My plans for new TSOY products
rafial:
Hah, I just noticed my strange Freudian slip:
"compromising your vision will only lead to a purer product"
...should have read...
"compromising your vision will only lead to a POORER product"
Per Fischer:
Solar System Does Matter!
Nice going, Eero. I converted Solar System 1st edition as the system for a Danish modern detective game - didn't quite finish it as the 2nd edition of TSOY came out and I never got around to update it.
Like the idea of separating the Solar System in a book of its own and look forward to your design threads
Willow:
This sounds like a great idea- will you be expanding on both the rules and the setting?
Eero Tuovinen:
Yeah, I might well create a cool-looking logo for anybody and everybody to use for signifying Solar System compatibility. A heraldic sun thingy most likely or something like that. Making the books match each other is also a given, although the exact formats will obviously depend a bit on how lengthy I wax in writing - I already am surprisingly long-winded in writing the Solar System rules, hopefully in a good way, as I put down all my wisdom and hints on how the rules are best approached. There are some pretty smart bits in there, I hope.
Actually the one design issue I'm most wary of at this point is a certain temptation to make the books long just for the sake of looking impressive, getting titled spines and so on. I think that the setting book can reasonably be pretty extensive and justifiedly so, but I'm willing to see how long the rulebook becomes without trying to force it. Certainly I could add length to the rules part by putting in mucho crunch - actually, any opinions on that? My basic plan at this point is to try to keep a rein on the Solar System book length by putting in just the absolute minimum amount of crunch, but there is some merit in including more of that and thus making the book larger and more expensive as well. To my eye this actually depends greatly on how short I can make the book in all - if I could make it just 50 pages or so, then I'd be rather attracted to printing it as a super-cheap booklet and selling it at $5 or so. That'd certainly be the best value for the money for any given reader, as crunch is in many ways so setting dependant in the Solar System. The other option, I guess, is to put in lots of generic crunch and mini-campaign ideas and such to better support play with just that one book, with a pricepoint somewhere considerably higher. That would be reasonable if it starts to look like I have reason to extend the rules/advice material to the range of 80 pages, for example - then it's a short step to add some crunch and make a perfect bound book with a spine and all.
I wrote a bit about my recent playtest of material for the new book here. Comments and questions are welcome - I especially invite anybody to share their experiences with the issues I raise, as there is certainly a lot of TSOY experience and opinion on these forums. I'll try to post some other points about my writing later as well, when I get my chicks lined up - I'm having hell of a time writing this Solar System book at the same time as I'm figuring out the logistics of producing my own zombie game for Gencon.
Also, Willow: I'm certainly expanding and rewriting in both parts. Looking at that thread from February will give a sense of where I'm at concerning the setting book - those ideas are pretty applicable still. The rules part is still a bit of a mystery, partially because I'm researching and discarding options while writing, but some new stuff will certainly be there. The above thread should give a pretty good sense of how I'm approaching rewriting the rules.
rafial:
My gut reaction is to say steer away from crunch for the sake of crunch. However it would be cool if there was something that a purchasers could sit down and play with just the basic Solar System book all by itself. One thought that springs to mind is to include something like John Harper's excellent Freebooters adventure in the basic rules booklet. (You'll have to ask John if he is up for that, I'm talking through my hat here). Anyway it would give people an example of applied crunch, but without the baggage of a full blown setting.
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