What's Next?

[Mike Holmes]

So, Orx is pretty much done now? Or are there more steps with it?

And then do you have anything else planned, Raven?

Mike

[greyorm]

Heya Mike,

Thanks for asking!

Sometime next month and over the course of the spring, I am considering releasing a couple short, free PDFs for Orx. This really depends on whether or not I have the drive to do it and if I think I can whip these into usable shape without a lot of trouble:

• Some ideas for tweaking the system in different ways and optional things you can do with various rules
• A way to use the basic system with a more traditional D&D-ish play style
• Hopefully, maybe some examples of play and any necessary rules clarifications
• A larger, printable character sheet

As to what's planned after this:

I have already started working on Expendable again, so expect a design thoughts post on that here or in my LJ in the next week or two (sorry, I move at the speed of "has four children and a job"). Expendable was a Ronnies entry: a game built around the question of redemption and on the violence and action of sci-fi flicks like Aliens and video games like Doom and Unreal.

The quick description: you are criminals serving life sentences for terrible crimes. You've been hired by the government to do a job no one else wants to do, that no one expects you to come back from. But if you survive, if you meet their objectives, you walk free...and even if you don't, even if you die, it is better than spending the rest of your life in a dark, rocky hole out in the void. The PDF for the Ronnies entry is available on the 1KM1KT website.

Also, if you've been to the Wild Hunt Studio webpage, you may have noted my listing "At the Dawn" and "Dead Space" projects.

• At the Dawn, which was a Game Chef entry years back, might see release this year if I can get some decent, solid playtesting of the system done both myself and by (importantly) other groups that do not include me, as I need solid, objective feedback on the system.
• Dead Space is currently just brewing, brewing, brewing and doesn't even have a system: it's all concept.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

[Mike Holmes]

So what is the concept for Dead Space? There's nothing about it on the site. Link?

Mike

[greyorm]

I don't really have any info up about Dead Space anywhere as yet because it is still so far away from actual development. I do mention it in the "Welcome..." message for this forum (in which it is described as "gothic neo-mythic sci-fi"), but for details, I think the only place I've really talked about it are 2004's Birthday Forum and some ideas I've bounced around in Indie Netgaming.

Here's the bit:

Man has travelled into the Abyss Above searching for truth, and found the truth beyond Earth is terrifying beyond his imagination. Space is vast, empty, and cold, and humanity is utterly alone amidst the horrors that crawl through the darkness between stars and writhe as endless armies upon dead worlds beneath dim, black suns.

I've said in the past it is ultimately meant to be a game about science & religion, exploring questions about where they intersect (or don't), but I had thought I would be further along in development at this point, but while I have fleshed out the setting a bit, the mechanics to make it work escape me.

I'm a bit hesitant to talk more about it, the setting that's been developed, and so forth, as I'm still wavering on what to do with the property or even if it will be turned into an RPG. And that's pretty much where it is.

Though I have to thank you for asking, it has made me really think hard about the project, and points out to me that I really need to focus my energies on material more in-shpae for actual game development, like Game Chef entries Dawnfire and At the Dawn rather than something as far-off as Dead Space.

[Thunder_God]

Sounds like Call of Cthulhu meets Fading Suns.

[greyorm]

Sounds like Call of Cthulhu meets Fading Suns.

Interesting. Yes, in a way that would be a good way to describe it the game's attitude, but not as totally bleak and ultimately defeatist as CoC.