Category Archives: funding

Headkick

Posted by under funding, narrative, roleplaying games

A week ago I put up a post talking about the just-started Kickstarter campaign for Alas Vegas, my new RPG. I’ve just written a sober description of that week for the Spaaace front-page blog, inviting analysis. But this is my personal blog, so here are some personal opinions.

1. Kickstarter is as addictive as meth, and possibly as bad for your teeth. Certainly for your fingernails.

2. Alas Vegas hit its funding goal in seven and three-quarter hours. Before the campaign started I was honestly wondering if £3000 was ambitious for a first Kickstarter. We hit that target in a third of a day. Then we blew through the first two stretch goals in the rest of that day, and knocked down the third—Yet Already, a fantastic fractured-time setting for the game’s Fugue mechanics, designed by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, in a couple of days more.

If you’re one of the people who has pledged money to Alas Vegas, thank you. Thank you more than I can say. If not, then…

3. Things have slowed down a bit now, which is a shame as we’re just getting to the really interesting stretch goals—Allen Varney, Robin D. Laws and others have offered material, but progress has got bogged down in some additional-artwork funding. Which brings me to:

4. Keep your campaign focused, don’t let it pull in two directions. Alas Vegas has a lot of people asking for an official Tarot deck. Well, that would be great, but it’s equally clear that there are a lot of people who don’t care a sou for Tarot decks one way or another, and who won’t back the Kickstarter while we’re asking for money for Tarot art. I have got a solution for the Tarot fans, conditional on sign-off from a couple of people, but as soon as we’ve cleared this stretch goal (it’s to commission the rest of the Major Arcana from the amazing John Coulthart) then the Alas Vegas campaign will be back to cool new stuff for the game.

5. Seriously, Allen Varney’s pitch for his new Fugue mechanics setting made me spit assorted foodstuffs across my laptop. It’s genius. And before that we have John Tynes promising to write a selection of Vegas-style cocktail recipes for Alas Vegas, suitable for drinking while playing the game.

6. Did I mention that this is the most fun I’ve had in the games industry for a long time? Not counting Warpcon, of course.

7. Which leads me to a future post, which I will write when I have time, about gamification. It’s been fermenting for a long time, and I think you’ll enjoy it. But it won’t happen until you have pledged more of your money. Go on! You could get the game dedicated to you.

Ain’t That A Kick In The Head

Posted by under funding, game design, roleplaying games

I learned a long time ago that the only sure way to get an idea out of my head is to write it down and publish it. Therefore after two years of Alas Vegas not going away—and a previous fifteen years when it was an unwritten novel called Vague As Hell not going away either—it has finally come time to do something with the project.

Shortly before this post went live, the Alas Vegas RPG page appeared on Kickstarter. We’re asking for £3000 to release a four-session RPG set in a place that looks a lot like Vegas but isn’t. It’s a lot more violent for a start. Also, corpses disappear. And there’s no way to leave.

Alas Vegas is my first new RPG design for fifteen years (since The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, in fact) and I think it’s some of the best work I’ve ever done. In a phrase, it’s Ocean’s Eleven directed by David Lynch.  The mechanics are simple and hit that sweet spot of advancing the narrative as they go. The story is very cool, and pacing it over four sessions lets the players experience proper cliffhangers and an actual ending that ties up all the loose plot threads.

There’s a lot more about the game on its Kickstarter page, and I’ve written about it here before. I’m excited about the fact that it’s moving towards print, but I’m also excited about exploring the process of crowdfunding. A while back, pre the existence of this blog, I discussed ways to reinstate the eighteenth-century model of subscription-funding the publication of a book, the model that Johnson’s Dictionary used. It’s here now, and it’s transforming the industry. Getting my teeth into the guts of the process is going to be really interesting.

Of course I’ll be bitterly disappointed if you don’t pledge at least £100.