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It is now just one month until Origins.
Since printing and production cycles typically take 10-15 business
days, the deadlines for all the new stuff we're trying to get
made in time for Origins are hitting us right now. This is also
when we need to be stocking up on whatever Dreamer inventory
we plan to take to the show. So, it's been a busy week. We've
finally given the go-ahead for the printing of Fluxx version
2.1, which we'll hopefully be debuting at Origins along with
the Betatest edition of Chrononauts. Accordingly, I have this
week been finalizing the card sheets for Chrononauts, and writing
the text for the new rules insert we'll be switching to for Fluxx
2.1 (the text of
which I put up on the Fluxx site this week). Kristin meanwhile
has been tracking these print jobs and creating purchase requests
for many others, since we're also making a Tirade wooden nickel,
a completely new chessboard bandanna (with a great new design
by Alison), and a small zippered Looney Games carrying bag. More
on these projects as they unfold...
 Regarding
Chrononauts,
I've been feeling like the design of the game had pretty much
stabilized, but this week we decided to add another sheet of
9 cards to the set, allowing me to fix a couple of game play
imperfections and close up a couple of gaps in the backstory.
The new cards include a twelfth character (Oliver), a new artifact
(Rongo-Rongo Tablets, from Easter Island), 3 new Missions (The
Great Mysteries, The Museum of Lost Treasures, and Cheaters Sometimes
Win) and a new action, called Sell an Artifact. These new cards
really tighten up the artifact collection plotline, since each
Artifact is now required by at least 2 missions, and since the
Sell option provides a greater incentive to play Artifacts in
general. And with Cheaters Sometimes Win, there's now a mission
that requires a *forgery* of the Mona Lisa, rather than the real
thing. I've also re-written the text for the 1999' patch, so
that it does a better job of fitting with both its linchpin and
its flipside, and I even adjusted the ratio of Rewinds to Fast
Forwards. (I know most of this is going to be unintelligible
for those of you who haven't gotten a chance to try out the new
game yet, but trust me, these are Good Things.) So now the design
is feeling *really* solid. Since the printing deadline for these
cards is now just a few days away, Alison and I have been scrambling
to finish up the artwork, a few samples of which are shown here.
(3 of these drawings are by me, and one is by Alison. Can you
guess which is which?) Now the only task remaining is the writing
of the actual rules, but the final deadline on those isn't until
June 26th, so I've got a little time.
We need an overall name for the series of related tournaments
we'll be running at Origins. We were previously thinking to call
it the Looney Labs Olympics, or perhaps the Martian Olympics,
but apparently the US Olympic Committee won't
allow anyone else to use the word Olympics, so now we need
another title. When I posted the schedule of tournaments a couple
of weeks ago, I impulsively named it the Polyhedrothon
2000, but while some test audiences have loved this name,
others weren't so thrilled by it. Some feel it sounds too much
like a dice tournament, and many are worried about the pronunciation
issue. So earlier this the week, I put the question to the Icehouse
Mailing List, and the topic has been heavily debated ever since,
with new suggestions including the Pentahedrathalon, the Pentahedraseptathon,
and the Quintahedraseptathon, none of which sound like dice events
but all of which are affected by the pronunciation issue. So,
we're still trying to decide what to call it, and time is rapidly
running out - we need to make a decision by Monday, so that we
can finalize the marketing materials we'll be handing out on
site. So, what do you think we should call it? (Right now I'm
leaning towards the Martian Interplanetary Gaming Championships...)
 Have
a great week!
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