Fair Play
Posted by Jason on July 21st, 2008 — in Design, Medical Hospital
Medical Hospital is all about the index cards - you make character, situation, and associated stuff on cards that interrelate in play. There are a few places where having a reference will come in handy, and it’s never a lot of stuff, so I made a handout of index-card sized cheat sheets. They can be double-sided, too.
There’s a card for stress actions, two cards for perks (gaining and spending), a card for cardiac arrests, two for surgical complications, and a list of jargon for the anaesthesiologist to shout when a procedure gets out of control.
My hope is that people will have a stack of index cards they can carry around,with characters and situations they can mix and match and the references obviating the need for hauling the actual rules.
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Posted by Jason on July 20th, 2008 — in Design, Medical Hospital
I more or less doubled the word count of Medical Hospital this weekend, which feels great. A lot of assumptions and hand-wavings got articulated and a lot of useful material got added. Maybe more important than that, I found the game’s voice, which is a little irreverent and conversational.
Expect to see me flacking playtests of this and Business Solutions at Gen Con! I’m going to write a bunch of examples and then shop it around for external playtesting. If you are interested, please get in touch.
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Posted by Jason on July 15th, 2008 — in Design
There’s a thread over at Story-Games asking designers why they make games right now. It’s full of great reasons to make games, some of them perceptive, some of them funny, some of them sort of poetic.
I’ve always made games, as far as I can recall. In first grade I upgraded a pretty boring game into the magnificent and unplayable “Jesus tic-tac-toe” (you needed ten across!). After spending a feverish weekend playing Wumpus Hunt on my uncle’s brand new Kaypro II, I reverse engineered it for tabletop play. Another time I drew page after page of elaborate combinations of choose-your-own adventure and side-scrolling analog video game.
I’ve always loved to play, and to create new things, and to puzzle out conundrums, and to express myself with words and art and performance. My love for making games is a little obsessive and weird. I’m OK with that. I think play is important – I think it is a survival trait just as valuable as thumbs. I love to play and I love the clever, strange, kind-hearted and passionate people I get to meet and play with. I love the fact that I can make things with skill and pride that return some small measure of good to the world.
There’s so much goodness – my own joy in creation, my delight in play, my deep satisfaction in seeing others similarly delighted in my work, a profound sense of camaraderie and mutual support, and the rewards both material and emotional. Making games brings me all this and I’m very grateful for it.
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Posted by Jason on June 30th, 2008 — in Business Solutions, Design, Medical Hospital
I had a playtest-fest yesterday; Clinton did a splenic bypass. I’d been at a creative impasse with Business Solutions in particular and that’s over now. The thing I’m doing with Medical Hospital - the tactile, player-skill-equals-character-success thing - turns out to be just the ticket for Business Solutions as well. Clinton pointed this out and I’m so happy about it. We played enough alpha Medical Hospital for me to proceed with confidence and man, Business Solutions is pretty much done. I just need to run a few full games, get it out there for some blind testing, and that’s that. A pretty exciting development! I’m not sure how long it’ll take to come together but I bet it’ll be ready in the early fall. Information design will be a big challenge and I want to get that just right - the game relies on stuff you need to reference more or less constantly, and I’m not yet sure how to present those things in the clearest possible way. It’ll fall into place, I’m sure. Maybe the list of photocopier malfunctions goes on the back of the character sheet or something. Thanks to Joel, Clinton, and Mike for their help and ideas!
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Posted by Jason on June 21st, 2008 — in Check this out dude, Design
My entry in the Fight On! Adventure Writing contest. I was reading about African witchcraft and how witches make torches out of the anal gland paste of hyenas, and the next thing you know, zam! Adventure! I statted it for The Shadow of Yesterday, which probably dooms me to derisive scorn from the old skool judges, but it’d be easy to run in any system. If you ran it in 4e you’d need a 7-9th level party, because Gnolls are unapproachably badass in 4e.
