VI·VIII·X KUP RPG

This post is fully dedicated to the bibliography I left at the end of the VI·VII·X core rules. I find honest to quote all the marvelous works here and provide with some details about the reasons of the ‘influence’ they have in the game. Let us start then: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ (by D.Arneson and G.Gygax, any edition from the one of 1974 up to the Rules Cyclopedia): well there's not that much to add for D&D; it is the first, the most used and most known; the authors had a simple and genial idea (regardless to who in detail made what for the game); I’d also like to remember Dave Wesley, the man who provided with flint and tinder the two authors; there’s another detail worth to be mentioned about D&D: in some communities where I presented the game I was criticized by the fact that I made up a new RPG relying mainly on the knowledge of D&D or similar games… well, what I miss behind this thought is what would be the added value to know the largest possible number of RPGs: ...

I don't remember actually if I have already mentioned a fact that made me think a lot... In the first weeks of January I sent some emails to pen pals just to let them know that I published my game: iirc I wrote to 5 fellows, not a large group but to those that I am really in touch for my hobby. I met them along my experiences of RPG collector and researcher. I got a nearly immediate answer from my friend Maarten! He said he would have bought the book and sent me a feedback... and so he did! About two weeks later, Maarten wrote me an extensive email with both congrats for my effort and (moreover!) hints, suggestions and comments on several ideas I developed. Some of the suggestions will be part for sure in the VIII·XII·XX book (the expanded rules of VI·VIII·X). Further details will be disclosed in the next update about this book! Some other comments made me consider that he had a very keen view on what I did: on at least 3 points he outlined, there was a single underlying concern. T...

While before VI·VIII·X Core Rules publication I had a pretty clear picture in my head, after the publication I had the chance to hear the suggestions that many kind people left me on the various RPG communities where I wrote about the game. This led me to revise the plan for this year: the proper sequence of works I had in mind was 1.Expanded rules, 2.Setting, 3.Cosmogony (and, btw, this was a really challenging plan! Two 'big' goals like the expanded rules and the setting were really a hard task to achieve!). What I got as the main takeaway from the several discussions on the boards is that I need to better steer the communication for the playtest! I am not a marketing guy and I found a really single feedback form the market: I've already written about that in a previous post but I can't avoid to outline these aspects, in particular the second one. I am impressed by how standardized is the customers' approach: the questions are the same and the reactions as well. T...

This post to wrap up some highlights I got after nearly one week from the go-live of my books on DritveThru. Here below the main outcomes of what I experienced in such a short timeframe. Pricing of the books: I got nearly all the purchases done for the books with a PWYW price and all of these had a price at zero; since all the digital books but the core rules have this option, this means that many customers are somehow ‘pushed’ to grab whatever they find for free on DriveThru regardless of the effective use; if someone downloads four supplements of a game for free without the main book, I wonder what would be the use of these books… Marketing: the most common point raised by the members of those communities where I posted about the launch of the game is the complete lack of a communication plan. This seems more important than everything else: under this aspect I completely failed. I should have prepared a communication plan in order to make any reader a potential buyer… Well, I thought...

Well, I can say that my first stop of my journey has come to a destination! Yesterday evening I got a message from DriveThruRPG that all my titles are up and running! For a quick reference of all what is on sale, you can easily have an overview on my Products page . I listed basically 5 books for the playtest: the core rules the animal roster 'Ferae' the PC notebook (an evolved char sheet) the GM notebook (the PC sheet for the GM, veeeery KUP!) the NPC roster 'Personae' For each of them there is a digital and a printed version, in particular every digital version (but the core rules) are 'pay what you want' (PWYW).  With ref to the Core Rules, it is important to stress out that the printed version (hardback, A5 size) has approx 30 pages more than the digital version: in that book I added some (hopefully) useful design notes. Now, I will start my communication on the web, mainly on the most relevant forums and communities. I will use this simple banner to redirec...

While waiting this endless period for the delivery of the playtest books, I am thinking on the expanded rules I have already written (to be precise, more than 80% are still on my pad and only some of them are already present in the word document on my PC...). My concern is related to the outcome of the playtest: it'd be wise to wait how the playtest goes before thinking how to further develop the core rules. As a matter of fact this is only in part true: some rules have been written as core rules and in a 'streamlining' process I decided to keep them on-hold to keep the game not too complex. These were part of the original design of the VI·VIII·X core rules but after some thoughts (and recommendations of friends!), they were converted as optional rules. In a first stage of the writing process I had in mind to keep the optional rules within the core rules. This would have made the set of rules maybe too heavy or blurry (it is hard to remind what is core and what is optional ...

I probably took too much time for the final revision of the Core Rules and now I deserve an unpleasant surprise. I did finish the book with layout and artworks and uploaded it on the DrivethruRPG platform on Nov.11th. I previously did this operation for the other supplements and this step used to take a couple of days only... This time, likely due to external reasons (don't know why exactly), the approval process lasted more than 10 days. If we consider that the overall process is not ended as it is necessary to order a proof of print before going live, this definitely means one month more or less (printing and shipping usually take 3 weeks). Yesterday I got the feedback after more than 10 days on the Core Rules: the book was rejected as there was a part of text exceeding safety printing margins on the cover... Two comments on this: firstly, I was contrary on placing the usual 'blurb' on the back cover until the very end but a couple of days before the conclusion of the rev...

Done! The work is done and delivered: last week I uploaded the files for both printed and digital versions on DrivethruRPG. Now I have to wait to receive the printed proof of them... There is nothing or little I can do so far... I had been busy with the usual daily business and the completion of the Core Rules. Now it is only a matter of time before opening the store on Drivethru and start doing some marketing activities. I haven't been posting for weeks due to this reason and it will likely pass another similar timing before I can see my work in my hands. I have now time to revise again any idea on how to run the playtest, where to post news/ad for the game and so on... prepare the 'battlefield' in other words! The only activity I did was to add another main page on this website called " Friends " to fix once for all everyone helped me in this journey... being a nearly zero budget project the most important aspect from my side is to remember again who, on a purel...

Well, apologies for being rather absent but I am working simultaneously on several topics! So here we go with an overall update: Revised the 3rd party license with new logos; the freely usable logos are now directly downloadable from that page. Added a page about the products available for the playtest phase: there is a shot description and I will set direct links to Drivethru. Added a page which I want to use as log for all the contributions coming from the playtest ... needless to say the page is empty for the time being. Amended the core rules with both proofread corrections, now I am currently revising the text for the last changes... there are some revisions on contents and other on layout. This will took a while as the period is a bit 'crowded' both on family and work sides... I have come to a final decision with the cover artworks for all the products and I am very satisfied: in the product page you can have a look at them.  I need to finalize the contents of the Animal...

It's a horrible period... time is getting less and less, there are many pending tasks and I really have concerns to compete the final revision of the VI·VIII·X core rules! I have the second proofread, therefore this is what I am called to do in sequence: 1. amend the final text with the "second baby" tips; 2. revise the last details (like the adaptation of the skills to the changes in the stats I did); 3. edit the text with key words in bold; 4. insert the final layout of the pages... a lot, definitely a lot! Hopefully I had some limited spare time I used to exploit another topic: a license for anyone who wants to develop the VI·VIII·X game! I am well aware of the fact that this is premature as I have not yet published the playtest edition... but let me say that I really hope that from the playtest could come out some works that could be worth to be shared with other gamers. At the end of the day, the focus of the playtest is on the rules and the mechanics... I will provi...

This short post to let you have a snapshot of the logos I created for the VI·VIII·X KUP RPG. Before a glance at them, an ironic question about the correct way I'd call them: with the English word or with the Greek one... The question is ironic as the English word is the same of the Greek one at the singular... Ok, no more silly puns and let's have a look at them: I made 4 different logos, there is a fifth but for the time being let's focus on these ones. The black one which is also the icon of the current webpage is the logo of the VI·VIII·X game: it is a "merged" view of all the roman numbers of the name of the game... I like it as it reminds me a wrought-iron railing. The second one is the name of the editor I decided for the publication of any VI·VIII·X product I will do... there's a story behind this name, suffice it to say that it is however evocative as it references the Arthurian cycle. The third one is the logo which represents the KUP model... It has ...

A lot passed since my last post, I know that... The end of summer holidays, the start of the school and other worries kept me far from here! However this doesn't mean I was far from my project: I got the first proofread manuscript back! Thanks again  Carl ! Now, I need to amend the errors and, after that, I planned four additional steps before the final version: 1. Get the second proofread from Ian, the other fellow helping me in the proofread, and include any amendment from his side. 2. Revise the book with changes I did after the proofread version went out (therefore I thought it'd have been wise to correct first the text with the proofread and change it afterwards). 3. Edit the book with images (few) and text outlining. 4. Complete the product offer for the playtest by adding two additional books: a player's primer and an adventure module... (I have already them in mind!) With reference to the second point, I want to get into details of what I changed from the first vers...

In these days I am asking myself some questions about the art I should use within the VI·VIII·X project. The first result is that I revised all the pieces of art I plan on the covers of the books. The main outcome is that the Doré painting entitled "Enigma" will be the cover of the core rules instead of the PC notebook (I will manage this change along with the last revision of that book). Then I made my mind up for the remaining covers... I decided to go with masterpieces by Simone Martini, Giorgione, Piero della Francesca, Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci. The reader won't be disappointed (or I hope so!). Secondly I am still in doubt if and how using internal artworks: it is not clear to me why the RPG industry needs internal artworks in its products... These are possibly the most creative games and I have the feeling that there is no need to add artworks to them (a map is another story though): the imagination of both GMs and players is able to do better than any artwork...

Today some insights on the setting which will be the second pillar of the KUP model after the core rules (I actually need to reorganize and prepare the expanded rulebook and I need to post some more info on that as well... Ok, that will be one of the next posts here, I took a note for that!). The setting is firmly tied to the cosmogony and it uses some parts of it as cornerstones. The first one is the presence of some characters called Eidolon: these are NPC (I will not explain in detail the reason for the time being but it is not possible to use them as playing character) and they are essential figures for the setting itself: around the Eidolon an important feature of the setting is built and without them there would not exist one of the "reason why" for the PCs (in an interesting post the author Robin D. Laws explains what is the "reason why": he calls it "core activity"... the post is  this one ). The Eidolon have a reason, a goal and a sense in the who...

Today I will present you one of the most important pieces within the VI·VIII·X KUP RPG project. Based on my readings I found (and totally agree on) the principle that a good setting for any intellectual product, be it a book, a game or a movie, is to build it up from the scratch. Therefore any RPG setting, in order to be sound and complete should always have a backbone story of the world. I am trying to have this job done in two steps: 1. A cosmogony which tells how the world was generated; this is more tied to mythology rather than the mere chronicles of a world 2. The history of the world as it is known by humans (which for the sake of simplification we can call it the vol.2 of the cosmogony) Let's focus on the first part for the time being: this will be a book where I leave the main pieces of info about the genesis and the characters that played a role in the creation of the world... This seems very "tolkienish" and, as a matter of fact, it is so! The book will not be ...

Before I get to the main points of this topic, I want to leave here an update which has impacts also on what I am going to write about purpose and targets of my project. I am ref to the topic of "meta-intelligence" vs intelligence: thanks also to the very constructive discussion on the DF boards (for those interested it is  here ), the final conclusion is that I will manage two stats of the game as "external" stats, belonging to the players and not affecting the game mechanics. This of course means a revision of the core rules in some points (I think I have identified where but I need to go through the whole text another time... This will happen by when I will correct it with the inputs from the proofread). Now, back to the purpose: actually there are more than one! One embedded in the rules and one in the setting. Both of them lead to the targets I would like to achieve. Please, forgive me if you find I am too ambitious to steer these concepts in a game. Being RPGs...

  Four months have passed since I left my last version of the “status update” of the project and I believe it is time to leave a new update: Core rules: I asked 3 fellows to carry out a proofreading for both grammar/typos and contents (they’re all RPG veterans) and I got one of them that gave up (no blame or regrets at all from my side!); the remaining 2 are on the way to end the revision. I will then update the book and publish it in a “playtest edition”. Out of the core rules version, I was thinking to prepare a “Players’ primer”: a smaller text where a player can find all the piece of info he needs to play the VI·VIII·X game. This is a task to be tackled once I have done with the Core rules. PC notebook is done and thinking to how I described it, I have to precise something: it is a 24-page booklet useful both as the traditional PC char sheet and as a notebook to track down any useful piece of info the player deems it important; there are pages dedicated for each kind of info as...

A troubled question is waving in my mind since a couple of days... firstly it is necessary to explain the background: from a proofread I got a feedback that the acronym KUP is not technically correct. "Keep uneducated players" has a different meaning than "Keep players uneducated": the difference is subtle but there is! The expression "Keep uneducated players" refers to the GM's willingness to retain "uneducated" players and to ensure that others leave the game table by means of the game model. The other expression, "Keep players uneducated", means that the GM, thanks to the game model, is able to keep the players not completely "educated" and makes sure to preserve the "astonishment of ignorance" that I mentioned in an earlier post. Now let's get to the point: on one hand I should stick to the grammar and replace KUP with KPU... at the end of the day that is the correct expression! On the other hand I really...

I am back after more than 1 month from my last post... what a shame! I had several other businesses to follow in the recent past and I dedicated only few days to my project (d'oh!). I will make a status update just to have a picture at the end of May: the proofreading is still on progress; I didn't get the texts from my friends but only short feedbacks; the worst one is that one of them withdrew... too bad! I still have 3 friends helping me! I will hopefully get their works in June and do the editing between July and August. I'd like to have the playtest edition with all the amendments coming from the proofread, with the original "highlighting style" I had at the beginning and with some few (good) artworks to make it a little bit "sexy". I didn't make any progress on the optional rules; I just wrote some other good notes on my notebook but I didn't work on the book itself. I started the book of the cosmogony, I revised the "backbone" of...

Talking about the great picture, let us focus on what is planned and what is currently on work... This is a summary of the books/subprojects as of today: Core rule book, it is complete, the title is "VI·VIII·X"; it is about 220 pages in A5 format; it has 9 chapters (and in a dedicated post i will detail them) Optional rule book, the title for the time being is "VIII·XII·XX"; it is in a raw status: partially on a word document (say about 20%) and the remaining part on my handwritten notes (about 20 pages); I would say that I am at approx 10% of that work: the core rules were on approx 20 handwritten pages as well at the beginning and now that book is more than 200 pages; the real missing part which is on a very embrional status is a chapter I want to add at the end, "Running a VI·VIII·X game" where I look forward to explain my point on how this game should be managed by the GM PC Notebook: done and ready for the print; this is a matter of fact a booklet of ...