I've eliminated Initiative and Complex problems and Solutions at the advice of one of my playtesters, Gonster, and at the confirmation of my players. Basically, initiative would be so rarely used, it wouldn't be worth the confusion it might cause if included. Complex Problems and Solutions would just never occur. I had waffled back and forth about deleting them before, but now I'm convinced they are just not necessary. I also took out the Starpool illo and replaced it with an illo of a guy going out flat to catch a sinking liner I had painted the day before. Now I have four illos - Pitching, Batting, Baserunning, and Fielding.
I am wondering if I should include a sample team, or whether I should just offer it as a free download. It will require making the game a bit longer, and I don't know if I should. Right now it's at 45 pages, and that seems about right. As designer of two games more than ten times as long this year - In Harm's Way: StarCluster and StarCluster 3 - it's nice to know I *can* make a short game if it suits the subject matter! :D
-clash
I wish I had the time to do a playtest! TOI sounds like a great idea, and especially appealing to a graying Strat-O-Matic fan. Looking forward to the release.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rob! One of the playtesters said it "lies between the walls of an actual RPG and a sports simulation" which is exactly where I wanted it. I spent countless hours playing Strat-O-Matic as a kid. I even made up my own baseball teams with their own disks - Lord! My game hacking days go *wayyyy* back! Almost a half-century now! I had completely forgotten that until just now as I wrote it, when it all came back to me! My buds and I made our own baseball cards for our teams too!
ReplyDeleteThat experience has informed some of the feel behind ToI, I am sure now. :D
-clash