Nerk!
February 3rd, 2016
So a few days back, I went on at length regarding how I'm trying to write more, and that one of the projects I was working on was my Technical Reference. The thing is, the actual writing is only one portion of my gaming-related writing. The other half is doing conversions of what I've already written into material useful for not two, not three, but four different games.
When I first write game material, you see, I always start in Marvel Super Heroes Role Playing Game (MSH RPG) terms. I do this because the MSH RPG was the first game I actually played, and having produced a copious amount of stuff for what, decades? I've got a lot of experience working with it. I suppose it acts like a first language for me in that regard.
I've been pretty good about writing actual content the last few years, what with my being in a mode that is conducive to producing 'crunchy' text. I'm either inclined that way or towards building descriptions of characters, so I tend to roll with how my brain is currently wired. It makes more sense, really, in that my time is incredibly limited, what with me having to adult all the time.
The only problem is that, while I've been writing stuff for the original game I support, I have been somewhat lax in producing the conversions to the other three systems I make material for. Thus, in addition to writing for the Reference, I've also been working hard to catch up my other three systems to the same point that I've gotten the original to. Which isn't too hard, so much as it is time consuming.
Hence the issue.
So since it's closest in nature to the old MSH RPG, I've been trying to get 4C System content in line with my MSH stuff. The 4C System, as you're probably unaware, is a clone of the MSH RPG, a game that is intended to be functionally identical (since you apparently can't copyright the actual rules of a game), but more generic in its construction. There's just one big, big problem.
Though given over to the public domain, the 4C System and all its text is a woefully incomplete clone, and a poor one at that. The basic character metrics do not line up with its ancestor's, which means you can't really transfer characters from one game the other without some fidgeting. And this, this defeats the whole purpose of the effort in the first place: making use of extant resources for the old game.
Enter me. You see, having been already writing custom material for the MSH RPG for, uh, thirty years now, I have the capacity to fix all of the 4C System's flaws, namely by filling in all its considerable blanks, all while ironing out the stuff that isn't compliant with the original rules. Mine have their own, slight deviations from those, but these don't affect the vast majority of players.
Thus, I have basically written Edition 13 of the 4C System, which already has about six hundred pages more material than the first 4C System booklet's mere thirty two, or whatever it was. Edition 13, of course, because it's hosted on my nerd site, Technohol 13, which has something of an obsession with that digit. But yeah, even though it's incomplete, as are all my projects, Edition 13 has already replaced the old 4C stuff.
Not too shabby, eh?
Anyway, the point is that I'm working on getting the Edition 13 stuff up to speed with the MSH RPG material first. And I'm pretty close, in that I've covered all the core rules, and am now working on the character generation guides. The first of these will be my Textbook Character Treatise, which doesn't have an Edition 13 variation just yet, but I've finally lain the groundwork for it. Lain? or Laid? I forget.
I was hoping to get the Edition 13 TCT done, uh, soon, but this eighty four hour work week got in the way of that. A lot. Adulting sucks, doesn't it? But I can gnaw on this in little chunks, sort of like I do when I'm writing these little rambles here, on breaks at work. Mind you, that assumes this computer won't eat my work despite saving it, and make me start all over.
Like it did this morning. Mumble grumble. Anyway, the third system I'm supporting, the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game (or MSHAG), based on the original Saga system, is similarly third in line on these conversion efforts. This is because I haven't decided how I want to revise the character generation portion of the MSHAG as it will sit in my Saga System 13 rule sets.
Again, there's that reference to thirteen. Twitch. The fourth game system I'm making material for my site, well, it's not available for public consumption yet. This is because it is an entirely original creation. I figured I was making all these efforts anyway, so why not apply them to my very own product, one I can sell at my leisure. If, you know, I ever get off my butt and write it.
Which, again, requires me to get on the other three versions of the stuff. Sigh.