attacks of opportunity

Principia reached an important milestone in my creative process today (though it's one I wish I'd reached a month ago). The rules document is now concept complete. This means that everything I think needs to be in there is in there. A few sections are merely skeletal, but to my knowledge there's nothing missing.

There will still likely be changes, additions, and subtractions, but it's all downhill from here.

Also, it looks like Brandon Amancio is going to step in as co-author. I've been having a lot of trouble getting the secrets and setting stuff to come out right. Brandon is a genius at just this kind of stuff so he's the perfect person to bring on board.

Labels: design, Principia

Posted by Unknown at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments

Proposed Video-Game School Gets $1.1 Million Boost

All Things Considered, June 21, 2007 · The MacArthur Foundation board announced Thursday it will fund a $1.1 million grant for a brand new middle- and high school in New York. The curriculum revolves around teaching kids to make video games.

The MacArthur Foundation says video games and the dynamic systems they use will be key to information management in the future.
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I am both jealous and encouraged.

Posted by JudaicDiablo at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments

The good folks at Story Games have helped me come up with a more descriptive name for my game. The new name is Principia: Secret Wars of the Renaissance.

Principia is now rules complete, which means I won't be making any more mechanical changes except to fix problems that come up in play test. Now I'm fleshing out the content, adding secrets, factions, and adventure hooks. Everyone's gotten really excited about all the crazy over the top renaissance steam punk stuff that I haven't fully fleshed out yet. I guess I'd better get to work on that.

Labels: design, Mathematica, Principia

Posted by Unknown at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments

The form of Mathematica is solidifying. My planned Gen Con release is starting to look achievable. It's now mostly a matter of filling in the gaps. Here's what the game is about in a capsule:

Mathematica is an over-to-top alternate history steam punk Renaissance game where Leonardo Da Vinci builds giant spider war machines and Machiavelli commands a cabal of vampire spies across Europe, or something like that. Or maybe it's The Three Musketeers with lasers, or Henry VIII and his seven undead wives.

In Mathematica, your character's action are tied to a wider war of ideas. Can women decide their own fate? Does the pope speak with the voice of the divine? Is it lawful to worship death? Is torture permissible to fight evil? Are good and evil valid categories at all? These are the kinds of questions that characters can fight for or against and ultimately answer.

Mathematica is built on Clinton R. Nixon's The Shadow of Yesterday, a fantasy role-playing game with plenty of room for character change and development, high flying action, and compelling story.

I also just posted an actual play report of a playtest session", and I'm also looking for suggestions for a better name for the game.

Labels: Mathematica

Posted by Unknown at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments