Author Topic: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!  (Read 11231 times)

Offline jeditigger

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #15 on: September 08, 2011, 07:08:57 PM »
I love this case file. Thanks for letting me give my $0.02 on it over the weekend, Team Evil Hat!!!
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Offline iago

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #16 on: September 08, 2011, 07:09:05 PM »
Knowing how much work you and the other Evil Hatters had to put into this and the fact they got someone to do art, it's entirely reasonable to keep things lean and mean.

Truth is we've already invested over $1000 in bringing the three free adventures to market. The only way we make that back is if they get people playing more and those play experiences drive more folks to pick up the game. I have no easy way to draw a direct line from point A (free support adventures like these) to point B (people buying the game), but our sales continue to do nicely, and also got a nice boost last month from the release of Ghost Story. So I'm happy we're doing this and happy to continue doing this -- though we've got an eye on doing some meatier, for-pay support stuff in 2012 and beyond if we can get the contracts in place for it.
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Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2011, 08:19:27 PM »
Oddly enough, the original adventure, which I ran at Origin's for the DFRPG release, was closer to the final published version than the final draft I turned in.  I'll come back to that.

Very interesting.

As some of what's listed could be construed as spoilerish, we'll continue with the spoiler alert.

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I see. I had the same issue coming up with Truth & Justice and Zorcerer of Zo demos when I went to Gen Con.

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I dig all that.

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Right. All that is pretty straightforward.

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Here's one of the key differences, I think, between our drafts:

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Aha!

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I'm gonna say that the awesome and the didn't work come down to the same thing...

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Aha! 2: Electric Boogaloo!

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I am now illuminated!

I hope I've shared some behind the scenes goodness, as well as whatever minimal advice I have in my back-pocket.

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Offline Ubbi

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #18 on: September 08, 2011, 09:05:59 PM »
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I probably should have left Sycorax as I originally intended but a little bit of under-confidence kicked in and I started thinking, "Well, he is the professional.  I'm sure he knows best."  So I didn't argue my case for leaving her as written.

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I have to admit that I like your version of Prospero and Miranda. 
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Here's one of the key differences, I think, between our drafts:
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I would have done the same thing in your situation. 

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I think this is where I have the hard time.  I can write a technical manual for software that even my mom can understand but putting down my thought processes on how I handle players in a game is a little harder.

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Aha! 2: Electric Boogaloo!

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As I said above.. this is where I lost it.  I thought I had a really good idea but apparently could not convey it to the editor in such a way as to give him the same confidence in the material.  It reflected back to me and I ended up giving him subpar material.  Luckily, it landed in the hands of someone who got what I was going for, even though it no longer showed.


There is no situation, no matter how overwhelming, that can not be overcome through logic and a liberal application of C-4.

Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #19 on: September 08, 2011, 09:20:15 PM »
I probably should have left Sycorax as I originally intended but a little bit of under-confidence kicked in and I started thinking, "Well, he is the professional.  I'm sure he knows best."  So I didn't argue my case for leaving her as written.

Oh, there'd be setting-based issues with having Sycorax be an
(click to show/hide)
, believe you me. It would be a tricky bit of writing to stay true to the Dresdenverse canon and our insights into it.

I think this is where I have the hard time.  I can write a technical manual for software that even my mom can understand but putting down my thought processes on how I handle players in a game is a little harder.

This is where everybody writing RPG stuff has a hard time. Writing's difficult enough as it is, but clearly being able to express how you handle a myriad around the table and system mechanics intersections in a constrained number of words? Oy!

As I said above.. this is where I lost it.  I thought I had a really good idea but apparently could not convey it to the editor in such a way as to give him the same confidence in the material.  It reflected back to me and I ended up giving him subpar material.  Luckily, it landed in the hands of someone who got what I was going for, even though it no longer showed.

And being able to convey it is a difficult skill to learn!

However, consider this: maybe it's less about someone being able to pick up on what you were going for, but rather more about that the parts you cared most about were written strongly enough to convey enough of your original intent for someone to get there.

Excitement is the garden of excellence. (/pompous)

 ;D

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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #20 on: September 08, 2011, 09:47:03 PM »
Very well. I shall nitpick. To an excessive degree, because my personality demands it.

1. Evil Acts suggests using Alertness for eavesdropping, but I was under the impression that Investigation was the skill used for that.

2. Ariel the Sylph doesn't have Claws. I'm not certain about this, but I think normal Sylphs have Claws to represent their sharpened wings.

3. Prospero's rotes and foci contain a small number of oddities:

-How long does Hurricano! last?
-It's not entirely clear what Prospero's book does for his summoning abilities.
-Is two shifts enough to create a scene aspect with Evocation? I'm really not sure.

4. Miranda has an offensive veil. Weird, but probably not against a rule or anything.

5. The chorus should not have specializations.

6. Incite Emotion with Performance is not, as far as I know, possible be the rules as written. There's a strong argument to be made that it should be, though. I can probably find a thread about this if you want.

7. Why is Cal's catch only worth +2? Is his nature as a Changeling secret?

8. Cal's sheet says Superhuman Strength were it should say Supernatural Strength.

9. Dana's writeup says that her hawk form dodges at Fantastic. I think that that should probably be Epic. Also, I don't think that her Investigation is Superb for small visual details in either form.

10. Pat has the entire wizard template and better casting skills than Harry in Storm Front. So why is he not considered a wizard?

Ignoring all that, I've noticed quite a few loose plot hooks in this writeup. Is that intentional?

Also, how did you come up with Sycorax's stats and tricks? I'm not really sure how to represent her mechanically without handwaving.

Offline LogicMouseLives

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #21 on: September 08, 2011, 10:06:27 PM »
Thanks so much for the behind the scenes glimpses, Tate and Chad! Quite fascinating to eavesdrop on.

I actually had the priviledge of participating in one of those Origins sessions last year. (Probably the one you describe as using a 'brute force' method to solve the problem. ;D) I got to play the Pure Mortal bodyguard. And I managed to intimidate a troll! (with help.) It was a great session. Definitely in the top two of all the games I played there––and I managed to sign up for so many different sessions of DFRPG that people were recognizing my face by Saturday. It was great!

Keep up the good work all you great folks in Evil Hats!

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Offline Ubbi

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #22 on: September 08, 2011, 10:21:15 PM »
Thanks so much for the behind the scenes glimpses, Tate and Chad! Quite fascinating to eavesdrop on.

I actually had the priviledge of participating in one of those Origins sessions last year. (Probably the one you describe as using a 'brute force' method to solve the problem. ;D) I got to play the Pure Mortal bodyguard. And I managed to intimidate a troll! (with help.) It was a great session. Definitely in the top two of all the games I played there––and I managed to sign up for so many different sessions of DFRPG that people were recognizing my face by Saturday. It was great!

Keep up the good work all you great folks in Evil Hats!

LML

Thanks,

And I remember you scaring the bejesus out of Caliban and the overall excitement of the table when you did it.  I think my favorite players of both sessions played the bodyguard.  You guys took things to a different level than those folks who had the more powered characters.
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Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #23 on: September 08, 2011, 11:57:47 PM »
Very well. I shall nitpick. To an excessive degree, because my personality demands it.

1. Evil Acts suggests using Alertness for eavesdropping, but I was under the impression that Investigation was the skill used for that.

That one was my bad.

10. Pat has the entire wizard template and better casting skills than Harry in Storm Front. So why is he not considered a wizard?

In-story/in-character reasons -- he's a sorcerer, and never had a White Council master or been tested by the Wardens. That's why he's trying to hitch himself to Prospero's star in one option. (In the second option, it's possible he is sorta newly Prospero's apprentice alongside Miranda; the "alongside Miranda" is more important to him than "Prospero's apprentice.")

4. Miranda has an offensive veil. Weird, but probably not against a rule or anything.
5. The chorus should not have specializations.
6. Incite Emotion with Performance is not, as far as I know, possible be the rules as written. There's a strong argument to be made that it should be, though. I can probably find a thread about this if you want.
(snip)
Also, how did you come up with Sycorax's stats and tricks? I'm not really sure how to represent her mechanically without handwaving.

There is a certain amount of handwavium built into these bits, simply to make the scenario more interesting:
  • #5 is for characterization and plot complication from minor, almost faceless NPCs.
  • #4 & #6 are rules-drifts well within the high and low tides of RAW, in my opinion.
  • Sycorax's stats & tricks: If you read some of the back and forth between Tate and I above, you'll see that in the draft I was given, she was a plague demon, which didn't really work well. My editors and I went round and round on what to make her -- an entropy demon, a mortal witch trapped in a pocket dimension of the Nevernever, a Hecatean Hag, etc. (Indeed, up until late in the process, Sycorax was "some sort of non-Hecatean monster Hag from somewheres.") If you read the SPOILER comments between Tate and I, you'll see what he was going for -- but I didn't know that at the time. AND YET, we ended up with a write-up that's kinda close to how I -- wearing my setting guru hat -- would have rules handwaved it if that first option had been stuck with, given some SPOILERY details from Ghost Story.

So, any handwavium complaints can be totally laid at my feet.

Me, as a relative tyro at the underlying system, would really like to see how some of Sycorax's unique abilities would be mechanized. (Some of the discussion on the Spoiler Quarantine Zone sub-board is talking about at least one of them, in light of Ghost Story.)

Ignoring all that, I've noticed quite a few loose plot hooks in this writeup. Is that intentional?

To quote Captain John Sheridan, "Abso-fragging-lutely."  ;D

There was a whole section I had thought about discussing methods for dropping this scenario wholesale into a running campaign or turning it into a whole campaign of its own, which was very briefly outlined Didn't make it past the transition from handwritten bullet-points outline to electronic bullet-points outline, much less draft zero.

As it is, we're left with just the tantalizing suggestion that you can do it. Here's the entirety of my hyper-brief outline (written in crazy-Chad-speak) for it before it went the way of the dodo:
  • DON'T PUSH... FLOW.
  • The Community Theater is a Location in the campaign City.
  • Prospero is the Face of the Community Theater. He's a WCW, but mostly an entertainer/academic, not a monster hunter. Campaign PCs should KNOW of him. He is THE LOCAL GUY, for certain values of THE GUY. He may have a THINGY OF IMPORTANCE for later session.
  • Offer potential PCs up as pre-gens for campaign. Any not taken, use as Faces or session NPCs.
  • Use all NPCs as Faces or session NPCs, except Metzger.
  • Miranda has a SITCH that intersects a session as a subplot; how do the PCs respond? Decide if she's helpful or harmful at first.
  • Start introducing NPC DUDES. Try and get at least one of them in deep with a PC, good/ill.
  • Cross paths Prospero; THINGY OF IMPORTANCE or INFO PLEASE. BRAID in how they reacted to Miranda's SITCH.
  • A Face or a session NPC becomes important/useful in a session.
  • Kill a dude from the supernatural set of the theater crowd FILTHY. Resolve.
  • Start Evil Acts scenario as subplot. 2 session subplot, 1 session FULL PLOT.
  • BRAID in campaign subplots and recurring characters to Evil Acts FULL PLOT: audience members, allies, enemies, opportunists.
  • End campaign or use aftermath for more plot seeds.

So, yeah -- if my earlier DVD Extra about creepy things during the rehearsal period would have been the better part of a page, this whole discussion outlined above would have been at least a thousand words or two. Call it 3 pages or so?
« Last Edit: September 09, 2011, 12:16:31 AM by chadu »
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Offline chadu

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #24 on: September 09, 2011, 12:06:00 AM »
Thanks so much for the behind the scenes glimpses, Tate and Chad! Quite fascinating to eavesdrop on.

Huzzah!

There seems to be so much mystery or confusion about how stuff gets done in this hobby/industry -- writing, art direction, art, editing, layout, publishing, sales, distribution, the finances (publisher, freelancer, distro, retailer, etc.)  -- that I am always happy to be as transparent about stuff as I reasonably can.

In this hobby/industry, we really aren't competitors: it's too small for that. We're compatriots. (For the most part, playing DFRPG doesn't mean I'm not going to buy/play/run Gamma World or Fiasco or cribbage.)

And, frankly: talking/writing is how I find out what I think... So, discussing the whole process from cow to hamburger with Tate has been awesome like whoa for me!
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Offline Ubbi

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #25 on: September 09, 2011, 12:58:41 AM »
Huzzah!

There seems to be so much mystery or confusion about how stuff gets done in this hobby/industry -- writing, art direction, art, editing, layout, publishing, sales, distribution, the finances (publisher, freelancer, distro, retailer, etc.)  -- that I am always happy to be as transparent about stuff as I reasonably can.

In this hobby/industry, we really aren't competitors: it's too small for that. We're compatriots. (For the most part, playing DFRPG doesn't mean I'm not going to buy/play/run Gamma World or Fiasco or cribbage.)

And, frankly: talking/writing is how I find out what I think... So, discussing the whole process from cow to hamburger with Tate has been awesome like whoa for me!

This goes double for me.  As someone who's barely scratched the surface in this industry, it's great to get a look into the thought processes of someone as talented as Chad.
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Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #26 on: September 09, 2011, 03:23:32 AM »
Not to speak for Fred, but only for myself as a nano-publisher, it makes sense to worry more about wordcount/pagecounts on a free PDF: it's taking up resources (writers, artists, editors, layout artists, publishers, money, time, sweat, etc.) for no direct revenue.

There's a good argument that free material can generate intangible assets like goodwill and "free" advertising (and I agree with that argument!), but measuring the actual bottom-line impact of intangibles is 90% a gut-feeling process.

Does that make sense?

It does.  I was focusing on it being a PDF - thus not being sent to the printers - and ignoring that it is a professional product (professional layout, typesetting, art, etc) that is being given away for free.  That is I was looking at printing costs being zero as opposed to the development and production costs.

Richard

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #27 on: September 09, 2011, 03:34:13 AM »
Truth is we've already invested over $1000 in bringing the three free adventures to market.

I hadn't realised that it was so much - and I suspect (since most small business owners don't include their own labour in their calculations) that you're undercharging for your involvement in the process.

With that, I have to say thank you.

Thank you for those wonderful free gifts.  Thanks for the gifts to the community.  Thanks for giving those of us who pre-ordered free copies of the final PDF.  Thanks for being so helpful when that first shipment got lost.  You and your company do more than go the extra mile - you treat your customers as honoured guests and spoil us with treats.

Thank you.

Richard

Offline iago

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #28 on: September 09, 2011, 04:20:30 PM »
1. Evil Acts suggests using Alertness for eavesdropping, but I was under the impression that Investigation was the skill used for that.

If you're actively trying to eavesdrop, Investigation. If you are getting a chance to overhear something you shouldn't by happenstance, Alertness. So in essence I'd support both, but the contexts and opportunities for each are different. Adding: "(Nosy PCs actively trying to listen in should also get an Investigation roll. Alertness here is for the chance to overhear things if a PC stumbles into the opportunity.)"

Quote
2. Ariel the Sylph doesn't have Claws. I'm not certain about this, but I think normal Sylphs have Claws to represent their sharpened wings.

Hm, you're right -- I may decide to phrase that as having her wings ritually "clipped" in some fashion, or I'll add 'em back to her sheet.

Quote
3. Prospero's rotes and foci contain a small number of oddities:

-How long does Hurricano! last?
-It's not entirely clear what Prospero's book does for his summoning abilities.
-Is two shifts enough to create a scene aspect with Evocation? I'm really not sure.

Added 2 exchanges for Hurricano, Complexity for the book, will review all of these rotes because there are a few things that don't make sense to me.

Quote
4. Miranda has an offensive veil. Weird, but probably not against a rule or anything.

Both her rotes read as choker-focused to me. fixing.

Quote
5. The chorus should not have specializations.

Correct. Those should simply be stated as parentheticals on their focused power abilities.

Pity you weren't on Twitter when I called for nitpickers prior to publication. :)

Quote
6. Incite Emotion with Performance is not, as far as I know, possible be the rules as written. There's a strong argument to be made that it should be, though. I can probably find a thread about this if you want.

Addressed with a special note.

Quote
7. Why is Cal's catch only worth +2? Is his nature as a Changeling secret?

Somewhat. And it's possible that the situation is that it's worse when he's a fae. I'll think about it.

Quote
8. Cal's sheet says Superhuman Strength were it should say Supernatural Strength.

Fixed

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9. Dana's writeup says that her hawk form dodges at Fantastic. I think that that should probably be Epic. Also, I don't think that her Investigation is Superb for small visual details in either form.

Her Investigation is Superb in human form, full stop. Her diminutive size gives her the bonus to Investigation despite its drop to Good in Hawk form (Good + 2 = Superb; Small is Big).

You're right about the dodging; I'd missed the +1 from each of speed and size.

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10. Pat has the entire wizard template and better casting skills than Harry in Storm Front. So why is he not considered a wizard?

I'm comfy with Chad's response to this part. :)

Quote
Also, how did you come up with Sycorax's stats and tricks? I'm not really sure how to represent her mechanically without handwaving.

The way I read it, Sycorax is a plot device scale entity that gets modestly constrained (to the point of being assailable) by manifesting into something physical. So that's why the handwavium is rampant.
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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!
« Reply #29 on: September 09, 2011, 10:14:29 PM »
Sorry, I don't twitter. (Is that grammatically correct?)

Believe me, I'd have been all over this if I had known.

Doesn't Dana's Echoes make her better than Superb at spotting small details?

I wonder if it makes sense for it to be easier to overhear something by accident than on purpose. It sounds wrong, but I know from personal experience that sometimes trying is counterproductive.

Anyway, thanks a bunch for the prompt and helpful responses. At risk of sounding fanboyish, I really appreciate this sort of community response. It's a big part of the reason I'm willing to put so much time into this game.

It's probably good for the game, too.

It lets you avoid falling into the sad state that games like Exalted are in.

There are a few parts of Exalted that pretty much everyone including the writers agree are terrible awful broken unusable nonsense, but they often take years to get fixed.

It makes parts of the fanbase very grumpy.

I don't expect this game to have that problem.