Things to know:
My campaign setting for the FATE roleplaying game, the Old Crown, will be published through Occult Moon sometime in the new year.
I'm currently working my way through the thing, rewriting a bunch as I go. I'm about to finish the third chapter, and then I have five and change to finish.
I'm currently (f)unemployed, so I'm managing to get through it OK. I've pulled the third chapter together in about two weeks, which isn't amazing, but with an ongoing hunt for jobs too that's not so bad.
Plus cleaning the house. Lots of that going on now.
I've got the History and Races chapters down, with Organisations ready to go in short order. Next, Gods.
I've got a few tweaks to the default skill list done, added in reputation with the organisations in a way that I think works, and fiddled a debt mechanic too. Those need some more testing, but I've run one session so far with my group that went well enough. More to come there!
After that, I'm tightening up the Magick system and flavour (look, it's spelt with a K!), and then the Geography is less rules-y so I should be able to get through it a bit quicker.
I'm still debating how to handle the example locations, but I'm thinking a quick rundown similar to Occult Moon's Toys from the Sandbox series.
Bad Guys, GM ideas and polishing my intro are last on the list.
I started playing with tumblr but didn't really jump into it. If anyone has any useful hints and tips, please send them my way!
I'm going to try and throw some more blogs up too. I've got some ideas kicking around that I want to vent before I forget them, and they're nothing to do with what I'm working on right now.
TTFN!
Tuesday 26 November 2013
Saturday 29 June 2013
Condensing my blogs
OK, I'm trying to be determined to be good and actually get back into the habit of blogging again.
Of course, having a regular connection to the internet would help, as would Blogger not crashing my phone when I try and write something.
But I've been feeling ill and sorry for myself today, despite it being bright sunshine out here by the seaside, so I feel I should do something vaguely productive with myself.
And it means I can put off packing, because I'm moving into a new place next week.
So, here's the current state of play:
I'm thinking of collapsing down my blogs to just this feed. Kingsmead Chronicler was fine as a starting point for my setting creation, and sharing with the world about it, but I feel like I could throw up the posts here just as easily.
And factoring in the scope of the setting now, the push away from the town to the bigger population centres and neighbouring/competing nations, I feel I could probably ditch the focus on Kingsmead itself.
Things in the setting that are done:
RACES - done.
GODS - done, or at least at the point where there's only minor fiddling. Relationships between the Ascended could do with a little fleshing, and a couple of them need a tweak or two.
GEOGRAPHY - done for the most part. Needs some bits adding to a couple of areas, and then dropping details across from my custom wiki to the written document. I need to add in some stuff about crime and punishment here, and maybe some of the hobbies and stuff - cockfighting, falconry, drakery. That sort of thing.
EXAMPLE AREAS - needs a bunch of work, and I keep putting it off in favour of cooler bits and pieces. Terrible of me I know, but a large chunk of this is in a wiki document and just needs porting and tidying - notable NPCs, adventure and character hooks, all that jazz.
FACTIONS - the various players, guilds, foreign agents and so forth are done, but need some more details adding. Again, a lot of this is written but not in the one place.
BESTIARY - needs a lot of things adding, but I have an idea of what's going in and what needs fixing.
MAGIC - done, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.
FICTION - a few snippets need writing, and I've managed to start one for the Ascended, fleshing out the Beggar's arrival at godhood. Needs work, but I have the thing planned out.
I also need to work out what I'm doing with rules conversions. I know I can do a conversion for FATE Core by fitting the magic rules to the setting. If I want to write a conversion for other fantasy games (and here I'm thinking D&D and Pathfinder etc.) then things get a bit more hairy, but still manageable.
I need to sit down and have a read through of the AGE rules, but I think they'd work OK from what I've seen (and how it was handled with the Midgard setting from Kobold Press).
I have a feeling I'll be throwing up little snippets from what I've got so far, see what people think of it, whet the whistle and all that.
Other news:
I've finally installed Ubuntu and I'm having a play around with that. Need to actually sit down and see how it works, so far I've done very little with it at all, but it is a joy to use just for speed. I didn't realise how slow Windows had gotten.
I need to set aside part of my time just to writing, since I seem to have fallen into the habit of doing something every few weekends. This must be fixed!
I want to get this done because I have a few other things stewing in my subconscious that I want to get written down. I have a very tentative idea so far titled PolyAlbion. We'll see where that goes, and how well I avoid a Captain Britain rip-off!
And that's that.
Incidentally, what's going on with my blog traffic suddenly spiking whilst I'm not doing anything? Really strange!
Of course, having a regular connection to the internet would help, as would Blogger not crashing my phone when I try and write something.
But I've been feeling ill and sorry for myself today, despite it being bright sunshine out here by the seaside, so I feel I should do something vaguely productive with myself.
And it means I can put off packing, because I'm moving into a new place next week.
So, here's the current state of play:
I'm thinking of collapsing down my blogs to just this feed. Kingsmead Chronicler was fine as a starting point for my setting creation, and sharing with the world about it, but I feel like I could throw up the posts here just as easily.
And factoring in the scope of the setting now, the push away from the town to the bigger population centres and neighbouring/competing nations, I feel I could probably ditch the focus on Kingsmead itself.
Things in the setting that are done:
RACES - done.
GODS - done, or at least at the point where there's only minor fiddling. Relationships between the Ascended could do with a little fleshing, and a couple of them need a tweak or two.
GEOGRAPHY - done for the most part. Needs some bits adding to a couple of areas, and then dropping details across from my custom wiki to the written document. I need to add in some stuff about crime and punishment here, and maybe some of the hobbies and stuff - cockfighting, falconry, drakery. That sort of thing.
EXAMPLE AREAS - needs a bunch of work, and I keep putting it off in favour of cooler bits and pieces. Terrible of me I know, but a large chunk of this is in a wiki document and just needs porting and tidying - notable NPCs, adventure and character hooks, all that jazz.
FACTIONS - the various players, guilds, foreign agents and so forth are done, but need some more details adding. Again, a lot of this is written but not in the one place.
BESTIARY - needs a lot of things adding, but I have an idea of what's going in and what needs fixing.
MAGIC - done, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.
FICTION - a few snippets need writing, and I've managed to start one for the Ascended, fleshing out the Beggar's arrival at godhood. Needs work, but I have the thing planned out.
I also need to work out what I'm doing with rules conversions. I know I can do a conversion for FATE Core by fitting the magic rules to the setting. If I want to write a conversion for other fantasy games (and here I'm thinking D&D and Pathfinder etc.) then things get a bit more hairy, but still manageable.
I need to sit down and have a read through of the AGE rules, but I think they'd work OK from what I've seen (and how it was handled with the Midgard setting from Kobold Press).
I have a feeling I'll be throwing up little snippets from what I've got so far, see what people think of it, whet the whistle and all that.
Other news:
I've finally installed Ubuntu and I'm having a play around with that. Need to actually sit down and see how it works, so far I've done very little with it at all, but it is a joy to use just for speed. I didn't realise how slow Windows had gotten.
I need to set aside part of my time just to writing, since I seem to have fallen into the habit of doing something every few weekends. This must be fixed!
I want to get this done because I have a few other things stewing in my subconscious that I want to get written down. I have a very tentative idea so far titled PolyAlbion. We'll see where that goes, and how well I avoid a Captain Britain rip-off!
And that's that.
Incidentally, what's going on with my blog traffic suddenly spiking whilst I'm not doing anything? Really strange!
Thursday 30 May 2013
Missing, presumed fine
I've been inspired to get back to publicly writing today. I imagine that the passing of Jack Vance had something to do with that.
Contrary to popular belief, I haven't in fact dropped off the planet. I instead disappeared into darkest, wildest Ireland.
I haven't had easy internet access, but I have managed to keep myself vaguely sane with writing. Once I finish it to my satisfaction, I've a short story to throw up here about downloaded and clone consciousnesses (very transhuman-y image sure).
I've been powering on with my fantasy setting too, so some snippets from that should make an appearance too.
As it stands, image mostly bound to my smartphone at the moment. If I can, I'll write a proper post up here soon.
What else I've been doing:
I'm very much enjoying reading through the new FATE core rules, so they shall get a little discussion.
Reading Ian Mortimer's guides for time travellers. They've definitely helped me think about new parts of my setting that I hadn't detailed.
Enjoying the sunshine.
More to come soon!
Sunday 20 January 2013
Missing due to emigration
I've been out of the loop for a while. Terrible I know, but I was a bit busy emigrating to Ireland.
I'm still technically without internet, but I can obviously borrow it occasionally. So, what's going on with me recently?
It looks like someone out there keeps checking back on this page every few days. That, or my posts are being read at random. I'm fine with either.
I've been looking again at my 1001 Nights-inspired setting again. It was made for a FATE game, and no doubt I'll have a fiddle with it with the new version of FATE Core, but I think I'm going to have a look at how to fit it to other systems too. D&D is probably pretty likely.
I had a couple of ideas for a setting where the Moon has conquered and slain the Sun itself, so that the world exists in a constant night. Everything else is sort of normal, because magic.
More on that soon. There's also some miles-high towers of precious stone too. I need to work that out properly really.
I've been reading through Burning Wheel. I really like the system, although I'm now at the stage where I think it's getting more complicated. But I can see a good few games that I would love to run or play in that system.
My biggest problem at the moment is going to be finding players and games. According to any sources I can find, there just aren't any hereabouts. The local game shop closed down December 2011, there just doesn't seem to be demand for anything like it.
I have a couple of people I might be able to persuade into it, apparently. However, I've not actually met either of them. The next closest person that would definitely be interested lives roughly an hour away.
Ah well.
I'm still technically without internet, but I can obviously borrow it occasionally. So, what's going on with me recently?
It looks like someone out there keeps checking back on this page every few days. That, or my posts are being read at random. I'm fine with either.
I've been looking again at my 1001 Nights-inspired setting again. It was made for a FATE game, and no doubt I'll have a fiddle with it with the new version of FATE Core, but I think I'm going to have a look at how to fit it to other systems too. D&D is probably pretty likely.
I had a couple of ideas for a setting where the Moon has conquered and slain the Sun itself, so that the world exists in a constant night. Everything else is sort of normal, because magic.
More on that soon. There's also some miles-high towers of precious stone too. I need to work that out properly really.
I've been reading through Burning Wheel. I really like the system, although I'm now at the stage where I think it's getting more complicated. But I can see a good few games that I would love to run or play in that system.
My biggest problem at the moment is going to be finding players and games. According to any sources I can find, there just aren't any hereabouts. The local game shop closed down December 2011, there just doesn't seem to be demand for anything like it.
I have a couple of people I might be able to persuade into it, apparently. However, I've not actually met either of them. The next closest person that would definitely be interested lives roughly an hour away.
Ah well.
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