The print version of Technoir is nearly available, and you can preorder your copy today. The print version ships October 28th and you’ll get to download the PDF immediately.

If you’ve already bought a PDF copy of the game, and you’d be interested in upgrading to the print version, be sure to email me at jeremy [at] cellar-games [dot] com with a proof of purchase (your PDF order number or the email address you used to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign), and I’ll hook you up with a $5 discount.

The book looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

Since Gencon, I’ve been gradually transitioning out of my full-time job as an animator for a video productions company and am beginning to do freelance work for the RPG industry as my primary source of income. If that last phrase doesn’t sound scary to you, then I can only assume the acronym RPG stands for something different to you than it does to me. I am not working for the rocket propelled grenade industry (ok, that sounds frightening as well).

Anyway, I invite you to watch from the safety of your own home as I undertake this exciting and often warned against career move. Will he be able to make rent? Can he find affordable health insurance? Will he marry just for the financial stability? Tune in next week to Freelancer Mystery Theater.

Well, let me ignore that whole ball of anxiety for right now and focus on the really cool part. I get to work on some amazing projects. Here they are:

• Technoir: seeing the book through print, delivering all the promised rewards for the Kickstarter backers—including Mechnoir, Hexnoir, and Morenoir—and creating more supplemental material is still my main priority. Fortunately I have some help with this. Look for some cool official Transmissions from various authors over the coming months.
• Marvel Heroes: I am the Art Director for Margaret Weis Productions’ new roleplaying game based on comic books and characters I’ve loved all my life.
• Wushu Black Belt Edition: I’m doing layout for Daniel Bayn’s new edition of his amazing cinematic action game. I can’t wait to see this finally in print.
• Something I can’t tell you about: I’m doing some writing for a yet-to-be-announced-that-I’m-working-on-it game. I’ll be happy to tell you all about it when I can.
• Something without a name yet: I’m helping a friend to develop his game. To early to say much about this.

That’s quite a enough to keep me busy right at the moment, but I’ll be vocal about my availability as more time opens up.

Hey friends,

In two days I leave for Gencon Indy 2011! Can’t wait to see everyone who’s going out there. Technoir won’t be there in print, unfortunately, but I will have a few special Transmissions to hand out.

I’ll be spending a good chunk of my time at Games on Demand. This is your one-stop location to try out new and not-so-new indie and small-press games. It’s going on Thursday to Saturday from 10am to 10pm and Sunday from 10am to 2pm. You can find it at the Pennsylvania Station C Meeting Room in the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Slots start every 2 hours. Be sure to bring some generic tickets.

I personally am on the schedule to run games starting at 2pm on Thursday and Friday and at 10am on Saturday. I might be there other times as well, but this is when I’m officially on the schedule. I will be running Technoir for folks who are interested, but I have a few other games I can run on request as well. Games like Apocalypse World, Wushu, Do, Be Ashamed Young Prince, and A Penny for My Thoughts. Come find me and get in on some gaming.

If you didn’t have a chance to pick up Technoir through the Kickstarter, you can now find the PDF available at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow!

First things first. The print edition of the game won’t be ready in time for Gen Con Indy as I had been hoping for. Here’s what happened: over the course of the beta testing and the Kickstarter, the page count for the book grew by about 60 pages. This meant a higher per unit cost to have the book printed in color through a Print on Demand printer. That would have led to a higher cover price (for everyone buying the book post-Kickstarter). Plus, I would have had to rush to finish the book and rush through the proofing process—this could have led to several errors and a substandard book.

Thankfully, due the funds raised through the Kickstarter campaign and the sheer numbers of supporters who purchased the print edition of Technoir, I can have the book printed by an offset printer. This means keeping the unit price low enough to stick to the $25 cover price. And while it means it’s going to take longer to print than I originally expected (we’re looking at September now at the earliest), it also means I can take the time to make sure that every error I find (with the help of some amazing proofreaders) is corrected and the full-color art appears exactly as it should on the page.

While it’s unfortunate that I won’t have it in print with me at the convention, this is ultimately great for the game. Thank you for your patience.

Good news time. The PDF version is now ready to be downloaded for the Kickstarter backers and playtesters. If that’s you, check your inboxes for links to that today. You will also receive an updated PDF when the book is sent to press if there’s any issues found during the proofing process. The PDF will go on sale at DriverThruRPG soon.

And be sure to check out the newly redesigned TechnoirRPG.com. It has an updated protagonists sheet, the player’s guide, and the Twin Cities Transmission to support your next session of Technoir.

I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of feedback on the Technoir Beta over the last month or so. Your comments and concerns have given me a lot to work with in shaping this little game into something stronger (and, by page count, bigger). I’ve just posted a new version of the beta with what is likely going to be close to the final text of the game. Please look it over and let me know what you think. I’m curious to hear if it addresses issues you may have had with the previous versions. If you get a chance to playtest it over the next week or so, I’d love to get your feedback.

Technoir Beta – 813KB

As to what’s changed: mostly the Contention chapter as a whole. It’s almost nearly completely rewritten with a much more detailed step by step guide through the process and much more text to explain when and why you roll dice. The system is much more clearly identified as a method used to manipulate characters rather than as a combat engine.

The examples throughout the book have also been rewritten to give a much clearer picture of how the rules support a noir story.

I also wanted to point out that I removed the Player’s Guide from the Technoir website. It’s so out of date right now that I didn’t want to cross any wires with it. Look for a new Player’s Guide to be posted in the next week or so.

My own focus now is going into the final illustrations and layout polishing phase of the book. Unless there are any major issues introduced by this new draft, the PDF of the game is on track to be finalized sometime in the next week.

Thank you so much.

Here a couple pieces of art I’ve been working on for Technoir that are almost complete. These are two of the full page pieces that will introduces the chapters. Enjoy.

In the process of the production of Technoir a certain artistic style has been developed for the interior art and it has led to an unfortunate situation in which the cover art I had already commissioned is no longer consistent with the rest of the book.

Because I’ve been using the art by Malcolm McClinton here, on Kickstarter, and elsewhere to promote the book, I wanted to let you know about this decision as soon as possible. To be clear, I’m still extremely happy with Malcolm’s talented work and have no regrets about commissioning it. It’s helped me to conceptualize the atmosphere of the game.

But for me, having a consistent vision throughout the book is important and so I’m designing a new cover that fits this new style.

I know many of you were likely drawn to this game by Malcolm’s art and perhaps even backed the project largely because of it. I am considering printing a short run of an alternate version of the book with Malcolm’s cover. So, if it’s important to you, please let me know if that is something you would want.

Thank you.

I don’t have time for much of a blog post today, but it did want to point out a few places where Technoir is being discussed elsewhere on the internet. I might have mentioned a couple of these on twitter, but haven’t done so yet on the blog.

First off, Michael Wolf interviewed me last week on the Stargazer’s World blog. We talked about how I got into game design and some of the unique components of Technoir.

Second, the crew from Actual People, Actual Play discussed their playtest of Technoir on their latest episode of their podcast. This was a great source of feedback for me. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Finally, some playtesters have been providing their feedback publicly in a couple of threads at Story Games: [Technoir] A couple issues and [Technoir] 2nd session playtest. The resulting discussion has been amazing for me to reveal some issues in how the game is being communicated and help crystalize for me what I need to make explicit in my next revision of the rules. If you want to see into the guts of how the game is responding to playtest feedback, it’s all happening in that thread.

As always, if you’re talking about Technoir (or Chronica Feudalis for that matter) on your blog, podcast, or a forum somewhere, I’d be happy to hear about, weigh-in if it’s appropriate, and/or link to it from here.

So a lot of people have been talking on twitter, forums, and blogs about writing their own transmissions for Technoir. This is amazing. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I want to help you as much as I can to do this. …and do this well. …so you will do it more. So I decided to write a brief guide explaining my process as I’ve written the Twin Cities and Los Angeles transmissions.

Exposition

Write three paragraphs about your city. One is about its unique take on technology, one is about the environment in the region, and the third is about its society—especially given the influences of technology and environment. Think of what themes you want to address with your transmission and talk about them here. This is the most wordy you get to be in the entire document, so enjoy that freedom while you can.

The Nodes

You’re going to come up with 36 nodes. Six connections, six events, six factions, six locations, six objects, and six threats. Each one is going to have a short, one-line description. Don’t write so much that you explain what the node is—write just enough that the GM reading is inspired to define what the node is herself as she connects it to other nodes on her plot map.

Connections

Come up with six connections. It helps if they’re part of the criminal underworld in some sense, because that’s what ties the protagonists into the seedy underbelly of the city. They should be characters who you can imagine as both best friends and bitter enemies with the protagonists depending on the context. They could very well start as one and quickly become the next.

Connections stats

Connections are made to be on par with new protagonists or one step better. You can distribute 18 points among their nine verbs with three adjectives or your can distribute 21 verbs and four adjectives if they should be a bit more powerful. Pawn shop owners, drug dealers, and scientists should probably be on par. Crime bosses and deadly assassins should probably be more powerful. Assign whatever objects seem to be appropriate. There isn’t a lot of space here to list out the object stats, I figure the GM can pop open a player’s guide for that and pick whichever upgrades seem appropriate at the time.

Favors should be assigned to fit the connection’s character concept. There isn’t any formula to who gets what favors or how many. I would make sure that shark and splice are represented at least once. You don’t have to have all the favors in your transmission. Twin Cities doesn’t have chop. It helps create a meaningful difference between the transmissions. Want chop? Better head to L.A. or Detroit.

You’re going to want to wait til your done creating all your nodes before you make the connections’ lead tables.

Events

Come up with six events. This one is the hardest section for me usually. Look at other transmissions for ideas. But try think of things that could only happen in your city as well. Crazy weather is good too as it makes a cover for other nefarious deeds. Keep them open so they can be things that have occurred, are occurring, or threaten to occur in the plot. Keep them open enough that many of your connections, factions, and threats can be responsible for them.

Factions

Come up with six factions. Here’s where you’re really going to nail down the theme of your city. Twin Cities is about cybernetics, so there’s two corporations here that are big on that. Here are the big categories I think of when I’m trying to come up with factions: corrupt government, heartless corporations, political activists, fringe religious groups, large gangs, organized crime, and secret societies.

Locations

Come up with six locations. Try to think of the most cyberpunk places in your city. These are set pieces for cool scenes to play out. What architecture in your city sets it apart and how can you represent that as a location? My favorite location in the Twin Cities is the skyways. They seem futuristic (even though they’ve been around as long as I can remember), and they’re awesome for chases and urban labyrinths. There are actually probably a lot more than six locations in your city that you want to talk about. So you can hide other locations in the other nodes by mentioning, in their descriptions, where the connections hang out, where a faction meets, or where an event takes place.

Objects

Come up with six objects. These are your classic MacGuffins! The things everyone in the story wants to get their hands on. Prototype tech, money, drugs, scary-ass weapons, doomsday devices, statues of birds. Some can be cool weapons, implants, vehicles, or other gear that are usable by the protagonists. These can be a cool way to add new technology into the setting. Twin Cities has a full cyberbody.

Object stats

Just come up with the capabilities of your object and codify those as tags. Use the tags of the existing objects catalog as a guide. Add some cool story tags like stolen or fingerprints or tracking device.

Threats

Come up with six threats. These are teams of people that are designed to fight protagonists. Each one should have at least two heavies and anywhere from zero to four henchmen. Envision your favorite cyberpunk and hardboiled scenarios in your head and think of who the heroes would be fighting. Those are your threats. Security forces, teams of assassins, military units, gangs, and so forth.

Threat stats

Make sure each threat has a name. Heavies should be made with 21 points distributed between the verbs and four adjectives (one step better than the protagonists). Henchmen are made with 18 points among their verbs and one adjective. Write a list of objects, fully statted out, that cover everything they have together. Then you can just name which of those objects each individual has in their own section. Just come up with whatever objects are appropriate for that group. You can even make up custom objects that aren’t in the object catalog or anywhere else (but try not to go to that well too often).

The Master Table

The master table is pretty easy to come up with. It’s just all of your nodes listed out in order. Each row is one category with the nodes listed across the columns alphabetically. There’s an equal chance of rolling any node, so the position doesn’t really matter as long as you list each node once.

The Connection Lead Tables

These tables are a bit harder to do. You’ll want to open an extra copy of your transmission so far so you can scroll through one copy while editing the tables on the other. Each node should be represented twice among all the lead tables. I try to make sure that a node is in the un-connected column of one table and the connected column of another table—that’s just something I shoot for, it’s not absolutely necessary. If you look at the existing transmissions, you will notice that each row of the table is a particular category.

Other than those guidelines, I just try to think of what nodes in the city that connection is most likely to know about and fill the table with that.

Credits

Make sure you go back to the beginning of your document and give yourself credit as the author of the transmission. I’m planning on releasing the transmissions under a creative commons attribution license at some point, so according to those requirements, make sure to credit any transmission authors you borrowed stuff from. Make for damn sure you credit anyone who helps you playtest the transmission.

I hope this helps you as you embark on creating your own transmissions. If you have any questions, please post them here so others with the same question can learn as well. And as you get some practice with this and come up with some tips and advice of your own, I’d love it if you would share.

And I want to see your transmissions too! Let me know if you post them on your blog or to forums. And feel free to email them to me. I’d be happy to look them over and help you out with any issues.