unWritten Continuum

I just posted for some playtesters in the Forge and Story-Games…

I’ve been getting a few requests for playtesting unWritten. I’m excited about that. Soon I’ll have something ready for everybody.

So I’ve been editing and editing and editing my game. Like crazy. I write, then I edit, over and over. I’ll get it soon enough!

So, some fellas at Story-Games, inadvertently, challenged me to see if unWritten could produce a story akin to Modernist Literature. I’m going to playtest it this weekend. That will be my goal. Let’s see how unWritten handles that. I don’t think it can do free verse or poetry, but i do think it can do strange, mundane, and pessimistic. 

Well, I’ve recently playtesed it and it went great. The design process is done. Now I need to playtest the hell out of the thing. There are some little details that need to be ironed out, but that should just take a couple more in house playtests. 

My biggest concern now is making sure the text is clear and that people can play it when I’m not there to teach it to them. I’ve got several people I can tap on the shoulder for help. However, they’ve played it. I fear that they might make assumptions based on prior knowledge that might not get caught before publishing. 

Anyway, that’s were I’m at today. Oh yeah, I took the playtest off line until I can edit it’s current version. That should take a couple of days or so… Please be patient. 

The latest playtest is 03/05/08. Check out the pages section to the right, where it says “latest playtest.”

unWritten, with its major mods. This is, almost, completely a new game. but I feel like it’s really captured what i’ve been after from the very beginning. a game that could produce an authentically good story on its own right, that empowers all its players, and that allows everyone to have the experience they’re looking for, despite the play styles of others. (that last one isn’t absolute, but I think I’m pretty close.)

Vasco, I think it address the issues you’ve been having with it from the beginning.

Greg and Brendon, I think you guys will be very pleasantly surprised by the changes.

Josh, well, yeah… you haven’t seen it lately, so, I think… You’re going to love it… I think… How’s work?
As always, if you see any typo’s let me know.

oh, last thing, I’ve formatted the book for 8.5 X 7 size sheets. That way it’ll fit on 8.5 X 14, bent in half and saddle stitched. but I sent it to you in a 8.5 X 11, so you don’t waste paper if you can’t print it the way I want… cause I can’t.

I’ve been working on my game for about 4 or 5 years now. I’m trying to create a game that will allow you to get really excited about your characters, that you develop an engaging story, and that the players aren’t pigeonholed into one person’s idea of how the game should be. Over the Past few years I’ve been working, incrementally towards this. Since OrcCon I think I’ve made my greatest leap towards this end. Pretty soon I’ll have the next playtest ready… hopefully someone gives it a try and tells me about it.

So I just rewrote the latest edition of unWritten. I’ve done some major changes to it since my playtests at OrcCon. I’m really pleased with the changes, but, damn, it’s been tough. It’s ready for some more playtests. I hope to get those underway this weekend. Over the past several months I’ve almost completed it… probably, something like 5 times. Hopefully, this near completion is the final near completion I’m going to have to deal with. I think I’ll be able to get it done, art’ed up, and published for an origins release… followed by a GenCon booth. That’s my goal anyway. Well, it’s 3:30 in the morning. I better get some shut eye. 

www.strategicon.net

I had a blast at Orccon this weekend. I met great new friends and reunited with old ones… Let me tell you a bit about the games I played.

Friday:

unWritten

Commitee for the Exploration of Mysteries

Saturday:

Sons of Liberty

unWritten

Roanoak

Don’t Rest Your Head

Sunday:

Inspectres

unWritten

Spione  

Commitee for the Exploration of Mysteries

This is a great game in the spirit of “Baron Munchausen.” Though I can’t actually say it’s a great drinking game, because, well, we didn’t have drink, at least not any drinks with spirits.

The game consisted of a group of adventurers traveling from Madrid to Mexico(?) seeking the elusive Crystal Skull of … I don’t remember. The game ran very smoothly, and was easy to boot, and well it should, because you need to have a stout drink or delicate wine to play it right.

My favorite scene was having the pirate return from the dead riding a giant snake as it swallowed Dave’s character whole!

I have to add, that the game was run by Eric Boyd, the game’s designer. That was both a pleasure and exciting. He’s a great guy and he made a great game.

ericjboyddesigns.com/The_Committee.aspx

Sons of Liberty

Saturday morning I was given the great pleasure of being able to play President God-King George Washington of Georgistan. Yes, as our Pre-Prez lead the founding fathers around the east coast a bit, we rewrote history in a way that would capture any kids imagination. And, as you might guess, it ended with George’s ability to speak fluent European and renaming Germany Georgistan. Indeed, we don’t need to mention the minor affair that dethroned our buddy George on the coasts of England.

www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16490

Roanoake

Saturday evening I spent with several people living the end of the first settlers. This story takes you through the last few days of those that tried to settle Roanoake and ended up disappearing. This game is based on Wushu, and this was my first experience with it. I enjoyed the game, I loved the setting and the situation. I don’t think I need to play Wushu again. It just isn’t my style. Though I can see how people enjoy it.

http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16220&cat=24&page=4

Don’t Rest Your Head

DRYH and Ryan Macklin, this is a good mix. I played with Turo and Nicholas. It has to be said here that Turo is very funny and that he has a really cool jacket. Ok, I played a Real Estate agent that was falling apart at the seems, while Turo played a “The Dude” character. It turned out that our characters were each other’s opposites. The game was a bit short, it was late, but excellent. In the end the Dude and the RE agent switched places, bodies and all. For the RE agent it was a welcome relief, he could finally be “normal.” But for the dude, well, it was his own little hell of perfection.

www.evilhat.com/home/?page_id=101

Sunday:

Inspectres

Inspectres is always, one of my top ten games of all times. You can never go wrong with it. This is a game of a franchise ghostbusting squad, and I played a femme fatale. In fact, that was my characters trait: femme fatale. We cleaned house, figuratively, at least, well, the ghost has been exorcized, and the house needs a bit of repair.

www.memento-mori.com/inspectres/

Spione 

Spione is Ron Edwards “Spy vs. Guy” game. It’s based on the works of John le Carre and the like. Stuff I’m not familiar with. The game itself was great. I had a lot of fun, if you get a chance to play it at a con, don’t hesitate. I don’t think I’ll be playing other then in cons, but I’ll definitely look for it.

http://spione.adept-press.com/

unWritten

Finally, unWritten. Probably the best game at the con… OK, I kid. I had 3 playtests and they were both great fun and incredibly insightful. I thank all of the people that came to the game, and all of the help that I got from Ryan, Josh, Meghann, Vasco, and Eric. The game, having been almost done for the 3rd time, is now entering into it’s newest final stage of completion.

This weekend we played 3 games of Torchwood. The first took place in Cardiff, where half of the team got “unstuck in time.” While the other half of the team struggled to find a way to bring them back. In the end we succeeded, except for the simple fact that as part of the team was getting stuck, the other part was getting unstuck… yeah, a lot of trouble. And a lot of fun.

The second game consisted of, SETI: Task Force UNIT (STFU). This was more of a Dr. Who meets the X-Files, and not so much Torchwood. In it the team fought the forces of Evil and the media. With a grand finale of my character sacrificing himself in order to destroy the evil aliens is he signs to Meg’s character “I Love You.”

The last game consisted of a team of Torchwood operatives in London that was faced with K.A.O.S. And cultists, who were both after the Codex… In the end, the characters suffered implants/homing beacons attached to the backs of their eyes, but the sacrifice was worth it. For we save the world again!