Classic Posts: A Meta Note

Efforts to fully port the entire LiveJournal over to this here new blog mothership have proven fraught. I’m declaring this an official disguised blessing. Much of the 7+ years of material on the LJ is ephemera and doesn't need to be preserved forever. I won’t be deleting the LJ, so if you still want all my backdated tomfoolery, you can still find it there. Until such time, that is, as the platform deletes itself and sails forlornly to its post-digital Valinor.

However, I will be reposting key entries from the LJ here, as I need to refer to them.

These “classic posts” will be called out as such in the post titles for easy skipping by those reading from an RSS feed. Nor will you have to worry about my link-announcing from Twitter, Google+ or Facebook, as I do the fresh posts.

The Three Reveals of Gen Con (Part Three): DramaSystem / Hillfolk

At Gen Con, brave questioners heard details on up to three unannounced projects. Over the last weeks, I’ve been making those revelations here.

The first: New Tales of the Yellow Sign

The second: Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Now the third and final reveal: my new rules engine, DramaSystem, as expressed by its first game iteration, Hillfolk. The tagline for the project is: If Hamlet's Hit Points is the theory, DramaSystem is the practice.

Specifically, it picks up on the HHP observation that the core scenes of any narrative can be broken down into two categories: procedural and dramatic, and that RPGs have traditionally excelled at the former and given short shrift to the latter. You know those magical sessions where the rules melt away and you just find yourself freely interacting for four hours? And next week you can’t recapture whatever lightning found its way into the bottle? DramaSystem makes the free-flowing story-making happen as a matter of course. It changes the roleplaying dynamic, allowing you to create ongoing collaborative stories that unfold like serialized drama shows (“The Sopranos”, “Six Feet Under”, “Shameless.”) I’ve been in-house testing this for most of the year and am beyond excited by the results.

The first game is Hillfolk, in which you play the core members of a clan of uplands raiders at the dawn of the iron age. Their personal stories play out in a crucible of competing civilizations. Do their histories change the world forever?

Pelgrane Press will be publishing; I’ll be talking about it in stages in the weeks and months ahead. For the moment, here’s a peek at the character sheet. This is my playtest rough and has yet to undergo graphic design beautification. But you get the idea.

Link Round-Up: HHP Goes Boardgame, RPG PhD, West Memphis 3 Released

Chris Farrell applies the Hamlet's Hit Points method to board game analysis. See if you can spot the line that is exactly what I'd hoped a reviewer would say about the book.

Dissertation by Doctor of Roleplaying Michelle Nephew now available in affordable e-form.

The West Memphis 3 are to be released today, thanks in large part to a series of documentaries about their clearly unjust murder conviction. The third installment is due to play the Toronto International Film Festival in a few weeks; the directors are now rushing to add an updated ending. Among the celebrities helping their cause, it turns out that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh provided funding for the forensic tests that finally forced prosecutors to act. The three were released under something called an Alford plea, which stops short of an exoneration, leaves some charges on their records, but does not (contra early reports) require them to admit guilt.

The Birds

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Link Round-Up: MCB Love, Rat Exoneration, TIFF Hazard

Mutant City Blues receives much love on the 2 GMs I Mic podcast.

Rats blameless in 1348 Black Death outbreak, archaeologist claims.

Among the condos implicated in a city-wide epidemic of falling, shattered glass is the one atop the Lightbox, the spanking new HQ of the Toronto International Film Festival. Valerie and I have agreed that if one of us gets taken out during the festival, the other should bravely soldier on and continue seeing films...

Korad: An Empire in Crisis

Last week’s poll in our Korad world-building exercise told us about the province of Palth. The following entry now goes into the Korad bible:

Nomadic pastoralist yak-herders, the Palthians make winter camp at Bridlepost. Something destroys all other communities that get "too big". They just disappear. Palthians are an ornery bunch who just plain don't like being crowded. Palthians believe weather at one's birth mystically affects one's personality and character. Youth go on vision quests/rites of passage in the mountains. In Palth, orphaned children disappear within a fortnight, without exception.

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That completes our survey of Korad’s regions. Now it’s time to activate its core conflicts, as it becomes a place of contending ideologies.

In order for new ideologies to arise, the old one has to show strains severe enough to grant them purchase. As you'll recall, the prevailing culture is austere, militaristic, reverent of knowledge, and covertly matriarchal. The supreme Koradi deity is the Black Goat of the Fens (whom is symbolized by the sacred goat of the marriage ceremony), a million-teated, ever-pregnant creator who spews out fragments of the cosmos, which given enactment and form by her soldier-demiurges. Her great holiday is the Festival of Ideas.

The crucial social unit is the guild, which connects family and empire. An honorable Koradi remains ever willing to spy and steal.

For more detail, review the above-linked setting Bible.

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What now threatens the empire? Answer (and vote on the answers in real time) using the comment system below.

Okay, there are new rules coming up. You’re gamers; you can figure out and follow rules.

This system will speed the last stages of the now-overlong worldbuilding exercise, by folding the pitching and polling steps into one post.

To add a new answer to the question, start a new main comment thread.

To add a modifying riff or detail to someone else’s answer, append a reply comment.

Show your approval for an idea by liking the comment in question. Like as many comments as you want.

The original author of any main idea can count a riff on his or her idea as part of the main idea by saying so in a reply to the modification. If the original author does not make this approval, it is incorporated anyway, when the number of likes on a modification equals half or more of the number of likes on the main idea.

The three ideas with the greatest number of likes will be chosen as the primary causes of instability in the empire, to which the new ideologies must respond.

And… go!

Link Round-Up: Alien Big Rodent, Videodrome Weaponry

‎"The capybara is not a threat, just weird-looking."

MEAT GUNS!!

The Final Status

The judges have received their applications, the juridical process has gone down in all of its behind-the-scenes violence and splendor, and a winner may now be announced in the 2011 Gen Con buzzword competition.

As you'll recall, the object of the exercise was to use status in a verb, as if this is a thing sane men and women actually do. Extra points were awarded for context, audacity, and fake sincerity.

Touts had chosen as their early frontrunner Kevin Kulp, who, in a swashbuckling disregard for the public trust, snuck it into his opening speech at the ENnie awards.

Yet after much debate and soul-searching, the judges have given this year’s prize to a scrappy up-and-comer, that ranker from R’lyeh, Cthulhu himself. While guesting on the This Just In From Gen Con podcast, the purulent incarnation of cosmic indifference mentioned that he’d been statusing Nyarlathotep. In so doing, he scored points for all three of the bonus categories, plus a special prize for wrapping it in a joke that worked outside of the contest.

Accepting on behalf of the winged, octopoid deity will be his public relations handler, Graham Walmsley.

Don’t despair, Kevin. When you’re up against an elder god, it’s always safest to come in second.

London oddsmakers still have Mr. Kulp down as the man to beat in ‘12. I have seen next year's word, and can attest that it is positively bone-chilling in its douchery. The competition will be fierce and without quarter.

Link Round-Up: Timely Review, TIFF Imminent

Dan Harms reviews Out of Time, the Trail of Cthulhu print compendium of non-1930s PDF scenarios.

Very exciting TIFF '12 announcements today: To, Tsukamoto, Lanthimos, Toyoda, Sono...and the 1st Whit Stillman in 13 years. Not to mention Juan of the Dead... Program book day is only a week away!

The Three Reveals of Gen Con (Part Two): Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Last week, I spilled my first reveal of Gen Con: New Tales of the Yellow Sign.

Now for the second reveal, earlier teased as “my imminent conquest, alongside an esteemed colleague, of a new medium.”

This would be a new podcast I’ll be launching in tandem with the Prince of Cairo, the ever-voluble, irrepressibly erudite Kenneth Hite.

Our title? “Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.” Need I say more?

I thought not.

Yet I will, regardless. We’ll be trading palaver on games, film, history, eliptony and bookhoundery. Regular features will include Ken’s Time Machine, in which Ken tells us how he’d solve a given historical problem, if equipped with the means of chronotravel. We’ve already been asked if we’ll be fielding audience questions, and the answer is yes, we will!

We’re aiming for an early fall launch. Simon Rogers of Pelgrane Press is executive producing. He’s already lined up an impressive list of sponsors, but if you contact him right quick there might still be a slot left.

Watch this space for further details as our audio battle plan marches to inexorable fruition.

Link Round-Up: Razed Plays, Ashen Stars Themed, Terror Cloud

What Will Hindmarch learned running his post-apocalyptic GUMSHOE game Razed at Gen Con.

Ashen Stars gets theme music, composed by James Semple and Yaiza Varona.

Esoterror cloud experiment attacks rural New Brunswick.

The Birds

Click here for the complete strip archive.

Link Round-Up: Porgy Backstory, Pelgrane Wrap

The dreaded virus of unnecessary backstory reaches the shores of musical theater.

I thought Pelgrane’s Gen Con sales were up 50% from last year. Nope, it doubled its previous take.

Ashen Stars on The Game’s the Thing

Episode 90 of Ron and Veronica Blessing’s The Game’s the Thing podcast focuses on Ashen Stars, with yours truly as the guest. Join us as we talk about the game’s premise, genesis, development process and additions to the GUMSHOE toolkit. Also up for discussion are Hamlet's Hit Points, why players only think they want their characters to be irresponsible, and teasers for two of the three reveals of Gen Con. Put it in your ears!

Site link.  / iTunes link.

Link Round-Up: Hitean History, Heinleinian Politics, Ocular Devolution

Suffering Ken Hite withdrawal after Gen Con? Jennisodes podcast is here to help.

Writer (and Shotguns v. Cthulhu contributor) Nick Mamatas examines Heinlein as the granddaddy of contemporary libertarianism.

Can't stand 3D but unable to catch a flat screening? Whip out your 2D glasses!

The Three Reveals of Gen Con (Part One): New Tales of the Yellow Sign

At Gen Con I spilled details on up to three secret projects to those bold enough to ask. As the 2011 show fades into a whirl of memory and packing tape, I’m ready to start teasing them here.

First up: my upcoming foray into the brave new business model of ebook self-publishing. I’ve written a short story cycle entitled New Tales of the Yellow Sign. These eight weird tales, set in the past and present, in realities familiar and alternate, explore the rippling madness of Robert W. Chambers’ King in Yellow mythos.

(For another Chambers riff already at an estore near you, check out The Repairer of Reputations, my adaptation of his signature weird-slash-speculative story as a Trail of Cthulhu scenario.)

I’ll be selling this through Kindle and competing ebook channels, educating myself along the way on the realities of this burgeoning distribution method. For those who wish to keep their dollars within the hobby game family (a salutary aim) it will also be sold at the Pelgrane Press estore.

I’m excited to report that Jerome Huguenin, brilliant illustrator and graphic designer for the Trail of Cthulhu line, has agreed to provide the cover. I’ve seen the rough and it is full-stop gorgeous. By which I mean creepy. Creepygorgeous, if you will. I’ll give you a peek later.

I am equally delighted to say that Kenneth Hite, tastemaker of all things tentacular, has kindly stepped forward to place his imprimatur on it in the form of an introduction.

So far we’ve learned that the ebook market works for some writers and not for others. New Tales of the Yellow Sign represents my first explorative bid to find out which category I fall into. The opportunity to devote a regular block of my freelancing time to a client named Robin D. Laws holds enormous creative promise. Its success will depend on your clicks, likes, shares, and e-purchases. Accordingly, I’ll be sure to keep you updated on its progress in the weeks and months to come.

Korad: Voting Palth

For the last year or so I’ve been running an exercise in group world-building as a regular feature on the blog. We’ve now defined all but one of the regions of a fantasy empire called Korad.

Although this newly adopted Blogspot platform outshines LiveJournal in almost every way, its poll feature does lack versatility compared to LJ’s. So please hop on over to the former mothership one last time to vote on the defining traits of the final province, the arid and depopulated land of Palth.

Link Round-Up: Gothic Wiki, Cthulhu Dry

Matt Staggs presents Maundbury, an open-sourced gothic horror setting with a Dark Shadows/ Hammer vibe.

Cthulhu makes a hilariously soft-spoken appearance on this episode of “This Just In From Gen Con.” Note the moment in which the dread elder god makes a squamous stealth bid for victory in the buzzword contest.

The Birds

Click here for the complete strip archive.

Gen Con Wrap

Another Gen Con has steamrollered by. Now we the legions of gamers and game designers straggle our way home, heads full of ideas and colons full of chain restaurant food. I'm happy to have seen my various homies and comrades and already looking forward to our next grand convocation.

Sales went smashingly at the Pelgrane booth. The beautiful blue shiny tome that is Ashen Stars flew off the shelves like a crew of freelance interplanetary troubleshooters fleeing a swarm of Class-K entities. We ran out of Mutant City Blues, Skulduggery, and Bookhounds of London. Trail of Cthulhu sold out multiple times, sending chief Pelgranista Simon Rogers scrounging through the hall to round up additional copies from retail partners. A stack of Graham Walmsley’s Stealing Cthulhu also vanished amid the onslaught of the book-snaffling hordes. I'll let Simon crow as loudly as his British reserve will allow him, over on the Pelgrane blog, but let's just say it was a big leap over last year, which itself was hardly chopped liver.

In addition to signing tons of Ashen Stars, I was asked to deface a good many copies of The Worldwound Gambit and Hamlet's Hit Points. With the latter book out for a year, I got to hear readers' responses to it, and found them immensely gratifying.

But enough with the residual glow. It's time to buckle down to the elevation of a victor and the lamentation of the also-rans. I speak of course of the buzzword competition. In previous years judges required self-reporting to occur at the show. Given how busy Gen Con has become, and thus how hard it is to buttonhole any specific person, the judges have now generously ruled that post-convention accounts of one's statusing efforts will be considered before a winner is declared. So please tell your story of buzzword use, preferably in the comments here at the newly inaugurated blogspot HQ.

Considerable panache will be required to topple the clear front-runner, Kevin Kulp, who uttered the dread phrase with utter straightfacedness in his opening speech at the ENnies. Only a nigh imperceptible puff of vapor rising up behind him indicated that a portion of his soul had detached from the rest of him, died, and evaporated.

Can anyone top this chilling act of linguistic vandalism?