Low Heat

Last Houses News

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:47:20 GMT

Starting to think about Last Houses again with L. Needs to be rethought from the ground up, to get away from feature creep and complicated systems that don't get the player anywhere near the real spirit of the game. It's a relief to start over. We needed the time to put some distance between ourselves and the systems we had constructed so elaborately.

Not sure this is the best design process. Not sure a game will actually result. But it's the only way to get it better.... so there.

Hunters of the Hundred Kingdoms of Hangrabag

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:14:06 GMT

One pager fantasy heartbreaker is done, text-wise, with an initial set of four character types. As soon as I get a test or two done, and a pdf, I'll put up a post on CEGames for it with free copies for people that want to do some betaing. Or just playing. I'm thinking of doing another set of four classes (rogue,summoner,samurai,lancer?) to augment the first four (wizard,healer,guardian,warrior). It's really easy to write a fantasy game and offer it to people, but it's not exactly ground-breaking material. It's an over-represented genre (so I guess it's a safe test of the little system).

I'm really digging the format, though, so I'm planning another little project already... I just need to settle on a genre. Been watching a lot of giant robot shows lately... but there's another place that many steps have trod before. Hmm.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:57:51 GMT

2/3 of the way through another little one page game. It's really fun to work on a game that splits into 16 tiny pages. You have to balance adequate rules discussion against word choice, rules expansion, font size, readability, etc. It's a neat little puzzle. The only problem I'm having is figuring out a way to lay it out, for free, on a mac. Hmm.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:49:52 GMT

finished season one of Spice and Wolf, or Wolf and Spice, whatever. It was good stuff, though I'm a bit disappointed by the harem anime overtones. Except It actually makes more sense in the series than it usually does, so I'll give it credit for dealing with the situation in an intelligent way.

The main character, Lawrence, is a merchant. In the series, at certain points, he is asked to make choices on business deals and women... though I'm not sure that he always distinguishes between them. At one point, he's faced with a choice between a young outsider shepherdess, innocent and beautiful but entangled in virtual serfdom, and an ancient wolf spirit (or something), also beautiful but probably a lot smarter than him. What's the long term upside? The answer is, of course, to inspect the prospects of both deals simultaneously, as much as possible, and benefit from alliance with both in the near term. This actually makes sense for a worldly-wise merchant. (Note, this is not actually much of a harem, since it's a choice between two girls, but the balance between them is played up so blatantly in episode 13 that I can't escape the feeling that, hey, I've been here before. A lot. In Japan.)

This makes more sense than in animes like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Ranma 1/2, or Tenchi Muyo; realistically a fifteen year-old boy should really pick a flavor and have some fun. Dating is more fun than frustrated flirting, and I can't think they're all too dumb to figure that one out (although that's another harem trope: the boy just doesn't understand romantic interaction).

To be fair, in none of these series is it really this simple. At any point that the harem keeper is on the verge of making a selection, something naturally intervenes. It's what keeps the series moving; the mobile shift of affections forward and backward, the missed chances, etc. Everything else exists to keep the ball rolling (at least, for me, since I like the romance). In Wolf and Spice, on at least two occasions the intervention is from the object of affection, Horo the Ancient wolf spirit-god-thing (also the "intended", which all these series seem to have"). The series sometimes portrays her as the endlessly supportive, lonely girl; this reaches its height when, at certain points, she requests a sign of affection from Lawrence. When he moves to provide this, her pride as an ancient wolf-spirit-god-girl-thing kicks in, and she rebuffs him (happens three times, or more?) In the end, she isn't willing to "settle" for love either.

Well, that's not a really detailed or well organized set of thoughts, and there are better and more insightful and more descriptive stabs at describing Harem animes and just how sick they are, but I thought I'd jot down a little of how that last episode played for me. It was still over the top at the end. But I will watch the next season.

corollary...

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:19:36 GMT

6. Don't backpack alone if there are any flags like "you're feeling a little sick" or "it's probably too late in the season to do this easily".

Mistakes were made

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:25:39 GMT

1. Bring a real jacket, the kind that would make you overheat if you were trying to use it backpacking, because you'll need it in camp.
2. When it's really cold, the only kind of food you'll want to eat is the kind that is pretty much preassembled. Also, you'll forget to drink water.
3. Bring migraine medication. You don't want to spend half your trip with the worst migraine of the last three years.
4. Get a backpack that can fit a real jacket in it.
5. Look at the stars more. Outside of the city.

On the other hand, I learned a few lessons from my previous trips that served me well. I stayed dry, utterly dry (relatively new tent and sleeping bag, plus good weather, and no accidentally stepping in creeks or lakes). My actual sleeping arrangements were pretty ok; I was warm (when completely sealed in my bag). That could have been pretty cool if not for the really agonizing brain pain. I don't know how cold it was out, but the ponds I passed by going in were clear at 2pm and were covered in ice at 11am the next day, from edge to edge. In fact, I was baffled when I turned over my groundcloth and saw what I thought was a thick line of mold under it. It turned out it was ice, frozen condensation from the moisture where about an inch of my feet hung off the end of the thermal pad, from time to time.

Also: the farther people go in, the more friendly they are. Above four thousand feet, people are friendly and ask about how the night went. Below three thousand feet, they can't be bothered to meet your eye. I think it's a factor of how tired you are; being tired makes you sensitive to your own humanity or something like that. Or maybe the people who do hiking more seriously understand themselves as "hikers", part of a community, and not just tourists, avoiding the crowds. Either way, you can bet I was freaking friendly on the way back down. I gave directions to probably four or five groups in the process; after seven years of hiking the same few miles of trail, I know all the turns around Talapus, Olallie, Pratt, and Island lake. Which was satisfying.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:53:10 GMT

Going backpacking tomorrow for a quick overnight. Kind of sad that its the first time in two years, and its such a short trip, but it will be good to get out.

I'm going to forgo cooking this time. Packing in pots and pans and dish soap and propane for my little meals was always a little silly. Now I just have to figure out something cold and tasty. Maybe some chocolate for caffeine and pep, in lieu of coffee. I'll replace the weight of cooking gear with more warm layers.

My usual spot is Pratt lake, so I'll probably head there. I'm really excited. Should be a good time to read and contemplate infinity.

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:44:56 GMT

I'm done

Timely Proust

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:31:30 GMT

The narrator's relationship with his mistress (four books worth of relationship, I think), is now over. And in the end, you never really know her. Sweet and spiteful, docile and independent, faithful and licentious, she is all of these things alternately and heterogeneously.

And that's everyone. The narrator recognizes this about himself as well, even as he tries to decipher her character after she is gone for good. She will never be one thing, one set of principles... there will always be an exception and an exception to the exception, ad infinitum.

Still a book and a half to go, but I wonder if the rest is nothing more (or less) than epilogue to the love of his life, one that seemed insufferably boring and entrapping when he lived it, but in retrospect was the life of idyllic peace he'd always longed for. You never get what you want for long, since desire is based on absence (for Proust).

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:07:11 GMT

With the Time that Remains (Revised Edition!) is done enough to start doing some testing. Cheers!

It took way too long to "finish", at 10,000 words, and it still needs polishing, examples and in a section or two it is missing "spark".... that bit of clever elegance or what have you that makes a game sing. You run on inspiration through some parts of writing, and everything is magical, and sometimes you just have to fill the gaps and stick on an ending. One more revision to go, at least. Oddly, even though it's rewritten from scratch, it's within a hundred words the count for the first edition. This may just be the point where I get tired enough to cut the cord.

Crud. And I just realized that with one little adjustment this fits most of my requirements for the old Blame! game project. More writing... first sleep.

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:40:58 GMT

I have a new phone. It's the same as my old phone, except

a - isn't covered in tiny cracks
b - has a modem that doesn't reset hundreds of times a day
c - has a 90 day warranty
d - doesn't have a chewed up screen protector (have to find a new one now).

My old phone, it was out of warranty, but they replaced it anyway, which is good, because it wasn't really working. Tiny cheer for Apple.

Rambling about opposition when you can't just point to the GM

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:07:22 GMT

Hmm.

I was talking to Andy tonight about a discussion that came up on the forge. You can read it, but here's the key piece: Polaris is a game that encourages players to go for the throat. Well, to use Ben's exact words: "Polaris is not a consensus game. My recommendation is: if there's an action you want to take, and you're worried that someone else at the table will be unhappy with it: do it. That's tragedy fodder."

In other words (my words, which are actually more of a corollary than a summation), the only way to cooperate with the other players is to give them what they least desire. No, not that; the only way to cooperate with other players is to give them what their characters least desire. Because you don't win Polaris; you die or become a traitor.

Which makes the game I'm working on feel like a Polaris hack, or Polaris light, at the moment (feel like - not actually be). The same options are presented; you die or turn into a monster (which is a traitor to all mortal life, so kind of analogous, in context). The key differences that I'm looking at critically as a result of understanding this key feature of Polaris (players actively seek to harm other players' characters, as is their role) are as follows:

a - you're on a quest to finish something, which just might redeem you. There is the option of having hope.
b - There's quite a bit more consensus calling.

Which makes it not as bleak, and perhaps inferior. I tend to prefer games that aren't so cutthroat, but it may be important in a gm-less game. So much to say that I come to games with the assumption that players work together, but without a gm, a designated opposition, perhaps its necessary to encourage more conflict, and appropriate.

That's one of my chief concerns; if players are playing the opposition for other players, how do you encourage them to go for the throat if their characters are working together and they are also, you know, friends in real life?

One solution I'm thinking of is incentivizing successful attacks on players. It's probably easy to play the opposition in such a way that they are easy to beat, which means that players get their way and skip along merrily, which doesn't put the right level of stress in the game. Has anyone seen this work in a gm-less game (or fail miserably)?

corollary: these aren't the only key differences between my game (Monster Quest or With the Time that Remains - both lousy names for different reasons); it's also not as elegant or well-written, and doesn't use key phrases, which is probably a bad idea. Rev 3: improve conflict system. Not today. Also: Polaris has a decent name.

The Winter King of Seattle

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:48:11 GMT

The Winter King of Seattle resides at the bottom of Green Lake in his palace crafted of blue and green glass, ever shining. On certain high festival nights this palace rises from the lake, and his court musicians play "Stepping Out" by Joe Jackson on loud speakers over the lake surface, while his Nayads and Pixies dance on the walls of the palace. He is truly a spectacle to behold on such nights, rising from his throne of damp marble to take the wireless microphone from his vizier, twirling and dancing and shaking his great mane of hair, impeccable in his white tuxedo and wingtip shoes. He is so enchanting, in fact, that the late night walkers and joggers and muggers on the shores of the lake cannot help but walk towards his glittering palace, inevitably drowning.

Then the Winter King of Seattle snaps his fingers. The music stops, and he hands the vizier the mike in exchange for a towel and a red bull. The pixies take to their boats with hooks and harpoons to grab the wallets and cell phones from the drowned mortals. The city descends. And that's how the Winter King pays his phenomenal child support bills.

Limited Progress - Kung Fu Journal

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:22:49 GMT

The fourth form that our style teaches is a two person form. Early in the form you fall flat into a pushup, kick someone in the chest from that position, sweep your leg back up under you to raise you horse stance, then sweep the legs. It's fantastic (and in the second part, which I'm not learning yet, I think you actually jump over the leg sweep into a roll. Sweet!).

I just wish I wasn't still recovering from my trip to Ireland while learning it. Being absent for just four practices (during which I mostly sat in a car and drove around the country) seriously weakened me. I'm about back to where I was before I left now.

The coolest thing (besides the awesome fourth form) is that my knuckles are getting strong enough that I can start punching the bag of rocks/sand instead of just the bag of beans. Now I just need to build a wooden dummy in my yard so I can toughen up my arms.

Common stuff that it sucks to describe...

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:03:52 GMT

...when you're making a game text.

-Setting scenes. It's a thing that becomes natural after so many darn games that use them. But you can't assume that it's common knowledge.
-The concept of a "player character" and "non-player character".
-Rolling dice and counting successes.

Not every game has them, but a lot of them do, so describe them in a game text is like describing how to use a semicolon. You may do it all the time; some people don't, though, so you have to do the song and dance.

PS:

Setting Scenes

A scene is a narrative structure that is used in many roleplaying games to define how events are described in the game. In practice, it's similar to a scene in a play or a television show. It's useful to talk think about the game in these turns because it helps us all as players understand when something important is happening, when it's over, and where to direct our creative energies. It's a formal structure, but it's not a rule. Sometimes you'll want to break out of the guidelines that follow, or recombine them in interesting ways. Go for it. You can think of this as a model that you can fall back on, build off of, or react against. I'll be using the word "scene" frequently in this game manual, however, so I'll explain it in detail so that there's no misunderstanding.

A scene is shaped by its purpose. In many scenes of this game, there is an action that a player character is undertaking, which they may succeed or fail at. These "conflict scenes" describe what the problem is, how the player character tries to solve it, and what the resolution is. Some scenes, however, are created purely for letting the players talk through an experience. These "character scenes" have a more organic flow; they end naturally when the players have finished their conversation or come to the next point of interest.

A simple scene begins by establishing the setting. This is the time and place where the events occur. You'll also need to note, at this point, what characters are in the scene, although they're not technically part of the setting. It can be as detailed or imprecise as necessary, depending on how deeply you want to explore the scene. Generally, the description of the setting should be detailed enough to make it unique, vivid, and interesting, without being so belabored that it overshadows the events that take place in it.

For example: my character, Bruce the Elder, is searching for book of lore on mythic beasts. Andrew will be setting the scene for my search. He could begin by simply stating that Bruce is in a library early in the morning. Or he could describe the graceful sandstone columns of the ancient Artaxian Library, the sweet smell of the slowly decaying papyrus scrolls. and clacking mandibles of the many sentient insectoid librarians.

With the setting established, the player characters are introduced to the scene. The players controlling these characters (often only one such character is present in the scene) describe what they are doing, including any details that they say or do. Part of this involves speaking "in character", talking as your character would talk, and part of this involves speaking "out of character", describing your characters actions. You can also describe your characters state of mind, either blatantly (Bruce is impatient and irritable), or indirectly through descriptions (Bruce paced through the stacks while fidgeting with the butt of the knife half-concealed in his sash).

The non-player characters in the scene can also be described, if they will be important, and other players that aren't involved in the scene can speak for them. In a conflict scene, the player character shows what he or she is doing to try to achieve his goal (including any traits or magic that will be used), and the other players show what obstacles there are to success. Play out the scene, talking in character and describing actions and setting, until you feel like the critical point has arrive, when the player character will either succeed or fail. Enjoy the process; don't rush it. When this climax is reached, roll the dice, and see if the character has met with success or failure.

To continue with the example of Bruce: I describe how Bruce searches the stacks carefully, through the late afternoon and deep in to the night. Andy jumps in and describes how one of the insectoid librarians seems to be watching him from one of his many compound eyes. I respond by cornering the librarian in a small side room while it is shelving some books. "You, you must know why I'm here... why are you following me?" I ask, in character. Andy responds for the librarian, "We know that you're searching for the Mythic Bestiary of Arnan Ruel, but you won't find it! It's safe from barbarians like you." This seems like the climax of the scene, so I roll the dice to see if I can intimidate the librarian into giving me access to the book.

Once success or failure has been determined, finish playing out the scene. Use the dice as a guideline (see the section on dice rolls) for what the player character has achieved. This resolution can be brief or drawn out, but generally describes the consequences of what has happened.

To finish the example: My roll is successful, with lots of successes from my monster traits. I describe how I lift the librarian off his feet with one hand and whisper in his ear seven horrors that the world has not yet known, each of which I am willing to show him in turn. Andrew in turn describes the librarian chittering in terror. "The catacombs! Search the catacombs! B-b-but, you'll need the key first..." I finish by telling how Bruce drops the librarian to the floor and leaves the room without a word, never looking back.

In character scenes, there is no dice rolling, so the scene should play out naturally, as characters react to each other and the world around them. It can be harder to tell when these scenes are finished; generally if no one has anything to say, the scene is over (and probably should have been ended earlier, when things were still interesting).

Smoke Dreaming

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:32:59 GMT

I'm volunteering at Pax this year, and I'm on the spareboard, so I do different things. One of these things was guarding an empty hallway for a couple of hours. So I got to play another game of Smoke Dream, my fourth. (Smoke Dream is Jackson Tegu's game of amplified story-solitaire).

This time I went in with a purpose; in the past I wandered through this strange game of solitaire, which (while interesting), leads to a shallow sort of play. I went in looking for the brass lady (Queen of Hearts), a woman I've scrupulously avoided in past trips because of her unpleasant disposition, but who keeps popping up in strange places in entries for other items.

But I had little luck. She was initially trapped in a prism room, and before I could free her she was stolen by the hollow Lady (Queen of Spades). When I managed to free her, by trading several small items to the Hollow Lady, I then freed her from the prism by using the other half of a kiss, which I turned into a major key. But this made her an item; so I let her go. When next I encountered her, she did as she was is wont to do: she demanded my items, and I refused, so she wrapped her legs around my neck and whipped me with a switch. She was finally my companion. Unfortunately, minutes later we met the wolf-blooded girl. She devoured the brass lady, and that was the end of it. Off she went to the boneyard; my heart was found soon afterwards, and my guard duty was over.

Anyway. Smoke Dream is interesting because there are many hidden little paths through the game, so it increases in value as you learn it. I wonder though, once you've traveled all the paths, would the game still be fun? I don't know. You should play it too.

Also: S/lay w/me is great fun, really good fun, lots of fun, but I'm too prudish to actually ask to play it with most of my friends (thanks, Ben!). I need to figure out how to buy a copy, and then go play it more. Lots more.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:32:38 GMT

Thanks to the frantic, last minute efforts of not one, but two Andys, my entry into Jake's contest got submitted at precisely midnight last night. It's the first draft, which is about an order of magnitude less... good... than the draft I'm working on, but so it goes. At the very least I finished a game, so cheers! I'm hoping that in a couple of weeks the revision will be done, so that I can call it a beta, run a few copies, and do some playing. No more contests until I actually have a game that, uh, people enjoy playing.

Then, it's finally back to work on Last Houses. Which, dang... needs and deserves the attention. Actually doing a draft of a game has made me realize just how tricky it is to tie down a system into a linear flow.

Back in the states

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:37:07 GMT

Probably should be jet-lagged, but I feel pretty good.

This is what I'm doing in Ireland.

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:17:25 GMT

Anyway, on night two we went to the "Musical Pub Crawl" for a fairly steep price (12 euros each, which at current exchange rates/fees is roughly 36-38 dollars for the two of us). There were only about 15-20 participants, and two musicians. They proceeded to explain to us Irish Traditional Music, how to know what to look for if you want the good stuff, and how to find it.

Educational section: so the good stuff is sessions, not performances. Well, in a sense. At the small bridge bar inn Dingle I heard a man do things on a Banjo that were frankly supernatural. He weaponized that instrument. And it was definitely a performance. He and a guitar player hooked up amps and faced the audience, playing tune after tune. That same night, in the Dingle Hotel Bar, we found three people sitting in a circle with the Irish pipes, a guitar, and a violin. They would face each other and play a few tunes in a row, seamlessly intermingling them, and between these sets would talk with each other and the people sitting near them. This was a session. And the difference is that when you listen to a performance, you really think the performer is awesome and you'd like to hear more. When you listen to a session, you really want to learn to play trad music. Or anything, really.

That's been the balance of my evenings, going from pub to pub (discovering that Guinness is the king of beers) looking for good trad music. In the days, I look for ruins and beautiful geography.

I'm writing this in Galway at 11pm (instead of pubbing), for two reasons: it's a university town, and it's Friday. The pubs are crushing, and we're pretty tired. One more day to find hidden ruins. One more night to find that perfect session.

TMI

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:41:20 GMT

I have a throbbing pain in my sacrum that makes it very painful to sit, lie down, or walk. Tomorrow, I will fly for almost 24 hours. Mercy.

Also, I would trade my right eye, hand, and foot for the willpower to do what I choose to do until it is done.

With the Time that Remains... sort of done in some senses of the word!

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:13:40 GMT

Finished draft of Monster Quest (renamed "With the Time That Remains"). I'm looking forward to revising the whole thing from scratch in a year or two (2nd Ed! All new supplements that are incompatible with previous supplements!), after I've played it to heck and back. Which I want to do. I'm really curious to see if it works at all.

It started as a typical "you're becoming a monster" game, with a decent mechanic for forcing the issue, but halfway through I decided the focus was actually on building interesting worlds together. I'd like to play up on that if I get a chance to rewrite, but I'm happy with what I have now. I'm pretty sure at 10,000 words that I've already well exceeded the 48 pages required. I'd prefer to add more examples, though, and content. Still needs character sheets and log sheets. Geh.

But hey, it's done (except not quite done... layout and charsheets...). Tiny cheer! Special thanks to the rest of CEGames (the bedwetter and the porcelain monkey... you know who you are) for providing feedback and advice on key points.

PS: and I'm suddenly realizing that it might actually be tricky to make a game with a hard gamist edge and a heavy emphasis on expansive world exploration.