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September 20, 2006

Agents of Oblivion: Outlines and Insights

Hello All.

Work is firmly proceeding on Agents of Oblivion. I finally got to buckle down and outline all the chapters for the big book and am now furiously down into the brainstorming, note scribbling, and absorbing any information regarding horror and espionage I can get my hands on. I tend to immerse in things. I'm surrounded by books such as The Illustrated Dictionary of the Special Forces, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, Ken Hite's Dubious Shards, Spycraft 2.0, Modern d20, and piles and piles of conspiracy books and dictionaries of mysterious places and whatnot. The Barnes & Noble store loves me when I'm doing research as it gives me an excuse to exercise the bibliophile in me "all in the name of work!"

I've been fiddling with the chase mechanics and incorporating new feats and new skills into the design document. Naturally, with chase rules, vehicles must be addressed and I'm closely examining ways to integrate certain game mechanics in such a fashion that they'll be easily used. This gets a little tricky at times as I'm also wanting to provide for rules of tricking out vehicles as well in good old James Bond fashion. We're also looking into ways to improve and expand the setting's take on Corruption, Insanity, and the flavors of different power types in three main arenas of Divine, Magical, and Psychic.

On the monstrous front, Matt Kaiser is not failing to deliver. He's coming up with lots of good creatures that should promise to provide countless hours of entertainment.

Additionally, we'll be incorporating rules for ordinaries into the setting as some people have expressed interest in playing the role of the characters before entry into Oblivion. This opens a lot of possibilities up and we're exploring what extent we'll be able to incorporate those into the work. It's not the main focus of AoO, but is a viable option for people hoping to go another direction with the setting.

Finally, the past handful of days has me defining and refining parameters for Organizations. I'm inspired mechanically in this arena by Crafty Games Spycraft 2.0 as well as OGL Horror and am hoping to find a way to streamline and integrate the best of these two works into Agents of Oblivion. Not only do I want to have a robust section of Organizations available for the Narrator, but I also want to provide direction for Narrator's wishing to create their own. To that end, Agents of Oblivion is not just to be a setting, but also a sandbox and playground for creativity.

This is an exciting time to be a gamer and a game designer. Second generation roleplaying games are no longer on the outer fringes, played by a handful of hardcore gamers, but are beginning to take center stage, and should continue to do so. Here's hoping!

Regards,

Sean

Posted by razorwise at 12:43 PM

September 07, 2006

Orange Crush

Hello All,

As RunePunk layout proceeds apace, our attentions turn to darker things. I can hear you ask, what's more darker than RunePunk? Why, Agents of Oblivion, of course!

The focus, of late, has been dissecting horror and laying it down all nice and proper into the context of True20. To that end, my time away from the computer generally consists of soaking in episodes of CSI, The X-Files, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and any other horror movie regardless of how good or bad I might think it is. It's an ugly job, but someone has to do it. I've also been perusing through my horror literature. I've Lovecraft, Matheson, Howard, Derleth keeping me constant company along with books on the Special Forces, Weapons, and a few Jim Butler books lying around. The research phase is an enjoyable one, but there comes a time when you have to get to the keyboard and begin typing away. I've got my outline and notes...or as REM once said, "I've got my spine. I've got my Orange Crush!"

Later,

Sean

Posted by razorwise at 11:10 AM