Jake Norwood wrote: Okay, I'm sick of it. I want to read and get (as in "understand") Scattershot really badly, but I can't get it from a hundred random posts full of inter-line thoughts and musings...

I need a summary, and I need it on PDF or HTML or DOC, but I gotta have it, 'cause I'm goin' nuts wondering and "trying to get it."

Seth L. Blumberg wrote: What Jake said. The more of these "Emergent Techniques" I read, the more intrigued I get, but I need it all in one place. Navigating a maze of twisty little threads, all different, lost its appeal a while back.

I know how you feel guys and I feel for you. The problem is, it doesn't exist. What you see is almost all there is (at least that which has gone through a computer). From the minute I first composed Just the Mechanix, I moved 'off the map' with Scattershot's design. Everything since then has come from a list of a coupla dozen or so topics we plan to address. Each Emergent Technique has been almost exactly as advertised. They 'emerged,' we discussed them, and I typed them up. Here. Live. (If the Forge were to crash and the data were lost, I'd be back to square one text-wise.)

The process has been following a difficult 'what do I need to explain to explain what I want to explain.' For example, I could explain much of anything without having the Scattershot Gaming model 'out there' because we don't use the GNS. I couldn't talk about 'how to create a character' without citing issues in Sine Qua Non and Mystiques and none of that works unless tailored to the Genre Expectations.

If you actually want to play the game, the Scattershot Gaming model certainly won't be enough (especially when we realized we left out a big chunk of the model, an Ambitious Approach), you'll need to know Who's in Charge even before you choose a gamemaster. As you can see, I'm still working out the last of the major details of persona creation.

Even if you have personae and a gamemaster, as people have pointed out, a lot of the compromises that go into setting up a game have to have some kind of mediation. So far we've dealt that out first as Who's in Charge and further in Solomon's Auction (where you can see how interrelated things get; I had to polish the Challenge Mechanix in order to put up the Auction). And I haven't even had time to get back to the Mechanix and make the persona and Challenge terminology changes or post the damage stuff that I gave Bankuei.

You see the real problem is time. As passionate as I am about this project, ultimately I only get about three or four hours a week to work on it. That's where the "Emergent Techniques" are coming from. It's not like I have a huge document hidden on some hard drive somewhere that I occassionally peel off a slice and post it.

Once upon a time, I didn't even have what you see here in this forum. Even though I have a very clear idea in my head of what Scattershot is (and three or four gaming groups periodically trying fragments out), so far it has all been an oral tradition. After months of refering to it, I was finally challenged to 'put up or shut up.' (Okay, it was in the nicest of possible terms, but like now, people wanted to see it.) This resulted in this forum, right as you see it. If you take the time to read that thread, you'll see that I have a lot of 'things on my plate.'

I really desperately want to sit down and give Scattershot a once over. It'd be great if I could pull a single draft of the whole thing in one sitting, but with usually less than 30 or 40 minutes I can put side by side at any given point, that's not going to happen. Worse still (for Scattershot that is), if you read the announcement at the top of the forum, you can see that we've come to what I call a 'watching the grass grow' production schedule.

I'm not a professional game designer. My first job is being a father and bread winner. My partner and I want to make comic books for real, so I've had to cut back what I've been creating for Scattershot (mostly I've been so active here lately because health problems have impeded work on the comic book). After all that is said and done (and the challenges of poverty-line living are dealt with), you can see that I have very little time left (and I ought to be using it for sleep, but I don't; I'm sure many here know how that is).

I may not be a professional game designer, but I am a passionate one. (How else to deal with the trickle of creativity and keep going? Perhaps a lesser passion would have thrown in the towel by now.) A talented one too if I understand correctly. That means however slow it is Scattershot won't die. It means that no matter what, I love to talk about it, anytime anyplace. (Heck, if you want it that bad, I have it in oral form; PM me and I'll give you my number. Give me a call and I'll tell it to you.)

Right now, I'm in the midst of a secret project regarding Scattershot that will alleviate some of this problem (I hope), but I can't reveal any of the details yet, so you'll have to trust me.

The major thing that is delaying rolling out more Scattershot here is genre. As can be seen in some of the recent mutterings about Genre Expectations, you might imagine that a lot of the complexity of writing every Emergent Technique so that it covers all Approaches would be simplified if I could produce a single Genre Expectation (each Genre Expectation tends towards only a few Approaches, problems, Mechanix, and such). The problem there is we only have one that's barely started. So all I can do it take what little time I have and put up Emergent Techniques in the best order that I can describe them. Right now we're working on the ones relating to persona generation (beyond the simple 'pick a Sine Qua Non' and get started). It is really complicated to explain how to make a character in terms that all Approaches can comprehend.

I know this isn't a very satisfying answer, but it's the only one I have. If I've read too much anxiety into your requests, I don't mean to sound defensive; I really just wanted you to know 'where things stand.'

So, to end on a positive note, if you read only the Mechanix and the Emergent Techniques articles, what would be the first few things you'd want to know? (Feel free to tailor it to a specific Genre Expectation, like Bankuei did.) I'll see what I can 'cough up.'

Fang Langford

p. s. Sorry, I didn't have time to edit this; you know how it is for me.

damion wrote: Would you say that the threads you mentioned about are a pretty good snapshot of scattershot as it stands? I can understand you not being able to put together a pdf/html whatever. A list of links would be good though, and you seem to be the best person on the Forge with the URL tag :).

First of all, we will eventually be getting to the .pdf point (I recently inherited a computer with Pagemaker), it's all a matter of timetable. Right now I've put the shoe on the other foot and have begun crafting three Genre Expectations, right here in the open.

They are:

Mike's GURPS Traveller conversion.

Ron's Cosmic Zap! request, based on 70's Marvel space adventure Comics.

Eddy's Second War for Heaven idea, based on research for his own game.

The Traveller conversion has a lot of good 'start going' information if you have an idea in another game system. I'm please to also point to the Combined Technique of Genre Expectations and Experience Dice as a much more practical, nuts and bolts, replacement for the mostly theoretical Emergent Techniques: Genre Expectations and the related changes made in Just the Mechanix.

If you use the conversion article with any games you already know, you can fabricate most of the lists you might need to Develop Personae. Then you can mostly use Just the Mechanix and the Combined Techniques: Genre Expectations and Experience Dice to play. To really make the game work, you'll probably need to arrive at a group Consensus about play style and Approach and the various Commitments and especially create a Genre Expectation to run it by. I could do that for you, but you'll have to engage in the process by posting your idea for us to discuss.

Outside of that, all I can say is keep an eye out for changes to Just the Mechanix and read anything named "Emergent Techniques...." Let me know if you have any further questions. I'll be glad to do anything I have time for to help.

Fang Langford