Justin Achilli

World of Darkness: Diadem

2009-07-10T01:38:51Z

A new article on an unpublished World of Darkness project is right here for your perusal. Enjoy, and leave feedback if it strikes you!

Fiction Up

2009-06-18T16:39:41Z

Over at the other blog again. If you remember the old Y2JFK short story beginning, this is a companion piece to that.

New Article Up

2009-06-15T17:08:06Z

New article on "Radical Estrangement" up on that other blog.

Also, I've reset the pointers on www.justinachilli.com to look there, so it sounds like I'm pulling the trigger on that thing. Update your RSS or bookmarks should you so choose, and thanks for reading.

Trying New Things

2009-06-12T17:04:05Z

Hey, gang:

If you're a regular reader here, you're no stranger to the fact that I like to mess around with layout and options and that sort of thing as they pertain to this blog. Of late, I've been entertaining the idea of switching to Squarespace. I've got a new entry on that blog, so if you don't mind, take a quick trip over there and have a look. Comments are on, so have at it.

That'll Cost Ya

2009-06-09T21:32:38Z

In game design, "too powerful" is a myth. The actual design should reflect "It needs to cost more." A power or effect should remain pretty true to its original design. Mind control needs to feel like mind control -- you can't take a little bit away from it and hope to elicit the same in-game effect or the same player enthusiasm. A lightning blast needs to be a levinbolt that electrocutes its target, not a wee spark that sizzles foes for a li'l bit of damage. Hyper-speed needs to be fast... no, faster than that. David Bowie's cone of frost breath weapon needs to crystallize targets caught in the blast radius.

This isn't to say that there's no place for low-powered effects. Those certainly have their place, particularly in level-based systems* that gradually step up the potency of what players can do. In these cases, the price is still important, and they still need to be relative to the effect, so it stands to reason that the costs should be commensurately lower.

One of the design philosophies that resonates with me is that all special effects should feel overpowered. As the player, I'm the coolest thing in the game, so everything taking place in the game should reward me for being there. When I do something -- particularly something that my character has as an edge, such as a superpower, special skill, or supernatural ability -- I should say "WOW!" when I use it. This engages me and empowers me. This is one of my rewards for spending time with the game. This can be a visual effect in a video game, a chance to spend a unique resource in a board game, an effect only my character type can create in a tabletop RPG, or the ability to use a special type of card in a card game.

My choice in choosing a play style contributes a lot to this. If I'm a psychic spy, my WOW! moment might be using my psychic powers to command or confuse my enemies. If I'm a wizard, it could be an icy blast that freezes my enemies, causing them damage and immobilizing them. A fighter type can stun an opponent with a rabbit punch or disembowel him with a dagger.

The fact that it feels overpowered doesn't mean it should be overpowered, though, and that's where the cost to create effects comes in. A particle effect and some audio feedback in a video game can provide that overpowered-feeling WOW! for even an average effect. Rockets and missiles in EVE, for example, land with a resounding explosion that feels very satisfying. They don't do inordinate amounts of damage, but they feel exciting when they hit. Every character class in D&D 4e has nifty "at-will" powers that feel unique and exciting, even though they really amount to little more than a basic attack with a minor bell or whistle attached. The Disciplines in Vampire make the Kindred a cut above mortals, and since there are way more mortals in the world than there are vampires, Disciplines are both rare and empowering. The prices to invoke all of these effects, whether it's ISK-per-missile, blood points, or frequency, keeps everyone important -- players -- on the same playing field.

That's the challenge -- creating the feeling of awesome while still preserving the integrity of play through managing the cost of effects in resources.

* (Now, one of the perils of level-based systems is that the mathematical challenge increases in sync with the ability of the character, so that things often don't really become more difficult, the numbers behind them simply become greater. In many of these cases, the character's frequency of success remains about the same -- he's trying to reach a higher threshold, but his bonus modifiers to get there are higher.)

Face Off

2009-06-08T14:50:51Z

Five Vampires Walk Into a Bar...

2009-06-04T19:09:12Z

Eddy and I talking about some vampires (etc.) up in the latest White Wolf blogcast.

Not Drowning, Waving

2009-06-03T20:13:29Z

If you've been paying attention to the Internet for the past 48 hours, you've probably heard about Google's upcoming Wave project. Wow! What a breakthrough.

I'm utterly in love with the creative ethic that the internet has fostered over its comparatively short life. While I certainly don't profess to be a fan of every bit of art, fiction, or other expression published to the web, the fact that it's encouraged people to make is magnificent. Now, with Wave on the horizon, the limits of asynchronous communication aren't going to be a barrier any longer.

The challenge is this, people: Let's do something together. Let's pick a night of the week to all get together and bang out an idea for a game. Then, when we're done, let's play it. No more of the developer in his ivory tower, trickling games down to the plebes below him in a one-way pipeline of you'll-play-what-I-give-you. Let's do this together, and let's have a blast doing it.

This'll probably be a good place to dust off One Hundred Kingdoms, which is as good a place to start as any. I'll post more here as Wave becomes available, so if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, consider yourself invited.

Uncomplicated

2009-05-31T03:05:21Z

I’ve been watching the old British Robin of Sherwood series on DVD and it’s got me sort of nostalgic. I remember watching these back in the late 1980s on PBS and fell in love with them. Sure, the production values are a pretty dated, but the patina is part of why I think it's so endearing. I even enjoy the dated soundtrack, which must have been performed on the cheapest synthesizers the band could find. My wife mocks me ruthlessly when I watch them, and she can't make it through a single episode. Watching them brings me back to a time when I had far fewer responsibilities — not that I’m complaining, but there’s a certain sense of bittersweet innocence lost when I watch them.

Some amount of that has carried over into my gaming habits of late, too. I certainly wouldn’t say that I’m one of the new old-schoolers, but getting my hands dirty with the same reckless abandon I had in middle school really scratches an itch for me. No epic storylines, no massive characterization, no commitments is how I’ve been playing recently, and it’s pretty refreshing. There are times when gaming can be a chore, and that’s the last thing I want after a long day at the office building immersive and characterized. Don’t get me wrong, because that scratches another itch that’s maybe less frivolous. Then again, maybe the problem is that I’m too itchy.

So maybe the show didn’t age well, but being able to just enjoy it is a real pleasure, just like being able to put aside the velvet and absinthe of Vampire for a while is a refreshing change of pace. There are other Robin Hoods out there — the new BBC version seemed a bit glossy for my tastes and I’m tentatively looking forward to the new Russell Crowe production — but I have a soft spot for this one and the maybe “unsophisticated” but undeniably fun game philosophy of my early years.

(If you ant to get really nerdy with me about it, I much prefer the Michael Praed episodes to the Jason Connery ones, but I think the opposite might have been true when I was younger.)

Writing Longhand

2009-05-29T19:39:45Z

You kids and your fancy typing robots.

I Am a Spy That Solves Children's Problems

2009-05-24T02:12:25Z

I don't know how much you know about Scrum, but it's the development framework we use at CCP. In a nutshell, Scrum breaks big projects down into backlogs of features, and a team of developers takes ownership of individual features in the backlog and turns them into something functional. It's the development equivalent of cutting your steak into bites before you eat it. The emphasis is on delivery of features — it lets you deliver iterations that work in some capacity or another, rather than heading toward a given date and having something incomplete when that date arrives.

This morning, as I was up preparing Madeleine's breakfast, she was watching Special Agent Oso, which is a very ugly cartoon about a talking dog that solves kids' problems. It solves these problems by breaking the issue down into "three special steps," and then singing a song as it performs the steps. There I was, at 7:15 this morning, pureeing a banana, a strawberry, and some yogurt, when it dawned on me that this magical raccoon spy uses the same development structure that I do. Obviously, it's not quite as simplistic as that, but the parallels exist. It reminds me of the time when I realized that most of my political outlooks are similar to those of various Batman villains.

Of course, fatherhood means that kid preferences take precedence over those of big people, and Madeleine genuinely enjoys Oso. Presumably, I will one day be able to tell her that Oso and I have similar jobs. I probably won't tell her that I campaigned for Ra's al Ghul.

Moar Music

2009-05-15T15:01:28Z

So, since I'm working on an unannounced potentially vampire-related project at White Wolf/ CCP, it got me in the mood to bust out some of the ol' Succubus Club-style tunes. Here's a thirty-minute DJ set of EBM and futurepop for you to drink blood to.

Assemblage 23, "Decades"
Imperative, "Judas"
Cesium 137, "Agonist"
Dave Gahan, "Kingdom" (Digitalism Remix)
System Syn, "Burning Out"
VNV Nation, "Carry You"
Covenant, "Men"

Terrible IM Funnies That Are Not Funny

2009-05-14T15:15:37Z

For Your Listening Pleasure

2009-05-06T16:04:11Z

Hey, gang, I know it's been a long time since my last post, but we've been really busy at working wrapping up a big deliverable. As it's getting toward convention season, that means I'll be hitting the party circuit again, and we're working on a little bit of a new format for the party nights. You'll still go and drink on our tab and get some hella dance-floor action going, but we'll be pacing it a bit differently.

Anyway, since I'm talking about parties and music, I can't remember if I posted this before, but enjoy it. It's decidedly not what you're going to hear at a Succubus Club party, but it's a good time nonetheless. This is me and Eric at East Side Lounge last year, working up a crowd on the floor.

I'll get back in gear soon, but there's about another week and a half of visiting parents and new release planning.

Nerd War!

2009-04-29T01:22:23Z

New actual play post from the lunchtime D&D game over at One Encounter.

Unfair Treatment

2009-04-25T03:36:32Z

Man, what a bunch of bull.

We're going to paint Baby Girl's room a pale pink, apparently. That's what her room will look like. Pale pink. A room for a baby girl.

What about my room? I had an eminently reasonable idea to make it a "rock room," with murals of album covers painted on the walls. I figured one could have Bark at the Moon, one could have Powerslave, one could have Appetite for Destruction, and one could have something completely out of the idiom, like Louder Than Bombs or something.

"No. That's ridiculous."

Ridiculous? A pale pink room is ridiculous. You try to sell a house with a pale pink room and who's going to buy it? Someone with a girl. You try to sell a house with some kick-ass album covers muraled on the walls and you know who would buy it? Everyone.

"Ridiculous." Please.

Historicity

2009-04-21T03:07:35Z

Crossposted here.

There is, I think, an element of historicism to the stuff I put together for a fantasy game. As much as I love fantasy as an idea, I strongly dislike a lot of it in implementation. Religion in particular often rankles me in fantasy stories, and the half-formed cultured that behave irrationally but not interestingly. Too often for my tastes, a fantasy religion is too simple or straightforward. Something potentially fascinating like a fire cult — so much potential! — has little more presentation than "Fire good! Kill protagonist." Something like a society of cannibals is... just a society of cannibals. "Flesh good! Kill protagonist."

That, then, is why I think I like this historicity so much. Robert E. Howard said that

There is no literary work, to me, half as zestful as rewriting history in the guise of fiction.

And English fantasist G.K Chesterton remarked

It is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment; to see all ages in a sort of splendid foreshortening. That is the use of tradition: it telescopes history.

I love that trade in primordial human experience. Howard's stories plainly depicted the cultures in which he set them, and he unabashedly let the reader know their real-world analogues. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings draws very heavily from Beowulf and Der Ring Des Nibelungen. I did a lot of the same in Vampire — I plundered history ruthlessly, and placed the vampires inside it. I put the Nibelungs in Demimonde. I do the same in D&D because the presented pantheons don't speak much to me. I don't need Bane, Cyric, Corellon Barkchips, or their "toaster evils" and unbelievably simplistic, because-the-sourcebook-says-so dogmas.

Sure, I can accept a flying, invisible, ethereal Halfling that can shoot at-will lightning, but I have to believe why he's doing it. I don't need setting-justified gods that lead me down the path of the preprogrammed experience when I have Marduk, Thoth, Lugh, Mithras, Mars, Heimdall, and any number lunatic god-kings who placed themselves among the ranks of the divine. I don’t need Zhentarim, Calimshan, or the drow when I have all of history to draw on, like R.E. Howard did — often barely filing off any serial numbers — with his Shemites, Vendhyans, and Picts. I think they resonate more. I think they strike a chord in the cultural memory of people. And, frankly, they're just plain cooler because they actually were.

Game Time Decisions

2009-04-14T14:32:31Z

I've been in this weird frame of mind for gaming recently. On the one hand, I'm having a nostalgic trip down fantasy lane, messing around a bit with some "old-school" style gaming. I ran Rappan Athuk a while back, for example (yes, some dummy was killed by the poo monster; no, it wasn't a TPK). I've been dinking around with a pure-exploration campaign that I haven't yet had time to run. I have maps for a megadungeon concept that I think would be fun. It's vintage nerdity, and it's fun and invigorating.

(Speaking of megadungeons, have you seen Monte's project, and James' project?)

On the other hand, I've been working (admittedly sporadically) on the One Hundred Kingdoms idea, which is a much more narrative-driven experiment, and fairly antithetical to the dungeon-bash lark. I can't figure out whether it's a board game or an RPG, for example. It has goals, which the player selects at the game's outset, and it has various abstractions of traditional RPG concepts like combat, but the ultimate objective is to reach a personal milestone on a national scale. Think of it like The Tudors, and pick your personality and motivation.

But then there's more old-school. I am playing the hell out of some Street Fighter IV, which is a prettied-up version of 1991's Street Fighter II, and finally makes worthwhile use of net play and matchmaking. The underpowered characters have been beefed up, the old play styles work, and just enough new features have been added to stoke the nostalgia but give you something new to master. The new characters aren't as resonant or iconic as the originals, and the boss fights still rely on cheating rather than challenge, but being able to play, bug-free, with every other Street Fighter fan in the world makes that easy to overlook.

Summer season means a chance to add more board games to the mix, too. We've been playing a lot of Carcassone, Citadels, and a little bit of Kingsburg. I'm wanting a few more two-player options, since a lot of evenings involve me and the wife at home. I've got Blue Moon on the slate for that two-player goodness, but in a more masculine idiom, I'm going to grab Age of Conan's board game and the apple of my eye for the past several years that I haven't yet managed to acquire, Conquest of the Empire.

He Walks Among Us

2009-04-02T14:37:40Z

I don't watch a lot of TV, but Life on Mars was showing as I was running music trivia at the bar last night. Is there any sensible reason that a biopic about the historical Dracula hasn't been made with Michael Imperioli cast as Vlad Tepes? Someone out there has the power to make this happen. Maybe he doesn't have the greatest range of all actors in the world, but he's practically a body double.

Kindle and iPhone

2009-03-28T19:42:00Z

Demimonde is now available for Kindle and iPhone! To read it on the iPhone, you'll need the Kindle app for iPhone, but it's free. Amazon has the book listed at only $3.99 for the time, being too, so you're already getting away with something. You can also download a free sample of the book in this format from the product page.

I hope to have a post about the whole iPhone and Kindle experience up soon, but for the time being, just knowing that it's there is enough for me.

Thank You and Good Night!

2009-03-26T17:17:42Z

Hell, let's talk about something fun.

Have you ever closed down a bar or a party and been let down by the last song? You've spent all night tearing the place up and then all of the sudden, the night just ends. Or maybe it ends on the wrong note -- it's closing time, but there's still something banging on at 130 beats per minute. Or the last song happens and it's a big downer, like the music just went to a different place than the vibe had been headed all night.

I hate that. At the same time, I love playing the last song of the night. Not because the party's over, but because the "story" of that night, at least insofar as the bar or party is concerned, and it lets me put the finish touch on that tale. So, in the interests of helping you enjoy the bar or close the party, here are five songs that make perfect closings to a night of adventure.

George Michael, "Freedom '90"

This song works great because it's probably way slower than what you've been hearing for the rest of the night, which lets people know that it's time to wind things down, but it's got great energy, so even that winding down is going to be awesome. Like all good closing songs, the intro is unmistakable, so people know what they're about to get and they can enjoy it for the whole song. It's also a great length, so you can squeak out an extra minute of reckless abandon.

Drawback: You may have already played it earlier in the evening because some lovely ladies showed up. Trust me; play "Everything She Wants" early and save this one for the end.

Journey, "Faithfully"

Another unmistakable intro lets the audience jump into this one immediately. The part where Steve Perry gets all "WHOOAAHOO-OOOAAHOO" is a great singalong for the floor. (I suggest a bass kill so everyone can hear themselves singing along.) It's a kind of melancholy song, which reminds you that it's closing time, but it's a melancholy song about it being hard to be tender when you're out on the road rocking all the time, so the high note is still there.

Drawback: People may pair off and slow dance together, which is a little too much like prom.

Def Leppard, "Pour Some Sugar On Me"

Never underestimate the power of stripper music. The women will get all randy on the floor and the dudes will shake their fists. It will be glorious, provide you don't have too much self-respect or take yourself too seriously. After all, girls named Amber take their clothes off and receive money for behaving that way while this song plays at peak volume. As a bonus, if there are any actual strippers at your party, this song will encourage them to "work."

Drawback: You'll be in peril of firing them up too much and getting them all horny and ready to dance some more. Horny people are gross. So are strippers, really, but when you're all having a good time, that's briefly okay.

Queen, "Under Pressure"

Queen has never made a bad song. Neither has David Bowie. Put them both together and you have awesomeness squared. This song builds to a massive crescendo -- remember, it's closing time -- and then brings you back down to earth all upbeat and fulfilled. Then it closes with that series of finger-snaps that's like a bit of afterglow. It rocks, it's not too sweet, and everyone who ever lived at any stage of human history knows it and can sing along.

Drawback: Playing this song never has a drawback. Well, if you're ever in a situation in which you need to do something that sucks, don't play this song, because playing it is the opposite of what sucks. That's really all I can think of.

ODB, "Got Your Money"

A perfect singalong chorus, a nasty bassline, sleazy beats, and a bunch of cussing and rascaltry. This song works well regardless of what you've been hearing for the rest of the night. If you've been playing hip hop, it's a vintage jam. If you've been playing anything else, it's a dramatic shift that says, "Okay, we're wrapping things up and I'm going to do a little something different to get us out of here." It's also easy to dance to while you're so drunk you can barely stand, because all you really have to do is sway from side to side at just over 100 beats per minute.

Drawback: As with most hip hop, playing this song will result in fights and/ or rapes in the parking lot, so use it sparingly.

Adapt of Opportunity

2009-03-24T16:48:08Z

"Youth is like having a big plate of candy. Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure, simple state they were in before they ate the candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it all over again.... I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise

When the cat's away, the mice will play. Since my wife's been visiting her parents in Texas, I've been out almost every night. Bowling. Tongo Hiti. Wild Bill's. El Bar. St. Patrick's at Limerick. The party at Cameron and Hannah's. The party at KQ's. It's almost like I don't have any sense or something.

Going along with that is being dead tired, though. I've had the sleepies every morning, even the mornings that haven't come after a gambol about the tippling parlors. I think it's the house-buying. Man, what a frustrating process. It really takes it out of a dude. There's a sort of thrilling potential to buying a house -- making it a thing that'll be mine, and that I can do with what I want. But the reality of it is searching through a lot of "no, thank"-style properties, dealing with arcane protocols, and wondering exactly why the hell a "perfect" place doesn't exist.

I need bookstores. I need a decent grocery store. I need a bar. I need vitality and a sense of being a part of something. Oh, and a good school district. It's less and less about what I need and more and more about what's right for the family. I've been so selfish for so long, it's hard to suborn those urges.

Leprechauns

2009-03-19T15:18:25Z

Good heavens.

Setting Objectives

2009-03-11T17:01:17Z

As I ease into work on One Hundred Kingdoms -- which isn't going to be its real name, as we've already established -- I want to hit the system first. I already know that story flow and characterization are going to be important, and I want systems that enhance that. I don't want to design the setting first, though, because I don't want the setting to dictate the system, I want the play style to dictate the setting, and therefore support the system.

More...

Going into that design, I know I want two things: resource management and a very simple mechanism. This latter probably doesn't surprise anyone who's familiar with my work on the Storyteller system, and the second-generation Storytelling system is a bit too mechanically heavy for my tastes here. With simple systems you give up a certain amount of realism, but that's okay. My intent is to effectively "play" a story or novel, and since the only thing governing realism in such an environment is the author's whim, that's okay.

As to making resource management part of the resolution mechanic, it's because in certain situations, I want to be able to alter the odds in my favor, or even control them outright. There's a certain satisfaction, especially in a narrative environment, to be taken in knowing that what I say I want to do I can do, and I won't have to wait for the dice to tell me that I can do this.

To that end, I've come up with something I'm calling trumps. As a verb, trump means to override; as a noun, one of its meanings is as decisive factor. I like the way that word describes the effect I want such a tool to have in the game, and I like the way they imply they can affect the flow of the story -- this is what happens, because a trump made it so.

So that's a rough start: Extremely simple and flexible system. Resource management. A definitive and reliable way to govern an outcome. Knitting the systems together would be a benefit, as well, so that'll stay in the back of my mind.

Work on the system is already underway, but I'll save that for another post.

Preview Demimonde for Free

2009-03-08T16:50:48Z

Good afternoon, my crab-cakes.

I've put up a free PDF preview of the first three chapters of Demimonde, if you want to take a peek at it. It's not entirely work-safe, so if you're peeking and printing at an office that'll have problems with vulgar language, depictions of drug abuse, etc., then maybe take it easy.

If, on the other hand, you like what you read, you can buy a physical copy of your very own!

I'm also working on a copy that's built for the Kindle, if that's more your cup of tea. That'll hopefully be done within the week. Also, with the Kindle app now available for the iPhone, you can take your library with you wherever you go.