekend, one on Friday night and the second the next morning. To give you the perfect indication of how well it went on Friday night, I was running off nothing more than adrenaline and childish glee. Saturday’s game went so well my brain forgot it was suffering from a migraine.

To be specific, “playtests” might not apply because there weren’t any mechanics or discussions, roses & thorns kind of stuff, afterwards… we were too busy trying to cram in as much mayhem and over-the-top action before time was up. Yet the mere fact that everyone caught onto the mechanics and latched onto the premise with so much vigour and insanity was enough to tell me what I needed to hear this weekend. This game works. Fuck me, does it work.

The main concern I’ve had with HPS compared to ScreenPlay (and it’s various offshoots, including Ironbound, also played this weekend) is building potentials, a term for using the breadth of your character’s description to determine the dice you roll. Each character is assigned a number of potentials with a maximum dice value, Defence value, and the number of details you can apply to your description. If you incorporate the maximum number of details into your description as allowed by your chosen potential, then you roll the max dice value. Come up short in your details and the dice value drops. Basically, the more, the merrier. It was something that didn’t test well during ScreenPlay because it felt too cumbersome to suit that particular style of play, but it worked out well for HPS. All ten of my players embraced it, even if there were times when they found themselves short; they either added on another to build it to the max or agreed to a lower dice value. What hasn’t happened yet (and to my recollection remains that way in the soon-t0-release recordings for Comic Strip AP podcast) is a group using various martial arts flourishes and stunts as details to max out their potential. This is something I have to work on building into the game through sample plays.

The best way to demonstrate how well these games went is to provide you with but a handful of moments from both games.

• A barbarian from Khar’tep wielded a two-handed longsword that suddenly turned into a chainsaw sword, then it was a flaming sword, only to attempt spraying ice before a complication kinda broke it.
• Another barbarian (played by The Veil‘s Fraser Simons) fought off a young woman with flowing red hair that could extend out to 15 ft. and grapple her enemies. Oh, and this was after he landed on the back of the train’s dining car, causing it to heave upwards and come crashing down on one of the train’s guards.
• A samurai from Monsoon used his super speed to zip his way through the Caravan, slicing and dicing as he went, appearing as nothing more than a metallic line weaving through the parade of Mad Max-style vehicles tailing the train.
• Rather than use an innate qi power, a Raw Apprentice engineer from Rust had instead crafted a glove that was the source of his ability to manipulate metal.
• As the Salvation (aka “the train”) went off a cliff with most of our intrepid heroes still on board, it launched a series of countermeasure harpoons to hook onto both sides of a massive chasm and hold it suspended 500 ft. in the air.

There were even other designers and attendees who asked me about HPS over the weekend, which was… whoa! While I’m a little taken aback by the lack of playtest surveys to date, the word is definitely starting to spread and that’s a huge start going into May’s Kickstarter. Needless to say, I’m very happy with how everything turned out this past weekend.

As a bonus, I got to not only finally meet the last third of the Accidental Survivors podcast, Rob, but run the game for Rob and Chris. DVD bonus feature: Chris played in a very early concept of the system a couple years ago and that one bombed, so it was rewarding for him to finally see how it was fixed and held up nicely to what may have been an equal amount of insanity. Based on the feedback HPS received that night, this game is Accidental Survivor approved. (It has to be, seeing as the first third of the show, Fraser, is actually part of the Development Team.)

Ironbound (or How I Had To X-Card A 14-Year Old Kid)

A lighter game of the ScreenPlay system took place Saturday afternoon and also featured Accidental Chris. Honestly, he was the only one who signed up, so it looked like I was going to have to tweak a story about five intrepid magick hunters into a solo story. When two last minute sign-ups joined us, I was still in a tweaking mood. Yeah, yeah, we could hunt the same witch as before, but I was in the mood to mix it up for my own sake.

Very easy to do with this group. One player (note to self: start paying attention and remembering names of all your players) established a motivation to find his ex-lover who turned out to be a witch/warlock. A-ha! Seeing as I brought a printed copy of the Ironbound supplement, The Blessed and the Damned, there were a couple extra baddies to throw their way and so I mixed up the afternoon killing spree to a hunt for the Raven Queen, a polymorphing witch who shared a mountain with two other magick users. If time permitted, we’d perform a triple bypass on magick users. We definitely did not have enough time.

Even with the lighter rules and focused setting, this game still got crazy and was loads of fun. Not High Plains Samurai crazy, but in its own way. Running all these games has really provided me with a better concept on how to approach ScreenPlay con games and I’ll be applying those lessons to the next draft of the HPS playtest (hopefully later this month, once I get caught up on other matters).

Oh, you want to hear about how I used the X-Card. I, the GM. First off, let me tell you about how important the X-Card is to Breakout organizers. When you first arrive to receive your badges and other particulars, you have to explain to either Rob, Rachelle, or Kate (aka the Three Organizateers) how it works. No explain-y good, no GM-y for you. I then make a point of telling my players to hold it up and wave it like a flag if they feel it necessary simply because I might get caught up in the game or whatever I’m describing to notice. And boy oh boy did I end up waving that thing around like we were surrendering to the British.

We had a young lad in our game and I’m going to say he was 14. He did great, very imaginative, and took to the concept of the Arcanist (the true authority on magick countermeasures) like gravy to turkey. When the Raven Queen was thoroughly giving the Ironbound a right thrashing, this kid asked to look at the printed copy of the game and caught something on the cover. Take a look at the bottom right, the text box next to that figure casting magick.

This kid took that idea and decided to only way to defeat the Raven Queen was to fall into a crack in the floor she had opened, land inside a vat of blood (his call), and drink it all “to gain all the magick in the world.” Cool! And then he pushed that envelope with his next description. “I rise up through the crack, hovering. I’m naked and completely covered in blood.”

Naked? 14 years old?!! While the other Writers were waving their hands and asking, “Why do you have to be naked?” I grabbed that X-Card and called for a rewrite. “I don’t think we’re allowed to be in the room when you say the word naked,” I told him. “Let’s keep you covered in blood, but you’re wearing pants.” We actually laughed about it because it was a case of this kid getting really caught up in the moment and even after he apologized profusely for going too far, all was forgiven when he told me the idea came from the cover. All good and it definitely made for a memorable moment at the whole convention. Now I have a story to tell on how important the X-Card is to everyone at the table, including the GM.

Killshot

There’s something refreshing about starting off a con wild and zany then finishing it off with gritty and grounded. The last game I ran on Saturday (and at Breakout in general) was my pride and joy, Killshot. Yep, assassinations on a Saturday night. This game only featured the two players who signed up very early on in pre-registration and that was another relief. To be honest, Killshot works better with a small number of players and seeing as we were playing “Retribution,” the quick-start job, it was a nice fit.

It’s also a huge kick when you have a player who is sweet and incredibly personable in person suddenly say things like, “I’ll just walk up to the guy and beat the shit out of him, if I have to.” Awesome! It was a nice relaxing game, but also one where I discovered just because you create a game doesn’t mean you can recall the rules after a long absence. Not that anything went wrong, but I definitely needed to refresh myself with Killshot a little more the next time I decide to run it.

This was a nice… dare I say, pleasant… game of Killshot to wind out the marathon GMing session. I definitely pushed myself that day and battled through a nasty migraine, sure, yet this was another accomplishment I wasn’t sure was possible. Now I know that when I’m having a great time at a con, I can rock the day as a GM. Two thumbs up and a pat on my own back were definitely in order.

On The Next Instalment of Breakout 2017…

Yeah, this series is taking a bit longer than expected but my goal is to wrap it up this week. My next post may not sound exciting at first because… well, I didn’t play or run a damn thing. I hung out with people all day. But who I got to hang out with was definitely what made Breakout such a huge success. Plus I sold physical copies to a store! That’s next time.