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KatsuCon 2023

  I had a great set of demos at KatsuCon this past weekend with some awesome players! Highlights include the Alter Arms player who played a hero with a Stage Magician gimmick, allowing them to tie up opponents with escapology chains and use balloons to gather intel. There was also the Skrap Packs player who combined their metal gauntlet with a potato peeler to make a clawed glove they named “Can I Borrow a Peeling.” Players are liking the assets mechanic, since it allows them to better collaborate on actions. I need to consider how to scale difficulty as a result. There were some instances where players weren’t able to make an impact on the opponents—at least not as much as they would like—without using assets. Assets are a mechanic where characters change the battlefield in some way (causing debris to rain down from a building that was struck, a smoke bomb thrown into the field to provide cover, or cars knocked over to provide cover). During combat, instead of interacting with other
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2023 Games Updates and Next Live Demos

PAX Unplugged and MAGFest were both delightful experiences where I got some great feedback from folks about the status of both of my games. For Alter Arms , I had some minor updates for special abilities, and have introduced tokens into physical play to keep track of turns. For Skrap Packs , I’ve updated some cards and included mechanics for restricting inventory. This has encouraged players to be more considerate of the items their characters keep, use and combine. My current upcoming goal is to work on additional theme cards for Skrap Packs—this time based on medieval fantasy adventures—and setup Skrap Packs for sale on Itch.io by the end of the year. The current plan is to demo both games during KatsuCon 2023 on both Friday and Saturday.
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2022 Fall Update (PAX Unplugged, MAGFest)

  I have two conventions coming up where I’ll be running both Alter Arms and Skrap Packs . The first is PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Dec. 2 & 3 as part of Games on Demand . The next will be at Super MAGFest in National Harbor, MD at the Gaylord Convention Center, Jan 5-7, 2023 as part of the MAGFest Indie Tabletop Showcase (MITS). Some changes I am implementing for playtests the playtests include: Alter Arms Updates: For a look at the full rules, you can join the discord . Updated references to drama (the health mechanic) levels to reference base 5 instead of base 4 (each form that a character has unlocked gives them an additional 5 drama they can take before they crash (as opposed to the prior 4 drama per form) Update pratfall rules to mention that you can choose to either lose 2 drama or add +3 to any current assets (creating a new asset at +3 if none currently exist). Rolling a ‘1’ when making a move gives you the choic
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Coming Up: BlerdCon 2022

  I'll be in the tabletop room at BlerdCon 2022 on Saturday, July 9 from 2PM - 8PM Eastern time. Be sure to stop by for a demo at one of my favorite conventions! Learn more here about the event here!
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Post-MAGFest 2022 Playtest Report

  MAGFest 2022 was a great experience! I learned more about encounter balance for both Alter Arms and Skrap Packs, and met a number of wonderful people with some great stories to tell through the games and feedback to provide. With Alter Arms , the main feedback I got was in terms of learning the system and encounter balance: Coming into the game with characters with at least one advancement can be fun when multiple special abilities are applied to actions, but it can be overwhelming for new players learning the new system. The different kinds of actions a character can take, the bonuses they can create for themselves and their allies, and managing the pressure their characters are under can be a lot to take in all at once. What I've found by comparing the MAGFest 2022 playtests to other playtests is that the game is easiest taught in steps: at PAX Unplugged I brought characters in before they had any transformations or special abilities. They were left to solve problems with just
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MAGFest 2022 Playtest

  I'll be at MAGFest 2022 (Gaylord Convention Center, National Harbor, MD, Jan 6-8, 1PM until close) as part of the Indie Tabletop Showcase, a venue where tabletop designers can demo their games. There, I'll be running Alter Arms , a tokusatsu-inspired tabletop role playing game where players take the role of heroes who gain a variety of powers by taking on different forms, and combining the abilities of those different forms together to pull off spectacular feats! I'll also be running Skrap Packs , a rules-lite, card-based tabletop role playing game where players build decks of cards, with each card representing an item they've scavenged. They'll use these items in creative ways, to solve problems, even combining them together to build new and unique tools! I'll have a rundown of feedback of the games sometime in the following week. My next demos after MAGFest will be: Alter Arms: Jan 15, 2PM-4PM Eastern via Discord where I'm starting an ongoing campaig
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2021 PAX Unplugged Games On Demand Playtests

  A photo of a Skrap Packs playtest by one of the players  Thank you to all the playtesters at PAX Unplugged 2021, Games on Demand for a very busy weekend! It's always great to have a game, but I also got some great feedback: ALTER ARMS Alter Arms playtesters at PAX Unplugged 2021 During Alter Arms, players pointed out that not all of the character archetypes were as beneficial for players as others.  For the sake of clarity, I'm going to explain the character archetype move rules in a way that doesn't require full knowledge of the system. Character archetypes are subclasses for characters that give them access to moves that mechanically reflect the functionality of different members of a team you typically find in team henshin-hero shows like Super Sentai, Sailor Moon, etc. They are important because they give characters access to unique actions that can: A) Allow them to lower their own or another character's drama ( in this system, instead of characters losing  hit p
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