Tell us about your 2009 projects!

[Rob Lang]

Roleplay philanthropists! Tell us about your 2009 projects. Are you planning on a new free game? Perhaps you have something you might like to dust off, PDF-up and throw online? Tell us all!

I'll start. My big project for 2009 is Icar version 4. I'm almalgamating all the books (Core, background and a setting), redoing all the interior graphics in black and white 300DPI (rather than 75DPI colour) and polishing everything. The PDF download will be free still but I will also have a lovely Print-On-Demand version so that people can get hold of it easier.

I am also ploughing on with , and hope to put together a 'coming in 2009' post from the different free writers out there. Might get some guest blogs in too.

I've also been thinking about a slightly tongue-in-cheek rpg set in Victorian England. Based a little around this image:



Which I have on a T-shirt and love to bits.

Your turn, what are you up to?

[cjoki]

I have a new strategy/rpg system available on-line and will be free for personal use. I have been working on it part-time for a few years now and feel there is enough material for an experienced gamer to get a campaign up and running with it. I still have a lot of work to convert rules to html and upload. And of course more content to be made.

The game is a set of core rules to design custom races and classes in a world of your own. This game will be split into two different types; strategy and rpg, with both using a common set of rules, with specific rules to each game to be uploaded later. When I am done, the strategy and rgp will be stand alone games with an optional overlap between each. I believe long term play will permit a richer game world with the players providing content due to the actions their characters take in the world.

I would really like some play testing to be done if anyone is up for it. The rules are many, but follow a common theme. New rules, powers, and skills can easily be added and I am currently focused on the fantasy genre for now, but will expand into others much, much later

Chris Jokinen
author R.A.W.E. (Red Ash World Engine)

[Rob Lang]

Hey Chris,
That's a hell of a lot of work you've got there! It's really nice to see a complete system online.

To help people pick it up and play, may I recommend you produce a PDF. It could not be easier these days using , where you can 'Save As' a PDF. I'd also like to see some graphics in there too - just to break up the text a bit. The other thing I'd do is put together an example setting. As it is, you are forcing the player/GM to make a lot of content before the game is ready to play. If you're keen on others giving it a play, you will want to make it as easy as you can for them!

I see you've got a forum too - that's probably going to be more work to keep going than the RPG!

Keep up the good work, it's coming along very nicely.

[Rob Lang]

Something else that occurred to me is that you might want to split out any references to the strategy game - make it super simple for the new visitor to the page to get at the information they want.

[cjoki]

Rob,

Thanks for the feed back! I have found the most challenging issue of design is to be working in a vacuum. I am very happy to have found 1km1kt...the more eyes on the project the better it will be.

The graphics were left out of the documentation for now, so to not distract me from game mechanics and rules development. I do intend on adding graphics once I figure out how I will pay for them, or they are donated to the project. I can do graphics, but find it way to time consuming.

Specific rules for the strategy and rpg section of the game will be one of the last things uploaded. I will also include a sample "world" with a starting city, background, etc...using the defined races I made.

A pdf document will be released although I am debating making it a minor revenue stream maybe 1 or 2 dollars to help support the site (and justify my time to the wife )

Currently I am working to finish adding the skill descriptions. Some of which will already need to be modified....should never upload content when I'm not fully awake....


Chris

[Rob Lang]

Some great updates, there!

If you're interested in keeping the game free (I do hope so), then check out a list of I did on my blog. Generally, you can check out the too. There might be some handy hints in there of stuff I've found while reviewing free RPGs.

What software will you use to create the PDF? Anything in mind?

[malladin_ben]

I will continue to playtest and develop Midgard: Viking Legends (hopefully soon to be uploaded here)

I've also managed to pick up some freelancing work for other games that I love, so I'll be doing a bit on those too. Although I doubt the games' publishers will be putting them out for free, unfortunately.

But the main thing I want to work on this year is a new system and some other support stuff for Etherscope -- and Goodman Games have said we can put teh stuff out for free!

I've also got an idea for a new horror game that operates in three different time junctures, but that (atm at least) uses a very similar system to the one we're working on for Etherscope, so will probably be a post-etherscope release.

Cheerio for now,

Ben

[Voidgere]

Nice thread. It fits perfectly for my first post and the content of the thread I had planned.

I have been working on this project for some time now (about 2 years), and I think it has reached a point that I could use some outside insight and maybe a few playtesters that aren't part of my regular gaming crew (they tend to be too nice).

I need a critical eye.

Its a fantasy based RPG with a backdrop of my own creation. A lot of the art I'm using is not open source (which I am working a close friend to rectify). So any art you do see in the current state is merely a place holder.

Same with the maps. If you see any maps they are merely working copies for the time being. I am working with the to help me unify the mapping style and create true pieces of art for my RPG creation.

Please swing over there for your mapping needs. They do immaculate work.

So, I will make a new thread (where appropriate) for my game and anxiously await any and all feedback.



And I apologize for the spartan website and its banners. I really just threw the site together in about an hour or so and chose a cheap hosting plan.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I've got a number of continuing project that need work this year.

First and foremost however, is a new Creative non-fiction endeavor. I had the good fortune of traveling through Israel for ten days (1/12/09-1/22/09) and now I'm writing a book of essays about my experience. Part one is big ideas and opinions about strategy and the Middle East, Part Two is about the little tourist traps and people I saw there, and finally part three reconciles the big thoughts and the small things. The planned title is "Friends in Chai Places" - a pun on the Hebrew word for life.

After that, I have continued work on "Dead... and Back" It seems I noticed a few more mistakes, and a third revision of the core rules is needed... Yet more stories for the epistemological background development of course, and it may be time to consider some artwork.

Dead EISS, my anime war game, needs to be brought to a playable state.

Small Boat Patrol, another war game - and a projected teaching aid to help people learn about the contribution of PTs, MGBs, and Schell boats made in WWII - needs to be finished.

Somehow I never found uninterrupted time to write my 24 hour Western RPG, so that needs to be done as well.

Then there is 9/10s which is about Players as poltergeists inhabiting others bodies. (Possession is 9/10ths of the law...)

Finally completing the third segment of Gangland and wrapping them all up into one book would be nice.

A few more miscellaneous things come to mind but those are the big ones.

[Rob Lang]

LOL, chainsaw. Are you sure you've got enough projects on the go? What free stuff do you have out there at the moment? Would you like something reviewing?

I think I might set aside a weekend for a 24hr rpg. I've always wanted to write some sort of steampunk and I'd like to use the Fate system (it's really good).