That Kind of Courage

Written by Dave Martin on 2010/02/11 – 00:00 -

Dave Martin spends most of his time working on projects for Tabletop Armory or fulfilling the terms of his mercenary contracts. On the rare occasion he is not writing something, he could be watching TV with his wife or lurking somewhere in the World of Warcraft.

When Tyson and Jeff asked me to write an article about my experiences in the RPG industry and attempting to have my writing support me full time, I had to sit back for a moment to ponder what they were really asking for and, more importantly, what I actually could share. Starting up a game design studio like Tabletop Armory alongside attempting to establish a solid reputation as a freelance mercenary writer has at time seemed like a fool’s task. The truth is that I did not plan to be going about things in this fashion. As a newcomer to the professional side of the industry, I was not prepared for many opportunities I found to do work for several companies. None of my projects have yet made it to print, and pretty much all of them are still ongoing, in varied stages of the writing and developing process. The most public example of my (small) success thus far has been the online posting of my winning entry for the Fantasy Brewmasters Dwarven Brew Story Contest, which is now in revision and undergoing further development. So, what I unfortunately can’t share at the time of writing this article is my success as a published RPG writer. (Not just yet, anyway.)

Instead what I would like to talk about today is “courage.” I think that this key element is what is most essential for any venture to have a chance at success. There are, of course, other key factors or qualities like drive, writing ability, creativity, ability to be taught and to learn from others, and the all-important skill of taking constructive criticism and using it wisely. But those factors are either with you from the beginning or picked up along the way. Yes, I am telling you that good writing is a developed skill. Writers were not born great writers. Even the best writers have room to improve, and I will make no claim to be among the best of them just because I have seen a little success so far. But I want to get back to the key quality, courage.

With the exception of a few companies and personalities, the RPG industry is open, accessible, and glad to welcome new professional developers. This is the first point where courage enters the mix. Make a proposal, send an inquiry letter, or otherwise contact gaming companies to get a feel for what they may be looking to do in the near future in regards to freelance writers. Rejection is not to be feared at this point (or any point!) in the game, and make sure to spread the net wide by starting conversations or submitting several proposals to multiple companies.

You may have noticed I made a small leap there for a moment. I assumed that the readers of this article are at least in some way interested in how to get into the industry if they are not already. That, or I was sharing how I did it. It’s no big secret, really. I am a tenacious person by nature, and I jumped in with both feet. But that is exactly what I am talking about. Having the courage to say to a line developer, “Yeah, I’ve got some ideas about this,” or, “Oh, and maybe this rule should do this instead,” is for some people a stretch in the beginning. I tend to think that it was more just me not knowing my place, but the point is that I was never afraid to speak my mind to anyone who would listen or reply to an email.

Maybe freelance mercenary work is not for everybody. If that is the case but someone still wants to make a mark in the industry, one can always start up a game design studio. All of the previously mentioned qualities need to be present, and I think the courage factor can be higher here. It is going to be hard. Owning a business is about more than being able to give yourself a day off of work to play a video game. In fact, my video game playing has all but ceased since I starting working on Tabletop Armory full time. You work hardest for yourself, and if you don’t, you won’t succeed.

I know, several readers will have already picked up on the fact that I might consider myself a courageous person, and maybe that’s true. But I’m not viewing myself as a hero or in a narcissistic manner. It does take courage to do some of the things that I have already done, and that’s why I believe in sharing that fact. I would hate for an otherwise great game developer to miss out on being part of something amazing just because he or she was too timid to do anything about an opportunity.

Like my friends here at Apathy Games, I believe in what I am doing. And we and everyone before us have all been courageous enough at some point to step out and risk taking a hit for something we believe in. So, the secret to my success? What little of it I have I think needs to be attributed to courage. So far, that is about all the wisdom this new RPG industry professional can share.


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Take Frequent Sabbaticals

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/02/10 – 00:00 -

Bill Watterson is often referenced for taking frequent sabbaticals from Calvin and Hobbes. He’s cited for taking some long breaks during his cartooning years to rest and gather his creativity. Currently Apathy Games is on a one week hiatus from game development to unwind from an intense run of developing and it got me thinking about Sabbaticals.

I take sabbaticals from gaming. I love playing in games and running them but occasionally I need a break. I take a month or two off from gaming and come back ready to go at it again. For me it’s been quite a while since I took a sabbatical and since starting the blog gaming has been on my mind all day every day. While I’m passionate about my hobby and love talking about it I need to be careful not to burn myself out. Weariness is why we have multiple authors and only post four times a week (Savage Mondays writes itself, let’s be honest). Most weeks are split between Jeff and I, with the occasional post from Paul. Hillary will eventually break her vow of silence and pull herself away from her sketch pad long enough to dictate a post then disappear into the ether. We pass the podium around so none of us get weary. If you’re getting weary from GMing try a different game, pass the GM duties off to another person to run the game for a bit, or take a sabbatical. Games are supposed to be fun, right?

While I’ve been talking about endings and sabbaticals please rest assured that Apathy Games is not going anywhere. We’ll be running a guest post from Dave Martin from Tabletop Armory tomorrow but rest assured we’ll be back on Friday. We’ll have a fist of beer in one hand and dice in the other giving the one, two punch of apathetic goodness.


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You Want Me to Run When!?

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/01/29 – 00:00 -

We’ve all been there.  It’s an hour till game time and you realize you’ve completely forgotten to prep anything.  You can’t cancel now that everyone is already on their way, so what do you do?

Break out a Savage Worlds One Sheet

One of the best things about Savage Worlds is the community and fan support.  While there are plenty of free settings to choose from, there are many more one sheet adventures for almost all of the official settings.  Go to Pinnacle, Triple Ace Games, or Tabletop Armory, find one that suits your fancy, and quickly throw together a game in the amount of time it takes to print it off your computer.

Create a Monster Hunt

It’s no secret that we’re fans of Privateer Press. Beyond their detailed settings and gorgeous art, they give more flavor in a single page than any other setting we’ve ever played in.  They also give some of the best examples of a monster hunt.  In their Monsternomicon, each monster is detailed with an adventure hook.  They tend to be as simple as, “A Collector wants you to go out and find the creature and collect rare gland/sac” to the slightly more complex, “Creature is harassing town–go kill it.”  However, when you’re out stomping the creature beneath your boot, your players won’t mind.

Pre-Prepped Adventure Hooks

While it does require a bit of forethought on your part, keeping a file filled with adventure hooks for your campaign is useful for situations like this.  While an entire post can be devoted to how to manage such ideas in a nice and searchable way, for now it can suffice to say that drawing upon your idea bin may prove to be more satisfying then looking for anyone else to help you.  After all, you know your players better than anyone else.  If you need some help building your adventure hooks, consider Rocks Fall Everyone Dies and their Sunday Hooks, or post some of your own in the comments!

What tricks do you use to prep at the last minute? What kind of success have you had?


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Savage Mondays – January 18th, 2010

Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2010/01/18 – 00:00 -

It’s a Savage World out there, and Apathy Games provides the tools to survive it. First, check out our Savage Worlds Primer. If you’re looking for more up to date news, here’s what’s happening now:


Top Story

Shark Bytes Returns! | Shark Bytes

Shark Bytes is an online fan magazine for Savage Worlds that has been well known and well loved within the community, but it’s been dead for over a year. But a recent post in the PEGInc forums has announced its triumphant return! The next issue will be filled with One-Page Homebrew settings and House Rules. They are currently looking for submissions, so if you want your house rules published for the whole of the community to see, go to the forums and PM Lord Inar. The submission deadline is February 12.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Third Printing of Savage Worlds: Explorer’s Edition is in Stock | Pinnacle Entertainment Group

The title says it all. Pester your local game store for it, or order it through Studio 2.

Print and PDF Bundle Extended Through January | Pinnacle Entertainment Group

For the new printing, PEGInc is offering a bundle of both the print version and the PDF of the Savage Worlds: Explorer’s Edition. The deal is available until the end of the month, and then they kill it dead.

50 Fathoms Tokens for Fantasy Grounds | RPG Now

Continuing the trend of making special versions of the Savage Worlds figure flats for Fantasy Grounds, those for 50 Fathoms have been added to RPGNow.

Savage Worlds Licensees

New Ace Tale: A Stitch in Time | Triple Ace Games

The title may be cliche, but it’s an Ace tale and part of the Daring Tales of the Space Lanes series, so there’s a bit of an expectation toward the corny. Here’s what TAG has to say about it:

An old enemy Gunthar Krull has managed to infect the crew of the Blazing Star with a deadly virus. The crew have precious little time to find Krull and retrieve the antidote – can they succeed!

A Stitch in Time is available from the Triple Ace Games website.

Savage Community

Quick Adventure for Super Villains | Tabletop Armory

Our friends at Tabletop Armory have released Quick Adventure #5. Can your team of Villains keep the heroes from rescuing your prisoners?

Character Toe-Tags | PEGInc Forums

Character cards for easy reference are a common tool, but these ones are done up like toe-tags done up like toe-tags, and are just waiting for your Zombie game.

Non-Standard Benny Usage | PegInc Forums

Bennies are the sort of thing players love coming up with new uses for. The community discusses it in this blockbuster thread.

Alternate Combat Rules by Clint | PEGInc Forums

Pinnacle writer Clint was feeling creative, or challenged, and came up with a combat system where all the rolling is done by the players. Interesting stuff.

Rules for Silenced Weapons | PEGInc Forums

A healthy discussion ranging from reality to practicality of rules on the use of silenced weapons in Savage Worlds.

Much of this news could have been yours days ago, for the hefty price of free, if you had subscribed to our Twitter. Please don’t make the same mistake again. As always, if we missed something, let our readers know in the comments.


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State of Apathy – Goals Going Forward

Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/01/13 – 00:00 -

Apathy Games dreams big. We have goals so grand that we’d sound insane for uttering them. But to get there, we have a number of short term goals for the next year that we must accomplish first, and we want you to know about some of them.

Savage Setting – Foremost, we’re developing a Savage Worlds setting. By itself, it’s fairly simple, but we have high standards. In the meantime, there are resources that we want available when the flood of new and adoring fans hits our pretty new site.

New Website – Yeah. It’s something special. No peaking.

Savage Worlds One-Sheets – Within the next couple of months we plan on releasing our own one sheet adventures and begin to show you what zero compromise roleplaying really means.

Savage Worlds Primer – We want to have the best and an almost all-inclusive guide to Savage Worlds and the SW community. The kind of guide that only a company with time, resources, and deadlines can ever get done. It will not only introduce new players to the game, but will also show them where to find resources in the community. There’s a lot of great stuff out there, and it deserves some spotlight.

Evangelize Savage Worlds – Sure, it might sound a little cult-ish, but we will continue talking about and creating buzz about the game. This great community and game should be shared by all, and we are planning strategies for press ganging more recruits… err. introducing new players.

Embrace the Community – Savage Worlds is not only Fast, Furious, and Fun. It has the best, more creative and understanding community in the gaming world (the studies are still out, but we know it’s true). We will shout this fact from the mountaintop. We will find the best and share the best. We will let the D&D community know who’s boss. So say we all.

Branch into Other Media – Blogs don’t work for everybody, so we’re looking into other forms of media to bring this information to people. While we can’t say exactly which media we plan on breaking into, we do want your help. You can watch our page for new exciting ways to get involved with our projects, or for new forms of receiving news, information, and community projects.

Partnering with Tabletop Armory – We are excited to announce that we will be working with Tabletop Armory on some future projects that will be coming out this year. They will be intimately involved in our branching into other mediums and we look forward to the exciting work we’ll be doing with them.

More useful Advice – With all of this talk of branching into other mediums and developing Savage Worlds settings you didn’t think we’d forget about you, our dear readers?

For our players we’ll be hitting you hard with articles discussing:

  • Building a character
  • Being a good player at the table
  • Roleplaying Skills
  • Table Standards

Game Masters will continue receiving the fountain of information on:

  • Session Planning
  • Encounter Design
  • Adventure Design

2010 will be a busy year for us here at Apathy Games and we thank you for joining us while we begin it. We’ll be letting you know more details as they come out so hang on tight! And remember–zero compromise!


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