Bates

Creative process in action: original design of Shard from a decade ago and a current revamp.

Very kind offer—I've always appreciated your insights. Good timing, too: I'm way too in the weeds on my current project and could use a fresh pair of eyes.

Feeling good about the tweak to the #ttrpg I'm designing that adds an XP system for the GM to parallel the PCs' XP rules. Now just gotta playtest it.

Thanks to @gregstolze.bsky.social and @kennethhite.bsky.social for giving me grief on it—I mean, inspiring me—recently.

That was discussed, too, though I remember that time as a whole big frantic excited rush. Still kinda surprised we ended up with something reasonably coherent and entertaining.

Heh; no worries. Was away from the hobby so long I wouldn't expect my name to ring a bell these days.

I forgot: we could've changed things even further. Ken was basically, "It's a new game line. Go for it." But design a new system from the ground up AND a brand new setting (AND need supplements in the pipeline before anything hits the street)? Would've been nuts.

The deconstruction was why I didn't take on development after the core book released (I'd've done both lines in the setting).

Tough call—walk away from a job creating worlds? Plus, was always a HUGE supers fan—but there was an underlying tone to the deconstruction that I just bounced off of.

The system revisions were my jam (props to many misspent years crunching Champions characters).

1s canceling successes never made sense (penalized for having more dice?!), and a lower difficulty than WoD felt appropriate given the genre.

A Rob Hatch pitch, actually.

One of my newbie mistakes was feeling I had to tie in all the "stuff that's gone before"—when we had very little idea what really had gone before and should've all known it'd change.

Yep. Separating by era made sense so the different genres didn't clash.

And pretty much everyone wanted to do pulp first (because two-fisted adventuring is the best), but the feeling was sci-fi was a stronger (read: more marketable) genre to establish a new line.

Makes sense. Adventure! had the clearest vision to begin with.

I'd left WW by then but was all for Ian taking this on. Though not without its flaws, it's a solid setting that deserved a second chance.

Really, d20 versions was mainly a moneymaker play.

I wasn't supposed to do anything other than port the system over, but I recall sneaking in some setting revisions for better cohesion.

(I think "Trinity Universe" was a Richard Thomas call.)

Dude! I thought Trinity worked fine under Storyteller; it just needed a new edition to fix the bits that didn't.

One of the many things I learned developing the game was to throttle back metaplot. A second edition would've been more about setting the stage with key threads players could follow or ignore as they prefer.

Good times. While in Europe for the launch at Essen Game Fair, I got a call (I think from Richard Thomas?)—"we need a new name!"

Transatlantic brainstorming on a new title was fun.

I think I still have copies of the original Æon plastic cover and this hardcover.

Now, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time…

Not to mention those who were disappointed it WASN'T "vampires in space."

(And, system-wise, many of the innovations made in Æon found their way into future iterations of the Storyteller System.)

Though very much a team effort. The entire WW stable dove into this project with verve.

Holiday art featuring Archie.

A few more of Archie and Mika being all kinds of photogenic.

More Star Wars art: Bounty hunter Zanoren Zan.‬ I might try this art style with other stuff.

Quick one of Archie and Mika from last year, in a rare moment between shenanigans.

Okay… Bolt Action. Pretty straightforward background: advance scout for an alien mechanoid race bent on galactic domination who was reprogrammed accidentally when a freak power surge overlaid a Weirdness Society technician's engrams onto their core processing system. So, yeah; standard stuff.

Some random examples of Mika being photogenic.

New (Star Wars) art: Cavorak Tane, Selonian treasure hunter—that is, he's a Selonian who hunts for treasure.

(Since Selonians are basically space otters, I thought that'd be more fun than the usual cat-like look.)

Mika was a little trouper and recovered from his transatlantic voyage, with a little help from a friend.

Mika was from Malta originally. Here are some shots from there and his journey to the States…

Character design from yet another project in limbo: The Headless Huntsman.

Happy Halloween!