I thought I'd take a bit of a time out to tell everyone what I've been working on asides from the Talinz Project. Currently, I have been going through a bit of a GMing dry spot. Though I am a player in two - soon to be three - regular campaigns, I haven't run or facilitated a game myself since early November 2013, almost a year ago, with the exception of some convention one shots.
There have been a few reasons for this. Prime among them has been time. I've been bogged down with real life work, and because I never know when I'll be snowed under or not, it is difficult to commit to a time slot, and the few hours beforehand to prepare.
Second has been energy. Although I have a load of fun frameworks for campaigns in my head, turning them into fun gaming experiences is another matter. Truth be told, I felt the last game I ran was distinctly sub par.
Third among them is medium. Growing into real people adult life has necessitated a move from tabletop to more frequent skype or google hangouts sessions if I want to stay with some of the people I regularly game with. Though we aren't necessarily scattered far and wide (though some are), work commitments often means that getting back from a job, having a wash, something to eat and then heading over to a friend's house doesn't always give time for a great session, especially if you have to wake up at early o'clock the morning after.
In the background, though, I have two projects I am really excited about, so I wanted to tell everyone. The first is very much a fan made thing, a bit of a labour of love that I've been toiling on with a friend of mine for a few months. In 1999, a very big event happened in our childhood, along with that, I expect, of many kids around the world at that time. Pokemon was released. The whole thing was a bit of a craze for a while, and basically dominated popular culture for kids at the time. We were talking toys, video games, tv, spaghetti hoops, the whole caboodle.
But there was never a tabletop translation.
There have been a few attempts of note over the years though, some with their serial numbers filed off, and some that have been very much fan translations. But we felt like giving our own game a shot, and trying to make something that reflected what we wanted from a Pokemon game. I'm pretty pleased with how the results are shaping up, and chances are it might be the next campaign I run. It is built to capture the innocent feeling of heading out on a journey with your friends and encountering marvelous beasts that can perform wonderful feats, and I really think it succeeds in that respect. The system is simple, but deep, much like the videogame, and an 'Aspects and Tag' system, inspired by games like Ubiquity, Fate and *World, but with a very deeply Pokemon-ny feel to it, allows strategy and field manipulation to change a fight in interesting ways.
The second is my baby, Humours. Humours is a playing card-based urban fantasy investigation RPG. The players are all individuals that perceive time in a different way to the average human. Precognitives see the future a few second away, constantly living ahead in time. Postcognitives can access the history of objects and places. Farsighters can look far ahead to obtain glimpses of possible futures, while Clairvoyants see space without the restrictions of time, allowing them to perceive regions miles away from their person.
Groups of these individuals are frequently forced to band together to protect or prevent the future they see occuring, putting them into conflict from others that share the same abilities, but desire to push the timeline in a different direction. On the sidelines, mysterious creatures plot to stop time altogether, to grant them freedom to move where they wish, by creating an eternal tween. The people of this world do not perceive them, but they know of them. Fey folk.
There will be more Talinz Project content coming this weekend though, dont worry!
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