:Still WIP

Steamdance is currently in standby. I realize that all I had been calling betatest version weren't even deserving the title. Now the game still does not work, so for the time being, I'll let the ideas for this title aside for a while and concentrate on another project that came to my mind during a lazy day at work. The new project is called Beyond the Mirror, and deals with the authenticity of memories. You'll hear about it from now on. Suffice say that the main inspiration comes from Ridley Scott's masterpiece Blade Runner.

:Silence, work in progress

I apologize to my two readers for the recent silence.
Seems like by enriching the character sheet with resources and eliminating the figure of the game moderator, I managed to make Steam Dance much more playable than before. I'm still adding and modifying stuff, but the recent playtest session was very encouraging.
I must be honest, the previous playtests hadn't been as positive as I hoped, and I had kind of lost my faith in this endeavor, but now it's back and enriched, so I'll be working on the game and playtesting it as often as possible.
I'll be working on something that really does look like a beta (the previous releases didn't even deserve being called that way) and playtest it toroughly before publishing it. I'll also keep my other projects for the future for now, until I get some cool idea for the crunch.
Anyways, I say! The Gamist CA is really demanding. Kudos to John Harper who managed to make such a cool game as Agon is...
Will get back at you soon!

:playtest ver. 1.4 up

After some playtesting, I've changed some rules, especially in conflict resolution.
You can find the update version of Steamdance here: Steamdance
Enjoy!

:Camp Century, Greenland

Wow.
Now this is quite awesome!
Think of running a game with such a setting, be it a horror or investigation rpg...
pretty awesome, isn't it?

:a monster cooking game

While Steamdance is under playtest, and I'm waiting to have enough data to prepare a more complete manuscript, I'm writing down some game ideas I've been having lately. I'd like to talk about one of them.
I'll call the project "Monster Cooking" for now, just to have a name to refer to. It's a game about warrior cooks who hunt rare monster in order to cook their meat in the perfect way and become the most famous chef in the Empire.
The main source of inspiration comes from Monster Hunter, a splendid game by Capcom. Another one was actually a phrase in Eero Tuovinen's Solar System, where he was speaking about the importance of abilities that are in harmony with theme and setting of the game, so for instance, in a campaign where cooking is significant, an ability like "cooking" would be appropriate in a character sheet. And... "wait... what? Wow... why not??"
Hence the idea of creating a game centered on that.
Imagine a fantasy world where legendary, rare and magnificent monsters roam the land, and the warrior-cooks who hunt for them and cook their rare, exquisite meat in order to prepare the perfect dish and gain fame and glory as the best cook in the Empire!
Vegetarians, please avoid playing this game.

:playtest ver. 1.3 up

So finally I've translated in English the playtest ver. 1.3 of Steamdance.
You can find it here: Steamdance
It's still under development and I'm adding many things as I develop the game, so you may consider this as the skeleton of the game's crunch.
I don't even consider it a beta yet, but if you like to check it and let me know what you think of the mechanics (by possibly playtesting them), I'd love to hear your feedback.
Cheers
Suna

:talking about Steamdance

I hope my English wasn’t too bad in my previous post.
So back on topic, let us speak a little more about Steamdance. The idea came during a sleepless night, after a long, long period in which I had been working on some game concepts. And like all sleepless nights’ ideas, it was totally unrelated to any previous idea I had been having.
The idea is that of a competitive roleplaying game, one where players are against one another in the pursue of a goal. I recognize, the first flash of insight came from a card from the splendid boardgame Mission Red Planet by the french authors Bruno Cathala and Bruno Faidutti (http://www.asmodee-us.com/games/mission-red-planet/mission-red-planet.php). It’s a wonderful steampunk game, and I was especially inspired by the character card “the Spy”. Hmmm. Steampunk spies. How about a game about them?
Now, this wouldn’t be the first game ever written on the subject. Not at all. Even just considering the indie rpg world, there is Ron Edward’s Spione, and Jared Sorensen’s Lacuna could be easily drifted into a spy game. But both lacked, in my opinion, that competitive element I wanted to see in a game about spies.
I wanted to center the focus of the game on that, rather than the external elements of conflict the characters might encounter. The result is a highly competitive game, player vs. player. I also did not take the realistic stance Spione has, rather focusing my attention on romantic spies and thieves of fiction.
During a steampunk industrial revolution, spies and thieves compete among each other in order to make industrial espionage, steal plans, inventions and discoveries for a ruthless, powerful master who employs them.
Considering the focus of the game, it’s not important where the action takes place. It can be anywhere from an ucronistic european city to a completely fantasy setting. Things don’t change much, as rules don’t, either. So now I’m also developing a part of the manual in which I’ll give guidelines on how to create one’s setting.
This is going to inspire a discussion on settings in roleplaying games, which I’ll do in a separate post.
So that’s all for now.

Cheers

Suna