Handy Vandal's Almanac

Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist is an interesting (and free!) new storytelling RPG from Jenna Moran …

Fatalists are those who know the secrets of the world. They are scholars. They are prophets. They are experts — founts of knowledge and confidence.

The role of the fatalist on this journey is cruel. It is something of a purpose that they must educate the wishers, warn them, and share with them the secret truths of the dreaming kingdom. But this is not why they seek the Jewel.

To win an unambiguous victory in this game, you need one fatalist to survive and agree to become the firmament of the world; and more, the wisher must willingly sacrifice that fatalist in the world’s creation. The person who becomes the firmament of the world is torn apart, unraveled, laid bare down to the bones of their soul and made into the structure of all reality. It is their lore and their knowledge and the order with which they approach their lives that become the order and basis for the world itself.

Any character can become this structure; it’s not limited to fatalists. But it is the fatalists’ belief that only someone such as a fatalist can do it well. And if it is not done, and done well, then the world shall remain in some part fantasy; in some part dream; in some part lie — as the doomful sages of the world suggest it is already.

Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist (PDF)

Home: Hitherby Dragons

Via Nick Novitski @ That Bright Instrument

Greg Costikyan has posted an engaging essay on randomness in game design. It’s a thoughtful, extensive read; here’s a sample to whet your appetite:

One sort of game aesthetic says: Games should be won by skill and not luck. Hence any recourse to randomness by a game is bad.

Curiously, it’s an attitude held by two sorts of gamers who otherwise have very little in common: Fans of abstract strategy games, and fans of first-person shooters.

- Greg Costikyan: Randomness: Blight or Bane? @ Play This Thing!

I’m not sure what Costikyan means by “blight or bane” … perhaps he intended “boon or bane” …?

This is very, very cool — a platform game in three-dee space using shadows to represent player and platforms …

The above screenshot demonstrates a scenario with two light sources. Note the two shadows for the player character: these two shadows move in tandem, are blocked in tandem, and solve puzzles in tandem. The shadows in the screenshot are jumping; the shadow on the left is blocked.

A remarkable accomplishment by developers Steve Swink and Scott Anderson — bravo!

Via YouTube:

Steve Swink and Scott Anderson demo their shadow platforming game, Shadow Physics, at Sense of Wonder Night 2009 (Tokyo Game Show).

While Steve does do game design at Blurst/Flashbang, Shadow Physics is an entirely independent side project. More information will soon be available at shadowphysics.com.