Machine Age Productions

Free Game

David — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:17:17 +0000

I did a short, five page microgame. It’s called I Could Make You Care. It’s a game for two people, about exploring abusive, one-sided relationships with monsters. This could be literal or figurative. It’s not a feel-good game. It’s very simple. It’s mostly just a design exercise. But, it’s there. Yours.

You can download it here.

Lots of Farewell to Fear

David — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:22:46 +0000

Lots of updates!

Let’s get started with a couple of interviews.

Here’s a really great podcast interview on Sharkbone where I go over tons of stuff about Farewell to Fear. This one’s really comprehensive. Much more than I initially expected.

Looking for a more text-friendly interview? Awesome. I did one with Manda Collis over at Charisma Bonus.

Next. We’re over $7,000! We’ve almost doubled our initial goal. We hit $6,000 in under a week. That’s our first stretch goal. That means everyone’s getting sixteen modules, instead of the normal eight.

We’re not that far from the $8,000 goal, the Apocalypse World hack. After that, at $10,000, we’re doing our total war campaign book. After that, at $12,000, I’ll provide Kindle format for everyone involved.

We just worked out a deal with Prismatic Art where all of Farewell to Fear’s art will be included in their awesome project. That means all of Farewell to Fear’s art will be Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licensed. So you can use it in your own products, you can put it on t-shirts, you can do whatever you want with it so long as you attribute it and share the result Creative Commons.

Farewell to Fear Kickstarter is Live!

David — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:59:53 +0000

We just went live about six hours ago. We’re already a third of the way to our goal. This is very exciting. Check it out!

Farewell to Fear is our “Progressive Post-Fantasy Roleplaying Game”. What do we mean by that? Fantasy’s full of all sorts of legacy concepts that are rather disgusting to us; sexism, classism, racism, institutional violence, those are just a few choice items. Farewell to Fear is a game about revolution, about taking fantasy out of the dark ages through drive and action.

Think punk rock meets fantasy. Bad Religion meets Tolkien, boot to face.

People Are People

It’s important that we recognize that people in the middle ages were still human, and were often a lot more intelligent than we give often them credit for. We’re putting that at the front of our fantasy in Farewell to Fear. When you’re done with a game of Farewell to Fear, the world should not be the same.

The Setting

Our setting is Arduise, a continent that claims inspiration from numerous sources, but primarily looks Eastern European. However, that’s on the surface. We’re not bothering with dictating things like skin colors for certain regions. We’re not tying ourselves to specific regional myths. We’re going to take a little bit of everything we like. After all, it’s all made to be torn down and rebuilt.

The current setting focuses on four main city states, each with particular strengths, weaknesses, politics, laws, and the like. We’re not going to go into every little detail of every little NPC. Instead, we’re going to give you the details that help bring your game to life. This means money, anecdotes, folklore, sayings, traditions, and bits of day to day existence that’ll help you consider the micro, as opposed to just the macro implications of Arduise.

The history will also be important. Instead of a textbook of history, we’re instead giving you hints, ideas, and seeds. The history was written by the winners. Unfortunately, the winners clouded the truth. Your characters might want to uncover the truth. This will be a fantasy game where archaeology is a valid character goal.

Keys

In our setting, wizards live in an alternate plane. That’s where they keep their guild. To get there, they have special keys that can be used in any lock, to open temporary portals to their home dimension. There are a limited number of these keys, and since it’s the mages’ only way to get home, they’re typically protected. But particularly powerful (or arrogant) mages will wear their keys publicly, as a sign of status. With most backer levels, I’m including real world antique keys. These keys are a neat little way to show you’re part of Farewell to Fear.

Game System

The main game system is inspired by the scientific method. Instead of a huge focus on pass/fail mechanics, we’re mostly concerned about finding solutions through conjecture, precedent, and experimentation. It uses two dice, a d20 and another die (maybe a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or another d20). The d20 establishes your solution, and the consequences for your action. The d20 has five potential results, depending on your experiment, and your character traits (and whether or not you have time to prepare, or you’re on the seat of your pants). The other die determines how well you execute the solution. If you have a good solution, but poor execution, you suffer consequences, but can come back later to try the same solution.

Format

The game will come in a 10″ x 7″ hardcover, with black and white interior. As well, we’ll release a PDF version. As a stretch goal, I’d like to include an HTML version of the game for ease of use on tablets and other devices, along with Epub or Mobi formats.

The game itself will be about half in-character, half out. The setting information is presented as a body of research collected by a young woman whose father stumbled upon a little too much of the truth.

Characters

Characters will be quick to create, and self-contained. I’ll be using a playbook model, similar to Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World. If you’re unfamiliar, that means a single sheet that is enough for the players to build their characters and play. Each character profession will have an ability tree (something like you might see in an MMO) that will determine all their game statistics and possibilities for advancement.

Basic character types will include things like archaeologists, historians, alchemists, monster hunters, priest hunters, musicians, detectives, politicians, sorcerers, exorcists, biologists, and cavaliers. We’re changing the world. You’re playing the people that bring the change. The game is modular enough to introduce new character types very easily. We’ll be supporting the game with additional characters, and fans can make their own. We may offer new characters as stretch goals.

Foie Gras to Fear

Foie Gras to Fear is the tentative name of our first supplement, to be released right around the same time as the main game. It’s half gaming supplement, half cookbook. It’ll give a number of recipes as well as setting information, presented in-character from the perspective of a wandering chef looking for new ideas. It’ll also have advice for how to use food to enhance your game experience.

It’ll introduce a wandering chef playbook and ability tree, so you can play your own, awesome cook braving the wilderness to deliver good eats and support your party of adventurers. Backers will receive copies, as noted in the item descriptions.

Creative Commons

Like all Machine Age Productions, Farewell to Fear will be released as a Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike/Noncommercial license. Gaming’s a community. We want to foster this.

Kicking It Forward

We here at Machine Age Productions vow to put 5% of our Kickstarter profits into other creative projects via Kickstarter.

http://kickingitforward.org

Updates: Farewell to Fear, Flatpack, Guestbook, PAX

David — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:55:44 +0000

Holy fucking shit.

I came home from PAX East yesterday. What an amazing show! I packed Design an RPG in an Hour, and then some. The room had to cut attendance at 350. They turned down probably another 100 or so. It was crazy. Then, I did Design a Dungeon with Greg Tito of The Escapist, Phillipe Menard of Margaret Weis, and Mike Mearls of Wizards of the Coast. You can listen to that here. It rocked, but was very, very NSFW.

They stopped admitting new attendees... there.

Next… We just got our proofs for Flatpack. I’ve got photos! We’re moving on the final version right now. And we’ll be getting that out to backers as soon as possible. It turns out, that both printers and pregnancy can make publishing a little slower than we sometimes expect. But we’ve got an amazing game coming to you all. So just bear with us a little longer.

Isn't she adorable? (the WRENCH, not our daughter's hand)

Back cover goodness. You can see the special magnetic game pieces for the big backers.

The beautiful, colorful interior!

So that’s Flatpack, right? Farewell to Fear’s the next big one. We’re going to be putting the Kickstarter up next week. Jenna Fowler‘s doing some promo art for it as we speak. You might remember her from such awesomeness as Most of Amaranthine. While I just gave her the art direction for the Kickstarter piece, here’s some sketches she’s established for the setting’s clothing styles. There are more where these came from.

Liefuise, a city with a strong military hierarchy.

Alluise, city of society and culture.

Lastly, Guestbook! George Cotronis has just given us the last pieces for Series 3 Guestbook. That means we’ll be moving on with that ASAP. More exciting than even that, we’ve got a Guestbook Android/iOS app coming. It’ll let you play on your smartphones or tablets, in a delayed or immediate fashion. I don’t have a ton of details just yet, but we’re hyped and can’t wait to make it happen.

So yes. We’re alive. We’re just working our asses off. You want to know what else we’re doing? We have some mini-games in the pipeline. We have work for third parties (we’re both working on Marvel Heroic Roleplaying!) And, well, Maschine Zeit’s getting a full re-release, including a redesigned rules set and a full campaign model, to commemorate the release of Prometheus.

It’s a good time to be in the Machine Age.

Guestbook Series 3 Art! Flatpack Updates! PAX!

David — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:14:40 +0000

Here’s some more art from Guestbook Series 3! We had some hiccups, so we’re behind schedule. But I think we’re churning out something altogether better. So I’m excited to see the response. Remember, this is for our fan-decided Space Opera series. These are three choice pieces from George Cotronis.

Next week, I’ll be at PAX East. If you’re present, come see me. I’m doing Design an RPG in an Hour, and a Design a Dungeon panel with Wizard of the Coast’s Mike Mearls and some other amazing talent. After PAX, I expect to be hitting the Guestbooks hard. This week, I’m hooked on some Marvel Heroes work, I’ve got to complete in the immediate. Filamena’s working on the Book of Puzzles and Book of Conflicts for Flatpack. We’re supposed to be getting our proof of Flatpack in the mail tomorrow.

The Territories of Farewell to Fear

David — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:32:23 +0000

Arduise consists of four territories, each consisting of a city and its protectorate villages, and two transient or hidden societies that exist within the four territories and a mystical ‘other space’. The four cities are often referred to as the Four Treasures of Arduise. The Treasures, while not centrally ruled, each contribute delegates to an Accord which strives to maintain peace and trade between the four.
Alluise: The Treasure of the East. Recently, Alluise lost its king, and is ruled by a council debating the territory’s future. Because of this, the other Treasures are looking in with curiosity or temptation. The king left three heirs, all of which went missing after his death. Various cabals seek the heirs to empower their own interests. Alluise’s population is highly urban and socialite.
Liefuise: The Treasure of the North. Separated most from the other three Treasures, the territory of Liefuise takes a very defensive stance in diplomacy. They’re renowned and feared for their military force, and are known to maintain an active spy network within all the other territories (and their own). Their queen is the most well-known of the nobility of Arduise, but their general is widely accepted to be the true power of the Liefuise empire.
Konuise: The Treasure of the South. Konuise is recognized as Arduise’s creative heart. Most recognized artists and poets claim heritage along its shore. Their king prides himself as being something of a social experimenter. He’s played with public policy to varying effects. Konuise exists primarily through imported goods, and exports most of what it creates due to lackluster farmland within the territory. Most Arduise households, except for the very poorest, have at least some of Konuise’s creativity inside.
Moruise: The Treasure of the West. Whereas Konuise creates beauty, Moruise creates function. The Treasure of the West is home to many of Arduise’s greatest scientists, craftspeople, and engineers. Their queen is rumored to have a nonhuman ancestry. This is exacerbated by the fact that, since her reign began, numerous relics of pre-human technology have surfaced from the western mountains. Despite the rumors, she’s kept investigation into the mountains to a minimum, as researchers have met gruesome fates in their exploration.
Waarhuise: Waarhuise is a community centered on the pursuit of the magical arts. While they do have a base of operations, it holds no geographical coordinates. It exists in an alternate realm, accessible only to members with special keys. While technically an apolitical organization, they do maintain delegation on the Accord due to their disproportionate influence. Their population is hardly impressive, but it’s a common mistake to assume they’re primarily sorcerers. For every sorcerer, at least three nonmagical administrators owe membership to the Academy.
Kennuise: The Kennuise is neither a territory nor an alternate realm of existence. It’s a secret society, hidden among the other five cultures. Their population numbers are secretive, but rumor has it that their numbers exceed many larger villages. The romanticized version of their purpose is that of an equalizing force that roots out corruption. The truth puts it closer to a network of spies with loosely affiliated political aspirations, some of which boasting revolutionary ideals. They’ve been behind a number of high-profile assassinations, both political and literal. Everyone knows they exist, but the details are lost on the masses, who prefer the drama and romance of these shadow agents.

Nu Fantasy Game Design Doc

David — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:40:45 +0000

Here’s part of the design document for the Nu Fantasy Game. I know some folks are interested in my process. And I promised I’d try to post as much of the material as possible. Feel free to drop thoughts in the comments.
Format
I’m shooting for 100,000 words. Amaranthine clocked in at 140,000 IIRC. I want this to be shorter, but with more setting content. Significantly so. Whereas Amaranthine was a huge toolkit for telling varied urban fantasy stories and building your own game world, this book will focus heavily on setting material.
Amaranthine was 212 pages, 8.5” x 11”, full-color. Maschine Zeit was 7” x 10”, 120 pages B&W, but only 60,000 words. Maschine Zeit was also super minimal in a number of regards. The middle ground I want to attain here is:
100,000 words. 200 pages. 8.5” x 11”, B&W. Fewer net words per page than Amaranthine, with a heavy eye toward presentation, like Maschine Zeit.
System will be more robust than Maschine Zeit, but nowhere near as detailed as Amaranthine. The important distinction is, I’m going to challenge myself to blend some of the system information into the setting information.
The System
The system will be based around the Scientific Method. We’re not as concerned with direct pass/fail mechanics here. The importance of our system is about exploration, and finding solutions. I figure, the characters in my ideal fantasy story can succeed when they have the solution, but finding that solution is the struggle. This means that, if you’re going to do traditional monster hunting dungeon crawling shit, you’re going to want to research. You’re going to want to approach a situation from an informed perspective. Dragons (if they exist,) will fuck you up. If you expect to beat one, the path to that fight will be the real story. Finding weaknesses, finding smart strategies and defenses, and finding ideal approaches will take some time and effort.
I have more stuff in my head about this. But basically, it’ll go like this:
1) Make your thesis. Tell me what your expected outcome is.
2) Give me some supporting precedent and your established knowledge. (uses previous rolls and prep rolls to get this info)
3) Experiment a bit. Try to find kinks in your plan. (rolls here, results kept from player)
4) Determine the risk of a full attempt. (perhaps rolls here)
5) Withdraw or proceed. Find out if your experimentation and exploration was enough, the hard way.
6) Publish data. Use this as precedent for further experiments.
Basic Outline
Here’s about how I’ll break down the book:
Introduction and Setting Primer- 5k
Cast Creation – 5k
Basic Rules – 5k
Region 1, and Character Options for Science – 12k
Region 2, and Character Options for Espionage – 12k
Region 3, and Character Options for Politics – 12k
Region 4, and Character Options for Artistry – 12k
Region 5, and Character Options for Warfare – 12k
Region X, and Character Options for Magery – 12k
Director Stuff, Stories, Seeds, Monsters – 13k
I wholly expect these to be soft numbers. I doubt the setting primer and intro will really take 5k, for instance. But, that’ll give me room to pad other sections. I figure the Direction section will need more space, and the basic rules might require less.
Setting Presentation
I’ll keep stated setting, canon, to a minimum. Give a lot of opinions and perspectives. This is important, since it’ll leave the Director the room to surprise players that may have read the whole book. For example, if there was a battle in a village a century ago, nobody currently alive was there. If the characters are researching it, they’ll read eyewitness accounts, they might head bardic songs, they might use divination magic, they might dig up the remains of participants. Either way, they’re putting together a story that’s not necessarily complete. We know the battle happened. We know who fought. We have good ideas of why they fought. But uncovering all the nitty gritty is up to the players. We’ll give the Director plenty of ideas, options, and jumping off points, along with a smattering of story seeds. But we don’t give those tiny details as any sort of fact or gospel.

If you want to participate in the discussion on this, check it out on G+. https://plus.google.com/118365124365067663191/posts/ip2u56mUrrC If you haven’t, consider adding me there. I talk a lot about the process there.

Yes, but is it Art?

Filamena — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:45:48 +0000

I think we talked about Flatpack, didn’t we?

Well, here’s that demonstration game I promised you. Spit, polished, and free for your downloading joy, this demo has everything you need to play but dice and friends.

Long, dull days can be the worst part of the just-after-holiday stretch before school and work start back up. Consider this demo game my gift to you, a way to fill the time with stick figure drawings, adorable bug mutants, and killer robots! Because you can’t spell ‘Seasons Greetings’ without ‘Killer Robots.’

Go, play, tell everyone you know, because if this is the game for you, you’re going to love it. If this isn’t the game for you, don’t tell me, I’ve got the fragile ego of a game designer.

Oh, and Happy Whatever You Do or Don’t Celebrate this winter season from us at Machine Age Productions!

Parts of a Problem

Filamena — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:19:48 +0000

Parts of a Problem

Parts of a Problem is in fact a PDF with Flatpacks core mechanic in a page.

In Flatpack, mechanics more or less come in when the players want to do something the Troublemaker (our Game Master) can’t say yes. (Say Yes or Roll the Dice.)

Everything after that, believe it or not, fits on one page. This is what I consider a ‘rules light’ system meant to encourage character success and player good times. It’s a game for teens and younger players, with potential (like much YA fiction) for plenty of adult entertainment depending on how it’s run.

Take a look, this is the core of the game. Any additional mechanics in the game are meant to ‘hack’ this system, so it needs to be adaptable and light. Complexity is what you want it to be, rather than handed to you straight out of the box.

Soon, I’ll be posting a Demo game meant to introduce the game with everything needed to play. Good times, I’m hoping.

So again, if you want take a look, go ahead and check out Parts of a Problem, the one page rules.

Artists, Brush Off Your Brushes

Filamena — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:02:15 +0000

New MAP Product!

Well, it’s on it’s way, anyway. We’re currently looking for a few brave artists to tackle the MANY complicated and time consuming art pieces required to put this book together. (Okay, actually they should all be pretty simple, low key, and the opposite of scary.)

Flatpack is a light, good nature’d game about people adventuring and rebuilding their communities and homes after the Apocalypse. It’s a game about hope and working together and exploration above all. In a day or two I’ll have a demo game posted with everything you need to check out the basics of the game and the setting, but for now, I’m throwing you some PDF design sheets to give you an idea or two of the sort of art that we’ll be looking for.

We’ll be looking for one artist to handle an iconic character who will appear throughout the book, something like the little Ikea dude. icondesignsheet.

The other sheet describes a bit more about any other character art. artsheet.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. (filamena at gmail dot com) We’ll be using our current standard rates, (15-20 for quarter page, 30-40 for half. Unless you’re a known entity to us.) We do contracts. We do creative commons. We have guidelines to keep in mind when considering working with us. Thank you so much for your time and attention.