« Rev03: Bringing the Game | Home | IGDA, Indies, & SIGs (Oh My) »
Rev 03 & Renown the Card Game
By Corvus | June 24, 2009
I sat right down and wrote myself a letter. I told myself the letter came from you. And here’s what it says:
Dear Corvus,
It’s great that you’re all excited about Rev 03, but I seem to recall another game you designed some time ago–namely, a card game called Renown. You claimed to have an aggressive publishing schedule for that, even going to the expense of sending out beta decks for people to test it. But then, after a few months of testing–nothing. No word, no promised manual revisions, just silence on the line.
So what’s up with Renown and why should we thing Rev 03 will come to any different fate?
Sincerely,
Suspicious in Salem
I have no idea if these kinds of thoughts go through any of your heads, but they obviously go through mine. So here’s the scoop.
The primary factor in the long silence has been Renown‘s reception among the beta testers. It wasn’t bad, exactly, it was just clear that the game wasn’t quite leading to the style of play I intended. Initially I blamed this on the manual, as the sessions I ran for people played out exactly as I imagined. However, after considerable thought on the matter, I have come to believe there are some critical flaws in the design.
The second factor is why I have not spent more time actively analyzing and fixing those design issues–I moved across the country from Philadelphia to Portland. And once I got here, I found myself running two gaming groups and hungry to start a third. Since I now had an active and eager group of storytellers, with a wide range of RPG experience, it was only natural that I would find myself actively developing my system to meet their needs.
And as I’ve been making changes, particularly the massive change I refer to as Rev 03, thoughts of how this might impact Renown‘s mechanics have been always in the back of my mind.
Today, as I washed out the French press, I was thinking about the Challenge Track component I just created and tested for Rev 03 [1], I found myself wondering how it could be incorporated into Renown.
And the lightning bolt of inspiration struck, just like that.
And just as hastily, I bottled it up so I can unleash it again at a later date. Right now, at this very moment, I have a firm deadline to meet with the Rev 03 manual and I have two editors working alongside me every step of the way, so there’s no room for wiggle.
And as far as my fears about hitting my mark go… well, Rev 03 is working and the tweaks I need to do are minor. I also don’t need to generate 54 cards worth of highly symbolic artwork for this manual. And who knows, if Rev 03 and the HoneyComb Engine go as I hope they will–I’ll be able to hire an artist to illustrate the Renown deck for me as I incorporate Rev 03‘s Challenge Track, Life Wheel, and 10-sided die into the new and improved game mechanics I glimpsed as I sealed away the inspiration in it’s very own lightning jar.
So, after Rev 03 is published, I’ll be starting back up on Renown and that date is not so far away as you might think.
[1] There’s a full Rev 03 post on the Challenge Track coming, but for now I’ll let my post-testing tweet whet your tastebuds, “In nearly 20 years of running RPGs I have never enjoyed running combat. Until tonight. The Challenge Track ,if I may say so, is incredible.” [return]
Tagged:Renown, rev03. | 3 Comments »
June 24th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
It’s not easy designing the greatest combat mechanics. Keep up the work.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
I’m curious to see what it all comes to.
Also, I love that picture, is it yours? If it wasn’t for the flannel shirt and jeans, I could see it as artwork for some ‘lightning farmer’ M:tG card.
June 27th, 2009 at 5:17 am
No, it’s not mine. I found it, uncredited, on another blog.