I've been back at work for a fortnight now and things are slowly moving on. Many of my students were genuinely pleased to see me, which was a much needed boost and the students who knew what had happened made things so much easier, despite a few tears. I have two really wonderful groups this year, for which I am constantly grateful (I started with five and am now down to four in total).

My youngest remaining group are willing participants in film, TV and gaming nerdery; I sat there invigilating an exam for them wearing bright pink pixie wings this week (don't ask) and they've asked if they can have their last lesson in full costume. If anyone ever needs their faith in young people renewing, I'll let you borrow them for a bit, as long as you promise faithfully to let me have them back again.

Fallen is very nearly complete, at least in terms of a recognisable game with bells and whistles. Friends and students have been roped in to play-testing it (so we have the experienced hands and the complete newcomers making sure I haven't written utter tosh). I'm very interested to see what the gaming noobs (as they labeled themselves) are going to make of it. They were really excited to do some table-top gaming, as they've only ever done the computer variety before. Let's hope I don't scare them off...

And "Fields of Silver", my travel guide come murder mystery for the Dying Earth RPG game has been hanging around the top ten on RPG Now's pdf sales (as high as 6 at one point, apparently), so I was interviewed for a podcast on RPG Countdown last night. Now all it has to do is stay there until Tuesday Wednesday and I'm in the programme ;)

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=61301

There you go, shameless plug for it; its only $4.98, that's half price, you know. No-one can resist a bargain ;)

Having marked 30 exam papers today (40 in total so far, with another 50 or so to go before another 25 roll in tomorrow), I'm treating myself by having old Columbos on in the background while I rejiggy my game (the new ones, like Highlander 2 and the Star Wars prequels, never actually happened). Still not sure about the altered mechanic, so I'm going to do all the edits that would be common to old and new, then create a new file for the new version. Sometimes I think I'm far too organised for my own good, then I look at the state of the sitting room and the piles of stuff everywhere.

Anyway, as threatened, the rest of the play test report is hiding under the cut below. If you want to know what the title of this post is about, you'll have to read it. Unless you knew a certain Isabelle from the Company of Crimson, of course, at which point you'll probably be able to guess.

 

( Oh, yes, she said dinosaurs... )

So we grabbed the bull by the horns today and Rich ran a session of Fallen for me. The report is also over on the Collective Endeavour site, but I'm posting it here too, under the cut and in two parts again so you don't get too crashingly bored by the whole thing (because as all gamers know, someone else's game stories are rarely as interesting as your own).

More tomorrow!

( Read on, if you dare... )

 

As threatened, and hidden behind the cut (which I really do know how to use now) is the rest of the playtest report for Fallen. Enjoy ;)

 

( Read more... )

I sat down amidst the howling gales with my lovely husband to do a bit of one-on-one playtesting this afternoon. It worked well, despite me being a bit nervous (and therefore cranky).

For those of you who are interested, the first part is hidden behind the following cut (which I've finally found out how to use, second part tomorrow). For those of you who don't want all the gory details, lets just say that it confirmed a few suspicions we had about elements that needed polishing and brought up a few things we hadn't really considered. So, a success. Next week, Rich will run a game of it for me.

 

( Read more... )

Once again, the week has vanished. I have refrained from hunting down the back of the sofa for it, although it must have gone somewhere.

Its been a bizarre week, all in all: back at work, stressed students, stressed staff, won a short story competition, lots of requests for Fallen, nowhere near enough sleep and probably too much caffeine and Christmas choccy. And its been freezing cold as well.

And its not as if we have a quiet weekend lined up, either. Still, I intend to have an early night tonight and maybe a nice soaky bath with some of my Christmas treats. Not in that order, obviously.

I also think its about time they Anglicised some of these mood buttons. We need one that says knackered, desperately

Its always lovely when someone recommends something and they turn out to be right; its happened twice this week. I wrote a game over Christmas and wasn't quite sure what to do with it next. Robin recommended Story Games for advice on publishing indie rpgs, and they recommended Collective Endeavour. Both forums have been very helpful so far, even forgiving my half-asleep divitness of posting in the wrong place.

Anyway, the game (pasted from the Collective Endeavour forum):

"The basic premise is that you play a star that has fallen to earth due to your fascination with mortal concerns. When you fell, you lost your starlight and your memory. Recently something triggered the awareness of what you were and a longing to go home, but you are held to earth by your lack of star stuff and ties that you have developed (either as a result of your fall or made during your "blank" period).

In terms of play, its one character in the spotlight per session, with other players taking on the roles of major NPCs. The background details generated during character creation are used to give an idea of the general tone of what each player wants out of their session. Hopefully it can be run in a reasonably traditional way with a GM, but also as a completely co-operative experience, but in both cases ideally every one would be contributing ideas as to what is likely to happen and who the characters are likely to meet.

I hope it would appeal to people looking for something a little whimsical, with a lot of freedom (you can go anywhere in history in your search, but it could be a fantasy, sci-fi or horror setting if that's what you prefer), who like Neil Gaiman, Steven Moffat, Hayao Miyazaki and Guillermo del Toro (to name but a few)."

Its about to get playtested between myself and Rich for a start, then hopefully with the other half of our former gaming group. If anyone else is interested, drop me a line.