Games
Heading off to Hartford tomorrow with Luke to attend Connecticon, an anime con we’ve attended for the past few years. We’ll be doing panels with the Front Row Crew guys Rym and Scott for Geek Nights, and I’ll throw down with some Parsely.
What is this game about?
Spiritually draining work, an existential threat to one’s psyche, often glamor- and glory-free—but, nonetheless, a social necessity. Investigations hampered by the protocols, egos and machinations of higher powers.
How does it go about it?
Players portray investigators working out of a small office. They work within a maze of bureaucracy, rules and customs that hinder their efforts. Rewards are small or non-existent and threats to oneself are ever-present. Success closes cases but only through challenge and failure can one grow as a person.
What behavior does it reward or encourage?
Working together, spending “downtime” on non job-related activities; risky behavior to quickly finish difficult cases or non-risky behavior to slowly build a solid case; going with or against the flow of destiny — do you let it control you or do you fight the inevitable and try to effect change?
Three RPGs and two board games vie for hobby gaming’s most exclusive trophy
The committee of the Diana Jones Award is happy to announce the shortlist for its 2011 award. Boiled down from a longlist of 22 nominees, this year the list contains five candidates that in the opinion of the committee exemplify the very best that hobby-gaming has produced in the last twelve months. In alphabetical order, they are:
- Catacombs, a board game from Sands of Time Games, by Ryan Amos, Marc Kelsy, and Aron West
- The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game from Evil Hat Productions, by Leonard Balsera, Jim Butcher, Genevieve Cogman, Rob Donaghue, Fred Hicks, Kenneth Hite, Ryan Macklin, Chad Underkoffler, and Clark Valentine
- Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space, a board game from Santa Ragione and Cranio Creations, by Mario Porpora, Pietro Righi Riva, Luca Francesco Rossi, and Nicolò Tedeschi
- Fiasco, a roleplaying game from Bully Pulpit Games, by Jason Morningstar
- Freemarket, a roleplaying game from Sorencrane MRCZ, by Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen
The winner of the 2011 Award will be announced on Wednesday 3rd August, at the annual Diana Jones Award and Freelancer Party in Indianapolis, the unofficial start of the Gen Con Indy convention.
Darkpages was supposed to be out on June 6, 2006. That’s roughly 5 years ago to the day.
In honor of this spectacular failure (resulting from a strange blend of starry-eyed optimism and extreme mental distress), here’s links to all nine of the game’s superhero concepts and their histories.
In 1995 I “published” my first game-related material online. From 1997-2001 I created and distributed gaming material on the web via Memento Mori Theatricks. But Summer 2001 was a milestone: I published SCHISM, a setting sourcebook/supplement for Ron Edward’s Sorcerer, a seminal RPG.
I did not know what I was doing and it shows.
Still, I think there’s some good stuff in there and it’s got some classic Sorensen-style game design decisions within its scant pages. The Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy) used to have a magazine and they did a review of the game and gave it an A-. Not bad.
Anyway, long story short. 10 years is a long fucking time to be doing this. So as a “thank you” to my fans and supporters, I’m doing this…
[ Download SCHISM PDF — 756K ]
I really need to work on the Next New Game. But I’ll be content to rest on my laurels with a review like this.
It’s official! Sorensen/Crane will be in Denmark this April as guests at Fastaval.
We’re also planning to visit Gothenberg and Stockholm so let us know if you want us to stop by your friendly neighborhood game store!
They discuss Action Castle, how it’s played and why it’s fun (or not fun!).
Actual People, Actual Play Episode 47