OK, so the 5 of you that actually read the blogs section on RPGsite have probably heard about this already, but for the rest of you, I guess it's still news.

As I discussed in rumble's thread here, I've been long considering experimenting with getting around my writer's block by simply blogging any ideas that come to my head, and wrapping it all into a book at the end.

So I finally decided to do it.  I'm not sure what set me of exactly, but suddenly I've a head brimming with ideas, and rather than fill up the forums here, I figured I'd put them all in one convenient place.

I poked at the blog interface here, but found I didn't care much for it, so instead, after seeing Dr. Rotwang's shiny blog, I decided to hit Blogger instead.

You can find me at http://hedgames.blogspot.com

I'll likely also be putting this stuff into a wiki at somepoint, as soon as I find a wikihost I actually like.  I've poked at PBwiki a little, but I'm not all that sure I like it much, and thus so far all I have on it is a hosting of a font I worked out for the book.

Interesting. I'll be checking up on this and hope it gets published. I like the fear mechanic...although I've got nothing constructive to add only that IMO such a mechanic seems appropriate for a setting like this.

I am however waiting to see some setting detail, because even though I may not like the finished system, if I dig the setting I'll get the published game.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RInteresting. I'll be checking up on this and hope it gets published. I like the fear mechanic...although I've got nothing constructive to add only that IMO such a mechanic seems appropriate for a setting like this.

I am however waiting to see some setting detail, because even though I may not like the finished system, if I dig the setting I'll get the published game.

Regards,
David R

There'll be more setting detail I assure you.  My head is absolutely full to the brim with ideas right now, so it's all coming out in rather scattered order.

There's a lot more detail to come jsut about Alaria alone, and of course, the nature of the apocalypse, what the world looks like now, and some human factions as well.  

Glad to see I've caught your interest.

The Aralia sound interesting. I don't think you have a "normal" post apoc setting in mind - which is a good thing. Whenever a writer goes into detail about the races in his/her setting, I expect those details to have some relevence during actual play. This is one of the main reasons why Jorune is so appealing to me. I'm looking forward to your post about the cultural aspects of the Aralians.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RThe Aralia sound interesting. I don't think you have a "normal" post apoc setting in mind - which is a good thing. Whenever a writer goes into detail about the races in his/her setting, I expect those details to have some relevence during actual play. This is one of the main reasons why Jorune is so appealing to me. I'm looking forward to your post about the cultural aspects of the Aralians.

Regards,
David R

Basically every aspect I've discussed for their basic nature and biology I've tried to tie directly into their culture and technology, at least that's the intent.  Their breeding habits in particular are one of the most important cores to how their societal structure is built, and their physical limitations have driven a lot of their technology, like the climate sensitivity.  I jsut haven't gotten it all written out yet.  

And yeah, this not quite a "normal" post-nuclear type setting, the nature of the apocalypse is far different, and it occurs to me that while I had intended to do part 2 on the Aralia description, maybe I should hold off and lay some more groundwork about just what Nightfall is and what happened to civilization.

You know I'm reading this and I think you've got some pretty interesting imagery going on or rather I guess the symbolism of Nightfall and As-namsu for some odd reason.... there a vibe here that I find interesting.

I wonder though as far as system goes and this is something that irks me about post apoc settings, is that survival normally translates into resource management. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of the game here, but have you given this much thought ?

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RYou know I'm reading this and I think you've got some pretty interesting imagery going on or rather I guess the symbolism of Nightfall and As-namsu for some odd reason.... there a vibe here that I find interesting.

I wonder though as far as system goes and this is something that irks me about post apoc settings, is that survival normally translates into resource management. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of the game here, but have you given this much thought ?

Regards,
David R

I've debated getting into things like food and water requirements and all of that, but to be honest I tihnk I'm most likely to handle it either the way Gamma World 4th did (a single skill that you check on periodically over long journeys to find food), or simply leaving it up to GMs to handle on their own judgement.

My personal feeling is that roleplaying out rigid rationing schedules and starvation isn't really all that exciting.  Roleplaying out the trek into a burned out city crawling with mutated feral humans who can climb walls like geckos so you can find food for your village, THAT is exciting.

The fight against starvation does offer some dramatic appeal, as a sort of time pressure combined with a death spiral effect, but unless I could find a relatively abstract and elegant method of implementing this sort of thing, I'm liable to not worry about it too much.

Quote from: J ArcaneThe fight against starvation does offer some dramatic appeal, as a sort of time pressure combined with a death spiral effect, but unless I could find a relatively abstract and elegant method of implementing this sort of thing, I'm liable to not worry about it too much.

I think that's the way to go, because IME GMs who "get" post apoc settings tend to prefer to handle stuff like this in their own way - sometimes depending on the situation (adventure) resource management is called for other times, it's not really necessary.

IMO if players get bogged down with resource management it tends to detract from the setting although I realize that's the last thing the designer intended.

Regards,
David R

New system post up, continuing the character creation to part 2.  Most notably, it included the Spirit Point system, which is one of the key mechanics of the game, and was originally going to be given it's own post like I did with fear, but it fit in this section better.  

http://hedgames.blogspot.com/2007/05/character-creation-part-2-derived-stats.html