[Fate] Happy New Year Three Days Ago

Hey, so 2013 was a pretty great year, right? The kinda year people make lists about.

But let's not dwell on the past. Let's dwell on the future. What does it hold? What does 2014 have in store for us? More on that right after we dwell on the past a little bit. And then I swear, it's future-stuff all the way.

A couple weeks ago Thrilling Fate got another playtest, specifically to try out a couple changes that cropped up as a result of the last playtest (which, as you may recall, was awesome).

The major one had to do with cues, the roleplaying-prod mechanic. I'm trying to standardize cues for all PCs so it's easier not just to make characters, but to make quick comparisons between them. In my last post, I talked about how I'd given them categories (a proactive mannerism, a reactive response, two connections with other PCs, and a big dramatic cue that only happens once an episode). Every PC has a potential connection with every other PC, as shown on their character sheet, but not all of them are in play in a given episode.

I'd planned to use the connections to establish ties between PCs by having each player name another PC and say something about them, something to setup the current episode. I was thinking it'd be stuff like "What did they reveal to you yesterday?" or "How did they recently disappoint you?" We'd start with Sparks -- "When last we left our hero..." -- who would pick someone, and those two players would have a connection with one another for that episode. Then it'd be the second player's turn, and we'd continue until everyone had two connections (so it'd loop back around to Sparks with the last player).

Trouble is, that requires a certain degree of familiarity with those characters, and as it happened, Will Huggins, playing Sparks, didn't really know anything about Sparks Nevada at all beyond the theme song. Neither did Jim Waters, playing Cactoid Jim. (Gina Ricker and Jason Tryon are both relatively recent converts to the Thrilling Adventure Hour, so they had good handles on their PCs -- Red and Croach, respectively. And Gina did a spot-on accent for Red, I gotta say.)

So we went with Plan B, which was this: Everyone circles their connection with Sparks, then picks one other connection with another PC. Cross the rest; they're not relevant in this episode. (Sparks circles his connection with Croach.) This proved to be a great alternative, and resulted in a lot of what I'd call "mechanically productive" player interaction. More than last time, even.

The other change I wanted to test out didn't actually get any actual "testing," unfortunately. I changed troubles to be more straightforward and more reflective of how the show usually goes. Now it's this: You have three trouble slots, each with two check boxes. If an attack against you is a success, write down a trouble and check one box. If it's a thrilling success (success of 5+), check two boxes. If you ever check a fourth box, you're defeated. No more tracking damage.

The intent is to let, say, Sparks intimidate a guy to give them a trouble, then, when that troubled badguy decides to get violent anyway, he guns them down fair and square. (Most NPCs won't have as many trouble slots as the PCs do.) It feels like it could use an escalation mechanic, but man, that really seems too fiddly and involved for what the rest of this Fate variant is trying to do (which is, basically, not be fiddly or all that mechanically involved).

Fun-wise, fun was had. Once again, the PCs seemed to have been written well enough that even players who weren't familiar with the source material were able to help create an authentic-feeling episode of play. Since then, I believe Will and Jim have both subscribed to the podcast and have plans to attend at least one show at Largo, so once again, Acker and Blacker, I have created new fans for you. You're welcome.

THE FUTURE... OF TIME!
Planning on playtesting against on January 19th, again at Game Empire in Pasadena, assuming I can think up another scenario and stat up some new PCs for it. Whatever it is, it'll have the Troubleshooter, Mercy Laredo, and, like, Gene Peeples as PCs. (For some reason, I want to do something featuring K of the Cosmos. As an NPC, of course.) I can't believe how many of these game days I've attended lately. (Two.)

I'm also going to run at least one session of Sparks Nevada at OrcCon in February, plus Atomic Robo. I have this Robo scenario in mind that sounds like a lot of fun, but I have no real idea how to do it just yet. The premise is that the PCs are some sort of genetically engineered elite agents created by someone or other. (So... not Action Scientists at all.) They're running a mission in the service of their creators, but upon their return to Taravai Island they're shocked to discover everyone's dead. Everyone, that is, except one of their own, a fellow "experiment" deemed too unstable for field work and scheduled for destruction, now missing and presumed responsible. And the PCs want only one thing: revenge. Bring Me the Head of Dr. Dinosaur. Coming soon to... well, OrcCon, like I said.

After that in 2014? ARRPG's impending release, continued work on Shadow of the Century, my bit for a Tian Xia stretch goal... and who knows, maybe even something that doesn't use Fate! Stranger things have happened. Not to me personally, but y'know. You hear things.

[Thrilling Fate!] More Playtests

So this happened. Clockwise, starting with me: Me (speaking with hands), top of Mark Gagliardi's head, back of Molly Quinn's head, side of Ben Blacker's head, Ben Acker, fan-favorite Hal Lublin.

Hi all my buddies! Right up top, this week's episode of the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast is last year's "Christmas on Mars" show, so go download that.

Now that that's out of the way, I've done two more playtests of Thrilling Fate! since my last blog post. Both were fun and productive, but I'm not gonna lie: I preferred the one pictured above, for reasons which should be obvious.

In late November, I ran a playtest at the Nerd SoCal Game Day at Game Empire in Pasadena. Besides me, we had Hamish Cameron as Sparks, Morgan Ellis as Croach, David Gallo as Cactoid Jim, Megan Arch as the Red Plains Rider, and Gina Ricker as Rebecca Rose Rushmore. Although only Morgan had really had any exposure to the source material at that point -- he did play the theme song for everyone before I got there -- we produced a very authentic-feeling Sparks story nonetheless, which is kinda the point. Plus, a couple of them are now subscribers to the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast, so you're welcome, Acker and Blacker.

The big thing that came out of that playtest was that the PCs need cues that point them at one another. Croach had a cue that encouraged the player to mention his weird Martian anatomy; Sparks had a cue that encouraged the player to be grossed out by Croach. There was a cool moment when that synergy worked like a charm: Croach shoved his secondary esophageal tract down Sparks' throat to save him from suffocation, which naturally grossed out Sparks (and, to be honest, the rest of us as well).

But... nobody else really had that level of mechanical incentive to interact with the other characters. Worse, some had cues that were purely reactive, and that relied on other players doing something first -- like Jim's cue about deflecting praise, which is meaningless unless someone praises him. So that was a problem. I was reluctantly convinced that the best solution was to give everyone a cue for each other PC. This also seemed like a problem, but I couldn't see a way around it.

Another thing was that people were only incentivized to play to their cues when they had aspects that needed recharging, which meant that in the beginning of the game there was no incentive to do that. The simple solution, from David, was to start everyone off with all of their aspects pre-exhausted.

(It's also worth noting that in the next game that day, Gina invented the law firm of Acker, Blacker, Marc & Mark. We'll be seeing more of that sooner or later, I'm sure.)

Before the next playtest, I gave each PC five cues. These broke down like this:

• Mannerism: Something active the player can almost always do or say in a scene.
• Response: Something reactive the player can usually expect to have the opportunity to do or say in a scene. 
• Connections: Two cues that tie the PC to other, specific PCs. In the end, I just couldn't do one cue with each other PC for two reasons. One, it was unwieldy -- every new PC I made would've meant n+1 cues for me to write and for the player to manage. Two, it just didn't work. The fact is that not every character in Sparks Nevada has a meaningful relationship with each other character. I figured if each PC connected to two other PCs -- which ended up being Sparks and one other -- that would make for enough of a web of interactions.
• Dramatic: The big once-per-episode cue that should happen at a dramatic moment. Sparks announces he's from Earth. Croach discards the customs of his people in service of the greater good. Red confesses her feelings for Sparks, Croach, or Jim.

I also simplified troubles and made some cosmetic changes in the interest of making everything as accessible as possible to new players -- specifically, I renamed "fate points" to "story points" and changed "stunts" to "gimmicks." 

This was all in preparation for December 7th, when the playtest pictured above took place. And it was so rad, you guys. We had Mark Gagliardi and Molly Quinn playing their characters from the show (Croach and Pemily Stallwark, respectively), Ben Blacker playing the Barkeep, Ben Acker playing the Red Plains Rider, fan-favorite Hal Lublin playing Cactoid Jim, and Clint Trucks as Sparks Nevada. (Marc Evan Jackson couldn't make it, but Clint was a great Sparks.)

Here's another picture of that!

Left to right: Gagliardi (cosplaying as Scroach the Rocker), Quinn, Trucks, Lublin.

I will keep posting pictures of this game, because it was awesome and I can't believe I was lucky enough to run it with these people as players. Video of this will, as I understand it, be included as an extra on the DVD of the concert film that this Kickstarter helped produce. So get that DVD when it comes out. Thanks to Charlie Fonville for capturing and providing all this media. I'll post more pics when I get them, for the aforesaid reason.

Clint's a dedicated GURPS player, and I believe Hal plays D&D and Pathfinder, but the other four had no gaming experience. (Molly had a friend in high school -- which... was only a couple years ago, apparently -- who was into RPGs, but she never got into them herself despite some interest.) I'm happy to say Acker, Gags (look, I'm just gonna call him Gags), and Molly seemed to get the hang of it after a couple rolls. Blacker had an air of apprehension about him whenever I talked about mechanics, but even still he steered the Barkeep to glorious victory over the Bad News Compadres in the game's final scene. In the end, he estimated he got about 80% of it. Which is fine -- we wrapped things up in about 90 minutes, so I'm sure if we'd taken more time on the front end to discuss things he would've been closer to 100%. As it was, I was very conscious of not taking up too much of everyone's time with the game.

Fortunately, everyone had a great time. I believe this because they repeatedly told me so. The scenario was a cross between Dune, Jaws, and a classic Western bank robbery. Cactoid Jim defeated an adolescent Tremors-style sandworm by taming it, Pemily lassoed and rode an enormous Shai-Hulud-style sandworm and rode it into town, the Barkeep gave Alloy Roy some trouble, Sparks promoted Pemily to First Deputy over Croach, and Croach... Croach was Croach. Mark spoke in the Croach voice pretty much the whole time, in character or out. Charlie's video footage will give testament to that. And Hal did the intro narration! Live, in my face!

In short, the game couldn't have gone better. It was just an amazing opportunity, and I'm so grateful to everyone not just for making time for it, but for being and having so much fun. The icing on the cake was Acker telling me I knew more about their show than he and Blacker do, which... I doubt that's true, but it's awfully flattering nonetheless.

(Non-gaming tangent: I had kind of a Thrilling Adventure Weekend, actually. That Saturday night, my wife, a friend, and I went to their Christmas show, which not only heavily featured Jib Janeen the Jupiter Spy throughout but also included a Philip Fathom story. Look for it next December! They're a year behind. Anyway, the next day, my wife and I went to the Thrilling Adventure Hour holiday brunch, which was just so cool. Man. Gags and Molly told me again how much fun they'd had at the game, Paul F. Tompkins almost accidentally struck my wife in the face, I explained roleplaying games to Marc Evan Jackson (who'd been told the playtest the day before had been "the real deal"), I had a great conversation with TAH musical director Andy Paley, we talked with James Urbaniak... there were fritters... I spotted Mark McConville... Weird Al Yankovic was there... I could go on. I felt like I'd won a contest. I know I'm getting all fanboyish here, but c'mon, how couldn't I? Be reasonable!)

Okay, Professionalism Mode re-engaged.

I'll be playtesting Thrilling Fate! again this Sunday the 22nd back at Game Empire. Making another change to cues that incorporates a Danger Patrol-esque "What happened last time?" setup. Have to come up with a holiday-themed scenario first, but I have, like, all week to do that, right?

[Atomic Robo] "It's In Layout!"

"It's in layout!"

That's been my stock answer for the past few months whenever someone's asked me what's up with Atomic Robo: The Roleplaying Game. And it's the truth, and it's been the truth, but honestly, that's all I knew until... well. Suffice it to say, there's a little more to it than that, and I think it's high time you fine people who've been waiting so patiently for its release (I am one of you, BTW) were let in on some of the details. Fortunately, Fred Hicks agrees, so we actually get to open up a bit about it.

Now, Fred wrote this and posted it on the Evil Hat website, but I'm going to repost it here because it's, uh, just, like, a lot easier than paraphrasing it all.

So, we've been saying that the Atomic Robo RPG is in layout for a while now, and that's still true. The reality runs a little more complicated than that once you get into the details, though!  

The editing and layout process has been intricate. We're looking to present a number of our examples visually, sourcing them straight from the events of the comics, and that can be slow going. We've had to rework chunks of text, a little bit here, a little bit there, over the course of it all, in order to make sure it all fit best with the layout.  

Probably our biggest speed-bump, however, has been imposed upon us by life. Our editor/layoutist found that the freelancing lifestyle wasn't paying the bills on its lonesome and, completely understandably, got himself a job to address that concern. This involved a move to a different state (time consuming), and then a focus on that new job that's kept him busy a good 72 hours a week. Due to the aforementioned intricacies of the layout, the layout wasn't done in time for these events to befall him, but it all added up to there being no more time to work on the book except for a few hours squeezed in every Sunday.  

We recognized this as unsustainable, and brought in a replacement layoutist, the incredibly talented Adam Jury. Adam has been vigorously coming to terms with the layout files as they stand (which is always rough; it seems no two layout folks do things the same way, so it's akin to getting tossed into a foreign country and asked to speak the language with no prior experience), and he's moving it forward as quickly as he can. 

The bottom line is that with the speed bumps we've had, and the spin-up time necessary to bring on new talent, we're likely to miss the end of year/Novemberish publication date that was our goal, and instead launch in early 2014. 

This isn't all bad, though. The fourth quarter of the year (October through December) is usually a very weak time for a company to launch a new game. Sales tend to be down significantly across the board. We believe a launch in early 2014 is going to give us a much stronger performance for the Atomic Robo Roleplaying Game than we would get if the time fairy waved his magic wand and made the book suddenly ready to publish in 2013. Ultimately this will all make for a stronger, better game without all that much more waiting (December's coming up fast)! 

Thanks to everyone for their time, talent, and patience in bringing the Atomic Robo RPG to fruition. We're past the rockiest part of the road, and just need time to cross the remaining distance.

So the bad news is, obviously, that the release date has been pushed back to 2014. None of us is happy about that, and I'm especially bummed about it, but it is what it is. The good news is that forward progress is still being made. Things are happening. I'm helping Adam source more art from the comics and I feel privileged to work with him, so despite the delays, the old cliche of "but the book will be better off for it!" is absolutely true.

Anyway, there you have it. It's in layout!

[Thrilling Fate!] Some Trouble In This Place

This post does indeed reek of trouble.

If you're one of those poor unfortunates who isn't already familiar with Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars, that guy on the right up there, the one speaking trepidatiously about the mere possibility of trouble, is the Barkeep. (He has a name, but it was a fairly recent revelation on the podcast, and I'm embarrassed to admit I don't remember it.) "I don't want no trouble in my place!" is the Barkeep's catchphrase, defining character trait, and probably his concept aspect as well.

So there's no way I'm not using trouble as this hack's term for "damage." So let's talk about damage.

First of all: no stress tracks. Just troubles, which will sub in for consequences in every way that matters. I'm not completely clear yet on how they'll work, but the basic idea is that you have so many trouble boxes, like six. Checking a box reduces a hit by 2 shifts.

But! When you take a hit, you can write down any number of troubles and check any number of boxes for each trouble. For example, if the Binary Kid nails you with a 6-shift hit, you could write down a single trouble, like Broken Ribs, and check three boxes -- or you could take three troubles, like Winded, Embarrassed, and Caught Off Guard, and check one box for each. Either way, you've dealt with all six shifts.

(This is a character sheet design issue: It has to be clear that you can have several troubles, and that each trouble has its own track of boxes, but that you can't have more than six boxes checked at a time.)

So if these work like consequences, why would you ever take three one-box troubles instead of one three-box trouble? Because the fewer boxes a trouble has, the faster it goes away.

• When you have a moment to breathe, like at the end of a scene, erase one one-box trouble.
• At the end of some currently unspecified longer period of time, like after a night's sleep or something, do all of these:
• Erase all  your one-box troubles.
• Clear one box on each of your troubles that has two or more checked boxes.
• A trouble can be treated much the same way a consequence can, with a difficulty equal to twice the number of boxes it has.

Now look, I'll admit that this is a little more complicated than consequences as written in Fate Core or FAE, but it's also a little less complicated in that you only have one option for damage mitigation (troubles) instead of two (stress and consequences). In my experience, new players -- my expected audience -- have an easier time with "When you get hit, take a consequence" than they do with "When you get hit, check a stress box or take a consequence, or both, or take two consequences." Plus, I dunno, it seems fun, so I'm going with it.

I also like the flexibility of it, and it makes things like Sparks' make-them-check-another-trouble-box stunt and Croach's clear-an-additional-trouble-box stunt viable and engaging without being difficult to grasp. There are other potential hooks too, like saying that if you take two troubles at once from a physical attack, one of them has to be mental (which is pretty typical of Sparks Nevada characters, who, Cactoid Jim aside, tend to have their share of insecurities). Or maybe a success with style on anything lets you immediately clear a mental trouble box. Just spitballing here -- this whole thing needs more thought, and obviously some refinement of terminology.

Anyway, this looks like the end of the hacking for this hack, but... I guess I'll post a few characters? Next week or something?