Friday, February 29, 2008

Game Diary Summary - February

2/5/2008
I created a PDF of the first 4 pages of chapter 10 and posted them on one of the RPG forums. It shows some of the areas I've written about on Aldorus. I can't say I've had many people show any interest (and that's just my own family). ;-)

Today I was working on a map for the Palatine Mts. I was originally going to take a bump map and use it in Bryce, but I settled on using part of the Aldorus map (enlarging it slightly) and working with it in Photoshop. I still need to add locations, etc. but it looks okay so far.

2/8/2008
Yesterday I was working on the floorplan for the monastery in the Palatine Mts. If I had software (like from ProFantasy), this would probably be easier, but since I'm currently still unemployed, I didn't want to spend the money. So, instead, I'm just doing it all by hand in Photoshop, which is actually almost as good (almost).

Prior to yesterday, I was writing descriptions for some of the places in the Palatine Mts. This was pretty straight forward, although it came after a couple of days of not doing much.

2/9/2008
Over the last few days I've been spending a LONG time working on the monastery floorplan, but I'm almost finished. Last night, I was working on the basement/crypt areas. It took me over 3 attempts, but I finally got it to look more or less the way I want. As for the whole monastery, I plan to have it in a section called Point of Interest, which is basically highlighting a location on the planet that the GM can use for an adventure.

2/12/2008
I completed the Devil's Cauldron area descriptions, including the map. Since it's not as extensive as the other areas, it took the least amount of time. Next comes the Notable NPCs section . . .

2/13/2008
Yesterday I put a post on The Forge (www.indie-rpgs.com). I haven't gotten any real responses yet, but then it was just an introduction.

Today, I worked on stats for a couple of NPCs: Big G and Funkmeister Rik. I need to have a few more to fill out the section. At this point I'm not completely sure which other NPCs I'll be including.

2/16/2008
Today I was able to get a little done in the Notable NPC section, but not a lot. For the last few days, I've been in a creative malaise with little work done at all. It's possible I've been to preoccupied with finding new job and worrying about money.

2/17/2008
I was able to flesh out the stuff I did yesterday. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but it's better than nothing. I've completed two NPCs for the section, but I need to do maybe 2-3 more NPCs before I can move to the next section.

2/19/2008
This morning I wrote the description for Shakkar, the Duel Master. He appeared in Chapter 4 of Alexander the Prince. I wanted to include him because he has both some melee and psionic abilities. Next I would like to create the Abbot for the monastery, but I'm having trouble finding a good name for him. I did some research on Buddhist abbots, but none of the names worked for me.

This afternoon, for a change, I worked a little with paper miniatures. Using Poser, I did renders for the four sides of a character (and then the top as well). There are other paper miniatures on the market, but they all use either two or three sides. I wanted to try four, but I discovered that a four sided miniature wants to fold in on itself and isn't stable. Whereas the three sided one is much more solid feeling. Apparently this is why four sided paper miniatures aren't used! Anyway, I may create some of these (3 sided) especially for my game, including important characters, etc.

2/22/2008
Yesterday I completed the Notable NPC section by adding Kid Vicious and the Abbot. Next I need to do the Point of Interest section featuring the monastery. I'm unsure right now if I'm going to create some kind of adventure or mission around the POI, or just leave that up to the GM. I think the former is ideal, but I'm not sure if I have something good enough.

I've also been looking at the Skills the game offers, and I've concluded I need to add more, and slightly change a few existing ones. I've made a long list of Knowledge-based skills to add, and I've previously listed some others like Streetwise which I need to include. I think it would be wish to give the Abilities another once over as well since I'm sure there will be some that need to be added there.

2/23/2008
Although I took a break from chapter 10 today, I've been very productive. I written notes for 31 new abilities along with another 5-10 skills which I did yesterday. They're still in note form, however, so I still need to add them to the rules. While I was creating the notable NPCs for chapter 10, I felt that there weren't enough skills or abilities, so now I'm a lot happier.

2/24/2008
I wrote the rules for 20 out of the 31 abilities today, and will try to work on the rest tomorrow. I still have the skills to work on too, however, but I'm not sure when I'll get that done.

2/26/2008
I didn't work on the new abilities yesterday, but I was looking at some of the other sections of the game rules, in this case the Encounters section. I really need to add more creatures to the rules. Right now there just aren't that many, except in the Minor Race section. Also, in general, I'm seeing various typos and other mistakes which just shows that it will be very important that I proofread very carefully. I will have my wife proofread also, but some of the mistakes are how the rules are implemented (ie: which dice to use) which regular proofreading isn't going to catch.

Today I finished the rest of the abilities from a few days ago. I'm now pretty happy with the total number of abilities available.

2/28/2008
So good news and bad news: the bad news is that, for whatever reason, the rules file got corrupted and I've lost everything I did yesterday. The good news is that I had back the file up on 2/26 so I didn't lose that much (maybe a couple of hours worth of work, and nothing that major). However, this once again reinforces the need to back up every freakin day. Today, I also sent a backup copy to my email address so it's also saved off-site. I normally backup to my external drive, but if we had a fire or something, that would also get destroyed. By backing it up to my email, it's completely off site so it would be save from such a disaster.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Aldorus Map

Here's the map I created for Aldorus. I used the lunarcell and flexify photoshop plugins to create much of the map. Both plugins are from Flaming Pear.

Game Diary Summary - January

1/2/2008
This is the first entry for the new year, a year since my very first entry (1/19/07). After reading that first one, it's interesting to me how much I've gotten done over the last year and how much I haven't gotten done. Although I don't anticipate taking another year to finish the game (since there's really only one chapter left), I'm curious how things will be in January 2009.

1/7/2008
I FINALLY started working on the commodities yesterday, but it was slow going. I have plenty of notes, but it's been very hard for me to put it in rule form that didn't sound terrible. However, I did get it started and, like pulling off a band-aid, that's perhaps the hardest part.

I was able to do more today with commodities including examples of how to setup the preliminary supply/demand quantities and prices. I will have to test all of this, however, to make sure the values come out okay. As usual, there will probably be modifications once I get into the actual numbers.

1/8/2008
I added my notes to the rules last night, although I was having some technical problems getting the stuff from my google doc into my word doc. I normally use Firefox, but I couldn't copy and paste into Word that way. However, after getting really frustrated, I switched over to IE and it worked fine. I guess there are still reasons to use Internet Explorer. ;-)

Anyway, I have to remember to add a section on cargo licenses etc. Seems like there's something else I'm forgetting, but I can't remember right now.

1/9/2008
I worked on the Events table yesterday. Basically, there's a chance (once per week) of an event changing the commodity prices and supply/demand amounts. I had done this table previously, but decided to rework it slightly. I was getting frustrated with it, but I got it done and added it to the rules last night.

1/11/2008
I've had a pretty crappy couple of days. On Wednesday, I got laid off from my day job and yesterday I fried my hard drive and had to reformat everything. Although I had a lot of my stuff backed up, I did lose the last section of the current chapter and I also lost the photoshop files for the Imperium and Jova maps. I have jpegs for those, but neither are print quality (at least not the Jova one). So, I have some rework to do which sucks. Of course, I also have to get a new job which also sucks. Meh.

1/13/2008
I spent lasts night and part of today redoing the Jova map. I basically started from scratch, although I had a jpeg version as referenced. Actually, the most frustrating part was trying to get the colors of the districts the same as the old version, but I simply approximated the colors instead of matching them exactly. Today, I mostly worked on adding all the star systems in. I got Capitis done and I will try to do Kurai tomorrow.

1/14/2008
I completed the Jova map today so it's basically as good as new (and backed up even!). Next I need to redo the part of the rules that was lost. That didn't amount to much and a lot of it was already in my Google docs, so I was lucky there. It's funny, but working today on the map I felt a certain calm come over me: even though I was laid off last week, I guess I still have the game to work on and keep me busy. It helps.

1/17/2008
I've been kind of busy lately trying to find a job. Today I had an interview (which went terrible). In the meantime, I redid the header for the rules (which had been lost due to my drive failure). I was lucky because the image for the Imperium crest was still on the wiki AND it was at 200 dpi for some reason (even though it's a JPEG). So, I was able to add it to the header.

1/19/2008
My rules are now totally caught up. I spent today putting in the Trade stuff that I had lost. I guess it only took a week to get everything back more or less as before, but it's still a wasted week since I shouldn't have lost the stuff in the first place. Unfortunately, I really have only myself to blame. :-(

1/20/2008
It looks like I'm basically done with the current chapter, which means I can start the final chapter of the game now. Today, I added the rest of the Trade section and also a section describing Jova province and the Aldin star system. As I may've mentioned before, the final chapter will describe Aldorus in greater detail, including various NPCs to meet and places to explore. It's really intended as a jumping-off point for characters just starting to play the game.

1/22/2008
It turned out that I wasn't completely done with the chapter after all: I still needed to add contraband and smuggling rules, although some of that info will be in the Gear chapter instead. Today, I've been mostly doing preliminary notes on the final chapter about adventuring. I'd like to create a nice map of Aldorus, but I'm having trouble getting something that looks presentable. So far I've been pretty dissatisfied.

1/24/2008
Today I was working on the Regalis city map. I had created a map for it a long time ago, but I thought I could do better. So far I haven't. :-( However, I don't think the original is good enough either so I'll keep trying.

1/26/2008
Yesterday I decided to go with my old Regalis city map instead of the new one that I had slaved over. The new one just didn't look like a city map to me. Today, I actually started the last chapter (ie: actually wrote in the rules instead of just notes. I didn't get too far however because I found that the world map for Aldorus was far too small. So, I spent the last two hours redoing the map so it would fill the page instead of just of a part of it. I'm much happier now, though!

1/29/2008
I was stuck the last couple of days: couldn't seem to write very well. Today, however, I've written quite a lot; describing some of the areas in Regalis. The wife seemed to even like what I'd written so that's something! ;-)

Monday, December 31, 2007

Game Diary Summary - December

12/3/2007
I had some trouble in Photoshop, working on the Jova province, but I worked that out yesterday. I also found a formula to plug into my names spreadsheet to give me a random name from the long list (around 500 names). I used that to select the 50+ star names for the Capitis district of Jova (the one containing Aldorus). Only problem is making sure I don't somehow duplicate the same names.

I continued working with spreadsheet formulas for automating the star system creation process. This time I was doing the Raw Material, Ag Prod, Ind Prod, and Wealth Index. While doing this, I discovered a problem with the Wealth Index mods and changed that to work better.

12/4/2007
I added the names for the 53 systems of the Capitis district (Jova province), but I'm concerned the names don't have enough variety. I have a large pool of Hindu names with some others mixed in. It's perfectly fine to have mostly Hindu names of course, but it might be better to have a wider variety as well. Not sure I'll change it though.

Also, each star system has a circle with the color of the star. However, if the map is printed in Black & White, you won't be able to see these colors. I could put a fill pattern in each as well, but I'm worried that might look bad (especially in color). Not sure how I want to do this . . .

12/5/2007
As I mentioned yesterday, I need to figure a way for the stars to show the type in case the map is printed in black and white. So, I looked a different fill patterns but none of them looked right. I ended up using the actual letter for the star (ie: M, K, etc.) and put that inside the circle or the star. Frankly, I'm not happy with this solution, but I'm really not sure what else to do. :-(

12/6/2007
I finished assigning stars to the Capitis district last night. It's a very time consuming which begs the question whether its too much of a hassle for the regular player. Of course, a GM may not be doing it for an entire district or province, etc.. However, it's already made me question the validity of doing trade routes which depend on going through all the planets and moons to find the highest level starport for that system. Of course, I could do trade routes differently or just not do them at all since their really aren't that necessary. Once again I'll have to "think about it." ;-)

I've been doing a sample system, including all profile values. It's given me some valuable data that, among other things, shows me some changes I need to make. For example, the Wealth Index is still very out of wack. I got a planet with a 10 for industrial production but with a wealth index of zero. So, I'm going to look at that too.

12/7/2007
I think it's becoming obvious to me that I need to drop the Wealth Index. It's just not working very well or constantly. With that in mind, I also will need to rework the commodities (supply/demand, and prices). Also, I've pretty much decided not to have trade routes: in several games (like Elite), there are no routes and frankly they just aren't that necessary.

Sigh. The more I test the Raw Materials and Ag/Ind Prod stuff, the more I come to the conclusion that it's a terrible mess. I may have to just chuck the whole thing if I can't get it to balance right.

12/10/2007
Good news and Bad news: the bad news is that I've abandoned the whole Raw Materials, Ag/Ind Prod, and Wealth Index process, which means I've wasted a lot of time on it. The good news is that I've replaced it with a much simplified version involving trade modifiers. I had worked so hard on my idea because I wanted something original but I just couldn't get it to work inconsistently. The new system isn't very original, but I know it will work.

12/11/2007
I've completed two practice star systems for the Jova province. I'm not doing the whole province, but I want to have at least one or two samples to include in the rules (including the one with Aldorus since that's the capital).

12/12/2007
After getting a second opinion from a friend, I've decided not to have letters or symbols for the stars on my map. I was concerned that the different stars wouldn't appear different enough in black&white. However, after talking to my friend, it seems that there is enough shading difference to make it work. This will keep the map from looking to "busy" with letters or symbols. Also, there will be another table showing the type of star anyway, so it's not really necessary to have it on the map as well.

12/13/2007
I worked a little bit on the second district for Jova, including the different stars and their names. I noticed something I did incorrectly for the Capitis district so I need to go back and fix that as well. Basically, I had too many M class stars so I will change some of them to different classes.

12/14/2007
I was reading my bio page on the website. I wrote it in September and at the end I say I hope to have the game ready by December. Well, it's the middle of December now and I'm no where near done. :-o On the other hand, I only have another chapter and a half to go, but it's taking longer and longer to get it done. At the moment, I think the most realistic estimate would be summer 2008 before I'm ready, but we'll see.

12/17/2007
Over the weekend I largely completed the second district for Jova (although I still haven't settled on a name for the district itself). I plan to add the image to the wiki along with info on star systems. I will add an image of the big Imperium map as well.

Okay, so now I have a name: Kurai, which is japanese for "nobility". Also, I counted up all the stars (both primary, secondary, and tertiary) and there are 170 total stars in the Jova province. Hurray!

12/19/2007
I'm done with Jova now and so I need to turn my attention to finishing out the Star System chapter. The main thing left are the commodity/trade rules which should be just a few pages long. However, I still need to wrap up the Jova content to make it nice and clean and understandable. :-)

12/27/2007
Although I was gone part of the last week for the Christmas holiday, I did get some work done. I had added the Imperium map to the rules, but I was unhappy with how it looked. Yesterday, I added a lot more to the map (surrounding countries and the Magna Supremacy) and now I'm a lot happier. I also put descriptions into the rules for the different regions, etc. Next, I plan to include the Jova province info.

12/28/2007
I redid the Imperium crest in photoshop, again using the 5 arrow motif. I then redid the header in the rules by including the new crest and redoing the lettering. It looks a lot better now. Yesterday, I added the Jova province info. Now, I need to add the Aldin star system info, and then do the commodities/trade section. Once that's done, I'll be finished with the chapter.

12/31/2007
I've been trying to think of a prose piece for the beginning of the Star System chapter. I had written one already but it doesn't really go well with the chapter, so I may move that prose to the next chapter.

I've made a large update to the wiki, adding the info on star systems and their creation. I included the Imperium main map and the one for the Jova Province.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Imperium Map - Complete

Here's the Imperium and the surrounding space. I decided to add the other neighboring countries/empires as well as regions.