News

It’s called the Double-Tap Edition in public.  But in the dark, hoary corners of the world, it’s the Korova Milk-Bar Edition.

I couldn’t very well truck off to GenCon without some copies of Black Cadillacs in tow, now could I?  The problem was, I didn’t have any Steel-Toe’d curbstompers left.  In a frenzy of illicit photocopying, doubly illicit punching and a positively labyrinthine quest for coils, this beauty was born.

Physically, she’s the polar opposite of the Steel Toe’d edition.  Sleek plastic covers, belly-banded (for the rules updates, neh?) and a full 3mm thinner than last year’s.

And what is that behind those two 9mm holes?

Get one and find out.  I’ve got about ten left, and you can mailorder them for $13CAN + Shipping.  Email me to sort this out:

These are the glory days of the Great Patriotic Push.  Do not be left out.

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So, Ron Edwards is a pretty convincing kind of guy. Not in a used car salesman sort of way, but in a “Here is this very logical argument, and you’re welcome to ignore it if you like” kind of way.

The long and the short of it is that I’m going to GenCon Indy 2009, and I now have exactly five evenings to put together another print run of Black Cadillacs (five! crap!)  I’ll be demoing at the Forge booth (#1912), and running at least one full-form game at the Games on Demand room (Omni Fisher Ballroom.)

I’ve dubbed the second print run the Double-Tap Edition. I just completed proof of concept on the physical object, and it is going to be hot. Think of how rugged and brutal the Steel-Toe’d edition was. Now, picture something that’s sleek and arty, but to the same extreme. That’s the Double-Tap edition. So hot.

This is all part of the last great patriotic push. I’m actively looking for playtesters who want to hop in a trench with me and get down and dirty. Black Cadillacs focuses on the ambiguities of war through the eyes of the people doing the least ambiguous thing - the killing and the dying.

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So, I’ve been thinking about bringing an ashcanny version of Race! to GenCon, and I wanted to make it completely self-contained.  There was no way I could afford to pack 8d8 in the kit, as well as cars, and make it affordable.

Solution?  Monkey with the matching mechanics!
 

Thanks to the nice guys over at Story-Games for the help on the probabilities!

I’ll be updating the rules document ASAP to reflect the new dice mechanics, but the long and the short of it is that you’ll be using d6s instead of d8s (same colours, same distribution), but you lose control on a match of 3 or more dice.

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Hey, it’s summer.  Life isn’t always grimmer than a big bag of grim things.  I’ve been whittling away at a fun dice-based racing game since early May.

My kids give it the stamp of approval, so I’m putting it into open playtesting.

Kindly take Race! for a spin and let me know how it works.  Thanks!

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The Steel Toe’d Edition of Black Cadillacs gets another lick of spit and polish.  I’ve just email’d out a substantial rules patch, and I’m hopeful that this will prove to be the last one.  There are a number of dragons that needed slaying, and the new patch will hopefully do that.

• Integrating cardplay into the fiction a bit more.
• Increasing the time spent in the fiction.
• Giving the Foe a greater role as fictional collaborator.
• Increasing the importance of character growth.
• Tightening up the strategic game to make it more engaging.

If somehow I didn’t email the rules update to you, you can download it.  All the same, please get in touch so that I can put you on the update list.

This should be the last great push — I need your play and your feedback more than ever before.

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I’ve been working through some rules issues with Black Cadillacs lately, and I’ve hit on an idea that should improve play a lot.  The new vision does does away with the poker chip mechanics and replaces them with something a little more nuanced (hint: having high stats isn’t always great.)

So…if you were about to go out and buy some poker chips just so you could play, I’d suggest that you hold off on that.

If you’ve already bought them…my only suggestion is to play like crazy before the rules change happens!  Then, play like crazy afterwards, too!

I’ll make a definitive call before March 7, 2009.

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Great news! Thanks in no small part to Charles Theel’s playtesting of Black Cadillacs, I’ve got my first rules update (exciting!)  It’s not a huge swath of changes, but it’s progress. It covers:

• Putting a slightly firmer hand on the prep phase of play.
• Making the Death Die even more tempting.
• Making Getting out of this God-awful shitty mess a stick, as well as a carrot!

I’m pretty sure that I’ve email’d the update out to all of my collaborators.  However, if through some mishap you haven’t received yours, you can download it!

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That’s pretty much what my interview with Fraser Ronald of the Accidental Survivors podcast was all about.

Oh, I talked a lot about Black Cadillacs, too.

But mostly, it was all about the swearing.

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I just signed on with Vincent Baker’s Indie RPG unStore. Right now, the un-storefront is in a public Beta version, but it’s got good room to grow.

This is no way impacts whether or not you can purchase from me directly.  In fact, the unStore is populated exclusively by fellow publishers who are fulfilling their own sales.

Check it out!

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I had a rocking time in Peterborough.  Phantasm is all about play.  Play as far as the eye could see.

Black Cadillacs saw play, and it generated some bumpy feedback.  I talk about it over here.

Up next?  Gearing up for Go-Play Ottawa.

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