Things are changing faster than my pitiful blogging skills can keep up with. Here’s the quick and dirty summary. * Last Sunday we playtested the new turn structure. For the most part, it works well. It makes the game feel more of a table-top and less of a LARP. With just a few tweaks, I … Read more
It’s Thursday and I logged 44 hours at work this week. Luckily, that’s the last workday this week. And next. I’ve got TEN DAYS OFF!!! We’ll be camping, so e-mail response, etc. will be spotty. Call me if anything’s urgent!
Week 42. The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. Ten weeks shy of a year. And I’ve barely touched the game in the last month. Game development tends to go in cycles for me: a few weeks or even months of intense activity, followed by a few weeks of doldrums. The latest doldrums have … Read more
It’s been a less than stellar week for By The Stars. Due to real life stesses on many people’s parts, there was no playtest this past weekend. Carl and Bill came over and we discussed a possible turn structure, why it might work, and how it might be set up. We’ll try again on June … Read more
Okay, time for a consolidation and restatement of my design goals for By The Stars: 1) A game that takes players from “I’ve never heard of this game, but I’ll play” to “That was great! It was my best game of the con” in 4 hours or less. 2) A game that drives and rewards players … Read more
What did I do for By The Stars in the last week? I playtested it with eight folks who had never heard of it before at Camp Nerdly in Triangle, Virginia. We had a wide gamut of experience with LARPs, gaming, and Star Wars. How did that go? Not as well as I was hoping, … Read more
Pulled into the driveway less than an hour ago. It’s good be home. It was really, really good to be at Camp Nerdly. So many old friends to see, and new friends to make. So much fun, talent, and enthusiasm. So much fresh air! Such a good time! Friday was extra strength stress in a … Read more
Lot of prep to do for Camp Nerdly this weekend. And every minute I’m typing this us is a minute I ain’t prepping. I will, at some point, be making a version of By The Stars available as a collaborative Google Document. If you’d like to be able to comment on the document, I think … Read more
Hey, all. My buddy Don is running With Great Power… and blogging about it. Check it out!
The “Myth of Planet Earth” playtest was extremely instructive. I took out the rules for being out-bid by your own Aspect tokens and the game ran way short and suffered for it. This is great! I now know that those particular rules are vitally important for both pacing and excitement. Perhaps the best part to … Read more