Diary of a Failed Game Designer

I think I am obligated to say: I'm not affiliated with Paizo in any way. No"review" materials were provided by Paizo prior to this writing.  Here is ae link to the  official Paizo  information about the Starfinder game. I bought the book from Amazon . I get nothing from your clicking on the links contained in this blog. I am quite obviously not a professional reviewer, all opinions in this piece are just that..My personal opinions. I think that covers my rear-end sufficiently. OK. I have to be a straight shooter here. There is no way to do a "Quick Look"  at a 521 page book. My apologies. So here is the TLDR version: Very good production values. Surprising value for price. A system the group I game with will relate to. A Pazio game I can get in on the ground floor of. Good value for the money. Does Sci-fantasy "shoot-shoot" as well as Pathfinder does Fantasy "stab stab".. . I took the time to hack together that preamble because I know Starfin

Gen Con is almost upon which was my personal goal for  AAIE to  be wrapt. I don't think the  editing of AAIE is  quite done more to the point I know I personally have not done the amount of art I would have liked to. Unless something amazing happens I'll change the timetable in my mind. Not being done quite yet isn't a big deal, at the end of the  day  AAIE is a homemade project with  no discernible anticipation beyond the people directly working with it .  N o harm no foul as they say. Related:  A note about Gen-Con 17 If you are at Gen-Con on Wednesday Night look for Neal running a table of AAIE for five players somewhere in that vast sprawling con. I think he will have contact information for the Dustpan games website and whatnot with him. Unfortunately I won't be there because of work, money, anxiety, all those things that conspire to keep me away from a huge con like Gen-con. If by chance you do see Neal at the con tell him I said, "Thank you for running the g

No AAIE New updates, Editing continues The goal is still to be done by Gen-Con. Some of the new players from the games that happen on saturdays  have been leveling up their characters. So far the level up system  has not received any complaints. I think advancement one of the  stronger or at least more concise sections of the  game so I'm glad it's going smoothly. The series includes: The Anatomy of Weapons. AAIE "The town" The anatomy of Balance. The Anatomy of a Perk. The Anatomy of an Ability The Anatomy of AAIE Magic Weapons in AAIE are separated into four basic categories. Peasant weapons are the weapons a character gets stuck with if that character charter was unlucky enough not to gain a legit weapon skill during initial character generation. Peasant weapons are admittedly pretty silly. A chunk of wood, a dead chicken, a frying pan, are all possibilities. They are distinctive in that most peasant weapons have a secondary mundane use. A pitch fork can be jabbed

cam·paign kamˈpān noun 1. a series of military operations intended to achieve a particular objectiv e*, confined to a particular area* , or involving a specified type of fighting. "a desert campaign" synonyms: military operation(s), maneuver(s); More verb 1. work in an organized and active way toward a particular goal, typically a political or social one. "people who campaigned against child labor" synonyms: crusade, fight, battle, push, press, strive, struggle, lobby "they are campaigning for political reform" When using the term "Campaign" to describe a roleplaying game the phrase"Particular Objective, confined to a particular area" part puts me off. Moreover I think it's just a convenient term held over from the hobbies wargaming roots. What I normally run is not by definition a campaign. There is rarely a particular objective. I generally put situations in front of the players then conduct my GM'ing duties largely based of

No AAIE updates this post . The series includes: The Anatomy of Weapons. AAIE "The town" The anatomy of Balance. The Anatomy of a Perk. The Anatomy of an Ability The Anatomy of AAIE Magic Over my past few posts I have written about  various aspects of the AAIE game , how I came up with them and what my intentions were when I wrote them. Any long time reader of this blog ( if you are I'm so so sorry ) might have noticed that much of AAIE runs counter to the other designs I have written about.  The most obvious area that AAIE is different is in the area of player control over the creation of their own characters. Having completely random characters can be both freeing  and frustrating. There's no such thing as a lovingly crafted AAIE character. There's no such thing as an AAIE character that completely matches the players vision. In fact the game is set up in a way that some characters are barely even viable adventurers. For me the lack of player control created a g

AAIE... Update: I have been told character generation is  edited... That's a good half of the job or at least close to it done .. so it's a good sign. We played AAIE on saturday , and let me tell you  it was something: Anyone Who has read this blog for more than a year or so  (bless your heart) will ko that I am not a huge fan of playing online. However with life being what it is gaming online is the  best and perhaps only way I'm getting a session together anytime soon. My biggest trouble with online games is pacing.  At the  table I feel i'm pretty good at keeping a game moving. I like to play with pace speeding up the descriptions when things get frantic, and slowing down  when things are calm. Online I don't think it translates as well.  Online there are  train wrecks that a DM just can't foresee. Some one's mic cuts out. Someone can't hear. Roll 20's voice chat gets squirrely and cuts one player out of a conversation. A player needs to go put th