If you like the ‘question prompt and write’ type of solo games such as “Beast”, this solo LARP may be for you:

If you like the ‘question prompt and write’ type of solo games such as “Beast”, this solo LARP may be for you:

THEY’RE ONTO ME.

“You’re a conspiracy theorist. You believe that parasitic aliens are among us, in the bodiesof humans. They could be your coworkers or friends or family members. You need the worldto know. You need to save the world.

Every day, you will be lming yourself on your phone. Each recording session will be up to aminute long. That is how long you have to talk about the oncoming parasitic alien invasion.

The game ends when you’ve recorded yourself every day for twelve days. On the twelfth day, you will decide why this is your last video post.”

http://www.goldencobra.org/pdf/2016/TheyreOntoMe_Chan.pdf

http://www.goldencobra.org/pdf/2016/TheyreOntoMe_Chan.pdf

Here is the second part of my Untold Adventure Awaits

Here is the second part of my Untold Adventure Awaits

Series Name “Ft. Stone Telegraph”

Part 2

Holy horse shit, about 50 feet away is the scariest damn thing I have ever seen made more so by the fact that the damn thing looks exactly like Art, except this yahoo is like 10 feet tall, covered in a scaly hide, purple and thin as a rail. I almost forgot to mention his right hand is a hatchet and he is blabbering some gibberish over a cauldron. I say it looked like Art, but really it looked like it was wearing a mask of Art all elongated and pointy. Scary shit my friend. O and I forgot to mention the creepy altar, which was emitting the dark flame. That thing writhed like it was full of maggots. I never saw what it was actually made of because at this point I thought I would take a half a step back and launch some lead at its ass (actually it’s head, but hey you get the point). I kneeled down, getting a good solid firing position when the thing must have heard me….

It turned its head towards me. Man those eyes, dark pools that glittered and seemed to go on forever. I couldn’t move or think, my body wouldn’t react as the thing pointed a finger at me and then flicked its finger at me like it was castin’ off a bugger. An invisible wave slammed into my body, knocking me off balance. As I tumbled backwards I realized I was falling through a hole in the air. I slide through the hole and was dumped into a swamp of all places.

O man I hate swamps. They have all sorts of crawling things, they are hot and moist and just plain annoying. At least Never Miss wasn’t a paper cartridge shooter. She was wet, but a little water wouldn’t hurt her. She had been knocked out of my hand as a result of the fall, but I saw the butt of her stock peeking out of the water not far from me, so I scooped her up and gave her a good shake. I decided I best figure out where the hell I was and get back home before things got out hand with old Stretchy Art.

This is the weirdest swamp I had ever been in. It has all of the normal swamp stuff, but there was large bulbous plants, lots of pretty colors and large (say a handwidth) flying bugs. Luckily none bite me, but I still didn’t care for them. I started walkin’, but didn’t make it far before I heard this high pitched scream. Past me thunked what sounded like an arrow. It was short and stubby, but man it looked wicked. It smacked into one of the large bulbs on a plant. The bulb disintegrated on the spot, blowing sticky bits everywhere and that’s when I heard the rustling coming from my left side…..

I slide back into the foliage surrounding me (this time one of the huge mosquitos got a hold of me, but I kept my tongue). Out of the underbrush came, FLOWERs? Yes I mean flowers, well sort of. The best way I can described them is short, brutish and kinda man shaped with petals on their heads and mean lookin’ faces. From what I could only presume was eyeholes the little flowermen shot more darts a me. They seemed to have no problem knowing where I was at, but there aim was atrocious. I bet 10 of those darts went flying by me. There were about 5 of the flowermen, I reckon. I pulled Never Miss up to my shoulder, leveled her off and shot the lead flowerman in the head. In a large puff of petals the flowerman collapsed to the ground. At least I knew they were allergic to lead. I was getting ready to load up another round, but my cartridge belt had gotten tangled up in the fall through the air and I couldn’t manage to get another shot off before the flowermen got to me. Don’t get me wrong I like flowers, but I dread the thought of being strangled to death by one. So I decided that discretion is the better part of valor and high tailed it outta there.

#untoldbg, John Fiore

Just a little game design musing, in particular about Warframe which is a video game that I play solo and co-op. …

Just a little game design musing, in particular about Warframe which is a video game that I play solo and co-op. Talking about it here because I’m intrigued about the design challenges it would take to bring it to the table top for solo and group play.

Omari Brooks asked, “…what are you trying to model fictionally/ mechanically that hasn’t already been solved by any number of games when it comes to Warframe? I played that game for about a year and on the surface I’m not seeing any unique issues…”

For those that don’t know, Warframe is a game about space ninjas with super powers killing a bazillion mooks and bosses while they perform missions for their sexy mother-like patron. There is much grinding for loot drops, parkour, shooting, stabbing, as well… excessive customization (called fashion frame by a lot of folks.) There are also quests that reveal deep lore in the game and also unlock new modes of play or new warframes to use.

Warframes are wickedly competent. They’re also exceeding tactical due to the video game setting. At the table top, there are dozens of games that allow you to kill stuff. And, it would honestly be kind of boring.

So, if the number one thing you do in Warframe is kill stuff (which is a reflex challenge for mooks, a trivial bit of a tactical challenge for lieutenants, and a shooty/slashy puzzle for bosses), what more is there? Discovery, mastery (leveling up your frame to unlock new powers), enhancing your gear, crafting new items (weapons, frames, keys, etc.), and pets (the kind that can fight at your side and grant you new abilities.) There’s mission planning in your gear load out and warframe choice, imagine a player that can pick their class or playbook at the beginning of each mission. And, there is also resource management in-game for like restores (ammo, shields, health, and energy), spawn-able helpers, lock picks, and other gear. Even stealth and time is a resource that can be squandered.

So, the challenge would be to balance the feel with the mechanics to create the right kind of badassery without making you roll for every single mook that you killed. I’m still playing with ideas like a tile based combat system. In Warframe, maps are collections of random 3d tile sets with each one being a small battle field and they might branch to dead ends as well as continue to the next mission way point or exit. Funny, but the tile sets of Warframe distinctly remind me of the geomorphs from old school dungeon crawls. There is a flow to the game as you navigate it (or fail to do so due to a bad jump, enemy harpoon, or shockwave.) Even with the same tiles, the exact type of mission you run can change how they are played out. A capture mission favors stealth and pursuit, exterminate is brute force, etc.

Everything in the game can scale, the level 30 grunts will gun you down if you let them. The are power frames, shooty frames, melee combat monsters, and stealthy frames, so you can tackle each mission (and the tiles within) differently. Even some boss fights are radically different depending on your load out. So, there is game as several levels, but it boils down to a cycle of planning, execution, and leveling up/crafting.

Even if I got all those parts working like I wanted, it wouldn’t be enough. I’ve played that game. (Okay, I still play that game, daily. It’s good to be the warlord.) The next step after that would be world creation. Digital Extremes took years to build all their content and continue to expand upon it. Any part of a ‘Warframe’ game would have to allow you to create your own lore, discover dark mysteries, and reveal earth shattering events. You wouldn’t want to stat out every mook and robot. You want the world and the enemies to evolve and surprise you before you kick their collective butt. 🙂

Thanks if you’re still with me, you could say that I’m a little passionate about the idea and the design challenge to create it and have it still be fun.

Belated thanks to Chris Stieha for drumming up interest in this year’s #SGAM2017, and also for helping drive the…

Belated thanks to Chris Stieha for drumming up interest in this year’s #SGAM2017, and also for helping drive the themes and participation.

Special thanks to Todd Zircher for coming up with the idea of Zach’s Bestiary and collecting the entries for it. Also to Spencer Salyer for creating the cool SGAM website.

Last but not least, a very special thanks for all of you who participated in some form this year!

This is another run through for the cool Untold: Adventure Awaits game by the Creativity Hub.

This is another run through for the cool Untold: Adventure Awaits game by the Creativity Hub.

This is only one session with the game (it is broken into 3 parts as it turned out so long). I decided I wanted to write some short fiction based on the gameplay so here goes.

This is the pilot episode for the series ” Ft. Stone Telegraph”

It’s a nice sunny day here in Ft. Stone. I had just gotten off circuit when the local native american representative, Two Trees, came stumbling into what I call my “office”. The place is a small room in the local Frontier Outpost suitably arranged for a young hotshot US Army scout such as myself.

Two Trees was agitated.

Seeing how he was mighty upset I inquired as to why? He, since I am the resident liason for the US army and the Native Americans, told me that there is trouble brewing at the tower of rocks southeast of town, known to the locals as the Finger of Gods. The Finger of Gods is also a very sacred site for the local Native Americans.

Two Trees suggested to me that Art, the local blacksmith, might be involved. He didn’t give me particulars, but he decided to leave the investigation to me.

I sauntered over to the blacksmith, known as the “Anvil”. Not very descriptive, but that’s Art Stolnach for you.

Upon opening the door I was greeted by Art engaged in the art of romance with a cute blonde lady. Art was upset, but I told him I was there on official business and what I was seeing wasn’t official. Art shooed the blonde out back and turned on my like dogs were at his tail. He explained to me that he had been out of town for the last fortnight or so with a couple of the local deputies. I told him I knew that, but I had to come check. I advised him to stay in town until this was over as I didn’t want any problems since the locals were upset.

Realizing that the easy part of my day was over I headed out towards the Finger of Gods.

The Finger of Gods. No idea what made the place, but it is a sight to behold. I hear tell that the rock itself is one of the tallest out on the plains of the Nebraska Territory, nothing taller, except the Rockies, they are a good ride away though. And it does look a bit like a finger, a bony narrow finger stabbin’ up out of the earth, and nothing else around but flat old prairie.

We had a couple of geologists come look at a year or so ago. They think it was molten lava, spewed up into the air and cooled off. Me I prefer the local speculation that it was the UnderGod climbing from the bowels of the earth. He was stopped by the pantheon of gods, deities and spirits the locals all worship. They couldn’t get the UnderGod all the way back into the eart, but they made sure his influence on the world was just a finger’s worth. One finger’s worth, sometimes even that is too much…..

Two Trees was right. I couldn’t believe it. I could see the tip of the Finger, hell that thing seems like a mile tall, and a cone of utter darkness descending from it. I recall Two Trees saying something about an altar in the middle of it. I don’t want to go in there, but sometimes (hell most times) you have to do things you don’t want to do.

I had failed to bring any of my kit, so I whipping out my trusty hunting knife, I leaned over and sawed on the branch of a shit tree. No, that’s not its real name, but christ when you burn it, it makes you gag. Not even real human shit smells that bad, but it’s one of a very few trees (more like weeds) that grow large enough around here to burn for warmth or light, especially in a pinch, which would describe my situation perfectly.

As I walked over the threshold it winked from day to night, that quick. Nothingness, pitch black and eerie as hell. I couldn’t see very far due to the wane light of the shit tree torch, but I was able to make out what looked like some type of animal tracks leading towards the Finger. I grope my way through the darkness occasionally finding a faint human footprint, always headed away from the Finger.

Although the walk didn’t seem to take long I started to see a weird glowing in front of me. The best way I can describe it is like a flickering of the darkness, not as dark but kinda glowin’, ain’t never seen nothin’ like it. I slowed down a little as I was certain I was getting close to the center of this mess. I wasn’t sure what I was going to encounter, so I unslung my rifle, affectionately known as Never Miss (cuz that’s how much I miss my targets by). I checked the breech, yep there was a cartridge seated and ready for action. Taking a set forward I entered the glowin’ darkness……..

The remaining 2 parts will be up in the next few day I hope you enjoyed.

John Fiore, Rory O’Connor

#untoldbg

My Fiance Lysa Clarke​ has updated her Ironsworn AP

My Fiance Lysa Clarke​ has updated her Ironsworn AP

Originally shared by Lysa Clarke

Updated my solo RP, it continues at the bottom with “The Problem with Monsters”. I attempted to share my mechanics and rolls, I am realizing I don’t roll a lot, so I’ll try my best in the next session to do more, especially since I’m going to have some new things to come up with and ponder over the next day while at work!