6. You can game every day for a week, describe what you’d do

Every now and then I get to do this. In the summer holidays we go away, typically for a week or two, and fitted around our holiday activities we make up a story. That means the kids and I play Amazing Tales and Mum takes a break. Usually characters in Amazing Tales don’t last very long before the kids get bored with them, two or three sessions at most, but on our summer holidays we can stick with characters and a plot for a week or more at a stretch.

These are the only Amazing Tales games I do any real preparation for, and it’s not much. I’ve found it’s helpful to draw a map for the game. Once I’ve sketched out some landmarks I invite the kids to name them, and to suggest more. Over the course of the week we’ll make sure their characters visit them all.

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11. Which ‘dead’ RPG would you like to see reborn?

To my mind RPGs don’t die. If you can find a copy of a game you can play it. That’s one of the joys of the hobby. But I think what this is really about is community. Games do best when there are players around the world having new ideas and sharing them.

Stormbringer. That might be a good one to have more people thinking about. I’d quite like to see the revival of Top Secret work out well too. I don’t think I’ve ever played a straight forward espionage game.

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16. What RPG do you enjoy using as is?

I think small simple games get the most use ‘as is’, simply because there’s so little to change. I don’t think I’ve ever changed a thing when playing Fiasco for example. And in that spirit of small games, I’m going to name The Quiet Year. It takes a couple of hours, it gives a great story every time, and it’s very simple.

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21. Which RPG does the most with the least words?

One fan of the playtest version of Amazing Tales suggested entering it for the 200 word RPG challenge, I imagine the answer to this question is somewhere in there.  Sadly the 2017 deadline had gone. Still, here is the Amazing Tales system reduced to 200 words, I might enter it in 2018.

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26. Which RPG provides the most useful resources?

I’m one of those gamers who likes everything in one book. I’m not a fan of DM screens, custom dice, campaign expansions and the like. So I’m not well placed to answer this question.

But, as I’ve got older, and had less time, I’ve come to appreciate the value of the pre-written scenario. So I’m going to suggest Goodman Games. There stuff is very genre specific, but it’s very very good at what it does.

And then there’s the fact that the most useful resource a game can have is a community. I’ve never played much D&D, but in recent months I’ve been poking around the D&D community and simply as a function of its size it produces some amazing content, way more than any publisher could ever hope to. So that’s my other answer, good ol’ D&D.

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How’s Amazing Tales going? Pretty well. We’ve got 23 out of 26 full page illustrations nailed down. The text is done. The layout is happening. Indeed below are a couple of screen grabs showing the layout which is being handled by Duncan at Sparkwood and 21.

There will be changes, but this gives a feel for what the book is going to look like. And the whole thing will weigh in between 90 and 100 pages.

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I know, there haven’t been updates for a while. But Amazing Tales has been progressing quietly behind the scenes. How far along are we?

• The text is finished, the game is written!
• The text is being laid out for publication
• Most of the illustrations are complete
• We’ve just about finished the front and back covers

That, is a lot of progress. How much more is there to do? Well, a bit. Once layout and illustrations are finished then we’ve got to have Drivethru rpg deliver a sample copy, check it’s good, make any remaining changes and then we’ll have a book that’s ready for the world.

To give an idea of how things are looking these days – here’s a finished piece of artwork, showing a fairy from the Deep Dark Wood. The finished book will probably have around 25 full page pieces like this, all by the wonderful iris of www.irisistible.design/

Amazing Tales will include four full settings to help fire up your creative juices. Each setting will include suggestions for characters, game ideas and advice on how to make the best of the possibilities. I picked the settings to be ones children are often familiar with, through other books, TV, film and make believe. The settings are

The Deep Dark Wood – home to fairies, talking animals and all manner of magical creatures

Magical Kingdoms – where knights in armour, dragons, princes and princesses adventure

The Pirate Seas – treasure, adventure, mysterious islands and the smell of gunpowder on the sea air

Adventures beyond the stars – take your adventures into space, with aliens, robots and rocket ships

Each setting will be illustrated with a full page image, crammed with inspiration and ideas for stories. All the full page illustrations have now reached concept art stage, so we can take a look at how they’re coming together. And here they are

Most recent, and least developed is this, for magical kingdoms. Lots of things in here are ideas that will develop further.

In contrast, the first piece we worked on, and the most developed is the Deep Dark Wood

Still very much at the sketching stage is this for the Pirate Seas. Even so, the figure leaning off the front of the first ship is packed with adventure.

And here we are, beyond the stars.

As you might be able to tell from the new look of the website the process of illustrating Amazing Tales is well underway. Nothing is finished yet, so all the things popping up on the site are concept art. (I know, amazing isn’t it?).

We’re working on four full page showcase illustrations. One each for the settings Deep Dark Wood, Adventures Beyond the Stars, The Pirate Seas and Magical Kingdoms. Supplementing those will be character art pieces for everything from aliens to wizards, and, you know, Badgers.

 

I’m having a blast working on this, and can’t speak highly enough of the wonderful Iris at www.irisitible.design who is making it all happen.