Time Heroes Update - Nearing Readiness!

Things have been busy on the GeekWorld front. After some initial discussion with Justin, Time Heroes' illustrator and layout designer, we appear to have come to an agreement on his illustrating compensation. That just leaves compensation for layout work. He has also begun doing some work on the Quick-Start Rules and Episode, which is called Rise of the Plushies! I've been provided with a sample page, and am extremely happy with how that turned out, both art and design-wise. There should be no issues with getting that ready for Berserkon (and for the $1 Kickstarter backers).

Regarding my work on the game design end of things, I'm currently working on the "final" edit of the beta draft (accepting that there will almost assuredly be changes from backer feedback. I've given myself a rate of 10% today and, after today, have just hit the 50% mark. This means that after the upcoming Friday (4/5/13), the beta draft of Time Heroes will be done and ready to provide to the $5 backers. So, good progress!

In regards to the Time Heroes Kickstarter, I have solidly decided on the following reward levels (with more likely to be added before the thing gets going):

$1 Quick-Start Rules/Episode Rise of the Plushies
$5 Immediate access to the Time Heroes beta draft (with the ability to send errors/problems for amending in the final edition).
$10 Time Heroes PDF (black and white)
$25/30 (haven't decided yet) - Softcover of the Time Heroes core rules (in black and white, color might be a stretch goal)
$35/40 (depending on book cost) - Autographed copy of the Time Heroes core rules
$60/65 - As autograph level but I will run an adventure for your group

As I said, there will probably be more reward levels (and maybe more added once the Kickstarter begins, if supplement stretch goals get reached).

That's about everything I have currently, update-wise. Things are rolling along smoothly, and we're hoping to be able to get our Kickstarter going by Berserkon. Time (and the CC license) will tell!

Time Heroes - Fate Core - Status Update

Justin, the friend illustrating Time Heroes, pointed something out to me the other day in an email. He said that Sprit of the Century and the Dresden Files aren't Spirit of the Century of Fate or Dresden Files of Fate. That gave me pause, as he was absolutely right. 

The original reason I settled on Time Heroes of Fate was because I was hoping at some point down the road to release the original version of Time Heroes. However, this version has already garnered more interest than the other ever did (to be fair, the original has also been run far less). So I've decided to rename the game, dropping the "of Fate" at the end.

The question now becomes: Do I want to call it simply Time Heroes? Or do I want to call it Time Heroes, Inc.? For those of you who have been following along with the design journals, the "default" setting of the core rules is going to be present day, and the atmosphere is meant to be Saturday morning cartoony adventure. However, in the course of game creation, there is also the option to set the game in the future, post-apocalypse style or in the past with more of a standard role playing atmosphere. However, other than game creation, the rest of the book refers to the default modern cartoony setting.

In this setting, the PCs are part of a Time Heroes, Inc. franchise. The corporation itself is headed up by the Great Merlini, Merlin's last living descendant. However, that's neither here nor there. The problem is, games set in the future or past will not be based off of franchises. I do plan on releasing setting books for each of the other style of game (or one book with both, depending on length). Do I call the game Time Heroes, because these alternate settings aren't corporation based, or do I call it Time Heroes, Inc. because that's the default setting referred to in the core book? Any thoughts/comments/ideas are more than welcome, as always!

Time Heroes of Fate Character Sheet

Not a huge blog post currently. I decided to put together a Time Heroes of Fate character sheet today. I hopped into Microsoft Publisher 360 expecting to take forever, but I created something I'm quite happy with in under an hour. The "Time Heroes of Fate" text at the top will likely change with the official logo, somehow, but other than that I don't see much that needs changing. What do you think?

Time Heroes of Fate Character Sheet

Time Heroes of Fate Update - Beta Finished!

I've been pounding away at Time Heroes of Fate for quite some time now in order to ensure I have everything ready to go when I am able to launch the Kickstarter. Tonight, I managed to write the last few words of the beta draft of THoF.

I still have to go through and do some editing, reword much of it to add atmospheric flavor to it. I also have to go fill in some example boxes I added (so as to remember where examples should go). Other than that, the first draft is officially complete! Once +Fred Hicks and Evil Hat get the Creative Commons/OGL license up and running, the Time Heroes of Fate Kickstarter should be good to go!

Of course, now is when I rethink Magic/Future Tech yet again. I have included the version where either skill is used as a sort of replacement skill for another in situations where that skill would normally be ineffective (trying to hit someone with your weapon which is across the room on a table while you're handcuffed to a wall). However, after demoing the game at Plattecon a short while ago, I began to think about getting rid of that and instead making the two skills able to perform stunts you don't have for certain skills chosen during character creation (the amount of which is equal to your refresh after stunts are chosen) at the cost of a Quantum Point every time you do this. 

However, I'm wondering if this would eliminate reasons for people to choose stunts at all. Granted, even the simplest stunts would end up costing a Quantum Point when Magic/Future Tech is involved, but still, that seems pretty powerful. I think for now I'll leave it the way it is and see if I can't get some last minute feedback from folks.

So, what do you guys think? Leave those skills the way they are, or change them up?

Time Heroes of Fate - Roadblock Near the End of the Road

So I've entered my week to dedicate to finishing up Time Heroes of Fate (well, the beta of the core rules, anyway). +Ashley Ishmael, my fiancee, has just started her spring break and other than working the overnight tonight, she has neither work nor school until the end of the week. This means that I'll have lots of time this week to work on the beta of the core rules while she hangs out with the little guy.

Unfortunately, at the moment I'm not (obviously) working on the document itself. I had a great head of steam going until I hit the current portion of the game master section; designing adventures. I already have the idea for the sample adventure I plan on including in the core rules (it's going to be an adaptation of the con demo I've been running), but I also want to use creating it as the examples in the design section. I just created the text box for the first example (which is just the basic breakdown of a "typical" episode of Time Heroes of Fate) and slammed headfirst into a wall.

If course the first thing that came to mind was pop over to the blog/design journal that I've been basically ignoring since I began pounding out the core rules (which now officially clocks in at 92 pages with a chapter and a half left to go) to discuss it. The problem I'm running into is that I already know the basic layout of the adventure, but am having troubles breaking down the design aspects behind it. 

Instead, I've opted to pop over here and write up a little update on how everything sits.

- Two chapters left to write up (though I am debating writing up a third and inserting it earlier in the document.

- Justin Rach has signed on as artist for the project (the art shown in an earlier post is from him) and we are currently working on how to figure out compensation for the long term.

- Initial feedback from play test groups and con demos has been overwhelmingly positive. Some criticisms came out, but everything was constructive (and much was more GM-based than game-based which, due to my newness to Fate in general, was to be expected) and has pretty much been addressed.

- +GeekWorld Online has been registered as my DBA for the purpose of publishing the book and each 'i' has been dotted and 't' crossed, so that's official now (which also bodes well for custom dice bags designed by Ashley down the road to be made available to purchase).

- Several stretch goals for the +Kickstarter of the game itself have been decided upon, with plenty of time to come up with more still. At this point, we know additional art in the core rulebook will be a stretch goal, a physical copy of the book (as opposed to being strictly online dissemination) is another (with signed copies as a separate backer level from just getting a physical copy), with thoughts on my part of designing a 'Who's Who of Time Heroes of Fate' supplement (basically consisting of a large amount of pregenerated NPCs for use in the game, apart from those provided) being considered as another. 

-Several interviews have been done on camera, as well as actual play that will be spliced into the final Kickstarter video.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with progress on the project. If I'm stuck with some writer's block for a little bit, that's acceptable. I also plan on editing and posting at least one (if not two) actual play videos from Plattecon on the YouTube channel.

Things I still need to do:

- Get serious about spreading the word to people (or better yet, find excited people to assist in spreading the word so I'm not tooting my own horn all day long).

- Get t-shirts made up for the GeekWorld Online volunteers at Berserkon in May.

- Go back into the beta document once the basic chapters are done and do some minor rewriting to make the text more flavorful to the atmosphere of the game.

- Open up GeekWorld Online's business bank account so that's ready for when the time comes to start the Kickstarter

- Figure out exactly how to announce the Kickstarter at Berserkon (video at the artisan table, fliers, etc.)

- Put together a quickstart adventure with simplified rules and pregenerated characters and have that ready and available to handout at the convention in the hopes of drumming up excitement for the project.

So, that's how things sit so far. Now, I suppose it's time to get back into the document and see about taking a sledgehammer to that wall that's still sitting there.

First Pieces of Time Heroes of Fate Art!

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending PlatteCon, a gaming convention in Platteville, Wisconsin. There I had another opportunity to run Time Heroes of Fate for a couple of groups. Both groups of players seemed to have a lot of fun. Luckily, +Ashley Ishmael was present to record both sessions, as well as impressions and thoughts after the end of the scenario. 

The actual play recordings will be posted on the YouTube channel after editing (to cut out interruptions, etc.). However, I'm hoping to splice portions of the the actual play and game comments together for a Kickstarter campaign I want to get up and running once the Fate Core OGL/Creative Commons license is available. While I don't expect any potential Kickstarter to perform as well as the one +Fred Hicks did for Fate Core, hopefully it will enable us to get my dream game up and running! In the coming months I'm hoping to speak more on this topic with +Kevin Mickelson, friendly local Kickstarter expert.

Here I present you with the first two pieces of art, provided by old role playing buddy and artist extraoridanaire, Justin Rach. They are sketches of two of the pregen characters that I hope to include in the finished product: Ted Welker, Space Janitor (with trusty laser mop!) and Darlene "Massachusetts" Bones, adventuring historian. Keep your eyes peeled as there may be more to come (please note, Justin has granted me permission for now to use these images for promotional purposes)

Darlene "Massachusetts" Bones

Ted Welker, Space Janitor