Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:31:28 +1200 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.1.8 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=99 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=99 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:49:16 +1200 Malcolm Craig The Rules

Rules : The Basics

1) Use your real name.

2) Think before you post.

3) Don't be a dick.

4) Don't drag threads off topic.

5) Don't post to old threads.

6) Keep your signature short, relevant and don't use images in it.

If you have any queries about these, or anything about how the site works, start a thread.

Rules : With Explanation

Those rules are to the point, but there's reasoning behind them. How you interact with people here, and how to get the very most out of the site, relies on understanding these core principles:

Principle 1: We're here to build the smallpress games community in the UK

Post about games you've played and how they went (good, bad, indifferent?) If you want to introduce yourself, this is the best way. It'll give us a handle on your experiences with games, you might be surprised at how much these vary.

We want you to post about finding people to play with. Tell us about conventions and meetups you're organising. Let us know and we'll come along too! We'll help by running games and events.

We want to help you with games design. We may ask difficult questions, but these aren't an attack on your game. We're just trying to work out how you think, what assumptions you're making and what kind of experience you mean by RPG.

We're about Publishing. Ask about writing, editing, art, layout, printing, PDF and websites. We have professionals in all these fields who can point you to useful resources.

Each forum has a subtitle explaining what should go there. If it doesn't seem to fit anywhere, don't post it. There are other, better, places to post general gaming commentary.

Principle 2: We're about mutualism

We're here to help each other out. Treat other people and their ideas with respect. Read others' posts in the best possible light and we'll do the same for you.

We're about discussion. You may find people disagree with you. That's fine. You don't learn anything new from people who agree with you. It's fine to have strong opinions. We do expect them to be backed up with some critical thinking and evidence though.

We're our own community, so don't bring the Internet here. Don't behave like a dick, don't troll and don't create arguments for their own sake. It's fine to swear, but at concepts not people.

Principle 3: We're about getting things done.

We thrive on a good signal to noise ratio. It helps things happen. Every hollow post you add that is an empty "me too!", 'that's great!" or a "here's my opinion on something tangential" degrades that signal.

Before you post a comment, read it over and check it adds something. Compose your thoughts, as if writing a letter or an essay. If somebody starts a thread they want something out if it, so keep to their guidelines. Your jokey tangent might kill their chances of getting the decent feedback they want.

Wait a while before posting a reply. If a thread goes off at a tangent for more than 2 posts, start a new thread. This stops threads getting diluted, and means new ideas can grow in their own space.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=4 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=4 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:21:40 +1300 Matt
right, this appears to be working fine. Let me know if you see any bugs...

So here's the thing. We had a chat about what to do when we moved to Vanilla. We figured what with a slight refocus of the site, hopefully to be clearer about what we do, it might be a good time for people to ask: what am I doing here and is it still useful to me? If you still want to chat about our games, conventions, actual play, design and stuff. Cool! We still want to chat about that stuff. As always sign up with your real name and we're away.

All old stuff has not been lost! It's stored, and I'll be putting up an archive in a bit...

P.S. Sorry for the sudden-ness, but I wanted to do this Pre-Dragonmeet and real-life stuff has meant it crept up on me.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=125 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=125 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:23:16 +1200 Andrew Kenrick here, I wanted to explore the concept of a campaign supplement and how it applies to some of our games. There's a slight vested interest here - a couple of my projects might fall into the category of either campaign book or games designed for campaign play - but I'll keep the thread more general so it's more useful.

So, first let's address the premise: what does a campaign book look like? Well, traditionally it provides an overarching premise, sometimes including setting, and then a series of linked scenarios within that premise.

I've highlighted the two key parts of that definition that I think are useful here: overarching premise and series of linked scenarios, neither of which are mutually exclusive to the way our games work (and some of which is built in already).

So at the most basic level, a traditional campaign book could be produced for a game like Hot War. You'd include the overarching premise, which is much the same as the situation sheet created at the start of a game anyway, and then a series of linked scenarios that build off it. Nothing new here - published scenarios for Hot War is a done thing, after all.

But I wonder if such a thing would be doing the game something of an disservice. After all, creating such a rigid structure for Hot War would take something of the fun away from a game that leans on its players for a lot of the creative input. So, is there something more appropriate that could be used instead? A partially created situation sheet perhaps, finished by the group as they create their own characters, and then a series of loosely defined scenarios, perhaps like a more focused situation sheet for each session that sketched out the premise of the continuing plot, but allowed for GMs and players to fit in their own agendas and the like.

So, in your view, what would a campaign supplement for an "indie" game look like? Could such a thing be done? Would such a thing even have value?

Discuss!]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=117 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=117 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:55:18 +1200 Gregor Hutton
http://chadu.livejournal.com/785656.html

I think those numbers chime with what we say in our thread about likely sales figures, despite what some "real designers" online in the "real" games press would want you to think.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=124 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=124 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:56:27 +1200 Malcolm Craig
If, when mentioning a printer, you could give a web address, what you used them for, what the service and pricing we're like, and any other over impressions, that would be really helpful.

A Local Printer (UK)
After seeing the quality of Hell 4 Leather, we went with Gregor's recommendation of A Local Printer for the first issue of the Hot War Transmission. Now, full colour is expensive for small runs, but we certainly felt it was worth it for a product like the Transmission.

ALP also make use of Forest Stewardship Council Certified paper, which provides a sustainable, high quality alternative to recycled paper. Quality of print is excellent and the service we received was great: free postage, and the print run delivered bang on time. We will certainly be making use of them for future issues of the Transmission.


Fidlar-Doubleday (USA)
For some years now, Fidlar-Doubleday have been our printer of choice in the United States. The main reason for this was their excellent customer service. Unfortunately, the brilliant and ever helpful Kory Cogdill has moved on to pastures new, but his replacement, Al Vital, is (from what I've heard) doing a great job.

Price wise, Fidlar were always a tiny bit more expensive that some other short run printers, but that little extra was well worth it for the quality of service.


Vistaprint (UK)
We have been using Vistaprint for our postcards and marketing materials. If you want to do thing like A5 postcards with character sheets on the back, they are the place to go. They always have special offers on where you only pay postage, and the quality of the finished product is excellent.

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=115 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=115 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:23:42 +1200 James Mullen CAMCAM thread is that I've recently started an 8 week Dead of Night campaign. It was only after I pitched the idea for this to my local RPG club that it dawned on me that no-one had ever done this before (to the best of our knowledge).

One of the first things I did was to poll Andrew & Scott on some thoughts I'd had for modifying the character creation process to support campaign play; the main changes I proposed were Baggage and Reasons to Live.

Baggage: A piece of Baggage would be anything the PC was holding onto and trying to protect, so it could range from a relationship to an NPC, their reputation, a guilty secret, a treasured possession and so on. The idea was that, upon reaching the point of death for that character, the player could opt to lose a piece of Baggage instead, so each piece had to be something roughly as valuable to that character as their own life. In effect, each piece of Baggage is an 'extra life.'

Reasons to Live: A Reason to Live is effectively an agenda or mission for that PC, something they are yearning for or striving towards, such as reuniting with a loved one, getting revenge, uncovering the truth, etc. Quite simply, when the player opts to use a Reason to Live on a Risk check, then it is that agenda that is at stake rather than any Survival points. If they collect three successes from using it, the agenda is resolved successfully; if they collect three failures, it resolves unsuccessfully.

We started the campaign on Tuesday 13th July, with 5 players:
Scott Dorward: Playing Carl, a serious criminal, with Baggage of 'Newly Discovered Self-Respect' and a RtL of 'Get revenge on Cecilia Trent'.

Anthony Edmonds:Playing (Harold) Gehn, ex-military now working as a court bailiff, with Baggage of 'Secret: Dishonourable Discharge' and 'Item: Dead Comrade's Dogtags' and a RtL of 'Give dogtags to friend's relatives.'

Mark Kerr: Playing Frank, a student, with Baggage of 'Item: Girlfriend's engagement ring' and 'Georgia, my uni housemate' and a RtL of 'Reunite with Angela, my girlfriend.'

Jef Lay: Playing Paul, a farmer, with Baggage of 'Pacifist' and 'Item: Locket with wife's photo' and RtL of 'The farm.'

Steven Pretlove: Playing Tina, a policewoman, with Baggage of 'Secret: Killed a child' and 'Item: picture of my daughter' and a RtL of 'Rescue my daughter.']]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=123 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=123 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:22:56 +1200 Malcolm Craig Hot War Transmission, the new quarterly mini-supplement for Hot War, is now available in a lavish, full colour print version. Priced at £5 (plus P&P), this 36 page booklet contains a host of great Hot War game material.

Issue 1 focuses on the work of the late, great Nigel Kneale, creator of the hugely influential Quatermass TV series and films. Inside the Transmission you'll find a guide to Quatermass, with useful hints about incorporating situations and themes into your games, locations from the series and films, and a Kneale-esque game situation created by Scott Dorward. The game situation gives you background, antagonists, and four pre-generated characters, making ideal for convention play or for slotting in to your own games.

The booklet can be purchased direct from our own online shop. It will also be available through Indie Press Revolution in the next two to three weeks. You can also download the PDF of this first issue for free (future issues will be available through Drive-Thru RPG, priced at $4).

Details
Title: The Hot War Transmission, Volume 1, Issue 1
Authors: Malcolm Craig and Scott Dorward
Cover Artist: Paul Bourne
Price: £5 + P&P (print); FREE (PDF)

Hot War is a game of friends, enemies, secrets, and lies set in a post-apocalyptic 1960s London. You can find out more by visiting the Contested Ground website and downloading our free previews.

This booklet is a bit of a departure for us, as it's the first time we've ever done a book in full colour. It's also not something particularly associated with small press productions. However, Gregor recommended that we use a company called A Local Printer, who use environmentally friendly papers and printing products. The paper is Forest Stewardship Council Certified, which basically means it comes from recognised sustainable sources. It provides a viable alternative to recycled paper, which is nice.

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=119 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=119 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:06:07 +1200 Malcolm Craig Campaigns or One-shots thread into a thread of it's own. A lot of really productive discussion came out of that thread, and I'd like to draw out a few things that were raised there. In particular, it would be good to look at techniques we have used in actual play to keep a campaign game running while playing in a game that offers a great deal of player authorship, flexibility, and changing character/story goals.*

The thing I would like to concentrate on as a technique is rotating the GM role around the group.

This is based on my experiences playing a long term game of Dogs in the Vineyard in New Zealand. Four of us were playing (me, Steve Hickey, and Simon and Emma Carryer) and we had agreed from the outset that the Gm position would be rotated. Emma chose not to GM, as she didn't feel comfortable in that role. All good.

Dogs provides a natural break point for this kind of play. Once a town has been investigated, you move on to the next town. This is the point where the GM can switch, setting out their own town, their own situation. There's also a fictional break for the characters: one might go off to deliver mail to a different town, or be called back to Bridal Falls. So, there's no playing of PCs as NPCs.

The agreement was that each town would be played out across two or three sessions, which worked really well. We got through seven towns, over 15 or so sessions, which covered something around four or five months. One of the things that this arrangement did that really kept our interest alive was that the different GMs brought different tones and themes into their towns. Simon gave us some really claustrophobic, sexually charged situations. Steve brought forth the impact of change and the spit between the youth and their elders. My towns were more at the horrific, damaged end of the spectrum. But none of this jarred, and there was a sense of anticipation about what the next town would hold for us.

So how would this translate into other games? Well, thinking of Hot war in particular, it's my feeling that break points come when:

a) A particular story reaches its conclusion
b) A character completes an agenda
c) A character has a crisis point

All three of these provide moments where one player could step back from play their character and step into the role of the GM, either continuing with the current story or establishing a new direction with the collaboration of the players. I should note that this is stuff that I have been toying with as part of the design process for Okhrana.

Likewise, in Duty & Honour/Beat to Quarters, the natural break point could very come at the end of a Military Mission or, for an individual character, at the conclusion of the Mission of Personal Importance.

I'd be interested to see how other people have used these techniques, or how they would use them in their own long term games.

Cheers
Malcolm

*Obviously, many of these techniques can be, and have been, used in more 'traditional' styles of game. If anyone has experiences relating to rotating GM duties in those games, then I'd welcome input from those experiences as well.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=121 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=121 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:15:14 +1200 Andrew Kenrick
A demon in Supernatural works in a certain way, dies in a certain way. Likewise a vampire in Buffy. The audience is taught this, expects this, which - later, once this is established - allows the writer to mess with those expectations and create tension and drama in the process.

I want to do the same in my Dead of Night campaigns, to create a mythology of sorts that players come to recognise. So, when they come up against a vampire, they know it's one of my vampires, and it will work in a set way. But I don't want to bog the players down with loads of background and lore that the players have to go away and learn, or else tease them with as I expose it bit by bit.

Instead I want to create player buy in, to give them the power to shape this mythology for themselves. Of course, there's a way to do this in the rules as written. "What's This?" (p35) lets them specify a fact about the setting or a monster, whilst Vulnerabilities (p76) lets a player discover a monster's weakness with an Identify check. But, for completeness, I'm going to put the two together:

Mythologically Speaking: A player can spend a Survival Point to add a new fact about a monster to the mythology of the setting. This fact is true for that type of monster from now on. In addition, the player who spent the point can exploit the fact in the game, perhaps gleaning a temporary advantage, discovering the creature's lair or hunting pattern, or finding its weakness.

I'd quite like to find a way to reward players for reincorporating mythology back into the game, or perhaps for when the GM does so, perhaps by giving the player who first introduced it some sort of "ownership", a permanent character advantage when facing down that monster, but I'm not sure how yet.

So, which monstrous mythologies are you fond of? Do you think players will help create a rich mythological tapestry, or wind up coming up with tenuous asides for mechanical advantages? And how might players (or GMs) be rewarded for reincorporating the mythology?]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=122 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=122 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:21:15 +1200 Andrew Kenrick Q2 sales figures for Contested Groundthe other day, so I thought I'd do the same. The difference is, that for the past couple of years Steampower hasn't really had any sales, as I didn't have anything in print, so my figures are really only for the first month following Dead of Night's release.

It seemed to go down well at Games Expo, leaving me with only a couple of books left at the end of the con. I think my last minute panic about not having enough stock proved to be unwarranted, so I’m glad I didn’t fast-track any extra books like I briefly considered.

Print sales are steady enough that I can comfortably handle posting them myself, but books should be on sale at IPR in the States in the next few weeks, and I’ll be glad that I won’t have to fulfil many more to the US. Unlike the first edition, I’ve made a digital download available too, and that’s been a huge success. I’m not sure if it’s folk recognising the name when it pops up on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG, or whether it’s just Paul’s great cover drawing them in.

Dead of Night (released June 2010)
Direct: 23
Convention: 8
Retail: 2
PDF: 67
Total: 100 on the nose

Lifetime Sales: 100

Although I'd budgeted that selling 50 print copies would be my break even point, I hadn't taken into account sales of the PDF, so I've actually managed to break even in my first month.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=51 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=51 Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:38:34 +1300 Neil Smith
WHO?
We're Milton Keynes RPG Club. Find out more about us at http://www.mk-rpg.org.uk.

WHEN?
Saturday 11 September 2010. Doors open at 9.00am, first games start at 10.00am. We'll finish at 11.00pm.

WHAT?
Any roleplaying or board game. You want to play it, bring it along and run it. Previously we've had on offer 3:16, Amber, Call of Cthulhu, Cold City, Dead of Night, Dogs in the Vineyard, GURPS, Gwenthia, HeroQuest, Hollow Earth Expedition, Hot War, Landston, Mouse Guard, Mythic Russia, Primetime Adventures, Savage Worlds, Spycraft, Tekumel, Trail of Cthulhu, Transhuman Space, True20, Vampire, and some more that I've forgotten. Latest updates will be posted on the Concrete Cow website.

A full list of games on offer is on the Concrete Cow games page.

WHO'LL BE THERE?
We'll be inviting some Guests of Honour. More details when we have them!

We should have some traders again. Stay tuned for when we get confirmation!

Members of the Concrete Cowncil, MKRPG's convention gaming arm, will be in attendance to run all sorts of funky games.

And, of course, there's all the fantastic games you'll bring along and run. If you let us know what you're planning to run, we'll put it on the Concrete Cow games page.

(Note that for child protection reasons, under-16s will need to be accompanied by an adult at Concrete Cow.)

WHERE?

The Old Bath House, Wolverton, in the north-west corner of Milton Keynes. The full address is

The Old Bath House
205 Stratford Road
Wolverton
Milton Keynes
MK12 5RL

Maps are available on MK Web, Google Maps, and Streetmap.co.uk.

Directions for drivers are on the directions page.

Regular trains to Milton Keynes run from London Euston station. The nearest station to the con is Wolverton (one stop north of Milton Keynes Central), about five minutes' walk away.

HOW MUCH?
£5.00, payable on the door. This'll cover the cost of hiring the hall.

For more information, visit our Yahoo group, email concrete-cow-owner@yahoogroups.com, or ask here!]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=120 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=120 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:12:51 +1200 Sebastian Hickey new little shop, so before I go mad with promo stuff, I just wanted to say thanks for your support.

Now, let's get on to the news. Hell for Leather is out. You can buy it from the online store for €7 (PDF). Or you can pre-order one of the sexy bundles.

It's 96 pages, filled with tasty art, and has a funky conflict mechanic that uses a tower of dice. It tells splatterpunk action stories. Really, it does. If you don't like blood and tits, it's not the game for you.

However, if you like shouting, laughing and swearing, it might be the zero-prep roleplaying answer you've been looking for. If you're not sure, fuck it, you can download the free version first.

Enjoy the murder!

Sebastian.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=98 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=98 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:28:40 +1200 Malcolm Craig
Character creation
Conflicts
Consequences
Crisis Points
Resolving agendas

For those familiar with the game, does it give enough? Is there anything else would you like to see? What bits are unclear or just plain badly written?

I'm aiming to keep this to two sides of A4 maximum. Oh, and when the final version comes out, it won't be my crappy Word document layout!

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=118 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=118 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:22:35 +1200 Malcolm Craig
The most notable thing is that Hot War has broken the 1000 sales barrier in Q2, which is a nice place to have reached.

a|state

IPR: 2 (8)
Direct: 3 (3)
Convention: 4 (1)
Retail: 0
PDF:11 (13)
Total: 20 (25)

Lifetime Sales: n/a

Cold City

IPR: 14 (19)
Direct: 13 (9)
Convention: 2 (4)
Retail: 5 (0)
PDF: 17 (22)
Total: 51 (54)

Lifetime Sales: 1651

Hot War

IPR: 19 (12)
Direct: 17 (16)
Convention: 6 (5)
Retail: 5 (0)
PDF:18 (28)
Total: 65 (61)

Lifetime Sales: 1036]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=114 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=114 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:54:55 +1200 Neil Gow
I've been mulling over adapting the notes I added to Malc's 'Between Continents' thread into some sort of campaign meta-system for Empire, probably for the 'space' version if/when it arrives, but these conversations have given me pause for thought. Why? Because even at my own gaming table, the last three games we have played in campaign format have been 'trad' games - Buffy, Pendragon and D&D (OK, the next two (Starblazers and Dresden) buck the trend a little...). I only know of two people who have ran D&H campaigns and one BtQ despite them both seeing tons of con play and one-shot play.

So what gives?

What do independent games designers have to do to convince people to play their games in campaign format? What are 'trad' games doing right here?

Neil]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=113 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=113 Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:32:30 +1200 Newt Newport
I'd like to thank the folk here who have generally cheered on the development of the game. In particular I'd like to thank Neil Gow, who provided much sound advice and helped me make some crucial decisions about the art and direction of the game.

More information here http://d101games.co.uk/books/monkey/

And the game is available via lulu , Monkey £12 print/£8 pdf]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=116 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=116 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:33:40 +1200 Malcolm Craig very interesting discussion of the pros, cons, and methods of monthly micro publishing, I've been inspired to embark upon such a venture myself (and by "myself" I really mean "Contested Ground").

Starting in January 2011, we'll be putting out monthly, free support for Cold City in the form of Monster of the Month. This will be in the form of a three page PDF (cover sheet, faux-report from the RPA on a monster, and a sheet of game information and plot hooks) available for free download from our site. Each RPA report will be appended with an appropriate photograph or illustration.

I'm preparing for this by aiming to have at least ten monsters ready to go before January, giving us a massive buffer in case anything untoward happens.

Another part of this is translating the free PDFs into hardcopy. Rather than do a printed book, Paul had the brilliant idea of printing the reports out at A5 postcards, with the illustration on one side and the report on the other. Game information could be provided on additional sheet of paper. Six photos/postcards will be bundled together in a nice, RPA stamped manila envelope, making a handsome little package. The first set will come out after the sixth free PDF, the second at the end of the year.

I'd be interested in getting peoples view on this plan and any falws they think might crop up. One other thing as well: if you have any thoughts on particular types of 'monster' you'd like to see or think would be particularly valuable, I'd be delighted to hear about that as well.

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=104 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=104 Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:48:12 +1200 Malcolm Craig Fiasco, by Jason Morningstar, isn't really a game I've become engaged with, I've been terrifically impressed by the support that Bully Pulpit have offered for it. Their 'Playset of the Month' has produced some really engaging stuff, and offers some really interesting situational building blocks tat could be used as inspiration in many other games. Oh, and the uniformity of the design ethic and simple, clean presentation makes it all really accessible and attractive.

This model of monthly micro-publishing seems to really create engagement with fans of the game and provide a growing foundation of support for the game. This leads me to think how useful it could be for other games, how difficult/easy it would be to implement, and what the further benefits might be.

For example, for Cold City there could be a 'Monster of the Month': a single sheet with illustration, description, stats, and a couple of story ideas. Hot War might see a 'Situation of the Month': a pre-created situation and NPCs covering no more than two sides of A4.

With a bit of work, you could create a six month buffer for yourself, having stuff ready to roll and giving you a nice little firebreak in case anything untoward happens that might otherwise disrupt the schedule.

So, what are the benefits/disadvantages of doing this? Is there an argument for free or for paid-for, subscription content? Oh, I'll email Jason as well and let him know about this thread, as I'm sure he'll have some really worthwhile input based on his experiences.

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=112 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=112 Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:45:48 +1200 Malcolm Craig Hot War Transmission is a new, full colour, quarterly mini-supplement for the Hot War game. Each themed issue offers game material designed to provoke and inspire.

Issue 1 focuses on the work of the late, great Nigel Kneale, creator of the hugely influential Quatermass TV series and films. Inside the Transmission you'll find a guide to Quatermass, with useful hints about incorporating situations and themes into your games, locations from the series and films, and a Kneale-esque game situation created by Scott Dorward. The game situation gives you background, antagonists, and four pre-generated characters, making ideal for convention play or for slotting in to your own games.

Issue 1 of the Hot War Transmission is free to download from the Contested Ground website and Drive Thru RPG. Future issues will be priced at $4 and will be available from Drive Thru RPG and Indie Press Revolution.

A limited number of full colour print versions will be available from the Contested Ground web shop in the coming weeks.

Details
Title: The Hot War Transmission, Volume 1, Issue 1
Authors: Malcolm Craig and Scott Dorward
Cover Artist: Paul Bourne
Price: £5 (print); FREE (PDF)

Hot War is a game of friends, enemies, secrets, and lies set in a post-apocalyptic 1960s London. You can find out more by visiting the Contested Ground website and downloading our free previews.

Cheers,
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=110 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=110 Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:57:42 +1200 James Mullen
101 Zombies!
This is a game we've played twice in the last two weeks, with some tweaks having been made to it between the first and second sessions. The premise of the game is very simple: the undead have arisen to feast upon the living and the players are a team of mercenaries hired to cleanse a site of the infection.

Each game starts by rolling 101d6, to represent the horde of zombies at the site, which is chosen by the players; the first session took place in a stadium used for sporting events and rock concerts, whilst the second used the Science Museum in London. Characters are simple sketches, mostly defined by their Strength, Speed and Smarts. The bulk of the game consists of picking up a number of zombie dice whose sum is equal to or less than one of these stats and rolling them to see how many of them you kill and whether you get injured doing so. There are also some tactical options like shoring up the barricades, looking for weapons and healing any of the characters, with the aim being to kill all the zombies before they overwhelm the barricades and swarm the site.

The first time we played, we had a TPK, but the rules got a good going over and were mostly pretty tight, with the feedback largely being about the confusing tactical option of using Smarts instead of Strength or Speed to do some things. It also turned out, on closer examination, that using that option allowed you to kiil as many zombies as using Strength or Speed but with the bonus of gaining resource points or barricades as well.

The main reason I'm writing this report though is to shine a spotlight on Sam, who went above and beyond by designing, printing, laminating and then cutting out with scissors a vast array of tokesn to represent all the variables in the game such as damage, gear and so on. These were a beautiful set of photos of guns, chainsaws, bullets, first aid kits and blood splatters, with '101 Zombies!' written on the back. We played the second game with these tokens tonight, as well as some more players, going from 4 up to 6 and this time we won!

So a big shout out to Sam for his support; his enthusiasm will keep me working on the rough edges of this game and he has eraned a special mention if I ever manage to go to publication with it. Thanks again Sam!]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=111 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=111 Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:37:09 +1200 Andrew Kenrick Indie Awards this year in what's a very strong field. Not sure when voting starts, but it's going to be a hard year to choose a winner!

Good job chaps - and good luck.

Andrew]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=109 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=109 Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:25:25 +1200 Malcolm Craig here). For those not familiar with it, Remember Tomorrow is Gregor's new game of literary cyberpunk, in the tradition of Gibson, Rucker, et al.

Picking up were we left off from the last game, it was easy to get back into the swing of things. The scene notes sheet was a big help with this: the brief line on who was in each scene helped refresh our memories and, for a game as scene based as RT, it's useful to have an aide memoire such as this.

To recap from last session, the characters and factions we had in play were:

Zatumo, a murderous sociopath (PC)
Alex Brabham, a photojournalist (PC)
Reif Jonz, a conflicted editor (PC)
Sue Kovacs, a driven private detective (F)
Jari Hirvonen, father to a murdered son (PC)
Allied Carbide, industrial combine (F)
Templar Sec, private police corporation (F)
Menwith-Fylingdale, orbital corporation (F)

No new PCs or faction were added during the game (although we could have done), which kept the entire thing pretty tight and focused. One thing that really struck me as the game progressed was how the disparate threads of the characters and factions really stated to come together in a very natural, unforced way. Obviously, we were making conscious decisions, or being prodded by the outcomes of conflicts, but at no time did anything feel like it was being crowbarred into the story.

This time around we had ten scenes in total, split into three 'deal' scenes and seven 'face off' scenes. From my point of view, it seemed that deals really come to the fore in the second half of a story. To give a brief rundown:

1) Jonz and Brabham meet to discuss the use of photographs. Three crosses came out of this one scene* (face off)
2) Jonz and some lawyers back in Berlin. Jonz is questioned regarding the 20,000 Euros Brabham bribed him with. (FO)
3) Jonz and Templar Sec (deal)
4) Brabham and Zatumo. Zatumo brutally assassinates Brabham somewhere in a Liverpool industrial estate. (FO)
5) Brabham and Kovacs. Brabham (still in hospital) makes a deal with Kovacs to find out who it was that nearly killed him. (D)
6) Kovacs and Hirvonen. Kovacs figures that the same man killed Jari's son and tried to kill Brabham, so meets Jari in a park in Liege. Jari ends up developing a fatherly affection for Kovacs. (FO)
7) Zatumo and Templar Sec. Templar attempt to arrest Zatumo in Dublin and royally screw up. Zatumo, now being ready, willing, and able to get his goal of being fabulously wealthy, is written out! (FO)
8) Kovacs and Jari. They meet again and Kovacs wins the conflict, increases Influence to 8 and is written out. (FO)
9) Hirvonen and Templar Sec. Templar try to kill Jari at his hunting lodge somewhere in Finland, but he makes them look like incompetent bully boys. (FO)
10) Jari and Allied Carbide. Jari makes a deal with AC. (D)

So we had two write-outs, one for a PC and one for a faction. Both were fictionally appropriate and created some interesting stuff for the remaining characters and factions.

In those ten scenes, Brabham was certainly more of a background character, and Allied Carbide and Menwith-Fylingdale were certainly background factions. But, what was cool is that they were still there and still important. The game works really well to allow characters and factions to have their own arcs without (again) it feeling forced.

Personally, I found the developing story of Jari and Kovacs the most interesting out of everything that happened. Although I felt fairly invested in Brabham as a character, I enjoyed having him take a back seat (he'd been fairly prominent in our first session) and leave the stage more open for Reif and Jari (and Zatumo, to a certain extent) to be the most prominent PCs.

All in all, I'd play this again in a heartbeat. Remember Tomorrow has very quickly established itself as one of a set of games I'd pick up and play any time.

That's the broad-brush outline of the game and I'm sure Gregor and Per will be able to fill in games and add their own thoughts on it.

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=92 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=92 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:49:51 +1200 Tim Gray
Anyone got any nuggets of input about things to remember to put in, running the process, etc? (Basically, I kinda know what I'm doing but someone might say something really helpful.)

Extra info: it's 256-page, Letter size. The final version will be hardback if possible; but Lulu softbacks are helpful for development!]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=107 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=107 Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:37:48 +1200 Malcolm Craig
The character creation section has been removed, and will appear on its own cheat sheet, along with NPC and monster creation.

Everything that comes up in conflicts seems to be there, along with all of the appropriate page references and guidance. Hopefully this will all (with Paul's graphic design magic) fit on to one A4 page.

Before finalising the sheet, is this something that looks complete and useful to those experienced with Hot War? Are there any things related to conflicts (and only to conflicts) that have been missed and could be useful? Any mistakes, spelling errors, or egregious nonsense to be excised?

Cheers
Malcolm

Edit: A rogue, older version of the sheet was previously attached to this post. It's now sorted and the correct version is linked to below.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=108 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=108 Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:55:36 +1200 Malcolm Craig this thread, and from some offline discussions, Okhrana is slowly assuming a more coherent shape.

Edit: For those not familiar with the evolution of the game, Okhrana is a game of espionage and politics in belle epoque Paris.

I've attached the current document, which is still somewhat scrappy I'll admit, but I'd like to highlight the integration of situation and character creation for comment in this thread.

I should note that this HAS NOT been tested in play, so could stuff that makes this awkward could yet be revealed at the table. At the moment, though, I'd like to get peoples thoughts on how they see this flowing as a procedure for generating an exciting game situation.

To paraphrase from the main game text, situation and character creation will now flow like this:

i) Situation: Why are the characters together?
ii) Character: Where does each character come from, how were they radicalised, what do they do now?
iii) Situation: What is the tone of the game?
iv) Character: Attributes
v) Situation: What is the main thrust of the game?
vi) Character: Personal and political manifestos
vii) Situation: Who are our antagonists?
viii) Character: Establishment of relationships
ix) Situation: Who else is involved?
x) Situation: Describe a photograph each
xi) Character: Traits

Each of these sections has a series of questions or choices that will help new participants establish situation and character. So of these (such as the questions in part ii) are mandatory. Most of the rest are optional, and serve as examples or guidance. The document itself gives more detail on all of these stages.

Does this appear to be a valid and workable method of integrating the two strands, rather than having a discrete 'create your situation, then create your character' way of doing things? Are there other things which need to be added to (or subtracted from) these elements? And, if you read the document and have any suggestions for things to add to the lists of ideas, please feel free to do so.

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=101 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=101 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:22:53 +1200 Iain McAllister thread.

I think I have made things a little clearer, though the text still needs a lot of work in that direction. I have refocused the game to be about how each of the characters is to blame for the Event, I renamed it Joe, and less about the time travel. I have ideas for making a proper time travel game at some point, but this has evolved in a different direction.

At the moment there are a few things I need to think about:

Memories: do the ones held by the Team need to see better use?
Resolution: Is it still too fiddly? I want it to take a little bit of time, just to push the stress a little bit more.
Length: I want the game to be playable in an evening, its time constraint will help. However this will mean getting over the concepts clearly and concisely, maybe whilst a game is happening. Should I have an alternative rule where if this is your first game, firs Knot then the clock can be stopped?

If anyone wants to playtest it I can post the rudimentary character sheets and timeline I have made up on the CE site.

Cheers

Iain]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=103 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=103 Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:35:42 +1200 Malcolm Craig
And, it's not the Devil you come back from for vengeance, but from the Cold, that space in the Cold War that spies and double agents operated in. Your death has taken you far into into the Cold, into some sort of liminal space where neither side recognises or needs you, hence your betrayal and supposed death.

The game could have supernatural overtones, but I'd prefer to keep that kind of thing to a minimum.

Playing H4L with an espionage background would require a few changes to the Leathers. Instead of Leathers, you have Operators.

The Emperor - Control, your boss back in London, Moscow, Washington, or Berlin, the spymaster. 'Control' in the works of John Le Carre, or the likes of Markus Wolf or Reinhard Gehlen in real life.

The Empress - The Chief of Staff or head assistant of Control. This could be an influential figure, or simply someone who knows everything that goes on. This could even be the secretary of Control: someone with little actual power, but a lot of knowledge, perhaps acting as a gatekeeper for the Emperor.

The Hierophant - A government figure who is involved in the intelligence community. There are many figures to choose from, such as the British Foreign or Home Secretaries.

The High Priestess - A former lover or confident, maybe a double agent? The person who has always been there for the Fool. But why? Think of Irina in Gorky Park

The Magician - The top operative, the one who has been out in the Cold many times, yet always come back. Knows the enemy like no one else. Or perhaps the Head of Counter-intelligence? In real life, someone like James Jesus Angleton would fit in here.

The Hermit - The defector who came over from the Other Side. Now he finds himself less well regarded than he feels he should be. One of the best real life examples of this would be Kim Philby.

Classic locations would be the spy centres of the world, somewhere within the heart of a power bloc when information flows in from the Cold. London, Berlin (East or West), Moscow, Washington, Paris.

I'd really like to play this game, and I'd doubly like to see a whole bunch of different takes on Hell 4 Leather.

Cheers
Malcolm]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=106 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=106 Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:29:17 +1200 jasonhubbard


108 pages, no adverts, free to download
It’s a bumper issue to celebrate our 1st anniversary and to make it really special we’ve made it available in print as well as a downloadable PDF. The quality of the print version is equivalent to a standard codex from a leading wargames company.

Download for free from: http://irregularmagazine.com />Buy a print-on-demand copy from: http://irregularmagazine.com/i5_print />
Featured contents:

* Interview with Black Library author, Gav Thorpe
* How to create blood and gore effects
* City Guardsmen for Pathfinder
* Elf pinup
* Win Dragon Forge Design goodies in our miniature painting competition



Plus:

* Show report: Con-Quest
* Dresden review
* Blast from the past
* Two short stories
* More interviews
* More tutorials
* News and reviews
* and much, much more!

Print version costs £16.63 plus postage for 108 full colour pages
By using a print-on-demand service like Lulu, we are able to bring you a top quality printed version without the overheads of standard distribution. The costs are all related to the print service, Irregular has added no extra charges, so this is as cheap as we can make it.]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=105 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=105 Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:41:21 +1200 jasonhubbard
The magazine recieves 4,500 + unique downloads per issue. Initial weekends can generate between 1,500 -anywhere near the 3,000 mark if its a good issue in regards to visitors. In the year we've been running we have a total of around 23,000 downloads across 4 magazine. We have a very big hosting account, LOL, to acoomdate this, in fact we've moved hosting twice in the last 12 months to accomodate the amount of visitors/downloads we have.

We have a group member who specialises in social media, internet design/programming and media. She runs our website, twitter account and the Sheffield Irregulars blog. These are our first port of call in regards to advertising, regular updates are made via twitter and the blog site. The blog site also has regular articles regarding painting on a regular basis, which attracts nearly 2,000 + visitors a month.

The next phase/level of marketing is to post on sites like Table Top Gaming News, along with adding to the News pages of Warseer.com and Cool mini. These sites push a lot of customers to the magazine, in one weekend Warseer on issue 2 generated 1,500 downloads before the end of play Sunday.

Our next phase is to post on several forum sites, these are generally spilt between the main team members, and generally tend to be the sites that each of us are active on. For instance I post on Gentlemen's Wargame Parlour, D&D community, Art Order and a few others. This works out quite well as most of the team have differing interests, which means we cover a broad spectrum of forum sites.

The next area we use for advertising, are our own blog sites. Most of the team run thier own blog sites, which are geared around thier own interests. These vary from blogs around RPG gaming, History, wargaming and miniature painting, as well as blog sites some of us also have personnel twitter accounts we utilise to promote the magazine.

Lastly we use Facebook as well, though we aree slowly moving away from this avenue for a number of reasons, and are considering setting up a forum which will be dedicated to miniature painting advice, gaming and writing for the game industry.

Another thing that also happens is that a lot of our readership post links and information without our prompting on other forums across the internet, generally these tend to be non english forums, a sort of electronic word of mouth.

Some of the blogs we run;
Shefield Irregulars
Musket, Sword and Paint
Prince Azalea's Homepage
Dysartes Wargaming

Irregular Magazine

I was wondering what types of marketing other people were doing?]]> http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=65 http://collective-endeavour.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=65 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:52:30 +1200 Sebastian Hickey
I want to sell your game. I want to stick your ad where the sun don't shine. Using my insignificant game

I thought this would be a good spot for publishers to link jpegs of their 300dpi, greyscale, portrait format advertisements. So, if you have something that might look good in the back of a game book, show it?

I want to support you like you've supported me.

P.S. The title of this post may have previously used a spicy metaphor ("show me your genitals"). Whether or not it was appropriate, I don't want to see anyone's genitals. Especially yours.]]>