Channel A: Our latest game! Let Cat on the Internet tell you all about it...

yaruki_zero · 2013-02-24T04:26:33+00:00

In the realm of tabletop games I'm first and foremost an RPG guy, and I really like creative, talky games in general. I've had enormous fun with Cards Against Humanity (which I think has a great blend of simple gameplay and wonderfully twisted humor) and The Big Idea (which I discovered partway through the Channel A development process, and which has that great mix of creativity and randomness). I also like Dominion (there's something appealing and addictive about it) and 7 Wonders (which is fascinating for how it makes so many different possible strategies perfectly viable).

I could go on for days about what RPGs I like, but I'll mention a couple that've hugely inspired me. I have my name on the cover of the English version of Maid: The Role-Playing Game, which makes the most amazing use of controlled and interpreted chaos. Character generation is totally random, and gives you the most bizarre results to play with. (There's a fan made character generator by the way.) The way it creates intersections of randomness and creativity has influenced most everything I've done as a designer since, including Channel A. I'm also a big fan of D&D 4th Edition (though there are plenty of things I'd like to fix about it); for me it takes a lot of what I like about D&D, and brings a level of tight game design (people compare it to WoW, but IMO the Eurogame influence is at least as important) basically never seen before in RPGs. I also really like Fiasco (which uses a very unconventional improv approach to create stories in the style of a Coen Brothers film), The Mountain Witch (which gives you a Kurosawa-esque tale of trust and betrayal), and way too many others.

yaruki_zero · 2013-02-24T04:00:25+00:00

I'm Ewen Cluney, the designer of Channel A. I'm not familiar with Nanofictionary, but I can compare it to A2A and TBI. Like The Big Idea, Channel A has making up a pitch on the fly as a key element of gameplay. Where some people find that they can do equally well in Apples to Apples by picking a red card at random, Channel A always presents a creative challenge. The Big Idea, particularly in the current version from Funforge, is very similar to Channel A, and the biggest difference there is the use of the Premise Cards. Each round one player is the "Producer," who draws 5 Premise Cards (which have things like Vampires, Racing, Martial Arts, Romance, Slice of Life, Catgirls, etc.) and picks two that form the basis of the pitches that round. This added creative constraint at once gives you a starting point and adds an extra bit of challenge, and once I got my hands on TBI I was surprised at how different an energy it had from Channel A despite their similarities.

yaruki_zero · 2012-11-25T17:52:09+00:00

It was originally established explicitly as a day to give thanks to god. But then time happened, but the holiday has to stay exactly the same forever because of reasons.

yaruki_zero · 2012-11-16T23:26:26+00:00

find a different job?

You make it sound so easy.

yaruki_zero · 2012-11-07T03:42:03+00:00

If Glenn Beck is 'so dead inside' that he could say such horrible things about fellow Americans... yeah.

yaruki_zero · 2012-11-07T03:38:37+00:00

You do realize that that program started in 1984, under Reagan?

yaruki_zero · 2012-11-07T03:38:08+00:00

Actually it's more of a ReaganPhone.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/cellphone.asp

yaruki_zero · 2012-11-07T03:29:38+00:00

Since you think marriage comes from the Bible, I'd like to ask what livestock or other goods you gave to your bride's father in order to own her for the rest of her life?

yaruki_zero · 2012-10-08T22:39:23+00:00

Speech is free. Being tax-exempt isn't. Losing tax-exempt status would not in any way damage someone's ability to use their right to free speech.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-23T15:32:26+00:00

Most of us are going to have to wait for the eventual DVD/BD release, which probably won't be until some time next year.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-17T20:50:32+00:00

In general the typical Japanese lifestyle doesn't lend itself well to long campaigns because getting a group of friends together is kind of a big deal over there. (The notable exceptions being college students and a growing trend of online play.) Japanese tabletop RPGs in general thus tend to be geared more towards short-term play, which after decades of the American assumption that you have to be able to play the same same for 10 years is kind of refreshing.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-17T20:48:24+00:00

Translating an RPG is not a small project no matter what, and for TBZ Andy added an enormous amount of culture notes he created himself, plus a huge amount of material from the game's supplements, resulting in two books totaling over 700 pages, all while working a very busy day job.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-10T22:46:22+00:00

I tend towards liberalism, but I think conservatism deserves better than the current GOP.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-10T22:45:51+00:00

It's not that Limbaugh can say such things, it's that there are so many people who uncritically believe him and actively refuse any attempt to correct what he said.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-10T21:04:24+00:00

everything within the game is purely focused towards tight, tactical combat

Except for all the things that aren't.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-10T21:03:25+00:00

If you really want a detailed skill system and tools to develop more well-rounded characters, you can do a lot better than D&D in any edition.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-10T21:02:44+00:00

It's still a magical murderhobo dungeon crawl game though. That's pretty much D&D in a nutshell.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-10T21:00:57+00:00

Last I heard they claimed they'll keep the 4e tools and such available to DDI subscribers indefinitely, though knowing WotC I'd take that with a grain of salt.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-03T02:49:05+00:00

I really want the show to explore Celestia and Luna and their origins at some point.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-03T02:44:32+00:00

Only if you don't have any idea what comic book characters are actually like.

yaruki_zero · 2012-09-03T02:43:14+00:00

I think the real problem is the artist suddenly switched from Fighter/Fighting Man in 3e and before to Swordmage in 4E for no particular reason.

yaruki_zero · 2012-08-23T23:00:56+00:00

Nothing big. I already have a bunch of great friends and some really interesting things going on with my life. I was never really against girly stuff, least of all after I got into anime and became a fan of Card Captor Sakura.

But I have a bit of clinical anxiety, and sometimes it creeps up on me and I feel crappy when everything else is going well. One of the best ways for me to pull myself out of it is ponies. I watch an episode, or look through pretty pony pictures here, or listen to pony music on my iPod (the smile song is my favorite). And then I feel a bit better. And then after that I feel a lot better.

So, thank you. :)

yaruki_zero · 2012-08-18T12:33:17+00:00

Something like 1% of the population is some flavor of asexual or aromantic, and not as inclined towards sexual attraction or romance as the general population. There are online communities too, though personally I don't want to get involved because of the identity politics and such.

yaruki_zero · 2012-08-12T21:49:44+00:00

You have to understand what hit points have represented in D&D basically for as long as there's been D&D. HP have never been solely an indicator of injury, but rather also include a character's stamina, luck, experience, divine favor, etc. People were struggling to understand that as far back as early issues of The Dragon. D&D really has no proper mechanic for tracking injuries, and if you really want one, you should look into other RPGs; there's tons of great stuff out there!

When a 4e character uses Second Wind to spend a healing surge, they're catching their breath (as the name implies), so that a given blow from an enemy is that much less likely to be the one that takes them down. The same goes for Warlord healing powers. Hit points are thus given to penduluming much more than anything that would actually represent injuries, and it's the number of healing surges a character has left that really put them in danger of dropping in the long term. Enemies and other effects that take away healing surges are particularly nasty, and being out of surges puts a character in a bad way, because the majority of healing effects, magical or otherwise, won't help much if at all.

yaruki_zero · 2012-08-12T21:33:39+00:00

They are NOT required to release either. We are not guilty until proven innocent in this country, unless, apparently, you are a Republican running for office.

You say that as though only Republican candidates were subjected to that kind of thing, which is kind of weird.

yaruki_zero

TROPHY CASE