Tue, 25 Dec 2007 11:54:32 -0600 http://heraldicgame.com/ Heraldic Game Design en-us http://heraldicgame.com/images/logo.gif http://heraldicgame.com/ keith@heraldicgame.com http://heraldicgame.com/Article20.phtml This is a very exciting project for me. Ralph Mazza of Ramshead Publishing, Seth Ben-Ezra of Dark Omen Games, and myself have formed GoPlayPeoria.com. I have lived in the Peoria Illinois area all my life, Seth and Ralph have lived here for several years. There are gamers and gaming groups in the Heart of Illinois area, but there has been almost no opportunities for them to meet each other outside of a few conventions GoPlayPeoria.com is to help area gamers find each other and to help promote the GoPlayPeoria mini-cons we have planned. It's isn't even fair to call them mini-cons, really. More like large gaming sessions being held among potential friends. You can go to go-play.org to find out more about the go-play movement. The spirit of the movement is best expressed here. Otherwise, it may seem to be little more than attempt to sell you a key chain or bumper sticker. Tue, 25 Dec 2007 11:54:32 -0600 http://heraldicgame.com/Article19.phtml The work on Dream Palace progresses. Since this project has taken me on more twists and turns than the entire Harry Potter series, I thought I'd lay down the goals I have for this game before I continue with the design. I'm hoping they will keep me on target with what I am actually trying to accomplish with this game. I thought I would share it with you. Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:47:02 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article18.phtml Is it possible to make drugs in film form and have them beam the effects directly into your brain? I felt quite drugged and euphoric after watching Grindhouse, directed by Richard Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Grindhouse is actually two (mostly) complete movies in one. The intent was to recreate the b-movie exploitation experience from back in the 60’s and 70’s. One thing that is notable about both films is the “missing reel” sequences. Whenever the action heats up sexually, a missing reel message with an apology from the management pops up. The American public can handle violent gore with no problem, but sex? No way! Sun, 08 Apr 2007 01:45:02 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article17.phtml Hollywood could spend billions of dollars, get the best scriptwriters, directors, and actors – and they will still never match the coolness of the movie you have in your head Dream Palace is Heraldic Game Design’s new project. Dream Palace will be a complete roleplaying game based on the standards used to create the stories for movies. It will be the next step in the evolution for The Luna System. Work will continue on that system, but it will be under the new name. Outsider Chronicles will also continue, but it will now be a Dream Palace Game. There a number of cinematic roleplaying games already out on the market, and you’re probably wondering what is going to make Dream Palace different from the rest of them. Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:38:58 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article16.phtml Anyone that has participated in tabletop roleplaying games for any length knows that there is a certain amount of time spent in preparation and maintenance. There are thick books to read, rules to discuss and argue about.waiting your turn in combat, adventures to prepare, etc. Compare this to playing a computer roleplaying game where you simply read the thin book and begin playing. There is a lot of work involved in playing tabletop RPGs. What percentage of your time do you consider to be "wasted" in comparison to the time you actually spent having fun? Take the poll and let Heraldic Game Design know! Sun, 14 Jan 2007 15:06:21 -0600 http://heraldicgame.com/Article15.phtml You may have noticed that I've removed the link to the Luna System. Development has been stalled for a long, long time. However, I have had a breakthrough recently that could spin the system around into a full-fledged stand-alone game. There are a number of changes coming and some of them are quite large. Because of this, I don't feel comfortable with posting the game on the site at this time. However, I will be posting the rebooted Luna on the Outsider Yahoo Group. Keep an eye out for further annuncements. Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:33:21 -0600 http://heraldicgame.com/Article14.phtml Things have been rather busy for me in the gaming industry of late, especially in the work I've been doing tor Firefly Games. I've been that company's webmaster for a few years now, and have learned quite a bit from working for it's owner, Patrick Sweeney. Pat is like like me in that he is a game designer/publisher. He wants to be able to express himself creatively as a writer, and also have financial success in doing so. Anybody that has gone down that road can tell you it isn't an easy one. What you think could be a wonderful product could be easily be ignored by the general gaming public because it is too odd or it too much like the other games already on the market. I also have teen helping Pat man the Firefly Games booth each year, and this year I was named Demo King (or Demo Monkey, take your pick) for his new roleplaying game, Faery's Tale. Pat had scheduled me to run a two hour demonstration each of the four days of Gen Con. Faery's Tale, unlike most RPG's is aimed at families with children. Many of the gamers I have known in the past have gotten married and have kids now. They would like to be able to hand down the pleasures they have had themselves roleplaying, but most of the RPGs are too complex for kids. A young child simply doesn't have the same attention span as an adult, and I can say with all confidence that they don't have the patience necessary to play those games. Plus, the violent things that adult gamers thrill to would also be too much for kids to take emotionally. Faery's Tale has been designed for kids in mind. It is simple, fast, and safe. Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:31:25 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article11.phtml I guess that I have managed to get some level of success on the web now. The spambots have found me and I've been spending the past few days cleaning out spam links out of the comments and making upgrades to the site in hopes that the improvements will prevent that from happening again. Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:26:04 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article13.phtml If you take a close look at the menu on the side of the page, you may notice this tiny link that says, "The Luna System." Don't get too excited. I haven't finished the Luna System. . . yet. Like the Great White Whale, the perfect game that boils somewhere in the depths of my mind eludes my efforts to drag it into the light of day. I do have some goals for Luna to move toward, and the new link on the site will lead to my online scratch pad. That's right, you are actually going to see the system built online. I tend to be a perfectionist, so you follow Luna's progress, you are going to see a lot of changes while I work on it. Sun, 18 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article10.phtml I'll admit it. I am a sucker for super-heroes. For those of you that may not have heard yet, the WB television network was going to present Aquaman as part of new lineup. Apparently, the character tested well on his visit to Smallville. However, WB is now merging with UPN to create a new network called CW, and the new network does Not want Aquaman. I must admit that I didn't really care either way when I first heard the news.However, someone managed to get a preview for the show and posted it at ((UPDATE: I've eliminated the link because the video is no longer available online.)) Go ahead and check it out. I'll wait. Fri, 19 May 2006 23:25:39 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article9.phtml It's been a long number of months since I last posted, so now that things of slowed down a bit for me, I figured it was about time to catch up with you. I've got a number of things to cover, both on the professional and personal level. Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:29:55 -0600 http://heraldicgame.com/Article8.phtml Well, I am headed off to my annual trip to Gen Con Indy. That will be happening August 18 -21, I'll be helping out at the Firefly Games booth (#1141) by helping out with demos for their Monster Island and CyborGladiators fighting games. So come o­n by and say hello. I'd love to see you all there. I'll be the guy wearing the suspenders. Thu, 04 Aug 2005 21:09:22 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article7.phtml I tried to resist... to ignore its siren call...But there it was when I walked into the Kroger Grocery, waiting for me like a misty green gem. The fanboy in me rose up inside of me, took possession of my hands and forced me to use my credit card to buy it.Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince Fri, 22 Jul 2005 19:11:03 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article6.phtml My apologies.It took me a long time to find out that the copy I have of SOL 2.1 wasn't actually complete. Ever since I have made it available for free download o­n the site, it has been missing the Measurement Tables that the rules keep referring to. The Tables have been added to the last page of the file, and I invite you to download yourself a new copy for your gaming pleasure. Sun, 26 Jun 2005 00:49:32 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article5.phtml I know we have our own systems that we are working o­n here, but I am really insterested in finding out what your favorite RPG system is. Your feedback could prove helpful to me in the long run. So get to voting! Let me know what you think. Sat, 07 May 2005 12:11:49 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article4.phtml This could be very interesting. The Game-Chef Challenge ;is based along the lines of the Iron Chef TV show, but this is for game designers. The Challenge is to design a tabletop RPG using a "mystery ingredient" that will not be revealed until the start of the contest on May 21th. The contest will run until May 29th.I'm not sure whether I will participate in the challenge or not. Perhaps if the ingredients spark that crazy muse inside me, I will. I will be keeping an eye on it, though. There is something wonderful about seeing such raw creativity in action. Fri, 06 May 2005 19:52:23 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article3.phtml I am going to admit that I have never been a big fan of computer games. This is mostly because gaming has always been a social outlet for me. However, I have always been a huge fan of superheroes, especially those of the Silver Age of Comics back in the 60s.Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich is sequel to the original Freedom Force computer game. Both have done a wonderful job of capturing the look and feel of the comics for that era.Part of the entertainment value is the origin stories that are scattered throughout the game. The animation in them isn't great, but they are rendered in style appropriate for that time period. The origins of the "modern" heroes reflect the distinct influence of Jack "King" Kirby. The sequel introduces "new" characters from Freedom Force's Golden Age, and the art in their origins take anther step backward. The images in one frame to the next will even be inconsistent, simulating a comic artist that had to work very quickly and didn't have the opportunity to correct his mistakes. Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:05:17 -0500 http://heraldicgame.com/Article2.phtml Shortly after I published the first Outsider Chronicles book, STEELTOWN I realized that SOL: The Omniversal Roleplaying System, wasn't going to be able to keep up with all of the possible worlds that could come up in a multi-universe setting. This became very clear to me when I attempted to write a tournament adventure for Gen Con and ran into a mental roadblock because I would have to create two very different systems of magic for this one adventure. I could only imagine that if I was having trouble with it, then what kind of pickle was I presenting to the poor GM that didn't invent the game?So, I decided it as time to head back to the drawing board. The challenge was to come up with a system that simple, but not so "rules lite" that no one would consider it a challenge. Sun, 17 Apr 2005 13:34:39 -0500