Pixel Hearts

Here's a rough draft of Pixel Hearts, a tabletop rpg I've been working on. In it, you play video game characters whose game worlds have bled together through Portals in the mysterious Void between worlds. My main inspirations are Kingdom Hearts, Super Smash Brothers, and that one time Sellers played Doom Guy. ;)

You can play any character from just about any video game ever. Mario, Master Chief, a Sim, a Tetris block, an Orc peon from Warcraft, a paddle from Pong. Anything.

The real fun comes from mixing the characters and worlds together as they bleed into each other.

The writing is currently kind of bad, but all the basic ideas are there. Feedback is welcome!

Ravenstone Rules Update, and Mocha!

I have completed the first two chapters of the play-test rules for Ravenstone, my family-with-superpowers RPG. They can be found here:

Ravenstone Play-test Rules

Chapter 1 is just a short intro. Chapter 2 covers Family and character creation. It's in need of some editing, so any feedback is welcome. Chapter 3, the rules of play, are coming next.

I also finished making a prototype for a coffee-themed card game that Sarah and I designed together. "Espresso" and "Barista" are already taken as card game names, so I'm calling mine Mocha, after our favorite coffee drink. It's a simple, Uno-like card game for 2 to 4 players that can (probably) be played in about 10-20 minutes. Each player has three cups of different sizes -- Short, Tall, Vente. You start with a hand of ingredient cards (Espresso, Steamed Milk, etc.) and play them onto cups to build different espresso drinks. There's some strategy to where you place your cards, as you score points for drinks in front you, and certain ingredient types must be played in a particular order. You lose points for cards left in your hand at the end, so I'm guessing a large portion of the game is mitigating your losses as best you can. Hopefully we'll find some victims to help us try it out this weekend.

Ravenstone - Playtest Rules

It's been a while, but I'm back.

This week and next, I am working on a revision of my rules for my rpg magnum opus, Ravenstone. In it, you play a creepy, dysfunctional family that fights monsters from beyond time and space. Kinda like if the Addams Family mated with the Winchesters from Supernatural, then used their resulting superpowers to hunt Lovecraftian horrors in a decade-spanning history written by Alan Moore. Kinda like that.

My wife, Sarah, and I are also working on a cooperative board game to replace the WarhammerQuest-shaped hole in our hearts. Our goals are to speed up play, replace the randomness with decision-making, and inject more of a sense of narration, while keeping the exploration, character growth, and cooperative elements of the original game. We are also replacing the Ameritrash big-guys-with-swords feel with an epic puppy-ton of cute. Just look at this mummy:



Edit: Oh, BTW, thanks to Wil for linking me from his site!

Super Villains - New Name, Same Great Taste

We had a very productive round of playtesting of my supervillains game over the weekend. Thanks again to Jeff for his good ideas and enthusiasm for the game. I'm feeling good about the core mechanics of the game. Now its just a matter of balancing all of the variable components, like Headlines, Heroes, and Menace cards.

One major issue we've come across is that the reward for a Destroy action is way better than the reward for a Steal or Ransom. Destroy rewards more Infamy (a lot more), and has become the clear path to victory. It's important that the other choices in the game are also valid paths to victory. I could increase the reward for other types, but more Cash (Ransom) and better abilities (Steal) is never going to trump raw victory points (Infamy from Destroy). To balance the additional Infamy for a Destroy action, Jeff suggested increasing the damage taken from Heroes. I like this idea, and will try it out. In order for it to work, a bunch of other changes will have to cascade to other parts of the game. The Hero deck was working as a time limit for the game. If players draw a variable number of Hero cards for each Plot, I will need to use some other device as a time limit or else the game length will be too random. Headlines are the obvious choice. The size of the Headlines deck (it's 60 cards, way more than one needs for one game) was causing problems due to the randomness of the deck -- a game usually requires a fairly even mix of card types, or else the game can favor one player over the others. Reducing the number of cards used for one game will eliminate the possibility of drawing ten cards of the same type in a row, ensuring a more even mix. I can use a smaller Headline deck as a time limit, and basically kill two design problems with one stone.

Oh yeah, and the name of the game! I'm changing it to MENACE, which I think works better than Villains Wear Spandex. Now I've got to go back and change the labels of all my earlier posts...

Villains Wear Spandex - Ready for Playtesting

Printing and cutting is done! Now to find some victims...I mean, play-testers. Mwa ha.

Villians Wear Spandex - Almost There

All parts are made. Ready for some printing and cutting (over 30 sheets this time!), and hopefully some play-testing. Despite its flaws, Sarah and I got a lot of play out the first prototype, so chances are good that we will do the same this time around.

Villians Wear Spandex - Further Progress

About halfway done with Headlines -- just need to come up with benefits for stealing each target.

Hero cards are complete. When you complete a Fiendish Plot, Ironhawk (a billionaire crime-fighter in a fancy armored suit) and his sidekicks, Kestrel and Redwing, inflict damage to your villainous organization. You choose how to split your losses between Minions, Lair rooms, and Menaces.

I bought some small wooden blocks for cheap ($1.47 a bag) at Hobby Lobby and painted them, so now I have nice wooden pieces for Villain and Minion pawns.

Still need to type up Origin Story cards (which provide a secret goal for scoring extra Infamy), update powers on the Moniker cards, throw together a score track, and of course, printing and cutting.

Should be done this week, I think!