this And that

Sitting down tonight, and tomorrow, and Wednesday, to format Glow, the Post-Apocalyptic Role-Playing Game. As I do the final touches, I can't help but wonder why did I do a whole game instead of a setting for another system(s)? Or maybe just an amorphous game supplement for an amorphous game system? A couple of the later sorts of products, like the generic products of PaNik Productions a few years ago, or the Arduin books by David Hargrave first written to _not_ (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) expand the AD&D of the mid-70s, are wonderful works. 

Some of David Hargrave's gaming books that were "not" written for AD&D

I really feel myself heading this way. I can write a scenario in about three days, sometimes two, when I set my mind to it. I tend not to like to look up rules while I write them, because I may very well be at work, so sticking to other game systems tends to be hard. My answer to that has been to write up my own systems, this tends to get boring. Anybody who's kept up on my posts on FacetuBe seen me complain that game writing is becoming more like stereo instructions with a couple orks thrown in. I actually had some great shorthand back in the late 90s just before I left the Army. Even if I can't find the notes, it would not be that hard for me to reconstruct into three pages of guidelines from memory.

For now though, I have the TROTT rules written up. I have five people who are promised copies of either the Glow or the upcoming Spacers re-release. Be ready, they're coming.

In other news, the folks behind the Deluxe T&T have announced that not only is the product this close to release, they've decided to release a "Beta" version. This Beta version is available mostly to folks who supported their Kickstarter project, as well for sale to the general public (walking past at bus stations and newspaper stands) in rough print form. I haven't seen it, I can't find the email. I may have lost during some difficulties with my hard drive email program, so I suspect no foul play. I could probably get the email sent, but frankly, but at this time the entrepreneurship of the DT&T makers in their practices to date and posts in private fora make asking anything of them by email unappealing. The feedback that I am reading about the Beta range from the vapid gushing of the less-than-critical fanbase to the actually not very disturbed folks that actually read it. I feel a little blessed, as I really only want to see the end-product. Too much time has passed since this money-making endeavor was forced upon the fans of T&T by folks previously uninterested in Our Game for a couple of decades. Looking at tea leaves, I am not clenching my teeth too much.

That said, I remember swearing T&T 5th edition was the best game ever, then, 10 years after that argument, I read the "7th" edition and loved it. Where will this reading take me, when it finally happens? Pleasantly, I don't know yet.