Ship Maps and Rabbit Holes
10 months ago – Sat, Jul 22, 2023 at 11:15:04 AM

The Scope of Rabbit Holes

'Down the rabbit hole' was the title of the first chapter in Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel 'Alice in Wonderland.' It has come to be an English language trope. According to the Wikipedia, "the term is usually used as a metaphor for distraction. In the 21st century the term has come to describe a person who gets lost in research".

When creating a game setting, Laura and I are strongly reminded of these metaphorical rabbit holes. Both are notoriously complex. Both are seemingly bottomless. As world designers, we can attest that you can get lost in the details of both.

In many creative endeavors-- especially games -- this is often referred to as the 'scope' of the project. Scope is a way to set boundaries on your project and define exactly what goals, deadlines, and project deliverables you'll be working towards.

We usually start by listing the 'minimum viable product' (MVP) which is a list of the absolute basic things which must be included to claim that the product is usable. A car, for example, requires wheels on which to run, energy, a motor and drive train to convert that energy into moving the car, some form of braking to stop it after it moves, and a place for people to ride in the car. We also need a place to shelter the people riding in the car from the weather outside the car and protect them should the car collide with another object. 

This car would work ... but so far it isn't very exciting.

So we add style and features. Maybe you want a radio. Maybe you want Bluetooth. How about a stylish body or some exotic paint or cool wheels. Air conditioning is a must but what about heated back seats? Let's put on some chrome. Gotta have chrome...

This is known as inflating scope. The more you work on a project, the more features and details and wonderful, wonderland things you can see to add to it. The more you add to the project, however, the more bloated it becomes. Down the rabbit hole of design can threaten to just keep inflating any design forever.

The real question becomes one of return on investment. Is inflating the scope of the project adding enough value for the effort -- or is it just piling on more chrome to make things shinier without really adding any value?

That is especially true of world setting designs like ours. We love this world and love working on it. Every day we come up with new ideas, new directions, new stories and characters that beckon us to new, distant horizons of adventure.

We toss them out every, single day.

They are devoutly shunned. Every one of them is a rabbit hole with a hidden, siren call to make the world and the project just a  little bit bigger and take a little longer.

We are pushing hard now to get both the Skyraiders (players) and Skymasters (GMs) books to press. Our current work schedule should get us to completing the final manuscript by October with press to follow shortly thereafter. We don't have time for the temptation of more scope.

When you have Skyraiders in your hands, we hope you will understand why not every horizon has been explored, not and not every story told.

That's a rabbit hole we should explore together once the books are in your hands!

More Friendly Ghost Ships

I've been finishing up the first Skyraiders adventure. It takes place aboard a haunted aeroship and is designed to help characters obtain a ship for them to adventure in early in the game. It is also tightly integrated with the Skyraiders app so completing the paper side of the adventure will next lead Joe and me to creating the first digital integration --  a wonderful test of the Living Tome System (LTS). 

Ships present wonderful problems for GMs that are similar to those of Castle Ravenloft: that is a lot of vertical movement. Keeping track of characters moving in three dimensions can be difficult for GMs during a game. 

Each of these symbols is associated with a letter that indicates the location to which passing in that direction leads. 

Here is a sample map from the adventure that shows the solution I've implemented for knowing where the exits from each dungeon are located.

The ladders (the name for 'stairs' on ships) that have both up and down symbols on them (the ones leading down to T) indicate stacked ladders. In ships, space is saved by placing ladders  between decks on top of one another. In this case, there is a ladder leading up from the deck to 'B' (the Weather Deck) with a ladder directly under it leading down to T (the ship's hold).

Thus, the GM can readily see that there are two openings at the aft end of the compartment that leads to R (the Sylph Engine); two sets of double ladders that lead up to B and down to T; a second double set of ladders that also lead up to B and two forward doors that both lead to area P.

All of this will, of course, be integrated with the app, allowing individual characters to make discoveries along the way. Perhaps they will be the only one of their party who can see -- or hear the voice of -- a ghost here?

-- Tracy Hickman

Pirate Adventures in the Caribbean
11 months ago – Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 05:22:09 PM

Last month, Laura and I celebrated our 46th Wedding Anniversary (which was actually this month) by taking a Disney cruise about the Caribbean. We decided to take a shore excursion in St. Thomas that promised us a visit to Blackbeard’s Castle as well as the Pirate Museum.

We boarded the typical open-air tourist bus next to the ship. First stop was Blackbeard’s Castle…

Which, it turns out, was not only closed but had a large ‘For Sale’ sign in front of it. As we were not allowed on the grounds, our guide informed us that the complex included a restaurant, rum-tasting bar, hotel rooms and gift shop. Laura and I, in the best pirate fashion, immediately formulated a plan to purchase the property and turn it into a pirate-themed gamer resort where people could come to the Caribbean and play Skyraiders as well as many other games. It would be like an intimate theme-convention destination.

Laura calls this an ‘Entrepreneurial Seizure’ where we are temporarily overcome with a business idea regardless of its practical merit. It lasted about ten minutes. When we realized that the humidity would cause all our game books to wrinkle like prunes it was the end of that dream.

We visited a number of other sites including a lovely overlook of the far side of the island and were informed that we would be dropped off at our last stop: the Pirate Museum in St. Thomas a.k.a. ‘Pirate’s Treasure’ shipwreck museum. In true pirate fashion, it was located in the Buccaneer Mall right next to the Skyride to Paradise Point and what looked like about a mile’s walk through an outdoor retail mall to get back to the ship. One restaurant in that mall offered an $8 hot dog and a $10 hamburger – both of which we realized we could get on the ship for free if we didn’t die of hunger on the long walk back to the boat.

The pirate museum was everything Laura and I had expected and less. The remote manipulator arm could not be manipulated. The virtual reality undersea experience was so virtual that it was missing its headset. None of the interactive exhibits interacted. Even the elevator between floors got stuck (gratefully without us). The elevator was not elevating. I couldn’t even find anything in the gift shop I might have wanted for a gift.

Fortunately, I had purchased a deck of pirate playing cards the previous day in Tortola…

We survived our pirate encounter and took pictures of ourselves to both share the experience with  you and legitimately prove that our excursion day actually could be written off on our taxes.

Thank goodness the Skyraiders of our imagination are so much more romantic and exciting!

--Tracy Hickman

Test Pilots

Every ship needs a good shake down. When it comes to flying ships, after all the designing and the planning, one really needs to build a prototype, hand it over to test pilots, and see how well it flies.

That’s exactly what we have done with our Skyraiders aeroship rules. We put out a call for test pilots among you backers and were delighted at the response. We sent you out with our brand new shiny rules, handed you our brand new aeroship prototypes and anxiously awaited your first flights.

The results? 

Explosions, spins, doomed recovery attempts, crashes, impacts, twisted, flaming wreckage… in other words, absolutely horrendous and entirely expected failure.

I’ve always believed that we learn a lot more from failure than from success. That’s why we called for test pilots from among our backers in the first place: to learn how to make aeroship flight work. Designing a working game system is a constant battle between accuracy (complexity) and playability (simplicity). Finding that balance is something that game designers largely guess at and often as not get it wrong.

I’ve been reading through the results of each of the tests, making notes and determining what to do next to help the ships if not fly better then at least be more fun to fly. The overall consensus is that the system we have now is far too complex and that the resource allocation aspect (which, oddly enough, is actually part of making a sailing ship function) just wasn’t interesting in play.

At the moment, I am busy working on the adventure section of the game – partly to establish a baseline of functionality with Joe for the app – while Laura has been working on the layouts on the player’s book to get it ready for final image insertion and prepress for publication. As soon as I finish the adventure section, I’ll continue digging through the wreckage of the aeronaut responses and recommendations from the test pilots. From this I hope to produce a much simplified (streamlined?) rules revision on Aeroship flight. Once we run through another round of testing on that, we should be pretty close on the final Skymaster’s book as well – and be pushing to get everything to press.

This project is far more complex and vastly more work than Laura and I anticipated but we are also committed to bringing you the best adventure experience we possibly can.

--Tracy Hickman

App Update

Last time, I unveiled the app foundation and the LTS View Creator, a system that allows Tracy & Laura to create app content with minimal technical overhead. This system has now been fully integrated into the World Anvil API, allowing Tracy to tie interactive stories into any type of “article” (ie, a page on World Anvil that represents a person/place/thing/etc). In addition, we have added the ability for Tracy & Laura to integrate their World Anvil maps into the Living Tome App as well - they can set map markers, group them based on various filtering mechanisms, and then the Augmented Reality Map Viewer in the app will display only the markers that are relevant to your current character/knowledge.

We’re now in the process of transitioning this from being at the “tool” level (ie, using placeholder data to test the tools) to being an actual Skyraiders story quest, playable in conjunction with the books and other printed materials.

--Joe@Skyraiders

About Your Shipping Address

We've seen a number of requests regarding updating shipping addresses. This project is a long time in the making and it is only natural that a good number of you, our backers, are going to move between funding and completion. 

You need not worry. We will be notifying you via your associated email address here on Kickstarter when the time comes to update (or at least verify) your shipping address and provide you the links you'll need to make it happen.

Final Thoughts

I apologize for not getting the update out last month. There was a great deal packed into these past weeks!

While we are concentrating on getting the print materials (books, etc.) to press there remains more work to be done. While the printed materials are being produced, we will be working on the LTS App and the integration with World Anvil. This means that even while the books are being printed and shipped to you, we will still be working on the world and making the experience better still.

All we ask is your patience and understanding as we build this dream.

-- Tracy & Laura Hickman

Aeroship Test Pilots Wanted!
about 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 12:57:24 PM

We apologize that our update is a couple of week late. We've been VERY busy here on all fronts ... and now we're looking for your help in making Skyraiders everything we hope it can be. 

But first, let us take a look at the progress on the Player's Skyraider's Handbook...

Vertical Slice of Awesome

A 'vertical slice' is defined as a type of milestone that demonstrates progress across all components of a project. It gives a sense of how a product will look and feel when completed.

So we thought we would share a vertical slice of the Skyraider's Handbook to give you a sense of the progress that we are making on the layout of that book as well as how the final product will look and feel. Kim Bourrie with the assistance of Avalee send the following slices to share: 

These are, of course, all taken from the character class section of the first book. You can see the general ornate parchment look that we are going for as well as some representative interior art styles. Both the Skyraider's Handbook and the GMs Skymaster's Guide will have matching styles.

You should know that as the layout progresses on the player's book, Laura and I are forging ahead on the GM book at the same time. And, of course, we have the integration of the Living Tome App with everything progressing at the same time. It's a tremendous amount of work for the number of people you can count on one hand -- but progress is certainly being made.

Aeronauts Wanted!

When I was a teenager (yes, I was once a teenager) I was crazy about flying. There was a flight school up the canyon from where I lived in a little town called Heber, Utah offering a course in flying sailplanes -- gliders to most of you. I could either purchase a motorcycle or those soaring lessons. Goodbye motorcycle ... hello skies! 

At the time, I was in the Air Force Jr ROTC in Provo High School with several of my buddies. My girlfriend liked it when I wore my snappy uniform on Thursdays. Lynn Alley and Harry Rising, Jr. decided to learn to fly at the same time I did.  We would drive up to Heber, climb into the front seat of a Schweizer 2-33 with our instructor in the back and then get pulled into the sky by a Stearman tow plane. Once we were at altitude -- about 2,000 feet AGL (above ground level) -- we would bank the sailplane up and to the right slightly and pull the release knob. With a rather large BANG the tow cable would spring away, the tow plane would dive down and to the left and we were free in the sky to ride the updrafts and the wind.

I've loved flight ever since. Flying ... and boating as well as the great ships of the age of sail and submarines ... all of which have something to do with aeroship flight.

Having piloted both glider and powered aircraft in my life, you can imagine that I am a stickler when it comes to the details. I want to capture the feeling that flight gives me in all its complexity and nuance.

Very much at the heart of the Skyraiders Experience was the feeling of sailing a great ship through the sky. But now it has caused me to work overtime creating the rules for aeroship flight in our Skyraiders game, But in all my zeal, I realized that my careful attention to detail and my love of sail may not necessarily make for exciting or even interesting gameplay for other people. For that matter, no matter how many years of experience any game designer has,  they are never, ever perfect.

Especially me.

That's why playtests are so valuable ... which is where you, fledgling aeronauts, come in.

I am looking for a LIMITED number of playtesters from among our backers to help me put my 5e aeroship rules through their paces. We need to find out what works and, more importantly, what doesn't. 

If you have the time and feel you have the right stuff to test out our 5e aeroship rules, then do the following:

• COMPOSE & SEND YOUR VOLUNTEER EMAIL: Include your name and what you believe to be your qualifications to be a playtester to me at our project email address [email protected]. Make it compelling and persuasive. I only have a very limited number of slots I can fill for these playtest positions and am sorry we will not be able to accommodate everyone.
• HOPE FOR A REPLY: I'll put you in our pool and scientifically (or randomly) determine those who will be chosen for this round of tests. 

Everyone working on this project wants to provide each of you with a quality experience. We do not want to rush this just for the sake of completion. Help us make this adventure one in which we can all take pride.

-- To the winds, buccaneers! To the Storm!

TRACY HICKMAN

Of Apps and Aeroships
about 1 year ago – Mon, Feb 27, 2023 at 03:59:56 PM

Deep Dives in Technology and Design

We have been incredibly busy both here in at Hickman Studios and across the country at Bourrie Labs. The most recent work during this last month or so has been technical in nature ... Joe working on getting our unique application set up for game play while I (Tracy) have been wrestling with how to effectively get the aeroships to be an adventurous experience to fly in the game.

Joe, why don't you start with a dive into the design and function of the app for Skyraiders. I may even add my own observations along the way. 

Joe Bourrie: Under the Living Tome Hood

Since the last update, the app has made huge strides and Tracy & Laura are now equipped with the tools they need to start using the app to tell their story. First we will share a screenshot, but with two very large disclaimers:

1. The art team has not yet touched this - it’s just placeholder boxes placed by      programmers to test the underlying systems.
2. The text you see below is not from anything Tracy & Laura wrote: it’s a test case created by programmers, again to test the underlying systems.

We share this screenshot, because within such a simple set of text boxes underlies a very complex and robust foundation.

Exhibit A: Personalized Information

The screenshot demonstrates a cue that the GM might receive as the players enter a new area. A portion of the descriptor is marked as “secret”, and the choice (Sam, Archer or Do Nothing) is generated based on the list of current players in the session.

You might think of this as “If user is GM, show this window” - or, to put it another way, all possible views are passed through a “filter”, and the GM filters out this one to display.

Every player choice, every GM choice, stat checks, roll checks, class, profession, any of these things can affect each player’s filter individually, changing what they will see in a given scenario. A player with a high attunement to the supernatural might detect the presence of this wraith, while one with a fear of the dark may be prompted with an innate unwillingness to enter the crypt at all. Again, these are examples, and we’re confident that Tracy & Laura will be able to surprise us many times over with the robustness of this system.

Exhibit B: Play Remains on the Table

From the very start, the Hickmans stressed the importance of keeping play on the table. The phone is a tool for storytelling, but should not be the focal point of the experience. While the design of the play experience has taken great strides to make this happen, importantly we are also trying to keep technological issues from becoming a distraction to gameplay. We are doing this through a smart auto-reconnect system - if players put their phone to sleep, or home away from the app, or even close the app altogether, we have built functionality in to automatically reconnect to the GM’s device as soon as the app is re-opened.  We will still need to do some heavy QA (Quality Assurance) testing on this feature, but the foundation for it is in and we hope that it saves a lot of time and distraction during play.

Exhibit C: “D#%$it Jim, I’m a writer not a programmer!”

The last tech update for today is a sneak peek under the hood - if you look at these screens and your eyes gloss over in confusion, it’s ok. You can skip this section. But if you’re a techie who likes techie things, this section might be for you.

Introducing: the LTS View Creator - a tool written so that Tracy & Laura don’t have to get computer science degrees just to make Skyraiders happen!

I’m not going to go over every detail of this tool because honestly the details aren’t the interesting part - it’s what we can DO with it that’s interesting!

TRACY NOTE: Thank you, Joe! As you may recall, our entire team have been working with the amazing people over at World Anvil since nearly be beginning of this project. With their enthusiastic assistance and Joe's genius approach to our app, we are creating a system where Laura and I can use this LTS View Creator to compile the custom code for an Skyraider's encounter, post it directly to the World Anvil site, and have it immediately available in the app Skyraider's games. Indeed, we've been using the World Anvil website as a design board for all of the Skyraider's world. We are still building the initial app, of course, and there is a lot of development yet to go … but we thought you might like a glimpse at the future. 

Tracy Hickman: Introduction of Aeroship Flight

Laura and I are, of course, pressing ahead with the Skymaster's Guide. One of the critical sections has been the very first major section of the book entitled "Skyfaring.' 

A year ago we published an update where I talked about how I really wanted to capture the feeling of romance and adventure of movies like 'The Seahawks.' I've been agonizing over just how to achieve this for the entire year and when January came around, I had to face down the chapter of flying ships. I have certain expectations when it comes to sailing an aeroship in our game.

• Everyone should take a part in the sailing of the ship -- likely as an officer in charge of one aspect of the ship's function.
• There should be 'salty talk' -- I don't mean swearing but rather the information that they need to pass between them should sound 'in world' and nautical.
• It should feel like the expression of a complex craft and skill -- without being burdensomely complex and slowing things down in the game.

And now, at last, I think we've got it. But before we introduce you to the ship's officer positions...

NOTE ON NOMENCLATURE: Ship’s positions were traditionally given male-oriented titles (e.g. helmsman, sailing master, etc.). For our purposes, titles with such designations refers to characters who hold those positions regardless of their gender. Therefore, the post of ‘Quartermaster’ may be held by any gender despite the ‘masculine’ ending of the word. The same is true of ‘Helmsman’ or ‘Plainsman’. We felt that the use of the traditional titles gave a better connection to the world during the play of the game. If you prefer to change these for your game, please feel free to do so. 

I've included examples of typical things players would say to each other from the game. It may SOUND complicated but everything said here deals with a very basic, fast system and conversations in specific and simple 'code'.

• Captain: Coordinates the activities of all the other officers to get the ship to move safely in the desired direction … and determines what that direction should be. Examples: "Quartermaster, prepare to set sail!" "Harpist! Set your height 2,000 feet!" "Plainsman! Bring her ow up sharply!" "Helmsman! Set your course Nor' West by West!"
• Quartermaster: Generally in charge of the crew assignments and more specifically the deck crews. Quartermaster assigns numbers of the crews to one of three stations: (1) Topmen (crew in the rigging who are commanded by the Bo'sun), (2) deckhands (crew on the deck who have specific functions including being split between gunnery and repairs during battle and (3) apprentice harpists to assist in the tuning of the sylph engine 'harp' below decks. Examples: "Bo'sun! Ten crew to your division!" "Carpenter! I can spare you twenty for damage control!" "Gunner! Man eight of the portside cannons!" "Swab the decks, mates ... the captain has someone special coming aboard."
• Bo'sun (Sailing Master): Assigns topmen to the rigging to set the sails they designate. More sails means more speed but it can also mean breaking a yard, tearing canvas or snapping rigging if the strain is too much. This is the primary means of setting the basic speed of the ship. The rest of the officers get the weather (wind direction and strength for the Bo'sun. Examples: "Topmen! Get aloft and standby the foremast and main topsails!" "Topmen; set sail! Secure tacks and sheets!” "Captain, we’ve a gale coming at us from the So’West! We’re rigged for 15 knots but it’s putting a strain on the rigging ... we could break a yard!”
• Helmsman / Plainsman: Steers the course and pitch of the ship relative to the horizon. Based on Bo'sun weather, determines the sailing point of the ship (which way the ship is moving relative to the direction of the wind blowing across the deck) and how that effects the ship's course and speed. Example: “We’re running with the wind.” “We’re on the close reach.” “We’re close hauled! We have to beat to windward.”
• Harpist (Sylph Master): Determines the height at which the ship will be flying and any adverse effects of a 'poorly tunes' sylph engine. Examples: "Tune the harp!" "Gauge the Flow!" "The harp is in discord, Captain!" 
• Navigator / Cartographer: Combines the Bo'sun, Helmsman and Harpist reports to determine the headway of the ship (the speed at which it is moving along its plotted course) and how long it should take for them to reach any plotted destination. Examples: "We're on the reach, Captain, so we're making twelve knots headway ... we should reach Caradax in about two days."
• Gunner: During combat uses the crew assigned to them by the Quartermaster to crew any sylph cannons or other weaponry engaged in battle. Example: "Run 'em up, crew! Prepare to firea broadside!"
• Ship's Carpenter: Uses any crew assigned to them to repair damage to the ship whether that it as a result of combat or simple wear. Example: "Clear away the wreckage! Crew, get below and unship that a spare yard for the main topsail. Let's fix this running rigging!"

Now, each of these positions has a basic, simple function and process -- each related to a 5e difficulty class (DC) and modified by their personal skills. All of this will be reflected in the app as each person is given their particular task to respond to when commands are given -- which is also true in the non-app version of sailing the ship. Each also relies on the results from other character's tasks in order to complete their own. 

We'll be testing this over the next few weeks -- hopefully when we resume our live streaming game sessions -- so watch for that over the coming month or two. 

That's all for now. It's a lot of work but we're still on course. 

To the winds, Buccaneers! To the storm!

Skyraiders and the Wizard's OGL
over 1 year ago – Sat, Jan 07, 2023 at 11:13:27 AM

Friends, the sky is not falling … be calm and carry on.

There has been considerable speculation recently regarding proposed changes to the Open Gaming License (OGL) and associated Standard Rules Document (SRD) from Wizards of the Coast. These documents outline the legal pathway by which third-party producers may create and sell products that utilize the core Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition (5e) rules.

The Open Gaming License is a great example of strong fences making good neighbors. By clearly and legally stating the terms of the license, everyone knows where the boundaries are and can operate within them. No one has to worry about infringement. This is of tremendous benefit to creatives ranging from individual Kickstarter garage-publishers (like Tracy & Laura Hickman) to publishing companies like Paizo, Green Ronin and EN Publishing. It also benefits Wizards of the Coast by keeping their core rules products fresh and growing through a thriving, living marketplace, makes their patrons happy and everyone stays out of court.

Now, it seems, there is a 'leaked' document that many people believe is causing the OGL sky to fall. Let's take a breath and repeat the following:

• We haven't seen the 'leaked' document. We have reports of what it contains but we have not reviewed the actual document. We don't doubt the sincerity or veracity of anyone that has read them but we just haven't read them ourselves.
• It is not a 'final' document. This means that it is subject to change. We think it wonderful that this 'leaked' document allows WotC to judge the public reaction to what may be in the proposed changes to the OGL and then alter it to address public concerns. That's actually wise.

What are we doing about It?

We are following this course and recommend you join us:

• Engage in constructive dialogue: Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., owns the AD&D copyrights, trademarks and licenses. They may set any terms they wish for those licenses that the marketplace is willing to bear. We believe that Wizards of the Coast will carefully consider the terms of the upcoming changes so that they continue to encourage outside development of their intellectual property -- allowing it to flourish and support the desires of their fans and clientele.
• Be calm... Skyraiders was created in 2021 under OGL 1.0a and SRD 5.1. The proposed OGL 1.1 has not been released and is irrelevant to our project. We will produce this Skyraider's project as licensed under 1.0a and look forward to getting this into your hands this year.
• And carry on! In the future, should Laura and I decide to do another Kickstarter project associated with AD&D, we would do so under the OGL license agreement that exists at that time. 

We hope this addresses your concerns. Steady the helm -- and keep flying!

Tracy & Laura Hickman