Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Sorcery & Super Science Play Session

The folks over at 2gms1mic have played two sessions of Sorcery & Super Science! and podcasted a bit about it. They played Scourge of the Mall Rats so there are some spoilers if you're concerned. The S&SS stuff begins around 1 hour into the podcast. I must say that naming the two sunflower Mutant Masters Sonny (Sunny?) and Cher cracked me up. :)

One Shot is Done!

...and that's all I wrote... :) If you're interested in playtesting, please send me an e-mail at josephbrowning@gmail.com and I'll get a playtester copy to you.

That was fast and fun. Now the nervous part of being a designer happens. Perhaps your ideas are crap and your writing is crap and you are just a bad person who should go die in a corner.... LOL!

Didn't Make It

Alas, I'm still working on One Shot. NPC creation (or more specifically, the graphical representation of such) slowed me down quite a bit more than expected. Even though the character sheet is pretty basic, it still takes quite a while to hammer down into a final (pending playtesting, that is) format.

Still listening to Maiden. Hell, Long Distance Runner is actually on right now. :)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

There may not be a better band than Iron Maiden to write to. Driving rhythm, up tempo, and bombastic - all great for rpg stuff.

If things go as planned One Shot will be finished by tonight. Just started on page 9.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

One Shot Almost Done

Wow, I'm done with all the rules and examples for One Shot. Now I have only the small mini-adventure sample (to show the rules in action) to write and its done.

This has been a rather odd and incredible experience, I have to say. I've written a lot of words, probably more than a vast majority of the population ever will, and this writing has been the easiest I've ever done. I think that One Shot is damn awesome and I'm really looking forward to the feedback.

I'm not the type of guy who tends to get "proud" about my work. I view myself as a craftsman (not an artist) who's supposed to make good quality gaming material, but I must confess that I'm feeling a bit of pride towards One Shot. I really hope people like it and see it for what it does, and hopefully, what it does very, very, very well.

One Shot Cover

Here's the cover for our upcoming game One Shot. I went with a graphic as opposed to an illustration. I think its simplicity matches the goal of the game and, since people are going to be printing this out from home, the minimal use of black should make customers happy. (I first had a black cover with white letter/image, but changed that.)


Saturday, August 27, 2011

The New Game - Update

Decided upon a name - One Shot. Been writing like a little fiend, already have the layout design in my head and sketched out on paper. This is actually a rather ambitious project with some pretty high expectations and have a pretty good list of playtesters ready to go.

The good news is that One Shot will probably only cost $1. I want pretty much everyone and their dog to be able to get a copy. I thought about making it free, but I do need a little bit of remuneration for my time since I could be spending it on other paying rpg stuff.

I'm hoping it will come in under 12 pages. I think it should, we'll have to see.

Friday, August 26, 2011

A New School RPG

I've decided to create a new RPG game system designed for one-shot play. The goal? Make the rules as short as necessary, make character creation as quick as possible, and make play as fun as possible. Focus on the genre and the adventure - not the system.

I was spurred to do this by a recent request to run Sorcery & Super Science! as a one-shot. I don't think the game performs well as such (it's a campaign game, IMO, and many characters will not shine in a one-shot environment) and I was feeling frustrated by the difference between campaign gaming and one-shot gaming.

Wish me the best of luck!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

XRP website product additions

Now that we're back from GenCon and the move's done and we've finally settled into a semi-routine, I've updated the XRP website to feature 4 out of the 5 new products we had at Gen Con 2011. We just added two Advanced Adventures (The Secret of the Callair Hills and The Riddle of Anadi) and two Sorcery & Super Science titles (Scourge of the Mall Rats and The Vulture Men of Waukegan) to our cataloger of print products for sale. So, bop over to our website and pick up some new XRP goodness.

I'll be adding the GenCon tourney mod The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates in a few days, I think. I need to make the PDF available as well.

Curse of the Library

As some of you may know I've been going to the library everyday to do research for A Magical Medieval Society: India. This is great in that I love being surrounded by books and I also enjoy reading/research, but it's not so great when it comes to straight-ahead gaming material. I find that my brain's a lot more tired and less creative post-library than pre-library, so I'm wondering if perhaps I should do my creative stuff before my library stuff, or if I've just yet to figure out the proper decompressing routine to help switch gears.

Either way, I'd much rather have a library than not.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Watch the Football!


Been watching That Mitchell and Webb Show on hulu lately... this one made me laugh a lot. It just keeps going, and going, and going...

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Tome of Tomes

Formula Folio
Author: John Binge Prows
Race: Human
Dimensions: 14x12x2.5
Weight: 7 lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Very rare
Fields of Study: Supernatural & unusual
Special Knowledge Categories: Dweomercraft
Value: 7225 gp

The Formula Folio is an intricate and detailed work providing scroll ink formulas for major spells common throughout the known world. Obviously a compilation of many decades of work, many of the lesser spell inks have been confirmed in their potency, but the inks for the more powerful magics are entirely unproven because of the simple rarity of a caster of such puissance. It is believed that John Binge Prows is an anagram and not the true name of the author. At least one war is known to have been started over a copy of this work and surely there will be more

Monday, August 22, 2011

Tome of Tomes

Guzzler Dens
Author: Volpo Alcofrybas
Dimensions: 4x5x0.5
Weight: 1 lbs.
Materials: Leather-bound, woodboard, parchment
Rarity: Common
Fields of Study: Humankind, physical universe
Special Knowledge Categories: Law & customs, topography & cartography
Value: 165 gp

An iniquitous work cataloging and reviewing over 500 different inns, taverns, and brothels along the great circuit, the work of Volpo Alcofrybas (believed to be a pseudonym) has long been the standard for the wealthy young undergoing their finishing years before assuming respectable statues. The work’s maps provide use even to those who have no desires as those described in the text.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The James Bond 007 Roleplaying Game

I found a shrink-wrapped box set of the Victory Games 007 game at Half Price Books yesterday. :) I've always been a big fan of the system and the fact that its one of the few games that's designed around a single player and a single GM. It was a sweet moment, ripping off shrink-wrap and diving into the set.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Back and Ready to Go

Whew! It's been one hell of a month for Suzi and I. The OSR booth at Gen Con was crazy in terms of preparation and administration and our moving a week afterwords was just as much madness. The Con went great as did the move, and it seems that I'm finally back to something approaching normal in terms of Expeditious Retreat Press. Tomorrow I play a day-long game of the full-sized Axis and Allies, but after that, the pattern of research, work, and home comes into play.

So, it's nice to be back and its nice that things seem to be returning to a new normal. :)

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Thanks Shawn!

I'd like to again thank Shawn over at Rather Gamey for letting us use his wonderful Old School Rocks! logo at the OSRG booth at Gen Con 2011. I think it's a great logo and I'm very thankful for his generousity.

Thanks Shawn!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Gen Con's over and I'm Tired.

Gen Con's now in the books and Suzi and I finally made it home yesterday. As some of you know, we're moving next weekend and on the way back from the convention we stopped to pick up the keys for our new apartment. Everything was going as planned until we go to put some of our convention things (tables, racks, banners) into the basement storage area of our new place and find out that our space is occupied by a different apartment. We told the people at the desk to contact those individuals and let them know they have 5 days to move their stuff.

A minor hiccup, but a rather annoying one as I got to move all the stuff that was going into the basement into our 2nd floor apartment, just to eventually move it back down. Yay, fun. Well gotta go, have more post-con stuff to take care of.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

OSRG booth day 3 recap.

Over at the OSRG blog....

Another busy day! One more to go and then the Con's in the record books...

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The OSRG Booth: Ready

Put some pics up at the OSRG blog of the booth. The last one's blurry, 'cause I can't take a picture worth crap, apparently. :)

The OSRG Booth (now with pictures)

Here are two pics of the booth from right after we moved everything in from the loading dock. It's always hot and sweaty work. The AC isn't turned on until Wednesday evening after they kick out all of the exhibitors. :)

The front of the booth.


And our gigantic pile 'o goodies.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Off to GenCon!

We're off to Gen Con! See everyone at the Old School Renaissance Group booth, #1541!

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