Friday, December 20, 2013

Award Logo Contest

I have 5 copies of Doll that I'm hoping to give away on Monday. Here's how to win one:

Create a logo for the Goatee Award, and email it to at gingergoatpress@gmail.com. (I created this award to honor people who record and share actual play sessions,  but I forgot to create an image for the award!)

The image should be  at least 150x150 pixels. It should contain the words "Goatee" and "Award." Otherwise, the design is completely up to you. The more creative, the better.

You have until Sunday night to email me your entries. You can enter as often as you want, but each person can only win once at most.

On Sunday night I will email the five winners to request their mailing addresses. On Monday I will mail the signed copies of Doll.

This contest is open to international folks as well.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

What is Heroine?

It's been a while since I've mentioned my first game, Heroine, on this blog. I'm proud of this game. In case you haven't had a chance to take a look at it, I'd like to pitch it to you.
 
Heroine is a storytelling game inspired by books and movies like Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth, Alice in Wonderland, and The Chronicles of Narnia. I love these stories about a girl who has serious problems to deal with in her regular life, but who gets whisked away to the Other World, where she has an unusual chance to be heroic.
 
Together with my editor, Paul Lyons - you may know him from his time as a host of the Podgecast- I wrote a game that creates a story like these. JR Blackwell created all the beautiful photographs for this book by arranging a photoshoot in an abandoned prison. On top of that, Daniel Solis did the layout for this book. That's right. Two Ennie-winning game designers helped me make this book beautiful, and I'm very proud of their work!
 
When you play Heroine, you and your friends can explore a girl's struggle to grow up. On the one hand, she has to overcome the magical challenges of the Other World. Will she rescue the innocents? Will she find her way through mazes and traps? Will she survive an encounter with the Antagonist who now rules the Other World?
On the other hand, she is trying to leave behind her fear, confusion, and selfishness, so that she can learn to be heroic. Will her time in the Other World teach her about being clever, daring, and kind? When she finally returns home, will the things she has learned enabled her to overcome her struggles in her regular life?
 
During each session of the game, one player plays the heroine character. The other players take turns narrating the story and playing one of the heroine's quirky, new companions. Each session of the game is a complete story. You may play several sessions using the same characters, or you may create a new heroine and a new Other World.

Purchasing Heroine

As with all Ginger Goat games, you can purchase Heroine via Indie Press Revolution, Drivethrustuff, or directly from me at gingergoatpress at gmail.com.

Monday, December 16, 2013

The 2013 Goatee Award Winners Are...

After reviewing all the submissions to this first annual Actual Play Festival, I'm pleased to announce the following two winners.

The Goatee Award for Best Recording of a 2013 game goes to Jason King and the other people at the Rolling Intentions podcast. Their second session recording of Brian Engard's new game Becoming is particularly entertaining in my opinion.



The Goatee Award for Best Recording of a Non-North American Game goes to Christopher Reed's group, who recorded a rather racy session of Graham Walmsley's Cthulhu Dark.


Each award winning group will receive the following games in pdf form as prizes:

Becoming and Rough Cuts by Brian Engard
Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple by Daniel Solis
Dude, Run! and 1%er by Robert Nolan
Heroine and Doll from Josh Jordan
Kiss My Axe and an accompanying adventure from Fraser Ronald
Project Ninja Panda Taco by Jenn Steen
Spark by Jason Pitre

Actual Play Festival Draws to a Close

Last night, with one final entry from Joe Maness, the Actual Play Festival drew to a close. Thank you to everyone who participated, either by spreading word of the festival, submitting a video, or watching one of the videos and encouraging the people who submitted.

We had eight submissions this year, which I consider a success. I plan on running the festival again next year. I bet we can get even more.

Because a video was submitted near the deadline, I'm going to put off announcing the awards until tonight. I want to make sure I have a chance to watch this last video. There will be two Goatee Awards given tonight, and each will come with a prize package full of several game pdfs. The first will be the Goatee Award for Best Recording of a Non-North American Game. The second will be the Goatee Award for Best Recording of a 2013 Game.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Actual Play Festival Submission from Rolling Intentions Podcast

One of my favorite entries to the Actual Play Festival is this recording of Brian Engard's game, Becoming. The guys at the Rolling Intentions podcast submitted this early in the contest, but I only recently posted it due to some user error on my end.

Be sure to check out their podcast if you like what you see here. They're a bunch of nice guys.

Four days left to participate in the Actual Play Festival

Do you have an audio or video recording of your group playing a roleplaying game? Was it recorded in November or December of this year? If so, send the file to me at gingergoatpress@gmail.com, and you can win pdfs of 10 awesome games.

The top two recordings, as judged by me on December 15th, will receive the prestigious Goatee Award. Every player (including the GM, if any) in those two winning sessions will also receive these games:

Becoming and Rough Cuts by Brian Engard*
Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple by Daniel Solis
Dude, Run! and 1%er by Robert Nolan*
Heroine and Doll from Josh Jordan
Kiss My Axe and an accompanying adventure from Fraser Ronald
Project Ninja Panda Taco by Jenn Steen
Spark by Jason Pitre

Anyone can participate. I will post pretty much any game recording, whether or not it qualifies to be one of the two winning sessions.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Actual Play Festival has begun!

Actual Play Festival has officially begun! The festival runs from December 1st to 15th. It is a celebration of gaming groups who record their sessions for other people to see or hear. There will be awards at the end of the festival for the best recording of a new game and the best recording of a non-North American game.

We are still accepting submission of new sessions! You can send me an audio .mp3 or a video .mp4 of any session you recorded in November or December. You can submit more than once! All submissions will be posted on Youtube here.

Here is one of the first submissions.

Monday, December 2, 2013

PWIW for Doll Audiobooks in English or Swedish

Have you already listened to the beautiful audiobook versions Dan Hull made for Doll and Advanced Doll? Well, now you can pay what you want for them on Drivethrurpg or RPGNow.

That's great, you might be saying, but can I listen to Doll in Swedish? Thanks to my friend and fellow game designer, Wilhelm Person, yes you can! I've made his audio translation available as a pay-what-you-want download as well.