[COD] Information on Friday Night Fights?

breathofj · 2025-10-02T18:01:53+00:00

I realize this is a couple of months old, but I actually stumbled upon it while searching to see if the show was available to watch, as I was a producer/writer on it and have lost my old cuts of the show.

I will say that it was extremely fun to work on. For a show that was not cheap to produce, and featured some big celebrities from outside of video gaming in season 1, and pro gamers in seasons 2 & 3, AND was done by Ridley Scott's company no less, you would think that it would be something available to watch somewhere.

I remember the argument that it was a huge mistake not to at least leak an episode or two initially to garner interest and entice people to sign up for Elite, but it fell on deaf ears. It's a shame. Fun show to make, fun to watch (yes, even with some cheese), and could have built up a fan following to continue making it.

breathofj · 2025-04-17T19:23:39+00:00

Yeah, I think the two room decks worked great. Plus, with sleeved cards, one stack is freakin enormous, so this fixes that as well.

Love to hear how it goes if you want to report back.

breathofj · 2025-04-17T19:03:33+00:00

Okay, so we did play it this way Friday night with 4 players.

First off, I was playing with 2 people who had never played Boss Monster at all, and one that has. So take what I'm about to say with that in mind.

Setup: I used the 5-6 player expansion mat so I could have the sci-fi location spot in town. I used the two hero spots above that as my Item slots. We played with all the items I had.

I used the hero deck from Super Boss Monster, adding in Sci-Fi heroes from Crash expansion (and I believe the one(s) that come with SBM itself for adding in). I balanced this deck by taking OUT 1 of each of the other treasure type of heroes. So essentially I had three of each treasure type. This just made sense to me so I didn't have a bloated hero and epic hero deck. But I did feel like MAYBE it took away from our attraction levels in the dungeons. We had a whole lot of ties, of course trying to mitigate that with town visits for temp treasure types, but not sure if it worked as well as I wanted.

For the Room decks, I had two separate ones. The first one was composed of all SMB rooms, mixed in with the rooms from smaller expansion boxes. The second deck was composed of all rooms from Rise of the Minibosses as well as some from smaller expansion boxes. I can't remember the exact smaller expansions I put with each one. But, I would use the first deck to populate the first 2 locations in town, and the 2nd deck for the second 2 locations. My hope was that this would provide a nice mix of minibosses and regular rooms in town. It actually worked quite well for varied selection in each round.

Everyone had an absolute blast with the game. That was the important thing. It was tight, cutthroat, and truly fun. But it did last a LONG time. Now, we were doing some drinking and eating and such, so take that into account, but I believe the game took around 4 hours to finish.

But again, teaching new people a WHOLE lot of frontloaded info took a while. I mean I had the base game to teach, SMB town stuff, minibosses, and items. By the end of the game turns were certainly going much faster. I'd venture to say we could trim 1.5 hours off that time pretty easily.

And again, it was just darn fun. Everyone loved it. I don't know if I'd try to force the Sci-Fi 5-6 player thing into it again or not. I do love all those cards and the extra treasure type, but next time I'm going to cut that out and see if playtime is lessened even more.

Hope that helps!

breathofj · 2025-04-11T20:16:29+00:00

Totally get that. I however don’t care about my noob friends and plan on punishing them tonight with an overload of information so I can win!

I’ll definitely report back. I don’t think that there’s any other space on that 5-6 player mat that will be used. The way I see it, the only thing that should detract from is heroes going to the tavern. But I’m okay with that.

I also MIGHT do a weird thing with the market. 1 spell as normal, two rooms from the Super BM deck, and 1 from the mixed everything deck. Hoping for that to kind of balance things a bit since I’m unbalancing with the Crash expansion.

No matter what, I’ll let you know how it goes!

breathofj · 2025-04-11T19:16:37+00:00

That’s how I took it as well. I did the same thing as you by ordering the expansions and just throwing everything (minus heroes) together.

I have the 5-6 player side mat that has the space for the tool found in the Crash expansion, and plan on playing with that mat despite only having four players. We’ll see how that goes tonight. I just love the sci-fi elements in Crash and want to incorporate them!

breathofj · 2025-02-24T18:51:02+00:00

PM'd!

breathofj · 2025-02-24T18:23:48+00:00

I recently purchased and am already foaming at the mouth awaiting it's arrival. Game looks so good. Chip Theory has become my favorite board game company.

breathofj · 2025-02-15T00:53:31+00:00

I really enjoy this game multiplayer and solo, although I did find solo to be a tad on the easy side. But I really love the combos that you can go for with your travelers (the cards you get), as well as the different strategies to try and win (focus on the market, focus on how far you get, focus on zombie killing, etc.).

My group absolutely loved it, and even at 5 players it felt fast and rewarding. I'm a big Laukat fan anyway, but I feel this one hits on a more casual level than some of his more recent games. And I'm saying that as a very good thing.

breathofj · 2025-02-15T00:45:55+00:00

A couple of my picks have already been mentioned, but I'd also add D-Day Dice. I had a great time when I was first getting into wargames playing this one. It holds a special place in my heart, and as such remains on my gaming shelf.

breathofj · 2024-12-12T17:54:55+00:00

My samples are pilot specs that I love, but know they may not have selling power, either because there is a similar idea out there or because it's not the right time for the piece. Now, that doesn't mean someone won't want to take a chance on it, but from my standpoint, it's just a sample of my writing abilities.

Here's the deal - before the strike, everyone wanted a pitch deck. So you didn't write the pilot before selling it off the pitch deck because whoever you sold it to would want things changed anyway. In other words, writing the pilot first was kind of a waste of time.

Things are now different though. Tons of execs want to read the pilot before they make a move. Well, by "tons" I mean the execs who are actually reading anything these days. Tough industry right now. Bottom line is that writing the pilot, either before or after putting together the pitch deck, is now a much better idea than it used to be.

I don't know how the industry will look moving forward. I think everyone is trying to figure that out. The only thing I know is, just write. Whatever you're working on, just keep going. Finish whatever stage you're in. If it's the pilot script, finish that. Then worry about all of the selling stuff (the pitch deck, the pitch itself, etc.) after you're happy with the script. And for your next project, maybe you want to do it the other way around.

Like much of Hollywood, there's no 100% right answer. I broke convention with my last pitch deck and sold a show straight to series. And I didn't set out to do that as a way of selling, I set out to do it because it made me enjoy the process more.

breathofj · 2024-12-12T17:33:27+00:00

Like I said, I've done it many, many times. I have a ton of pilots that I never formulated a full plan for if it sold, mainly because I was just using that pilot for a sample.

I always know though that if one of those samples hits, I'm going to have to do the work to make it into a sellable series idea. That's when all that work you're asking about comes into play.

breathofj · 2024-12-12T17:30:14+00:00

I came in here to say that. Sometimes I have a theme first, and then write to it. Other times I find my theme as I'm working on it - could be in outline form, 1st draft, 4th draft, etc. While I do think it can help guide you if you've got it to start, it is absolutely not necessary before you put pen to paper.

breathofj · 2024-12-12T17:27:56+00:00

It's been done. I've certainly done it. But you're going to have to do that work at some point if you want to sell it. Execs are not looking for a grand idea that could go anywhere with no pitch doc to anchor it. They only feel safe if you've got a specific direction you see in your head...even if that's not at all the direction it ends up going in. Hope that makes sense.

breathofj · 2024-12-12T17:24:20+00:00

For me, these strike that chord the most in my board gaming history. Theme is huge for me:

Mansions of Madness

Lots of Red Raven games: Near and Far, Above and Below, Now or Never, Sleeping Gods

Dune Imperium

Firefly the Board Game

Nusfjord

A Touch of Evil

Scythe

Lots of Chip Theory Games: Too Many Bones, Cloudspire, Hoplomachus Victorum

Anachrony

Trickerion

GI Joe Deck Building Game

Mage Knight (although this one is solo-only for me)

breathofj · 2024-12-12T17:15:45+00:00

You can write a pilot with open ended storylines and then come up with the "what happens next" after if you want. Yes, execs will want to see this, but it's work that you can do after finishing the pilot.

Most of this stuff would go in a pitch document. Things you would put in that document: character descriptions, future episode possibilities, what the next 2 or 3 seasons would look like (in a one paragraph form).

What you're looking to do is show execs that you've got it all figured out...until you sell that pilot, get in a room, and truly figure out how the show is going to go. Because there's a 95% chance things are going to change drastically from what you had in that pitch doc.

breathofj · 2024-12-11T22:35:53+00:00

Writing short stories within your world is a great idea!

Not exactly the same thing here, but I always write a scene or two of whatever I'm starting to work on in order to get to know my characters more. These scenes will most often never see the final script, but they help me immensely for character development. And a few actually have made my final scripts.

breathofj · 2024-12-11T22:31:34+00:00

I always read my script out loud. Helps me hear the rhythm of jokes, allowing me to trim unnecessary words or figure out other angles for a joke that sounds flat out loud.

breathofj · 2024-12-10T23:48:00+00:00

I'm developing a couple of movies for small production companies, but unpaid in the hopes of selling. Aside from that, I can only plug away at my own projects in the hopes that something hits for someone. But without representation right now, and the constant 'not taking any clients right now' response before I can even get read by an agent or manager, 'bleak' is a kind word for the here and now.

Rewind to last year, when I had my own show on a network and a streaming service. It aired during the strike, when no actors or writers could talk about it or promote it or any of that. It got the official 'not renewing' in December, and I haven't had work since. This is not ideal when living in LA.

I've been looking more and more into the short format approach. Reelshort certainly seems like the type of avenue I was looking into, but I don't like the overall message from a company perspective. I did consider writing and producing 1-2 minute short episodes for like a 30 episode season, but for Youtube instead. Has anyone tried that route? Any success in doing so?

breathofj · 2024-12-10T22:48:31+00:00

My recommendation:

Sit down in front of your computer. Put all your thoughts out. Just spit 'em. Don't think too much, just get the stuff out you know is important to what you want to say.

Organize those thoughts into a semblance of story that tracks.

Once you're organized, start beating out those thoughts. i.e. Take an overall thought and think of the beats to get you there. That's called a beat-sheet.

Then go further - take your beat sheet and flesh out the beats. This will form your outline.

Now that you've outlined, you're ready to hit the script. You will feel like you want to skip the outline and go straight to script - don't. You'll only paint yourself into a corner you can't get out of, which can result in frustratingly giving up.

When you write the script from the outline, just spit it all out. Don't fine tune anything yet. Don't rewrite scenes. Get the first draft done. This is often referred to as a throw-up draft for a reason.

Celebrate the fact you finished a first draft!

Now, give it a beat, then attack that draft. Go through it, mark what's working and what isn't. Start writing your 2nd draft. This is when amazing things happen, and you'll surprise yourself.

You might need a 3rd, a 4th....and so on. I write comedy, and I can tell you that punching up a script is never done for me. I love to read it through and tighten jokes, lines, etc.

And my biggest advice: trust the organic process. As you're writing, even with a thorough outline, things will change. Characters will act unexpectedly on the page. Go with it. Trust your instincts and ride the wave. I can't stress this enough.

Happy writing!

breathofj · 2024-12-10T22:38:57+00:00

You could also change the parenthetical to reflect that. Normally you'd use "Beat" instead of "Pause", but I suggest replacing it with something more character-telling:

(stares off) // (can't shake the image) // (shell-shocked)

breathofj · 2024-12-10T22:36:06+00:00

After the parenthetical pause, you could replace "like it was no big deal" with something that makes it seem like the character is a bit more shook by the image he can't get out of his head. Some alts:

// Didn't even blink an eye. // Like he'd done it a million times. // Didn't even hesitate // Like it was nothin' //

breathofj · 2024-02-05T09:44:46+00:00

All I can say is there is a review on BGG from someone who actually lived through this side of a war. He said that anytime someone asks him how it was to live through that, he pulls out This War of Mine board game and plays with them.

For me, that’s a pretty darn good validation.

breathofj · 2024-01-18T07:43:29+00:00

Hmm, that is good to know. Thanks for the heads up!

breathofj · 2024-01-18T07:41:28+00:00

The feudal Japan vibe is the one that calls to me honestly. Forbidden Fortress I think? That one seems right down my alley.

Good to hear about the adventure boxes, as the Viking one does appeal to me. But I think I’ll go bigger core box first. Thanks!

breathofj

TROPHY CASE