I can't believe it was 5 years ago that i started Stone Horizons, but it was. I'm going to finish it off now.

I developed it on this site - you can find the thread here http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=7037

If you have the stamina, that long thread takes you through the process. I'm going to start posting to it again with updated information.

However, to get you started here's some info on my inspirations for the game.

Questions welcome.

-------------------------------------------------

Stone Horizons draws inspiration from the following sources:

The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The primary inspirations taken from these books are the feel and flavour of the game world and the naming conventions. It's a sprawling world of crumbling towers, cyclopean architecture and hidden grottos, populated by Doctors, Professors and Archivists.

The Riverworld Saga by Philip Jose Farmer
The Architects are similar in nature to the manipulative race found within this series of books. The Dark Design & The Magic Labyrinth in particular has informed my creation of the mysterious Architects.
 
The Darwath Trilogy by Barbara Hambly
The idea of hidden and ancient technology that is scattered through the Horizons comes from the Keep of Dare that serves as humanity's saviour in these books. Hidden depths, strange glowing orbs and vats that do goodness knows what.
 
Mordant's Need by Stephen Donaldson
These books primarily informed my choices as to the sort of politics that can become important within an enclosed space (in the case of SH, a whole world of enclosed spaces). The first book takes place almost entirely within one castle and the plots and schemes that take up the book are a nice indicator of what a typical game of SH will contain.

First of all, congratulations.

The only of these books I've really read is Wolfe's New Sun series, but I have passing familiarity with Gormenghast and Riverworld. It sounds like a tall order for a game, and I'm looking forward to see how you've pulled it.

I'll start with simple but significant questions: who are the PCs, and what do they do?

Quote from: The Butcher;588978I'll start with simple but significant questions: who are the PCs, and what do they do?

I can't tell you how much I dislike reading that question. It works wonderfully for games where the focus is predefined by the designer, but it is unanswerable for games where the focus is defined by the group. In SH, the setting is created by the group - that is the GM or GM + Players - using the setting design tools provided. The setting then informs design of both characters and party, including who they are, what they do, and why they are doing it. This is not a "They can do whatever they want" vagueness - the party is focused, it's just not focused by the designer.

For example, in the game I ran, the party lived in a section of the Castle that was built on an active volcano. This section had been cut off from the rest of the world by huge lava flows, forcing the area to depend on goods shipped in by water, and controlled by pirates. The party were hired to find new routes through, over, under, or between the flows, so that caravans could once more get through, and the pirate stranglehold could be broken. They were thus explorers, but that was not dictated by the game books, and would not make any sense in a different part of the Castle.

-clash

What do the player characters do?  Why squabble, count social coup, gossip, scheme and perhaps fight an epic duel to the death in the darkened corridors armed only with serving trays and runcible spoons.

Quote from: flyingmice;588985I can't tell you how much I dislike reading that question. It works wonderfully for games where the focus is predefined by the designer, but it is unanswerable for games where the focus is defined by the group.

Quote from: David Johansen;588996What do the player characters do?  Why squabble, count social coup, gossip, scheme and perhaps fight an epic duel to the death in the darkened corridors armed only with serving trays and runcible spoons.

For an unanswerable question, you did a pretty good job of answering it.

Quote from: The Butcher;589002For an unanswerable question, you did a pretty good job of answering it.

-clash

Quote from: The Butcher;588978I'll start with simple but significant questions: who are the PCs, and what do they do?

There is the castle and there is outside. They are one and the same.

Welcome to Stone Horizons, where the castle is everywhere and the castle is everything!

Adventure in a world that is contained within the endless castle.

Rid the dusty corridors of lurking menaces, vermin, political rivals, or corruption.

Climb the social ladder.

Visit long forgotten wings that have not seen the tread of humans for millennia.

Sail seas that are hemmed in by the architecture of ages past.

Clamber over the rooftops of a thousand, thousand buildings that stretch beyond the Stone Horizon, only to be met by another vista of the crumbling castle.

Stone Horizons

All you need to create characters and the area of the castle in which you start play is found within this book. Inside are 92 castle features including Hammock Clusters, Bridge Dens, Libraries, Aviary Towers and many more. Utilise the Customs & Communities tables to create a unique and interesting area in which to play. There are rules for creating Affiliations & Rivalries with other denizens, guidelines for assigning Goals & Ambitions to your character and using your Status to rise above the masses.

Creating your character also creates the area in which you start play!

Estimated at 240 pages

Veiled Horizons – GMs handbook

A companion book to Stone Horizons, this book contains all that the GM needs to create plots, problems and politics for the area in which the players find themselves. The heart of this book is the Problems & Politics master table. From this resource, the GM can create an almost infinite variety of problems to plague the castle. More than 250 entries are exhaustively examined, from Death Frog swarms, to earthquakes, trade wars, Lurking Menaces and more.

Veiled Horizons also contains NPC generation information, so that the GM can populate the game area with interesting and unusual characters for the players to interact with. Watch out, they may have a secret!

Estimated at 112 pages

It sounded great before and it still sounds great now. Is there a projected release date?

Quote from: noisms;589167It sounded great before and it still sounds great now. Is there a projected release date?

Thanks!

I've only just started back on it - but it is further along than i thought!

So, there's less work to do than i anticipated.

However, i've ummed and arred over this for so long, that i'm not going to commit to anything yet.

Clash and i are mulling over the idea of doing a kick-starter to raise cash for interior art.

Quote from: noisms;589167It sounded great before and it still sounds great now. Is there a projected release date?

To give a more nuanced reply -

With a few days work i could actually release the game now. It's perfectly playable bar fleshing equipment and a few other doo-dads. However, it wouldn't be the game i set out to finish.

I estimate that i'm 70% done. If i get my finger out i can get that to 90% done within a month or 6 weeks. The last 10% may take a while longer as it is editing, tying things together, a bit of advice on creating play areas and the like.

/me does the happy dance.

Quote from: One Horse Town;589039Stone Horizons
Veiled Horizons – GMs handbook

How much of that game will depend on the availability of both books?
Are you planning to release both books simultaneously or one after the other?

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;589195/me does the happy dance.



How much of that game will depend on the availability of both books?
Are you planning to release both books simultaneously or one after the other?

You need both books to play, so they'll be released together.

Quote from: One Horse Town;589171Clash and i are mulling over the idea of doing a kick-starter to raise cash for interior art.

Which means *I* will have to do the requisite video, as Dan apparently has to crank his computer before it starts. Ick!

-clash

Looking back at the SH thread I expressed my enthusiasm about your ideas way back on 30-10-2007.

Just to say I still think it sounds great.

This is great news!  I'd been very excited about it but had given up hope.
 
It's been a while but I remember really liking the community and area creation rules.   I remember it tying characters together well creating situations where adventures would practically write themselves.