This week I absorbed the rules for four new games: Gloomhaven (cunning boardgame
dungeon-crawler and Kickstarter darling) Magic
Maze (unique co-op game getting in and out of a delightfully illustrated
fantasy shopping mall), Wild Blue Yonder (the
new version of Dan Verssen’s Down in
Flames WWII air combat card game from GMT), and Centerville (Chad Jensen’s new Euro-style urban planning status and
prestige game). So far the only one of the four we’ve played was Magic Maze, which was hilarious fun but demonstrated
again that I’m a turn-based gamer and a real-time bumbler.
In the world of playtesting, we played a great session
of one of my new card game designs that the publisher has not announced yet.
The game has gone well enough for long enough that I’m going to finish up its
rulebook and call it done as soon as I can carve out two focused days.
Also in the world of
playtesting, Lisa and I played a friend’s new card game a number of times on a
couple of nights, but that’s not announced either so I can’t write details.
And the Wednesday night RPG group enjoyed another
session of the Over the Edge 25
campaign that Jonathan has been running for a while now. The campaign doesn’t
have a name yet. Our other OTE campaigns seem to acquire a name when things go
horribly wrong, names like “Ann Thunder Escapes,” when Ann Thunder was our
nemesis. So far, so nameless.
Meanwhile in the world of
actual work I’ve been acting as editor/layout overseer for the Book of Demons for Pelgrane. And getting
art orders ready for three other Pelgrane books. And cobbling together the
credits and appendices for 13th
Age Glorantha, which Chris Huth is busy laying out the final chapter of.
I’ve also been dealing with art direction on two other game-projects we’re not
talking about yet, which raises the point that I’m often working as the art
director for games I design or develop. That was something I leaned towards at
the end of my WotC shift, when I was writing art orders for books I hadn’t
worked on. But WotC had excellent art directors, trained for the job. In the
world beyond WotC my untrained aptitude has frequently put me in the director’s
chair.
When I get through the art
direction, I’ll be back to developing Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s Book of Ages, a fun 13th Age project with three different takes on portraying a world dominated by icons-over-time. Which
means that this week, my only effort that qualifies as actual game design was a lunch time conversation
with Logan Bonner about two in-progress card games. Extremely worthwhile, but I
haven’t even have time to follow up on his thoughts. We’ll see if I can get
back to design next week.
