metapunk

Well, years and years have gone by (over 17 in fact), and I’ve been working on this silly game as well as life would permit. I’ve read hundreds of other RPG’s, trying to find what worked best in them that I could learn from. I’ve read the Big Model theory and joined the Forge and learned a few things there. I’ve agonized over resolution methods, skill systems, martial arts, and personality mechanics. I’ve added and revamped feature after feature as I’ve come up with or encountered a better way of doing something. I live surrounded by mountains of notebooks and post-it notes and binders, all connected to one writing project or another, most of it dedicated to this game.

And finally, I feel the light at the end of the tunnel. (continue reading…)

I rediscovered an old post by Josh Bishop Roby called Games, The Standard, and Spoons, mainly discussing the efficacy of the Big Three questions (and the Power 19 in general) for triggering a Eureka! moment in potential game designers—when they realize that all the standard assumptions they have about how RPG’s ought to work are merely that. It’s a pretty awesome read, in the vein of “Zen and the art of Game Design.”

Anyway, in that post he says:

“Roleplaying is people collaboratively imagining events. Everything else is optional. No really, everything else. Designing a game is directing that activity towards a specific purpose. You, as the designer, choose that purpose. Everything else that you add needs to serve that purpose.”

Damn. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted any game news.  This is mainly because I’ve been rethinking a whole lot of things about the game, and then taking a much needed break from the whole thing.

The decision I’ve come to is this: I’ll create two games; one relatively traditional tactical game with some room for thematic play (which we’ll keep calling Martian Cycles for now), and another, much more thematic game called Gangs of the Factory Zone, which will be more focused on an area of the world called “the Zone.” (continue reading…)

Well, I know it’s been a while but Metapunk is back up and running, after a few hurdles. First I decided to move the blog, then the site was hacked and I lost all my comments (not that there were all that many, but…) and had to repost everything from backups. But we’re back, baby and better than ever! Also, I’m going to make ever so much more effort to post on a regular basis, even if it’s only a paragraph or two. (continue reading…)

I seem to be fumbling toward some kind of important personal discovery in my game design. For a long while now, I have struggled to define exactly what it was that the game was supposed to be about—not in terms of setting or colour, but in terms of the experience of playing.

It’s because I am an inspiration junky. I read another game text or review, some piece of theory, a fragment of a forum discussion, and I start getting all these ideas about how I can improve my own work. But it never seems to end—my game never gets done. It’s the worst case of Feature Creep this side of Duke Nukem Forever. (continue reading…)

So, I’m torn. I was reviewing everything I still have yet to do with Martian Cycle, and I’m feeling overwhelmed.  But more than that, I’m not sure which direction to go in.

I’ve been working on my RPG for a long time, and in the last year or so, I’ve learned a lot more about the table-top RPG industry—well, as much as you can learn from the Internet, with fairly infrequent gaming sessions, and without actually going to gaming conventions like GenCon and the like (logistics don’t allow it, currently). (continue reading…)

“… and that’s when I pulled out my soul-drinking rune guitar, +1!”

In my last post I mentioned that I was trying to think carefully about how magic ought to work in Martian Cycle. In most games, and most fantasy fiction, magic is a given—that is, within the confines of the setting, magic is real and obvious to everyone.  In fantasy worlds, magic is the high technology of the day, and magical talismans are as common as cellphones are in the modern world.  Everyone has a crystal ball in their house for watching dragon races on, and the heroes might be able to sling fireballs as easily as you or I might turn on a light. (continue reading…)

In my last post, I referred to problems I’m having adding martial arts into the roleplaying game I’m designing, without providing any detail about the game itself. Not very effective writing, really, so I shall rectify this mistake presently.  For the moment, we’ll call the game The Martian Cycle…

(continue reading…)

So, I’m in the midst of a rewrite of the game’s two major systems–character creation and combat.  Originally I had planned to keep things really simple, “rules light.”  But the current version is shaping up to be more of a simulationist game,  so I figure why not include detailed rules for martial arts, since they’re a big part of the setting? (continue reading…)

I was reading through a binder of game design notes today, and someone asked me whether what I was reading was for business or pleasure.   I told her it was a little bit of both—a hobby that I’m trying to turn into a profession.

I’ve been into games most of my life.  I got started into table-top roleplaying in high school, with a system* which I soon realized was too idiosyncratic for my liking.  So, I started building my own system and annoying my friends with constant revisions and “tests of the combat system” involving endless gun battles in darkened warehouses.

(continue reading…)