2007-12-31 :: Silvervine In the New Year 2008 - 12-31-07

I told you to pack only the essentials . . .

Silvervine has had a great time in 2007, and we are now preparing to step into 2008 with lots of exciting things.

What 2007 brought:

• With a better than expected showing at Origins 2007, the development team became revved up to finish the project. 2007 was definitely the year we got a sense of group unity and exactly where our little project was going.
• We started the weekly meeting and the projects list, which helped us stay focused and brought everyone in on the design process a little bit more.
• We began a full review of the system's crunchy bits and we completed it by the end of the year, meaning that, barring a few tweaks, we have the full and ready system ready to go for the New Year.

What 2008 is going to bring:

• We will be getting down and dirty in the final stages of getting the first book out for consumption. Final writing and clarification, final tweaks, content and grammar editing, and then we'll be cracking the whip on Alec to implement the design.
• Final writing for the world of Cyrus, the first world setting for Silvervine will be taking place. Once this is done and the first book is out, the development team will be pursuing new world designs and working on Silvervine's version of an Open Gaming License
• With much of the work nearing completion on the main book, we will begin tweaking and editing the website. Visual improvements, grammar editing, all sorts of luxuries that were neglected before will be incorporated soon.
• And finally to announce it here, we plan to have the book finished around March/April of the year. We aren't going to make any definite date deadline announcement just yet, but we've got one in mind.

2007-12-21 :: Chatty DM Reviews Silvervine 12-21-07

In the ongoing quest to get more feedback and information about the system and book, we came across the Dungeonmasters Creed on chattydm's blog http://chattydm.net. Originally posted on Greywulf's Lair Blog it seemed to address a lot of the things that we tried to address with creating Silvervine. So we gave chattydm an invite to the playtester's section. He took it one step further and decided to put up an review of the beta version of the book on his site. We told him to be unchained in his writing, so we will see what it comes out as.

Here is the Intro to the Review, with the rest to follow in installments: http://chattydm.net/2007/12/21/chattys-review-silvervine-introduction/

2007-12-20 :: Newest Version Of Playtesting Book Up 12-20-07

The newest version of the playtesting book is up for those doing playtesting. It has a lot of tweaks and some new things added in. At the start of 2008 we will have a new playtester's book up that should be the final version of the rules in the book. The setting is still being completed, and will take a while to get just right. Current version: 9.16481.

2007-12-18 :: Google Analytics Installed, but if you don't want it check here to see how to turn it off. 12-18-07

To let all the visitor's to the site know, we have just installed Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics) on the site. This gives us a better view of who is visiting the site, and helps us improve the site.

Google Analytics is a program that collects and stores information that you exchange with every website you visit. It collects information that is freely put out there, and pretty hard to hide. We understand that some people prefer not to share information and remain anonymous. To that end, here are some ways to prevent being seen by Google Analytics:

How to prevent Google Analytics on any website.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/blocking-google-analytics-tracking/2516/

A compilation of ways
http://superaff.com/archives/2005/11/30/how-to-block-google-analytics-from-tracking-you/

Download and use Noscript (Only works with firefox)
http://noscript.net/

2007-12-18 :: Because we like to link things of interest 12-18-07

http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/12/18/1518212.shtml

An interesting article over in slashdot's game section called " How To Play Like a Game Designer". Since I have a love affair in linking video game theory to tabletop gaming, I think this is particularly interesting and applies equally to both genre.

" 'Playing games in order to study them is not what most people would consider "fun." This doesn't mean it isn't fun at all; it just means you have to think a different way. You have to find joy in discovering mechanics and watching their emergent properties unfold. You have to be willing to endure a certain amount of tedium in order to glean clues about the inner workings of a game."

- John Arcadian

2007-12-13 :: News Item Roundup 12-13-07

Just a few quick news items

• New edition of the playtester's core rulebook is up in the playtester's section.
• New advertising is floating about. Gaming Guardians ( http://gamingguardians.com/), an old and very good superpowers webcomic, is coming back in January and we grabbed some of their ad space during the relaunch.

2007-12-10 :: www.treasuretables.org might end. Go check it out. 12-10-07

A favorite site of mine might be ending soon. http://www.treasuretables.org is a gaming site that gets into a lot of GMing theory and deeper game practices. What's more, it does it in an incredibly professional and upright way. Martin, the site owner and a good online friend, has been debating what do with his current burnout (and really 2 1/2 years of daily in depth posts and a professionally run site will do that to you in a HUGE way) and the site. I suggested a reduced schedule, with pertinent old posts to fill gaps, but there are a lot of other options on the table. To anyone who checks out our little gaming site (a few thousand hits a month with very little advertising can't all be false positives) I would suggest checking out Treasure Tables while you have the chance. - John Arcadian

2007-11-21 :: Downloads, Character Sheets, Quick CC Guides Updated- 11-21-07

The Downloads sections for Cyrus and the Main section have been merged, and the Character Sheets and Quick CC Guides have been updated to reflect some changes to the system. Go check them out and enjoy the more streamlined areas.

2007-10-27 :: First Chapter Finished - 10-27-07

The first chapter has been given to Alec to implement the design. That means that chapter 1 is completely finished. 11 More chapters to go.

2007-10-18 :: Fan Made Excel Character Sheet in Downloads - 10-18-07

By way of Jeremy Lotze, there is a new character sheet in the Cyrus Downloads section. Jeremy made an excel based spreadsheet that is an incredible aid for character creation. It works really well as a Game Master for keeping track of multiple characters and NPCS when you don't want to print out a sheet, or want to upgrade on the fly. Thanks Jeremy!

2007-10-16 :: Something Brilliant about Game Design - 10-16-07

By way of Steve Jackson's Games Daily Illuminator, comes this great link to General Tso's Ten Points about game design. I caught this a ways back, and it is an incredible read for anyone making a game. Good for anyone running games as well. Check it out.

2007-10-15 :: Ronsha is Getting Married - 10-15-07

Ed Pantaleano, who played the iconic character of Ronsha, proposed to his girlfriend on October 10th. She said yes. Congratulations Ed and Becky!

2007-10-01 :: New Playtesting Group - 10-01-07

Aside from everything being incredibly busy over here, we now have a new playesting group. Dan, Melinda, and Rob jumped in and played a prepublished adventure that was converted over to Silvervine. This was the first game where we highly and openly explored all 4 of the cornestones of the SVG philosophy: Character, Thematics, Cinematics, and Narrative. John talks about it more in his journal. http://arcadian.deadjournal.com/

2007-09-25 :: New Playtesting Version Up - 09-25-07

There is a new version of the playtesting handbook up on the playtesters site. There are some small but significant changes to:

• Specialty Armors
• Character Creation Order
• Book Introduction
• Book Order
• New Focuses and Skills

We are busy working on some more major changes to the book, and getting ready to set our final deadlines. More to come.

2007-09-01 :: Imperial War Playtest Coming to an End - 09-01-07

The short lived imperial war playtest is coming to an end, mostly due to the schedules of players and changes in situations. There might be one final wrap up session, but all the previous sessions were marked in the ALWNB journal. They are all collected here for your reading enjoyment.

Characters of the Imperial War

Session 1 - Training Day
http://alwnb.deadjournal.com/30995.html

Session 2 - No Elves Allowed
http://alwnb.deadjournal.com/2007/06/25/

Session 3 - Extract the Summoner
http://alwnb.deadjournal.com/2007/06/26/

Session 4 - Tyger Tyger Burning Bright
http://alwnb.deadjournal.com/2007/07/16/

Session 5 - Wherein much happened, but none of it was assaulting the rice city of Gohankyo
http://alwnb.deadjournal.com/2007/08/03/

Session 6 - The Relay Station which doesn't look like anything familiar at all
http://alwnb.deadjournal.com/2007/08/06/

2007-08-23 :: Thanks to Treasure Tables Forums - 08-23-07

Just wanted an excuse to update the news feed. That excuse is a great big thank you to the Treasure Tables forums. I've posted two questions to the people there in their publishers dialogue section. The response has been great. It has been really helpful to get some outside opinions, and some well informed "this is what people want to see" type of advice. Check out the forum posts here:

http://www.treasuretables.org/forum/index.php?topic=933.0

http://www.treasuretables.org/forum/index.php?topic=937.0

2007-08-07 :: Working on Book Order and asking for your opinions on how RPG rulebooks should be arranged - 08-07-07

We are beginning to work on the final book order. What order all the sections will be, and how we want to portray the world of Cyrus. We are looking to see how people prefer to see a gaming book setup. We would like to hear your opinions on how RPG rulebooks and world settings should be arranged.

Please email us at and let us know your thoughts on RPG book order for Core Rulebooks and World Settings. Do you like to see character creation at the front, or after the rules are arranged? Do you prefer to see all of the crunch in the same section, or spread throughout the world setting information? Should we pitch the world to you first, or keep the rules up front? Let us know.

2007-08-07 :: Changes to the site, multiple things grouped under the extras section - 08-07-07

We have made some changes to the sidebar, and many of the sections are now under the Main Extras Page.

• Daniel Asks
• The Dice Ordering Files
• Links to Playtesting Wikis
• Convention Pages
• Special Thanks Page

Just wanted to let you know.

2007-07-27 :: Calling all playtesters - 07-27-07

Currently we are looking to start up some more playtesting groups in the area. We have 3 non Silvervine Games groups that are running their own games right now. If you are interested in getting a free gaming book and being part of the Silvervine process then email Arcadian to ask about being a playtester. We will fill all our current playtesting slots, but after that we won't be giving out the advanced copies of the book anymore.

2007-07-27 :: Big Push - 07-27-07

Slow on the news front, but so much has been going on behind the scenes. We are making preparations for a final big push to get the Core Rulebook, and Cyrus Worldbook I out and ready to go. The last few weeks have been full of meetings and planning sessions, and we are working on getting everything done and ready for the final production steps.

2007-07-13 :: Daniel Asks, Send in your Questions - 07-13-07

Arcadian just posted a new thing up in his developer's journal. He took a question from one of our players at Origins and answered it in the public. In honor of the first person to ask a question like this he is calling it Daniel Asks. So if anyone wants to write in and ask a question, then feel free. Email John at with any question you have about the system, how or why stuff works. Chances are he might post it.

2007-07-12 :: Origins Con Report Now Up - 07-12-07

Arcadian's Origins 2007 Con Report is now up on our origins page. Check it out here: Arcadian's Origins 2007 Con Report

2007-07-08 :: Back from Origins - 07-08-07

Just got back from Origins. It was great, good turnout. We got interviewed by a gaming magazine, and had a good number of people at our demos. More to come later once we've all returned from our week of sleep.

2007-07-02 :: 3 days to Origins - 07-02-07

Three days left to origins. We are all set except for a few of the last minute things. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a pre-con report up that details our prep work and shows a little insight into the production process.