anyway.

I'll be very interested to see this. I might finally get what it is you're doing when you run it.

In 22 days you can be all, "weeks people, I meant weeks."

Also AWESOME

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Yeah. Yikes.

Do things get noticeably nastier when the countdown is three-quarters complete? If we do concentrated fire now, do we advance the countdown faster?

Graham

Yes! Yes!

Okay so this is a 3-countdown process. (You can build a front that way if you want, where each full cycle of an individual threat's clock advances a bigger-scale clock. Like, maybe a disease vector's clock goes "it's hunting, it's attacking, it's infecting," and the disease's clock goes "1 person's infected, 2 people are infected, 3 people, doom!")

We're done with the first clock. For each clock, 9:00 = it's the weekend. Bring the weekend now, and yes, bam! It's 9:00 in the second countdown, and I get a lot more done on it.

"I get a lot more done on it" does equal "noticeably nastier." Just ask my dear put-upon, long-suffering family.

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YOU CAN DO IT

Which comes first in the lumpley writing stages of grief? Acting under fire or making a break for it?

Preview! The section about assigning Hx. PDF format: hxgrid.pdf.

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Glad you went into as much detail about initial Hx as you have, Vincent, because I know I found that very confusing when we did it a week or so ago.

The tone seems very practical and down-to-earth, which echoes the playbooks. You also take no bullshit on the "how the party knows each other" question. I'm pleased.

I get the impression that this game is a deliberate aim at the more traditional audience in more ways than just with the GMing, too. Hopes for a mainstream breakthrough?

I can't even think about that right now. I just want to finish writing the damn thing so I can stop.

The countdown is more than three-quarters complete, which means all hell breaks loose. This probably means that you're bombarded with other game ideas, your hard drive crashes and Meg demands you do some hoovering.

I like the preview.

Graham

A-Rock-alypse!

Graham: you're absolutely right. We made plans to travel and visit family this upcoming weekend. Clever, huh?

So I hereby give myself an 8-day extension. New countdown:

13...

Vincent, on Saturday: "I feel terrible when I'm writing. And when I'm not."

Everyone else: sad faces, then laughter.

Anyone seen a happy medium? I want to talk to myself before I'm dead! (Don't worry, that's more pun than drama)

Ever considered getting a writing buddy? "How's it going now? Considered writing something like this?" Someone to keep you on task by enjoying your creativity and company without being a distraction. (If that's me I get a pair of headphones and check up every few tracks.) Depending on how much control you need of the process that can be a Godsend!

I am, in a sense, Vincent's writing buddy. I keep asking how things are going and suggesting ideas, while Vincent wishes I'd shut the fuck up and let him concentrate.

Graham

The writing's going very well, by the way, and I didn't steal time from it last night to compose another boxes-and-arrows post. I think I deserve a cookie for that.

It's looking like it's going to weigh in somewhere between 80 and 100 pages. It might surprise me and hit 110. About half of it is stuff I've already written somewhere or other, maybe three fifths. The rest is brand spanking. (Somebody go tell him.)

It's making me question the fundamental direction of the design, but that always happens so I'm practicing discipline and ignoring it. Mostly.

Tonight we're playing our Psi*Run game and I'm going to try to focus on it, instead of being half-distracted the whole time by how I should be writing instead.

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"The writing's going very well, by the way, and I didn't steal time from it last night to compose another boxes-and-arrows post. I think I deserve a cookie for that"

But I LIKE your boxes and arrows posts! No cookies for you!  :-(

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Just reached 80 pages, still more to go. No working on it this weekend though as we'll be traveling.

It's Keeler:

That picture reminds me of a Duran Duran album for some reason. Not in a bad way.

Her hair probably.

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It's Bran:

and Marie:

I don't know about the real Bran. The Bran in the book is a savvyhead, but yet he poses for his illustration with a gun and while taking off his shirt.

Okay, so one thing I know - I'm buying this book in print format, because this much black will kill my printer.

A concern I hadn't considered.

Oh well. No time to consider it now! You can decide whether to print the playtest PDF after you've looked at it, if you want. I'm not going to charge for the playtest version (but serious enquiries only, please).

I really like Bran! Keeps me regular.

Graham

Well, I have a game of Apocalypse World already on-going, I hope that qualifies as serious enough :).

If I end up doing a lot of printingof the pdf (either playtest or rthe final, pay-for versin) I'll probably find clever hax to avoid printing solid swathes of black. Somehow.

Also, I forgot to say, concerns abiut how I'll prinit it aside - I LOVE the art. LOVE LOVE. I love how sexy - both literally and metaphorially sexy - this game is, from the art to the setting to the mechanics.

Thanks for saying so!

I've updated hxgrid.pdf to include the illos, you can check out how they look for printing if you want. (I think you'll find them not too bad.)

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http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/2293

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I AM WRITING SO HARD MY FINGERTIPS ARE BLEEDING

ROLL TO ENDURE DURESS

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(I think I might make it. Crazy.)

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and

HA HA HA I DID IT HA HA HA

I'm exhausted.

Next step: print the whole bastard, take a red pen to it. Fix all the "see page XX"s and so on. Just simple tidying, no rewriting. Spellcheck it.

My plan is to make it available to you, my friends, on Friday, June 5, 5 days from now, and to have some hardcopies at JiffyCon!

Congratulations! That's a hell of an effort.

Well done. I'm looking forward to it.

Graham

Congratulations, Vincent!

Please only have a modest amount of fun playing it this weekend. I don't want to be too sad that I missed out.

So if we get it this Friday, there'll be plenty of time to read through it for open gaming at Go Play NW.  Awesome :)