Are we there yet?

The Dark Woods is still not quite ready yet. 99% sure it will be out 1st quarter 2012. Much of what we are doing for The Dark Woods is sort of boilerplate for the 2nd Edition of The Squawk RPG (probably 4th quarter 2012.)

TDW still cooking

The Dark Woods isn't out of the woods yet. It's funny how tricky details like arranging cover art and formatting indexes can be. We are hoping to have more exiting news in December.

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Test The Dark Woods

We have a new game coming out called "The Dark Woods."  It is a team vs. team pen and paper RPG that doesn't use a game master.  PCs are "sorcerers" who become more powerful from devouring the magical "essence" of their fallen enemies, this power warping them into inhuman forms. The teams of players take turns between playing their own characters and playing the forces battling the rival team.

It uses a fairly simple combat system, similar to the one in the Squawk RPG.  So far it plays best with 4 to 6 players, and it is meant to be played through in a single gaming session of less than 7 hours. We are done with internal testing and the first draft of the game, and we would like a few groups of outsiders to test it before we publish it.

If you or any friends can test  The Dark Woods before the end of October 2011, please e-mail us so we can send you a PDF at:

squawk@gameartsguild.com

PAX 2011

At PAX this year we attended a panel that included authors of Dogs in the Vineyard and Panty Explosion.  There were some interesting views espoused about creating and promoting Role-Playing Games:

1. Self publish - in today's publishing world, most outside publishers just aren't bringing enough the table to be worth their offers.  Since you have to do all your own promotion anyways, don't use an outside publisher at all.
2. 2nd Editions happen because it's hard to edit and test a game sufficiently the first time through.  Having an editor (who works for you or is someone you know,) will make for a better 1st (and 2nd) edition.
3. For finding late stage playtesters, find an appropriate online community with interest in your project.

We noticed an extremely strong Pathfinder presence at PAX, which was a pleasant surprise.

There were also some very interesting displays from Geek Chic involving using a computer touch screen table top, which was used for both table top gaming and playing PC action RPG titles.

In video games, I found the whole Defense of the Ancients trend in so many of the new major titles to be a refreshing change from the usual Counterstrike & WoW type games that have dominated the computer game market for so long.  The Free to Play model that some of these League of Legends type games use is particularly appropriate in today's austere economy.

TDW not out of woods yet

We were intending to have The Dark Woods completed by now.  However, it's most likely going to be released in September or October at our current pace.

web development

We have been very busy this month working on a variety of projects, Squawk 2nd Edition, The Dark Woods, and some web-based projects.  Over the last few years we have been dabbling in DHTML game development.  Here are some older examples:

• http://gameartsguild.com/scrollio/ Look mom, no flash!
• http://gameartsguild.com/hands2d/ (Yes, it's an action RPG engine in HTML5.)

It's also interesting to note that we are close friends with the developer of the educational game "math:math" for Android:

• http://www.appbrain.com/app/math%3Amath/com.appspot.lance_miller.MathMath

Here is a preview of a character-generator we have been working on for our up coming GM-less RPG book The Dark Woods, which is fairly smart-phone friendly:

• http://gameartsguild.com/dwpc/

The end of the world as you know it

An Earth-shattering event took place today.  The Dark Woods was a board game we were developing back in the mid 90's that spun off the Squawk RPG, and today we completed some preliminary testing on a new RPG book version of it.  We expect to publish a new version of it before the 2nd Edition of the Squawk RPG, and that when you play it, it will change how your expectations for RPGs forever.  The Dark Woods does not use a GM, while the players split into teams and pit villainous monster PCs against each other.  A character generator we are working on for it can be found at http://gameartsguild.com/dwpc/

Easter Miracle

We attended the two big local conventions this weekend, Sakuracon and Norwescon, and still managed to have some Easter dinner.  The Serpent Lord attended a panel with Neal Stephenson.  (We are fans of his.)  He was impressed with what the panelists were saying about their writing process (spar with weapons, eat, talk, write.  This reminds us of our involvement with Tres Espadas.) But Neal Stephenson was late, and when he rushed into the room after the panel had started, he almost-tripped/stumbled over The Serpent Lord.  The Serpent Lord was impressed with Stephenson's "ninja like reflexes" that kept him from falling on his face - a testament to the value of weapons sparring.

Squawk RPG Errata

We have been working on an Errata for the Squawk Role-Playing Game, which we have published here.  This Squawk RPG Errata lists fixes for all the known errors in the Squawk RPG.  This Squawk RPG Errata is a work in progress, and will be updated regularly as we find more fixes for issues in the Squawk RPG.

Dino-dog & Gen Y

The Serpent Lord has posted some interesting Squawk-related dinosaur illustrations, and commented on the state of RPGs in the last decade, on his blog here: http://theserpentlord.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Scratch vs. Scratch: New KO

If you haven't noticed already, there are actually two versions of the Scratch Role-Playing System out there, the Knol version and the Wiki version.  The Knol version of Scratch is a static online version of what has been printed in the first edition of the Squawk Role-Playing Game book.  The Knol version is going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

The wiki version of the Scratch RPS is the latest version of Scratch, the version that we are using for our current projects under development.  In general the wiki version of Scratch is better, including our latest improvements.  The biggest change so far is that the Knockout ability has been rewritten to be simpler and to be more fitting with the other abilities.

Squawk Character Sheets

Although the Squawk Role-Playing Game is simple enough to play on scratch paper, these character sheets will help you keep track of modifiers from equipment and allies with craftsmanship ability. Four character sheets fit on one 8.5 x 11" page.

Download the free PDF.

Squawk on RPG.net

Two updates about the Squawk Role-Playing Game and RPG.net:

1. Thanks to Tommy Brownell, the Squawk RPG finally got mentioned on RPG.net (we had been trying since Thanksgiving):  http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15127.phtml
2. We have moved the Scratch Role-Playing System that Squawk uses from Knol to the Wiki on RPG.net: http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Scratch

Tommy Brownell reviews Squawk

Tommy Brownell reviewed the Squawk RPG on his "Most Unread Blog Ever" site.  His blog posts tend to get reposted elsewhere, so this is great for us.

If you haven't read Tommy's blog before, I strongly recommend it.  He tends to cover a very wide range of pen and paper RPG material, and gives thorough reviews on everything he covers.

Gafflings

The second intelligent species we designed that ended up in Squawk was the Gaffling. Here is a document that describes them and shows various illustrations you may not have seen before.  We have always been big on intelligent dinosaurs, even when our games were not primarily about intelligent dinosaurs.  In those games, the Gaffling was our "intelligent dinosaur" species.