Very soon I’ll be starting up the Five or So Questions Series, where I’ll interview members of the gaming community with about five or so questions.
Hope you enjoy!
Category: Archive
Archive of all posts prior to October 2021, including the interviews, reviews, and theory posts about tabletop roleplaying games.
Clash Playtest 1-11-2014
Yesterday I playtested my in-progress tabletop roleplaying “story game,” Clash. Clash is a game about exploring big conflicts from a small perspective. You fight, you argue, and you look at the moments that change the world. It’s a GM-less, team-based game with a table you roll against to have “The World” act against the players.
Clash has been a big challenge for me. It was put together in a single day and then fiddled with and messed with for about a year before I got the courage to playtest it. I’ve had near-zero luck getting playtesters outside my group to play, but I’ve finally got my group into it. I have a lot of emotional investment in it, as it’s my first solo game, so playtesting was really a tough subject to broach with my group.
Anyway, we finally started playtesting, and this is session 2. We had 4 players and the session was about 3 hours.
The setting is Chicago during the height of prohibition, where one team is playing the Mob and the other team is the Untouchables. We have a pretty nice mix of characters, including a young rookie on one side and the son of the woman mob boss on the other. We’ve fiddled with history a bit in part to allow for some women characters, such as my Untouchable, Penelope Wilson, who is a woman fighting against the Mob and against the discrimination within her own organization.
We had a shoot out, an arrest, threatening notes left on doorsteps, and generally a great time. My biggest goal with Clash is for it to be fun, so that was good to see. Players enjoying themselves, cracking jokes when the time is appropriate (and sometimes inappropriate), getting into the gritty parts of conflict – that part of the game is happening.
The mechanics work. Right now I’m fiddling with some numbers to make it run more smoothly, but it seems to be going pretty much right. I don’t think I’ll have many more changes, honestly, because most of it is rewording or fiddly bits. I haven’t made any big alterations so far, and it seems to be working well. I’m going to keep playtesting for a bit, but more than anything I want to get the game in other people’s hands to see if they run into problems.
The biggest change (addition, really) this time around was to write in rules about how to handle multiple actor conflicts. It was just simply adding some wording and I think the rules I wrote in work great for the narrative and mechanical purposes.
Overall I think the playtest went really well. I’m hoping to do a crunch and play some more but I don’t know how much success I will have there. I just want to play more!
My New Blog
With the new year, I’m making a lot of changes. One of these changes is to start using this new blog, in part to unify my brand and in part to have a shorter, common URL.
What will I post here? That has yet to be seen. Sometimes I might do reviews or interviews, like I did on BravoCharlieSierra. Other times, it might be game design musings or thoughty things that I post on G+ and copy here. We’ll see how it goes.
In any case, glad to be here and I hope you enjoy what you see.
Interview with Whitney Beltrán – Tinker Kickstarter
I interviewed Whitney Beltrán about her upcoming work on Tinker, a steampunk web series production currently Kickstarting with a few days left.
Tell me a little about Tinker – what’s it about?
Tinker is a steampunk adventure themed web series show. It is about a father-daughter duo, Sho and Kimi Tinker, who are savvy inventors in Victorian era alternate history San Fransico. Sho has built a reputation for himself as an incredibly clever engineer, and Kimi is a sort of genius tomboy. Together, they are swept up into a world of intrigue and turn of the century Machiavellian power struggles as old empire and emergent capitalistic entities fight over resources and technology.
Their adventures range all over, from their native San Fransico to Hong Kong to the British mainland. There are air ships and giant robot fights and organized brothel gangs, spies, assassination attempts (and successes!), romance, action, and needless to say, a lot of danger. There is never a dull moment in Tinker.
What do you think is the most interesting part of Tinker?
I’m biased. I will always go gaga over the costuming on a project like this. Our costume designer is extremely talented and is currently putting the finishing touches on a hand tooled leather corset that is to die for. I basically want to run away with it. However, in reality, probably one of most interesting things about Tinker is its exploration of morality in the face of Western expansion and globalization. Tinker does not take itself too seriously. It’s more of a romp than a thinker, but the undertones are there.
How did you get involved in Tinker?
Well, I tend to have my fingers in a lot of cookie jars. I was NPCing for a LARP that was going on as part of a fundraiser benefit that an education non-profit, Seekers Unlimited, was putting on in L.A. I made friends with one of the other NPCs, who happened to have a role onTinker. At the time they were looking to fill a number of roles, so she arranged for me to visit the studio. I read some sides for the producer, and I landed the role of Elmira Perkins, who happens to be one of the nefarious spies!
Do you enjoy working on indie productions? If so, why?
Absolutely. I do a lot of script work and setting development as well as acting, and big Hollywood is awful about crushing creative sovereignty. At the major production houses pretty much everything is decided by a committee of business school graduates. It’s very frustrating. Working with smaller studios is more like working with a family, and negotiating with creative ideas becomes a lot more enriching.
Do you think the diversity of Tinker is important? Do you think it was a conscious choice?
The racial diversity of the cast of Tinker is off the charts. It’s one of the things that makes me most proud of being a part of this production. I am of biracial Mexican-American heritage. I often struggle to find roles. It is common that the roles I am suited for call for white women. I constantly have to think to myself, “Am I white enough to get away with this?” Sometimes I am, and sometimes I’m not. Being on the set ofTinker is a breath of fresh air. I don’t have to worry about the color of my skin and whether or not I stand out.
It’s also really significant to me that the main characters are Asian and not white. It is the norm in Hollywood that racial minorities are relegated to supporting roles. This is especially significant because this is a steampunk production, which necessarily carries strong elements of imperialism and colonialism. It would have been really easy to stick with a homogenous cast. Instead, our executive producer, Micheal Taglianetti, insisted on a racially diverse cast. So yes, it was a conscious choice.
What are you looking forward to most in the project?
I don’t know if I should tell you this! There is going to be an episode that involves live zebras. I am really looking forward to hanging out with zebras. I’ve never gotten closer than being at the zoo before. I just hope they don’t bite.
Thanks, Whitney, for your interview and time! Go check out Tinker’s Kickstarter if you want to learn more!
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010-2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.
Interview with David Pulver – Laboratory of the Forsaken!
Today I have a brief interview with David Pulver, a freelance writer in Canada, just for you! David is working on an adventure game for Crafty Games‘ FANTASY CRAFT Roleplaying system called “Laboratory of the Forsaken“.
B: David, do you want to tell me a little about Laboratory of the Forsaken?
D: The soon to be released “Laboratory of the Forsaken” is my first adventure for Crafty Game’s FANTASY CRAFT roleplaying system.
It takes place in the Realm, the same setting used in their earlier TIME OF HIGH ADVENTURE book, which features a conflict between the Circle (free-thinking but occasionally out of control scientist-arcanists) and the Church (nice folks unless you get on the bad side of their inquisitors).
The adventurers get to investigate the manor house of Doctor Magnus Croatalorn, a Circle member who has been performing experiments to investigate the origins of life. The Church has decided to shut him down (since he wants to prove life was magically rather than divinely created) but the inquisitors they sent after him haven’t reported back. Magnus has also dropped out of touch with the Circle, however, so they suspect something has gone wrong.
The adventurers can either be servants of the Church sent on a follow-up mission, or agents of the Circle attempting to protect Magnus and his research before the Church can get their hands on it, or mercenaries who blunder into the situation. As they explore the manor they’ll piece together its secrets from the doctor’s lab notes and experiments. It’s a cross between a haunted house and a dungeon adventure, with elements of dark fantasy or horror thrown into it.
B: How long did it take you to create the adventure?
D: It took about two days to come up with the basic concept of a dark fantasy horror adventure set in the laboratory of a vivisectionist-alchemist who was obsessed with finding the secret origin of life. Crafty Games and I batted the concepts back and forth for a couple more weeks to set the specific details and parameters of the adventure. Then it took about a month to write it.
B: What suggestions would you have for others looking to write adventures – best practices for level design, flavor text, etc.?
D: For me, the key thing is to have a solid, interesting theme and concept and a careful outline. In this case the theme was mad fantasy science, so the adventure contained a lot of research notes, crazed experiments, and so on. Usually I work out a background first, but then get down to the nuts and bolts (e.g., what’s where, paths through the adventure, mapping, and so on).
It’s probably best to leave flavor text for last after you have the skeleton of the adventure. I’ve found that if you start with the flavor text it’s very easy to overwrite and end up with something that is too long.
That said, doing a bit of flavor text first is useful to give yourself a feel for what you’re doing. In my case I wrote a short biographical letter written by the mad scientist (Dr. Croatalorn) to a friend of his, laying out his philosophy, a key event in his childhood that led him away from the teachings of the Church and toward exploration of darker truths. I didn’t actually use this in the game – it was a bit too long – but it gave me a sense of his character and motivations, which helped me.
I did something similar for his wife Lunalia, who is another key character and possible ally of the adventurers in the plot.
Ideally you should playtest an adventure, but often players will not have time to explore all the paths. A trick you can use is to “talk through” an adventure with someone else – essentially skipping all the game mechanics (assume they win all the fights, make all the skill checks, or whatever) but just narrate what they see, who they meet, and have them tell you what they do.
This is a good way to get a sense of whether any mysteries, level design concepts and so on are too complex or too simple, and also it can sometimes reveal options and strategies you didn’t think of when you wrote the adventure.
The most difficult part of the adventure was striking a balance between a coherent, dramatic narrative (e.g., building up action and an exciting conclusion) and giving the players different routes and options. This had to be considered from the very start of the adventure, as Crafty Games Fantasy Craft setting tends to forgo a traditional good vs. evil structure in favor of different factions, any of which the adventurers could be aligned with. The adventure is set in the “Realm” background that Crafty Games introduced in their prior adventure collection Time of High Adventure. This introduced a conflict between religion and magic (The Church vs. The Circle, a group of arcane-scientists).
This became a central conflict in Laboratory of the Forsaken, but I set up the adventure so that the players could choose which side to support, or remain neutral, and also ended up writing three different variations of the adventure’s opening to accommodate different player character motivations or alignments.
Thanks to David for taking the time to share with us about his writing and design process! Check out the adventure, Laboratory of the Forsaken, at DriveThruRPG!
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.
Selfies
Yesterday, the internet blew up with selfies. It was in response to a Jezebel article about how selfies are a cry for help, and that they aren’t empowering. I’m sure you can imagine my response. However, on G+, I posted shortly thereafter a few of my fellow feminists had posted and made a call for people on my circles to share selfies because I wanted to see their faces.
The response was incredible!
Tons of people – men and women, young and old, some who had never posted their photo on G+ – posted their photos. There were a few people who complained, stating that it was becoming like “that other social network” (Which one, I ask? MySpace, where selfies really got popular, or Facebook, where so many people still lurk?), but it didn’t harsh my buzz.
See, I grew up initially on places like forums, Yahoo! Groups, and LiveJournal, where you didn’t really share pictures of yourself. At my age (pre-teen) it was discouraged heavily – after all, what if people misused your photo, stalked you, etc.? I knew usernames and typing styles, but I didn’t know faces. When people DID post their pictures, it was like pure joy. Here! Person! You are REAL and I can see you, and it is wonderful.
Yesterday was filled with joy for me. I have been dealing with some dumb emotions, and I know a lot of people going through some hard times, but there was suddenly this burst of “Hey, look at me, I exist!” All of this beauty and love and laughter and joy.
I don’t know if yesterday meant anything to anyone else. It meant a lot to me.
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010-2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.
The Song of My People
The leather wraps scraped across the callouses on Lilylen’s palms as she twisted the wraps around her hands. She tied them tightly. The wraps served as good protection from the wooden sticks she picked up and spun through her fingers. It was time to go, and she was nearly ready.
Lilylen stared out from the window of the holding, counting the rows of soldiers. There were near a hundred, armored and standing at the ready. Those were her chosen enemies. Chosen, yes, because there were so many different men to fight, so many threats to her home and in this case, her soul. The lord in command of these soldiers was a dark mage who had stolen the souls of his soldiers to bring himself more power. Lord Niccen, ruler of the city of Donwyn, what he called himself.
Untrue, though. She stood in the halls of Donwyn now, ready to protect it from his army of soulless men. If her side lost, then he would take over and hold the small city under thrall. This was not what she wanted. Donwyn was not her home now, but it had been for many years. She had no home, and her family had all aged away and left for the northern lights. Still, she wished to protect Donwyn, and her magic was strong.
She adorned herself with her armor now. Silver tips on her pointed ears, twisted and pierced through the skin, were enchanted to protect her from the raucous sounds of battle and hone her hearing. She pulled on a chain shirt and belted it with a leather strap that shone bright when she cinched it – her protection spell activating and spreading over her body in a shield. Finally, she raised her only weapon: her drum.
The drum was a gift from her mother on the day of her turning. Her mother had promised her the moon, and true to her promise, the large drum was made with the whitest of leathers stretched tight and it played the deepest rumbling. Her turning was a celebration of her sixteenth anniversary of birth, and marked the day her magic came true.
Now was no time for reminiscing, though.
Lilylen joined the warriors below in the great hall who all were armored and ready after enjoying midnight feast. There was a small party of adventurers standing in the center of the hall. Her companions were the fighters Dor and Leaf, the magician Wend, and trickster Fig. They had come with her to Donwyn, excited for the prospect of battle and as true friends. She would owe them everything if they won this battle. She raised her voice loud.
“Friends!” She clapped Dor on the shoulder. “It is time for the cries of battle and the victory! Let us feast our eyes now that we have feasted our bellies, and take down Lord Niccen and his thralls!”
Her words were met with a roar of approval from the crowd. Some warriors banged swords against shields in echoing clangs while they shouted and she cheered back at them.
“That’s the spirit, my good men and women! Join me now on the field!”
The warriors began to pour out of the hall, taking their places on walls and near gates. The battle was not long off, and Lilylen’s blood began to rush in her ears.
“Dor, Leaf, Wend, Fig – you are all my companions through battle again.”
“Lilylen, we fight for you as much for glory.” Dor’s eyes were bright behind her raggedy bangs. “Once we finish this, we will go back to the road and beyond.”
Fig slipped something sneakily into Lilylen’s hand. She looked down to see a small jeweled dagger, sheathed in shadow. She looked at Fig, raising one eyebrow in question. Fig just smiled and crossed his fingers.
“To war, to win!”
—
The adventurers made their way to the head of the warrior’s ranks, and Lilylen called for the gates to be opened. There was a loud creaking and clamoring as the large double gates opened, revealing the battlefield ahead. The warriors and Lilylen’s companions poured out onto the field, readying for the first light of dawn.
The sun rose slow and lazily, peeking through behind the holding and shining light on the thralls. Lilylen spun her drumsticks and rolled them on the drum, creating a deep, low rumble. A light mist fell down from the sky and settled over her fellows, providing cover from the soldiers and putting a protective shield around her fellows. The thrum thrum thrum echoed across the grass, and with that, the soldiers lurched forward, the warriors began to run, and they reached each other in a glorious crash.
The warriors had the strength of their heart and home pulsing through them, and all who heard the sound of Lilylen’s drum were given more power to resist their enemies. She strode forward, slowly, between the fighting, ducking and dodging while Dor and Leaf cleared her path. She had one responsibility only: to get to Niccen.
Dor and Leaf before her ran into the broken ranks of soldiers. The soldiers were technically powerful – precise in movement – but they lacked the intuitive skills of the warriors and adventurers, which failed them. In essence, they were strong only in numbers, just landscape to trample.
Wend walked behind her, casting bolts of mana into the surrounding crowds of soldiers and calling down fire from the sky. Fig was nowhere to be seen, but that was best. His tricks were not to be noticed until they had already been done.
They were nearly through the soldiers, pushing through while the warriors battled against the twice-strong army. At the back of the ranks was Niccen, not even fearful enough to be on a horse, standing proudly as though he were untouchable. He caught Lilylen’s gaze and there was no emotion in his eyes but sneering cruelty. She quickened her pace, leaving Wend behind unknowingly.
She was pressing forward and focused on Niccen, continuing to drum the slow rumble, when she felt a sudden sharp pain in her back. Her breath caught, she felt something within her go empty, and she struggled to breathe. She looked around behind her only to see Fig jump out from behind a soldier and land on another man – a man holding the jeweled dagger she had been carrying. Fig slashed the man’s throat with one sharp swipe, then he collected the dagger and returned it to Lilylen’s pocket.
“Be more careful!” He shouted, and the noise rang in her ears as she gasped for air. She began to lose her footing. Fig’s eyes widened and he placed his hands on her back, whispering an incantation. She felt her heartbeat pumping throughout her body, and slowly felt the pain ease and the air fill her lungs again. The battle pressed in close to them, and there were soldiers moving to attack. Lilylen braced herself.
Suddenly, a clap of thunder sounded and lightning struck, spreading through the bodies of the soldiers, turning them into crisp wastes. Lilylen sighed in relief and doubled her speed, trying to make up for lost time. She reached Niccen quickly.
He didn’t even move. She stood ten feet away from him and all he did was stand there, unafraid, undaunted. She gritted her teeth, and began to pound her drum faster, harder. She opened her mouth, and the sound from inside her was a deep bellow.
“Long we fight and long we live,
we do not fear the dark.
Strong we are and never gone,
we do not fear the burning light.
Hold back the night,
the night so cold.
We fight so long,
long will we live.”
She sang it again and again, her voice becoming louder and louder. Niccen stood there, quietly at first, then laughing. He did not notice the red light growing behind him, growing larger with each drumbeat.
“This is your plan?” He yelled above the drumming. “Sing me to death?”
Niccen moved his hands, muttering an incantation she couldn’t quite catch, even with her unique hearing. There were corpses around her from the battle, and they slowly raised themselves to their feet. Her breath caught in her throat, straining her voice. She found her voice again as she spun around with her drum, changing the beat and singing faster as she slammed bodily into the undead monsters surrounding her. They pressed in on her, grabbing at her clothes and scratching her face. Her heart was pounding in her head. She knew she didn’t have much longer until she would lose control, so she stopped moving and planted her feet. The song was sung.
Lilylen’s voice stopped mid-verse, and she banged on the drum three times in succession, and from behind Niccen appeared a giant, red, translucent dragon. The dragon was massive, a full-sized red dragon with a long crest on it’s head. Its flesh was nothing more than red light, the body of a spirit of vengeance. Niccen turned in response to its roar, and Lilylen imagined that his eyes grew wide. The dragon devoured him in one bite, and inside the dragon Niccen tumbled into its stomach. Lilylen felt elation welling up inside her, until there was a loud pop and Niccen disappeared. She spun around in panic, running into the corpses crowding around her who toppled over, the incantation controlling them no longer held.
“Fig! Dor! Leaf! Wend!” She called for her companions, who were fending off the soldiers. “He’s gone!”
None could hear her. In that moment, she felt a gust of wind burst against her side and tear through the leather of her drum. She gasped and turned to face Niccen, who was spinning a whirlwind. The wind blew so hard that it wrested the drum from her hands and took the air from her lungs. She felt as though her very soul was being pulled from her, but she staggered towards him, her face contorted with rage.
Blood boiling and rage overtaking her, her muscles grew and flexed, and her eyes tightened as the irises turned to bright red. She felt the dagger in her pocket and pulled it out, pressing her body against the whirlwind, her rage strength allowing her to resist it’s power. She screamed and bellowed at Niccen, at the wind, at everything that was in her way of tearing the mage apart.
“I will eat your soul!” Niccen cried out, and now she could hear the fear. She would always hear the fear when her rage rose within her. She breached the wall of wind and watched him tumble backwards. The look of terror on his face was all she needed to see. She tackled him and stabbed the dagger into his heart, twisting and wrenching it. The shadow of the blade spread out through his skin in a spiderweb, blackness filling his veins. She watched until the light left his eyes, hearing the crunch of cartilage and bone beneath her weight.
Soon, she felt the blood draining from her face. Her muscles weakened, and she staggered, falling to the ground beside Niccen’s blood-covered corpse. Around her, the thralls fell down, slowly but surely being overtaken by death.
She felt weightless as Dor and Leaf picked her up and carried her off the field. The warriors crowded around as she was taken to the hall. As she drifted off into weary rest, she heard the song of her people. The depth of their voices. The love in their hearts.
“For life! For victory! For Donwyn!”
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.
Systir Productions and 616
Today I have an interview with Systir Productions, a production team based in London. Amy and Victoria Howell are sisters and multi-award winning creators of ‘The Syndicate’ and ‘616’, the latter of which is currently crowdfunding.
What led you to the film industry?
Vicky has worked in film and theatre for the past 15 years. In fact she trained originally as an actor, then got sidetracked into writing and later to directing, but we’ve both grown up on films of all types – watching horror from probably a much too early age(!) and had often gone over various ideas for stories, but there was a eureka moment whilst back at our mum’s house for xmas 2008 when we just said ‘we should do this!’ Vicky had the industry knowledge and writing experience, Amy had the business experience and the ideas so it was an obvious next step.
What made you choose to work on a webseries?
We started with the intention of making films, to be honest, and the first project we wrote together was actually a feature version of the ‘616’ concept. However, during the course of that script’s development we became sidetracked into the story behind what became our first webseries, ‘The Syndicate’, which again we initially developed as a feature idea. When we wrote ‘The Syndicate’ back in 2009, there were very few webseries about, especially in the UK, but we did stumble across one which was made by the production team behind ‘Torchwood’ called ‘Girl Number Nine’ and this is what introduced us to the concept of webseries. The aspect that appealed to us initially was the ease of distribution and this is what gave us the idea of turning ‘The Syndicate’ into a webseries. Rather than being at the mercy of a distribution company to get your work seen, you just post it online and control the distribution yourself. And we’re really glad we did that, as, if we had tried to release ‘The Syndicate’ as a traditional feature film we could still be sitting around now waiting for a distributor, while, by releasing as a webseries, it has now been seen by almost a million people, travelled to festivals around the world, won awards and put us in touch with Frostbite Pictures who we are now working with on producing ‘616’. So webseries have definitely been lucky for us!
What would you say is your favorite project you worked on, and why?
Your first baby is always special, so ‘The Syndicate’ does hold a unique place in our hearts. It has also brought us a lot of opportunities so we’re also really grateful to it and to everyone who worked on it. We learnt a lot through making ‘The Syndicate’ as well – a baptism of fire in a lot of ways! – and ‘616’ is definitely benefitting from that.
What is ‘616’ about? What makes it worth backing?
‘616’ is a character driven, fantasy/horror webseries in the tradition of Buffy/Angel/Supernatural etc, albeit less glossy as we’re British…! Although it follows in some very established traditions, with ancient evils, magic and end of the world stakes, the concept behind the story, the way this evil manifests, is, so far as we can tell, entirely unique. We’ve watched many a horror film in our time and we’ve certainly never come across it before, so that alone makes it worth backing! Like all the best ideas it’s incredibly simple and you’ll kick yourself when you find out what it is…!
How has your experience been as women in the industry? Do you find any impact on your success?
So far, we’ve been very lucky and haven’t really experienced any overt prejudice or discrimination as a result of being female filmmakers beyond the odd “boys’ club” mentality of the occasional crew member. For the most part our gender has been completely irrelevant and that’s as it should be! We have been known to surprise festival programmers though as, with the nature of our writing, they assume we’re male…
What do you think is the biggest contributor to your success?
We don’t give in. Making low and no budget projects can be like fighting bears uphill through treacle – it’s hard work, it can be slow and frustrating and there is always something trying to stop you, from the weather to needing to pay the rent, but the trick is to just put your head down and keep going.
Thank you so much to Amy and Victoria! Good luck to them on the crowdfunding for ‘616’!
About Systir Productions
Systir Productions is an award winning production team, based in London, and consisting of sisters Amy and Victoria Howell. Amy is a writer/producer with a ten year background in project management and Victoria is a writer/director of over fifteen years experience. They began Systir in 2008 and their first project was a multi-award winning webseries, ‘The Syndicate’, which, due to interest from producers they have now developed into a feature script. The script placed in the finals of the Cascade Pictures Writers’ Couch Initiative in December 2012; semi-finals of the Bluecat Screenplay Competition 2013 and was a finalist for the Bluecat Cordelia Prize for best British script. Systir have also produced three short films, two of which, ‘616’ and ‘Drawn Together’ are live action/animation mix and still in post production – these are due to be finished by early 2014 to be submitted to festivals. The third, ‘6 Shooter’, was made as a competition entry for the Frightfest/Shortcuts to Hell competition 2013.
As a result of taking ‘The Syndicate’ to webseries festivals in 2012, Amy and Vicky met up with Canadian webseries creator Ivan Hayden, who, with co-creators Jason Fischer and Kirk Jacques, was aiming to establish a webseries studio, Frostbite Pictures, to produce high end webseries content. Systir agreed to become the UK arm of Frostbite and are now working on their second webseries, ‘616’, developed from their feature concept/short film of the same name. However, where the original concept was a B movie, effects laden gorefest, the webseries has been developed as a more mainstream, character driven fantasy/horror series in the tradition of Buffy/Supernatural/Grimm etc. ‘616’ is a completely original horror concept, which has never been done – so far as we can tell! – and Systir are very excited to bring the concept to the webseries world. They are shooting just the first three episodes at present as pilot episodes with which they hope to generate production funding for a full series.
As well as writing, directing and producing their own original content, Systir also collaborate with other webseries creators and filmmakers. Most recently, they directed and helped production manage short film ‘Leads and Follows’, a love story set in the world of swing dancing, and award winning comedy horror webseries ‘The Bloody Mary Show’, as well as assistant producing short horror film ‘Anna’.
Systir are currently crowdfunding for ‘616’ and would love it if you could help them out! There are some great perks to be had, so please do follow the link and check it out.
For more information on Systir and their past projects please see their website where you can also watch their first webseries, ‘The Syndicate’. You can also check out the trailers for their short films on the website or on their YouTube channel. If you’re into social media – and who isn’t these days! – follow them on Twitter –systiria and 616series – or Facebook – SystirProductions, TheSyndicateWebseries and 616series, or link up with them on LinkedIn.
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.
Talk about Geek Culture
I hear a lot about Geek Culture, and I know a lot of Geeks and a lot of geeks. I wanted to kind of ruminate (really navel-gaze) about what Geek is and what geek is and who takes on that label. This is all just my stuff so I don’t really care too much if people agree, I just felt like writing it.
First, I don’t think anyone has to be a geek or that they should be labeled one without wanting to be one. I do think that people can participate in Geek culture without being a geek or a Geek.
Let’s clarify some stuff (these are my descriptions and definitions only):
Geek Culture = the overarching media and social constructs surrounding enthusiasts and Geeks/geeks.
Geek = someone who is a geek and active participant in Geek Culture. When used as “a Geek (thing)” or “Geeky”, something that is mainstream geek, common to a larger majority of the community, or something that is geeky.
geek/enthusiast = a person who enjoys media or activities and participates actively in enjoyment, whether it is sharing experiences with others or simply investing time and/or money in their hobby or interest. A person can be an enthusiast without being a geek, but rarely a geek without being an enthusiast, and geek is a self-identified label. When used as “a geek (thing)” or “geeky”, something that is any type of hobby or preoccupation, any level of commonality in the community, but not necessarily part of the larger Geek community.
fan = a person who enjoys a thing or activity, with varying levels of interest.
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.
Not all geeks are Geeks but all Geeks are geeks, geeks can be fans but not all fans are geeks, all geeks are enthusiasts but not all enthusiasts are geeks, and so on.
As an example, I’m a Geek and a geek and a fan. I consume mainstream geek media like Star Trek and Star Wars and Harry Potter, and actively participate in the enjoyment – I share it with friends, I talk about the meaning and theories addressed in the media, and I invest money in clothing, jewelry, posters, etc. about these things. I’m an RPG geek, not just playing but also discussing theory and investing money into the products, and a participant in the overall gaming community. Someone just the same as me might say that they’re just a geek, or just an enthusiast, or just a fan, but they have the option of a narrower label.
I think one of the big problems right now is that one, we’re applying the geek or Geek label to people or things without it necessarily fitting. See, someone can be a geek about football but not consider themselves a geek, instead using the label of fan. However, someone who is a fan of football might consider themselves a sports geek, because they know the gritty details of the statistics, details about the players, and other things that indicate a deeper level of involvement.
Sometimes people are geeks or enthusiasts because of their profession – academics, experts – but don’t use the geek moniker because it has a negative component for a lot of people. Geek was used as an insult and has a kind of yucky history, and some people don’t want the label because of that. That’s totally okay! They don’t have to be geeks! We can think of them in that context to understand them, but that doesn’t make them geeks – you can’t be a geek without consent. This is part of why the Fake Geek meme is so outrageous. Geek is a self-applied label, so telling someone they aren’t a geek or that they don’t do enough of whatever you think they should do to be a geek is utter nonsense. Just as someone can behave in a manner of a geek and not call themselves a geek, someone can behave in a manner not like a geek and still call themselves a geek.
Another problem is that geek has become Geek – mainstream – in many arenas. Geekiness carries so much baggage that being a part of the mainstream or there even being mainstream geeks or Geeks is just weird, man. Geeks are used to being separate from the norm, a niche market, outcasts. Now we have TV shows that feature geeks prominently and often not flatteringly. Non-geeks adopt our image – geeky references on t-shirts, black rimmed glasses, even attaching themselves to our media and our gadgets.
We feel defensive. I feel it, too, even though some might consider me a Fake Geek, when people on the periphery claim, “I’m such a geek!” when in my mind, they’re really a “Geek”. They’re enthusiasts and consumers but they are more than that a part of the larger Geek Culture. They might like Avengers (the film) and have never picked up a comic in their life, and that’s cool! They can be a part of Geek Culture. They can consider themselves geeks, big or little G, because it’s perception that matters. How you perceive yourself – a geek, an enthusiast, a fan, or a Geek – is what matters, not how I look at you, or some stranger looks at you. You judge if your amount of investment into something counts enough to make you a geek.
Geek Culture has some biiiig problems, though. One, the Fake Geek thing, which I’ve addressed above, is total bullshit and needs to die die die. Two, there’s still so much rampant sexism and racism and classism.
Classism? Yeah, I said it. Being a Geek costs money a lot of the time, and because collector items often require a lot of investment (and sometimes geeky endeavors in general take a lot of time and money), it can give people the impression that if you don’t have the funds to participate in all of geek/Geek, you aren’t allowed to be a Geek. Maybe someone only saw Avengers and doesn’t buy the comics because they only have a small allowance and $4 comic books multiple times a month really add up, but seeing one movie this summer at the shitty local theater was just affordable. They can still be a geek if they want to, because we shouldn’t have a buy in to be a geek. Geek isn’t a country club!
Racism and sexism? You can’t throw an Xbox without hitting an article about the sexism and racism in Geek Culture. From video games to movies to comics to historical reenactments – these things are pervasive in normal society, and geek communities have no special exception. The thing is, we all should care enough about this community and about the media we consume to actually give a fuck about changing it.
What we consume as Geeks or geeks or fans or enthusiasts, whatever label you want to put on it, contributes to the image we present as people or as members of Geek Culture. And we need to change it. If people look at us and see these negative aspects first and foremost, it gives all of us a bad name, and that’s part of why people deny identification. Geeks shouldn’t be known for being assholes or ignorant. We should strive to make our fandoms and our interests look better, not be negligent or dismissive and make them look worse.
But, so many of us don’t. After all, it’s just a game! It’s just a movie! It’s just a comic!
It’s just a huge part of our lives.
Just some stuff to think on.
<3,
BCS
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.
My disappointment with Remember Me
So, I haven’t finished Remember Me. It came out like two months ago, I know, what the hell am I doing?
Here’s what.
I’m still interested in the story. I think it sounds fascinating. I still was interested in the art and the visual parts of the game.
I fuckin’ hate the combat. Like, if I did all other parts of the game, I’d be fine, but the combat is clunky and I failed so many times it took me four times as long to get through simple combat. I am slow on combat in general, and have trouble following combos (and the combos are so unclear in this game!).
It’s bad enough that I’m considering asking +John Sheldon to play through it for me while I watch, since it’s not an incredibly long game and I want to see the rest of the story.
I’m just so disappointed. I wanted this game to succeed. The marketing was too little and the execution isn’t good enough. It makes me angry because this game had a lot of good going for it in the beginning and because they could have made a big impact if the game had just been better and if they’d marketed more effectively.
Sigh.
Feel free to comment below with your own stories of disappointing games (or comments about Remember Me specifically).
THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2010. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.