Avatar World v1.61 Release!

I love the Hunger Games movies. Mockingjay Pt 1 was no exception.

Long time no see! Busy things happening. I have the LPA cover image still in progress, I'm working on the layout of the the new tSV draft. I've started an Avatar World long-form game locally, which means I'm now in the home stretch of the AvW design history. When this long-form wraps up I will likely go into final revision mode and finish it for good.
If you are interested in keeping up with my long-form game, I do regular reports on my session through Twitter and later Storify them. Here's the page for my AvW game, which I play Monday night and usually have updated by Tuesday night. https://storify.com/Logbook_Project/avatar-world-season-1

I recently (as in tonight) finished watching the last episode of Korra. I am stunned at the quality in the last two seasons. Seriously, they're amazing. Season 3 especially was just full of duels between bending masters, rather than the political games that filled the other seasons. The creativity with the bending powers and the expansion of what can be done is extraordinary.

Two things that became prominent in seasons 2 and 3 are now sub-playbooks, the Lavabender and the Spirit Medium. Those are the prominent additions in this release (hence why it is only a .01 advancement and not a full decimal), with other mild typography fixes as well.

Latest Version (v1.61) Download:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME AS A ZIPPED ARCHIVE

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME'S FILES INDIVIDUALLY

I swear the other stuff won't take as long as the gap from the previous post until now.

Also, I've put up a Donate button on the right side of the page. Given that I can never charge for a download of Avatar World, if you get some enjoyment out of the game please consider making a donation, I've put a lot of hard work into this game. Thank you, and see you again soon!

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Not Gone, Just Busy

I love this song. It has a lot of history for me, none of it actually related to the song itself and everything to do with the connotations it brings up in my mind. I hear the long road trips from Long Island to Montreal or Regina as a little kid, I hear Ocarina of Time's Forest Temple's mysteries, I hear junior year of high school finding and clinging to a bunch of the music that's defined my identity. The quiet crackling in the back, and the soft, lilting melody all just calm me.

Hey y'all, just wanted to check in. I know it's been a month, but it's been a busy one! I started a long-form game of Avatar World last week, Learning Pixel Art's cover image is still revising with help from the PixelJoint WIP forum, and I haven't had a chance to do the next round of Shining Void documentation. I've had basically non-stop assignments for three weeks now, I have finals next week, relatives arriving on the 19th, and the GRE on the 22nd. Basically I don't have any free time. As soon as I have a little opening I'll get some work done that I can share.

Thanks for your patience!
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The Shining Void v2 Plans

Wolfgun's music so spacey <3 br="">

So I had a couple goals in mind when I started my revision pass of tSV. My first two-session game was a surprising complete success, and I've heard very little but positive things which really excites me. Those positive things weren't without suggestions though, and I've finally got my other stuff sidled away for a few minutes to look at tSV again.

First though, I want to note: I am slightly intimidated by the other members of the field I'm running around in. Between the slightly dormant Star Wars World and Traveller World, the still-evolving Uncharted Worlds (who I am surprisingly undaunted by, I'm confident we seem to be moving in very different directions), and now Strange New Worlds. I'm not going to stop, of course, but if anyone is also intimately familiar with any of those I'd love to know if you see me straying into a major overlap. Avoiding such overlap isn't super-critical, but if I know of a different way then preserving individuality is better.
Given the recent release of Strange New Worlds I want to say some cool things I like about it! I like the XP phrases being tied to which stat array you pick, it's a clever way to increase the fictionality of the arrays. I like advantage/disadvantage, even if I have doubts about the math (though not as great as my doubts about it in D&D Next). I'm comforted by its traditional feeling - its DW roots are clear, and they make me more okay about sharing the design space because of my more storygames approach (I don't have a better way of putting that, if you really care ask me and I'll decompress the idea :/). I'm unsatisfied with its social context for the characters - they're competent independently but I'm not sure what their relationships are assumed to be. Social mechanics are tricky, but I also think they're indispensable.

Okay, on to The Shining Void.
The big change to the writing is a continued effort to scrape off the Mass Effect name and genericize it a bit more. I want to be able to play Mass Effect, but I want people unfamiliar with ME to be able to pick up and play the game, which currently isn't plausible.
This means two big changes: biotics and species. To put it bluntly, I don't have a better name for Biotics yet. I don't want to just call it psionics, for several reasons. It's basically telekinesis and energy manipulation, but neither is alone a complete description and together they're far too long. I mean, in its most basic form, Biotics is Space Magic. Even the most precise description of biotics (that you're altering something's mass content) doesn't clearly line up with the energy blasts and shields you make with it. I know it can be justified, it's just not clear. The move itself is pretty functional, though the exact wording will probably shift to avoid ME-specific ideas.

The other big diction change is around species. To start with, the playbooks for species are no longer the speciesbooks. Instead, they're Cultures (Roles are also dropping the -book suffix). It isn't a universal Newcomer culture or Scientist culture, but one particular one of those cultures. You then have a chance to choose from a couple lists to flesh out your own species within that culture. This gives a much more diverse galactic landscape while still staying in the same classification scheme. It's a little more Star Wars than it is Mass Effect, but I think it's appropriate. Of the Cultures, the Mechanoid culture is changing to the Outsider culture, which will continue to cover mechanical intelligences but also other bizarre or outlandish species.

Each of the Cultures has three lists you pick from: History, Reputation, and Appearance (which will, of course, replace the Look list). Each list has three options, giving nine different combinations for each Culture in addition to the three moves to choose from and the six Roles to combine with. Here's the lists I'm thinking of. I'm trying to strike a balance between variety, evocativeness, and tension-potential.

Newcomer: (I'm oddly pleased that Newcomer is at the top of the list with the new name change)
History: * Displaced member of young species, * Recently came to galactic significance, * Uplifted by accident or intervention
Reputation: * Unassuming, * Aggressive and involved, * Actively hostile
Appearance: * A galactic standard, * A single striking feature, * Completely unique

Nomad:
History: * Planet crackers, * Forced from home, * Species-wide wanderlust
Reputation: * Unreliable vagrants, * Exciting visitors, * Raiders
Appearance: * A combination of cultures, * Hidden in suits, * Adapted to space life

Outsider:
History: * Unrecognized independence, * Prominent, even in scarcity, * Lacking unified culture
Reputation: * Exclusive, * Unjustly suppressed, * Boat-rockers
Appearance: * Construct of inanimate material, * Like a major species with an unnerving feature, * Dangerous adaptation

Psychic:
History: * First member of the galactic community, * Cultural melting pot, * Isolated hermits
Reputation: * Manipulative, * Sophisticated, * Invasive
Appearance: * Unaging, * Look different from viewer to viewer, * Clearly influenced by another species

Savage:
History: * Stumbled into space, * Uplifted, * Tribal communities
Reputation: * Lacks cultural cohesion, * Holds grudges, * Nonviolent by primitive
Appearance: * Gigantic, * Naturally hardy, * Unassuming
 
Scientist:
History: * Responsible for recent advancements, * Atoning for past atrocities, * Galactic leaders
Reputation: * Cold and logical, * Altruistic, * Reckless
Appearance: * Large brain, * Expressionless, * Augmented

Warrior:
History: * A galactic coup, * Trusted protectors, * The biggest armada
Reputation: * Highly regimented, * Honest, * Boneheaded
Appearance: * Scary, * Animal-like, * Cute

So any input on if you like/dislike any of those would be great. The move lists for each may be slightly altered (particularly the Nomad and Outsider have a couple moves to change) but I haven't done that work yet.

Another change to the game is to the stat lines for the Roles! I've been convinced to shift from a -/-/+/+ line to a -/0/+/+ line. A little more successful and heroic.
Stats are Alien (ALN), Experienced (EXP), Paragon (PAR), and Renegade (REN).
Academic: ALN +, EXP 0, PAR +, REN -
Agent: ALN -, EXP +, PAR +, REN 0
Leader: ALN 0, EXP -, PAR +, REN +
Loner: ALN +, EXP +, PAR -, REN 0
Rebel: ALN +, EXP -, PAR 0, REN +
Veteran: ALN -, EXP +, PAR 0, REN +
There's a little more love to PAR/REN than to ALN/EXP but I'm actually kinda comfortable with that.

One thing I need help with is a new name for XP. Having both a stat called Experience and a resource called XP is potentially a bit confusing and I prefer the stat name. My current best is Energy, and that's not all that good. I need something that can be accumulated and then spent to improve permanently.

I'm switching the MultiTool move to +Experienced.

I'm re-writing Support Your Team. I'm actually considering binding it and Help together, as Help is almost always a better move currently and they share a theme.

Things I need suggestions for:
~ What would a better name for Biotics be?
~ What do you think of the Culture lists?
~ Can you think of a different name for XP?
~ Anything you want out of the game that I haven't addressed?

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Actual Play: Monsterhearts Season 3

I have a pile of Halon songs that focused me for the game. This was a relatively late addition, but it's really appropriate to the character this season. Desperate, faithful, loving, pretty much Halon's defining features, minus a huge stash of buried anger.

If you pay any attention to my Twitter you know that I've been in a long-form game of Monsterhearts for, um, maybe six months now? A bit more? We've just wrapped up Season 3.
This season I've been keeping quite pretty good records of the sessions after each session on Twitter. Now that the season's over, I put it all together in case you were interested in an entire story. I'm really connected to these characters, so I hope you enjoy it.

https://storify.com/Logbook_Project/monsterhearts-season-3

If you're looking for more content stuff, I'm currently concentrating on LPA and tSV. I think I'll have a tSV post to share soon.

To Halon and Lilith!

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Superlite Heroes! Version 2

It's not comics-related, but it's the sort of upbeat I need. And it's so so good.

Sorry for pushing this off a day, but it actually let me do another visual pass on the document and I think it's better for it!

Latest Version (v2) Download:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME

So first: it's been like a year, and I never even really showed off the completed v1 document when I made it. Superlite Heroes! was a game I made in a weekend last September, mostly at a rather slow Gamerati Game Day and driven by thoughts about Aaron Eckhart's "Die a hero or become a villain" quote from The Dark Knight. I was inspired by a copy of Lasers & Feeling in my folder as well - not mechanically but format-wise. I wanted to make a very simple game on a single page.

The original version was indeed on a single page, but took the front and back. It wasn't quite the pure thing I wanted. Plus it didn't look very pretty - I made the pdf in like two hours.

I decided to share the game on Story Games just to put it out there. After all, for a weekend's worth of work it felt pretty good! And the feedback was generally positive, that there was a seed of something in there. Some suggestions were given, but I was never sure if I was going to come back to Superlite Heroes!.

There are a couple reasons I decided to return to the game.

1) I had sufficient ideas about how to re-write the game.

2) I felt better-equipped for the rather intimidating task of writing the game on the front of a single page.

3) I knew that, at the very least, I could make it a little prettier and more stylish looking than the old version. That wasn't a hard task by any means.

4) I'm a game designer with no 'completed' titles under my belt yet. I have The Doppleganger, which I am proud of, but while I continue to refine Avatar World and The Shining Void I had this kernel of a game that just needed some fixing up to present as a full thing I'd completed.

What's changed mechanically? The biggest change is the simultaneous simplification and diversification of life/health. You now have three healths: moral health, social health, and physical health. However, they all operate on a system that is more unified to the action mechanic. "Death" has been greatly simplified - perhaps at cost to the metaphor of going out in comics, but still accommodates my quote inspiration.

Another change is a slight simplification to gaining drawbacks (you get it in your highest or lowest stat, your choice). The actual strengths/drawbacks are the main targets for further refinement, as some provide (small) mechanical effects while others do not. Ultimately they're all meant to be more like fictional cues (and even the impressive Unkillable Strength isn't as good as it sounds).

The thid significant change is the expansion of the GM section, now comprising nearly a third of the sheet. It includes a villain/plot generator (also a refinement target), a set of principles, and some pacing trick suggestions.

The document itself is in color, but even when printed in black and white it reads well.

I would not be surprised if I generate a version 3 for the game, but at the same time this is a completed game. I have not, however, ever playtested either version 1 or 2, so please let me know if you do because I could use a little feedback!

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Rest in Peace Torn

There is no song.  Pour out your heaviest metal and your angriest rap in memory.
If you came for a game design thing I said I'd be posting, come back tomorrow. This takes precedence.

I'm a member of a small (very small) community called Kakariko Graveyard. Many of us were also members at a predecessor forum, The Forest Haven. One member, Torn (formerly Torn&Filthy) was a good friend of mine. He had a lot of issues with trust and depression and went through periods of trying to splice himself entirely out of the online communities and social networks he was in, get a fresh start. When I stopped hearing from him in March, I assumed this is what happened.

However, it's been quite a while since I last heard from him. I got worried. Maybe he really had just entirely shifted communities or something...but alas, yesterday I discovered his obituary. There are too many similarity points between the obituary and my friend to be a mistake identity, even with a common name like Jordan Miller. My friend is gone, died literally the day after I last saw him, tweeting about the upcoming Assassin's Creed games.
I keep cycling through thoughts. Torn had a regular history of depression, and while all my recent experience of him had made me think he was doing better at the time, I can't help but fixate on the idea of suicide. Had there been warning signs that I missed? Was there anything I could have said? Was I a bad friend for taking this long to discover what happened? And then I realize I'm making it about me and I feel worse about doing that. And the worst part is that I don't know the cause of death. It might very well have been an accident of some kind. I don't know. I just fear that I let him down.

Torn was one of the first figures whose name I remember from my original foray into the internet. I must have met him over ten years ago at TFH. I didn't get to know him well there - I didn't get close to anyone there really. But I felt close to him at KG, through all the bad shit that came his way. He was unlucky, and I wish we'd all treated him a bit better at times. I won't pretend he didn't get annoying at times - he didn't believe in vaccines and had extremely strong ideas about nutrition, and would get moody if he didn't think we were paying enough attention, but there was never any real animosity. We loved him.

My deepest condolences to his family. And if any of his other friends want to talk, I'm free and open.
We miss you Torn. Rest in peace.

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Avatar World Version 1.6 Release

Kill Bill is great! Rap and hip-hop rarely resonate like this with me. You could only call him nerdcore in the most indirect sense. It's just chill enough for me...

So Avatar World!
Did you know? The original post introducing Avatar World was released 2 years ago as of the 14th of October. Here's hoping we can call it final before it turns 3!
This new version is largely based around some smaller changes. The most significant changes are a re-writing of Earthbending as well as a couple moves on the Earthbender. The new changes definitely eases some old tension with the original, though it is untested so far. Other changes include another pass over the sub-playbooks to clarify some stuff, and a full editing/spellchecking pass, so let me know if you ferret out any more. I also changed Armor to Fortune and tried to adjust the language to adapt to that change, but I might have missed something. The motivation behind this change is the use of the resource to negate mental or social Tags - Armor really only made sense for physical ones.
One style thing I've been debating is whether to unify the capitalization of the bending types - sometimes I capitalize, sometimes I don't. I think I'll be going through and making all references to the actual moves and playbooks capital and the more simple character descriptors lowercase.

So, I was thinking maybe if my Monsterhearts game ended soon I'd suggest a long-form AvW as the next thing, but that won't be ending anytime soon by the looks of it (and I don't want it to, just watch my twitter and you'll see how much I love and am enraptured the game). I can't really handle both for logistics reasons (the play crowd is in Olympia and I can only visit 1/week cuz of gas costs, and also I have no time), so if anyone else is either participating in or will soon be in a long-form Avatar World game please tell me! I need to know how the game holds up over several sessions. Or, more accurately, I need to see how the improvements stack up, how MC plots work over several sessions, what the Training moves look like in action, and how well the sub-playbooks work.

Latest Version (v1.6) Download:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME AS A ZIPPED ARCHIVE

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE GAME'S FILES INDIVIDUALLY

I don't know when the next draft will come up. I hope to have at least a 2-session experience with it by then, if not a full four to five. I'm now open to feedback and suggestions of all sorts: mechanics, art, writing, layout, etc. Suggestions for what I need to include, or what needs to be explained better, are greatly desired. One thing I intend to put in is a short but illustrative Example of Play bit. What else would you like to see in the book?

As for other projects? With this release I'm sliding Avatar World to the side to focus on a couple others. 
I'm developing a v2.0 for Superlite Heroes, hopefully to fit it on a single front of a page just like its inspiration game Lasers & Feelings and like it was originally intended to be, while also expanding the GM section to indicate a more immediate rhythm of play. This is my mechanics project.
I'm currently laying out Learning Pixel Art and discovering all sorts of fun incompatibilites between InDesign and GIMP and pixel art. Getting the images to come out as crisp as they need to be for pixel art is proving to be a challenge, and getting the colors right with the CMYK-biased InDesign and the RGB-exclusive GIMP is disastrous. This is my layout project.
With Avatar World moving aside, The Shining Void is coming forward as my writing project again, as that's the majority of what it needs.

Secret potential NaNoWriMo project? Uh, still secret, and still only potential. I know, I know, I don't have much time to decide.

Oh, and I haven't seen Korra Season 3 yet, let alone 4, so please don't spoil it for me.

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