Hi everyone,

So I am, instead of my normal weekly post, going to write an entry in my development blog today. I might do this a bit more often – I seem to be echoing the words of the Oracle all too often lately!

I had a very interesting conversation with one of my playtesters after the last Era: Survival playtest we did, and I thought I’d share the dilemma we were discussing with you.

First, a bit of a framework. Era: Survival is a Survival Horror game. One of the primary factors that differentiates it from an action game, in my definition of the genre, is the massive risks involved in combat – people who constantly get into combat in a survival horror game should be dead pretty quickly. One of the ways a lot of games in this genre achieve this is to limit the utility of weapons – baseball bats break, guns run out of ammo, you know the type of thing. So you end up running around or away from zombies, demons or whatever, rather than fighting them head on, because getting bitten in hand to hand combat is very bad.

This was the basis of the disagreement – it was around weapons and how much they could be used. The playtester, who will remain totally nameless, felt that it damaged the suspension of disbelief that a standard sledgehammer would be damaged and need to be repaired after only 5 or 6 hits against an enemy.

In response, I explained that there were story reasons around this – the world that Era: Survival is set in is not at modern technology levels – it’s living off the bones of a once-great human civilisation. To make a metal hammer, they don’t mine metal, they get a chunk of metal, melt it and then pour it into a hammer shape. Impurities abound, the materials are not always the best for the job, etc. Therefore, it seemed to be logical to me that the hammer could become unusable after 5 or 6 hits, particularly if it hit something hard. It was agreed between us that if it hit something hard then that was possible, but what if you swing the hammer horizontally and take someone’s head off? that isn’t really on the same scale as hitting the ground.

And that’s where the interesting point lies: I had made the assumption that it always hit something hard, for mechanical reasons – otherwise, you instantly double the complexity of hitting something with a hammer – did it hit something hard or soft? if one then it takes this much durability damage, if another then this much. So why did I make that choice for the mechanics?

What happens when it’s neither hard nor soft, but average – surely that should be catered for as well? The rules will inevitably grow in complexity if you follow that line of reasoning: before you know it, you will have 10 hardness scales for targets and making a dice roll to decide how much damage it takes. I resist this in a rule set – I try to make the rules easy to understand and usable.

In the Era d10 Rule Set, I’ve had to make a few choices for usability that I am not 100% happy with on realism grounds. I have had to think very long and hard about where the line lies, though, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the real thing that destroys suspension of disbelief is having to look at a flow chart every time you hit something. You don’t just hit or miss any more in this scenario, you have to follow through a process and slow the entire game down by doing this, not just for the person swinging the hammer, but also for the other players, who have to sit and wait while that process is followed.

Okay, so let’s say that you hypothetically have chosen to do hard and soft and leave it at that. You now have two ways of swinging your Melee Weapon, so why attack in any way except that which means a soft target? So now people are changing their gameplay, their approach to combat, to keep their weapons going longer, so they can survive longer combats. Perhaps you make it more difficult to hit when attacking so that it is a soft target, to discourage that behaviour? Of course, that adds yet more complexity to Combat, which is the slowest part of any game’s process.

Hopefully, you can see that this is exactly the wrong direction for a Survival Horror game to be going – I want to discourage Combat, and to encourage teamwork and strategy (including retreat!) over running in with a hammer and hitting things.

Not only that, you automatically increase the power of Melee Weapons relative to firearms. Firearms, both in Era: Survival and in other Survival Horror games, have extremely limited ammunition. You’re always worried, always counting your shots and wondering if this is the best time to use the shot or whether you should wait. That edge-of-the-seat nervousness is something that I want to capture with this game, it’s a fundamental part of the genre to me. If anyone with a melee weapon can (say) last 20 Combat Rounds without their weapon breaking, while anyone with a firearm has perhaps 2 or 3, how is that going to affect the game? Everyone will become a melee combatant, and use their weapon as often as they like.

Finding the balance between reality and mechanics is one of the hardest things to do in ano rule set, not just Era d10. The key is to decide what you want from your rules. I am trying to be realistic but not too realistic, to provide enough complexity to keep people interested but not so much that the rules become hard for new players to use. It’s intended to be approachable but not as high-level as systems like FATE… and it is a very tough line to walk.

I stand by my decision to keep the durability low on all weapons for thematic reasons on this occasion, but I would not use this mechanic in the other game. I came up with various methods to explain it – the low-grade materials and poor construction, the fact that if Humanity is isolated from each other with no memory of modern technology, they might not know that hammers can last longer than that or expect better, the fact that an unusable weapon doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s snapped in half, the fact that the weapon could be nearly 100 years old in the setting… but none of these satisfied this playtester as reasons for the weapon breaking.

So what do you do at this stage? You take another long, hard look at what you want to achieve with this game. What do I want? A game where people have to think rather than rush in guns (or sledgehammers!) blazing. Did I make the right decision? I think so. Will it please everyone? Demonstrably not.

The playtester in question did 100% the right thing by bringing this perceived issue to my attention. It was a problem for them, so it will be a problem for others. And it’s a problem that I can’t solve without hurting my game.

So, you are probably wondering, in a game, where do you draw the line between mechanics and reality, especially in a situation like this, where a playtester has a negative reaction? The answer is simple: wherever you, as a creator, can justify. Follow the right feeling for the game you are creating and make it true to your vision – you really won’t go wrong. Just make sure you have a vision and a set of things you want players to do in this game, something you want it to feel like.

Also, always take playtester’s feedback very seriously and question why you made your decision about whatever they raise. Come up with an answer that satisfies you, both as a story answer and as a “creator reason”. It won’t satisfy everyone, but most of the people who ask the question will understand you had a reason for it.

In my case, I came back to the fact I simply don’t want melee to be more powerful than ranged – I want them both to have risks. I don’t want people to enter combat, so I want to discourage that. How? By making weapons last only 3 or 4 turns in Combat, so you either have to be a Human arsenal, or you have to be careful.

– Ed

Hi everyone,

Again, instead of my post this week, I thought I’d write a little in my Development Blog.

Very recently, I’ve been working to find an artist for a graphic novel I’m working on in the Consortium Universe. At 100 pages, it’s a lot of work, a lot of cash in someone’s pocket. This is not a new experience for me – I’ve had similar experiences multiple times on every book I’ve made with one exception – with Era: Lyres, I used an artist I already knew and therefore I knew could do the work well.

So I thought I’d give you a little insight into the sorts of messages, traps and verbal abuse you receive as someone who’s offering to pay a large amount of money to someone else to create artwork for you (and, note: this is hiring artists. This is nothing to do with the horrors which can happen when you’ve hired them and made an agreement! Well, I might add a little of that.).

So, where to go? I’ve found DeviantArt is the best place to find genuinely good artists and even writers as well. The Job Offers forum there is pretty much guaranteed to get you some hits, no matter what it is you want. So make sure, when you post, that you explain what it is you want, post a link to an example style you like, give an idea of the budget you’re looking for and an indication the amount of work you’re offering (because nearly everyone will give you a discount for a large amount of work – freelancers have to live between jobs, which is why they charge a lot for individual pieces).

Then, you sit back and wait for the replies. Comments like “That’s a stupid project” doesn’t really happen too often, you don’t need to worry about that sort of thing on any practical level. Personally, I ask people to E-mail me (and provide my E-mail address) so, inevitably, half a dozen people post on the forum thread or message me on DA. I follow those up as I feel necessary, but don’t feel obliged to reply, personally, as they didn’t bother to follow my request for contact: usually a very good first indication.

Those that do E-mail you will range from the low-priced and amateur to the massively high-priced and genuinely impossible. Obviously, you’re looking for something in the middle.

With comics more than illustrations, you’re likely to get offers from people who want to do just the pencils or inks (watch out for the inks only in particular – it may be me, but I sometimes find it hard to tell when they are offering just inks from most initial attempts at contact). That can make it very hard to judge their portfolios (again, particularly if they are just inks – how good was the inking on that page of Green Lantern’s Blackest Night? And how do you judge the inking without judging the pencils?). Personally, I’ve found it a lot safer and that I get better results with someone who does pencils, inks and colours – the whole job.

With illustrations, if you post a fair bit, you’ll find the same people apply and apply even after you have told them that you’re very sorry, but their style doesn’t fit what you’re looking for: there are certainly spammers on the forum.

So, you start getting responses and going through them. When I first started, I had an artist that helped me with a few things, and he told me “If this artist can do this, then he can definitely do [whatever I was looking for], it’s much easier…”. I found there was no bigger mistake than to make that assumption. It’s my strong recommendation that you don’t hire anyone who doesn’t have a piece of work similar to what you’re looking for in their portfolio – most people who claim to be able to do any style are not being totally straight with you.

Watch out for copied work from photos – people who copy from photos and post it all over their portfolio seldom have the skills to do anything else, anything creative with a pose. Using references is one thing (and something all artists should do, really), but you’ll fall foul if you get someone with apparently great work that can only copy photos.

Also check for consistency – some people do one piece of good work and never seem to be able to match up to it again – that’s a problem I’ve had a few times in the past, particularly with Consortium Illustrations.

Check their English (or French, or whatever language you speak). A lot of people use a copied and pasted post written by someone else, which can hide real problems with communication. Nothing is worse than trying to direct people how to fix what they’ve done when they can’t understand the words you’re using because Google Translate doesn’t really handle that particular word well. Communication is very key with an artist to realise your vision.

And, inevitably, you’ll get some who you’d love to have but one look at what they are asking for, money-wise, makes it very obvious you can’t afford it.

I had a similar encounter with someone today – they wished to charge almost 3 times the budget I’d set aside for my 100 page graphic novel. So, I politely replied to their E-mail that I was sorry, I could not afford that, that I’d thought that his price would be lower when I first contacted him, considering the volume of work here (and, you know, the fact I’d put a guide budget…?). What followed was a massive tirade about how I was expecting all artists to live in ditches and eat… well, you can imagine, I’m sure. I was quite taken aback, to be totally honest (something that sort of surprises me – I’ve experienced this quite a few times now), but I tried to retain my professional composure. I replied that I would just have to accept some lower quality work that possibly took less time, in that case. The response was equally unpleasant.

Should I have not replied? Probably. Everyone knows conversations can get out of control much more easily on the internet. However, maintaining good relations with the artistic community is very important when you commission a lot of work, so I usually try to explain my reasoning, and I try to reply to every offer rather than just deleting them from my inbox and ignoring the people who took the time to apply.

Everyone wants to talk to you when they think you’re going to give them thousands of dollars for their work. That’s not surprising. What I find surprising is how many artists – they run a business, after all, they are creating artwork for money – become offensive when you tell them that you’re sorry but they aren’t what you are looking for (whether it be because of money, style, whatever). The fact you can’t afford an artist right now doesn’t mean you will never be able to, doesn’t mean you want to sever all ties and never consider working with them again. As time goes on, most people who order lots of artwork up their quality targets (and budgets) to improve – that’s only natural! Someone who’s out of your league today might be the very person you want next year. I recommend trying to keep that in mind when you interact with artists… just a thought!

How do you get the best results from freelance artists? Sadly, the only answer I have is “Get a good one”. Sometimes, doing concept artwork can help you find someone who will actually work that little bit harder for you when it’s needed. Being fair with money can really help as well – but don’t get fooled into large (like 50%) non-refundable deposits for artists who you haven’t worked with before: that way lies a lot of wasted money.

Finally, watch out for studios. I’ve never had a good experience with an art studio… though I still hope I might one day. Many of the ones on DeviantArt use their most experienced artist to win the contracts and then assign a junior artist to the project, because they have the money now, relying on you to be honest. And, anyway, they’ve usually taken at least 50% by then.

Now, I’ve said a lot of bad things about hiring artists. I have been working with Sofia over 4 separate projects over about 3 years, the time I spent working with Victor Minguez on Consortium was fantastic and Keith Draws is a great bloke with a brilliant work ethic. There have been a couple of others as well; enough for me to be still looking in the same place. But for every one of them, there have been 50 applicants and 10 total failures that I’ve worked with. My best advice is to know that going in, expect it, and allow for it, along with some wasted money.

Well, I hope I’ve been informative or helpful in some ways to anyone looking for artists.

Of course, there’s one way that’s even easier to find artists for RPGs… ask me! I have a collection of solid, reliable artists who I work with frequently.

Until next time!

– Ed

Hi everyone!
I am just coming to the end of a proofreading cycle on Era: The Consortium’s Core Rulebook and I thought, as a result, now might be a good time to write a Development Blog entry about all the stuff that happens after you fiNash the actual writing, so here we are!

When I started writing Era: The Consortium, with 3 other writers, I commented on their stories as they wrote them and showed them to me, right from the first draft stage. I don’t count this as editing personally, though I know others who disagree with me; I count this as part of the Creator/Lead Writer job – maintaining the integrity of the Universe, making sure that every story contained the right technology, the right characterisation and so on.
As time went on and we reached a final version, I started adding the stories into the book and, as I did, I gave them a “proper edit”. I was looking for things like sentences that didn’t quite make sense, places where the length was excessive or not quite enough (which became particularly important in some places – the page split for stories in a book and where they end up relative to full-page images can be crucial!), and places where I could improve the stories.

A good friend of mine told me once that editing is making sure that the whole book is written in the same voice. If that is the correct definition, I don’t think there was much editing in Part One of Era: The Consortium: The story is written as a timeline with short stories expanding on the different events. As these short stories are “written” by people who are involved and are from all kinds of individuals, different voices is almost a must! Of course, the timeline needed editing and I did that, but the main focus of the editing was on the Rules.

Rules in an RPG being consistently presented is absolutely vital! If the way they are stated changes every page, they can become very confusing. That was where the majority of my editing work lay. It is worth noting that it is most certainly possible to both write and edit your own work – that is not something you need to be concerned about.
I do, however, recommend that you edit the entire work within as small a number of continuous days as possible – if you are anything like me, your voice might change over time, depending on what else you are working on!
Which brings us nicely to proofreading. I strongly recommend that you do not try to do this yourself. Why? Because if you do, and you wrote and edited, you will skip over bits of text that should be fine, miss spelling errors and even miss some serious issues (as I did!).

I initially started by getting a number of friends to look it over. They turned up a number of errors, which we fixed.

However, it was not long after we released that we realised there were still significant errata in the book. We raised them on the website to advise people who had bought it, of course.

During this year, I have almost sold out of Era: The Consortium rulebooks. When I noticed, after Dragonmeet, how few I had left, I decided that I would do a full proofreading run and really bring the quality up another notch.
I was fortunate enough to find and hire two excellent proofreaders for Era: Lyres (not that it was easy – I hired five terrible ones before I found these two), and one of them volunteered to look over Era: The Consortium.
We are coming towards the end of the proofread now, and it has been a lot of work but the book is much better for it. Having a pair of eyes that is looking for issues rather than just enjoying the story is really helpful.
So, my advice on Editing, Proofreading and what they mean to you? Editing is making sure the material, whether it was written by you, others or a combination of the two, fits together with what is next to it and the rest of the book. You can do it yourself, and as a game creator, I personally wouldn’t have it any other way. Proofreading is vital if you want to have a high quality end product, but you should not try to do it yourself – it just doesn’t work.

If you want a good proofreader, let me know through the Game Creator section on the website – I will be happy to point you at one in your price range!

Thank you for reading my rambles, and I hope it provides a little more insight into this aspect of the creation and writing of books!
– Ed

Hi everyone!

I get asked about Kickstarter more often than I get asked about anything else apart from the truth behind Era: The Consortium’s mysteries!

So, today, I thought I’d write a little bit about Kickstarter, some of the process and things to watch out for as someone who posts their game there.

I’m going to kick off with a few cold, hard, and less than pleasant facts:

• Kickstarter is a platform which caters to a lot of people. A lot of projects make tens of thousands of dollars. Unless you have an overwhelming army of supporters before you launch or get lucky enough to be a Staff Pick, I’m sorry, but your first project is not likely to. Be aware of this going in and you have a better chance of not being crushed.
• There are a huge number of “services” out there which promise you’ll get Kickstarter success through Twitter or Facebook advertising, claim they have never failed, etc. I’ve not yet met one worth working with or entrusting my money to (and I have spoken to several and worked with one). My advice is to ignore them.
• Which brings me to paid advertising in general. I’ve found it is, mostly, not worth it, but I have a fairly niche product in a Tabletop RPG. I guess some products (travel cases that I keep getting spammed with ads for, for example) might be worth it, but I’d say Tabletop RPG books, it is not.

Okay. So… not nice facts, but facts, from my experience. Kickstarter is not a quick and easy way to get tonnes of money. It’s a lot of work, preparation, and trust-building. You need to be consistently solid and honest, before people will begin to back you in large numbers.

People are becoming more wary of Kickstarter as time goes on and stories of people cheating people out of their money become more common. A staggeringly large number of projects don’t deliver on time (an old article, but I believe it’s still true, as a backer of over 50 Kickstarters myself). So plan. Allow for problems, give yourself an extra window when you’re committing to a date.

Most important, though, is having something to show beyond vague images and a promise you’ll do something. I try not to go to Kickstarter without a “nearly finished” book, and I’ve been criticised heavily for that in the past, but I have not had a single Kickstarter fail since my very first (which is where I learned quite a lot of this…).

At the end of the day, no matter what you do, people are going to say bad things about your book, claim what you’re doing is pointless/a waste of money/tome/effort. That’s really the primary thing you have to be prepared for when going to Kickstarter, I’m afraid – a lot of people really suck. With any luck, by the time you get to Kickstarter, you have dealt with enough of those people to not have it stop you.

So what can you do to help your Kickstarter do the best it can?

• Have your product as near to finished as possible with the maximum amount to show to potential backers.
• Have rewards that genuinely thank your backers for what they have done to help you – they are giving you the money you need to start. Value that and show you value them, because without them, your product would not exist.
• Get reviews, preferably before you start the Kickstarter but definitely before you finish. Most reviewers only ask for a review copy of the book (they can’t be paid, it makes them look biased), and it really does make a difference.

That’s all I have time for today… I have to go launch a Kickstarter! ?

– Ed