This Way Lies Madness

Are You a Cylon?

Posted in Games on September 3, 2009 by Willow

Here’s a quickie free game I wrote for Game Chef. Are You a Cylon?

Game Chef!

Posted in Games, Projects on August 31, 2009 by Willow

I’m participating in Game Chef this year. You can check out my Game Chef blog page here. If I commented on your game and that led you here, you can check out my game development there!

Shadowfist Gencon Pictures

Posted in Games on August 18, 2009 by Willow

And here’s all the pictures I took of people playing Shadowfist

Random Wednesday night SF play at the Embassy Suites. Cavebear playing a Kar Fai deck. Someone contemplating playing Too Much Monkey Business. Braz playing his Peacock deck.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf1.jpg

A casual game with Braz and the Boston guys. I’m playing my Darkness sacrifice deck.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf2.jpg

Some dudes I played against in the Thursday tourney!
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf3.jpg

Foreground left: The Greigo brothers face off against me and a shadowy opponent in the Friday draft. Yup, that’s my BSG Pegasus box. Back left: The Beast and the Cavebear.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf4.jpg

Ok, it was Braz.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf5.jpg

Friday Worlds, playing Punchy Hand. I won this game.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf6.jpg

Hanging with Xu Mei
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf7.jpg

Hanging with Ting Ting
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf8.jpg

Me vs. Wisconsin Dudes, Chris “Littlemute” and Jim “The Beast.” I don’t recall who won this one.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf9.jpg

Finals game: Silver Jet attacks for the win.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf10.jpg

After foiling Silver Jet, a taken Hydroponic Garden results in a City Park and Wall of 1000 Eyes, resulting in 5 Feng Shui over here. Double Tank Warfare was put to good use, since John’s Shard of the Molten Heart kept canceling the first.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf11.jpg

Ice Vixen with an Ice Sword takes the City Park. Back at VC.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf13.jpg

Something dishes out lots of damage.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf14.jpg

General Gog attacks for the win. Snowblind -> Tactics -> Attack again. Stopped again by events & such.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf15.jpg

John attacks with a Thunderbird for the win. No one can stop it.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf16.jpg

World champ John Merrill
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf17.jpg

The finalists.
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-sf18.jpg

Gencon Pictures

Posted in Games, Random Stuff on August 18, 2009 by Willow

Cosplayers! Gotta catch ‘em all!

ENGINEER!
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-tf1.jpg
SNIPER!
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-tf2.jpg
SCOUT!
http://www.willowpalecek.com/images/GC2009/gc2009-tf3.jpg

1 Comment »

Back from Gencon

Posted in Games on August 17, 2009 by Willow

Got back about two hours ago. Unwinding and checking up on the internet. It was a crazy week, lots of fun, but it’s good to be back.

Here’s some of the stuff I ended up getting:

A Pay-As-You-Go-Phone, since I left my phone at home (discovered 10 minutes out of Madison when I couldn’t find my gameboy either.) Probably should have gone back for it.

Rpgs:

Kagematsu

Labyrinths and Lycanthyropes.

People’s Hero Ashcan

Rogue Trader (still trying to wrap my head over what the intended scope is supposed to be.)

Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion

Other Games

Battlestar Gallactica- narrowly managed to snag the Pegasus expansion.

Carcassone- some free promo tiles.

Dominion- Black Market & Envoy promos.

Last Night On Earth

Race for the Galaxy- pre-ordered Rebel vs. Imperium.

Soft Landing boardgame

Spoils- two starters for $5. Why not?

Also walked away with an impressive plaque for winning the Invitaional Tournament for Shadowfist. Didn’t do as great in the worlds, but played in some great games. Also sold many copies of Escape from Tentacle City at the Forge Booth.

3 Comments »

Books are Here…

Posted in Awesome Adventures, Escape from Tentacle City, Games, Projects on August 7, 2009 by Willow

…and they are good! Ready to roll out for the con. Awesome Adventures has a few small strips of white along some page edges, but Escape is just fine, which is more important, since the border art goes all the way to the edge of the page and is an important part of the look of the game.

Wooo!

1 Comment »

Walking (and Talking) Eyes

Posted in Games, Random Stuff on August 5, 2009 by Willow

Hey everyone, in April I was interviewed for the Walking Eye Podcast, and now it’s on the intertubes, right in time for Gencon. We talk about Awesome Adventures, a little bit about Escape from Tentacle City, and how I got into gaming and game design. Check it out!

4 Comments »

Pulling the Trigger

Posted in Games, Projects on July 28, 2009 by Willow

Ordered 100 copies of Escape and 30 of Awesome Adventures from Lulu. Due to a delay in layout, I can not say for sure if they will print correctly. With 2 day air shipping, and 8 days to print, I should expect them on the 8th. (Or if those times don’t include weekends, possibly on the day before I have to leave for the con.)

Now all I can do is hope. And wait.

4 Comments »

Bollywood

Posted in Random Stuff on July 17, 2009 by Willow

Clearly, I don’t watch enough of it.

1 Comment »

All Games Must Be Played

Posted in Games, Rants on July 6, 2009 by Willow

I ran a game of All Flesh Must Be Eaten tonight. It was fun, but it really highlighted for me why I don’t like a lot of traditional games.

You know what I mean by “traditional.” Hardcover book. Supplements. Rules are essentially in-game physics. GM interpretation is pretty much all. I brought this on myself; Brendan’s wife Angela was roleplaying for if not the first one of the first times, and it was research for a story, so I wanted something that was indicative of “standard” roleplaying, not something more fringe and indie like Zombie Cinema or Escape from Tentacle City.

For one, it’s tiring.

I had pretty much 24 hours notice that I was running again. (I volunteered. I’m a sucker for punishment.) I had to refamiliarize myself with a game I had never played (I’d played other Unisystem games), make six characters, make some zombies, and think about the situation, setting, and things that might happen. After all, I’m the GM, everything pretty much comes from me. This took a lot of time an energy. Compare to ZC or EfTC, either of which are no prep (and no-GM for that matter). I like making characters, and that’s usually done by the players, but it wasn’t particularly interesting. I feel that a ‘campaign’ for this game would be annoying to prep.

Because really, it’s all about the GM.

In these games, the whole story framework rests on the GM. The players have quite a bit of creative input, but the GM is the one who sets the scenes, closes the scenes, decides what happens, when, where, and how it happens. This is also exhausting during play. I felt this during Steal Away Jordan, and I felt it during All Flesh Must Be Eaten- it’s really tiring coming up with every scene, scene after scene. (And combine this with the above, plotting opposition, floor plans, NPC behaviors… I don’t know how we did it!) I find myself prefering games where either the players get a say in scene dealies (the strong player authorship focus of FATE, for example), or ones where the game itself has built in pacing mechanisms (many games with a scene economy do something like this, such as Polaris or Burning Empires.) Even Agon puts the players largely in control of the type of scenes they have, and a budget for the GM is an incredibly useful tool. In fact, I’ve found the 3 encounters per adventure basic rule of thumb and the xp budgets for encounters in D&D 4th edition wonderfully useful for plotting encounters.

I don’t like Rules as Game Physics

What I mean by this is the idea that game rules are sort of a system for what happens within the fictional world. I prefer rules being a system for determining what happens next within the story. If this doesn’t make any sense to you, consider that the first prioritizes things like “realism,” and the latter tends to prioritize things like “drama.”

It’s also a heavy burden on the GM to be the sole arbiter and interpreter of every roll. Games with things like stakes or empasis on opposed rolls or player narration divide up those duties, dislocating some decisions from one person, either making them irrelevant and built into the game, or the conflict really being about who gets to say. (Or even more interesting and complex things.)

Roll to Hit Round After Round is Boring

<an, after playing D&D 4th, I don’t know how I can go back to this. I mean in the current version of D&D, you’ve got so many different choices each turn. Even if all your big powers are gone, you’ve still got two different spiffy cool at-will attacks you can do, so the wizard always can choose between (say) Magic Missile and Scorching Burst, and the fighter can either Cleave or Reaping Strike. There’s always a meaningful choice each round.

In the old days, you could “do whatever you wanted,” which usually was to attack. I hit, I miss, I hit, chip away at hit points ad nauseum. The conventional wisdom was that you livened this up with interesting discriptions for your actions. But the actual activity going on is the same damn thing round after round, session after session. This is exactly how combat is in lots of games, not just older versions of D&D or Unisystem, but most roleplaying games out there. You’ve maybe got some powers, maybe some maneuvers, maybe some resources to fiddle with, but for the most part you have a cool move that you do turn after turn after turn.

The gameplay solution is clear: make every turn matter, and every turn interesting. D&D 4 does this. Agon does this. Burning Wheel does this.

The opposite direction is to make fights a single die roll, or series of short die rolls- at least, the same system you’d use for any other opposed roll. I think this is the right move for most non-combaty games.

I’d really be happy seeing more of either- exciting nuanced systems with lots of crannies and options that change from round to round, or streamlined systems that let you resolve the damn fight and move on to what really matters- the characters.

1 Comment »

This Way Lies Madness

Are You a Cylon?

Game Chef!

Shadowfist Gencon Pictures

Gencon Pictures

Back from Gencon

Books are Here…

Walking (and Talking) Eyes

Pulling the Trigger

Bollywood

All Games Must Be Played

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