GoPlayPeoria Begins

This is a very exciting project for me. Ralph Mazza of Ramshead Publishing, Seth Ben-Ezra of Dark Omen Games, and myself have formed GoPlayPeoria.com. I have lived in the Peoria Illinois area all my life, Seth and Ralph have lived here for several years.

There are gamers and gaming groups in the Heart of Illinois area, but there has been almost no opportunities for them to meet each other outside of a few conventions GoPlayPeoria.com is to help area gamers find each other and to help promote the GoPlayPeoria mini-cons we have planned. It's isn't even fair to call them mini-cons, really. More like large gaming sessions being held among potential friends.

You can go to go-play.org to find out more about the go-play movement. The spirit of the movement is best expressed here. Otherwise, it may seem to be little more than attempt to sell you a key chain or bumper sticker.

Goals for Dream Palace

The work on Dream Palace progresses. Since this project has taken me on more twists and turns than the entire Harry Potter series, I thought I'd lay down the goals I have for this game before I continue with the design. I'm hoping they will keep me on target with what I am actually trying to accomplish with this game. I thought I would share it with you.

Grindhouse

The Greatest Movies Never Made!

Hollywood could spend billions of dollars, get the best scriptwriters, directors, and actors – and they will still never match the coolness of the movie you have in your head

Dream Palace is Heraldic Game Design’s new project. Dream Palace will be a complete roleplaying game based on the standards used to create the stories for movies. It will be the next step in the evolution for The Luna System. Work will continue on that system, but it will be under the new name. Outsider Chronicles will also continue, but it will now be a Dream Palace Game.

There a number of cinematic roleplaying games already out on the market, and you’re probably wondering what is going to make Dream Palace different from the rest of them.

New Poll: How Much Time Do You Waste on RPGs?

Changes

You may have noticed that I've removed the link to the Luna System. Development has been stalled for a long, long time. However, I have had a breakthrough recently that could spin the system around into a full-fledged stand-alone game.

There are a number of changes coming and some of them are quite large. Because of this, I don't feel comfortable with posting the game on the site at this time. However, I will be posting the rebooted Luna on the Outsider Yahoo Group. Keep an eye out for further annuncements.

Faery's Tale

Things have been rather busy for me in the gaming industry of late, especially in the work I've been doing tor Firefly Games. I've been that company's webmaster for a few years now, and have learned quite a bit from working for it's owner, Patrick Sweeney. Pat is like like me in that he is a game designer/publisher. He wants to be able to express himself creatively as a writer, and also have financial success in doing so. Anybody that has gone down that road can tell you it isn't an easy one. What you think could be a wonderful product could be easily be ignored by the general gaming public because it is too odd or it too much like the other games already on the market.

I also have teen helping Pat man the Firefly Games booth each year, and this year I was named Demo King (or Demo Monkey, take your pick) for his new roleplaying game, Faery's Tale. Pat had scheduled me to run a two hour demonstration each of the four days of Gen Con. Faery's Tale, unlike most RPG's is aimed at families with children. Many of the gamers I have known in the past have gotten married and have kids now. They would like to be able to hand down the pleasures they have had themselves roleplaying, but most of the RPGs are too complex for kids. A young child simply doesn't have the same attention span as an adult, and I can say with all confidence that they don't have the patience necessary to play those games. Plus, the violent things that adult gamers thrill to would also be too much for kids to take emotionally. Faery's Tale has been designed for kids in mind. It is simple, fast, and safe.

Attack of the Spam Pirates!

I guess that I have managed to get some level of success on the web now. The spambots have found me and I've been spending the past few days cleaning out spam links out of the comments and making upgrades to the site in hopes that the improvements will prevent that from happening again.

Luna Update: The Great White Game

If you take a close look at the menu on the side of the page, you may notice this tiny link that says, "The Luna System." Don't get too excited. I haven't finished the Luna System. . . yet. Like the Great White Whale, the perfect game that boils somewhere in the depths of my mind eludes my efforts to drag it into the light of day.

I do have some goals for Luna to move toward, and the new link on the site will lead to my online scratch pad. That's right, you are actually going to see the system built online. I tend to be a perfectionist, so you follow Luna's progress, you are going to see a lot of changes while I work on it.

Aquaman

For those of you that may not have heard yet, the WB television network was going to present Aquaman as part of new lineup. Apparently, the character tested well on his visit to Smallville. However, WB is now merging with UPN to create a new network called CW, and the new network does Not want Aquaman.

I must admit that I didn't really care either way when I first heard the news.However, someone managed to get a preview for the show and posted it at ((UPDATE: I've eliminated the link because the video is no longer available online.)) Go ahead and check it out. I'll wait.