Daily Blogging: Travel & Evolving Ideas
I’m on the way to Washington, DC. As I write this, I’m flying from Calgary to Montreal, and then—connections willing—I’ll be heading to DC. If you’re reading this, I obviously made it. I’m not sure what I’m flying on, but it’s quite empty, so I have an aisle to myself.
I’m officially on vacation, and I’ve fulfilled my “Daily Blogging” challenge, but I still have a couple entries that I want to write, and then I have a bit of re-reading and summarizing to wrap my head around the entire experiment. Was it successful? In some ways yes, in some ways no, I think …
Don asked this two-parter:
How often do things change when you start explaining your new ideas to others? For example no game of Shadowrun has ever gone according to my plan as the GM. I often let the players mold things. Do you and other developers have the same “work off each other” relationship as a GM and his/her players?
Nothing survives contact with the other developers; rarely does anyone propose something that doesn’t get—at the very least—tweaked before hitting the real world.
We’ll typically start off with an informal pitch to each other: “Hey, I’ve been thinking about a card game where you play paparazzi, trying to get the craziest celebrity photos as possible. Keep it simple, non-collectible, a party or drinking game.” and from there, move on to talking about the physical specs of the game: gameplay ideas, number of cards, packaging, price point, etc.
After we’ve talked it over, the actual pitch gets written up. Just like when we ask a freelance author for a proposal for a project, the developers write internal proposals for every project we publish. The point of this proposal is simple: Outline the facts [as they are at the time] about the project, and then sell everyone on it. Explain why it’s cool, explain why we’ll have fun working on it, explain why it will sell, and explain how it ties in—or doen’t— with the rest of our market.
Randall [our Managing Developer] works with all our game developers, approving and tweaking the creative side of our projects, determining exactly what each project is composed of and who will work on it, while David and myself handle budgets and logistics.
Depending on the project, it will of course evolve during the game design, development, writing, and playtesting processes.
Can you give your readers of this blog an example of something you thought was an awesome idea that fell flat? Not that any one wants to see the developers glitch or anything; we just want to know not every idea is perfect when we are sitting up at 3:45 am before a game with a blank piece of paper staring back at us.
I’m loathe to spill the beans on stuff that was in development and never saw the light of day, whether it be something of Catalyst’s or something at a previous company. I do think that some projects that may have sounded cool but not been feasible in 2003 or 2006 may find new life in 2011 or 2017. Every game designer carries around an arsenal of ideas—mental prototypes, if you will—because you never know when the right spark of inspiration or trend will make it possible to turn the idea into reality.
When I was in Seattle in April, Loren, David, and myself brainstormed up some really cool book ideas; taking some concepts that started decades ago and modernizing them in a really unique way. It’s been such a busy year that we haven’t had time to get past the informal discussion stage, but the idea is tucked in the back of my head, ready to unleash when the time is right.
In the realm of published products, I often felt that Year of the Comet got a bad rap from fans. Those that didn’t like SURGE seemed to tar the entire book based on what was only a small portion of it, and it still gets brought up 7 years later—even though SURGE rarely factors in a storyline in a major way. You can ignore SURGE and get a ton of use out of Year of the Comet.
Guardians of Order’s Ex Machina was another such project. It didn’t so much get a bad rap based on any one part of it … it just didn’t catch on with gamers, despite containing a bunch of really cool settings and some great cyberpunk information in general. Of course, it was released in 2004, which was an overall dire year for RPG sales. I see it on sale for $5-10 at conventions, and I know that it’s a bargain at that price.
Occasionally, though, I really wonder how certain projects got the green-light. Even when I know the reasons, sometimes I still can’t wrap my head around it. I’ll pick on Guardians of Order’s d20 Military Vehicles here. This book of real life military vehicles was well done, but was there really a strong market for such a thing, when the rules-set it used was primarily made for anime roleplayers? Then again, the rules-set used, d20 Mecha, could design any sort of vehicle … so why in the blue blazes wasn’t d20 Mecha called d20 Vehicles? Sometimes, being literal is your best choice. I wouldn’t say d20 Military Vehicles was a badly-done book, but from a line developing standpoint, it stood out like a sore thumb next to the fantasy and sci-fi BESM d20 books.
November 26th, 2008 at 09:38:45
Personally I liked YotC and everything in it. I wonder if the same people that hated SURGE in YotC are now happily taking the most advantageous changeling qualities from Runners Companion.
November 26th, 2008 at 21:57:41
One thing many overlook in D.C. you should check out if you get the chance is the Library of Congress the place breaths ideas.
November 27th, 2008 at 01:05:17
Agree with Mark, YotC was awesome. WotC was poor though…
Thanks for your insights Adam, and enjoy the vacation :o)
November 27th, 2008 at 02:43:01
You know..honestly, I loved SURGE and Year of the Comet. I think, though, the book with the biggest bum rap of the SR3 stuff was the ORIGINAL, non-revised version of Rigger 3. I hear that slammed on so hard for the stuff like Naval Grade weapons(Though it was fun trying to figure out how to squeeze a light rail gun onto a Eurovan….), but over all, R3 was a great book. It had some glitches, of course. What Rigger book does not? I personally think the reason that SR4 did not get a dedicated book for vehicles and riggers(instead having it folded into the Big Book o Guns which Arsenal fits the classic spot of) was, in fact, due to the people who complained about R3, and cheered R3R(which was practically the same book..just included some filler to cover their ripping out the Naval stuff!)
November 27th, 2008 at 06:02:19
SURGE has never bothered me. Some of my players have had faces, but like you say, you can choose not to play it up and everything is fine. And yes, they are eying the more powerful changeling abilities and playing with the idea of having blue skin.
November 27th, 2008 at 07:12:20
Uh, YotC I liked very much, too!
But one of my players got really pissed, when her random SURGE roll turned her into a fur ball :) Nevertheless, she’s still playing that character, cause you don’t throw away an Iniate Level 5 Shaman..
December 1st, 2008 at 12:11:06
My favorite parts of YotC had nothing to do with crunch (most of the changeling PC’s and NPC’s that strike me as memeorable didn’t use the qualities in the book). It was the fluff… all the craziness and cults and reactions and strangeness that accompanied the comet’s arrival, as well as all the background work.