I must declare my first GenCon an unbridled success.  My pilgrimage to gamer Mecca was fulfilling in more ways then one.   I was able to learn a great deal from seminars and workshops, play new games and spend far too much money in the dealer’s hall.  Above and beyond that, I was able to meet most of the luminaries of game design.

Because of GenCon, I will be making a few changes to the Spark RPG.  The first will be that the game will be designed to be understood by other people.  I know how radical this may sound, but the experts claim this is important for some reason and I bow to their judgement.  I am likely going to move away from my innovative insane print format for my game.   I have been inspired with a new method of creating settings, which promises to be a ton of fun for all involved.   Look for new great things in the future.

I also got an interview on Saturday afternoon on the NeonCon livestreaming coverage of GenCon.    This led me to foolishly declare that I will be releasing Spark next GenCon.  I will aspire to release the player content of the Spark RPG at that point and to run a series of games.  I will try to prepare a limited number of print copies of the player’s content and the demo scenario and sell them during the con as the Unpolished Edition.  If you have the unpolished edition, you will get the full print version at a discount.

Spoils of GenCon and Inspiration for Game Design

Awesome Game Designers I Met

I met a ton of excellent game designers who I need to give a shout out to.   These include Jeff Tidball, Ryan Macklin (From the Internet),  Brennan Taylor, Paul Tevis, David A Hill Jr., Filamena Young, Jeremy Keller and more.   Go to their sites and buy their stuff people; you can clearly see that I have.

Recordings of a few seminars and an announcement will follow in subsequent posts.

1) Improvising: The GM’s Backup Plan by Patrick Benson

If you like his seminar, here are his haunts online.

• http://www.SinisterForces.com – My blog where I right about the Fudge RPG.
• http://www.YouMeetInATavern.com – A forum that I run for GMs.
• http://www.GnomeStew.com – The GM’s blog where I am a contributor on hiatus.
• http://www.EnginePublishing.com – The publisher of the new book from
  the authors of Gnome Stew – Eureka, 501 Adventure Plots To Inspire
  Game Masters.

2) Design an RPG in an Hour by Machine Age Productions where we designed an occult World War 2 game with a card-based resolution system.   The write up will be released under creative commons at Machine Age Productions.

3) World Building in an Hour by Machine Age Productions where we built a world where attachment is suffering, the sunlight is a precious dwindling resource and the world is a dream they seek to escape. The write up will be released under creative commons at Machine Age Productions.

4) The Intersection of Games and Stories by Matt Forbeck, Stan !, Jeff Tidball.   Excellent discussion on how stories may be told with Roleplaying games, board games, video games or in novel form.

5) Game Design is Mind Control by Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen and recorded over by the fine folks at The Walking Eye Podcast.

If you met me at the convention and came to visit the site, welcome!  I encourage you to leave a comment here so I can associate the faces with the internet persona.  I would also love to hear what you would be interested in seeing here on the site.  Your wish is my command…

See you at GenCon!

Jason Pitre, aka Jagash

Presently, I am thinking of providing game-focused content such as the state of the current development, new artwork and the Alternative Games series of posts.

Alternatively, I could instead focus on the broader theme of game development and explain my process of design from initial glimmer to final product.

What say yee, oh noble and silent readers? What would be interesting?

We can look forward to a lovely audio promo for Spark, about a minute in length, which should be appearing in the coming months.  The lovely and talented Kimi Alexandre will be providing this promo for your listening pleasure and I am grateful for her assistance.

Along with the promo, we will additionally be gaining an astounding custom-made original music theme written by James Durham, composer and Parsec-award-winning podcaster, whose music has played at venues like the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, to wide acclaim on the radio, in indie-film, video and dance productions.  This will be used for an upcoming podcast, tentatively being given the title of “Digital Fireside Stories”.  Think of a better title?  Leave a comment and let me know!

I am additionally proud to say that I have been able to offer my personal scientific expertise to the lovely Paulette Jaxton.  She donated an impressive total toward Sonic Boom’s trust fund and I am pleased to help her out with future creative efforts.

Links:

www.paulettejaxton.com

www.theboomeffect.org

This is an astounding opportunity both to help suffering people and collect a wide variety of interesting RPG’s. I strongly recommend it if you financial situation permits.

Gamers Helping Haiti $20 Donation with Coupon

Gamers, Let’s band together and see how much we can raise to help the people of Haiti.

Donate $20 and get a coupon for over a thousand dollars in RPG titles. After you make the donation, you will receive the coupon code in your email. It will also be available in your order history.

A listing of the free products available with this coupon can be found on our Gamers Help Haiti page .

Add any of the products to your cart, and use the coupon on checkout. Any products that are part of the Haiti relief package will be discounted to $0.00.
Unfortunately the overwhelming generosity of the gaming community is hampering our ability to deliver the orders purchased with the bundle coupon to you. Your products will be safe in your order history, so if you could wait a day or two before downloading them, it would be much appreciated. Please contact us if you have any questions.

If each of us gave just $20, think of what kind of an impact we could make.

Funds raised will go to Doctors Without Borders Haiti Earthquake Response. Please see our homepage to watch our donation total as it rises in support of the Haitian people and their community.

Help us spread the word on Facebook and Twitter! If you have a Twitter or Facebook account, post the following: Gamers Help Haiti! Join with other gamers & donate now: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_info.php?products_id=78023&it=1

For more information about the earthquake and Doctors Without Borders, visit:

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

The website is currently operational, although it is still missing a great many features. The final site will be fully bilingual (English and French) and will have a forum attached. These features will be added as time progresses, but my primary focus is on producing the best games humanly possible. If you have any comments, please feel free to leave them here. I welcome your feedback and your suggestions. You can also use the “Contact Us” page to send me messages directly, should you wish.

Thank you for reading and may your stories become legends.

In specific, GLP has been founded with a few goals. We aspire to produce all our works using strictly open-source software, both to showcase the capabilities of the excellent programs as well as to save on overhead costs. We aim to produce the products in the most environmentally responsible fashion possible, from the paper we chose to the shipping of our products. We also have pledged to release as much content into the public domain as feasible, to further the creation of novel works on the foundations of what has already been made.

At this point in time, the crew at GLP consists of an author, a game tester, an editor, a public relations manager and a business owner all in one body. We are located in the fair city of Ottawa, Canada where the only thing stronger than the winter chill is the freshly roasted coffee.

Current Project: Spark

Our flagship project is a game currently going by the working name of Spark.    This system is built with adaptability in mind, functioning like an adaptable framework capable of supporting a very large variety of roleplaying settings.  It does not tie you down to a single setting but is instead designed for the easy of storytellers creating their own custom settings. It’s built so that settings described in fiction, be they ancient fantasy, modern horror or wierd scifi, could be quickly forged and the players could dive into new adventures without memorizing dozens of different systems.

Thus far we are in the early days of production, though our initial alpha playtests have provided some positive responses. More information will follow as the production continues.