[Iron Games Past] Where are they now?

[Lxndr]

(I considered posting this in Connections, as it might be more appropriate there - but my gut told me IGD.  Ron & Clinton, if this is the wrong forum, I apologize.)

The current Iron Game Chef thread has a grand total of 35 entries from 31 designers (with 4 more potential designers bowing out before completion).  Two of those humble entries are mine, and I plan on hosting them permanently on my website once it's operational again.

The previous IGC thread (Iron Chef Sim) had 17? entries; the IGC thread prior to that one (Iron Chef Gam) had 7 entries.  And there are rumors of even older games that those, apparently from a time prior to the forge.  Not to mention the 24-hour game contest, of which there was only one that I can find.

Anyway, my question is - where are those games now?  If I was looking, where could I find them?  I know Tiki God had a life beyond IGC Sim, and Pace had one beyond the 24-hour game... and I'm pretty sure those aren't the only ones.  What happened to the rest of them?

Designers, if you continued with them, where can I find the newest version - and if you didn't, why didn't you?  Spectators, which games from the older contests have you played - and why, and did you enjoy them?  Which did you want to play, but never did - and why not?

In short - where are they now?

[Simon W]

My 24-Hour RPG 1940-England Invaded can be found on my Beyond Belief Games website, as can my Iron Game Chef entry Supercity Team.

Both have been playtested, the former game very heavily. I may post details of one of the sessions or two, in the Actual Play forum.

I wasn't in on the act quickly enough to enter this years IGC, but the entries thus far look exceptional anyway, so I am not too disappointed.

I will be looking out for the next 24-Hour competition though.

Simon
http://www.geocities.com/simonwashbourne/Beyond_Belief.html

[greyorm]

Stars Over Africa, my submission to the Iron Game Chef (Gamist) competition, can be found in the Role-playing sectiong of my website under "My Games" or just click here.

It hasn't been updated since the contest (except for simple formatting and a quick edit), or playtested, but there you are.

[ethan_greer]

Blood Songs of the Volcanic Sphere (Iron Chef Sim) is simmering and bubbling away on my back burner. Ice Dawn (Iron Chef Fantasy) never broke, but may find its way into future products either in whole or in part.

[talysman]

may website needs a mjor revision, but http://www.globalsurrealism.com/rpg/ has links to Empedocles: Daemons of Strife and Love (from the Iron Chef Sim competition) and Troubadours of Verticaille (from the 24 games challenge). Empedocles is in the process of being changed, but the revision is not available online yet; Troubs hasn't been changed at all, except that I'm considering testing it with Mike's suggestion of "everyone starts with 5 Destiny, five traits, and two passions".

my Iron Chef Gamist entry, Court of 9 Chambers has undergone revisions which are available online, but it's not currently linked from the rpg page. there's a screwed-up page here that isn't public yet because of formatting problems, but you can find the revision links there.

IceRunner is too new to be anywhere but here yet.

[Emily Care]

Anyway, my question is - where are those games now?  If I was looking, where could I find them?...
Designers, if you continued with them, where can I find the newest version - and if you didn't, why didn't you?

Aw, criminy.  I'm a way slow game designer.  Too many hobbies.  Sign in Stranger from IGC-Sim is third in line to get finished after my two other projects. But I'm not really interested in posting any of my three until they are actually workable systems.  Tip my hat to all those who've gotten to that place. It's a bloody lot of work.

--Emily

[Jonathan Walton]

Um, Occidental Adventures will probably see the light eventually, as a very different beast.  I've been wanting to do a heavy-Sim game based on Asia's pespective on the West, but who knows when that will happen.  Looking forward to parties of cowboys, rock musicians, and angels adventuring in New York City, though...

Argonauts should be published before the summer, as a mod for Green Ronin's Mutants & Masterminds.  It's changed quite a bit, but still goes for that classical tragedy feel.  There was a 10-page preview of it in the first issue of Daedalus.

My 24-hour game, Vesperteen, was an "all grown up" mod for Key 20's Little Fears, based on the 7 Deadly Sins and teenagers turning into monsters (a metaphor for puberty and all that shit).  It's available in an almost-playable PDF version, somewhere.  I can email people copies if you want one.  I always planned to eventually make a deal with Jason Blair that might see it published, but other projects got in the way.  Perhaps eventually...

[Mike Holmes]

The older contests that were run (not by me) were on www.gamingoutpost.com. I haven't been over there since shortly after I got over here, so I couldn't speak to the situation there. I do know that they had some problems with the archives, but can't say whether or not it affected any of the competitions.

That all said, they were small, being instituted by anyone at any time. They also had all sorts of different criteria, so you had one with a 24 hour limit, and another with 28, another with a week. And the limits changed from competition to competition as well. So the results tended to be light in number and content.

Still, I'm sure that one or two of the games were diamonds in the rough, and wouldn't mind links to them. I personally did two myself that I can remember. One was an action game called "Final Fight!" that had some similarities to Extreme Vengeance (but single layered, and even more single minded). The other I can't even remember the name of, but it was a horror game that had a nifty mechanic where you determined from a roll half way through the game whether or not your character was going to die in the latter half.

I doubt that either are worth checking out, really.

Mike

[Lxndr]

To those who posted about your games - thanks for pointing them out.  I've been following the links where they've been made available.  Jonathan, is "Occidental Adventures" another name for "Pale Continent"?  I've been really interested in that game, since none of the game board links are functional anymore, leaving out what appears to be an important, if not vital, part of the game.

Mike, thanks for a bit larger glimpse into the history of IGC.  What you've described sounds like the occasional "Pieces and Parts" thread that shows up in rpg.net's "Art of Game Design" forum.  Although those are fun, I like the additional structure you (and the rest of the Forge) have provided.  I'm looking forward to the next contest, which I hope will be in six months, not a year?  *grins*  Also, what's "Extreme Vengeance"?  A roleplaying game I assume, but... is it something I should've heard of and be conversant in?

Also a special note to Walt Freitag, who didn't post here - thank you not only for posting the index to this IGC, but also for linking to your previous index to the last IGC inside that thread, which for whatever reason didn't show up when I did a search for "iron game" or "game chef" and things like that.  (Searching for anything relating to 24 hour games in threads is even harder).  Those indices have made it much easier for me to investigate the games, and for that I thank you.

[Valamir]

Also, what's "Extreme Vengeance"? A roleplaying game I assume, but... is it something I should've heard of and be conversant in?

Extreme Vengeance is mandatory reading.  Its a tight focused gem of a game, very Forge like in spirit, whose success suffered from being released at a time when "non traditional" wasn't highly regarded.

There are frequently copies available on Ebay being sold by the unenlightened and usually going cheap.