Gal4Xeon

I've been working on a fifth roll and write game for a few months now.

It's been coming together nicely.

It got great feedback at my last playtest.

And now it's got a name.

You have ten eons to expand across the galaxy. Explore new sectors. Develop new technologies. Exploit resources. Conquer or trade with the aliens you encounter. Will you make it to the precursor ruins at the edge of the galaxy, or focus on claiming the galactic core?

Still putting the finishing touches on it, but it feels like it's getting there.

The Wife is away this week, so I have the evenings to myself.

I hope to make some decent progress.

Wings

Two months ago, when I went down to York to help Paul with Gamefound fulfilment, I told him I had no more roll and writes under development.

Then I had an idea on the way home.

I was able to cannibalise bits from The Planets My Destination and Exodus from Reynoldsworld to knock up a quick prototype.

Since then I've played it and tweaked it 16 times.

It had its first public outing at Newcastle Playtest in early October.

That highlighted some overly complex bits.

I made changes.

Tweaked it some more.

At Yorcon just over a week ago it had its second outing.

And it was very well received.

They wanted to play it some more.

I've now got a rough and ready playtest kit together.

So I've prepared it for sharing.

No diagrams in the rules yet, but it's got rules and a player sheet as PDFs ready to download.

Anyone fancy giving it a try and providing feedback?

Either on the game or the clarity of the rules.

I would love to hear what you think...

Recovery

It's possible the website is fixed.

I think I've found the issue with the false orders.

And fixed it.

Meta is no longer reporting false sales.

And after a week and a half of no orders, we've had 5 in the last 5 days.

A return to normality.

And breathe.

Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash

With that load off my mind, I've been able to spend some time on the new roll and write.

The last few changes have been minimal.

It's stabilising.

Which means it's time to do a first cut of the written rules.

Which is required before I can start sending out playtest copies.

And getting some real feedback.

And hopefully some ideas for improvement.

Inception

The weekend before last I was down in York helping Paul bag up bits for Gamefound Fulfilment.

Last week he made up the first 35 copies of Box of Xeno Flicks 1.

Each one laser-cut in the garage.

Then bagged, boxed and shipped by hand.

Fulfilment has started in earnest.

Before I got my train home I told Paul that the campaign for Exodus from Reynoldsworld was the last roll and write game I had in progress.

There was nothing else in the pipeline.

No more ideas.

We left early for the train, as we'd had a very slow journey to Paul's from the station due to roadworks.

But it was fine.

I got there with half an hour to spare.

So I started designing a new roll and write.

I'm incorrigible.

I need to get the Exodus rewards out in the next week or so.

And cover Paul's holiday with shipping any orders we get.

But I've started on the next one.

And I could steal a few bits from The Planets My Destination and Away Team Bingo to knock up a very quick first prototype!

A bastardised first prototype, stealing bits from other games for speed.