ImagiNation Update

We’re just barely short of the editing fund and I would love to take us on further to 3k if at all possible.

I’m not asking you to donate more moolah, you’ve already given. What I’d like you to do, rather, is to take your belief in this project and your trust in me – that you’ve already displayed – and take it on to your social networks, your friends, people you know who might be interested.

We’ve got 15 days left in this project and another big push will come in the last five days.

The project is going to happen now, for certain (unless I get struck by lightning) and every extra cent is just going to make it better and better and better.

Thanks in advance for your help!

LINKY-POOH

PROJECT IS SAVIOUR

Tentacoo Wape taken off Kickstarter?!? IMPOSSIBRU!

Nothing says ‘Fuck you’ like money!

So, I’m sure you’ve heard by now that a bunch of concern trolls have managed to get a previously approved and rather innocent ‘Tentacle Rape’ card game Kickstarter pulled.

This is censorious bullshit and I intend to talk a lot more on this subject. There’s a critical mass of puritan bullshit and self-hating flagellation going on and I’ve had enough of it.

Still, I find the best way to say ‘Fuck you’ to censorship is to vote positively, rather than negatively, with your wallet.

Soda Pop have worked out another way to fund their product drive on their own site and as for myself, I’ve doubled what I had pledged before.

I suggest you do the same.

For my part, solidarity Soda Pop, you’re going through an (oddly) more vociferous version of the beasting I got over Hentacle and Cthentacle.

If you want to show that there are more open-minded, libertine, anti-censorship people out there who can tell the difference between reality and fantasy, you can pledge HERE

In fact, you know what? I’m going to pledge more money to them based on Hentacle and Cthentacle sales for the rest of the month too. Think of it as monetarily flipping the bird with BOTH hands.

Tentacles? I’m Getting Deja Vu

So… THIS popped up on my stream today.

I was, shall we say, nonplussed.

I was also nonplussed, but not surprised, to see the RAAAAAGE going on HERE and HERE about it.

From what I can see this game is really, tame as anything. There’s no graphic depictions here, it’s pretty much suggestive and there’s certainly no ‘Carrots’ cards amongst this lot, and yet RAGE.

Personally? Well, I suppose I’m a little upset that someone else is taking my idea commercial. Over it’s lifespan the rights to Hentacle have been negotiated with three separate companies, all of whom chickened out at one hurdle or another. Now, not only have Soda Pop made tens of thousands of dollars from a crowdsourcing, but they’re going to make a shitpile more money from a much tamer execution of a game idea that’s so damn close to mine it’s painful.

Do I begrudge ‘em? No. Not really. I’m just annoyed at seeing another success story go past with ideas stemming from or similar to mine. It’s happened before (Munchkin) and I’m sure it’ll happen again. I’m just one unlucky motherfucker apparently.

I’ve backed ‘em and best of luck to ‘em.

They’re still idea-stealing bastards though.

Give a washed up old game designer a break and BUY Hentacle or Cthentacle while you’re at it, eh?

Pork Dungeons

ImagiNation: Understanding the Why

Why would I go to all this trouble to create this project? Isn’t it like rubbing salt into a wound? Isn’t it a lot of pressure? Why do this to yourself? Who would want to play such a thing?

I went to all this trouble to set up this project – and this is an idea that has been percolating for some time – because I think it can be useful. I know that me talking publicly about my mental problems has helped quite a few people. I know that lots of  people find it hard to talk about their mental issues or to describe them to others. I also know that a scarily large number of creative people suffer from depression or similar issues. I think it has the potential to help people, spread understanding and break the ice. Primarily though, I think it can be a fun an interesting game.

Yes, examining all this is going to be difficult for me. The pressure I’ve put on myself by making it crowdfunded is enormous and the amount some people have put in and the level of expectation they have is tremendous. I think it’s worth the pain though.

Who would want to play such a thing? People read books of surreal or mad imagery, Alice, Kraken, anything by Burroughs. People’s pain enhances their work and can make it gloriously engaging, at a cost to the creator. I’m not saying that I’m a genius or anything but at the heart of ImagiNation is the idea that there’s a price to be paid for power, for the ability to create or alter reality and that’s what part of being depressed is like. The ability for deep self reflection, for honing one’s craft through being insecure about it can lead to great things or at least an effort to make something as good as it can be. This is an up, not that it compensates for the down side, but it is there.

They say the internet leads people into over-sharing but I want to share something with you that may help you understand the why’s and wherefores of me and the project.

For quite a while now I’ve been going to CBT therapy (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) a lot of it doesn’t work for a sceptic or cynic like me but simply having someone to talk to has been of tremendous benefit, as have some of the mental exercises you go through. Support, of any kind, knowing you’re not alone is the most important thing whether that comes from friends, family or professionals – who you sometimes need so you don’t feel like a burden.

I’ve just come to the end of all that, sorting out my cocktail of drugs, getting – finally – to a state of mind where I don’t need to be supervised so much following a suicide attempt. I’m not cured, I’m just better. Able to cope and even if one does end up feeling ‘cured’, you’ve got to be watchful, vigilant, to be sure you don’t fall again. You’ve also got to judge constantly, daily almost, whether the effect of the drugs is better than the depression or vice versa.

A game where my failings, my vigilance, my choices are a strength, where my talents – such as they are – make a difference can only help. If it helps me, it can help other people. If the game can help other people and be something great, all the better.

The project is funded, but can be made better. Please do all you can help hit our stretch goals. Tell your friends about the project and ask those friends to tell their friends.

The IndieGoGo link is HERE.

The stretch goals are listed below. Yes, you can donate, even though it’s over the target.

• At $2,200 the game will be professionally and fully edited.
• At $2,500 I will write, alongside ImagiNation, a genericised and updated version of the rules-set which will be placed fully in the public domain.
• At $3,000 the game will be completed in colour inside and out and available in both colour and B&W PoD.
• At $3,500 I will make copies (so long as financially viable) available to mental health professionals for free.

PROJECT IS SAVIOUR

Is FATAL Redeemable?

FATAL is legendary, as is this review of it. More legendary than RaHoWa and probably even Synnibar for being an unplayable, rubbish, obnoxious, even ‘evil’ game. This loose series of articles is about examining these supposedly irredeemable games and seeing if there’s anything of worth to be salvaged in them.

It doesn’t hurt that one of the reviewers who savaged FATAL is epic level cock-mongler Darren MacLennan. He’s such an irredeemable fuckwit that the instigator of FATAL, Byron Hall, can’t help but come off more favourably for the fact he was savaged by a helmet.

Actually one of the better racial comparison illos I’ve seen.

What’s the Problem With FATAL?

FATAL has a shitload of problems and there’s no getting away from it. Even if it were the best game in he world, at nearly 1,000 pages it would be unwieldy even if the game were perfect, wonderful and without flaw. It isn’t.

FATAL is most notorious for three things. It’s obsession with a level of detail that most games wouldn’t bother with, it’s obsession with sex and rape and – coming in third – the puerile nature of a lot of its spells.

Taken as a whole it’s an obsessive mess but without the sexual element it probably wouldn’t have drawn the comment, ire or infamy that it does. Because it’s so infamous for being shitty I think people are afraid to admit that there’s anything that might be of value in there. I think there is though.

Art Redemption

The few bits of art that were commissioned for FATAL really aren’t that bad at all and while there are nipples, wangs and muff galore it’s really not that shocking at all. It seems to fit, overall, with the Heavy Metal aesthetic that bleeds out of the few bits of readable text. I’d use much of this art without any sort of compunction and it wouldn’t be out of place, at all, in games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess or anything with a weird fantasy or horror BDSM style. Other pieces of art are good enough to be used in just about any fantasy game and it’s a pity the artists involved didn’t get more work and more exposure.

The art definitely speaks to Lotfp or even Barbarians of Lemuria. Going on the art alone, this is something I might want to play. Shame about the rest.

Setting Redemption

FATAL’s setting is just your bog standard fantasy setting, pretty much. Much of what’s there is nothing new, it’s just often ‘nasty’ and much of it is inferred from the monster descriptions and spells. Many of these are pretty puerile and childish but the idea of taboo things having power isn’t exactly new or controversial. FATAL just doesn’t shy away from laying it out directly, rather than hinting.

FATAL’s content seems to describe more of a medieval fantasy setting, a dark and more urban oriented set of ideas that aren’t worlds different to those found in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. There’s a disconnect between the presentation and thought and the career/role options but the second set aren’t so terrible, really.

System Redemption

Quadratic equations? Penile thickness tables? Anal circumference? There’s virtually nothing redeemable about the system. Although…

Much of the game is based around a d1000, rolling 3d10 in much the same way as you would with 2d10 to produce a d100. This is unwieldy and mathematically would slow down games but the level of granularity it opens up in a rules system is potentially a good thing.

Gamers who like their mathematics and granularity aren’t particularly well served at the moment though, for some people, it’s definitely an appeal of the games. Millenium’s End, Rolemaster and others have been extensive and comprehensive and have taken an intensely simulation-oriented viewpoint. A d1000 would certainly allow gun-fetishists to tweak each and every fraction of a percent out of every modification and bolt-on. It allows little things to make a real, statistical difference and while that may not be to everyone’s taste there’s definitely a wing of the hobby that loves the crunch.

The one thing that FATAL does really well – and is probably taken from someone else’s work – is in its career/occupations section. There’s a really comprehensive list of medieval occupations and guilds that are easily portable to other games and systems and saves you hunting down an old copy of Central Casting.

Conclusion

Even FATAL has some useful stuff you can drag out of it. A more savvy look at a d1000, simulationist system might be worth doing as an exercise (though I think I’d approach it as a d100.0 system). Much of the research/desperate justification is useful, as are some of the tables and lastly, the art that had been commissioned was of a generally good quality and would be worth rescuing, or finding the original artists to give some employment.

Speaking of which, if you know: Adam Briggs, Andrew Dobell, Kimon, Lazar Stojkovic Steven MnMoorn or Steve Willhite, feel free to send them my way.

While FATAL’s approach is obsessive, self-contained and troublesome there’s no doubt that there’s a desire for more adult oriented media. Game of Thrones, Spartacus, the rise (again) of the erotic novel into public conciousness, these are all things that are heartening to see in a time when we’re also seeing a lot of financial and social censure and prudish pressure.

Maybe it is time for a genuinely adult game.

Inspiration: The Old Yew

When I was a kid we used to call this tree the ‘Yoda Tree’, for obvious reasons. Most churchyards have at least one yew tree, the symbolism can go back before Christianity but in the context of the graveyards and the Christian churches is supposed to be representative of eternal life (being evergreens that live a fuck of a long time). Of course, they’re also poisonous, but given my well-known atheism I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions from that.

I was talking before about finding inspiration around your locality and how lucky I am to live in a place that’s full of such inspiration. This yew tree is certainly an important one for me. Yew made the great English longbows. Yew has ancient pagan AND Christian symbolism. Yew is found in the places of the dead because we plant it there to mark them. Yew is dense and dark, slow-growing, old, gnarled and amazing to look at.

Whenever I describe a graveyard in a fantasy game I imagine trees like this. In my mind something like it is found in Fanghorn, or in alien swamps on faraway worlds. They may be poisonous but the smell when you sit under a yew, on generations of slowly rotting needles, just after it has rained. That’s evocative.