Yesterday, the moment of clarity came in the shower. Today, it came as I walked home from work. After the posting this afternoon, after my last comment on the previous post, and prior to meeting She Who Must Be Obeyed for dinner at a restaurant we favor. Carl, occasional commenter on this blog, has been to that restaurant, with me. In the 25 minutes from work to the restaurant, my world changed.
For the last two hours I have been explaining how to She-Who... how my life has been changed.
I've solved it. I have solved it completely. It even fits exactly to sigilac's last comment, without my having to read that comment. It doesn't include any silly loyalty score, or any other rule that would liken it to 3e or 4e. It stands alone, based on the cards that are in my head. Exciting? Hell, I got excited at the made up situation I fabricated at the restaurant to explain how the situation would work.
But gentle readers ... I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I can't tell you. There's money in this and I can't tell you. There's potentially a lot of money in this. You see, what I have conceived meshes so smoothly into the game, so seamlessly ... I just can't throw it away. Maybe when there were two dimensions to it, when I was struggling with it last night and today, I could have shared it around. But I had some big, massive, mother-fucking scales fall off my eyes and the perspective has changed.
I've solved it. I've solved it.
Holy good bloody goddamn.
So, I conceive of a boxed set. Rules, cards, prepped to go. $25-45 retail, depending on the artist I'll need, the quality of the printed stock and how much blood the printer will want to cut the damn cards for me. I'll keep you posted.
If it doesn't sell, then I'll post it here.
If anyone wants to talk to me, I'll be on Yahoo Messenger, as "tao_alexis", until 10 pm Pacific Time.
Well, good luck with that.
ReplyDeleteAin't it awesome when that happens? :D Best of luck, and I can't wait to see what you've got.
ReplyDeleteI know these guys, though I'm not affiliated with them in any way. They do print on demand stuff and can do card packs with box and instruction manuals. I believe they said $3 USD each for a standard playing card deck sized pack including box and booklet.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.superiorpod.com/
You see, what I have conceived meshes so smoothly into the game, so seamlessly ...
ReplyDeletelooking at the discussion so far, i seriously doubt that. but hey, surprise me! :)
good luck!
It'll wear off.
ReplyDeleteBarring unfornseen financial woes such as unemployment, I will definately be buying said box set.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. Congrats Alexis.
ReplyDeleteGo big or go home. Don't cheap out on the quality of the manufacture. I'm only marginally less likely to pay $45 than $25, and pretty and sturdy waaaay outweigh inexpensive at this point in my grodnardly life.
ReplyDeleteDammit. "Grognardly."
ReplyDeleteThank you for the support. I've written the starting concept out for getting it copywritten, and I don't see any holes in the material thus far. There's a lot of work ahead of me pounding out the details, and then of course game testing.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about having control over a creative project like this; with a lot of people throwing out ideas, the ideas tend to drift into silliness. A combat system done by committee would have probably wound up with modifiers like Elves getting +1 to attack Dwarves and vice versa, or fighters getting an extra +1 to hit when they were damaged, or ... well, let's just say 4th Edition.
By keeping this to myself, I get to avoid all that. Obviously people won't be happy with the decisions I make, but the decisions will be out there, as a block and as a singular product, before the wolves tear in and start fucking it up.
Once again, I am sorry to keep it to myself. Sometimes, that is the only way things can move forward.
To be more clear about this, are you proposing a D&D-like system, or something completely new and your own? I have to say, I've been reading your blog for a while, and you have me very excited now. Are we looking at weeks, months, or years before we get to know anything?
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what this mystery box will hold!
Jack,
ReplyDeleteI am proposing a game mechanic which could be easily adapted to any RPG system, which would facilitate roleplaying for non-roleplayers and roleplayers alike. Any similarity to any other system would be a matter of coincidence.
As far as how long ... there are some complex issues having to do with production of the cards I imagine. It's too early to say for sure. I would shoot to have it ready by Christmas. I'd rather be done in 6 months, but don't hold me to that.