Author Archive: Jason Pitre

A Sojourn in Alexandria – Virtue’s Edge

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I am pleased to announce that I have managed to complete a playable game for Game Chef 2010.  In the spirit of the competition and my personal whims, I am releasing the work to the Public Domain.  Use it for absolutely anything, any where, any time.   Love to hear if you play the game or are inspired by it but even that is at your discretion.

Disclaimer; this was produced in two-weeks of insanity.  It contains hippy indie story game concepts, extremely limited playtesting and my own amateur layout skills.  I still offer you a 100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back!    The Spark RPG will have a great deal more polish and a significantly higher word count.


A Sojourn in Alexandria concerns both physical voyages and ethical journeys. The characters try to walk the knife’s edge between the deprivation of the harsh Desert and the excess of the opulent City. Walk in the footsteps of Alexander the Great!


Get it here and have fun!

A Sojourn in Alexandria


Game Chef 2010 – A Sojourn in Alexandria

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Over the next 10 days I will be working on a Game Chef 2010 entry, where I am assembling a game focused on the aspects of “City”, “Desert” and “Edge”.     I hope to produce a playable game and if I am successful, I will post it for free download for all and sundry.

You will be able to track my progress over at The Forge where I have a A Thread.

See you there!

Links

The Game Chef 2010 Contest

The Lay of the Land

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I have had a bit of progress with Spark of late and I thought I would explain where I am at in a bit more detail.   My master plan is to produce a single printed book which will be 8 chapters in length.  The first four chapters would contain everything you need to play or run a game, from character creation to funky powers to the intricacies of narrative arcs.   These four chapters would be freely available in PDF form on my site as soon as they are completed.

Chapter 1: Character Creation

Chapter 2: Mechanics

Chapter 3: Powers

Chapter 4: Fate

The last four chapters would contain some of the useful tools for running a game.  This would only be found in the dead-tree versions, or in the PDF version which I will have up for sale.  This is the full toolbox to help a GM tinker under the hood, build their own settings and would present three new settings to play in.

Chapter 5: Setting Design

Chapter 6: Hacks

Chapter 7: Stock

Chapter 8: Three Unique Settings

Since I have stated this publicly, I suspect that some of the above information will be forced to change.  Still, at this point, that is how the book is organized.

I have written first drafts of the first four chapters already.  I have done substantial revisions to Chapters 1 and 2 thus far, based on my early playtest feedback.  Chapter 3 revision is proceeding apace and I have a decent plan of attack for Chapter 4 when I reach that point.  I hope to have this (chapters 1-4) out to external playtesters in a few months and with luck I will be able to complete all of my editing by end of 2010.   I have a lovely line editor who will be helping me polish and clean up the countless residual errors when I am ready.  If all things go as planned, I should have chapters 1-4 complete in time for GenCon and on sale in a printed AshCan format.

So that is the current status of the Spark RPG.  I haven’t leaked that much content thus far, chiefly because at this early stage in development things are likely to change.  I just hacked off a significant sub-system the other day for example.    Still, I will try to give a few more trinkets as the editing progresses.

Anyone have any thoughts, comments, questions or concerns on my so-called master plan?

Bits and Mortar

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One of the announcements from GenCon 2010 is the new initiative by the name of Bits and Mortar. It’s an alliance of publishers who vow to provide PDF’s to any customers who buy their printed books. This maximizes the value of the books we produce and helps support friendly local game stores support themselves in the online world. I have submitted our application to join this alliance and you will be able to benefit from a full PDF guarantee. I hope you are as excited as I am about this initiative and support the cause.

http://www.bits-and-mortar.com/

The Day after GenCon

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I must declare my first GenCon an unbridled success.  My pilgrimage to gamer Mecca was fulfilling in more ways then one.   I was able to learn a great deal from seminars and workshops, play new games and spend far too much money in the dealer’s hall.  Above and beyond that, I was able to meet most of the luminaries of game design.

Because of GenCon, I will be making a few changes to the Spark RPG.  The first will be that the game will be designed to be understood by other people.  I know how radical this may sound, but the experts claim this is important for some reason and I bow to their judgement.  I am likely going to move away from my innovative insane print format for my game.   I have been inspired with a new method of creating settings, which promises to be a ton of fun for all involved.   Look for new great things in the future.

I also got an interview on Saturday afternoon on the NeonCon livestreaming coverage of GenCon.    This led me to foolishly declare that I will be releasing Spark next GenCon.  I will aspire to release the player content of the Spark RPG at that point and to run a series of games.  I will try to prepare a limited number of print copies of the player’s content and the demo scenario and sell them during the con as the Unpolished Edition.  If you have the unpolished edition, you will get the full print version at a discount.

A massive pile of indie RPG's

Spoils of GenCon and Inspiration for Game Design

Awesome Game Designers I Met

I met a ton of excellent game designers who I need to give a shout out to.   These include Jeff Tidball, Ryan Macklin (From the Internet),  Brennan Taylor, Paul Tevis, David A Hill Jr., Filamena Young, Jeremy Keller and more.   Go to their sites and buy their stuff people; you can clearly see that I have.

Recordings of a few seminars and an announcement will follow in subsequent posts.