May 13, 2013

Google+ Screw-Up!

I just realized that recent integration of G+ commenting was a big mistake; it locked out commenting (from what I could see) unless one is registered on G+. Typical of the great G(obbler)+. This may also be why I was not receiving notification directly from F.D. of certain visitors leaving comments on recent articles.

My apologies to everyone, and I have reverted the site to a more open standard, as it should be. Likewise, I am going to kill G+ based commenting on all of my managed sites on Blogger.

May 12, 2013

Runebound Tales: In the Wild (4 Pack Expansion Deck)

A couple of changes and additions. The Personas Rules Card has been slightly refined, as well as “Rhoe the Barger.” There is also a second “wild” card for this pack called “Sojourner.” You can review all of them in the development galleries.

Until final proofing and refinement, I consider this first Personas pack complete at 9 cards plus 1 rules card. Time for other things later this week.

Along with more needed Tasks, perhaps further standard RT:ItW cards (as in the Starter Deck) might be possible instead of one other pack. The challenge is what to add that does not appear in that first deck. Suggestions are welcome, so make them, and I will back soon enough.

Perhaps next time I may even mock up some blank-but-illustrated cards and see what notions they inspire from you. Maybe we will even make a little contest out of it.

RT:ItW Articles to Date
Personas Pack
Weather Pack
Tasks Pack
Hazards Pack

May 10, 2013

Runebound Tales—Expansion Deck and Contributions

RIVER_Roe_the_BargerFirst, a small update this morning on a new “proposed” Persona card for the “River” terrain. It is not very exciting, and perhaps my creative juices are being used up in some furious day-job work of late. Feel free to critique by standard avenues used so far or a new one mentioned later herein.

As with all Personas, this one’s benefits are conditional, based on where/when drawn and placed. That is part of the game, as with random chance and conditions in all aspects of RB2E.

At this time, I am putting a hold on the Weather and Hazards packs for more thought. Both seem problematic, though I have not shared any previews on Hazards as yet. If this first expansion deck for RT:ItW is to be completed in a timely fashion, something else might be needed instead…

May 9, 2013

What’s New in the Wild and at F.D.

Tuck_PromoJust a few little things to bring to your attention.

Runebound Tales… Now in PDF for a limited time

Look to the site’s left sidebar and you will see the “FD” icon link below the product’s image. This version is for those who cannot order the P.O.D. version or face heavy S&H fees in ordering from outside the USA. (I am still waiting to hear from anyone about P.O.D. operations to check out in other corners of the world.)

WARNING: this 300ppi version will remain available for 30 days and is not to be uploaded elsewhere without my permission under any conditions. Later, a lower resolution version may be made available continuously.

I hope this helps out some of you who cannot use a USA-based P.O.D. vendor.

The Tavern is Open at F.D.

As now visible in the site’s menu, it is a silly notion overall, but one I have waffled on over and over. I finally decided to throw it out there and see what comes of it. I have no pretentions that it will even be used. So why bother putting up a “forum”?

  1. It is partly an experiment in embedded systems/services. In this case, I choose Nabble as a first test for the cleanest embed, its nested structure, HTML posting (not truly WYSIWYG) as well as plain text by user choice, and on-site maintenance and modifications without ever leaving the F.D. site.
  2. I have grown tired of out-of-date BBCode and navigating (wallowing) through flat-list topics to find something worthwhile because some design gurus  decided that Twitter was the way to organize (?) conversations and everyone (supposedly) now conducts such through phones.
  3. A structured forum (though limited in being free) might be useful for collaborative, group, community project notions into the near future… mine or anyone’s.
  4. Just for laughs.

There you have it: a forum in form if not yet put to function. We will just wait and see about the latter. Feel free to kick open its door and step in. You are more than welcome to use it to hold your own group sessions for game creations if you find the system tolerable. Back again soon.

May 6, 2013

Grim Forecast: Problems with Weather in Runebound

Fair_Weather_x2I finished up another round of tweaks in Runebound Tales: In the Wild (4 Pack Expansion Deck). Have a peek at Tasks and Personas but also Weather. Tell me what you think, either through the F.D. Contact page or over at this topic in the BGG forums. By the by, a special thanks to Rafal over there for a lot of feedback of late.

I am having second thoughts about the whole concept of a Weather pack, so I will ramble a bit about that. Sometimes I think better while trying to wake up over a cup tea if I write stuff down. It is an author thing, and I might as well share it here. Maybe real game designers do something similar, though I would not know about that. Here we go…