Pay what you want for Mano a Mano
We have been working on a new feature for the Squawk RPG 2nd Edition, which is a "field guide" section for Game Masters. This will make it easier to look up enemies for PCs as well as the effects of enviornmental conditions, so that GMs can more easily make their own campaigns istead of only using the one that comes in the book.
Blender 2.8 is a historical release that massively improves Blender 3D's usability. This is a big deal to us (for example the space ship graphics in Squawk 2nd Ed were made in Blender):
Lots of testing and retesting behind closed doors. We did attend the 2019 PNW Warrior Tipon Tipon however...
We had a lot of personal time consuming stuff come up over the last half dozen months that severely impeded our ability to work on projects. (It's possible one of our key members might be finnishing up yet another academic certification.) Adminttedly we have been doing a lot more self-care stuff like martial arts latetly, so we can be mentally available for game development later. But officially, we are blaming our slow product development all on the weather:
Significant updates to Squawk:
We have a new web page look that is intentionally less experimental and more like what you would expect out of a web page in 2018. There are two important functional differences with this new design:
Most of the work we have been doing on the Squawk RPG 2nd Edition lately has been on image placement, as in where images should go in relation to the text. We have been digging around in our old archives of Squawk images to see what things we should include in the 2nd Edition that we didn't include in the first edition. For example here is an image that might not make it into 2nd Edition:
We've been very busy over the last few months, working on image placement for Squawk 2nd Edition, and preparing for the annual Warrior Tipon Tipon North West. Here's how we did:
November & December are usually not very productive months for the Game Arts Guild. In addition to finalizing Squawk RPG 2E graphics we have been working on a new web site design.
We are finishing up graphics for the Squawk Role-Playing Game 2nd Edition. We have been working on a few other projects behind closed doors, but we don't want to get into explaining any of that until we are done finally rolling out Squawk 2E.
This image is from October 2014, just after we finished the rough draft of Squawk 2nd Edition, which we still are not quite yet ready to release. It is interesting that the majority of our regular testers are still featured in this picture:
We were busy road tripping through the forrest fire smoke of the Western Washington summer, introducing Tres Espadas to some old friends, and otherwise doing Tres Espadas stuff. We are now resuming work on Squawk RPG 2nd Edition.
Our Squawk RPG 2E Character Generator seems to work well on Chrome on the PC and in Android. It has many features to enjoy, so check it out!
One of our playtesters has a brother who has an interesting card game project on Kickstarter:t
The changes we have been making to Squawk 2nd Edition over the last month have been minor and superficial. This includes using certain abbreviations, capitalizing abbreviations, using less verbiage in the key words and adding "focus", which is simply a pre-calculated stat for something we used to have players add up each time PCs used it in events. No game mechanics changes, but usability changes that make the system slightly easier to implement.
On this website (www.GameArtsGuild.com), the Squawk RPG 2nd Ed. Beta Document and the Mano a Mano Role-Playing System Reference Document have both been updated to MaM 2017 (and now the only place you can find the 2016 version is on DriveThruRPG. Soon 2017 will be the only MaM RPS on DriveThruRPG well.)
We are now in the process of replacing all of MaM 2016 with MaM 2017. Right now the only place we know of you can get MaM 2016 is by downloading MaM 2016 from DriveThruRPG. Soon that will no longer be an option, so if you want a copy of MaM 2016, get one now because we are moving on to MaM 2017 and wiping MaM 2016 from the face of the Earth.
We have decided to update Squawk 2nd Edition with Mano a Mano 2017 before we publish it. This will require a minor re-write and last second playtesting. So for all of you who have been holding your breath for S2E since 2015... sorry...
In the latest versions of the Mano a Mano RPS, we have strived to use the "normal" words used by other RPGs to describe the system. In that spirit, we have changed "Background" to "Template," and "Unused Character Points" to "Action Points."
We have open source role-playing systems that we use to develop products. If you want to find an old version of one of our role playing systems, go find the last product that used it. (Orignial Scratch RPS was used in 1st Edition Squawk RPG, more mature version used in The Dark Woods RPG.)
Progress has been slow as usual on Squawk 2nd Edition, and it looks like we won't have it on sale in time for the holidays. However it is still inching along and should be done soon. Here is a graphic we have been working on for the book in Blender 3D:
Unfortunately we have nothing to report on the progress of the Squawk RPG 2nd Ed. However most of us did happnen to get through most of the Three Body Problem trilogy (aka "Remembrance of Earth's Past", by Liu Cixin). Definitely some interesting similarities, with the "no faster than light," "life in not so distant star systems," bleak outlook and dark humor themes found in both Remebrance of Earth's Past and Squawk. All similarities aside they are extremely entertaining books, Cixin's masterpiece is one of our favorite sci-fi trilogies of all time.
The shape Mano a Mano takes is entirely dependent on what people are using it for. It is currently optimized for the Squawk RPG 2nd Ed. Our next RPG is likely to be Resilience, a project we've been thinking about seriously for several years now. This is likely to lead to random damage only, having the following results:
The following changes have been made to the Squawk RPG SRD on this website:
These optional rules have only been updated here on the website, they have not been updated in the DriveThruRPG PDF yet:
As many of you have likely been enjoying Mano a Mano 2016 (MaM) along side 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, you have probably been wondering "how many character points (CP) are equal to a 5th-Ed.-D&D-or-Pathfinder-level (level)?"
The answer is this: 1st level characters are worth about 95 character points in MaM. Each additional level after 1st level is worth about 15 MaM character points. So a 2nd level character would be worth about 110 character points, a 3rd level character worth about 125 character points, 4th level would be 140 CP and so on.
The reason for this is that in MaM after 90 CP, the formidability of characters doubles every 30 CP. So in MaM, a 120 CP character is an equal match to two 90 CP characters. It appears to us that a D&D character is a match for two D&D chracters that are two levels lower (so that for example a 3rd level character would be an equal match for two 1st level characters.) We estimate most 1st level characters are worth 95 CP in MaM. Then we add 30 CP for every two additional levels, 15 CP at a time.
(Based on the 2004 Edition of GURPS Lite, we speculate that it is something similar for the value of levels in GURPS character points, but would defer to someone from Wizzards of the Coast or Steve Jackson Games for a reliable opinion on that.)
Today we released the 2016 version of the Mano a Mano Role-Playing System that we have been using to make the 2nd Edition of the Squawk RPG. Like Mano a Mano on Facebook and ask us any questions you may have about this project in the Mano a Mano Google+ Community.
Pay what you want for Mano a Mano
We are officially concluding the public beta test of the 2nd Edition of the Squawk Role-Playing Game. If you have any more feed back from beta testing, please send it to us immediately, we are wrapping up this phase of development.
Our price for The Dark Woods RPG was understandably unpopular. We have changed the price to "pay what you want."
We are now close to rolling out Mano a Mano 2016. Once we do that we'll be working on the final page layouts for Squawk RPG 2nd Edition.
Many recent updates to the Squawk RPG 2nd Ed. Beta and Mano a Mano RPS:
Two big updates here for the Public Beta Test of the Squawk RPG 2nd Ed.:
Here is a printable character sheet for use with the Squawk RPG 2nd Edition or the Mano a Mano Role-Playing System:
There have been a number of minor updates recently:
Mano a Mano testing went well. Ironically in the game our priest ended up messing up the troll with binding spells, the battle taking place in the necropolis, so that the whole campain concluded like that Historian Himself video we like. It was reassuring to see the Mano a Mano RPS work effectively outside of the Squawk setting.
We have not received enough feedback from people who have actually played the Squawk RPG 2nd Edition beta, leaving a significant gap of confidence in our Role-Playing System rules, Mano a Mano. To remedy this we are doing more rounds of Mano a Mano testing, as well as seriously considering releasing Mano a Mano on DriveThruRPG before releasing the Squawk 2nd Edition. If you want to see Mano a Mano in the raw for your self check it out: Mano a Mano Role-Playing System
Benjamin, Seth, and Ulrich finally visited The Dinosaur Mueseum. There you can see why we used the name "Squawk":
We have a new site design that is easier to maintain, more secure, and mobile first.
There are a number of ways our community stays in touch with us effectively. Twitter is not one of them. Our efforts thus far with Twitter have been fruitless and so now those efforts have come to an end.
PRCE update snuck up on us and took out our website for a little while. It's fixed now, but we'll probably be moving away from Mediawiki as our content management system in the future (to something more mobile friendly and less prone to fatal updates.)
Two new vehicle-related abilities have been added to the Squawk 2nd Edition Beta Test:
In addition, some of the language around agility has been updated to be more specific about vehicles.
The Grid rules for the Squawk 2nd Edition Beta Test have been updated:
We jacked up the price of The Dark Woods to $6.66, and the paper-book (+ pdf) is an inverted infernal sign, $9.99. Our cheap prices will not be taken for granted as we are overcome with gluttony and greed!
We have set up a Google Plus Group for the Game Arts Guild community: https://plus.google.com/communities/114774943448515989042
Thanks to feedback from Kevin Flynn, we made the following changes to the Characters chapter:
Updates for the Squawk 2nd Edition Beta Test:
Any people who give us feedback we find helpful on the Squawk RPG 2nd Edition's Beta Reference Document will get a free PDF of the final product through DriveThruRPG.com, and names mentioned in the credits, if they do not object.
Thanks to feedback from Chris Carpenter, we have slightly reorganized the chapters of the Squawk RPG 2nd Edition. We have:
The Squawk 2nd Edition public beta test will continue until further notice (probably for at least the next 60 days.)
Finally at long last today we are officially announcing the Squawk Role Playing Game 2nd Edition is in public beta testing:
The only thing left on getting the Squawk 2nd Edition Beta ready is putting in a minimal number of images (maybe 20% of what we have planned for the book) so it will to clarify the text describing this alien setting.
Our in house beta testing of Squawk 2nd Edition was successful, the system flowed well and the campaign seemed to work well as far as we played it. We found that with a system trying to be a full RPG system no matter how simple, presentation was key. We have decided to put some more work into making sure the character sheet is optimally usable.
Hopefully it is not too optimistic to suggest we will open beta testing to the public in January 2015.
I don't have a solid date yet for when the public beta will begin, but I can answer this question: how did Squawk 2nd Edition (S2E) go from being a three month project to taking around three years?
Sure we've done a lot more rewriting and revisioning than what was necessary, but what really took the longest time by no small margin was getting the role-playing system down. It is fair to call this new role-playing system a new version of Mano a Mano, and that's what we are probably going to be calling this role-playing system after we release Squawk 2nd Edition. It's too bad that someone didn't have an adequately licensed and appropriate role-playing system for us to use already, because that would have shaved months or years off of this project.
Here's four people listed in the credits of the first Edition of the Squawk Role-Playing Game, at recent birthday party for Seth Galbraith, playing Elder Sign. I am visibly tired, because I have just finished the rough draft of Squawk RPG 2nd Edition, and I am waiting for team approval to go public beta with it. Mostly what we are waiting on is adding some essential images (mostly from 1st Edition) so people can understand the unique features of the Squawk universe, and for an in-house proof reader to make sure I haven't messed anything up.
So we did sort-of finish by Halloween, but not ready to go public beta just yet. I definitely expect us to go public beta before Thanksgiving, hopefully weeks before.
There was a lot more to getting started on the campaign section of Squawk 2nd Edition than we thought, and it basically took us all summer long to get it sorted out. We have been making swift progress in September, and it looks like a Halloween public beta test is possible (but no promises.)
I know what you are wondering: "BFGalbraith, when you are swinking away on an RPG book, what music do you listen to for motivation?" When I was working on Squawk 1st Edition, I was mostly listening to "Design Your Universe" by Epica. I had to go very dark to channel the bad vibes necessary for working on The Dark Woods, so I was listening mostly to Skinny Puppy/Ohgr with some Panzer AG and Aesthetic Perfection. Now with Squawk 2nd Edition I am having to be progressive and aggro at the same time, and seem to be listening to a lot of Imperative Reaction with some combination of the other music I mentioned here.
Ulrich (artist behind the covers for RPGs The Dark Woods and Squawk) has done the background image for Throw Back The Rope's new logo used on their T-Shirts and drum set. Here's a picture with Ulrich wearing one of the shirts:
Progress on Squawk 2nd Edition hasn't been as fast as we planned. Right now it looks like public beta testing will begin some time in August 2014 and the final book will be completed in December.
We put up our sprites from HandS2D on Open Game Art. It's safe to say we have done a lot of experimenting with using the web browser as a game engine over the years, and that is what the last version of HandS2D was about.
We have finally began the final of the third stages of getting ready for the Squawk 2nd Edition beta test, and that is overhauling the campaign-that-comes-with-the book. At this rate we may still begin open public beta testing S2E as early as sometime this June.
In getting from published Squawk 1st Edition to 2nd Edition beta testing, there are 3 main phases: Setting, Role-Playing System rules, and then the campaign-included-with-the-book. In these phases we finished the most involved, Setting, back in January. Now we are almost done with Role-Playing System rules which we did a lot of preliminary work on in 2012-2013, and as with the 1st Edition the trickiest part is space combat rules. With any luck we'll be working on the campaign by April and start beta testing in early June.
Right now we are on track to start the open public beta for Squawk 2nd Edition some time around May or June of 2014. If this happens then we would be concluding playtesting at the end of the summer, and then hopefully start selling the final version around Halloween.
As mentioned before this 2nd Edition has been influenced by The Dark Woods in that it is no longer burdened with trying to be The Dark Woods. The Dark Woods no-GM model requires a very simple game system, while Squawk 2nd Edition's game system is free to have more features. There isn't any "bug sauce" in Squawk 2nd Edition since bug sauce is essentially the same thing as TDW's "essence."
BFGalbraith finally started a blog at BFGalbraith.blogspot.com. It seems to mostly be about martial arts related topics. Again, Seth Galbraith's blog is TheSerpentLord.blogspot.com/ and Ulrich Galbraith's site is www.EarthenDust.com.
As suggested in previous posts, making The Dark Woods RPG has helped us define what the Squawk RPG should be better (these two projects were originally the same project in that TDW was a very early version of Squawk, or Squawk evolved out of TDW.) Since TDW uses a GMless plot map, Squawk 2nd Ed can be less map dependent, for example. The RPG system in Squawk 2nd Ed. is more complex than the one is TDW (because TDW's GMlessness required a simple RPG system.) This has also encouraged us to have a more focused setting, and include details that didn't make it into the 1st Ed.
Little raises the ire of the Game Arts Guild as the so called "noncommercial" open source liscenses. Two big complaints about them:
1) NonCommercial licenses make it much more difficult to distribute projects that use them. People insisting on non-commercial agreements on their very-low-polygon models made it impossible for us to relase "The Sword of Ares" as a stand-alone game after the ID 1 engine went GPL. We hesitate to use music with the Creative Commons NonCommercial liscenses even in YouTube videos with advertising. NonCommercial licenses make it much harder to distribute information, and open source is supposed to make that easier, so that the two do NOT belong together.
2) Accomodation of these NonCommercial licenses clutters collections of open source material, making it harder to find appropriately liscensed materials for serious projects. Little is as disappointing as finding a catchy tune on ccMixter.org only to find it's tied down with a bunch of NonCommercial baggage.
So note to you RPG developers who think you have taken the moral high ground by distributing your works under NonCommercial licenses: we think your mediocre embracement of the open source concept has had the opposite effect of what you wanted the public to think your intention was. We sincerely wish content sites and licensing institutions would quit supporting NonCommercial liscenses, because this psuedo-open-source licensing does more harm than good.
When the 2nd Edition is released eventually, it will have more commentary on the origins of the Squawk universe. Here's one of Seth's sci-fi rantings on alien intelligent life that might give you an idea of what flavor of origin will be in the book: http://theserpentlord.blogspot.com/2013/08/star-venom.html?spref=fb
It looks like Game Decor is officially in the paint business, exceeding their funding goal of $4,000 by FOUR times, over $16,000! Many thanks to all who supported this project.
In the very early days of the Game Arts Guild, one of our friends helped us with some tech support. He now has his own game design company, "Game Decor" which has nearly completed funding for a Kickstarter project (for painting tabletop terrain):
The new www.GameArtsGuild.com is at www.gameartsguild.com/content, and we will no longer post on gameartsguild.blogspot.com . Recent bad experiences with Google's customer service has had us second guessing us being so dependent on their services, and so we have been transitioning various projects we are involved in off of Blogger (including www.TresEspadas.org .)
On a side note, if you have a tablet or cell phone with a cracked screen, we strongly recommend Seattle Repair Services, and if you need a responsible company to help you make sure your URL's don't get sold off to the highest bidder under your nose, we highly recommend DreamHost.
I have flash games, Youtube, Facebook, GMail, Drive, Docs, etc. working on the OUYA now.
1. First install flash on the OUYA:
2. Then go into the web browser, hit the button between the 8 directional pad and the right joy stick, and select "request desktop site."
3. I have a USB Keyboard hooked up to a USB mouse on one end and the USB OUYA port on the other, making all of the above a lot easier to use.
Some Flash games don't work as well as others, everything else I mentioned seems fully functional even if a little sluggish.
For about a year now we've been working on an OUYA game called "Ancient and Deadly." It is an open source Action RPG that uses graphics from www.OpenGameArt.org. We have no anticipated release date, and we hope to have more information for you about this in the future. Yes, this is another reason why the 2nd Edition of the Squawk RPG book is taking so long. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 3:30 AM
It's starting to look like we might make another Mano a Mano handbook, based on the RPS currently being developed for Squawk 2nd Edition. We are seriously considering working on some system agnostic RPG materials, and having a setting agnostic RPS book would help us separate setting from system more easily. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 3:00 AM
We are NOT planning to do a 2nd Edition of The Dark Woods. We have other projects that have been in the planning stages for years, and we don't have time for doing a 2nd Edition on every project we complete. Unlike the 1st Edition of Squawk, we've never had to publish an Errata for TDW. The things we could improve on The Dark Woods (single-column smaller-cover format, different order of chapters, update to the Squwawk 2nd Edition RPS, etc.) would not actually improve the game play experience. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 2:00 AM
This is not for testing purposes, we are still a long ways from beta testing. This character generator just for people who want to get a glimpse of what is going on with Squawk 2E: http://gameartsguild.com/SquawkCharacterGenerator/ We will post on this blog when we want beta feedback on this, expect it to change drastically before the beta. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 2:04 AM
Here's what the core role-playing system for Squawk 2E is looking like so far: 6 core attributes, complimented with over 50 different abilities. The attributes are Coordination (attack bonus,) Power (attack damage,) Toughness (hit points,) and 3 defenses. The three defenses are Agility, Intelligence, and Strength (like in The Dark Woods RPG.)
As alluded to in previous posts, having one Coordination attribute as a universal attack bonus and one Power attribute as the universal damage bonus, is more a matter of making the character point system fool-proof than it is having a descriptive attribute system. The 50+ abilities on the other hand get into a lot more detail and do sometimes modify those bonuses.
We are hoping to have a wiki version of the book up on this site for Beta testing and proof-reading before this summer. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:00 AM
The artist who did the cover art for The Dark Woods and Squawk has his art portfolio at www.EarthenDust.com. He recently graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor's degree in visual arts. Ulrich Galbraith has been contributing to Game Arts Guild projects since the 90's (back when the team was called "Galbraith Games.") If you are a fan of The Dark Woods or Squawk you will likely enjoy some of the artwork on his site. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:00 AM
Our first Role-Playing System (RPS) was Mano a Mano (MaM,) which went through at least several versions over the space of a decade. It was older than Squawk or The Dark Woods, and MaM's development was driven by those games. Frustration from working on one-size-fits-all RPS for so long led to a joke RPS called MiniMaM (not to be confused with the Pygame demo of the same name which we also made,) but that turned into a serious RPS called Scratch. Scratch's simplicity allowed us to finish the 1st Edition of Squawk, as well as put The Dark Woods together. Moving on past Scratch is exactly what is making the 2nd Edition of Squawk take so long to complete. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:00 AM
We are keeping the GM around for the Squawk 2nd Edition core rule book (but are seriously considering making a supplement that is player vs. player/team vs. team/no-GM-allowed like The Dark Woods.) With the 2nd Edition version of "Eye for an Eye" (the campaign that comes with the book,) we are trying to use less random tables and us more player choice for determining how the plot unfolds (almost like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.) This means we are doing a lot of editing for readability (out loud) and otherwise tweaking the campaign to be as GM friendly as possible. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:35 AM
Nefarious will not return to Squawk 2nd Edition because she is exactly the same character as "The Old Crow," a major character in The Dark Woods. We started working on Squawk while we were first developing The Dark Woods, which is why the character was in both settings. We are tweaking and refining the setting in the Squawk 2nd Edition in other ways as well. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 8:13 AM
Making character development more balanced highly influenced this 2nd version of the Squawk RPG's core game mechanics much earlier on in development than with previous role-playing systems we have worked on. Back to that "size = damage" concept alluded to in our last post, it makes sense from a narrative standpoint to have one weapon (say a katana) do a lot more damage than another weapon (like a ninja throwing star.) In a lot of role-playing systems it's easy to generate characters with character points overly invested on the ninja stars instead of katanas, throwing off the over all balance of the game. In the Squawk RPG 2nd Ed. we've erred on the side of fool-proofing over flexibility; it should be a lot harder to screw up your character by misappropriating CP. (This is to a greater degree than in the "Scratch RPS" that the 1st Ed. and The Dark Woods is based on.) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 2:25 PM
In the past when we have made role-playing games, we have usually started off with game mechanics in an effort to make a sort of "universal" role-playing system, and then applied that universal system to a specific setting. However this time with the Squawk 2nd Edition, we focused on making sure the setting has come first, and that the rules serve to describe the setting.
For example, in Squawk the main factor that determines how much damage a character does is the size of his species (because we are talking about intelligent dinosaurs here.) In the Squawk 2E RPS rules the biggest factor for character damage in indeed the size of his species (even though this might not make sense in a typical fantasy RPG setting for example where all the PC races are some variation of hominid.) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 5:48 PM
With the Squawk 2nd Edition, we've decided on a role-playing system that is more visceral than Scratch. (It is almost like a highly simplified updated version of Mano a Mano heavily influenced by Scratch.) Unfortunately this will add at least months to Squawk 2E development, and we'll be lucky to have the game done this year. We will post here on the blog as we are looking for proof readers and play testers. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 7:25 PM
We want as many people playing The Dark Woods Role-Playing Game as possible, so we have put enough of The Dark Woods up on our content wiki so that anyone can play the game. We still want you to buy The Dark Woods to support our efforts, but even if you don't we still want you the play The Dark Woods. Also this wiki version should be a handy resource even for those who normally use the paper book, even though it doesn't have all the content the book and PDF does. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 6:34 PM
Our favorite Role-Playing Game critic, Tommy Brownell, has reviewed The Dark Woods here: http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2012/06/tommys-take-on-dark-woods.html
We think it is a fair review and an accurate assessment of The Dark Woods RPG. Yes, in case you are wondering, it was originally a board game design (a board game/RPG hybrid, the original prototype in the early/mid 90's used a lot of 3x5 cards.) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:34 PM
If you buy the Soft-Cover version of The Dark Woods core rule book ($7.99,) the PDF is now FREE (now normally $3.99.) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 8:06 AM
You can now get The Dark Woods in soft-cover format from DriveThruRPG here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/101224/The-Dark-Woods The core rule-book is $7.99 , the PDF is $4.99, and together they are only $9.99 . Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 2:45 PM
Tired of always being labeled "the bad guy?" Want to know more about the mysterious "Order of Thanatos" alluded to throughout The Dark Woods RPG? Wait no longer, now you and your team members can play Knights of the Order of Thanatos here: Order of Thanatos (team association) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:24 PM
We have officially started working on the 2nd Edition of the Squawk Role-Playing Game. We seriously intend to finish before the end of the summer, we know exactly what we want to do with it (make it easier for GMs to use: more scripted, less spaceship combat.) We are looking for volunteer proof readers (between 150 to 200 pages,) so if you can help with this please e-mail squawk@gameartsguild.com Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:13 PM
Another race we weren't able to polish up in time for The Dark Woods book was trolls. Here is a playable variation of trolls we came up with: Trolls of The Dark Woods Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:09 AM
We worked on vampires for The Dark Woods, but they got culled when we were trying to finally finish up the project. Well, now here is a playable variation of the vampires we came up with for The Dark Woods: Vampires of The Dark Woods Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 3:01 PM
We have officially lowered the price of The Dark Woods PDF to $0.00 until the printed version of the book is available for sale online. At that time we plan to return to the price of $4.99 for the PDF: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/101224/The-Dark-Woods Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 2:51 PM
In The Dark Woods, we have changed the description of the "evade" action on page 7. Here is the old confusing text:
Evade allows a character to to add a movement ability level to his agility and strength until his next turn or until he is held, whichever comes first. A character without one of those abilities can also evade, but his agility and strength do not change.
Here is the new text which should be more clear:
Evade allows a character to add the level of one of his movement abilities to his agility and strength until the end of his next turn or until he is held, whichever comes first. A character with no movement abilities can also evade, allowing him to escape on his next turn if he is not held, but his agility and strength do not change.
We worked hard on these 32 pages for over a year, and we don't expect any more changes like this, but you never know.
Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:26 AM
April 18, 2012: Character Generator Update for TDW We've updated The Dark Woods character generator to have the exact same layout as is in the character sheet in the book: http://gameartsguild.com/tdw
It also has details on what each ability is used for built into the ability selection menu, to help you save time when generating characters. It also has a separate tab for the minions character sheet. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 9:33 PM
April 13, 2012: 50 Free TDW PDFs If you or anyone you know wants a free copy of The Dark Woods RPG, have that person e-mail squawk@gameartsguild.com saying they want a copy, and we'll send them a coupon by e-mail for a free download from DriveThruRPG. We decided to give out 50 copies for free before the printed book comes out in a month or two (PDF normally costs $5.) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:57 PM
We released the PDF version of The Dark Woods today. Within weeks we'll also be releasing a book version on DriveThruRPG as well. At that time we'll be offering a discount to people who want to buy both the book and the PDF at the same time.
Here is a promotional video for The Dark Woods:
Here's our official The Dark Woods website: http://gameartsguild.com/content/index.php?title=The_Dark_Woods
Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:58 PM
We've been experimenting with HandS2D and content from OpenGameArt.org. As a result Seth expanded an existing tileset and released it here: http://opengameart.org/content/isometric-64x64-medieval-building-tileset Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 2:33 PM
The natural heir to the now mostly inactive Free Game Arts is http://OpenGameArt.org . Today we released an older 2D RPG experiement we did in Pygame called MiniMaM: http://opengameart.org/content/minimam-fantasy-rpg-characters Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 1:18 PM
The inclement weather in Seattle has allowed us to finish all our testing for The Dark Woods. Thanks to everyone who was able to help with this. We still have some text, index and cover adjustments to make, but it's clear to us that we have nailed the balance and game mechanics now. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:59 PM
The Dark Woods is still not quite ready yet. 99% sure it will be out 1st quarter 2012. Much of what we are doing for The Dark Woods is sort of boilerplate for the 2nd Edition of The Squawk RPG (probably 4th quarter 2012.) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:01 PM
The Dark Woods isn't out of the woods yet. It's funny how tricky details like arranging cover art and formatting indexes can be. We are hoping to have more exiting news in December. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:14 PM
You can now follow us on Twitter, which will automatically give you a heads up every time we post something to this site. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:51 PM
We have a new game coming out called "The Dark Woods." It is a team vs. team pen and paper RPG that doesn't use a game master. PCs are "sorcerers" who become more powerful from devouring the magical "essence" of their fallen enemies, this power warping them into inhuman forms. The teams of players take turns between playing their own characters and playing the forces battling the rival team.
It uses a fairly simple combat system, similar to the one in the Squawk RPG. So far it plays best with 4 to 6 players, and it is meant to be played through in a single gaming session of less than 7 hours. We are done with internal testing and the first draft of the game, and we would like a few groups of outsiders to test it before we publish it.
If you or any friends can test The Dark Woods before the end of October 2011, please e-mail us so we can send you a PDF at: squawk@gameartsguild.com Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:55 PM
At PAX this year we attended a panel that included authors of Dogs in the Vineyard and Panty Explosion. There were some interesting views espoused about creating and promoting Role-Playing Games:
We noticed an extremely strong Pathfinder presence at PAX, which was a pleasant surprise.
There were also some very interesting displays from Geek Chic involving using a computer touch screen table top, which was used for both table top gaming and playing PC action RPG titles.
In video games, I found the whole Defense of the Ancients trend in so many of the new major titles to be a refreshing change from the usual Counterstrike & WoW type games that have dominated the computer game market for so long. The Free to Play model that some of these League of Legends type games use is particularly appropriate in today's austere economy. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:19 PM
We were intending to have The Dark Woods completed by now. However, it's most likely going to be released in September or October at our current pace. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 1:46 PM
We have been very busy this month working on a variety of projects, Squawk 2nd Edition, The Dark Woods, and some web-based projects. Over the last few years we have been dabbling in DHTML game development. Here are some older examples:
http://gameartsguild.com/scrollio/ Look mom, no flash! http://gameartsguild.com/hands2d/ (Yes, it's an action RPG engine in HTML5.)
It's also interesting to note that we are close friends with the developer of the educational game "math:math" for Android:
http://www.appbrain.com/app/math%3Amath/com.appspot.lance_miller.MathMath
Here is a preview of a character-generator we have been working on for our up coming GM-less RPG book The Dark Woods, which is fairly smart-phone friendly:
http://gameartsguild.com/dwpc/
Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:19 PM
An Earth-shattering event took place today. The Dark Woods was a board game we were developing back in the mid 90's that spun off the Squawk RPG, and today we completed some preliminary testing on a new RPG book version of it. We expect to publish a new version of it before the 2nd Edition of the Squawk RPG, and that when you play it, it will change how your expectations for RPGs forever. The Dark Woods does not use a GM, while the players split into teams and pit villainous monster PCs against each other. A character generator we are working on for it can be found at http://gameartsguild.com/dwpc/ Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 11:25 PM
We attended the two big local conventions this weekend, Sakuracon and Norwescon, and still managed to have some Easter dinner. The Serpent Lord attended a panel with Neal Stephenson. (We are fans of his.) He was impressed with what the panelists were saying about their writing process (spar with weapons, eat, talk, write. This reminds us of our involvement with Tres Espadas.) But Neal Stephenson was late, and when he rushed into the room after the panel had started, he almost-tripped/stumbled over The Serpent Lord. The Serpent Lord was impressed with Stephenson's "ninja like reflexes" that kept him from falling on his face - a testament to the value of weapons sparring. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:39 AM
We have been working on an Errata for the Squawk Role-Playing Game, which we have published here. This Squawk RPG Errata lists fixes for all the known errors in the Squawk RPG. This Squawk RPG Errata is a work in progress, and will be updated regularly as we find more fixes for issues in the Squawk RPG. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:54 PM
The Serpent Lord has posted some interesting Squawk-related dinosaur illustrations, and commented on the state of RPGs in the last decade, on his blog here: http://theserpentlord.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 6:01 PM
If you haven't noticed already, there are actually two versions of the Scratch Role-Playing System out there, the Knol version and the Wiki version. The Knol version of Scratch is a static online version of what has been printed in the first edition of the Squawk Role-Playing Game book. The Knol version is going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
The wiki version of the Scratch RPS is the latest version of Scratch, the version that we are using for our current projects under development. In general the wiki version of Scratch is better, including our latest improvements. The biggest change so far is that the Knockout ability has been rewritten to be simpler and to be more fitting with the other abilities. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 1:24 PM
Although the Squawk Role-Playing Game is simple enough to play on scratch paper, these character sheets will help you keep track of modifiers from equipment and allies with craftsmanship ability. Four character sheets fit on one 8.5 x 11" page.
Download the free PDF.
Posted by Seth Galbraith at 4:19 PM
Two updates about the Squawk Role-Playing Game and RPG.net:
Thanks to Tommy Brownell, the Squawk RPG finally got mentioned on RPG.net (we had been trying since Thanksgiving): http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15127.phtml We have moved the Scratch Role-Playing System that Squawk uses from Knol to the Wiki on RPG.net: http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Scratch
Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 1:52 PM
Tommy Brownell reviewed the Squawk RPG on his "Most Unread Blog Ever" site. His blog posts tend to get reposted elsewhere, so this is great for us.
If you haven't read Tommy's blog before, I strongly recommend it. He tends to cover a very wide range of pen and paper RPG material, and gives thorough reviews on everything he covers. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:12 PM
The second intelligent species we designed that ended up in Squawk was the Gaffling. Here is a document that describes them and shows various illustrations you may not have seen before. We have always been big on intelligent dinosaurs, even when our games were not primarily about intelligent dinosaurs. In those games, the Gaffling was our "intelligent dinosaur" species.
Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 9:46 PM
The oldest Squawk intelligent species design is probably the Myrmidon. Seth's first sketch of what would later become the Myrmidon was probably done in the late 1980's, shortly after playing Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga. For the first years of the creature's gaming life it was referred to as the "skeet" and had 4 arms and 3 eyes. Here are sketches showing variations on the Myrmidon design over the years (not in chronological order):Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 8:23 PM ====November 24, 2010: Press Release The Squawk RPG is a science-fiction role-playing game for 3 to 5 players (including Game Master). Players control intelligent avians, dinosaurs and other reptiles who explore the Abaddon planetary system and it's many unique worlds, cultures and technologies. They overcome extraterrestrial monsters, wild dinosaurs, space pirates, and other savage perils along the way.
Half of the Squawk RPG is a campaign (a series of adventures) that allows Game Masters to run the game with minimal preparation time. The campaign allows players to follow a central plot, or explore the Abaddon system, moving freely in many directions. The campaign includes more than 100 possible encounters to challenge the players, depending on which parts of the Squawk RPG universe they decide to explore. Random encounter tables for each world - and rules that allow players to search for specific encounters - keep the campaign new and exciting even when the same group of players have played the campaign before.
The Squawk RPG uses the simple and easy-to-use Scratch Role-Playing System, which is included in the book. Navigation maps help readers explore the planets and moons of the Abaddon system easily. Over 100 illustrations of creatures, technology and places help readers visualize this unique setting. Experienced tabletop gamers will be able to play this game within minutes of opening the Squawk RPG book, and this is an ideal role-playing game for new players as well.
You can buy the paper Squawk RPG book at these sites: (CreateSpace gives us the highest commission.)
Amazon.com
Or you can buy the Squawk RPG e-book at these sites:If you run a shop or store, e-mail us at squawk@gameartsguild.com so we can get you books at an appropriate price for your business. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 6:51 PM
You may have noticed that Martial Arts is a common theme in our games. Over half the Game Arts Guild has full contact martial arts experience, and some of us have internal martial arts experience with Aikido and Tai Chi. Lately some of our members have been involved in a full contact weapon sparring club called "Tres Espadas." Seth (The Serpent Lord) is thinner of the two fighters in this video:
http://espadastres.blogspot.com/2010/11/naginata-vs-glaive.html
I am the thinner of the two fighters in these videos:
http://espadastres.blogspot.com/2010/07/staff-vs-buckler-from-20100710.html http://espadastres.blogspot.com/2010/07/knife-vs-knife-liver-kick.html (knife vs. knife segment)
And the larger guy we are both up against in all three of those is a playtester mentioned in the acknowledgement section of the Squawk RPG book. The guy in the black shirt in these two videos is a Game Arts Guild member:
http://espadastres.blogspot.com/2010/11/mace-vs-stick.html http://espadastres.blogspot.com/2010/11/falchion-vs-cutlass.html
And last but not least, here's a battle between two Game Arts Guild members in the cold November rain:
http://espadastres.blogspot.com/2010/11/weapons-upgrade.html
Notice that the footage above is not LARPing, but a martial arts exercise. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 6:52 PM
We will officially be doing a press release soon, because the Squawk RPG is on Amazon, on RPG Now: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=85789 and on DriveThruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=85789 so people can now purchase the book in paper or electronic form. We are still trying to figure out how to make this accessible to brick-and-mortar RPG shops. If you run a brick and mortar store and want copies of the Squawk RPG on your shelf, e-mail us at squawk@gameartsguild.com , and we'll figure out how to get you those books at a price that should work for you. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 6:39 PM
When you are playing Squawk, the GM's answers to players who's characters are trying to determine the origins of their universe should be something like "no one is sure. There are no fossils to verify evolutionary theory, and there is a missing link of machinery when it comes to microorganisms and nanobots." That is the correct answer; "Squawk is something of an alternative universe where large mammals just don't exist," or "Squawk takes place so far away that it is completely unrelated to Earth" are other explanations used previously. (For more information on how to treat this topic while playing the Squawk RPG, see the last blog post "Squawk's Creation Debate.")
However, when we were working on this book, there was a graphic we used to keep in mind from our own personal designer's perspective what the "real context" of Squawk is. Basically Squawk takes place about 5 million years ago in another part of the Milky Way Galaxy: The Terraformers (a type of biomechanical robots called "Golems") were critical to life being spread throughout the worlds of Abaddon. So both sides of the debate mentioned in our last post are right: the origins of life in Abaddon depended on biomechanical robots, and most of the life there evolved one way or another. The "good guys" (Symbiotic Order) are more-right, but the Clockmakers are not completely wrong. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 8:14 PM
One of the big political issues in Squawk is an argument about the origins of life in the Abaddon system. One side of the argument is the Symbiotic Order's view, and the other is basically the Monopolis Corporation's view. Abaddon lacks rich fossil records because life really hasn't been there that long. Therefore the question of "intelligent design" for Squawk characters is twisted - on one side the religious order believes in Evolution, and on the other side the areligious corporate scholars have come to the conclusion that life has been intelligently designed. Here's a "poster" Seth made a while ago but didn't end up in the book, which is relavent to the "Debate at Ariel University" encounter in the Squawk RPG (p.130): Debate Poster Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:29 AM
We have updated our official logo. The previous one had a very "Vegas" looking design because it had 2d6 and no d20. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 3:32 PM
Here's a new hex mat and tokens for playing Squawk with the Grid rules. The 8.5" by 11" hex mat is divided into 1" wide hexes. You may need a few pages this size for big battles. Click on the image to download both the hex mat and the tokens as a single PDF. Posted by Seth Galbraith at 3:04 PM
Indexed & back in stock The Squawk RPG book was "out of stock" on Amazon for a little while because we were polishing the book with an index, some slight cover changes, and many grammar corrections. Amazon says it is now "in stock" again. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:51 PM
We decided not to focus on using the Scratch RPS's Grid rules in the book; we included the grid rules for those who would want them, but the book isn't focused on supporting those rules. Here are some props for a Skand, Titan, and Lyndwrym:(These were in turn made from 3D models in Blender before this book project started, models for a Squawk RPG computer game we worked on some years ago.) And if you don't have any hex paper, we made some of that as well: Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 9:37 PM
You can now order the Squawk Role-Playing Game book at Amazon.com. ($19.95 USD and eligible for free shipping if you buy it with another book that costs at least $5.05.) The factory proof looks great. The 5.5" x 8.5" trade paperback format is bigger than I had imagined, feeling more like manga than a paperback novel.
We included a map of the Abaddon system on the back cover, so you won't get lost.
I let BFG include any of my sketches he wanted - including some that are not my favorites. As a result most pages of the book have artwork that helps you visualize the inhabitants and locations of Squawk's unusual science fiction setting.
I wish we had this book the last time I played Squawk!
Posted by Seth Galbraith at 8:56 AM
I am the new spokesmodel for D&D Starter
We finished the final editing on the Squawk RPG book this weekend and I still had time to endure two long, grueling days of pure geek pleasure at PAX. Posted by Seth Galbraith at 8:06 AM
Many thanks to all of you who participated in the Squawk Role-Playing Game book beta testing. If you have any feedback that you have not yet sent us, please send it to squawk@gameartsguild.com
We are well into our final editing process. For example, all of the planned changes to the Scratch Role-Playing System from beta feedback have already been made: http://knol.google.com/k/scratch-rps Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 11:12 AM ====July 1, 2010: defense changes There have been 3 new changes to the Scratch RPS (and thus also the Squawk RPG,) related to defense: First and most importantly, the core rolling mechanism is that instead of trying to roll over a difficulty level to succeed, we now have a roll (plus ability bonus) instead equal to a difficulty in order to succeed. This means that defense is now what your attack roll + ability bonus has to be in order to successfully attack that target (equal to or greater than the target's defense.)
Second, we are now again listing character's defense explicitly (after tgh/2.) Third, all healing rolls now have a difficulty level of 10 (they used to vary more than this.)
Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:46 PM
We have rewritten the combat examples in the Scratch RPS so that they better explain some of the more complicated things that can happen in basic Squawk RPG confrontations. From now on Beta Testers should reference the Scratch RPS knol for the rules instead of the Scratch RPS rules in the Squawk RPG Beta PDF. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 4:18 PM
There are two changes we have made as result of beta testing feedback, which beta testers should now start using until further notice: When searching for a specific encounter, if the party rolls the same encounter twice, they automatically find the encounter they are looking for rather than repeat the random encounter.
The damage levels have changed for shooting and knock-out abilites (these details can be seen at the Scratch RPS Knol.) In a nutshell, shooting only damages 2 hit points unless the attack rolls a 20 when it then instead damages 5. Knock Out now damages 5 instead of 6, but still damages 7 if a 20 is rolled. (In combat between vehicles, rolling a 20 no longer damages any extra hit points.)
Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 7:02 PM
We have had some helpful editorial feedback from the RPG.net forums. We have rethought some of the book structure as a result, and so far we are:
Editorial opinions are appreciated, and that forum is a great place to put that kind of feedback. However, what we need more is a few groups of players & GMs to try to play through the book, and let us know what parts of the book are too difficult or too easy. We realize that the Squawk RPG beta PDF we put out is not as clear on how to play this game as we had assumed. If you want help understanding the Squawk RPG beta PDF so that you can help us with testing, e-mail squawk@gameartsguild.com and we will answer your questions as quickly as possible. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 10:39 AM
From now until the end of July 2010 we are inviting the general public to test the Squawk Role-Playing Game. Download the beta version of the Squawk RPG book. We are looking for feedback from players and game masters, especially about which parts of the game are too easy or too difficult. Please e-mail feedback to: squawk@gameartsguild.com
The size of the book is 177 pages, with a page size of 5.5 x 8.5 inches. Most of the book is one massive adventure or "campaign". We will use feedback from this beta testing to perfect the final version of the book, which we hope to release before the end of August. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 9:51 PM
We finished the pre-beta editing for the Squawk Role-Playing Game earlier today. Now we are putting a beta PDF together for testing purposes. Once the PDF is ready, we'll officially announce that beta testing is open to the public. That announcement will be on this site, and a similar invitation will be on the RPG.net forums. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 12:33 PM
The Squawk Role-Playing Game now uses the Scratch Role-Playing System instead of the Mano a Mano Role-Playing system. (Most versions of Squawk in the past have used Mano a Mano.) Scratch is a simpler and more generalist Role-Playing System (not as focused on close-range combat as Mano a Mano.) We made this decision in 2009, because it is easier for both for us as developers of the book and for new Squawk players. This still means that the Squawk RPG will have a normal all-rights-reserved copyright license, while using an "open source" role-playing system (Scratch, which like Mano a Mano uses a Creative Commons license.) Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 8:36 AM
The Squawk Role-Playing Game is one of the first projects our development team started, and we have aspired to make a publicly available version of this game in one form or another since the mid 90's. It broke off from another project called "The Dark Woods," and has appeared on some of our websites in the past. In 2008 we began working on a Squawk RPG Book, and we expect to have this book available for sale online in 2010. For more information on the Squawk RPG, check out The Serpent Lord's personal notes on Squawk. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 8:30 AM
The Game Arts Guild has been around a while in one form or another. Check out http://gameartsguild.com/old_news/ for an index of our old news from 1997 to 2009. Posted by B. F. Galbraith at 5:34 PM