AquaVertigo Publishing

Back to the Grind

When it snows, it blizzards with low low windchill temperatures, and that’s why I appreciate how playing games can offer some relief from harsh weather, illness (partner, both dogs, and myself more recently), along with other stress of life.

This week officially marks the return to semester-long obligations near and far, and so we push on into tomorrow with this single post.

On the Run for Love

Collage of images for game session.

I got to play in one session of Pasión de las Pasiones as Carmen Mendoza, the La Empleada playbook.

The game did not disappoint. All of the players and the MC leaned into the 1970-1980s-inspired story set in Mexico.

The opening move from the Jefe got things off to a rousing start, with his thugs strong-arming others into coming along.

Carmen got fireman-carried away while bawling her eyes out and screaming for one of her lovers to find her, her rosary necklace bursting apart on the cobblestones in the plaza.

Bad luck haunted a playboy La Belleza.

Dead parents were promised alive for Carmen in Cuba.

Secret sacrifices were negotiated for the El Caballero.

And lovers were reunited briefly before bullets rained and an escape was made on La Belleza’s boat into the great unknown sunset.

And that was my time with the game. I hope the group has a wonderful time with the game and look forward to hearing all about it.

Play to Find Out with Success or Failure

From p.91 of the AD&D 2nd ed. Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide.

It’s right there in print, back then in the dragon game!

See You Space Cowboy RPG…

Photo of the cover of the Cowboy Bebop RPG, by David MK.

I don’t know when I’ll have time to read this game, but I’m looking forward to it.

I did play a playtest of the rules a bit ago and ran it through Star Wars with bounty hunters tracking down Senator Jar Jar Binks.

The game uses music genres and terms with the mechanics, so it’s something that can be fun if you’re in the mood for a different way to play bounty hunters in space.

Playtesting and Revising Game Texts

Menu of games offered by David MK for the Corridor Games on Demand Indie Game Grab Bag sessions at Gamicon, 2024.

Found: We had our first full session of play last week, and it was great. I’m still adjusting to the game that’s more Sense8 than Orphan Black, and so I have notes on mechanics to consider or at least GM guidance to test and write up.

Dark Well: Thanks to a very helpful and fun session of playtesting, I’m making progress on writing. The fixes I made improved last week’s game. I’ll continue to monitor how things play out. I dropped a list of possible token spends for the Chronicler and converted them into a list of possible complications to reference. I had a great conversation with the players about their thoughts and feelings so far and had wonderful questions and suggestions I’m still considering.

Eye of the Magi: I’m committed to having a draft of the game to test for Gamicon in February and spent time reorganizing and making edits to what I have in prep for generating content specific to my hack.

Next Steps

Continue one day at a time.

Feedback

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Author

DMK, the founder of AquaVertigo, is a creatively curious artist, author, designer, educator, entrepreneur, and organizer based in the Midwest, USA.

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