Now that we've voted to pare the X-Men set down to just the 11 figures, we've opened the door up for a new approach to Wave design that Griffin and Hahma and I have all been talking about behind the scenes, and that I think would serve the goals of the project very well.
I know I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes (sorry, sorry), but I really want to step back from that and allow for more "ownership" for this project. Of course, with ownership comes accountability.
Instead of me mapping out wave after wave of thematic boosters, I think what I call the "ala cart" approach is just what we need to make the C3G really go.
Here's how it would work:
Each Sidekick or Hero would have the ability to start new threads. The first posts of those threads would then be their responsibilities to update (though I could help as well, where needed).
In these threads, heroes or sidekicks could post the first drafts of new designs. These designs could be for any of the following:
Heroes
Squads
Glyphs
Scenarios
Maps
Optional Rules Additions
Destructible Objects
Basically anything we as a group might ever want to collaboratively design, playtest, and release.
Now, these wouldn't just be a chaotic, devil-may-care creative frenzy. There have to be some ground rules for these types of things.
And here they are:
1) There's a "first come, first serve" rule. That means if Hahma has posted a thread with a rough draft for Wolverine, if Spidey posts a thread with a rough draft for Wolverine 5 minutes later, I'm going to lock it, and we're going to go forward with Hahma's. First come, first serve.
2) Each can only have one active design thread at a time. This will prevent people from just overloading other members with playtesting burden while pumping out design after design, and it will also encourage more people to get involved with playtesting what they design, if only so they can make themselves able to post more designs sooner. (And designing is really the thing that gets the motors running for all of us, right?). This will also force us all to prioritize. If you can only have one thread active at a time, that means you have to choose whether it's more important to you to get Thor out first or Danger Girl (and it's up to you). Or if it's more important to you to get our a new unit or a new map or scenario or rules addition. Basically you choose to design what's the biggest priority for you, but you're also aware that the level of interest you manage to generate for what you initially designed can make or break your ability to pass it through the entire process and get designing something new anytime soon.
3) An active design thread is defined as one that has not been put through the entire process. What's the process you ask? Well let me spell it out for ya.
First you create a rough draft. In order to be a rough draft eligible for the "first come, first serve" policy, your first post must include the following:
Base stats
A title and subtitle
Powers and power text
An estimated cost
A comic art picture
A figure picture (usually heroclix, but other appropriately scaled figures are acceptable).
Obviously if you're designing a map or scenario or rules addition, etc., instead of a unit, the requirements are a bit different. But don't post a design thread on a map unless you're ready to post a virtual scape file, and don't post a design thread on a scenario unless you have an approved map to go along with it and a rough draft of the scenario rules written up, and so on.
I'll be giving you no guidelines on what units or other things to choose to design. It's completely up to your choice. But, again, the community's interest is needed to push something through the entire process, so you might want to take their temperature on something before starting a thread.
Which brings me back to the process. After the initial rough draft is up, there's the collaborative design phase. During this phase, the Guild will discuss the unit/etc., and we'll come together on a consensus about any changes we feel need to be made, etc. These might be small tweaks and they might be changes of each and every thing you designed for your rough draft. That's the way of the C3G - collaboration until it hurts. So nothing new there. This is one of the key things that will always separate us from NM24 - we have no need or responsibility to respect the original vision as this is something we'll all be taking ownership for ultimately.
The collaborative design phase culminates in a vote to move the unit/etc. on to the playtesting phase.
However (this is important to note) the process for your design does not end once it gets to the playtesting phase. At this point it still must go through playtesting, get feedback and have any necessary changes, be passed with a final cost vote after playtesting, be put on to a card, have any final edits made to the card, and be voted for placement in a release before you're able to design something new.
What this will do, hopefully, is create cheerleaders for each unit who will eagerly push their initial designs onward as they change and grow, and will teach us all the importance of staying the course through the entire process.
Another thing it will do is put the ball back in the court of those willing to playtest. Just want to design and don't want to/can't playtest? That's OK. I won't hold it against you. But I also won't ask a dedicated playtester to prioritize on your design if it's something he's less interested. Playtesters will be able to choose to playtest what they want when the want, with no prescribed wave releases, and once we have 10 units/w/e to bundle together as a wave, we'll have a release, as mishmashed and Heroscapey as that may be. This will prevent playtesters from ever feeling like they're grunts being dictated to.
Ultimately this "ala cart" approach will allow us all to work on what's the biggest priority to us without losing the collaborative feel we want or the standards of quality.
Griffin will be making an update soon detailing the minimal requirements for playtesting of each of these types of things you can design (units, maps, glyphs, scenarios, rules additions, DOs) soon.
So ... what do you guys think of this potential new approach?
I know I'm a bit of a control freak sometimes (sorry, sorry), but I really want to step back from that and allow for more "ownership" for this project. Of course, with ownership comes accountability.
Instead of me mapping out wave after wave of thematic boosters, I think what I call the "ala cart" approach is just what we need to make the C3G really go.
Here's how it would work:
Each Sidekick or Hero would have the ability to start new threads. The first posts of those threads would then be their responsibilities to update (though I could help as well, where needed).
In these threads, heroes or sidekicks could post the first drafts of new designs. These designs could be for any of the following:
Heroes
Squads
Glyphs
Scenarios
Maps
Optional Rules Additions
Destructible Objects
Basically anything we as a group might ever want to collaboratively design, playtest, and release.
Now, these wouldn't just be a chaotic, devil-may-care creative frenzy. There have to be some ground rules for these types of things.
And here they are:
1) There's a "first come, first serve" rule. That means if Hahma has posted a thread with a rough draft for Wolverine, if Spidey posts a thread with a rough draft for Wolverine 5 minutes later, I'm going to lock it, and we're going to go forward with Hahma's. First come, first serve.
2) Each can only have one active design thread at a time. This will prevent people from just overloading other members with playtesting burden while pumping out design after design, and it will also encourage more people to get involved with playtesting what they design, if only so they can make themselves able to post more designs sooner. (And designing is really the thing that gets the motors running for all of us, right?). This will also force us all to prioritize. If you can only have one thread active at a time, that means you have to choose whether it's more important to you to get Thor out first or Danger Girl (and it's up to you). Or if it's more important to you to get our a new unit or a new map or scenario or rules addition. Basically you choose to design what's the biggest priority for you, but you're also aware that the level of interest you manage to generate for what you initially designed can make or break your ability to pass it through the entire process and get designing something new anytime soon.
3) An active design thread is defined as one that has not been put through the entire process. What's the process you ask? Well let me spell it out for ya.
First you create a rough draft. In order to be a rough draft eligible for the "first come, first serve" policy, your first post must include the following:
Base stats
A title and subtitle
Powers and power text
An estimated cost
A comic art picture
A figure picture (usually heroclix, but other appropriately scaled figures are acceptable).
Obviously if you're designing a map or scenario or rules addition, etc., instead of a unit, the requirements are a bit different. But don't post a design thread on a map unless you're ready to post a virtual scape file, and don't post a design thread on a scenario unless you have an approved map to go along with it and a rough draft of the scenario rules written up, and so on.
I'll be giving you no guidelines on what units or other things to choose to design. It's completely up to your choice. But, again, the community's interest is needed to push something through the entire process, so you might want to take their temperature on something before starting a thread.
Which brings me back to the process. After the initial rough draft is up, there's the collaborative design phase. During this phase, the Guild will discuss the unit/etc., and we'll come together on a consensus about any changes we feel need to be made, etc. These might be small tweaks and they might be changes of each and every thing you designed for your rough draft. That's the way of the C3G - collaboration until it hurts.
So nothing new there. This is one of the key things that will always separate us from NM24 - we have no need or responsibility to respect the original vision as this is something we'll all be taking ownership for ultimately.The collaborative design phase culminates in a vote to move the unit/etc. on to the playtesting phase.
However (this is important to note) the process for your design does not end once it gets to the playtesting phase. At this point it still must go through playtesting, get feedback and have any necessary changes, be passed with a final cost vote after playtesting, be put on to a card, have any final edits made to the card, and be voted for placement in a release before you're able to design something new.
What this will do, hopefully, is create cheerleaders for each unit who will eagerly push their initial designs onward as they change and grow, and will teach us all the importance of staying the course through the entire process.
Another thing it will do is put the ball back in the court of those willing to playtest. Just want to design and don't want to/can't playtest? That's OK. I won't hold it against you. But I also won't ask a dedicated playtester to prioritize on your design if it's something he's less interested. Playtesters will be able to choose to playtest what they want when the want, with no prescribed wave releases, and once we have 10 units/w/e to bundle together as a wave, we'll have a release, as mishmashed and Heroscapey as that may be. This will prevent playtesters from ever feeling like they're grunts being dictated to.
Ultimately this "ala cart" approach will allow us all to work on what's the biggest priority to us without losing the collaborative feel we want or the standards of quality.
Griffin will be making an update soon detailing the minimal requirements for playtesting of each of these types of things you can design (units, maps, glyphs, scenarios, rules additions, DOs) soon.
So ... what do you guys think of this potential new approach?
). But I want to pick em.