Party Fowl On Kickstarter

Party Fowl is Live!

Well, some parties start a little earlier than others. Caleb got more than a little overzealous and launched Party Fowl early, so here we are! The game you've heard so much about is now live!

Check out the game now!

RM Update #8

Truly, there can be no finer an image to encapsulate
 the concept of economic horror

So...this happened.

In addition to all the work I did last week preparing for playtests that didn't happen (both got cancelled and rescheduled, but time spent in preparation wasn't spent on content creation), this happened at the beginning of the week. Stopped at the light, then quickly found myself being thrown towards it.

I'm fine. It was about as amicable as fender-benders get. Still, it was not what I was looking for in my life right now.

I've spent the last 16 hours dealing with various garages, car rental services, and insurance companies just so I can get back to work and continue one of the busiest work weeks of my life. And my troubles are nothing compared to Ross and RPPR's. The hosting service decided to downgrade and throttle the bandwidth without warning, and now they're trying to hold the site hostage for a higher price. It's not something I have any capability to help with, but Ross is my friend...a friend who happens to run the primary promotional tool for the game I've invested four years of my life in. So...you know...it's stressful, and I feel like a jerk for being stressed about it at all because my anxiety has to be NOTHING compared to the pain this must be in Ross's ass.

(By the way, for the few people that criticize Red Markets for being unfair to big business and unrealistically assuming corporations would not have the best interests of people at heart during a zombie apocalypse...might I direct you to the company currently trying to bilk a one-man small business for more nonexistent money? I mean, I know Ross is quite the fat cat, what with all that RPG podcaster cheddar. Perhaps they couldn't resist their own rational self-interest in the zero-sum game of high-yield podcast brokerage.)

"First we take over RPG Actual Play podcasting, then the model
train miniature sign production industry, and then...THE WORLD"

This is a roundabout way of saying I've gotten nothing done this week. Nada. Fuck all. And it's extremely depressing.

If you freelance write for any amount of time, something happens to your brain. It doesn't happen when you're writing as a hobby or as a side business; I felt stressed when parts of No Security were late, but I still felt like a worthwhile human being. But, the second you start linking your creativity to your very survival, the change is something you can't shake. Even after heading back to the day job, a pillar of your identity remains chained to your productivity.

You measure your worth in words per day, in pages drafted or revisions made. Zero progress means zero worth. It's not rational, especially when so few have invested in the product, but that connection can be haunting. I can work a sixty-hour week, clean my entire house, take care of my family, and answer a library's worth of email...and I still end up feeling like some useless sloth that's been sitting in front of the TV for a month, naked and covered in Cheeto dust.

I hate wasted weeks like this one. They drive me nuts. It would be enough to make you quit, if another wasted week weren't going to drive you that much more crazy.

Anyway, that's the update...for whatever it's worth. They can't all be winners. Here's hoping next week goes better.

Thanks for reading.

RM Update #4

Howdy y'all.

I've not accomplished much on the revision front this week. If I'm being honest, I never could have kept up my previous level of productivity. Twas always a dream.

Grading ate a bunch of my writing time...and then XCOM 2 came out: a combination which is equivalent to a figure skater taking a lead pipe to the knees of sweet lady productivity.

But it's not a complete loss. I've pledged not to waste anyone's time with the latest RPPR playtest (though we are having fun). I'm always going to come to the table with something fresh to test. This week, it's the playmats.

Playmats for Red Markets are the definition of emergent play. Providing a physical drop sheet for token tracking the character sheet never occurred to me, but then Jace uploaded his to the forums (see above). Within a week, I had three other playtest groups telling me they were using them. It was a demand the mechanics were making that I'd been deaf to, for some reason. The use of physical tokens such as coins or poker chips seems to really help a certain type of player have fun, and the thematic synergy of literally spending coins on your rolls is just too good to pass up. I made up my own prototypes this morning and we'll give them a shot tomorrow.

I've also made some revisions as well. I've got a hard copy of the Character Creation rules full of annotations, but I've only made it to about page five entering the revisions electronically. This chapter was always going to be a nightmare: multiple sections -- tough spots, derived stats, retirement -- have changed completely due to playtest feedback. It's just short of a front-to-back rewrite of biggest mechanics chapter in the book. The only revision task between here and the KS Beta version that's harder is taming the Negotiation chapter, but that's a subject for another time.

Anyway, back to work. Thanks for keeping updated.

New Strategy: Red Markets Progress Updates

My crappy history of blogging is a matter of public record. Let us not belabor the point any longer here.

EXCEPT... it is looking like Red Markets plans (established previously here) are still on pace for a late March/early June crowdfunding campaign. I find myself in the unenviable position of being caught up on work, while being desperately behind on digital presence to promote aforementioned work. I really don't want to get Red Markets polished only to launch the Kickstarter to silence because I appear online as a digital ghost with all the credibility of a Nigerian prince.

So, since nearly every ounce of my time is thrown at Red Markets, let's make the blog part something easy enough for me to keep up with: short updates on what I'm currently doing for Red Markets.

I figure this fits in well-enough with the our podcast's educational focus that some of you might be interested. And even if you aren't looking into game design yourself, Hebanon Games has always been about radical transparency: showing off my crappy first drafts is about as radical as it gets.

Weekly updates on what I'm furiously typing during my lunch break is what you can expect over the next few months. I'll try to get at least one out a week. But before then, we should probably have a brief recap on what has gone on in the last year since I last blogged.

• We have 16, soon to be 17, completed pieces of art ready to show off in the Kickstarter.
• I'm working on a contract for some talented graphic designers that want to do layout for the book. We should have 20 pages of complete text to show off what the final book will look like if we make the color stretch goal. I'll also be using this layout to plan for the printing costs.
• RPPR has begun posting the playtest campaign we used to get the beta ready for release: The Brutalists. Listen to what the game kind of plays like, excluding those thousands of revisions I'm currently making.
• After four months and over 200 downloads of the beta. I received over 50 playtest reports and about as many hours of recorded audio. Thanks so much for the feedback! Without the help of RPPR fans, I could never hope for so many playtesters for a game as "indie" as Red Markets.
• The changelog I've compiled from the reports just exceeded twenty pages. It is now the itinerary that consumes my every waking moment.
• We've started post-Beta revisions. I've run a couple of one-shots to test major rules changes, and Ross starts a campaign Thursday. I'll actually get to play my own game! We'll use this campaign to hash out some of the more long-term stuff, like advanced "MBA rules" and advancement economies.

What have you done to Red Markets today?

I always begin my iterations of Red Markets on the gear list. I know it seems counter-intuitive to start with items that are so dependent on core mechanics, but I find that a stat block serves as the most condensed rules reference I can make and keeps the focus on the game's theme of materialism. Here are my goals:

• Edit out some old quality tags that snuck in from Alpha iterations
• Add in new quality tags to reflect post-beta rules changes
• Reorganize from alphabetical to alphabetical by type (weapons, armor, tools, etc) to assist in reference
• Respec the stat block to reflect changes on the characters sheet and a vertical orientation for the A4 print layout
• Add upgrades that add utility and depth to character creation and advancement
• Alter prices to alleviate 
• Add in some more near-future equipment to help build setting into the character.
• Add short descriptions of the gear outside the stat block, especially for Red Markets specific equipment. These descriptions will be necessary for players that haven't listened to me ramble on about this shit for the last four years. The text will also be necessary if we can afford to put example art next to each entry (probably a pipe dream, but planning for the best is planning for the worst when it comes to Kickstarter.

Here's an example of what it looks like

This is by no means a complete list. There will probably be a couple of rounds of testing new gear in the current playtest campaign, but I'm trying to finalize a format. My hope is to finish this (currently 30+ pages long) list by Thursday so that we can incorporate the new stuff into the new campaign. I've already made my one-armed, one-legged negotiator, "Half-off," in preparation for the test.

What's Next?

Well, probably this...

That's the length of the beta draft. With the now completed GM chapter and MBA Rules (advanced economic stuff for heavy users), it's probably more like 125K right now. All of that text needs to be revised for the following issues...

• Laura, my brilliant new copy editor, has made effort to curb my capitalization addiction. With a new style guide in hand, I have to reign in some of the inconsistencies that naturally result from writing something over the course of years.
• Rules changes are like stones thrown in the pond. Some very fundamental rules changes resulted from the Beta, and even small alterations have ripple effects across 100K+ words of text. I've got to revise what I know needs to change now, and leave blanks for what I'm still testing.
• Writing be hard y'all. Me words grammers ain't so good maybe times.

After the gear list is done, I'll start revising the Gear chapter (explaining rules related to equipment more in depth) while the changes are still fresh in my mind. From there, I'll start revisions on the core mechanics (Profit System in the beta) and move through the draft from there.

Alright! Update complete! Keep me honest out there, and thanks for your continued interest in Red Markets.

GenCon Presence

I'll be all over the place this GenCon networking, running playlists, and generally having fun. I like to stay mobile and fluid in most of my scheduling, due to the notoriously flaky nature of most gamers and the sheer insanity of a convention that size. If you're looking for me, the only places and times I can commit to are the seven panels I'm speaking at this year. Here's the info for any who are interested.

Introduction to RPG Design - Thurs. @ 9 AM (Crowne Plaza Penn. Stn. B)

Guests: Jason Pitre, Caleb Stokes, Andreas Walters

Description: We'll present the fundamentals of roleplaying game design. Interested in hacking or reskinning a game? Want to design your own RPG system from scratch? Let us help you get started.

Game Designer's Workshop: Everyday Hustlin' in the RPG Industry - Thurs. @ 11 AM (Crowne Plaza Penn. Stan. A)

Guests: Caleb Stokes, Ross Payton, Rob Boyle

Description: Talk with Caleb, Ross, and publishers about how to get started writing for games. With a few tips, you could be barely scraping by just like the pros! The goal of RPPR's GDW podcast has always been educational. To that end, Ross and Caleb will do their best to give advice on "breaking into the industry" in a post-Kickstarter age. The conversation will focus on the more logistical, legal, and mundane business of freelancing in RPGs. On the publisher side of things, Adam Jury and Rob Boyle from Posthuman Studios are dropping by to lend their expertise. Prepare to be demystified, warned, clued-in, and tipped-off about the path to seeing your work get included in games. Questions are welcome and encouraged.

Scary Parrots: Weird Horror in RPGs - Thurs. @ 1 PM (Crowne Plaza Penn. Stn. C)

Guests: Caleb Stokes, John Kennedy, Ross Payton, Jack Graham

Description: Horror gaming can go beyond Lovecraft and tentacles. Sometimes the most frightening moments in RPGs can come from obscure references and mundane moments. Surprise your players from a new direction! The panel will include Caleb Stokes (No Soul Left Behind, No Security), Ross Payton (Base Raiders, Zombies of the World), John Kennedy (Demonworld), and Jack Graham (Eclipse Phase). The title "Scary Parrots" refers to an RPPR game in which the players completely forgot about the plot and focused on a parrot THAT COULD NOT BE. Rather than dismiss the moment as a one-off, this panel will explore the unexpected places that the GM can exploit for terror. Between other writers of The Weird, discoveries in neuroscience, and philosophical thought experiments, this panel will provide a ton of original plot hooks and little disquieting scares to throw at your players.

Education & Games: With, In, and How to - Fri. @ 11 AM (Crown Plaza Victoria Stn. C/D)

Guests: Ross Payton, Caleb Stokes, Fuzzy Dan, Steve Radabaugh

Description: What advice can educators provide for teaching game rules to players? How about using games to enhance education? And what about the portrayal of education in games? This panel covers it all and more. Caleb Stokes is an educator and RPG writer. He frequently uses games in the classroom for a variety of purposes, and he recently worked with Arc Dream to publish No Soul Left Behind, a campaign book for the game Better Angels set in a charter high school. Ross Payton has written extensively for Monsters and Other Childish Things, and he's been teaching rules to players for twenty years. Steve Radabaugh is a high school teacher and creator of app games like Dungeon Marauders and the upcoming dice game Fey Ball. Come ask questions about how to include education in your game setting, or find out which games and game design principles work great in the classroom.

RPPR Game Designer's Workshop: Live Episode - Fri. @ 1 PM (Crowne Plaza Penn. Stn. C)
Guests: Caleb Stokes, Ross Payton

Guests: Ross Payton, Caleb Stokes

Description: Ross and Caleb continue their proud tradition of screwing up in real time. Lend your questions and comments to a live episode as the pair gives updates on Red Markets, Ruin, and other game projects. More specifically, Caleb will be doing playtests of Red Markets at GenCon, and No Soul Left Behind will be for sale at the Arc Dream booth. Ross has news about Ruin. Both have news about current freelancing projects and plenty of advice for aspiring game designers in attendance.

Beyond Lawful Good and Evil: Ethical Concepts in RPGs - Sat. @ 11 AM (Crowne Plaza Victoria Stn C/D)

Guests: Caleb Stokes, Ross Payton, Andreas Walters, Shoshana Kessock

Description: How do you build a character with staunch ethical principles without stopping a game dead with the dreaded my-character-wouldn't-do-that problem? Do RPG systems imply ethical philosophies? Should they? Caleb Stokes (No Soul Left Behind), Ross Payton (Base Raiders, Andreas Walters (Baby Bestiary), and Shoshana Kessock (Living Game Conference) discuss ethical concepts in characters, in game worlds, and at the level of design. Bring your questions and curiosity.

The Case Against Fun: Social Critique & RPGs - Sat. @ 1 PM (Crowne Plaza Penn. Stn. C)

Guests: Caleb Stokes, Ross Payton

Description: Fun is obviously a byproduct of games, but that's where the usefulness of the term ends. This seminar presents the case against fun as a design goal, method of criticism, and aesthetic in gaming. Caleb Stokes (No Soul Left Behind/No Security) and Ross Payton (Base Raiders/ Zombies of the World) discuss the negative and positive uses of the word of fun in gaming, along with other critical frameworks by which the word can be understood (such as the 8 types of fun).

See you there. Try not to scream or get crushed.

Red Markets Update

NOT the final product. Though already gorgeous, the cover is still a work in progress.

Though I probably don't need to tell you this by now, I am utter shit at blogging. I will not be improving any time soon. I have made peace with this.

I am terrible at blogging because, when blessed with the time and energy to write, I work on Red Markets. When I have the time but not the energy, I write perfunctory emails to an expanding pool of freelancers and collaborators...working on Red Markets. When I have neither time nor energy enough to write, I talk to Ross on our podcast...about Red Markets. This leaves little left for blogging.

The benefit of all this shameful non-promotion is that 60,000 words of Red Markets are DONE. The entire player chapter is completed, and while changes will still occur, every rule included has undergone five iterations of alpha playtesting. RPPR is currently in the midst of playtesting extended campaign play (listen to us talk about it here).  Furthermore, the freelance writing gigs stealing time away from Red Markets are now complete (listen to the struggle here; read the books that resulted: Firewall and No Soul Left Behind).

So, aside from the day job, things are all-Red Markets, all-the-time over here at Hebanon Games. I'm drafting the GM chapter as the long-form playtest continues. I'm using the additive format of most RPG books, where core rules reside entirely in the player section and the GM chapter sticks to tips, alternatives, and exclusively behind-the-screen functions. This means the GM section should be markedly shorter than the 60K of other rules language. Though we won't be having enough to sell an ashcan at Gencon, there should be enough to start a beta playtest around August for those willing to hack through a Word document.

Which isn't to say Red Markets is only text...

He's a chipper fellow that won't let being declared homo sacer keep him down.

Now that I have a day job again, I've been using the funds from No Security to fund the pre-Kickstarter art, editing, and layout. From experience, I know these upfront costs are essential to make campaigns for big new books a success. I know its a gamble to put too much money up front, but any level of success means that money will not be wasted. It just frontloads costs even more than crowd-sourcing already does.

You've probably already noticed the cover image up top. That's by the magnificently talented Kim Van Deun. She's very enthusiastic about the project, and I'm thrilled to be working with her. Similar praise is owed Patsy McDowell. I've been using his concept sketches in this post and as the face of numerous RPPR GDW episodes. The final piece that resulted is great, but I'm saving it for the KS. Similarly, I'm eager to get some illustration work from long-time collaborator Ean Moody, but he's already contributed by designing the most thematically consistent character sheet I could possible imagine.

THINGS TO COME

I'm going to keep writing, obviously. I'm also going to commission more pieces from the artists mentioned while trying to bring a few more talented people into the fold. Leaving aside numerous possible disasters, the timetable is looking something like...

• June-July: Finish GM section. Commission more promotional art.
• August-September: Closed-beta goes out to other groups.
• August-December: Caleb drafts as much setting material as possible.
• December-January: Playtest reports come in, revisions are made.
• February: Kickstarter planning begins in earnest. I need to build another website in something better than Blogger or Wordpress.
• March-ish: Kickstarter launch. Open-beta goes to all backers.
• Sometime before the heat-death of the universe: a book is born

A lot can go wrong with that timetable, but we are literally as close as we've ever been. I'm hopeful and motivated. I hope you guys are as excited as I am.

I'd promise to keep you informed on this blog, but that's probably a lie. The best chance of keeping update are to follow me at @HebanonGCal and keep listening to RPPR's Game Designer's Workshop.

P.S. As far as I can tell, "Ex Terrorem, Lucrabamur" translates to "out of terror, we profit."

RPPR's Game Designer's Workshop 8: Big Playtest, Big Problems

Red Markets is now in campaign playtesting, so this episode covers what we’ve learned about the game since the campaign began. Hear about the enclave I helped create and what kind of jobs we’ve done. Issues that have arisen solely from campaign issues have appeared that were invisible during one-shot playtesting.

Listen here.

RPPR's Game Designer's Workshop: Playtester's Progress

Believe it or not, I am still alive and working on games. Things have been uber-crazy the past year and seem to only be accelerating. You can hear more in-depth updates about my life and game design in the latest episode of RPPR's GDW: Playtester's Progress.

For those of you not of the podcast bent, here's the "too long; don't listen" update on Hebanon Games.

Personal News

Hebanon Games is no longer in immediate danger of going under because it's CEO and entire workforce (i.e. me) starved to death. After an insanely long and arduous job search, I've finally found another teaching position at a school I'm very happy with. The kids need my help, the staff shares my goals, and I'm rewarded for my efforts. It's all-in-all a vast improvement over my previous full-time job, and it pays much better than the hodge-podge mixture of part-time/night-shift/freelance work I'd been surviving off of for the past year.

That said, the commute to my new job is over an hour (one-way), and I'm working under a bigger course-load than I've ever experienced before. The crippling poverty and depression are alleviated, but they've been replaced with a hectic schedule geared away from game design. It's a good thing overall, but production has slowed and will continue to crawl at a snail's pace until the summer.

Time to write full-time again will come though, and I wouldn't have made it long enough to get there were it not for people continuing to support my work by buying into the No Soul Left Behind Kickstarter, purchasing The Devotees, and promoting No Security in print. While that money isn't enough to buy healthcare or anything, it was literally the difference between having a home and being turned out into the street on multiple occasions. I can't thank all of you enough. I never intended this stuff to be a full-time gig, but the fact that it supported my family for the most difficult year of our lives is something for which I will be eternally grateful.

Red Markets

I've been working on my baby this entire time. While progress is slow and piecemeal, I'm light-years closer to completion that I was at the start of this little project. The rules have gone through five rounds of playtesting. At this point, the game runs a mean one-shot, and I've played several successful randomly-generated and designed scenarios with a variety of groups. The rules aren't perfect, but they are definitely at the "tweaking" phase rather than the "throw out and despair" phase.

I have fun running Red Markets, and my friends have fun playing it. That's closer than I could have ever imagined being even six months ago.

Right now, the rules are in "Caleb-ese" (chick-scratch notes that constitute the bare minimum I need to remind myself of things I already know). I'm in the middle of drafting them into legible chapters that other people can use to teach themselves the game. From there, I'll be playtesting the macro rules (campaign play, roleplaying incentives, character advancement, etc) with the RPPR group and distributing a closed Beta playtest to some fans on the forums.

From there, it's just a matter of drafting the macro rules and all the setting material. Then we are ready to start the commercial and art direction stuff required for the Kickstarter.

How long will that take? Well, see the employment stuff above: next year at the absolute earliest, and that's dependent upon scoring a lighter course-load for next year and a productive summer. What I can say is that the project will get done; I've progressed far enough and seen enough potential in Red Markets that failure is no longer an option.

Freelancing

The only real sad part of getting this new job is having to cut back on the work I take from other companies. I love working with people like Arc Dream and Posthuman Studios, and I was originally planning to use GenCon to increase the stable of clients in my freelancer files. I'm having trouble enough finding times to meet current commitments though. I'll be taking jobs as they come from my current collaborators, but I'm going to hold off on working in any more systems until I get Red Markets done.

Everything Else

I hit up GenCon this year and it was the best ever...just like every other year. I also got some great testing done at Springfield GAME this year. In general, I'm looking to increase my convention presence this summer and into next year, perhaps producing an ashcan draft of Red Markets to sell at the IGDN booth and/or running the design gauntlet that is Metatopia.

I'm getting really into board and card games, making pie-in-the-sky plans to throw my hat in that arena after Red Markets.

I'm still on the twitterz at HebanonGCal. I mainly talk about game design stuff, so give me a follow without fear of hearing about what I ate that day.

RPPR is great as always. I don't get to play nearly as much as I used to, but I'm trying to get in on a game with the guys at least once a week still. GDW with Ross is stimulating as always, and I often ponder doing another, two-folks-talking podcast in the traditional format, but I can't decide on a topic.

Anyway, that's anything and everything. Thank you for continuing to follow Hebanon Games. We'll keep you posted as we can, and I hope y'all are still around when we have something to show for all your time and devotion.

Game Chef 2014

Ross Payton and I decided to participate in Game Chef 2014. You can find the theme and ingredients at the link. We've got one week to make this a game! Here's what we came up with.

We camp up with an idea using Absorb + Sickle + Wild. Right now we are just titling the game after the theme: “There is no book.”

The basic idea is that a supernatural creature has entered your home. It can take any form, but it likes to disguise itself as common objects. In most homes, that means the best camouflage is books, DVDs, or something similar (There is no book). It absorbs the traits around it and hides until it is time to strike. The goal is to find and destroy the specific object the creature is masquerading as before it can absorb the traits of the players, kill them, and run amok in the world. But every question and false guess the players make gives the creature more ammo to imitate them and escape.

Mechanically, it’s ISpy and twenty questions with a supernatural horror twist. The goal is that it will be good for pick-up-and-play in almost any home.

In the first round, the GM defines the play area and puts  glyphs (symbols representing ingredients of the contest) on random items in the play area. For instance, if using a bookshelf and 3 players, the GM would slap 3 post-it notes on 3 random books.

Then the players get to “code” the magic spell to look for certain traits. So the player with the corresponding sickle glyph might put his on a book with the same color cover and say, “One of the defining traits is color”. The person with the star glyph might put theirs on a book by the same author as the one with a star already on it and say, “one of the defining traits is author.”

Once that’s done, the GM asks the players to close their eyes or turn away. He decides which of the items is actually the creature. Then everyone gets 3 tokens and can begin the game.

Players can spend tokens to do one of two things. The first option is to eliminate options based on a trait. So the player established genre as a trait, she might say, “So me a book that isn’t the right genre.” The GM then turns a horror novel the wrong way on the shelf. If someone else asks the same thing later, the GM can’t pick another horror novel, but they can eliminate a romance novel or something else the creature isn’t hiding as.

The other thing a token buys is that it can let the player ask a yes/ no question based on the established traits. “Is the book part of a series?” wouldn’t work unless the trait had been established with the glyphs, but “Does the book have a black cover?” would be fine considering previous examples.

Players can ask clarifying questions for free. Things like “would you call this a horror novel” or “what color would you call this book’s cover.”

The horror aspect comes in because the book can spend tokens back. The book can turn over a choice that’s been eliminated by giving a token back to the person that asked. The book can make any notes a character takes go missing, forcing the player to rely on memory. Lastly, we’re going to write a list of questions the creature can ask back to the players as the hunt goes on: does it bleed? Can it feel pain? Is it afraid? Etc. The GM roleplays this and keeps the pressure up as the game goes on. It also provides the ability to work the game into other RPGs by making it a sort of mini-LARP where the spell’s side-effect means characters have to answer yes/no questions truthfully, just as the creature is forced to do.

Finally, when all the tokens have been spent, each member of the group has one guess each. They put their elder sign glyph on the object they think is the creature. If someone gets it right, they win. If nobody guesses it, they lose.

We’re also thinking about adding a time limit to each section and maybe a third stage of the game akin to werewolf/mafia where the object has already pulled a “Thing” on one of the PCs and it becomes a matter of stopping it before the creature picks off the rest of the group.

What do you guys think?