9. February 2010 by admin.

Writing is progressing. It’s in the tough parts now, the things that need work and the things that need serious thought. GEARS in its entirety has been the product of intense work, but what is being done now is not just the structure of the game, but all the scaffolding that holds it together; it’s what will take GEARS from a detailed idea and turn it into an actual game. The plan is that, because this takes longer than the previous draft work, parts will be posted before the full Fourth Draft is put together. Changes in wording and outline are making the game mechanics far easier to understand and use, and small pieces are fitting so nicely they are opening up whole new realms of possibilities (I am looking at you, ‘character aspects’!). So even though everything is chaos, layout-wise, there is gold in this mine, if I may be so self-indulgent! And since the second major round of playtest is being put together now, along with the first serious (but still limited) push into public spotlight, things are looking mighty heavy for the coming weeks!

For the time being, here is the cover designed for Fourth Draft. As in the previous two covers (First Draft had no cover), the theme is “Work In Progress”, but the very simplistic logo-and-textlayout is now being transformed into something a little more interesting. Of course, clearly still WIP!

Posted in First Draft, Dice Mechanics, Layout, Fourth Draft, Character creation, Playtests | 1 Comment »

1. January 2010 by admin.

Christmas and New Years behind us, it looks like the time to get back in the saddle. Not that things have been all that quiet; writing on Fourth Draft has been quite active, much of it being structure and phrasing. The wording of rules from Third Draft are becoming more streamlined, making them easier to read and understand, and also setting them up for a better layout. And on layout matters, a lot of decisions are being made on graphics and text setup. Fourth Draft is going to push GEARS into a more respectable look, hopefully the beginning of making it look visually professional. Content is still the One True Focus, but we are far enough along that looks are beginning to count, if nothing else then because that includes how content is arranged, visually.

But that’s all still abstract ideas and nitpicking, respectively. What has taken center stage for the last week has been the Background trait. Of all the material in existence for GEARS, Background has become one of the more controversial topics, starting out as one of the foremost innovations of the rules and then abruptly slipping into the background (no pun intended), overshadowed by such things as Specifics and Learning Abilities in terms of innovation.

What Background originally did was guide character creation along what is known as ‘life paths’ in most RPG theory. In other words, characters were created by describing the paths they had taken in life, and defining Abilities and such from that. If your character had been a mercenary mechanics, that would produce some Abilities etc., and if a character had been orphaned at age 12, that would define certain character traits. Characters were not so much items picked as lives lived.

The rules now support a ‘pick your skills’ character creation more, but the old Background material is being revised and updated. The point now is to make game worlds the vessel for life paths, allowing some choices to be only available along certain paths. This might be learning mystical martial arts, possible only with enough Background from hard travels; without a heroic journey behind it, your character cannot be taught the Ancient Arts by secluded monks. Whether due to lack of insight, not having proven oneself worthy, or in other ways failing to have done something with his or her life, a character might be barred from certain options. Even advanced military training can require the character to have a certain amount of Background in the right fields!

And issues of Background are starting to show beautiful levels of sybergy with things like races, giving a character of one race opportunities other races lack. If you are not a dwarf, there are paths in life blocked to you. Those paths may hold otherwise forbidden knowledge, or they may simply be advantageous or plain interesting in other ways. Careers, challenges, experiences, associations, connections, they can all be made to tap into Background, with astoudingly easy game mechanics. This is what Background was made for, but the way it fits into the overall flexible GEARS game system is turning out pretty impressive.

Posted in Game worlds, Layout, Background, Human Template, Races, Third Draft, Fourth Draft, Genre, Character creation | 1 Comment »

27. December 2009 by admin.

With Christmas behind us, a bit of care is put into the work even during the holidays. After a short fight with technical issues on the site (sorry if it was down for a few hours over the holiday), I for one am turning my eyes back to the writing of the game.

Excepting some work still to be done to fine tune the layout of the color version of Third Draft, focus is on Fourth Draft now. New layout tools are being set up (Third Draft (color) pushed the old tools to their limits, it seems), but the big deal right now is in the presentation of Fourth Draft, and not the graphical one! Even with the new and improved wording of the rules being put together for Fourth, there is a distinct lack of feel in the text, making it look almost academic. The problem is that GEARS can be used in any way seen fit. So what is its basic mood?

The answer is not decisive yet, but the Alice 2.0 setting included might endup playing a wider role than originally expected. GEARS is about doing anything, yes, but it is built by people having fun with it, and much of that in a rather free-spirite way, from guns blazing to entertainment by overacting. Cliches, schticks and wacky cleverness has dominated playtests a bit more than has been let on, and the reason for not putting much focus on it has been to preserve GEARS’ universal attitude; portraying a style tends to color the system that style, and that is not the intention. But now, that policy is being reconsidered.

There is no way of telling how that line of discussion is going to turn out. GEARS remains a universal system, and that will be emphasized. But the wacky fun of current Alice 2.0 storylines in playtest look more and more likely to color the end result, and it looks like it might actually be a good thing…

Posted in Game worlds, Layout, Genre, Fourth Draft, Alice, Third Draft, Playtests | No Comments »