Replacing history with character

Hey y'all,

I had a great time running Autostede at PAX Aus, and got to see the reaction from the public to this little project of ours. I certainly am glad that I had been working on the marketing materials enough that by the time I got there I had an elevator pitch ready. It's unfortunate that I didn't get that submitted as the official explanation of the game, but there were some great folx on the sign up desk who talked about it enough that the last two games were full!

Also, I got some copies printed! As a bit of a proof of concept, when I booked in the bulk printing of play materials and promotional stuff at a local print shop I asked if they do staple bound printing, and they've got one of the book machines that does it all, so I got a handful printed and handed them out as prizes to the players at my games. Didn't take long before we started seeing typos, and I definitely ran it differently by the end of the convention than what I wrote in the book, but that means that I have a clear direction in how to clean up the rules.

Another clear direction that I discovered is that a lot of people loved the "Zoids meets Pokemon" style, and it got me thinking that I could adjust it a little, and really lean in to the Pokemon aspects of the game. 

So! It is with great excitement that I announce the ongoing direction of this project. I am going to strip out the historical accounts and text-book nature of the way the world is described in the book and replace them with contemporaneous accounts of what it is like in the time period that the game is set. 

Also, I am going to start actual worldbuilding, with a view to creating small regions with one or two settlements and a handful of local stedes. These should serve well as jumping off points for adventures and will contain story hooks and drama aplenty. 

As a taste of this new direction, I give you the new Introduction to the World

Nobody really knows where the Autostedes came from. Some say they flew here as one big stede and the impact of landing broke them into a million pieces. Some say if you travel north far enough you’ll find the factories where they are made still pumping them out. Folk tales tell of a time before stedes, when things called “animals” roamed the land and the cities were huge and plants were small. What do I think? I honestly don’t care. Stedes are here. They hurt us and they protect us. We ride with them and we run from them. I don’t know where they came from, but I know I’d rather have one as a friend than as an enemy. 

I got my first stede when I was 5. Young, I know, most people don’t get the chance until their teens, but I was with my Ma in town and saw a cat-like stede with 3 tails wandering in. Looked like a wreck, one of its legs was half lame and it had a big dent in its side. Without thinking I ran up to it to see if I could help. Now, I ain’t no mechanic or nothing but I did what I could, plugged in a few wires and hoses that were flopping around near what looked to be where they plugged in. I’ll never forget the feeling when that first one imprinted on me. Damn near scared me out of my boots to be honest. I heard the older kids talking about their stedes like they could talk to them, but I never really thought it would be that direct. My brain lit up like it was on fire. Suddenly there were two thought patterns in one place. Wasn’t until I screamed, ran back to my Ma and felt the sadness emanating from Toby, that’s what I ended up calling him, that I realised what was going on. I was hearing his thoughts. Not that I have to tell all y’all, I know you have stedes of your own, that everyone’s got one, but we got talking about where they came from and my mind started to wonder, where would I be without them?