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Regeneration

October 8th, 2011 | Comments Off

Back in 2009, Nathan Russell had an idea. A mad, strange and terrible idea. “Do you think we could hold a competition to make a complete game within twelve months, for release at the next Gen Con Oz?” Yes, yes we could. And we did. And we made a website to talk about it and post about it and keep in touch about it. This website. The Stockade project has been reinvented a couple of times along the way, moving from a site hosting a competition to a site that had resources for people designing RPGs. We’ve pointed people towards sites for game components, for discussions about writing and publishing. We’ve interviewed designers, Australian and international, about their designs. We’ve helped schedule small press games activities at various Australian conventions: Gen Con Oz, … Read entire article »

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Public Service Announcement – Auscon II

Auscon II is gathering pace. Much pace. As well as all the other shenanigans of a convention, itt’s a great opportunity to run public playtests of your game or contribute to other playtests. You can find details on the Auscon page for registering your game. Do it early. I hear that the registration for games is going to close soon. … Read entire article »

Five Questions With… Fred Hicks

Forgive me if I have a little fanboy moment here. This FQW is with Fred Hicks, designer of one of my favourite games, Don’t Rest Your Head. But that was from many years ago, and today he’s the Co-President of Evil Hat Productions and the Art Director for Hero Games. On with the interview. The Evil Hat approach to customer interaction is notable for being transparent. While you’re developing games, even just the ideas for games, how do you decide what to publicise and what to keep close? There are things which aren’t ready for people to run with out-of-context. That’s the key thing to remember with transparency. When you put a fact out there, it’s able … Read entire article »

24-hours To Become Awesome!

Okay, last weekend I took part in the “Movie Mashup” 24-hour rpg competition, hosted by the Free RPG Blog and 1KM1KT.net. It was a great deal of fun, exhausting, and liberating. In this particular competition you were given a list of movies as stimulus and had to mash any two together and create a complete, playable game in 24 hours. This is a fairly typical format for 24-hour rpg competitions – a list of stimuli, 24 hours and all your creativity to produce a complete, playable game. YOU should give it a try. Twenty four hours isn’t a lot of time to complete a game, and some people may say it is impossible, but that’s simply … Read entire article »

AusGames at AusConGames

The RPG schedule for Auscon has gone up on the Auscon website, and I want to draw your attention to two games in particular. Both of them are produced by Stockade notables. Behind The Screens will be on offer at the 9am and 2pm sessions, by the designer himself: Peter Blake. Check out his very quiet blog and goad him into posting more updates. FU will also be available in the 9am session only, run by yours truly. It probably won’t be using the recently-released Star Wars module, unless the players demand it. I’m going to work the pickup aspect of this game and make it completely spontaneous. … Read entire article »

Five Questions With… David Pidgeon

We turn our attention back onto Australian shores for this FQW… One of Australia’s most chatty RPG designers is David Pidgeon, font of many game ideas. He’s been working on Dirty Princesses for a little while, and has recently started a fiction blog. What do you consider when writing setting material? I consider whether it would be interesting to me if I was new to the setting. I want it to be evocative, informative but also to leave enough gaps to make the setting my own. Which games impress you, and why? I’m impressed by a lot of games, but more specifically by games that tightly tie the themes of the game to the system. Games like Dogs in … Read entire article »

Five Questions With… Daniel Solis

We’re quite fortunate to have as an interviewee, Daniel Solis. Daniel is the author of games such as Happy Birthday, Robot!, Split Decision, Sagefight! and the recent Kickstarter sensation Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple. He also hosts the Thousand Year Game Design Challenge, if you’re up for a tough design goal. In between working, designing games and riding the wave of success that is Do, he’s found time to be part of Five Questions With… Daniel Solis. Which part of producing a game do you have the most confidence with? What gives you that confidence? Because I am a graphic designer and art director by day, I feel most confident in being able to present a … Read entire article »

Five Questions With… Michael Wenman

This is a new feature for The Stockade, called Five Questions With… Our first guest is Michael Wenman. As you’ll see from this interview, Michael is a game designer based in the Sydney area and has been designing in one way or another for a few years. So without further ado, here’s the interview. Tell us about the first game you made, published or not. There’s a gradual decline into game design. When I was in high school, I played a few games with my friends, AD&D, Ars Magica, Cyberpunk 2020, TMNT, Shadowrun, Rifts, the early releases of White Wolf’s World of Darkness. I was the group’s fall back GM, because I wasn’t afraid … Read entire article »

Auscon Story Games & RPGs are on!

See? I told ya so! Auscon is running a day of story games and RPGs. May 1, the Sunday of the event, is the RPG taster. A taster for what? For a larger RPG convention being planned for later in 2011. A convention with high focus on RPGs and story games. The call is out for GMs to volunteer to run games at the taster in April. Any GM who does this will get a full weekend pass to Auscon. That gives you plenty of time on other days to wander the vendor booths or play the other games on the schedule. Sessions are 9am to 1pm, 2pm to 6pm and a super-session from 7pm to midnight. If … Read entire article »

Auscon on your radar

It might not have been on your radar until now, but I think it should be. Keep your eyes on the Auscon site. There might be some good news for story gamers, if the rumours I hear are true. … Read entire article »

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