Monday 15 November 2010

Version Wars

One possible explanation of the version wars in games.
"Is there a schism between the folks who love color tattoos and those that like black & white ones? Or the fans of the original Star Trek who hate the folks who like the far inferior newer Star Trek models?" - Seth Godin, the bright line of small differences

The significant message from this is in the last paragraph: "The really good news is that the tribe cares."

When you're organising games, or writing games, or playing games, remember that the people you're playing with actually care about the game. They like the activity, and specifically this activity. That's an encouragement for any of the organisers in the gaming world out there.

Monday 8 November 2010

Blind playtesting for Siege is still open

The blind playtesting phase of my Siege project is still open. I'm looking for people who will take the rules text and run the game with their group, and then to answer some questions for me about the game experience and the rules text.

All the details are available at the project page.

Thursday 4 November 2010

What I said on ZedGames

As it turns out, 4ZzZ was having troubles with their podcast and live streaming but didn't discover this until the show was almost over. This is some of what I said.

Print-on-demand makes it easier to publish in smaller volumes, even though the production cost is higher per unit. This facilitates more innovation and more product choice.

Printed self-publishing isn't new, but POD allows people to print small volumes in sizes other than Letter and A4. Games discussed here included Don't Rest Your Head and Braunstein.

Publishing through PDF is a zero-cost production method, once development costs are recovered. I wish I'd mentioned the Free RPG Blog here.

Pricing for PDFs is wide and varied, from the expensive to the free. Games discussed: Houses of the Blooded, Dresden Files.

Bundles of book-plus-PDF are a great marketing exercise. Games discussed: A Penny For My Thoughts, and a plug for the Bits & Mortar Alliance.

PDF technology offers more than just a non-printed document. Linked text throughout the document is just one example. Games discussed: Happy Birthday Robot

Digital publishing is not limited to PDF. D&D Insider is an example of a specific application for the digital distribution of game rules and character creation. WOTC's move away from PDF to DDI is a way to guide people to WOTC content, without actually blocking third-party materials from being used in D&D. Games discussed: D&D.

The future of digital publishing is anyone's guess, but the untapped area is probably the realm of the app, especially the app that integrates rules, character generation, note taking and dice rolling. I couldn't remember the name of the iPad app at the time, but it's Dicebook.

Despite the availability of digital publishing, digital dice-rollers and apps for your smart-device-of-choice (including my confession as an Apple Hipster), the gameplay experience at the table isn't significantly altered. Minor changes are seen in the books we carry to the table, and perhaps the realisation that some players might be on twitter rather than checking a rule or engaging with the game. It's vital that in any RPG, the point is to engage in the social activity of story-making with the others at the table. Games discussed: None, but a big shoutout to Vincent Baker and his model of dice & clouds.

There you have it. We covered a lot, and thankfully it was more than print-vs-PDF.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Print and Digital Publishing on ZedGames

I'm to be a guest on ZedGames tonight, talking about the print and digital publishing avenues for games. Ostensibly it could be little more than another "print vs PDF" discussion, but I'm reasonably convinced that there's more to this than those two options.

Wow. Look at that alliteration.

Anyway, if you can tune in to TripleZ from 6pm (GMT+10), you'll hear my dulcet tones echoing out over the airwaves or via live stream.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Neoncon CreativeU

I've been watching the Neoncon CreativeU schedule build. It makes me both happy and jealous. Happy because I like to see conventions do more than just play games, and jealous because it's bigger and better than what we mustered together for Uprising.

So if you're able to get to Neoncon, you should go. It's bigger and better than what we did in Uprising. My jealousy is a recommendation.

Labels

1KM1KT (1) 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars (1) 4ZZZ (1) A Penny For My Thoughts (6) Abney Park (1) Actual Play (13) Administration (3) Adults only please (1) Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (5) Advanced Fighting Fantasy (4) Agon (14) Andrew Smith (1) Apocalypse World (3) apocalyptic (1) Art (2) Aspects (1) Auscon (11) Australian Game Designers (1) Avengers (1) Battlestar Galactica (1) Behind The Screens (1) Bits and Mortar (2) Blades In The Dark (1) Blank Shield Press (1) Brass Goggles (1) Braunstein (3) Brick Battles (2) Brisbane (5) Burning Wheel (33) Campaign (1) Car Wars (5) Car Wars Tanks (2) Chess (1) Chick Corea (1) Chris Perkins (1) convention (1) Convention tips (1) conventions (1) Cosplay (1) Cthulhu (1) Cubicle 7 (1) CW6 (1) Cylon (1) D&D (1) D&D 5e (1) Daniel Solis (1) David Pidgeon (6) Death Race (1) Design (11) DeviantArt (1) Diaspora (7) Dice and Clouds (1) Dicebook (1) Discordia.se (1) Divine Trauma (2) Do (1) Dogs in the Vineyard (3) Don't Lose Your Mind (2) Don't Rest Your Head (24) DramaSystem (6) Dresden Files RPG (3) DRYH (4) Duel of Wits (1) Dungeon (1) dungeon crawl (2) Dungeons and Dragons (8) Dungeons and Dragons Pennny Arcade (2) Elizabeth I (1) Embers of the Forgotten Kingdom (1) encounters (1) Erick Wujcik (1) Escape or Die (1) Every Gamer's Guild (7) Evil Hat (7) F20 (1) Fat Dragon Games (1) FATE (6) Fate Core (4) Feng Shui 2 (1) Fenix (1) Fiasco (4) Fred Hicks (7) Free RPG Adventure Ideas (2) Free RPG Blog (2) From the news (3) FU (7) FU RPG (4) Fudge (1) fundamentalism (1) Gail Simone (1) Game Chef (1) game design (14) Game of Thrones (5) Game theory (2) Gamer dad (2) Gaming (3) Gaming gear (1) Gary Gygax (1) Gen Con Oz (8) GenCon (31) Gettin' Away With It (4) GM advice (1) GM style (2) GM Technique (8) Go Play Brisbane (26) golf (1) Good and Evil (1) google hangouts (1) Grey Ranks (3) GUMSHOE (1) GURPS (1) Hamlet's Hit Points (1) Happy Birthday Robot (3) Here Be Gamers (3) Heroica (1) Hillfolk (1) Horror (1) Houses of the Blooded (2) Indie Game Designer (4) indie gamers (1) Indie Games Explosion (11) indie games on demand (9) Indie Press Gang (2) Indie Press Revolution (3) Indie RPG (14) Inquisitor (1) iPad (1) IPR (4) Jason Morningstar (1) John Cleese (1) John Harper (5) John Hodgman (1) John Locke (1) John Reid (2) John Wick (1) Kenneth Hite (1) Kickstarter (2) kill puppies for satan (2) Knightmare Chess (1) Kuang Hong (1) Lady Blackbird (2) LARP (1) Lego (4) Lego Agonica (1) Lego FU (11) Long Beach Geeks (1) LoveHate Design (1) Lulu (2) Machiavelli (1) Madman (1) magic (2) Magic Burner (1) Major Wesely (1) Mark McPherson (1) Mark Peric (3) Marvel Super Heroes (1) May The FU Be With You (2) Mechaton (1) mf0 (1) Michael Wenman (6) miniatures gaming (1) Mixel (1) Mobile Frame Zero (5) Monopoly (1) Monty Haul (1) Munchkin (2) Mutant City Blues (1) My Kitchen Rules (1) My Life With Master (1) NaGaDeMon (17) Nagademon 2013 (6) Nagademon 2015 (2) Narrative Control (2) Nathan Russell (9) Neology (1) Neoncon (1) Nietzsche (1) Ninja vs Pirates (1) Nobles (14) Nuria (2) O Mortal (10) One-shot (1) Organising Games (1) Orphan Black (1) parenting (1) Paul Tevis (2) PDF (3) Perception Check (1) Peril Planet (3) Perth (2) Peter Adkinson (1) Peter Adkison (1) Peter Blake (6) Philosophy (3) Pictionary (1) Pirates Showdown (1) Play report (1) play style (1) Playtesting (2) Pocketmod (1) Podcast (3) Podcast of Foes (1) Poison'd (18) Poleconomy (1) Power 19 (1) Primetime Adventures (13) psychology (1) Publishing (2) Quality Comics (1) Queen (2) Religion in gaming (6) Rifts (1) Rob Donoghue (1) Robin Laws (6) Robotech (1) Roleplaying skills (2) Roll20 (1) RPG (9) RPG Advice (2) RPG Podcast Review (1) RPGNow (1) RWBY (1) Ryan Macklin (1) SacredVows (1) Sagefight (2) Scott Haring (1) Scott Vandervalk (1) Scrabble (1) Scribd (1) Sean Nittner (1) Second Generation Gamer (1) semiotics (1) Seth Godin (1) Setting Hack (3) Shakespeare (1) Siege (40) Silence of the Lambs (1) Skrillex (1) Skype (2) Skyrim (1) Smallville (1) Social contract (1) solo gaming (1) Sons of Kryos (1) Sons of Liberty (1) Space Rat (5) speculative fiction (1) Spirit of the Century (21) Star Wars (8) steampunk (1) Steve Darlington (1) Steve Jackson Games (3) Storn Cook (1) Story games (12) Sucker Punch (1) Supanova (2) Super Gachapon Fighter Omega Infinity (1) Superman (1) Swancon (2) Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (1) Swords (1) Taboos (1) Tactics (1) Tales From The Floating Vagabond (1) Talk Like A Pirate (1) That's How We Roll (1) The Beast of Limfjord (1) The Bones (1) The Cells (10) The Eighth Sea (3) The Forge (4) The Lego Movie (3) The MESSAGE (1) The Mountain Witch (1) The Spark RPG (1) The Stockade (8) The Walking Eye (3) Them They and Those Guys (1) Theory (2) Theory From the Closet (2) Timothy Ferguson (1) Transformers (1) Twitter (1) Unlit Match (9) Uprising (6) Victor Wooten (1) Vincent Baker (7) War Showdown (1) Warhammer (2) Warhammer 40K (1) Will Hindmarch (1) world building (1) WOTC (2) XKCD (1) Zedgames (5) Zombie Cinema (3)