I designed 44 to be a simple game that you can play in one evening. One of the most important things to make that fun one-shot play happen is the Reserve.

Here’s how it works. Every time it’s your turn, you roll a bunch of dice to see what happens to your character. Every time, it’s a suspenseful scene. Nearly every time, your character’s worst fears emerge. This ratchets up the tension. It also does something mechanically that can hurt your character immediately, but help out in the long run

When your character’s Anxieties come into play, they remove the highest results you rolled. So, if you rolled a couple 6s, those go off to the side. You get “penalized.”

But’s it’s not all bad. You get to keep some of those high dice results in your Reserve.

With dice in your Reserve, you can do the following:

1. Swap your Reserve die with dice you roll to get a better result. Have a 6 in Reserve? Play it!
2. Give your Reserve dice away to other players to increase their total pool of dice to roll.
3. Spend any Reserve die of 4+ to increase your Bonds. (Bonds are other supporting characters that help you.)
4. Spend any Reserve die of 6 to increase your Qualities. (Qualities are your character’s scores.)
5. Spend dice to increase your sides’ pool in the Trust Fund vs. Motor Pool roll at the end of a turn. (This is a “big” roll that decides how well the 44 conspiracy is taking over.)

These options make the game exceptionally fun. I’ve noticed some play testers ask “What can I do with these again?” These options will be right on the character record to make play easy as can be. And, I’ll add page numbers so people can look up details quickly.

Tags: 44, Game Design by Matt Snyder
No Comments »

Last year at GenCon 2007, I released the ashcan version of 44: A Game of Automatic Fear. Now, the game design is complete, and the game itself nears publication. I’m rewriting the text to incorporate all changes and extremely helpful feedback since last August.

My goal is to create a highly accessible game for people who enjoy role-playing, but have busy lives like mine. The game is designed for exciting, suspenseful one-shot play. If you’re at all like me, it’s tough getting everyone together weekly or even monthly for longer games.

44 is not a “lite” game in that it has extremely simple mechanics. It has a many play options, but these are not overwhelming by any stretch. Characters are simple on paper, but interesting to watch and portray. Play is suspenseful. The rules make play more suspenseful and entertaining.

One of the things I learned with the ashcan is that people wanted a simple list of options so they can remember things quickly during play. So, the rule book will be designed to help players look up rules quickly. And, character records will have a very useful “cheat sheet” for what they can do during turns.

This poses a book and graphic design challenge that I’m really looking forward to. 44 needs to be accessible to you because it’s extremely fun to play. I aim to make it your go-to “pickup” game for low-preparation, immediate fun.

Look for an October release.

Tags: 44, Game Design, News by Matt Snyder
No Comments »

In just a couple weeks, I’ll be at GenCon where you can get copies of Dust Devils at the Play Collective, booth 2039. I’ll be right next door with the Ashcan Front booth introducing people to some really interesting new indie games. Unfortuanately, I have no copies of Nine Worlds currently. There may be a very small number of copies available at the IPR/Forge Booth right across the aisle, however.

I’m eager to talk to people at the con. Better yet, I’m eager to play! I’ll happily run any of my games after hours and a the Games on Demand area with anyone who wants to join in. That includes playing my newest game, 44. This new suspense and horror game is designed for one-shots, so it’s perfect for the con. 44 is not yet published, but the game design is complete!

Hope to see you there.

Tags: 44, Dust Devils, Events, News by Matt Snyder
No Comments »