Virtual Thoughts from eRoom-D » Vegas After Midnight

Post Gen Con – Pre Dragon*Con, Vegas After Midnight, etc.

vandermore — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:55:24 +0000

Ok, I had meant to post things earlier, but at least it’s sooner than the last gap was long.

Gen Con was a blast, at least as good as last year, I would say baring a few things, even better than last year. Vegas After Midnight ran very well, and we got both exceptional feedback and a host of possible playtesters. VAM was stripped down to start, but Daniel Perez (http://dmperez.com/) focused in on something that I hadn’t been able to put a name to. That was that we only had half or less of the Madness mechanics in the game. We just had ways to incur Madness, but nothing about it’s effects, or how to track it. So we slashed the things on the character sheet that required Madness (really just a few things), and ran with the edited versions. As I said, they went great, and the feel of VAM without Madness is there, now we just need to add in the darker aspects of Madness to make it complete.

Going as press for the second year in a row was definitely worth it. I got a great interview with Greymalkin Press about their new game Desolation, which never got recorded due to a recorder snafu. I am working with them to get it redone soon. Oh, and btw, Matt Somers, one of the key designers, has been my friend since college. Full disclosure and all that.

I also got to play Hellas with Jerry Grayson (http://hellasrpg.com), and that was awesome. I had the pdf review copy before the con, but it was so nice I had to buy a copy. So you can expect to hear it played on The Game Master Show (http://thegamemastershow.com) soon, along with Desolation.

Met a bunch of old friends, many of them podcasters, and met a fair amount of new ones. Played several playtest sessions with them, like: Mythender, and Mecha. Two excellent games, that just need a bit more polish. I expect to hear about them coming out within the next year.

I did get to go to the White Wolf party this year, thanks Matt – I think, but if you want to hear more about that, you’ll have to listen to the podcast for The Game Master Show that comes out soon. We’re recording it tonight.

Toodles!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Gen Con 2008 Day 2!

vandermore — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:07:16 +0000

It’s been a looong time since I have last posted, but…

I am at Gen Con 2008, day 2 (Friday). Mick and I have run Vegas After Midnight (http://vegasaftermidnight.net) three times now, and it has been excellent. We have learned a lot of the rough spots, and already started sanding them down. We have loved all of our players, and a good portion of them we think are going to playtest for us. We are going to run it at least three more times before the end of the con, and I can’t wait to run them!

I’ve also done an interview for The Game Master Show (http://thegamemastershow.com), and ended up recording silence through my own fault. We also have played Hellas (http://hellasrpg.com), again, awesome – more to come on that front.

Ok, Erin is pulling me out to eat. So more later hopefully!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

An experiment with Spirit of the Century

vandermore — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:19:00 +0000

Ok, so last night was the first actual play night of my new fantasy campaign, and I am still surprised by the fact that I was able to convince the group to try out a new system other than DnD. What I am I using? You probably guessed by the title. I’m using the Fate system as represented in Spirit of the Century, modified by the work that Mick and I are doing on Vegas After Midnight (http://www.vegasaftermidnight.net/). The armor and equipment rules specifically, along with a slightly reduced power level from the standard SotC. (Less skills, only seven aspects)

Overall, I have an awesome group that I play with. We’ve been playing for several years now, with a few players leaving and a few new ones coming in, but in general a very stable group. I was worried about the game on several levels, the characters gelling being one of them, since they didn’t last game with another GM. It looks like most of that was due to people having shifting schedules and not a change in the group dynamic itself. *whew*

So, the game. As I said, it went quite well, the players only stumbling a little on the rules here and there. Once they got the hang of one though, we didn’t need to revisit it. Magic is going to be interesting for a while. The setting was formerly a DnD setting, so right now the stunts are more or less patterned after the levels in DnD. Oh, the characters are about 10th level in DnD terms as far as power level goes. The Fate system made for a much more cinematic style of play. I started them out with a combat and not so heavy on the roleplaying, since it would teach the crunch in a quicker manner. The combat and spellcasting was excellent! There is one player in my group who always plays a caster, but has always interpreted spells in his own way and never the same way twice. Fate has allowed him to do what he wants with spells, and not to worry about some description somewhere. It totally worked.

My big surprise of the night was another character who was also playing a caster, this one a mage, and his description for his spells were awesome. I found myself realizing halfway through the night that I was still in DnD running mode and not in cinematic SotC mode, but he totally got it even though it was his first time playing. Casting spells that would put aspects on the scene like “Portal to the realm of earth” and at the same time another one of “Sucking Vortex” so that they could push the elemental creatures they were battling into the portal and get rid of them, but also using the Sucking Vortex aspect to help them do it. 100% recycled SotC awesome!

Whew, ok, that’s enough for now. Next game is next Wednesday, and if it relates to VAM playtesting and design I might post more about it. Unless you comment and ask for more anyway.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Update on Vegas After Midnight

vandermore — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:00:09 +0000

So I said I would try out ScribeFire from the train, and I am. I thought I would add in some interesting information for those who are following the development of Vegas After Midnight as well, just to make things more interesting to you, the reader.

I’ve been working on a few things to get the alpha documents ready, and frankly I got sidetracked. Life sped up for a while, and I got distracted from VAM. I was working on a guide to the Factions, a re-written version of Dylan’s Guide to Vegas After Midnight, written by her brother Vic. Mick and I decided to do this since Mick’s vision of the Factions had changed since he put out the original Guide a while back. I’m doing the re-write so Mick can do some crunchy things with the system, and I can do some of the fluff. I was enjoying it, but as I said earlier, got sidetracked. I should start up on it again soon.

I was also working on the equipment section of the rules. We know we want equipment, more than the Spirit of the Century games we have played in recently, but not so much that the game becomes “How much stuff can you carry after Midnight.” So I’m keeping it lighter, but still interesting, and giving a reason for why characters would want equipment in the first place.

So… before I go on more, and possibly lose it all, I’ll end the experiment here. If it works, and I don’t lose this whole thing, then you can expect more from me, more frequently.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Update on VAM and podcasting

vandermore — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:43:56 +0000

Of late, I have been endeavoring to work on Vegas After Midnight and mostly been succeeding. I visited Mick for three days and we hashed out a bunch of stuff for the alpha testing. At least some initial stuff. We have a looong way to go, and getting time to write up what we talked about is taking more time than I expected.

I rediscovered music lately as well. As a result, I have not kept up on the podcasts that I listen to, and my iPod doesn’t even fit them all. So I am going through them and listening now, and trying to catch up to the ones I want, and dumping the ones I know I won’t listen to. A few I am saving to listen to later, not important enough to listen to now, and not on my dump list.

We hope to get some initial documents out to the playtesters in the next week or so, so keep those fingers crossed, and blow on the dice.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Not too sure about the New Year.

vandermore — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:15:12 +0000

Well, things haven’t been going as well as hoped for in this new year of 2008. I have been thinking a good deal about Vegas After Midnight, but work, yeah mostly work, has prevented me from feeling creative enough to actually write much.

I write when I can on it, but I feel that the thoughts I put down are disjointed and fragmentary. Nothing really solid or worthy of going into the game. I write them though, because if I don’t the good stuff won’t work itself to the surface.

Like yesterday, I finally got to talk with Mick on the phone for a while, and he and I came up with some cool ideas that might make it into the game. They are very Story Game-esque in their feel, but I think that the ideas add to the feel and flavor of the game. That didn’t come out quite right, so let me back up. I like immersion in my gaming, the kind where you become the character as much as you can in a tabletop game. Story Gaming breaks that for me, but it trades that for a movie or book style immersion, where you watch the characters and enjoy the story.

The two styles are not mutually exclusive in my mind, but they will take some finesse to get them to work. Ok, so what we came up with was a way for people playing VAM to not only play their characters, and for the GM to craft adventures for them, but to also have the players (GM included) have a say in how the overall story goes. With the players on the Hope side, and the GM on the Despair side, each side ends up playing poker for the fate of the story. Depending how the game is set up at the beginning of the campaign (since we want it to be run in several sessions at least, not just a one shot), the game could last a predetermined number of hands, or it could end when one side goes all in, and loses. Each hand would determine how ultimate outcome of the last set of games went, and it will flavor the next set of games until the next hand is played.

There is still a great deal to work out, and depending on how it fits with the rest of the feel of VAM, it may or may not even make the final cut. I’m not cutting it until we’ve tested it a bit though.

I got a little off track from where I started, but that just seems to be the way this year is going. I am hoping that I have some control over where it is headed, and I intend to try my darndest to get it going where I want it to go.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Feeling burned out…

vandermore — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:16:52 +0000

I am not sure if it is post Gen Con funk, or just too much work, but I am feeling really burned out and just want to walk away from everything for a while. With family, work, The Game Master Show, Vegas After Midnight, my weekly game, The Signal, and everything else that fits into my week that I cram in there, I feel a bit overwhelmed. Which is funny, since I actually have less to do now than I did before Gen Con.

I may have to just take a step back from some of my non-work, non-family things for a little while and just take a breath or two. Our GM is gone for the next two weeks, and rather than run a game like I offered, maybe I will just chill. I may also be cutting down on some of the other gaming that I have been doing, so I can get more writing in.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I want to playtest!!!

vandermore — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:25:07 +0000

Ok, Mick and I are still very very early in our design process, but I am impatient type of person and I want to start playing/playtesting NOW.

My questions to the faceless void are: Is this too early to playtest? Will we get any useful information out of it? Is playtesting this early really just playing for my own amusement? Is that even a problem?

If you even read this, let me know.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It’s amazing how much you can get done with a phone call…

vandermore — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:09:04 +0000

It is simply amazing how much you can get done with a simple phone call (or Skype call). Mick and I talked about Vegas After Midnight for an hour after another conference call for the After Serenity Shindig at this Gen Con 2007. We have been emailing back and forth, posting on our design forum, and communicating with just text in general.

The Skype call, similar to a phone call a few weeks before, accomplished so much. We communicated more of how VAM works, Mick’s vision for it, and my vision of his vision (luckily they are similar), in that one hour than we would have in twenty pages worth of emails or posts. The forums and email are definitely helpful, but getting esoteric concepts down requires a constant back and forth dialog that is just not there on forums or even IM. You lose the nuances of vocalization, and you lose a great deal of time when talking over forums, email, and IM.

I am looking forward to making these calls more frequently, since it gets us on the same page design-wise, and it also has the added side benefit of reinvigorating our enthusiasm for this project.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Longtime GM, but new game designer

vandermore — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:18:11 +0000

I’ve been playing and GMing rpgs for a long time, not quite 30 years. Although I have written my own campaigns, my own game worlds, and have made house rules since the beginning, I am finding it different and challenging to write in someone else’s setting. Mick is furiously writing up some setting and a framework of things about Vegas After Midnight, but he hasn’t had the time to finish enough of it to share yet. Mick is the creator, he is the project lead, so what he says will go, but he has given me permission to write anything that comes to my mind. He trusts that I have a good vision of the VAM setting that is in his head.

Here’s the problem. I’m stuck. There is just too much, it’s too open for me right now. People work at their most creative when they are constrained, and I really don’t have any. This project is as close to a blank slate as you can get without just having a blank page in front of you. So while I could add anything I wanted to to the setting, I can’t think of anything.

So I’ve written a few pieces of fiction to keep the momentum going, but I don’t think they will make it into the final draft. They need more work if they would. I need to set constraints for myself. Limit myself to a particular location or faction, some aspect of Vegas After Midnight that doesn’t encompass everything. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Jammed with work, but…

vandermore — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 22:48:15 +0000

For the last two days, I have been completely jammed with work and had little (4 hours) sleep. Tonight seems no different. However…

I was able to take some time at lunch to put out a some more VAM fiction vingnettes. This time about a man named Mouse, a member of the InterFaction Coalition.

I’ll be talking with Mick to see if we will be releasing some of this fiction prior to releasing Vegas After Midnight.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Writing some fiction for Vegas After Midnight

vandermore — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:36:06 +0000

Today, while waiting an hour in the dentist’s office (for a one minute appointment *arg*). I rewrote some fiction for Vegas After Midnight about Vic Dylan. I had written it before, but I can’t find the notebook or file it went into. So I re-listened to Decision by Mark Kinney, which is some other VAM fiction, and the inspiration for my piece, and went to work.

It’s not perfect, and I want to rewrite it to be from Vic’s perspective, rather than third person, but it’ll do for now. At least it is down on paper, and in the designer’s forum, so it shouldn’t get lost. While I was at it, I even started another piece, and I might even use it as the starting point for the playtest group I am putting together.

In other VAM news, I put a whole slew of questions up on the designer’s forum so that Mick can answer them, and I can get a better view of the setting. I think I have it down actually, but I feel like I am tromping through Mick’s flowerbeds every time I start to think of things for the setting that Mick hasn’t cleared yet. I want at least a direction, since it seems very clear in Mick’s head, so that I can head that way, and then at least if Mick shoots it down, I will probably only have part of it to re-write.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Starting fairly smoothly

vandermore — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:41:02 +0000

Well, Vegas After Midnight (http://vegasaftermidnight.net) is starting off fairly smoothly. I have been picking Mick’s brain over on the private forums we have set up for that sort of thing. It should help keep information about VAM all in one place until we have a document set up to that. Plus, it helps me to just spout out questions, and not having to worry about the format or order they would go into a book.

I’ve been trying to locate some of the fiction that was nearly finished for VAM when I wrote it last year, but I may just have to sit down and re-write it. Not to happy that I lost it, but it’ll probably turn out better for the re-writing.

FlexUnit 4 – Starting out For any of you familiar with FlexUnit 1, Fluint, or...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Vegas After Midnight – working when a state apart.

vandermore — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:25:38 +0000

I have the extreme pleasure of working with Mick Bradley of the Harping Monkey and the Rolemonkey’s on his concept of Vegas After Midnight. I have been excited about the concept since last year when Mick revealed it and had almost run a play by post game of it.

I haven’t let go of the concept since then, and now I am able to work with Mick on bringing that setting and system to life. Go visit the website to check it out. http://vegasaftermidnight.net.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.