Over the last week I’ve been talking with people interested in playtesting the Imperium Chronicles Role Playing Game. I posted an open call for playtesters on several Pen&Paper game forums and so far several people have shown an interest. I’m not sure what the best number of people would be, but I’m happy to get as many as I can.
The process begins by sending each person a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). I’m not a lawyer (and can’t afford one) so I did a web search for a generic NDA and then modified it slightly to suit game testing. I emailed the NDA to each participant and they emailed it back with an electronic signature and a statement that they accept the agreement.
After getting the NDA, I emailed them the draft PDF of the rules. It’s a big file so we’ve had some issue with people’s email provider rejecting such a big file (over 9 MB). I saw today, however, that Google Docs allows uploading a PDF up to 10 MBs, so I’m testing to see if I can distribute the rules that way. It would be better because it offers a central location and the ability to upload the newest version as it gets done. My only concern is privacy since I believe Google shows the email of everyone who is eligible to download the file. I’ll have to make sure each playtester is okay with that, or I’ll need to continue emailing PDFs to those individuals.
I continue to be apprehensive about playtesting since I don’t know how much will need to be modified. I’m just crossing my figures. ;-)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Game Diary Summary - May
5/2/2008
My wife the Editor has proofread the Introduction and Chapter 1. She's starting to proofread Chapters 2 and 3 today. Her comments have been very good so far: it's great to have another pair of eyes with suggestions on how to say things. That's one of the most important parts of being an editor, not just to find mistakes but to also suggest clearer ways of writing.
Beside the misc stuff, I'm also working on a new landing page for the website. I did a render using Poser today as the main graphic and worked on the text describing the game. I'm really very happy with how the image came out and relatively satisfied with the text. It'll be some time, however, before I can use it: have to play test first!!
5/4/2008
I added the damage and ranges for starship weapons yesterday. Although I think the ranges are fine, I'm not confident in the damages. This will need to be tested fully to make sure they don't do too much or too little damage.
Chapters 2 and 3 continue to be proofread. Since my wife isn't a gamer, it's slow going.
5/6/2008
I wrote the beginning prose for the Robot chapter. After several drafts, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I still have several more chapters that need prose, although I'm debating whether they all need to have that. I'd like to be consistent, but I don't want to force it or settle for prose that isn't very good (not that my writing is Shakespeare).
5/8/2008
Chapters 2 and 3 are done being proofread. I need to go over Chapter 4 (Combat) before having the Editor proofread that. Last night I added the resistance nanos to the rules and looked over my To Do list to see what's left. I've been trying to estimate how much is left before I can have the game play tested. Right now I'm thinking by the end of May it should be ready, but I've been wildly wrong in the past, so we'll see.
I've been thinking that, once the game is published, I'll stop writing the game diary. Since this has really been an exercise to capture the creative process of building the rules, there much reason to continue it after that process is largely over. Of course, there are tweaks to the rules and future additions I could talk about, but I doubt I'd need to write about it that much.
5/11/2008
Friday and Saturday weren't very productive, but today I've been able to get some work done in the Starship and Star System chapters. In the former, I added info on making FTL jumps (and went back to the Skills chapter and modified the Starship Navigation skill somewhat). In the Star System chapter, I worked on the Commodities section a bit, trying to make it more understandable. Although I used a fairly simplified system for trade, it's still pretty complex and I think a little confusing. I'm hoping what I did today will make it more clear.
I did some research on playtesting. I think I will have an open call on some of the forums and MySpace toward the end of May, assuming the rules are ready by then. I probably should have a NDA as well, but not sure how I'm going to do it. I'm nervous about the process since I'm don't know how others will react to it. I'm worried I'll have redo large sections of the rules because the playtesters will hate it. We'll see.
5/13/2008
I added a new robot (Deranged Loggerbot) and a new faction (Gaia Brigade) to the rules last night. I'd like to add another couple of robots perhaps before the game goes to playtesting. Speaking of which, my former coworker Mark has agreed to play test my game. He's played several PnP games before so that's good. It's also good to have someone I know well to playtest.
5/14/2008
I created another two robots (SpiderBot and Heavy AssaultBot), but haven't added them to the rules yet. I still have three other robots that I did awhile ago, but I have to confirm match with the current rules (since it may've changed since I wrote up the robots). My Editor has finished proofing chapter 10 so we need to go over that. Next I'll have her look at the Star Systems chapter. Obviously we're not going in order; she's just looking at chapter that are basically finished.
5/15/2008
I've been slowing adding the prices of various items, mostly in the Gear chapter so far. It's time consuming because I want the prices to make sense, although I'm not very confident about them: playtesting will need to see if they're too high or too low.
I went over Chapter 10 with the Editor tonight. Next she'll be looking at Chapter 9.
5/18/2008
I've completed most of the prices now in the Starship and Robot chapters. Although there were a lot of them, it went faster than I thought it would. I went through for the robots and added up their total costs, and the prices were about right I think.
5/20/2008
The Editor completed Chapter 9 last night. Next I'll be giving her the Robot chapter to read, although I need to add another few robots. I've also added prices to the commodities list: however, there are so many of them, it will required some testing to see if the prices make sense.
5/21/2008
I changed my mind and gave Chapter 5 Gear to the Editor to proof. The robot chapter is almost done, but I wanted to add another couple robots and didn't want to rush it.
5/23/2008
Besides misc stuff, I've been calculating the costs for the starship based on their components. Doing it after the fact, is time consuming to say the least. The end amounts, however, seem reasonable to me which is good.
The Editor continues proofing the Gear chapter. We're going to be out of town most of this weekend, but I'll be back to work on the game some more Sunday night and Memorial Day. Of course, I'll take time out to grill stuff too!
5/27/2008
I was out of town Saturday and Sunday, but yesterday I was able to complete the cost calculations on all the starships in that chapter. I'm told that the Gear chapter is going to be done proofing today, so I'll be giving the Robot and Starship chapters to the Editor to proof. Since there's still another two chapters to proofread as well, I'm probably going to give a current draft of the rules to the first playtester by the end of this week or beginning of next. At this point, the proofreading process is just to find typos, etc., not technical errors in the rules themselves. With that in mind, I'd like to get the game into playtesting as soon as possible and just update their copy as the final chapters get proofed.
5/28/2008
The Editor finished the Gear chapter last night and I gave her the Robot and Starships chapters to do next. I also worked on adding notable NPCs to the Encounters chapter last night. I had left that section blank previously. I created stats for Prince Alexander, Lefty Lucy, and Durant Blixx. Next, I'll do the Magna Ambassador and Smitty Gurkin which will be all of it.
5/30/2008
I wrote prose for the beginning of the Star System chapter yesterday. I ran it past my wife and she liked it! I also went through Chapter 10 last night and corrected a few things. I want to go through and correct the final touches before handing the rules over for playtesting this weekend or perhaps early next week.
By way, I added all the notable NPCs except Smitty Gurkin. I decided to leave him off for space reasons, but I can always add him later if I need to.
My wife the Editor has proofread the Introduction and Chapter 1. She's starting to proofread Chapters 2 and 3 today. Her comments have been very good so far: it's great to have another pair of eyes with suggestions on how to say things. That's one of the most important parts of being an editor, not just to find mistakes but to also suggest clearer ways of writing.
Beside the misc stuff, I'm also working on a new landing page for the website. I did a render using Poser today as the main graphic and worked on the text describing the game. I'm really very happy with how the image came out and relatively satisfied with the text. It'll be some time, however, before I can use it: have to play test first!!
5/4/2008
I added the damage and ranges for starship weapons yesterday. Although I think the ranges are fine, I'm not confident in the damages. This will need to be tested fully to make sure they don't do too much or too little damage.
Chapters 2 and 3 continue to be proofread. Since my wife isn't a gamer, it's slow going.
5/6/2008
I wrote the beginning prose for the Robot chapter. After several drafts, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I still have several more chapters that need prose, although I'm debating whether they all need to have that. I'd like to be consistent, but I don't want to force it or settle for prose that isn't very good (not that my writing is Shakespeare).
5/8/2008
Chapters 2 and 3 are done being proofread. I need to go over Chapter 4 (Combat) before having the Editor proofread that. Last night I added the resistance nanos to the rules and looked over my To Do list to see what's left. I've been trying to estimate how much is left before I can have the game play tested. Right now I'm thinking by the end of May it should be ready, but I've been wildly wrong in the past, so we'll see.
I've been thinking that, once the game is published, I'll stop writing the game diary. Since this has really been an exercise to capture the creative process of building the rules, there much reason to continue it after that process is largely over. Of course, there are tweaks to the rules and future additions I could talk about, but I doubt I'd need to write about it that much.
5/11/2008
Friday and Saturday weren't very productive, but today I've been able to get some work done in the Starship and Star System chapters. In the former, I added info on making FTL jumps (and went back to the Skills chapter and modified the Starship Navigation skill somewhat). In the Star System chapter, I worked on the Commodities section a bit, trying to make it more understandable. Although I used a fairly simplified system for trade, it's still pretty complex and I think a little confusing. I'm hoping what I did today will make it more clear.
I did some research on playtesting. I think I will have an open call on some of the forums and MySpace toward the end of May, assuming the rules are ready by then. I probably should have a NDA as well, but not sure how I'm going to do it. I'm nervous about the process since I'm don't know how others will react to it. I'm worried I'll have redo large sections of the rules because the playtesters will hate it. We'll see.
5/13/2008
I added a new robot (Deranged Loggerbot) and a new faction (Gaia Brigade) to the rules last night. I'd like to add another couple of robots perhaps before the game goes to playtesting. Speaking of which, my former coworker Mark has agreed to play test my game. He's played several PnP games before so that's good. It's also good to have someone I know well to playtest.
5/14/2008
I created another two robots (SpiderBot and Heavy AssaultBot), but haven't added them to the rules yet. I still have three other robots that I did awhile ago, but I have to confirm match with the current rules (since it may've changed since I wrote up the robots). My Editor has finished proofing chapter 10 so we need to go over that. Next I'll have her look at the Star Systems chapter. Obviously we're not going in order; she's just looking at chapter that are basically finished.
5/15/2008
I've been slowing adding the prices of various items, mostly in the Gear chapter so far. It's time consuming because I want the prices to make sense, although I'm not very confident about them: playtesting will need to see if they're too high or too low.
I went over Chapter 10 with the Editor tonight. Next she'll be looking at Chapter 9.
5/18/2008
I've completed most of the prices now in the Starship and Robot chapters. Although there were a lot of them, it went faster than I thought it would. I went through for the robots and added up their total costs, and the prices were about right I think.
5/20/2008
The Editor completed Chapter 9 last night. Next I'll be giving her the Robot chapter to read, although I need to add another few robots. I've also added prices to the commodities list: however, there are so many of them, it will required some testing to see if the prices make sense.
5/21/2008
I changed my mind and gave Chapter 5 Gear to the Editor to proof. The robot chapter is almost done, but I wanted to add another couple robots and didn't want to rush it.
5/23/2008
Besides misc stuff, I've been calculating the costs for the starship based on their components. Doing it after the fact, is time consuming to say the least. The end amounts, however, seem reasonable to me which is good.
The Editor continues proofing the Gear chapter. We're going to be out of town most of this weekend, but I'll be back to work on the game some more Sunday night and Memorial Day. Of course, I'll take time out to grill stuff too!
5/27/2008
I was out of town Saturday and Sunday, but yesterday I was able to complete the cost calculations on all the starships in that chapter. I'm told that the Gear chapter is going to be done proofing today, so I'll be giving the Robot and Starship chapters to the Editor to proof. Since there's still another two chapters to proofread as well, I'm probably going to give a current draft of the rules to the first playtester by the end of this week or beginning of next. At this point, the proofreading process is just to find typos, etc., not technical errors in the rules themselves. With that in mind, I'd like to get the game into playtesting as soon as possible and just update their copy as the final chapters get proofed.
5/28/2008
The Editor finished the Gear chapter last night and I gave her the Robot and Starships chapters to do next. I also worked on adding notable NPCs to the Encounters chapter last night. I had left that section blank previously. I created stats for Prince Alexander, Lefty Lucy, and Durant Blixx. Next, I'll do the Magna Ambassador and Smitty Gurkin which will be all of it.
5/30/2008
I wrote prose for the beginning of the Star System chapter yesterday. I ran it past my wife and she liked it! I also went through Chapter 10 last night and corrected a few things. I want to go through and correct the final touches before handing the rules over for playtesting this weekend or perhaps early next week.
By way, I added all the notable NPCs except Smitty Gurkin. I decided to leave him off for space reasons, but I can always add him later if I need to.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Game Diary Summary - April
4/1/2008
The character sheet continues to come along. I spent much of the day working on it, after taking a break yesterday. I added the combat, weapons, and armor sections, and rearranged the resistance section.
4/3/2008
I've completed the character sheet finally, although it's taken a long time it seems. The second page was easier, however, and I was able to hammer that out in only two days compared to the better part of a week for the first page. I can now switch to backfilling stuff in the rules that I didnt' get done the first time and revisiting parts that need to be reworked a little. One of the biggest sections I need to add features vehicle combat. I didn't do it the first time around, but I can't leave it out.
4/5/2008
Yesterday I started writing the vehicle combat section. I didn't get a lot done, but it was at least a start. I realized, however, that I didn't have a good game plan for writing the section, so this morning I wrote out an outline to better organize my thoughts. This is usually the best way for me to work, which makes you wonder why I don't do it that way more often.
4/7/2008
I completed the stunts section of Vehicle Combat. Although not a huge amount of content, it's still quite a lot, which makes me happy. I'm not sure how useful players will find it however, but we'll see.
4/8/2008
So far today I've added another nice chunk of the Vehicle Combat section. I also added a new page to the website so people can read the current newsletter without having to actually subscribe (in case people are concerned about doing that). As part of the change, I modified the main page of the site so you can access the newsletter. I also made it a little better looking (but only slightly).
4/9/2008
I finished off the vehicle combat section today, but I need to add some additional information: vehicle armor and force fields. I will include that in the Gear chapter.
I also decided to make yet another change (although a small one) to the Psionic abilities. I'm taking Detect Psi and Detect Aura and making them alone, instead of being prerequisites for other psionics. I'm also going to add three new ablities involving what's called a Tulpa, which is basically physical creatures formed by ones own mind (ie: mind into matter).
4/12/2008
The last few days I've been chipping away at misc stuff in the rules, including adding some skills and adding vehicle force fields and armor to the gear section. Speaking of vehicles, last night I realized that I forgot to include rules for crashing damage in the vehicle combat section. Again, having only one person working on something like this can lead to missing things. I'm hopeful that anything I may've still forgotten will be picked up during play testing.
4/14/2008
I didn't get much done yesterday. I've been struggling to get my wife's computer to work, which involved installing a new hard drive. Although it's working now, my hardware abilities suck so mostly i'm just frustrated, which doesn't help my creative flow to say the least. Grrrrr.
4/15/2008
By yesterday afternoon I was back on track and I got a lot done in the skills chapter. I was adding some new starship skills which also entailed making some changes in the Starship chapter. When I had originally written that chapter, I hadn't included the starship skills yet since they hadn't been finalized. This meant that starship combat didn't really involve too many actual skill rolls. Although such combat still doesn't, it does include some references to specific skill requirements to use certain starship systems, thus tying them together.
4/17/2008
Today I worked on redoing the Restricted/Black Market section of the Gear chapter. Along with that, I will add the Streetwise skill to the Skill chapter. While i had been working on planets in the Star System chapter, I realized that law levels as I had envisioned them wouldn't work so that meant going back and fixing it under Gear. I'm fairly happy with how it's turned out this time around.
4/19/2008
Originally, which social class a character picked didn't really matter too much except when it came to factions and reputation. Yesterday, I changed that by adding different skills that the character would get based on the class. An aristocrat gets one skill (Diplomacy Rank 4) and twice the starting money; a middle class character gets two skills (Computer Operation and a Craft skill, both Rank 4); and the underclass gets three skills (Bribe, Smuggling, and Streetwise, all Rank 4) but get only half the normal starting money.
Since social class is so important in Imperium society, I felt I needed to make it more important for each character players make.
Today, I also wrote some prose for the beginning of Chapter 3: Abilities. I'll run it by the wife first to make sure it doesn't totally suck.
4/20/2008
Good news: the prose I wrote for Chapter 3 passed the Wife test, so I guess it didn't suck too bad. Still, I don't think it's one of my stronger prose works.
The biggest thing I did today was add Software to the Starships chapter. I had left it blank when I did the chapter the first time around, so it was a gapping hole. I struggled with it a little bit because I didn't like how I was implementing it, but now I'm fairly happy with it. While I was working on the software for Starships, I also noticed i need to update the software section for the Robots chapter too.
4/22/2008
I spent yesterday adding ranges to the weapons in the Gear chapter. Unlike the d20 system, I don't use a set increment for ranges. Instead, I use five different ranges (point blank, short, medium, long, and extreme), each with its own modifier (+2, +0, -2, -6, and -10 respectively). Originally, I had mods of -4 and -6 for the last two ranges, but while working yesterday, I thought those would make it too easy to hit targets at pretty long ranges, so I changed them to a steeper penalty. Anyway, I was able to fill in all the ranges for the different weapons.
Today I filled in the restricted status of weapons and other items in the gear chapter.
4/26/2008 For the last several days I've just been working on misc stuff for the rules: for example, yesterday I fixed the formatting in the table of contents. It's been wrong forever, but I've never taken the time to actually fix it.
I'm going back to work on Monday (4/28). This means I'll only be able to work on the game in the evenings and of course on weekends. However, over the last few months I've been able to get a lot done, so there really isn't that much left to do before I can have people start play testing. I'm not quite there yet, but it should be within a few weeks maximum if not less. Of course, I also have to find people willing to play test. That's a whole other question altogether.
4/29/2008
This week I'm going to try and get some of the chapter ready for my editor (the Wife) to proofread. I still have work to do in several chapters so I don't want her to proofread those yet, but I can at least have you get started on some of the other ones. Once that's done, the rules should be ready for play testing.
The character sheet continues to come along. I spent much of the day working on it, after taking a break yesterday. I added the combat, weapons, and armor sections, and rearranged the resistance section.
4/3/2008
I've completed the character sheet finally, although it's taken a long time it seems. The second page was easier, however, and I was able to hammer that out in only two days compared to the better part of a week for the first page. I can now switch to backfilling stuff in the rules that I didnt' get done the first time and revisiting parts that need to be reworked a little. One of the biggest sections I need to add features vehicle combat. I didn't do it the first time around, but I can't leave it out.
4/5/2008
Yesterday I started writing the vehicle combat section. I didn't get a lot done, but it was at least a start. I realized, however, that I didn't have a good game plan for writing the section, so this morning I wrote out an outline to better organize my thoughts. This is usually the best way for me to work, which makes you wonder why I don't do it that way more often.
4/7/2008
I completed the stunts section of Vehicle Combat. Although not a huge amount of content, it's still quite a lot, which makes me happy. I'm not sure how useful players will find it however, but we'll see.
4/8/2008
So far today I've added another nice chunk of the Vehicle Combat section. I also added a new page to the website so people can read the current newsletter without having to actually subscribe (in case people are concerned about doing that). As part of the change, I modified the main page of the site so you can access the newsletter. I also made it a little better looking (but only slightly).
4/9/2008
I finished off the vehicle combat section today, but I need to add some additional information: vehicle armor and force fields. I will include that in the Gear chapter.
I also decided to make yet another change (although a small one) to the Psionic abilities. I'm taking Detect Psi and Detect Aura and making them alone, instead of being prerequisites for other psionics. I'm also going to add three new ablities involving what's called a Tulpa, which is basically physical creatures formed by ones own mind (ie: mind into matter).
4/12/2008
The last few days I've been chipping away at misc stuff in the rules, including adding some skills and adding vehicle force fields and armor to the gear section. Speaking of vehicles, last night I realized that I forgot to include rules for crashing damage in the vehicle combat section. Again, having only one person working on something like this can lead to missing things. I'm hopeful that anything I may've still forgotten will be picked up during play testing.
4/14/2008
I didn't get much done yesterday. I've been struggling to get my wife's computer to work, which involved installing a new hard drive. Although it's working now, my hardware abilities suck so mostly i'm just frustrated, which doesn't help my creative flow to say the least. Grrrrr.
4/15/2008
By yesterday afternoon I was back on track and I got a lot done in the skills chapter. I was adding some new starship skills which also entailed making some changes in the Starship chapter. When I had originally written that chapter, I hadn't included the starship skills yet since they hadn't been finalized. This meant that starship combat didn't really involve too many actual skill rolls. Although such combat still doesn't, it does include some references to specific skill requirements to use certain starship systems, thus tying them together.
4/17/2008
Today I worked on redoing the Restricted/Black Market section of the Gear chapter. Along with that, I will add the Streetwise skill to the Skill chapter. While i had been working on planets in the Star System chapter, I realized that law levels as I had envisioned them wouldn't work so that meant going back and fixing it under Gear. I'm fairly happy with how it's turned out this time around.
4/19/2008
Originally, which social class a character picked didn't really matter too much except when it came to factions and reputation. Yesterday, I changed that by adding different skills that the character would get based on the class. An aristocrat gets one skill (Diplomacy Rank 4) and twice the starting money; a middle class character gets two skills (Computer Operation and a Craft skill, both Rank 4); and the underclass gets three skills (Bribe, Smuggling, and Streetwise, all Rank 4) but get only half the normal starting money.
Since social class is so important in Imperium society, I felt I needed to make it more important for each character players make.
Today, I also wrote some prose for the beginning of Chapter 3: Abilities. I'll run it by the wife first to make sure it doesn't totally suck.
4/20/2008
Good news: the prose I wrote for Chapter 3 passed the Wife test, so I guess it didn't suck too bad. Still, I don't think it's one of my stronger prose works.
The biggest thing I did today was add Software to the Starships chapter. I had left it blank when I did the chapter the first time around, so it was a gapping hole. I struggled with it a little bit because I didn't like how I was implementing it, but now I'm fairly happy with it. While I was working on the software for Starships, I also noticed i need to update the software section for the Robots chapter too.
4/22/2008
I spent yesterday adding ranges to the weapons in the Gear chapter. Unlike the d20 system, I don't use a set increment for ranges. Instead, I use five different ranges (point blank, short, medium, long, and extreme), each with its own modifier (+2, +0, -2, -6, and -10 respectively). Originally, I had mods of -4 and -6 for the last two ranges, but while working yesterday, I thought those would make it too easy to hit targets at pretty long ranges, so I changed them to a steeper penalty. Anyway, I was able to fill in all the ranges for the different weapons.
Today I filled in the restricted status of weapons and other items in the gear chapter.
4/26/2008 For the last several days I've just been working on misc stuff for the rules: for example, yesterday I fixed the formatting in the table of contents. It's been wrong forever, but I've never taken the time to actually fix it.
I'm going back to work on Monday (4/28). This means I'll only be able to work on the game in the evenings and of course on weekends. However, over the last few months I've been able to get a lot done, so there really isn't that much left to do before I can have people start play testing. I'm not quite there yet, but it should be within a few weeks maximum if not less. Of course, I also have to find people willing to play test. That's a whole other question altogether.
4/29/2008
This week I'm going to try and get some of the chapter ready for my editor (the Wife) to proofread. I still have work to do in several chapters so I don't want her to proofread those yet, but I can at least have you get started on some of the other ones. Once that's done, the rules should be ready for play testing.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Game Diary Summary - March
3/1/2008
Yesterday I sent out the Newsletter, which included how the game is going and the Feb. game diary. After I sent it out, however, I realized that i hadn't actually signed, which is kind of embarrassing.
Before yesterday, I was working on Dharmesh Monastery, and wrote up descriptions for all the rooms on the main and second floor, and started on the basement. I still need to flesh out those rooms a bit though, and I also need to figure out exactly what's going on in the crypt. I think I'll be adding psionic phantasms that are ancient monks that have died but still remain in spirit form.
3/3/2008
Yesterday and today I worked on new creatures to populate the locations in Aldorus. I had been thinking the Encounters chapter had been a little light, so I'm adding some generic creatures and some specific ones, including a few for the Dharmesh Monastery. My wife asked me yesterday if I was just adding things so the game would never be done. NO! I just want it to be complete. So, it'll be done when it's done and you'd better like it or I'm going to have a huge hissy fit! ;-)
3/4/2008
I've been hard at work today getting the Dharmesh Monastery section done. Using the creatures I created the last few days, I've fleshed out the rooms of the monastery and set the stage for player adventures there. Next, I need to add the creatures to the rules (so far they are in note form) and also write up some adventure seeds. After that, I'm largely done with this last chapter.
3/5/2008
Today I redid the Poison section Chapter 5 that had been lost last week I think (when the file got corrupted). I actually like what I did today better than before, so I guess it worked out okay. I also added all the creatures I had created notes for. I put most of those in Chapter 10, but I added a couple general ones in the Encounters chapter. I still have more to do notes on so I'm not done quite yet.
3/7/2008
Yesterday I created three new guys for the Si-Sawat Syndicate, and today I added them to the rules. It may seem like a no-brainer but I had originally made them Humans, even though the boss is an Akiak and the syndicate is named after a cat breed. But, never too late, I changed the new guys to Akiak as well, so now the whole gang is run and operated by kitties (okay, tough kitties)!
Today I also reformated the headings for Chapter 10, which meant moving things around a bit. Not a big deal but it took me a while to get it right.
3/9/2008
I spent yesterday working on the Crazu, the native race of Aldorus that the Human largely exterminated when they adopted the planet as their own. This is one of the original ideas from when I was still working on the computer game so I'm recycling it a bit here. All along I've been using a particular model I got from Daz3d for Poser, but my wife suggested (since the model has black "skin") that people might view this as racist. So, per her suggestion, I changed the texture in Poser to a dark green color instead. This makes sense since they live in the Shadewood Forest and could camoflage better. However, the idea that something you create for a game (full of imaginary people) might be viewed in a very real sense in the real world is one of the hazards of doing this kind of stuff.
3/11/2008
Today I worked on misc. stuff: I wrote the descriptions for the dharmesh monks (ice and fire) and rendered some ships for the starships chapter. Yesterday, I worked on the table with all the different abilities, and made a few adjustments. I'm still worried about how well some of these abilities will work during play testing.
3/13/2008
Yesterday I was slacking some (although I did get stuff done), but today I was back to work and added several new creatures to the Encounters chapter. I also added a description for the Si-Sawat Syndicate in Chapter 10.
3/15/2008
Well, I've been slacking some more but I have a good excuse: my wife bought me a new computer game for my birthday and I've been playing that. Okay, not a very good excuse, but I have gotten some work done on the side, including some new renders. Today I've been thinking again about adding Loot Tables to the Encounters chapter. That way characters can get stuff from killing creatures which they can turn around and sell. Not sure I want to add yet more stuff to the game, but I think I could do it fairly easily if I did decide to do it.
3/17/2008
Today I added the Griefers to the game: the Hoodlum, Gank, and Cutthroat. I only have the Crazu to add, and then I'll be done with that section.
I also redid the front page logo for the game. I thought the old one, which is featured on the webpage, was too small for the cover so I increased the text for the title. I ran it by my wife and she seems to think it's an improvement!
3/18/2008
I added the Cruzu today so I only have the adventure seeds section left for Chapter 10. I had some writer's block this morning while trying to write the Crazu descriptions, but after awhile I was able to work through it.
3/21/2008
I've been brainstorming ideas for adventure seeds, which I'm calling "Odd Jobs." I've written over 20 so far, but I'm not completely happy with them. They're okay, but not great. This weekend I'll be out of town, so I won't be getting much work done.
3/23/2008
Friday I took some of the seeds and expanded on them. I've done 7 so far and would like to do 10-15. I was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out, so I hope the rest will be as good.
3/25/2008
Very frustrated today. I was trying to work some more on these adventure ideas, but the creative juices were fickle once more. Grrrrr. On the bright side, I got to practice my swearing, although I doubt my wife thinks I need any more practice.
3/27/2008
Today I wrote another couple adventure seeds, which brings me to a total of 14. I'm basically done, unless I can think of any more seeds to add later. This also means I'm done with Chapter 10.
The rest of the day, I've been working in PhotoShop to create a character sheet to add to the rules. It's been pretty tricky since I have to know all the things to include in the sheet and then how to arrange everything so it's not too messy or ugly looking.
3/29/2008
I worked some more on the character sheet yesterday, but it's really taking a long time. Not sure if it's because I'm using Photoshop and not some other program, although I really don't have anything else I can use. I also printed the sheet out on a laser printer in both gif and png formats to see how they look. They both look the same, although it's not as sharp or crisp as I would like. Not sure whether I should just continue and live with it or try to find some other way. Blah.
Yesterday I sent out the Newsletter, which included how the game is going and the Feb. game diary. After I sent it out, however, I realized that i hadn't actually signed, which is kind of embarrassing.
Before yesterday, I was working on Dharmesh Monastery, and wrote up descriptions for all the rooms on the main and second floor, and started on the basement. I still need to flesh out those rooms a bit though, and I also need to figure out exactly what's going on in the crypt. I think I'll be adding psionic phantasms that are ancient monks that have died but still remain in spirit form.
3/3/2008
Yesterday and today I worked on new creatures to populate the locations in Aldorus. I had been thinking the Encounters chapter had been a little light, so I'm adding some generic creatures and some specific ones, including a few for the Dharmesh Monastery. My wife asked me yesterday if I was just adding things so the game would never be done. NO! I just want it to be complete. So, it'll be done when it's done and you'd better like it or I'm going to have a huge hissy fit! ;-)
3/4/2008
I've been hard at work today getting the Dharmesh Monastery section done. Using the creatures I created the last few days, I've fleshed out the rooms of the monastery and set the stage for player adventures there. Next, I need to add the creatures to the rules (so far they are in note form) and also write up some adventure seeds. After that, I'm largely done with this last chapter.
3/5/2008
Today I redid the Poison section Chapter 5 that had been lost last week I think (when the file got corrupted). I actually like what I did today better than before, so I guess it worked out okay. I also added all the creatures I had created notes for. I put most of those in Chapter 10, but I added a couple general ones in the Encounters chapter. I still have more to do notes on so I'm not done quite yet.
3/7/2008
Yesterday I created three new guys for the Si-Sawat Syndicate, and today I added them to the rules. It may seem like a no-brainer but I had originally made them Humans, even though the boss is an Akiak and the syndicate is named after a cat breed. But, never too late, I changed the new guys to Akiak as well, so now the whole gang is run and operated by kitties (okay, tough kitties)!
Today I also reformated the headings for Chapter 10, which meant moving things around a bit. Not a big deal but it took me a while to get it right.
3/9/2008
I spent yesterday working on the Crazu, the native race of Aldorus that the Human largely exterminated when they adopted the planet as their own. This is one of the original ideas from when I was still working on the computer game so I'm recycling it a bit here. All along I've been using a particular model I got from Daz3d for Poser, but my wife suggested (since the model has black "skin") that people might view this as racist. So, per her suggestion, I changed the texture in Poser to a dark green color instead. This makes sense since they live in the Shadewood Forest and could camoflage better. However, the idea that something you create for a game (full of imaginary people) might be viewed in a very real sense in the real world is one of the hazards of doing this kind of stuff.
3/11/2008
Today I worked on misc. stuff: I wrote the descriptions for the dharmesh monks (ice and fire) and rendered some ships for the starships chapter. Yesterday, I worked on the table with all the different abilities, and made a few adjustments. I'm still worried about how well some of these abilities will work during play testing.
3/13/2008
Yesterday I was slacking some (although I did get stuff done), but today I was back to work and added several new creatures to the Encounters chapter. I also added a description for the Si-Sawat Syndicate in Chapter 10.
3/15/2008
Well, I've been slacking some more but I have a good excuse: my wife bought me a new computer game for my birthday and I've been playing that. Okay, not a very good excuse, but I have gotten some work done on the side, including some new renders. Today I've been thinking again about adding Loot Tables to the Encounters chapter. That way characters can get stuff from killing creatures which they can turn around and sell. Not sure I want to add yet more stuff to the game, but I think I could do it fairly easily if I did decide to do it.
3/17/2008
Today I added the Griefers to the game: the Hoodlum, Gank, and Cutthroat. I only have the Crazu to add, and then I'll be done with that section.
I also redid the front page logo for the game. I thought the old one, which is featured on the webpage, was too small for the cover so I increased the text for the title. I ran it by my wife and she seems to think it's an improvement!
3/18/2008
I added the Cruzu today so I only have the adventure seeds section left for Chapter 10. I had some writer's block this morning while trying to write the Crazu descriptions, but after awhile I was able to work through it.
3/21/2008
I've been brainstorming ideas for adventure seeds, which I'm calling "Odd Jobs." I've written over 20 so far, but I'm not completely happy with them. They're okay, but not great. This weekend I'll be out of town, so I won't be getting much work done.
3/23/2008
Friday I took some of the seeds and expanded on them. I've done 7 so far and would like to do 10-15. I was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out, so I hope the rest will be as good.
3/25/2008
Very frustrated today. I was trying to work some more on these adventure ideas, but the creative juices were fickle once more. Grrrrr. On the bright side, I got to practice my swearing, although I doubt my wife thinks I need any more practice.
3/27/2008
Today I wrote another couple adventure seeds, which brings me to a total of 14. I'm basically done, unless I can think of any more seeds to add later. This also means I'm done with Chapter 10.
The rest of the day, I've been working in PhotoShop to create a character sheet to add to the rules. It's been pretty tricky since I have to know all the things to include in the sheet and then how to arrange everything so it's not too messy or ugly looking.
3/29/2008
I worked some more on the character sheet yesterday, but it's really taking a long time. Not sure if it's because I'm using Photoshop and not some other program, although I really don't have anything else I can use. I also printed the sheet out on a laser printer in both gif and png formats to see how they look. They both look the same, although it's not as sharp or crisp as I would like. Not sure whether I should just continue and live with it or try to find some other way. Blah.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
MySpace and Facebook
I've created a page for MySpace and Facebook that I hope will increase awareness of the Imperium Chronicles game, and perhaps better organize those who want to keep track of its progress.
Please take a look at the MySpace page and/or Facebook.
Please take a look at the MySpace page and/or Facebook.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)