Right Where Am I?

Ok. So where am I now in the fusion process? Well, quite some way on from when I last dev blogged. I am now rewriting the fused rule-set. I have yet to finalise magic, but need more of the world developed to tailor the magic rules, so I’ve had to put that on hold for a bit to get the world sorted. This is new territory to me, so I’m learning it by writing out the original source material, and getting the root sources as well. I’m drawing up maps and stitching in resource material from other generic sources.

I’m concurrently writing up the RPG framework to submit to the PC’s that outlines the principles of the system without talking about what lies beneath. I will also publish here the second set of player preferences and how I’ve integrated these into my writing process – I’ve mentioned them already but I’ll just underline them for you and do a bit of a walkthrough.

What else? Oh yeah the main rules – now in their second rewrite as I craft the game-maual further and in the process having some mutations, name changes to protect the innocent but with all the original sources referenced. In case you’ve been wondering I’m hoping to approach the original authors and copyright holders for the main copyrighted systems (Chaosium) and see if an authorial credit/copyright share is an option from the mashed system. The world is copyright another company – so I may well write it for another world too, later on, before approaching Chaosium and the lead authors. I’d have to scrap the HM stuff completely before doing that, as that’s a different couple of companies and I’m not having a negotiation with Columbia Games/Kelestial Productions bunch as well as Chaosium! Might as well just bring about world peace and all that! The FUDGE stuff is open-sourced I think, but I’ll check that out before doing anything else.

I’m about 3-6 months away from being able to do the above, but my thinking is there for you all to see and we can see from this devblog in 3-6months time whether or not I got it right, or very wrong. Also, this whole thing may remain out of the public domain and just end up being our pet system. Or I might adapt key elements not dependant on the source systems for something publishable. Who knows? We’ll see eh.

So yeah – some mutations in the rules going on which is pushing it away from the original source material (all sources acknowledged explicitly within the text to trackback all decisions so they can be undone so to speak).

That’s my update – next time the second player’s prefs, and my walkthrough for how I met them, and also the framework for the fusion system. Which, by the way, now has a project title. I’ll let you in on that in my next devblog post.

A Weekend Blitz on System Creation

Ok, so I had a free day at the weekend so what did I so? Plough on with the spreadsheet toolkit for the fusion game? Oh god no. I need a break from the spreadsheet programming and design mission. So I grab my notebook and get a pen. I sit down and I write it out the old fashioned way using what I have already constructed in the spreadsheet to guide me through the process of character creation.

I document the process from start to finish, jot down notes and reference the material as I go. I swap out rules and finalise the combat system. I’ve got character creation down nicely and have played out some sample combats with my NPC’s. I nearly lost the sample NPC twice in combat, she’s already been in gaol and now has a thief on her tail.

Oh yeah and I settled on a world and have been building the system towards it now. You get to a point where you need to get more world specific – so I’m pretty much mashed up and ready to roll. Except magic – I’m currently mashing the magic system to fit the world which is a couple of days work I think.

I have also sourced a master equipment list – stole this from a HM3 campaign of old. I have sample NPC’s pre-rolled to use. It’s all going very smoothly. I’ve tweaked the creation system and because of the world I have chosen to develop the system for more specifically now I’ve cut out quite a considerable amount of work (there are few demi-human PC’s in this specific world and a lot of the conversion work has been done for me by the  RPG world writers).

Note I haven’t mentioned which world yet, just so as not to jinx my decision and make myself have an anxiety based backtrack. All together though I am very excited by what I have put together so far. There are a few snags with the magic system mashing that I’ve bumped into so far to make it fit the world I have selected (mostly because I know little about the world and am learning it on the fly and also because I know little about the RQII magic systems and am learning that on the fly as well). However I feel once I’ve got that crunched I’ve pretty much got enough sorted to run games – except for the need to get very busy with the most fun bit which is sourcing game material for scenarios, building some sets (literally) and plot-devices/artifacts (literally), make props (literally) and all the pizazz I like to have for a good game.

Oh yeah – and get the players back into a room again (sigh).

Right gotta fly – I have some magic mashing to do… :)