Go Play NW 2015 Wrap-up

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Go Play NW is a convention in Seattle in the last weekend of June. It was a lot of fun! There's only a little more than 100 people in attendance, but we're all story gamers of some type.

Friday evening I played Splendor with new friends Jerry Ozbun and Tomer Gurantz, and Ross Cowman (he's not new to me, but I love playing with him anyway). Jerry and Tomer are long-time gamers and first-time attendees. The game itself was really interesting, and I played it again later in the weekend. Splendor is a fairly new card-based resource-management game, and I'm pretty good at it! If I get a spare $30 I'll definitely be picking it up.

For my actual Friday night slot, I played Monsterhearts! Of course I did. Robert Bruce ran it, and my fellow players were Daniel Wood, Myra Lara, and Natalie Holt. I played the Witch, and I was a truly awful, awful person. It was a bit tragic to see me get totally shut down by the end of the session, but she deserved it. We also had a Selkie, a Ghoul (hunger for flesh), and a Sasquatch.

I skipped Saturday morning. To heck with the early wake-up.

For the second slot, I ran Legend of the Elements! This slot was with veteran GPNWers. I had Jay Loomis and Andy Munich (both of whom played in Avatar World last year), Erin Sara DiPeso, and Mark Levad. I brought my A game with me to this one: we used the Festival of the Four quick-start scenario and had a Hunter, a Fireshaper, an Earthshaper, and a Spiritshaper. We had a small chase scene, intra-faction rivalry, a super-strong Earthshaper ghost grandma, a Mulan moment, and wavering morals. I even wrapped up the Earthshaper Leaders plot point really well! Definitely one of my favorite uses of the Festival scenario, and I actually nailed the doing-stuff-in-an-urban-environment thing this time, which has given me so much trouble in the past.

For dinner, a huge wave of us went to Cafe Presse, this French bistro on Capitol Hill. We went because Morgan Stinson was there and none of us have seen him in months because of his personal and professional life keeping him away from gaming, and now he's easing back into it. It was fun hanging out with everyone and trying to cram like 30 people into this tiny back room.

For the night slot, I ran Legend of the Elements again! This time it was with newcomers to GPNW. Patrick Richardson, Matt Mignacco, John Cucco, and Ryan (I'm sorry, I forgot to write down your last name!) were all really cool. Oddly enough, I talked to all four of them about Legend of the Elements at ECCC earlier this year! I'd actually told Ryan about GPNW in general, so it was exciting to have him actually come and then play in my game :). Since I'd used up my Festival scenario (I only carried the one set of sheets for each), I ran The Red Mountain. The Red Mountain is actually my preferred scenario in general; it's not better or anything (that I could fix with revisions), I just happen to be more interested in the spirit and mysticism side of the game than the whimsical silly bits. The Red Mountain is much closer to the sort of climactic episodes of Avatar (first learning about the coming eclipse, siege of the north, etc), while the Festival is more of a middle or filler episode, fun but not too serious or anything. I don't think my MCing was quite as awesome as it had been that afternoon, but we still had an excellent time. We had a Fireshaper, Watershaper, Earthshaper, and Spiritshaper. I took my usual path through the cave and running into wolfbats event, and went in and had a creepy social encounter at the monastery. This is where I felt I handled the MCing worst - it was a discussion type thing, and didn't trigger many social moves. It was very fulfilling in an emotional way though, and then I capped it off with a really good final encounter that tied in a character's backstory, one of the answers from one of their scenario sheets, and a vague hint from earlier. That was one of my better MCing moments of LotE in general. I had sat there for like five minutes (with players on break of course) just thinking of what to do there, because I had like an hour left, I hadn't had a great combat encounter yet, and I very easily could have ended the game right there. I just happened to stumble upon this great idea, and I'm so glad I did cuz it let me end the game on the perfect note.

Saturday night after the game I went out with Morgan Ellis, Jeremy Tidwell, and Ryan to go find food and soak in the Pride nightlife. It was very fun. We had street meat hot dogs and they were excellent.

Sunday I didn't go in promptly on time, but I still hooked up with Johnstone Metzger to play some Fall of Magic! Despite all the time I spend in Olympia, this was my first time playing it. Before we really got started, two other late-comers showed up and we invited them. Andrew and Chaz were also first-time GPNWers, and they were only here for the Sunday. I played an Apprentice of the Magus whose character arc was losing faith in the power of magic as he felt how much stronger the power of death always seemed to be. We made it through the Hall of the Woods. I would definitely play this again.

Sunday afternoon was the one game I'd scheduled to play in ahead of time: Apocalypse World. Karen Twelves ran it, and I played with Eric Fattig, Jackson Tegu, Jeremy Tidwell, and Sean Nittner. We played Karen's Olive Garden scenario, which is a frame where we play the staff at a still-running Olive Garden that serves as an oasis in the blasted nightmare of the post-apocalypse. I was the Host and Gun Lugger, we had a Bartender/Skinner (art: mixology), a Manager/Hardholder, a Savvy Head/Janitor, and a Brainer/Server. It was so much fun and I really want to play more Apocalypse World.

Sunday evening I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Jay and Drew weren't around so I couldn't do Dungeon World with them, so it was ended up as a toss-up at the pitch circle of either My Daughter The Queen of France (intense but very fun) or Splendor again (very laid back). I went for the laid back and ended up playing a couple of very quiet and contemplative games of Splendor with Ross and Myra, both of which I won. #undefeated

Then we all went to dinner at 8oz Burger. It was fantastic. I got to hang out more with Tomer and Jerry, as well as with Chris Paul and Dan Behlings. All of them were also first-timers at GPNW, so that was fun.
You see, I had a secret goal at this year's GPNW: if I saw anyone sitting on their own and they didn't look actively busy, I would go up and make sure they were okay, or just strike up conversation in general, or invite them over to whatever else I might have been doing. This is an extension of last year's goal of being actively outgoing and sociable, and it really worked out last year, and it did again this year! I introduced Chris to a bunch of folks, and in general I just tried to be as inviting as possible.
I have this consistent fear of our story games culture going clique-ish, driven largely by our selection of players. Not maliciously! After all, we all come out here and many of us only see each other at this con, so we want to play and hang out together while we can! We'll cherry pick our friends into our games, and then not have new people experiences. I'm doing it too; my Monsterhearts game was that, as was the Apocalypse World game (though I wasn't doing player selection for that, there was never even a public signup or anything). The games I ran had new players because I'd opened up public signups ahead of time and new folks filled in the spots.
Truth is, we're not that clique-ish. But we can look that way from the outside, and it's really hard to break through that! I felt that my first year at the con - I spent a lot of time on my own. I said it was fine, and that I needed the time to recharge, and some of that was true, but really I was just not sure how to break into these existing friend groups. So now I go out of my way to not let other people get trapped in that. And I've made some good friends that way! That's how I met Andy last year, and that's turned out pretty awesome. I'm really looking forward to seeing Chris and Ryan and Jerry and Dan and Tomer and Andrew and Chaz next year as well, and I'm looking forward to meeting new faces too!
And you know what? I don't really do this in my regular life. I've never been good at it. But in talking with another friend recently who recently moved somewhere where he doesn't know anyone, I kinda realized that I'm almost getting good at making friends with strangers. That boggles my mind. The benefits of story games!

A truly excellent Go Play NW. I'm very excited for the next one already.

Come back in a few days and I'll give y'all some Legend of the Elements news. The Kickstarter is coming!
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The Big #500

It's really happening.

1) This is post #500 on The Logbook Project. I've been doing this for three and a half years, since my second semester at university, and now I have 500 posts. I'm feeling great.

2) To go with that...today was my last day as an undergraduate at university! I'm free!

3) I received these in the mail today:

No, it's not done done, but it's pretty darn close, and holding a perfect-bound copy in my hands is helping make it feel that way.

4) You can come see my copies at Go Play NW this weekend! I am running Legend of the Elements twice at least, one game of which is full. Sunday morning still has two spots open, and I might open a third session if I see the interest.
I hope to see you there, and look forward to keeping you all up to date on the imminent release!

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Legend of the Elements: End of the Public Beta

It blows me away that I'm at the point where I can actually say that it's time to not let the public see the game! Frankly, I can't have the whole thing available right up until I suddenly say "now please buy it!" So I'm taking down the free beta on Saturday. I might keep up something, but I haven't decided yet.
Here's the timeline of upcoming Legend of the Elements events.

Saturday 6/6: I finish the peripheral documents. On this day, I will be removing the free version of the game from the internet in the lead-up to a full release. I may leave up something to whet the appetite, but you won't be able to get the whole game anymore. Get it this week!





Monday 6/8: I play a session this evening that I will record so I can write the missing Example of Play chapter.

Wednesday 6/10: Having implemented the Example of Play chapter, I send the files to my editors for review. This is more of a literary review, rather than a mechanical one, but there might be things exposed that I goofed up that will adjust rules slightly.

June 19: I print a bound copy of the game for myself to use at conventions. If I'm lucky, the editors will be back to me, though it's not likely. If not, I'll print another later - I need a copy for Go Play NW.

June 26: Coinciding with Go Play NW, this is the fall-back deadline for everything's completion.
I'll be running two sessions of Legend of the Elements, as well as one session of The Shining Void, so if you can be in Seattle this weekend I'd love to play it with you!

August 28: Coinciding with PAX Prime, I want to have the game up for sale online as a PDF and on Print-On-Demand, with a small pile of copies of my own coming with me to PAX. The end of a...wow, almost three-year line from an idea for my first game design to a published and refined game.

Oh, and if anyone knows anything about where they would like to buy games or where you can get good Print-on-Demand work done, I would love to know so I can work it out.

So get it while it's still here or you'll be paying for it! And frankly, the game's worth it at this point! The latest draft is super-sharp and has a TON of art. I'll be printing it full-bleed with a color cover, though the inner images are all black and white. I can't wait for you to see it.

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Legend of the Elements: Version 1.7 Release!

It's the eve of Comicon, which can only mean one thing - that I'm going to have a very fun time tomorrow! Oh, wait, that's not what I was gonna announce. Oh yeah, Comicon means a new release of Legend of the Elements! Or should I say the first release, because this is the first release that isn't Avatar-branded!
This release is, of course, a complete overhaul of the writing. There's a bunch of new art, and there will be an update within about a month filling in yet more art. There's three all-new playbooks, and a great new chapter at the end full of all sorts of fun information (including a page of sample names!) There's no Example of Play yet, but that will also be coming in an update to this version within a month.

Seriously, it's good stuff. Check it out. And save a copy, because there will not be a version 1.8, because after version 1.7 is the Final Version. And the final version? It's not free. So get it while the gettin's good!

  Version 1.7 Download:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME AS A ZIPPED ARCHIVE

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME'S FILES INDIVIDUALLY

If you like the game, please consider donating! I don't charge for my beta content, but some support goes a long way to making the final game a reality!

 

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Legend of the Elements: The New Draft's Playbooks!

I'm not particularly into Fall Out Boy, but every so often they hit something interesting. Sampling Suzanne Vega seems to have done it for me.

Hey folks, I said I was gonna come by and preview these! I know I don't post much, but every Sunday I do a music post and at the end of those I usually do a status update on each of my projects, so if you're wondering how things are going, check those or follow me on Twitter!

This file has a slight formatting change to the playbook layout, and includes several major changes. First off, there's three new playbooks! The Hunter, The Peasant, and The Spiritshaper are brand new, and two of those you've never seen anything for! The former two are mostly designed by one of my players, Henry. The Hunter has adopted a couple of the Warrior's moves, while the Warrior has a couple new ones of its own. The Monk has also had a noticeable replacement of one of its moves.
These are not final! I'm going to be having a little design party soon to help iron out the remaining things that are either incomplete or that I'm simply not satisfied with. As a guarantee, The Airbender will change.
Also there's no art in these yet. That's usually the last step of my process.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE NEW PLAYBOOK FILE!

I'm very excited for this upcoming stuff. If you're going to be at Emerald City Comic Con at the end of March, I will be there with Games on Demand, running both Legends of the Elements and The Shining Void, so remember to come see me if you're interested!

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Legend of the Elements: The New Name of Avatar World

God I love the Forest Temple

Heeeeeey folks! Avatar World is no more. In its place stands Legend of the Elements!

I made the decision about a week and a half ago that I was going to strip out the franchise from the game. I'd really like to properly sell the game after putting two and half years of work into it. While in general this hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, the main shifts that I spent tiem agonizing over were the suffix "-bender" which is now, generally, "-shaper." The title was a loooot harder but I think I've finally settled on Legend of the Elements. It has a Nickelodeon feel, it's simple and evocative, and it's not too long.

The game is also changing a bit! Freeing myself from Avatar lets me flex some different ideas. Here's a peek:
~ Expanding the playbooks a bit. This was probably going to happen regardless, but the nature of the expansion is a little different. In addition to The Peasant and possibly The Hunter that my friend is writing (which I think are appropriate, especially outside of the Avatar context). One idea that I've come to quite agree with is adding a fifth Shaper to the core lineup, the Spiritshaper. This both lets me indulge some of my ideas in a more core way, as well as instantly distance myself from Avatar a bit more. Another thing I'm still debating is the idea of splitting the Warrior back down the armored-soldier line (as The Knight) and the stealthy type (name tbd, trying to avoid The Ninja if possible, as well as Rogue or Thief). Depending on how it plays out, The Hunter might actually just be the new other half of the Warrior.
~ The bolstering of the sub-playbook lineup with more non-bending subpbs, as that's a thing I want that is sorely lacking.
~ A refinement of the existing playbooks, culling some moves and swapping some around.

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