I’ve kind of been all over the place lately, and getting creatively obsessed with different things at different times. I’ve done three playtest sessions of Dragon World (it’s getting there), then got into working on my UFO Girl novel, then started having a creative crisis over Neko Machi, then we went through a bit of a shakeup at work, and now I have a cold. I’ve been meaning to record and post up a solo podcast for ages now, and thinking of trying to do them as kind of a regular thing. Somehow I haven’t been able to find the time to even get started, and with this cold it’s not gonna happen this weekend.
Kin-Yoobi Con
I had a booth at Kin-Yoobi Con, and sold Neko Machi mini-comics and buttons, plus Maid RPG. It taught me some interesting lessons about the anime crowd, most notably that when it comes to art those folks gravitate much more strongly to characters they already know. I’m wondering if there’s a way to use that kind of appeal for RPGs but on the level of fan art seen at the artists alley at an anime convention.
Mascot-tan
A while back I had an idea to do new games based on the Maid RPG rules, which I would call the M.A.I.D. (Maniacs’ Asymmetrical Interactive Delusion) Engine. I decided to start working on a new version of Mascot-tan that’s basically a Maid RPG hack. So far it’s sticking fairly close to the basic Maid RPG rules, the main difference being that (by default) the group rolls and agrees on one mascot theme (bands, fighter jets, game consoles, RPGs, whatever), rolls up random stuff for their characters, and then each player picks which specific thing their character is a mascots of. Also, I started writing up new tables for most everything from scratch. Funnily enough even for anime maids I’d end up changing some things if I were to write up a Special Qualities table today, on account of anime has generated new kinds of cliches since Maid RPG’s original publication in Japan.
There’s also something else cooking for Maid RPG. :3
Ambitions
I want to bring Magical Burst or Dragon World to fruition in the next 6 months or so. Lately I’ve had kind of a love-hate thing going with Magical Burst, so it’s been hard to muster up the desire to actually look at it, but I have gotten some more feedback. (Plus I’m not good at balancing creative projects. I tend to work on one thing to the exclusion of others.)
Shout Outs
- With Neko Machi I have the privilege of collaborating with C. Ellis, a woman who is very dedicated to creating comics. She’s doing a webcomic of her own (We’re All Star Children), is a contributor to the Womanthology project (which looks all kinds of amazing), and does plenty more stuff besides. I really do know a lot of amazing people these days, and she’s high on the list.
- A while ago I translated a short story for Kizuna: Fiction For Japan, a charity fiction anthology for Japan tsunami relief, and it’s now available as a Kindle e-book.
- Wilhelm, one of the few people to really take an interest in my translation of Witch Quest, is trying to crowdsource a Witch Tarot deck for it.
Yaruki Zero Games 
Well, at least you can’t complain about having nothing to do. ^_^
Just a thought about character recognition: What if you had posters or a cardboard stand ups of a ‘celebrity’ anime character praising the merits of your wares? Seems a little bait and switch-y, but it could attract eyes to your products.
Side note: Started up an interesting game for myself. Combining Magical Burst with Mythic GM Emulator to create a solo game. It kind of has a feel of a table top game combined with writing MB ‘fan fic’. :-)
—
TAZ
A Mascot-tan update, interesting. I’m not familiar with Maid RPG. I’ll check it out. I’ve gotta give you props on Mascot-tan. I have DMed Mascot-tan after having stumbled upon it a few years ago and I’ve got to say, it worked very well. I just had to be able to make things up as I went along and insert absurd comedy.
I was one of those boring people who opted for six-sided dice, but made six’s criticals. I did not regret it, since people have done amazing things with strings of crits.
Story-wise, I’ve so far loosely followed the default setup in the pdf and did a Bible Black crossover in the Black Gamings arc. Don’t worry, I made it strictly PG-13 with anything perverted replaced by “making out”, even when it made no sense. :3