Accessible Games

Monster Kart Monday #7: VirtuaCon and a New Alpha

By: Jacob Wood, August 26, 2013 News

This week I took a bit of a break from designing MKM Fairyland because I had a lot of work to do on the core book itself. There’s a lot to talk about this week, so let’s get started!

Monster Kart Mayhem at VirtuaCon ’13

First of all, I’d like to bring your attention to VirtuaCon ’13. Player sign-ups went live today, and we already have 3 out of 10 total slots filled up for Monster Kart Mayhem.

Here’s the info you need to get started.

Sign up for games using this list.

Specifically, Monster Kart Mayhem sign-ups are on page 4 of this list. You might also wish to check out the sign-ups for Psi-punk on page 1.

RPGGeek’s VirtuaCon is unofficially “the best 3 days in virtual gaming.” Games are run via Google Hangouts and are completely free to play. There are a limited number of slots available, and since I wanted MKM to be open to all ages these sessions will not be recorded. Make sure you sign up for one of the available slots if you’d like to join us.

New Alpha Version Available

This week I went back over the original documentation I had for the game and polished it up significantly. This update contains new rules for creating your own MKM characters, significant rules clarifications and improvements that not only clarify things but will help the game develop as new adventure ideas arise, and some art from Bradley K. McDevitt.

In addition, the updated PDF has some basic formatting. I’m toying with color schemes and asthetics, and so far I’m pretty happy with the new look. It’s not complete by any means — in fact, if you download the new version you’ll notice some HTML-like tags that are still present — but you can get a feel for the direction the design is currently headed.

Overview of Changes

If you’ve already read the RPGGeek COntest version of the game, you’ll notice a number of changes when looking at the new alpha version.

* Distance is no longer referred to in kilometers, or any real-world unit of measurement for that matter. We now discuss distance in terms of the number of Spaces along the race course/track your character moves during a turn. This simplifies the mechanics for those who aren’t very math-oriented, and it means I can justify using Camp Myth as a setting without feeling weird about the campgrounds being 1,000 kilometers wide.

* A new term has been added to the glossary: Pace. Pace is the number of Spaces your character is moving this round. The book no longer references “current Speed” and “maximum Speed.” This was really confusing before.

* With the addition of Pace, the Hurt Someone action now functions a bit better. Previously, hurting someone reduced their “current Speed” which could then be increased on that person’s next turn. Characters such as Big Foot with Great Acceleration were basically impervious to harm due to the way the mechanics used to work. Now a Hurt SOmeone action reduces a racer’s Speed, which limits their maximum Pace. The penalty to Speed lasts for one round, so even if the racer accelerates on their next turn, they won’t be able to get back up to their maximum immediately.

* The flow of the book has been improved dramatically. I rearranged several sections to make the book easier to understand.

* Presently, there’s no cover page and the Credits/Contents page is pretty sparse. Some of the other pages are sparse as well, but they’ll be improved later.

* The Race Tracker has been improved. The track itself is now larger, with 1/2 inch space between segments rather than 1/4 inch space. It should now be esier to move game pieces along the track. Of course, it’s still not the prettiest thing in the world, but right now I’m going for functionality.

* I removed individual character sheets for the pregen monsters at this time. There is currently a barebones character sheet you can fill in yourself. And I do mean barebones. Again, it’s functional rather than pretty.

Check out all of the new rules and design by downloading the new Alpha version of the game.

Let me know what you think, and remember to sign up for VirtuaCOn to give it a test drive for yourself!

Series Navigation

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