An Open Request for Help

Hi!

You probably don't know me, but I used to moderate this forum here on the Forge. I haven't poked my head in here for almost five years. I found great deal of value in the thoughts shared here, but between sliding into mental illness and the distraction of maintaining a presence on a forum, I had to take a break.

However, development on my game system, Scattershot, hasn't been on hiatus.

I have moved forward on my plans to integrate Genre Expectations (here too) and Transition (scroll way down) into the system. For the short term, to more focus my thoughts, I'm starting with a four-color superhero genre. (A great example of which that I just finished is Soon I Will Be Invincible.)

Late last year I decided that the 'as a publisher' approach was going to leave me with nothing. I set aside the idea of self-publishing, even not-for-profit. Weirdly, it seems I'm not the only one. A couple of months ago, it seemed like there was a noticeable shift around the indie game scene. A number of people have much better and more thought out reasons to drop publishing. I just wanted to bust my creative block. So listen to them, not me.

After a few mentions of the flood of bad indie games, the reasons NOT to publish were examined. Jonathan Walton, Clinton R Nixon and Fred Hicks wrote on how publishing is not the way to make friends and influence people. Jonathan specifically officially gives up the money side of self-publishing. Then Joshua A C Newman shows us what we can avoid doing this.

That said, I wanted to let everyone know that I have begun posting Scattershot presents: Universe 6 - The World of the Modern Fantastic on its own website. (And I'll add a forum as soon as phpWSbb catches up to phpWebsite 1.4.2.) Feel free to drop by. Let me know if you would like to help out! Playtesting the pre-alpha begins immediately. Feedback is highly welcome (and you can even make corrections yourself!).

Now, for 'specific inquiries', Genre Expectations are one of the core concepts of Scattershot (and core to Transition as well). Do you think introducing a 'character sheet' that the gamemaster fills out (a Milieu Sheet), with Stats, Ads and Disads would be a clear way of settling the group's expectations? (I put up one example of a Milieu Disadvantage on the site so far.) The system rewards players and the gamemaster for 'playing to' the Milieu Sheet; is this too weird?

Thanks a lot for your time and attention! Stop by and help if you like. I enjoy the input! Feel free to register and add your own tropes to my list.

Fang Langford