The idea of 60+ playable races, and 173 pages of skills and powers makes my head spin a little, but this is clearly a labour of love for you, and that you've got this written into a playtestable form is a great credit to you. I also think there's a lot of good ideas in the snippets you've provided, and the idea that even the gods have to obey the rules is something I could have real fun with.
Quote:
|
The game is primarily about (at the risk of sounding overly intellectual) cultural conflicts, which is mechanistically shown by the fact that although there are pegasi and attack helicopters...PC's can't have both.
|
Cultural conflict is great. But I don't understand how denying PCs pegasi AND assault copters translates into a reflection of cultural conflict. Surely cultural conflict is about the clash of ideologies, beliefs and social codes? You can certainly have mechanics to handle that, but it seems to me that limiting what PCs can and can't have in terms of magic/mythic kit and hi-tech kit is more a game balance thing than a solid attempt to reflect cultural tensions. Perhaps you could explain a bit more?
Quote:
|
I would like for it to be published by a game company in hard copy, and have sent a few emails and am in the "waiting for a yes or no" stage. It is in final editing and playtesting stage. If more than two years go by with no deal, I'll just PDF it and put it up on here.
|
And this is where you may run into trouble. A 600 page core book is unlikely to be attractive for a professonal publisher. It carries several risks:
Format, layout and editing such a huge book will be a massive job. Games companies have limited time and resources, and tackling 600 pages, plus 173 pages of skills and powers (which will need cross-reffing, double checking for fit, consistency and balance, etc), may not be attractive simply in terms of the amount of time it will take.
The second risk is physical size. A 600 page book, even in paperback, is going to be a monster tome to physically print, bind, ship and display. This indicates a high price-point, which may put customers off. Also, there's artwork to be considered - a LOT will need to be commissioned to break up the text and that pushes-up the page count. The book, with 600 pages of text, once layout and art s factored in, could be up to 700 pages - double the size of BRP Zero, for instance.
The third risk is Licence. Have you submitted this to Chaosium? If its using BRP, then you really need to. Unless, of course, you've found a publisher who has licenced BRP already. If you haven't, and you decide to PDF or go for prnt on demand, then you'll need to have some form of agreement with Chaosium to use the BRP system.
All that said, I do wish you well with the work, and I've enjoyed reading the snippets you've put-up here.
Lawrence