StarCluster 3 - Commercial Development License

I've had some nice feedback from folks from various fora on my plans for SC 3 licensing. Here's some ideas put forward:

• Tailor the Developer's Game Book to Developers
• Supply some illos and discuss formatting so that the licensed stuff has the right "look"
• Vet the licensees to ensure quality
• Charge more for the license. The cost is too low
• Tailor the licenses, giving some guidance to the licensees
• As Bill said, "Nebuleon: StarCluster"

Tailoring the Developer's Book is a great idea. I'm first of all moving the Design Notes out of the standard book and into the Developer's Book. Design Notes in a game have always struck me as utterly useless. I did them for StarCluster 2, at the advice of a coupe of friends who happen to be game designers. I realize now that they were representing their own point of view, not that of the regular game group. I will be expanding the Notes as well, and channeling them towards Licensee use. I also will be explaining how to design a mechanic to fit the drop-in interface.

I have some extra illos that didn't make it into SC 3, along with some I could possibly do before the game is released. As the illustrator, I can't pass the buck on this one, and it's a matter of time. Nobody will want the layout specs. On my best days, I can aspire to ugly but clear. Any yahoo off the streets caould probably do better.

I can't both vet the Licensees and keep the cost low. I want to draw hobbyists and guys doing it for fun as well as more established types. I will also not be publishing this under my own game company - these will all be self published. I will be publishing my own supplements as well, so folks can rely on the quality they expect from Flying Mice Games. Anyone else's works they will have to take their chances.

Like I said before, I want anyone to be able to afford this license. If you came up with a cool idea for your own game group, why not publish it? You don't have to pay anything if you keep it non-commercial, but if you want to test the waters of ecommerce, you can do so without a huge investment. The more the merrier, because - as Stalin said, quantity has a quality all of its own.

Tailoring the license is a neat idea. I gave some boundaries of what I am looking for in my last post, and I should maybe expand on this.

As for Nebuleon: StarCluster, it would work just dandy. SC 3 is an Anything Machine for Science Fiction. Adapting existing settings for the game would be a matter of describing things in terms SC 3 understands. Nebuleon actually has a lot of commonality with StarCluster in the back story - refugee humans fleeing a catastrophe that has engulfed their lost homeworld and establishing themselves in a new place - so it would be a sweet fit.

Be back with more once I've thought all this through. Please keep coming up with comments! :D

-clash

Opening StarCluster 3 Up for Development

In writing StarCluster 3, I have rolled almost everything that was a supplement in SC 2 into the main book - Robots, Aliens, Created Creatures, Vehicle Design, Spaceship Design, Weapon Design, Religion, Biotech, and more. So some of the playtesters who were familiar with SC 2 have asked me what I was planning on making available as support.

Thing is, I'm going through a big change in attitude with regard to supplements. I want to make SC 3 completely capable of standing alone, with only the core rulebook necessary. Towards the end of SC 2's effective lifetime, the core book alone would *not* give you the full StarCluster experience. When I recruited a new player for an online game, I sometimes sent half a dozen different gamebooks just so they could create a character will all options "on". That was a pain in the butt for me, let alone someone who wasn't the designer! The rules were scattered over a ton of optional materials, and it was hard to remember just where the relevant stuff was. I'm really happy with this aspect of SC 3 - you really do have everything you need.

So, supplements you need are out. Supplements you might want are in. Timesavers, or kickstarts to your imagination.

One fertile area would be pre-made sectors. Sets of connected star systems, areas you could adventure in. They would be set up so that you could connect them together as required, or use one as a base and expand it yourself, or tack one onto a self-created Cluster.

Systems and Worlds might also be available. Things like Glorianna and Chariot, which you could place anywhere in your own sectors.

Sets of pre-created ships, vehicles, and/or weapons would be cool too. Specialty items for specific purposes.

Expansions would also be cool, so long as they expand and not re-create. A Psionics book that gave some rare PSI skills, along with professions to obtain them. Books on Backwards (Tech Level 5-7) or Primitive (Tech Level 0-4) worlds with education, professions, equipment, and cultural overviews would rock, and are most probable to be forthcoming from us.

That leaves what you all will come up with.

What will be different is that I'm opening up the system and setting for development by others. Not only am I perfectly OK with non-commercial development, I'll be putting a commerical RPG development package containing SC 3 and a license to create and sell anything you like for SC 3 up for purchase, for $1 more than the standard DL. So, if I sell SC 3 in pdf for $12, as is very likely, for $13, you can get the SC 3 pdf and the license, with an official logo you can put on your product. All you have to do is register it after purchase. The only reason you need to register it is some people hide their names in pdf shopping, and without registering, I can't verify if you have a license or not.

How's that sound?

-clash

StarCluster 3 - Another Playtest Session

We had another playtest session Saturday, this time using the StarKarma diceless mechanics. We used the Doctors Without Orbits gang we had used before, finishing up the same scenario. It confirmed 2 things - that the diceless mechanics worked very well, with one small hitch, and that my group hates diceless. They like their dice, and that's that. The semi-diceless nature of StarRisk didn't bother them at all - they could always *choose* to roll, and they *liked* that choice - but not having dice at all frustrated them. It wasn't that there were no surprises, as the mechanics state that Target Numbers are kept secret, and points allocated are revealed simultaneously.

The hitch concerned Masteries, and how they work. James - of course - found the fatal flaw. James is the character who is guaranteed to push something logically until it falls over, which means he's invaluable for playtesting. The Mastery rule stated what when the character had a Mastery of a non-combat skill, if at first the skill check failed, the character could know the Target Number for a follow on attempt. James pointed out that, logically, a Master should allocate no points for the first attempt, thus revealing the TN for a second attempt for free. Thus I made a ruling that Masters have only one attempt for non-combat skills, but that they know the TN right away. This will be incorporated into the StarKarma rules.

We are not only moving to another resolution mechanic for our next session, but an entirely new group of characters, as the Doctors solved their problem, and identified the mysterious disease that was killing the uplifts. I have been reading Bedrock Games' Crime Network: Cosa Nostra, and really liking it, and my group immediately wanted to play it. I had to rule that out - we need to finish our playtesting for SC 3 - so instead they decided our next Company would be an Oceans Eleven style caper group. They wanted to be criminals, and that is perfectly within the Company rules. Any and all of the types of company can be Criminally Funded.

So, onwards and upwards!

-clash

StarCluster 3 - Dealing with Feedback and the Playtest Process

This is one of my favorite parts of being a game designer, and a part I hate as well. The hate part is easy. I finished the game, so now I have to wait until the feedback is in before I put it on sale, and I hate waiting. I'm very patient, but that doesn't mean I like it. Luckily, the fun part more than compensates! :D

I'm getting feedback from a horde of playtesters, some of whom are very familiar with my games, others who have never heard of my games before, some old hands, and some neophytes. A cross section of people, which is just great! The proportion of playtesters actually giving me feedback is much higher than usual - more than half as opposed to about one in four to five.

The part I love is making the game better. This process knocks off the rough edges. I don't read a game rulebook from front to back. To me it's a reference work, a thing to be consulted in any order as needed. Ufortunately, that shows up in my writing. I write in order of interest - as I get interested in some aspect, I write it. One of the hardest things for me is putting the stuff in order, because most people read a game book like they would a non-fiction book or novel, and that requires a different mode of thinking for me. Playtest feedback *really* helps on putting things in the right order.

A problem for any game writer is determining how much explanation is enough - when you're the guy who designed the thing, you understand the core concepts in a way someone coming in cold just can't. It's really difficult to look at what you have written with fresh eyes, divorced from your personal ideosyncracies and prejudices. This is why a Beta phase of testing - that is blind testing by outsiders, using only the book - is absolutely essential, and cannot be replaced by any amount of Alpha - or inside - testing. Alpha testing tests the rules, but Beta testing tests the explanation of the rules.

Another thing that happens is sometimes when you are designing a game, you find a solution that works, and you go with it, not thinking about it after that. Sometimes Beta testers see this and can suggest a different and simpler way of approaching the solution. That is a pure and holy joy! When this happens, it makes my heart sing! A Beta tester for SC 3 noticed that I had people doing an unnecessary step is Chargen, and suggested I integrate two steps. Elegant! That was wonderful! :D

In this process, the beta tester supplies you with information two ways - both directly, as in "I found this bit and it's weird" or indirectly by asking weird questions that show they misunderstood something. That's when you have to keep your head as a designer. If they are asking these questions, then you need to look at that part and write it better. They are doing their job and finding problem bits. Now you need to do yours and fix them. I love this!

Anyway, enough rambling for today. I am accumulating enough changes to warrant a third Beta document. Awesome! This game is gonna rock! :D

-clash

Why Abstraction Is Your Friend.

According to statistics kept by the NYPD between 1854 to 1979, 240 officers were killed in gunfights. Of those, 229, or 95.4%, were killed within 15 feet of the shooter, and 85.4% were within 6 feet. According to the FBI, nationally, between 1991 and 2000 50% of police officers killed were within 5 feet of their assailant, and 71% were within 10 feet. Most police - and civilian - gunfights are at very short range. This includes rural incidents as well as urban.

From the same source, the average hit percentage of NYPD cops from 1990 to 2000 varied between 10 and 20 percent. Remember, typical range is less than 15 feet. Also, as the Rate of Fire and magazine size of a weapon increases, hit probability decreases. The difference is noticible even between a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol, let alone with automatic fire.

The more military the combat, the lower the hit rate, even though soldiers are generally much better shots than policemen, and use much more accurate weapons. It's estimated that 50,000 rounds were expended in Vietnam for every (estimated) enemy dead. Now, that probably counts everything from target practice to sniping, but even giving generous allowances for this, that's a lot of shots.

So, clash, you ask, what's that got to do with the price of beans? If every shot were accounted for, the probability of a hit would be so low and combats would take so long that it'd be an excercize in futility, and boring as all hell. So in the StarCluster System, I abstracted all those probable misses fired off into a single (double with mastery) check with a decent chance of actually hitting once a minute. From my research, most firefights are over within 4-5 minutes. By making each round a minute, and allowing for long term tactics- even if abstract - a StarCluster firefight is usually over in 4-5 rounds. Like real life, there are far more wounded and incapacitated than dead in the end, like real life, you move around a lot and use cover, and like real life it's all over fast.

So abstraction can make things seem more real. Who'd a thunk it?

-clash

Armor - the Great Debate

Armor in StarCluster affects Chance. It always has, and it always will. I get flack every so often about this, and it has reared its ugly head again. Michael Scott and Randolph Allen are writing a StarCluster based Vampire game called Society of Night using the percentile variant, and in a phone conversation with Scotty yesterday, I found out he had been applying the percentage penalty which was supposed to be applied to Chance of Success (to hit in combat) to Quality of Success (damage in combat) - removing a percentage of the damage inflicted. When I informed him of the actual rules, he chuckled and said something about doing it the D&D way.

That is guaranteed to set me off on the Song and Dance! I never - ever - do anything just because that's the way something else did it, especially D&D. In fact, given my personal utterly burned out disinterest for anything D&D after running it for 20 years without a break, this decision was reached despite it being used in D&D.

I also did this - using armor this way - knowing it was intuitively wrong. Intuition says armor makes you take less damage. Thing is, the division into chance - AKA to hit in combat - and quality - AKA damage in combat - is not really there. it's just two aspects of a single thing. This division is a gaming distinction, a statistical abstraction. If your enemy's armor absorbs damage, you will be doing less damage over time. If you miss more often, you will be doing less damage over time. It's just a choice of presentation. A preference.

The design decision to put that diminution of damage into the chance roll is so the modifier can be pre-loaded, resulting in less calculation and handling, and quicker combat resolution. It is the choice I made, it works, and I'm happy with it. It irritates some people because it is intuitively wrong, but that doesn't mean it actually is wrong.

StarCluster is a heavily abstracted system. This is just one more example of that abstraction. When you are in a firefight in StarCluster, you are not just firing one or two bullets per minute. In every firefight, the vast majority of shots do not hit. In actuality, you are pumping off a hell of a lot of bullets which go flying around, not hitting anything important. In the system, I abstracted out the majority which aren't going to hit, and focused only on those few which have a decent chance of hitting. Rather than tracking every maneuver and establishing a precise modifier for it, I dumped all the maneuvering into an abstraction of trading points. This is a design decision to enhance other aspects of play.

I have made this point what seems like a million times since I released StarCluster 1E eight years ago. Some people are fine with it, some people don't like it but accept it, and some people refuse to accept it. After 8 years I just shrug and move on. You can't please all the people.

-clash

Outremer: The Principality of Antioch

The Principality of Antioch is the crossroads of Northern Outremer. The Orontes River, which rises almost at the borders of Damascus in Homs, sweeps up from the south in a great hook past the city of Antioch, and on to the Mediterranean near St. Simeon. The great valley of the Orontes is a principal pathway between the coast and the interior, and the broad fertile valley feeds all of the Principality.

The coast, though, is where some great cities lie. The huge ports of Alexandrette, Laodicea, and Tortosa together balance the inland cities of Antioch, Apamea and Masyaf in the Orontes valley. Alexandrette is the greatest of these, and the port for Antioch. From Alexandrette, roads run to Armenia through Issus, through Atharib into Edessa, and through Artah into the great metropolis of Aleppo as well as to Antioch.

Tortosa in the south was once held by the Templars, but they sold it to complete their aquisition of Jaffa and the fortified towns nearby. As a consequence, it is well fortified, and able to be supplied by sea. Over the mountains from Tortosa is Masyaf, the old capital of the Assassins, given up when they moved into Homs upon Saladin's death. It is overlooked by a great castle as well. Two castles defend the great port of Laodicea. Founded by Seleucis I after the death of Alexander, the port flourished under the Greeks and Romans before falling to the Muslims. It was taken by Saladin briefly, but was quickly retaken by Richard I in the Third Crusade.

The principal agricultural product of the Principality is wheat, with fruit and vegetables also important. Unlike most of the region, rainfall supports fairly intensive cultivation without much irrigation. The Orontes is used for its valley, not its water, and is not navigable. The roads paralleling the river carry a huge amount of traffic. The caravan tolls for these roads and the harbor tariffs from the ports are rich plums for the state.

Antioch the city is situated where the Lake of Antioch empties into the Orontes. Like Laodicea and Apamea, it dates back to Hellenistic days, and retains much of that flavor. As the hub of trade in the area, it is a rich city, and the long line of Princes of Antioch have greatly beautified the city.

The Principality is generally rather hostile with Aleppo and Edessa, and favorable with Homs, it's major trading partner. Relations with the County of Tripoli have seesawed from hostility to friendship over the years, depending much upon the personal relations of the Prince and Count.

-clash