Avarice Industries

Xavier’s Developer Diary: Punching Cars, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Game

Lorin "Xavier Fox" Grieve — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:02:14 +0000

Well, since I put off writing some kind of Dev Diary for as long as Sera would let me, I guess I should try to explain my part in this grand project. I am Lorin Grieve, sometimes called Xavier Fox. I hail from Pittsburgh, PA and I have played games my entire life. I’m actually one of those twisted freaks who read rulebooks for fun.

Somewhere along the way of my college career, I met Seraphina. One day, after we had been friends for some time, she invited me over to help playtest a little game she was in the process of creating. (“You may have heard of this game. Avarice Somethingorother.” — Seraphina) Two other friends were there and we had a great time breaking all the rules she had painstakingly created.

I remember my character, Lawrence, (the Industrialized Industrial brute who had a fondness for bowlers, pipes, and fisticuffs) punched a car with enough successes to hurl it at least 40 feet away, all to get a parking space. It wasn’t necessary for the story, and it was such a throwaway moment, but it still showed how fun the game could be and how easy you could make the rules break.

It was after that game that I offered to take over writing the rules so she could focus more on what she loved: the story. Shortly thereafter, I ended up writing some 80 pages of rules over the course of several on call shifts at the hospital where I worked. Here’s a quick overview of what I had to start with and where I went with it.

Virtues of the Sinner

Sera’s original intention was to create a ruleset that focused less on strictly defined attributes (like strength, dexterity, etc) and more on a character’s base emotions and internal drive. She had a full set of five attributes named after some of the deadly sins (Wrath, Greed, Envy, Pride, and Lust) and planned to have ‘hidden attributes’ that only the GM had access to. To make tests using these attributes, you combined them with one of three other aspects: physical, mental, and something else (I totally don’t remember at this time.) (“It was the ‘social’ attribute, Fox.” — Seraphina)

Upon taking over this part of the project, I wanted to make as streamlined a system as I could but still keep Sera’s core intentions in mind. I liked the idea that the method used to take an action and the intent behind said action dictated what attributes to use. But this whole having two sets of attributes thing was really daunting and tedious.

I liked the idea of the seven deadly sins being used as the Seven Virtues of Industry and, as such, added the last two sins to the repertoire of attributes (now called just called “Virtues.”) I also removed the other three attributes and split the Virtues along the lines that they now exist, feeling that one set of seven was better than a set of five and a set of three. I also defined the Virtues to be more closely tied to more traditional roles, in order to make it easier for a new player to understand what they related to. The whole system became very different from where it started, but it has proven to be much more flexible and streamlined, allowing for basically any situation.

Driven to Motivate

One of the biggest changes centered on the traits and abilities that the characters used to define what they can do. Sera’s original system had similar groupings to the trait systems that we have today, and many of the traits existed in some similar way, but all of them had limited uses per day. The only way you could use a trait more often was if you purchased a higher level of it.

While this all might work for a video game, that was not going to stay. During that fateful playtest session I mentioned before, one of Sera’s traits was called “Driven.” Driven was a trait which allowed you to walk dice up or down one side several times an encounter. I recognized that it was clearly one of the best possible ways to manipulate the dice, and it was a fun mechanic.

Eventually, I also proposed the Motivation system as a replacement for the original “uses per day” system. Once I got my hands on the rules, I built the Driven mechanic into the Motivation idea and that created the system we have used ever since. It made sense to just allow everyone access to that ability for free, since all three of us took that trait during the original playtest. Fueling all of your traits from one energy pool allowed for a much more versatile and elegant system. It also fit in really well with the theme of the game, since the Virtues derived from the character’s deepest aspects and the Traits derive from that character’s inner motivation to succeed.

For a long time we tried to develop a simple system to help a GM reward players with motivation chips, but ultimately we scrapped those plans in favor of leaving it to the GM with just a few suggestions on how much Motivation to offer a player at any given moment. In the end, I chose to rely on a Game Master’s judgment rather than making convoluted rules. The notion of making a simple rule system that could handle any situation became the most important focus point for all the rules I developed, as it was part of the main vision statement for the project.

Money for Nothing

One casualty of the “simpler is better” mantra was the original use for Money in the game. The original rules allowed you to spend money during a mission to bribe people or to allow a complete reroll of any test, be it yours or someone else’s. However, I was quick to recognize the problem here: Namely that Money was still basically the game’s experience point system. Executives received very little money in the long run and there was never a situation where burning that money to reroll a test was better than suffering the failure. It was always better to save the cash and upgrade yourself in the future. As for the bribery, it made little sense to bribe anyone since each Money chip represented something like a year’s salary. That’s WAY too much money to flip a guard to look the other way while you pummeled on his charge. As such it was never used for this purpose.

I still liked the idea of using Money as a potential resource, but I figured that it should do amazing things with very little chance of backfiring rather than possibly making a system worse. This concept ended up becoming our Accounting trait tree, as all of those traits are very cheap to purchase, and incredibly powerful game changers, but all of them require a single cash chip to activate instead of Motivation.

DREAM a little DREAM

One of the most challenging things for me to tackle was to create a ruleset for item creation. The original rules were sparse and impossible for anyone who was not Sera to follow. I had to create a system that was simple, flexible, and somehow capable of assigning in-game rules to literally anything that a player could think of AND relate those items to each other by means of cost to obtain.

No other part of these rules caused such hair-rending frustration as this part.

I originally created a series of tables, trying to include every basic aspect of an item that I could think of: size, action, and any damage for weapons, armor for protective items, and some kind of guide for really off the wall stuff. At the very next playtest, I gave the lists to the players to help them create items.

Frankly, it was a disaster. They, in true player style, grabbed every penalty they figured wouldn’t be too hard to overcome and maximized other specific aspects of their items. One player made a massive double naginata that could swing twice a round and hit for 5 damage dice. (“5 Damage being a normal Executive’s full HP.” — Seraphina)

While, thankfully, it did force him to be just a combat wombat, that kind of min/maxing was what I wanted to avoid most. It was back to the drawing board to tweak the lists and to provide base stats for common items that a player could build off of (such as a pistol, rifle, melee weapon, that kind of thing).

Still, I have no real good system to provide guidance for putting a price on oddball items like G4 capable monocles. Every playtest added more item creation problems and more and more charts were created. We added in new things like poisons, elemental attacks, and different elemental defenses. All of these received their own lists for ability and price. It became incredibly problematic.

Finally, I decided that the best way to proceed was to rely on a collaboration between the player and the GM. By having the players dictate to the GM what they would like and only letting the GMs see the various costs, the min/max capacity of an item was limited while the system promoted the player’s creativity. A player could no longer only “game the system” to get an item they wanted.

As for the oddball items, I eventually decided to just include a large list of the various miscellaneous items that were created during the playtests with their corresponding prices and a justification for said prices. That way the GM could just try to find something relatively comparable and build a price based on that and their own judgment. This might mean that some GMs will be more lenient on pricing some items, but ultimately it’s their game. At least there is some kind of guideline to minimize that as much as I possibly can.

Even so, more lists were created after this revision. Limited use items, like grenades, were added into the system along with small beasties of one variety or another that you could have as a familiar. I’m sure in the time to come I will be approached with a question on how to build some item or another, but that’s what downloadable supplements are for. Given the incredibly open nature of this kind of item creation, I think what I’ve done is the best solution.

Eventually I adapted these rules, in no small way, to create the way in which GMs create adversaries for the PCs. Given the nature of this setting, you can literally throw anything at the players and the rules needed to reflect that AND provide a means to measure the difficulty of running afoul of these NPCs.

Like everything else, I used Money as the form of measurement and provided a series of lists and guidelines to create the enemies from. The main difference, however, is that this part is done solely by the GM. It really works very similarly to item creation in that the GM has to have some kind of idea as to what he wants to throw at the PCs before sitting down to create them. It requires a bit more preparation from the GM before a session, but ultimately it offers more versatility.

So far, enemies made with this system include an assassin who was basically a character from a John Woo film; a displacer beast sent to a D&D-obsessed nerd complete with super reflexes and stunning poison; a horde of low-level employee who had been turned into zombies (and only smelled slightly worse); and a cool-as-ice Executive with a briefcase that created and dropped small spider-like robots that rushed forward to explode with enough force to punch through steel-reinforced concrete.

Like many other things, the GM’s judgment plays a role in interpreting how best to use the rules we’ve provided. The bottom line is that I decided to create a system that allows both GM and PC creativity while still providing a means by which that creativity can be compared and tested. A tabletop RPG has always been a collaborative effort between GM and PCs; our game just embraces that effort rather than trying to hinder it or force it.

Bryant Paul Johnson breaks down “The Making of an Illustration”

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:39:05 +0000

So what exactly goes into drawing a fight between an Industrialized Industrial executive and an Infinity Corporation psychic? A lot more than you would think, actually!

Our resident comic illustrator, Bryant Paul Johnson, has just put together an awesome article detailing the creative process behind one of Avarice’s latest art pieces. Not only will you get a sneak peek of one of Avarice Industries’s “Instructional” images, but you’ll also get to see how the image evolved as he worked on it.

For the full story, and an awesome look behind-the-scenes of Avarice Industries, click here!

An Example of the Gameplay in Avarice Industries

Seraphina Brennan — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:26:35 +0000

So, @AvariceInd Twitter follower fasckira asked us today if we had a transcript that would show off a typical game of Avarice Industries. Unfortunately, we didn’t, but we loved the idea!

Below you’ll find an example of a typical scene in Avarice Industries. The transcript not only goes over a typical gameplay session, but it also demonstrates various elements of the game’s skill check system (The Virtues of Industry), the Motivation system, Advantages and Disadvantages, DREAM Items, and Character Traits. It’s a little long, but there’s a lot to cover! We hope you enjoy the read!

Bridget, Nelson, Tasha, and Luke are currently in the middle of a game of Avarice Industries. Bridget, taking on the role of the General Manager (more commonly known as a Storyteller or Game Master), has tasked the Industrialized Industrial player characters (Nelson, Tasha, and Luke) with retrieving a data punch card from the apartment of an Infinity Corporation executive. The punch card was stolen from Industrialized Industrial by Infinity, and the company would like their property back in their hands.

Luke is playing a strong, burly, boxer-turned-bodyguard named Clyde. Tasha is a clever, slightly eccentric thief named Cue. Nelson is currently playing the fast-talking common sense dispenser named Smith. We join their session just as they have located the Infinity executive’s apartment and arrive at her door. Any comments made inside of parenthesis denote that the player is speaking out-of-character. Bridget, due to her role as the GM, is always speaking out-of-character.

Please be aware that this transcription does contain some profanity, and should be considered NSFW.

Bridget (GM): Ok, so, no one has answered the door after you guys have knocked.

Nelson: Oh come on! It’s after 6:30. Who stays this late at the office?

Luke: Well apparently not you, Smith.

Tasha: She doesn’t have to be home for us to take back what’s rightfully ours. (Bridget, I reach into one of the many pockets on my tiered skirt and pull out my auto-pick.)

Luke: (Hah. I still love your “Skirt of Many Pockets.” I also still can’t believe you fit a crowbar in one of those things.)

Tasha: (It’s easy when each pocket is really a pocket dimension. I paid out of my nose for it though.)

Nelson: You know, for once, I’d like to actually do this WITHOUT breaking someone’s knees or shooting a lock off. I mean, I spent all that time last week creating that whole powerpoint presentation about how the three of us could pull off the perfect Honey Pot scam…

Tasha: You know, Smith, I wasn’t snoring during that meeting for fun, right? (Ok, so I’m going to stick the auto-pick into the door and begin working with it to pick the lock.)

Bridget (GM): All right Cue, you got it! I guess you got overruled, Smith.

Nelson: (Yeah yeah yeah… It’s poor Smith’s lot in life.)

Bridget (GM): So, Tasha. As always, you’re attempting to finesse the lock open with your tool, yes?

Tasha: (Of course!)

Bridget (GM): So, if that’s the case, your dice pool for this skill check will be your Greed score and your Envy score. Greed to represent the grace required to pick the lock, Envy to represent the perception you’ll need to feel when you’re on the right track. Greed + Envy.

Tasha: (All right. My Greed is at 4 and my Envy is at 3. My auto-pick also gives me another die for picking locks. That’s 8d8, right?)

Bridget (GM): Yep! Roll them and try to get a 6 or higher.

Tasha: (Looks like I got a 3, 2, 1, 1, 1…)

Luke: (Wow Tash, your roll blows.)

Tasha: (Thanks for noticing! Anyway… there’s also a 8, 6, and 5.)

Bridget (GM): Well you at least got enough successes to cancel out the critical failure 1s, but only because the 8 counts as 2 successes. Right now you have zero successes.

Nelson: (Tash, you could spend a motivation point to increase the 5 to a 6. That way you’ll get a single success.)

Tasha: (I don’t think it’s worth it. A single success probably won’t open the door. I’d rather keep the motivation.)

Bridget (GM): Then, Tasha, you hear the brass auto-pick begin to attempt multiple combinations in the door. The small mechanical pins are doing their best to click the tumblers into place, but you just can’t feel a good place to put it.

Luke: (That’s what she said.)

Bridget: *groans* You just had to get that out of your system.

Luke: (Rubi’s not here. I had to say it in her stay.)

Bridget (GM): Anyway… you pull the auto-pick out because it’s clear that it’s just not working.

Tasha: (I begin looking my pick over, poking at it to make sure nothing’s stuck in it.)

Luke: Cue, take a step back and let a pro show you how to really do it. (I reach my hand into my pocket.)

Nelson: Oh come on! Everyone on this floor is going to hear a gunshot! Do you really want to pay off the police YET AGAIN?

Luke: (I pull out my ballpoint pen.)

Nelson: Oh… well… um… how’s a pen going to help us out?

Luke: (I take the pen and ruthlessly jam it into the lock.)

Bridget (GM): ….really?

Luke: (Really really.)

Bridget (GM): *Starts Laughing* Ok tough guy… Well, you’re jamming a pen into a lock. Use Wrath because it’s a physical action. Use Lust because it stands for all things luck based. And… let me tell you… this is purely luck. Wrath + Lust…

Luke: (I have Wrath 5 and Lust 2. None of my items add dice to this. 7d8.)

Bridget (GM): …and Disadvantage 2.

Luke: (Really?)

Bridget (GM): (You’re sticking a pen into a door and hoping it works. Fuck yes you’re getting a disadvantage.)

Luke: (All right, all right. You make a point. That means two of my d8s turn into d6s… so 2d6 and 5d8 it is.)

*Luke rolls his dice. Nelson and Tasha look at the result and start laughing.*

Bridget (GM): You… have got… to be shitting me.

Luke: (8, 8, 7, 6, 2, 3, 5. Since it’s 2 successes for each 8… that’s 6 successes.)

Nelson: (Even one of the d6s turned up with a success. Holy shit.)

Bridget (GM): So the door’s difficulty level was 4… you kinda beat that. Cue and Smith… you watch in horror as Clyde takes his pen and jams it straight into the lock with all of his might. In one blow, you hear the lock crack and break from the force of the pen.

Tasha: (Can you pass some of that luck over here?)

Luke: (It’s all in the hands, baby!)

Nelson: (That is, undoubtedly, what she said.)

Bridget (GM): God that phrase is so over used. I’m going to end up in an insane asylum, and you three are going to drive me there.

Luke: (Oh, you don’t need us to help you with that.)

Bridget (GM): ANYWAY. Clyde, the door is, amazingly enough, unlocked.

Luke: (I tip my bowler hat, smile, and open the door for everyone.)

Bridget (GM): So you’re all in this lavishly decorated apartment. The lights automatically turn on as you walk into the room, revealing a set of plush leather couches, gigantic widescreen TV, an equally large aquarium full of fish, and a beautiful view of the Burning Forest skyline. In the distance, you can see the Wildfire Industries HQ glowing against the setting sun.

Luke: Well I’ll be a toothless gear. This place probably costs a pretty penny.

Tasha: Stop gawking and try to find the disk before the bitch gets back. If there’s one thing I agree with Smith on, it’s that I don’t want this job to end up like the last job.

Luke: That was absolutely, one-hundred percent, not my fault. You should have told me that the guys from room service weren’t actually from The Rainman Group. (I reach into my vest pocket and pull out my everlasting cigar and lighter, light up the cigar, and start smoking as I look out the window.) And that’s where I’m leaving that.

Nelson: You never take any of the blame for any of the shit that goes wrong. And for fuck’s sake, you’re smoking right now? Of all of the things you commission from the DREAM Generator, you commission a stupid fucking cigar! People can smell smoke, ya know!

Luke: At least it makes me happy.

Bridget (GM): Gang, everyone make a Envy + Gluttony roll. Envy to perceive your surroundings, Gluttony to gather information.

Luke, Nelson, and Tasha (Simultaneously): Fuck.

*Everyone rolls their dice and reads off their successes.*

Luke: 3 successes.

Tasha: 5 successes.

Nelson: I got a single success.

Bridget (GM): Cue and Clyde, you both hear keys being jangled right outside of the door. It sounds like someone is about to unlock the door and come in.

Luke: (I turn around, deer in the headlights style, and stare at the door. I then quickly survey my surroundings for another room to hide in.)

Tasha: (Same.)

Bridget (GM): There are doorways in the room on the left side and the right side by the windows. You guys are closer to the right hand side.

Tasha: (I run through the right hand side door.)

Luke: (I follow Cue.)

Bridget (GM): Smith, you watch as Cue and Clyde stare at the door and run into the other room. You now hear someone outside too. From where you were in the room, you were closer to the left hand side door.

Nelson: (I curse under my breath, panic, and run into the left hand side room.)

Bridget (GM): Ok then. Smith, you’re in her bedroom. There’s a door leading into a master bathroom, a table and two chairs by the grand window, a dresser, a makeup table, a bed…

Nelson: (I am so diving under that bed and hiding.)

Bridget (GM): Great. That makes you easy enough. Cue and Clyde, you’re in a small hallway. You can go down the hallway into the kitchen, but there’s a semi-open door on your right leading into a large walk-in closet.

Luke: (I think I speak for the both of us when I say we hide in there.) *Tasha nods in agreement.*

Bridget: …are you gonna smoke while still in the closet?

Luke: (Normally I’d say “Fuck yeah!” But I think I should put it out now. I blow out the cigar and put it back into my vest after dropping the ashes onto the finest piece of clothing I can find in the closet.)

Bridget (GM): Glad you’re such a class act.

Luke: (My pleasure!)

Bridget (GM): So you guys hear the door open and a pair of high heels click over the tile in the entry way and into the living room. The footsteps pause for a moment, and you’re sure you distinctly hear someone begin to sniff the air…

Nelson: (Well that didn’t last long.)

Bridget (GM): Then, after a few seconds, you hear a light “Hrm.” And the footsteps enter the bedroom. She begins to casually sing a melody to herself.

*Tasha and Luke let out a sight of relief while Nelson continues to stare at Bridget intently.*

Bridget (GM): Nelson, make me a Greed + Sloth check. Greed to represent your grace and Sloth to represent your resistance of being found. This is going to be a contested check, so you’re going to have to beat her Envy + Gluttony roll. She’s going to get 1 Advantage die because of the cigar smoke. That means that one of her d8s will become a d10 in this next roll. She’s onto you guys, but she’s not entirely sure what’s going on just yet.

Nelson: (And those are my shitty virtues… I only get 5d8 for this one.)

*Nelson and Bridget both roll their dice. Bridget rolls behind her GM screen and Nelson rolls on the table.*

Bridget (GM): Ok Nelson. So, because this is a contested check, I have to declare if my character is using any motivation of her own before you spend yours. After looking at this roll, I’m going to spend 3 motivation points on my roll. What did you get?

Nelson: (I have a 7, 6, 5, 4, 4, and 1. That’s only one success.)

Luke: (You should spend some motivation right now, dude.)

Nelson: (Ok… I still have a bunch… So here’s what I’m going to do. Follow me on this one. Spending one point to raise the 7 to an 8. Spending another point to raise the 5 to a 6 and make that a success. Spending a third point to change the 1 into a 2, so I can cancel out that failure. Finally, I’m spending a 4th point to activate my “Paragon” trait. This allows me to count a pair as an extra success, so the 4s now count as one success. That puts me at… 5 successes.)

Bridget (GM): All right, give me four of your motivation chips. You’re down to 5 motivation.

*Nelson hands Bridget 4 of the poker chips on his character sheet to represent the motivation he spent*

Bridget (GM): So, moment of truth. I’m not going to tell you what she rolled. Instead, let’s talk about what just happened.

*Nelson takes a deep breath.*

Bridget (GM): The Infinity executive walks into the room, singing softly to herself. You recognize the tune as being a sing-songy version of “Hickory Dickory Dock.” She walks over to her dresser and you can hear her picking something up off of it before she sits down right on her bed… right atop of you. Her legs are danging right in front of you.

Nelson: (Oh god… oh god.. oh god…)

Bridget (GM): You hear her begin to brush her hair.

Nelson: (Oh phew.)

Bridget (GM): You then hear her sing, “Hickory, dickory, dock. The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one… and the mouse was done.”

Nelson: (Those aren’t the words…)

Bridget (GM): The last part of her singing wasn’t so… bright and cheerful. It was a little full of malice and hate. You realize now that your brown tie is slightly sticking out from under the bed. She rolled 6 successes against your 5. *Bridget picks up her dice.*

Nelson: (OH GOD.)

Bridget (GM): What’s your armor?

Nelson: My suit is slightly reinforced… it has 2 armor.

Bridget (GM): The bed is giving you a +1 to that, as it provides cover. Your defense is 3 for this roll. She’s rolling her Wrath + Greed. Wrath for strength, Greed for dexterity. *Bridget rolls her dice behind the screen again and chuckles.* You watch as a blade cuts straight through the bed and slices into the floor right in front of your eyes. She just barely, barely missed. Her roll failed.

Nelson: AIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! (And Smith wets his pants.)

Bridget (GM): *Starts Laughing* Oh my god… that’s so Smith. Here… take back one motivation point. That was a great reaction.

*Bridget hands Nelson one of his motivation chips back as a reward for his roleplaying*

Luke: (So, in response to Nelson’s girly screams, I’m going to jump out of the closet and dash into the living room to attempt to save him.)

Tasha: (I’m going to follow suit. Our cover is blown. Again. As usual.)

Bridget (GM): You guys burst out of the walk-in closet and right into the living room. As you run in, you can look through the doorway and see the Infinity executive sitting on the bed, staring right at you. One of her blue fingernails has transformed into a long blade and has sliced straight through the bed. Her square-framed glasses are tinted with a slight blue color, and you notice there’s a targeting reticule being displayed on the right lens. She’s pointing a metal hairbrush at you, but you can’t quite say that you’ve seen a hairbrush with a barrel and a trigger before. The barrel is pointed straight at Cue.

Luke: (You know Tasha, I just thought of something interesting at this very moment.)

Tasha: (And what could that possibly be?)

Luke: (What would happen if… let’s say… a weapon of some sort ripped open one of your skirt’s pockets. You know… the pockets with the contained dimensional warps in them.)

*Tasha sits there blankly for a few moments before turning to look at Bridget. Bridget’s expression turns into a wide smile, and she gives Tasha a bit of a sarcastic thumbs up.*

Tasha: Ffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu….

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We hope you’ve enjoyed this look into the game! If you’re interested by what you read here, be sure to back our currently running Kickstarter project!

The Great Dragon*Con Wrapup Post!

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:39:56 +0000

Well hey there, executives! I’m back from my wonderful “Journey To The South” (TM) and it couldn’t have gone better! Dragon*Con was a blast, and I was happy to meet some new people and get some new testers to sit down and try the game.

From what I hear, their journey to Burning Forest was a blast! People really enjoyed the setting, the dice mechanics, and the simplicity and flexibility of the system! These are all wins for Lorin and I, as we were both certainly concerned with how people would enjoy our game when approaching it for the first time. Too often have we run this system with friends, and friends usually only say so much. Complete strangers are usually a little more candid when something sucks.

Of course, in testing anything, some rules and traits exhibited some bugs and glitches. (I’m looking at you, Astral Walker trait. You and your uncanny ability to create 13-15 successes when our difficulty scale only goes up to 10. Bad trait!) Luckily, these issues are happening early enough where we can catch them and re-work them before they get out and cause havoc. But, the core system is running quite well and seems to be a good amount of fun. I have my concerns (as does Lorin) but we hope all of this will be shaken out during our playtesting.

SPEAKING OF PLAYTESTING! You can still sign up to test the game! Hurry though, as we’re not going to keep our signups open much longer! Time is dwindling and our playtesting won’t take place forever. Did we mention that we’ll give you a free PDF version of the game when it comes out if you help us playtest? (Free swag always brings out the testers.)

Finally, we know that some of you were unable to join us for Dragon*Con. While we were sad that you couldn’t gather around the table with us and run The Burning Forest Future Expo in the flesh, we don’t want to leave you out of the fun (and mass-murder) that is this module! We’ll be compiling this very module and giving it away as a free download here on the site at a later date! This way you’ll not only get to play this pretty fun module, but you’ll also get to have a first hand look at the game with some pre-generated characters and quick start rules before the game comes out!

So that’s all of the excitement that I have for now, but I’ll be back soon with more news, some behind the scenes looks at how the game was made, and some of our concept art! Until next time!

~Seraphina

Learn more about Wildfire Industries

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:24:28 +0000

Ever want to know more about the company that made DREAM Technology possible? Well, the Federal Office of Commerce and Trade has finally unsealed a piece of their documentation on the first mega-corporation, Wildfire Industries. Check it out today!

Join us for a public playtest at Dragon*Con 2011!

Seraphina Brennan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:43:42 +0000

Are you going to Dragon*Con 2011? Well, it just turns out so are we! Well, perhaps not we, but I (Seraphina) certainly am!

Not only will I be on site, I’m bringing Avarice Industries along for the ride! I’ll be running two very special sessions of our exclusive Dragon*Con mission, “The Burning Forest Future Expo,” as part of the D*C Gaming Non-Campaign Roleplaying Games. This event marks the second time that we’re showing Avarice Industries off to the public, and we’d love it if you could join us!

Plus, if showing up and playing a game no one else has seen before isn’t tantalizing enough, we also have some Dragon*Con exclusive swag to give away to those who attend one of our sessions! Each player who drops by and plays a session will get a nice Avarice Industries poster, signed by Seraphina, Lorin, and Anya! The design is going to remain secret until the game, but we think you’re gonna like them.

If all of this interests you, you can catch our games at the following times during the convention:

Friday, September 2nd at 6:00 PM at the Hilton, Room 302
Saturday, September 3rd at 6:00 PM at the Hilton, Room 302

As per D*C’s rules, registering for the session will cost you a whole 3 dollars. You can register to join the session now by visiting the D*C Gaming Event Search page (http://gaming.dragoncon.org/index.php/eventsearch) and selecting Avarice Industries as your Gaming System.

I can’t wait to meet you all and play the game with you!

~Seraphina

Become A Playtester!

Seraphina Brennan — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:13:48 +0000

Interested in playtesting Avarice Industries? No? Did we mention we’ll put your name in the credits and send you a free .PDF copy of the game? Yeah, we thought you’d be interested now. Everybody loves free stuff!

If you’re interested in playtesting, all you need to do is leave a comment here on this very post telling us why you want to be a playtester! In your comment be sure to include your e-mail address. It won’t be displayed publicly, but we will be using it to contact you if you’re selected!

Good luck to everyone, and we hope to see you in our testing phases!

Welcome to our website!

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:51:49 +0000

Heyo everyone! Welcome to the brand new Avarice Industries website! Sorry that it took us so long to get things up and running. We had to make sure that all of the bugs were shook loose, and we had to refill the minibar. (Disclaimer: The minibar is for our use only, and is not intended for public consumption.)

But, even with all of the fancy graphics and long pages of text, we’re still not entirely done with the website. Over the course of playtesting and publishing we’ll be adding even more cool stuff to the site, like an overview of the five corporations, the history of Burning Forest, awesome downloads for your computer, behind-the-scenes news and interviews, and maybe even a forum if you guys want one.

As this is a mutual side project between Lorin and myself, our updates may not be the most frequent. He has important schooling to take care of, and I have to head out to work every day. But, we’ll keep you guys as up-to-date on the project as we can, and we’ll add more content when we have time.

So have a look around, relax a little, and enjoy the new website smell. Ahhhhhh… reminds me of freshly cut bytes.

~Seraphina