Progress Report

It's been a while since I updated, so I figured I'd pop on and let'cha know what I'm up to.

MECHA
I'm still working to finish my edit of Chris' MECHA manuscript. I'm so close to being finished that I can taste it, but I've still got some work to do. I feel really bad for Chris who's been waiting for it for a long damn time. Anyway, MECHA is still very much on the front burner and it will still be our next big release. I'm not going to make any predictions on when that release will be. It will be done when it's done.

Unity Underground
I just finished a large-ish revision of my playtest manuscript and last night we started our "internal beta" playtest. So far, things are going extremely well. I couldn't be more happy with how the game plays. Our current tests are all about fine tuning the details and filling in conceptual gaps in the setting. Once we finish the beta campaign, I'll be revising the text again and arranging a public beta for anyone out there who's interested.

I've also talked to an illustrator who's interested in working on the Unity project and I'm extremely excited about his work. More on that soon.

Other Projects
I've added another project to the "super secret" pile (bringing the total to 3). Two of these involve licensed media properties and one is just for fun. I want to wait until things solidify before I run my yapper about these.

In addition to my Red Moon projects, I've also been helping my good friend Dan Bayn with the editorial duties on his awesome hard boiled noir game, Secrets and Lies, and its accompanying Urbanimus supplement. If you haven't seen S&L yet, make sure to check it out.

Conventions
VisionCon is next on our schedule. I'll be there running our usual slate of MECHA and Unity demos. I'll post our specific game slots once we're all signed up. Hope to see you there!

Underground Influences: Music

I'm a music lover. Music has more influence on my game ideas than any other source of inspiration. Unity Underground is no exception. Unity has been heavily influenced by music since its inception. Here are a few of the artists/songs that put me in the mood to frag the man:

Rage Against the Machine
This one is fairly obvious. I was listening to Rage a lot when I came up with the idea for Unity Underground. I hope that the game captures the same rebellious spirit.



Muse
Whoa. These guys absolutely rock. This song, Assassin, is pretty much the Unity Underground theme song:

"War is overdue
The time has come for you
To shoot your leaders down
Join forces underground"



311
311 is my favorite band. Their 1997 album Transistor is probably my favorite album of all time. Aside from being completely awesome musically, the lyrics touch on a variety of Fortean subjects (everything from psychics to UFOs and free energy research). I've wanted to incorporate the feeling that Transistor evokes into a game for a long time, and with Unity I've finally found a place for it.



Souvenir's Young America
I discovered S.Y.A. right about the time that I started working on the current version of Unity Underground, and their music became my mental soundtrack to the game. It evokes thoughts of post-apocalyptic desert landscapes (perfect for the wilderness areas of the UU world). I've been using their album An Ocean Without Water as the background music for our playtests.

G.A.M.E. Report

I had a great time at G.A.M.E. over the weekend. I had no idea what to expect going in, but it turned out to be a great con. Friday night was a bit slow, and there wasn't much of a crowd for RPGs. Traffic really picked up on Saturday and Sunday and we ended up getting in a couple of really good games of Unity Underground.

I also had the opportunity to meet and hang out with Mark Oberle, a freelancer for Palladium Books, whose work includes the recent Nightbane Survival Guide. Mark and I had a great conversation about games and game design (which was cool because we have very different views on a lot of things) and I ended up playing in a couple of games that Mark ran. All in all, it was a lot of fun. Mark was an awesome GM and a really cool guy.

G.A.M.E. was one of the best first year conventions that I've ever seen, both in terms of attendance and organization. It has a massive amount of potential and I predict that it will grow to be one of the major conventions of the midwest. I'll certainly be going back next year!

G.A.M.E. Weekend

This weekend Clint will be attending the G.A.M.E. Convention in Springfield, MO. Here's the run-down on the schedule.

Friday October 16th
Unity Underground 7:00pm - 11:00pm

Saturday October 17th
Unity Underground 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Unity Underground 6:00pm - 10:00 pm

Sunday October 18th
Unity Underground 2:00pm - 6:00pm

Address
Springfield Exposition Center
635 St. Louis Street,
Springfield, Missouri 65806

Price
3-Day Pass:
(Fri, Sat, Sun) $35

1-Day Passes:
Friday $15 • Saturday $20 • Sunday $15

12 and under are free with PAID Adult Admission.

Age Requirements:
16 & up - On your own
13 to 15 - Adult in building
12 & under - Adult within reach

Registration opens at 9:30AM.

After-action Report

North Kansas City Gaming Convention and BobCon were great! We ended up running about 16 hours worth of MECHA and Unity Underground over the course of the weekend. Here are some snapshots of the action:

Friday Afternoon MECHA!

Fragging the man in Unity Underground

Up bright and early for another round of MECHA

Our heroes are outnumbered!

Footage from our Saturday night Unity session:
The cell plots an attack on a Union security checkpoint.


Big thanks to everyone who played with us! We received a lot of helpful feedback and encouragement. It was a great weekend of gaming. We've got more local cons coming up in the next few weeks, so if you missed out this time around we hope to see you at G.A.M.E. or KC Game Fair.

Conventions This Weekend

Quick reminder that we will be attending two local cons this weekend. If you're in the Kansas City area, come play some games with us (or just say hi). Here are the specifics:

Friday October 2, 2009
North Kansas City Gaming Convention

MECHA 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Unity Underground 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Address
7010 N. Cherry St
Gladstone, Mo 64118

Cost
$7.50/day or $10.00 for Friday and Saturday

Saturday October 3, 2009
BobCon

MECHA 10:00 am - 2:00pm
Unity Underground 8:00pm - 12:00 am

Address
8221 N. Overland Drive
Kansas City, Mo 64151

Cost
$10/day at the door
3-Day Registration only $25 at the door

Hope to see you there!

Similar Games

There's nothing new under the sun . . . especially the RPG sun. Here are my thoughts on a few games that are similar to Unity Underground in premise.

Ray Winninger's Underground
Underground is probably the existing game that is closest to Unity Underground in concept and premise. Many of my previous attempts to write Unity were thwarted when my morale faltered after looking through Underground. I felt like Ray Whatshisname had beat me to the punch. Two things have allowed me to get over it and do Unity anyway: 1) I don't actually like Underground that much. It's got some great ideas, fantastic artwork (if a bit over-the-top for my taste), but the overall package doesn't really interest me at all. 2) I just don't care anymore. RPG premises are a dime-a-dozen and adding my little game to the pile doesn't hurt anything at all.



INFLUENCE FACTOR: Medium

Shadowrun
Many people, when I describe Unity Underground to them, say: "You mean like Shadowrun?" To which I say "no . . . not at all really." Shadowrun's setting is an interesting blend of William Gibson and J.R.R. Tolkien, neither of which is a visible influence on Unity. The idea for Unity has never really been influenced by Shadowrun at all (except for earlier versions which had Shadowrun-esque computer hacking rules). I was always more of a Rifts guy as a youngster.



INFLUENCE FACTOR: Low (though there are many similarities)

Misspent Youth
Misspent Youth by Rob Bohl is a contemporary indie-game-in-development that has a vaguely similar "stick-it-to-the-man" premise. Fortunately, it's an entirely different type of game. Rob's approach is firmly planted in the Forge/Story-Game school of game design (Unity, while influenced by that school, is much more traditional). MY also has a really neat setting/adversary creation system (as opposed to Unity's fixed setting). It looks like it's going to be a great game, but it's not really my cup o' tea.



INFLUENCE FACTOR: Low

Covert Generation
Another indie game about young kids sticking it to the man. I don't actually know that much about Covert Generation, but it looks to be sufficiently different from Unity that it doesn't bother me. It looks much more like the precursor to Misspent Youth that to Unity.



INFLUENCE FACTOR: Low

Cyberpunk 2020
Cyberpunk 2020 also has a lot of elements that are similar to those in Unity Underground. I've never actually played it, but I know that a lot of people really like it. I've occasionally described Unity Underground's genre as "cyberpunk without the cyber." While Unity does have a few nods to the theme of human augmentation (mostly in terms of genetic engineering and neural implants), it's not a center-stage issue in the game.



INFLUENCE FACTOR: LOW

In Summary
Looking back over this post, I find it interesting that many of the games that are the most similar to Unity Underground have been the least influential on its design. I guess I never really thought about it before. At any rate, any rpg vet can tell that this is certainly not a comprehensive list of games that are similar to Unity, but it's a pretty good summary of a few of them. Perhaps I'll scrounge up some more titles and throw up "Similar Games Part 2" at some point in the future.