What’s next for L&B?
I have two projects currently in the works: Stonetop, Jeremy Strandberg’s ambitious Dungeon World campaign kit, and a much smaller, unannounced DW project. These things are occupying all of my editing and layout hours, but the creative juices keep flowing and need focus. So I ask you, illustrious members of this Community, where should I place that focus?
The three things at the forefront of my brain are:
Freebooters on the Frontier, 2nd edition
A standalone version of the DW hack, improved and balanced according to user feedback, with integrated monster, treasure, and exploration rules.
West of the Mississippi, 1840-1880
Working title for an “Old West” *World RPG that is playset-based (think Fiasco) and built around the tensions between different cultural and cross-cultural groups. The hope would be to explore drama-rich pockets of North American history from multiple points of view, with greater emphasis on and respect for the experiences of indigenous peoples and marginalized groups than you usually find in Western RPGs.
Thrilling Tales of Adventure!
10 years ago I started designing a pulp adventure board game, and took it through 16 working prototypes before I burned out. Recently, I’ve been feeling like it might be worth trying to take it to completion again. In the intervening time, Eldritch Horror has accomplished some of the stuff I was going for in a better way, but no one has scooped the adventure-building mechanic I came up with, which was the strongest part of my design. Old records of the games development can be found here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28519/thrilling-tales-adventure
If you have an opinion about where I should be directing my game-brain, please vote!
WOTM 100%. We need more respectful Old West games that don’t have zombies in them;)
I think all 3 ideas sound amazing! Although I must admit I lean to FotF 2e. It makes so much sense for Freebooters to be its own game.
I’d really like to see FotF as a self-contained game that includes all the PW stuff.
I voted Freebooters because I want more reasons to play it, but WotM seems like a great idea.
Excited for all of these, honestly! So cool.
I love all three but I can’t vote against Freebooters 🙂
We need a western game along the dimensions you state.
They’re all good, but I really enjoyed playing TToA!
Like others have said, they’re all cool but I’ve had so much fun with Freebooters that I have to vote for that.
FotF 2, and I will help in any way I can.
Where’s the Berlin: book 3 option?
Craig Vial, it’s on the drawing table right next to me, and slated for a late 2017/early 2018 release 🙂
Jason Lutes Fantastic. For what it’s worth, I voted for the wild west one.
Hm. I think I’d rather see WotM as a Freebooters/Perilous Wilds type game/supplement, rather than a Fiasco-style playset game. I’d like to make my own West!
(Then again, there’s not much stopping me from just playing a Western using DW, FotF, and PW…)
Noah Doyle, I think it would end up somewhere in between. The playsets I’m envisioning would be lists of NPCs, places, and things specific to a particular geographic area and time period, combined with setting details as laid out by Chris Bennett in his post, here:
https://plus.google.com/+ChrisBennettGameDesign/posts/WUq5mDTgHtU
During the first session you would roll on the lists to generate a bunch of scenario-specific people, places and things, and use the results to set the stage for your campaign.
That being said, the basic mechanics of the game would not be dependent on the playsets. A playset would be more like the “Draw the Map” chapter of The Perilous Wilds — a tool to establish a setting collaboratively, but grounded in real-world history.
Jason Lutes Well, that’s got my vote. 🙂
Those are a good idea – the historic West was much broader than most people realize.
Thanks for voting, everyone! It’s nice to leave the decision-making up to you.
I’ll be prioritizing FotF 2e and WotM in that order, and tinkering with them in the background while I focus on Stonetop and this other upcoming project.
Jason Lutes I’m playing in a Western game right now (using Aces and Eights) run by my friend Shane Ivey. There’s a huge range of stories you can tell under the “Western” umbrella. This campaign is the saga of a ranching family in the Wyoming territory. We have started in 1870, but the plan is for a “Great Pendragon Campaign”-like generational story, with years advancing fairly quickly. As much as I love Freebooters (and you know I do :), I am also excited to see what you do with WotM.