Hello all, I’m not much of a poster these days as my work environment isn’t as conducive to workflow as I’d like so…

Hello all, I’m not much of a poster these days as my work environment isn’t as conducive to workflow as I’d like so I haven’t been to my computer. But occasionally I do lurk and check out the various projects by people and am amazed to see what has sprung forth.

It has inspired me to create games of my own, where before I would have been baffled with trying to figure out rules and how to place certain rules where and such. I sought to avoid that headache and use the great ruleset of the PBTA engine. Or, as Jason Morningstar put it; technology. It gets to the important stuff fast and can sort out the rest pretty reasonably if your players don’t hate your guts.

I’ve recruited one of my closest friends, Aaron Helms, to help bring a few of my game ideas to life as well as his. What he brings to the table is many years of valuable tabletop knowledge, of which I hadn’t gotten into until many years later. His know-how, logic, and chemistry makes our relationship a natural choice to bring these ideas to fruition. The past few months we have been working on a single game heavily, and several small seeds of ideas periodically as they have came out.

Our first project is called With Great Power. It is a game of superpowers, but not in the traditional “4 color” sense. Worlds In Peril already did justice to that sort of vibe with their vivid art and great game text. They really did their homework on what works and what doesn’t in these kinds of games. It’s a darker kind of game where your needs pull you in ways that will challenge your character, perhaps exposing them to unwanted attention, in the form of a bunch of gang bangers sent by Tito Tornado. Or having you make deals with people you’d rather throw off a building instead to make sure your younger brother has protection from your nemesis. Or maybe you want nothing to do but be normal, so you hide your skills as best as you can, but inevitably the call to action beckons. Currently this is being worked with off and on, since we have undertaken a few other games to bring other ideas to the table.

Another one of these is a smaller game called The Show Must Go On! It’s a game about community theater, and the various productions put on by members of said community. I imagined it in the vein of the World of Dungeons-esque games. Aaron and I work on that when we aren’t working on other “bigger” games, or when we are intoxicated.

We have one such game that is currently being worked on with a name we are going back and forth on. The idea is that popular figures in fiction or religion have power and prominence of the masses, and other lesser known beings, deities, and other figures being phased out of existence. They become starved of influence and attention, and forgotten to all. Their struggle to gain acclaim, respect, fear, or dominance is one to also keep themselves amongst us. Think Pecos Bill, Don Quixote, Anansi, The Jersey Devil, etc.

One that has brewed in the past day or so that has resounded in a way that made it worth investing our time into. It came together thinking about Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal. There have been a few other car combat games in the past but over-complicated rules made them near unplayable for me. But I didn’t think that completely ripping off either game was in our best interests, so we posited that car combat would probably be a gladiator sport/national pastime for a dystopian world, who’s only outlet for recreational entertainment is watching the driver fight for glory and the chance to win whatever they desire. Whether or not it serves the authority is up for debate.

Our goal is to have With Great Power playtestable by early next year, end of January as our range. We’ll use input from whoever we can take it from about our games to use on With Great Power and our other games to improve them and make them run silky smooth.

(And no, this isn’t a Kickstarter pitch. We hope to eventually get into the KS game once we figure out particulars about publishing for print and playtest these games!)

What I ask of the humble forums is for input on these ideas and what I can do to improve on them. I have 4 documents currently on Google Docs that need a little cleaning up before I show them off. Not a complete re-edit, but make the ideas at least palatable on the eyes. What advice can you offer me based on what you’ve heard in this post? I’ll make it a point to check the Google+ Communities more often to chime in on things myself, and offer my two cents about certain aspects if needed.

If you made it this far, thank you for humoring my long post and hopefully we can talk more in a few days when I will make links available for read-only versions via Google Docs. In the meantime, have a good day and be safe.

Alex M.