Flaming Monkey

I sent out the player lists and game assignments for The Black Road 2006 this evening, about two weeks ahead of schedule. It certainly is nice when things go relatively smoothly, and now there shouldn’t be much for me to do until just before the con itself.

Except, of course, for preparing for the games I’m going to be running.

As has often been the case with game theory, it’s Vincent who makes me finally feel like I get it.

I suggest, finally, that push/pull is a big deal. It’s a true development – nobody should read me as saying “we already thought of this, let’s be comfortable.” A week ago, if you’d asked me whether we can and should examine Drama resolution in at-the-End vs. in-the-Middle terms, I’d’ve shrugged: “we can, but should we? Neh. Why bother? It’ll just be basically the same as Fortune.” I’ve said such things on the Forge. I was DEAD WRONG.

In fact, push/pull has given me, understood this way, whole new insights into my group’s long-term Ars Magica freeform game. Expect a comprehensive post here about that game’s breakdown. When I find the time.

It’s basically what Vincent came up with in reponse to Brand’s recent post, taken further (and with examples). Excellent.

Of course, in comments people argue that Vincent really hasn’t pinned push/pull down at all, so I may still not understand.

After a long period of silence, there’s a welcome update about the status of The Dresden Files RPG:

For the impatient, let me say it up front and early: The Dresden Files RPG will be published, and is still under active development effort. Our timetable has slipped, and we’ll probably see it coming out towards the end of this year. We’re very sorry about this delay, but we appreciate your patience.

Now as to the details…

I’m still really looking forward to this, and I’m glad they aren’t even attempting to try and rush it out before GenCon.

There’ve been attempts over on Story Games to bring the whole push-pull thing back onto the front burner, so Mo has taken another shot at defining what she meant.

Here are your no-nonsense definitions:

Push is an assertion of individual authority.

Pull is a directed solicitation for collaborative buy-in and input.

After reading her post, and looking through some of the discussion, I think I’m pretty sure this isn’t something that’s going to be useful for me personally. Judging by some of what I read, I’m not the only one who feels that way.

ETA: Brand has an excellent post that builds on this in important ways. Be sure to read the comments too. Vincent manages to clarify some things quite nicely (at least for me). Very cool.

Here’s the shortlist for the 2006 Diana Jones Award:

The Gamechef game-design competition
Irish games convention charity auctions
Magic the Gathering, 9th edition (Wizards of the Coast)
Perplex City (Mind Candy Ltd)
Spycraft 2.0 by Patrick Kapera, et al (Alderac Entertainment Group)
Twilight Struggle by Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews (GMT Games)

I’m not really sure how you can compare a game design contest to a collectible card game to a charity auction, so I have no idea at all which of the nominees is likely to win, but I still think it’s pretty cool that Game Chef made the list.

The last game for The Black Road 2006 has been submitted (by me), the game schedule has been decided on, and the game selection form has been finished. Now I just need to get the game book put together and posted….

This looks like a pretty cool idea.

Truth or Scar (a scary little PBP game)

“Prof. Stanson has found a set of curious scrolls and tomes of unknown antiquity and origin. Luckily, one of them appears to be a tranlation to a peculiar precursor of Latin which he specializes in. Feverishly working backwards he is able to decipher fair portions of the other materials.”

(my friend narrates the “weird occurance”)

“He falls into a vision- he seeks an island and it’s inhabitants, all engaged in a festival- no, more ordered than that- a ritual. A dance, a chant… a spell. The Island disappears, and in a remote part of Russia, the Island crashes to the earth.”

(at this point, I choose Scar, to give my friend an example…)

“Awakening from his dream, he realizes that one of the scrolls he has been translating is a copy of that very spell. And, that the strange hand postures he saw in his vision were only possible to a person possessing 6 fingers… It is with that realization that a sharp pain begins in the center of his left palm, shooting to the webbing between his ring and middle finger, before a new growth begins to seek its way out, bone and muscle forcing its way into place, like his hand is splitting slowly. The new finger twitches and sort of nestles its place comfortably…”

Guess we’ll see if it get developed further, but I certainly like what he’s got so far.