Viewing posts for the category DevBlog
Tab Creations has only been making games professionally for three years, but we’ve been making RPGs as a hobby for going on fifteen. In that time we’ve been involved in more campaigns than I can count and ran everything from Savage Worlds, to GURPS, to D&D, to Freemarket, to Starshield, to Marvel Super Heroes. We’ve ran numerous house settings as well, from a game of action-packed Indian myth that would become Against the Dark Yogi, to a sci-fi horror game that would become Shadows Over Sol....
I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about RPG combat system design. After all, combat systems are a major emphasis in many (if not most ) RPGs....
The first printing proof for Shadows Over Sol arrived the other day. It looks amazing! Unfortunately, there is an issue with the lower margin. This means that we're going to need to correct the issue and then order a second printing proof. It also means that the print version of the core book won't be released until early-to-mid February....
We're coming up on the first week since the funding period for the Shadows Over Sol Kickstarter ended, and in this week we've been hard at work putting all the pieces in place for a smooth and timely production process. We've also taken stock of our expenses and done our initial estimates....
When we at Tab Creations publish a new roleplaying game, we have a regular process that we like to go through in order to ensure that the game meets our quality standards. Using this process, a new roleplaying game supplement passes through a series of stages before it is considered complete. As we recently concluded the funding period on our Shadows Over Sol Kickstarter, an influx of new backers is likely wondering just what to expect as the game goes through its final production. The various steps we use to produce a game are detailed below....
This week we preview the ARC Project, one of the most ambitious engineering efforts currently underway in the future of Shadows Over Sol. The ARC Project (short for Alpha-Centauri Remote Colony) is no less than an attempt to construct humanity's first interstellar colony ship. Once completed, this ship will be launched at the planet Sirine orbiting Alpha Centauri A, carrying some 10,000 inhabitants. It will then undergo a four century journey to its final destination with the hope of colonizing a distant exoplanet....
Horror would be nothing without characters to experience dread and terror. Science fiction would be little without characters to make the future happen. Player characters are the heart of any roleplaying game. Character creation in Shadows Over Sol takes place over the course of a few basic steps. These steps establish a character's concept, capabilities and place in the world. A bit of insight about each of these steps is given below....
In the future of Shadows Over Sol society has fractured into numerous subcultures, each fed its own spin on the world around it, and possessed of its own values, distinct from others. These subcultures have their own trends in dress and speech, allowing members to easily identify those that share the same subculture, and single out those who do not belong....
Engineering to solve problems is a common trope in the science fiction genre. I can't count the number of times in sci-fi movies, books or TV shows that I've seen characters whip up a technological solution to the problem at hand through the expert use of improvisation and engineering know-how....
Often roleplaying game hackng systems are designed in such a way that it is easy for hackers go off to do their thing while the other players are left sitting and waiting. The hacking and encryption system in Shadows Over Sol is specifically designed to help alleviate this problem....