Diary of a Failed Game Designer

Just boosting the signal of an interesting product. Seven years of Fantasy Weather  Volume 1 Medieval England (by Written Oakes Spalding) has been bouncing around my G+ and social media Feed this week.  The  pitch from Drive through is as follows: Each twelve-hour day or evening entry includes information on temperature (in Celcius and Fahrenheit) weather events - fog, thunderstorm, blizzard, etc. - amount of rainfall/snowfall, occurrence or possibility of lightning, wind speed, wind direction, phases of the moon, effect on movement rates and chance of getting lost. It's an almanac for the fantasy gamer. No more annoying die rolling or consulting an app or online program to generate a random or patternless result. With FANTASY WEATHER you can see all of it at a glance This is one of those things I never knew I needed. An Idea which out of the blue that makes me think, "Damn, I wish I thought of that." As such I wanted to  to pass it along, with a thumbs up. Furthermo...

Check out the rest of the  AAIE "Anatomy Of" series: 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 Posting this to answer some questions that have come up lately , specifically about  what are the "standard" difficulties in AAIE, which was asked at Metatopia this year of our lord 2017. I figured the best way to answer that question would be to  disgorge the die system in all it's fetid glory. Try not to fall asleep this isn't the most exciting game stuff post ever.. AAIE is built around a concept of Bell Curves vs A straight distribution. When I started this game I ripped the die mechanic form my table top skirmish game lovingly known as "The Block Game." Way back when I wrote the Block Game I decided that I didn't want a straight distribution of 5% per vlue that 1D20 provides. I wanted something that offered more options....

Phase... Another group has started playing Phase abandon, apparently a number of people have downloaded the game PDF off Drive through RPG. With that in mind I have set out to produce some short (5 pages or so) Folios which include information that may be helpful to those looking to play phase. A game which Is in my opinion pretty darn hack-able so these folios could end up being a series dedicated to Phase hacking moving towards system bashing. My vision is that these folio's can be printed and kept to create a larger more flexible Phase campaign binder. Obviously, I'm getting way ahead of myself.( as usual ) The first of these Folio's is "The Phase Skill Folio" Which explains points about  Phase skills. Words are spent on how the skills work along with what their actual purpose within the ethos of the game. I'm going to be offering it up on Drive through once I finish it, then have the chance create some form of suitable cover page. I might make the folio...

You can get a Free PDF of Phase abandon Here. One of my friends is starting a game of Phase Abandon, and in the course of setting it up he sent me a couple of questions. This is a good thing honestly. I have not thought about the internal workings of Phase for a while. It was written quite some time ago, and we haven't played it for a while. The end result is writing this was a very good exercise for me, and hopefully helpful for him. Question One: One of the players has a skill called "Gains from ones losses", He wants to write it as if when someone critical fails a roll, he can then roll that skill to regain 2 lost skill points for each success. If he critical fails then he losses two skill points for each critical failure of his choosing, I feel like the skill should have a very defined restriction since it seems to be a very powerful tool. There is the equilibrium aspect to, he could take as much damage as he gains back. I'm not sure what to think about that. Answ...

Had some ideas and want to  put them down here on the blog. If one were to use the labels to search that person would find that the very first time I ever mentioned the  "Shards of Thimbral" setting idea was back in  2013. What that means is I have had this idea bouncing around in my head for a solid four years with nothing to show for it. I do have a "game" sketched out in my "Things Unfinished" folder. By sketched out I mean very much undone. Yesterday I was kicking around a system to bolt my setting ideas onto. Here's my thought process. I would want something simple. I like a games main mechanic to be easy to remember. I don't necessarily need "innovation." In fact if I were strain for an innovative idea I know I would over complicate the game. Some Setting ideas (I have shared these before..in one form or another) A world torn apart by cataclysm. The world shattered into an countable number of  floating islands. The  world below rent...

No AAIE Update this week... Nothing new going on, at least not that I know of . I love fantasy RPG's. I also really dig Sci fi games, even though I haven't had the chance to play all that many of them over the years. The one thing I see repeatedly game after game is a similar theme of blowing shit up. D&D devotes a large portion of it's 5th edition hand book to combat. Not so much In a rules way, the  combat rules in the players hand book only range from page 189 to page 198. I mean more in theme. The idea of adventuring is couched in the  idea that there will be fighting. The  idea that there is magic is  tied to in the idea that many of the  spells are going to be dedicated to  damage dealing. The equipment pages contain  many mundane items, but the weapons get the awesome illustrations. The  New Starfinder book takes this even a bit further. It's Sci-fantasy  setting is  presented as a place where pretty much every one is armed to...

Magic, creeping abomination. An oily pool. Unclean Magic insinuates itself into everything we do. Slides into cracks, coats hidden surfaces. Collects in the low places. It squirms, Slithers, amoeboid, pseudopodia. Magic ruined the world. Stain is everywhere. Magic left us behind. Now we hunt Magic. Stench on our skins. (How I would have treated Magic in Shards of Thimbral had that ever happened.)