Cycles-RPG

The reading of Avalanche is somehow special, so I'd like to talk about it. Note that here I'm refering to the preliminary, recommanded, reading before the start of a campaign and not the reading prior to the preparation of a game session, of which I'll talk later.

But first, a recommandation. I strongly advice against reading Avalanche from cover to cover (which, by the way, would be impossible in its web version). This approach toward Avalanche would imply to apprend the elements in an alphabetical order : first, all the characters, then the races, the organisations, the objects and finally the locations. But those elements are not ordered in function of the plots they are related to. For instance, a reader might be consulting the description of the king and then move on to the one of the leader of the brigands milicia. Two characters maybe too far away related. Also, this reading would suppose to read the plots only after reading all the essence. In my opinion, there is too much informations to get at the same time.

Personally, I like to thing of Avalanche as a newspaper. Suppose you have a pile of newspapers (in the case of Cycles, a weekly issue), you could read in multiples ways : week after week, or along a given story, picking out elements of each issue. Eventually, the original plot might come across another one and you would need to "read back" this new story as to understand what's at stake. I believe this is how Avalanche should be read. You choose a point of view, be it a character, a city or a "story" (check back my previous post for the exact definition) and follow it for a given period of time, while swaping to the new elements you'll come across.

So, the reading of Avalanche will be different for each reader. In fact, it is possible to open Avalanche at random and start the reading at any point. That said, I believe the important point is to follow the lead that interest you most and let story guide you in the exploration of the scenario.

To conclude, I'd like to mention that Avalanche is written as to offer a pleasant, intriguing reading, closer to a fiction than a typical rpg scenario.

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La lecture d'Avalanche est un peu particulière et j'aimerais maintenant m'y attarder. A noter que je vais parler de la lecture préalable recommandée avant le début du lancement d'une campagne, et non la lecture dans le cadre de la préparation d'une partie, laquelle j'aborderai ultérieurement.

Tout d'abord, une recommandation. Je déconseille vivement de lire Avalanche d'un couvert à l'autre (ce qui, de toute façon sera relativement difficile sous un format web). Cette approche d'Avalanche impliquerait que le lecteur appréhende les éléments en ordre alphabétique : tout d'abord, tous les personnages, puis les organisations, les races, les objets, le bestiaire et les lieux. Ils ne sont donc pas ordonnés en fonction des histoires. Or, Avalanche étant multi intrigues, les personnages, par exemple, n'ont pas tous des liens entre eux (à tout le moins, pas directement). Honnêtement, cette lecture peut être pénible et déroutante. Le lecteur suit la description du roi, par exemple, et enchaîne sur le dirigeant des brigands qui sévissent dans l'arrière-pays. Deux personnages qui sont certes liés, mais qui n'ont pas grand chose en commun dans un premier temps. De plus, cette lecture supposerait que l'histoire ne serait abordée que suite à la lecture complète de l'essence. Cela fait beaucoup d'informations à acquérir en même temps.

Personnellement, j'aime concevoir la lecture d'Avalanche comme un journal. En effet, imaginez que vous disposiez d'une pile de journaux (dans le cas de Cycles, un hebdomadaire), vous pourriez en faire la lecture de multiples façons : en lisant semaine après semaine, ou encore en suivant un fil directeur, une histoire donnée, par exemple. Eventuellement, des histoires vont se croiser, se chevaucher, et vous serez amenés à faire un "retour arrière" sur certaines intrigues afin d'en comprendre les enjeux. En fait, Avalanche devrait être lu comme ça. Vous choisissez un point de vue, que ce soit une ville, un personnage, une organisation ou même une "histoire" (rappelez-vous ma rubrique précédente pour la définition) et vous pouvez le suivre sur la période donnée, tout en naviguant sur les nouveaux éléments que vous serez amenés à rencontrer lors de votre lecture.

La lecture d'Avalanche sera donc différente pour chaque lecteur. Dans les faits, il serait possible d'ouvrir ce scénario à n'importe quelle page et en commencer la lecture. Mais je pense que l'essentiel est de suivre un axe qui intérèsse le lecteur et de se laisser porter par l'intrigue.

Pour conclure, je souhaite préciser qu'Avalanche a été écrit afin d'offrir une lecture agréable, qui se rapproche davantage du roman que du scénario classique pour le jeu de rôle.

Somehow a complement of what is already described in the teaser, I'd like to present the various terms that are used to represent the specific design of Cycles. Those concepts seemed mandatory to us to build a multi plots calendar based campaign.

The essence : it consists of all the elements that take part in the story. In cycles, they are the characters, organisations, races, objects, creatures, and locations (which are divided into singular, regions and cities).
Snapshots : they are the secondaries elements that complete the elements of essence. It could be characters, but also locations, objects, tradition or even songs. A single snapshot can relate to many elements of essence. For instance, the inn of a major member of the thieves' guild, may be related to its owner, but also the city it is in, or even the guild itself.

The existence : this represents the story, having the elements of essence taking part in it. The existence consists of many time units, each one having its own purpose.

The time units (UT) : there are four of them.
UT0 : this is the "highest" time unit. A given scenario always occur for one, and a single one, UT0. It could be defined as a year, but also as a historical time (the renaissance, for example) or even an age. Avalanche, for example, takes place in 1351. The UT0 bear the critical entry and exit points.
UT1 : the UT1 are very structuring. It could be seen as a chapter, an episode or a book (of a trilogy). In Avalanche, UT1 corresponds to seasons. The UT1 bear the transition points and the plots.
UT2 : this time unit is used to structure the inferiors UT. They do not bear any elements, but allow a better reading. In Avalanche, UT2 are the months.
UT3 : those are the unit time that bear the events. In Avalanche, the UT3 are the week.

It is important to see that this model allows a lot of flexibility. There are no real obligations as how the UT are defined. In Avalanche, we are using year/seasons/month/weeks, but nothing prohibits the use of age/year/month/day or year/month/day/hour. It all depends on the time coverage of the scenario and the level of details needed.

The events : something that is occuring somewhere for a given time. This is vague and on purpose. The events are related to the elements of essence (but not the snapshots), to one or more plots (beared by the UT1) and always happen for a single UT0/UT1/UT2/UT3. The events influence each other on a chronological order.
The miror events : two or more events are said to be "miror" if they reflect the same reality. Personnaly, I mostly use them to present a single event, but using different points of view (thus, multiples events). When a given event does not occur as described, then all its "miror" events do not occur as described as well.
The critical points : there are two kinds. The entry ones represent the major "events" (or "facts", if you prefer) from the past that influence the current scenario. For instance, in LOTR, a critical entry point would be "Bilbo has the ring". If a critical entry point does not reflect the reality of your game, than the impact on the scenario will be major. As for the exit critical points, they do represent the "major events" from the current scenario that can influence the future. So, an exit critical point of a scenario should turn out be an entry critical point of another, later, scenario. Those critical points are a way to make jonction between the scenarios.
Transition points : each UT1 ends with transition points. They do correspond, somehow, to the exit critical points of the UT0. They represent the major elements that occured in this "chapter" of the scenario. Transition points influence plots, except for those of the last UT1, which influence exit critical points instead. The transition points are themselves influenced by events.
The plots : they represent the main lines of the stories, for a given "chapter" (remember, they are beared by the UT1). The plots influence the events and are themselves influenced by transition points, at the exception of the plots of the first UT1, which are influenced by the entry critical points.

Now, why all this theory ? While writing Avalanche, I soon realised that the web of events was quickly becoming very complex and that the events alone would not be enough to pinpoint the influence of the players on the scenario. Because this is really what is at stake : to determine the exact impact of the players. So, the use of plots/transition points/critical points allows the segmentation of the scenario, to be able to open and close some brackets.

Reading back myself, I think a little diagram would be more than welcomed ...
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En quelque sorte un complément de ce qui est présenté dans le teaser, je souhaiterais maintenant m'attarder sur les termes qui entourent la structure de Cycles. Ces concepts nous sont nécessaires pour organiser une campagne multi intrigue basée sur un calendrier.

Et en me relisant, je me dis qu'un schéma explicatif serait le bienvenu ...

I must admit that at first, I was doubtful about this all blog thing. Was I going to write on a regular basis ? Would I have something to say ? Would the time I spend writing the blog hinder me in the development of Cycles ?

Quite Franckly, the writing of the blog has not much to do with the writing of Avalanche. An whole different thing, that pleases me well. And as the subjects are very different, this allows me to "taste various pleasures".

And, on the other hand, I've been kowning for a quite a while that I would need to write down a lot of pages to present this project. So, why not use the blog for this ? So, what I've been writing will serve me later, when Cycles goes online. And there is less pressure to write that from week to week, instead of all suddendly.

As for the question "is there anyone out there reading this", I try not to think too much about it. And as would say Edouard (one of my friend and player in my test campaign), a blog is throwing a bottle at the sea. Well, I guess there are not many people reading it at the moment (but a lot of indexing robots !!! They are faithful readers !!!), but as Cycles will open, I will gladly appreciate to have an history into this blog. And after all, I'm enjoying this !!!

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Je dois reconnaître qu'initialement j'avais de sérieux doutes quant à la pérénité de ce blog. Est-ce que j'allais réellement écrire sur une base régulière ? Est-ce que j'avais des choses à dire ? Est-ce que le temps que j'allais investir sur le blog allait me nuire sur l'avancement de Cycles ?

Maintenant, quant à la question de la lecture de ce blog, j'essaye de ne pas trop m'en faire. Comme dirait Edouard (un des mes amis et joueurs de ma campagne de test), il s'agit d'une bouteille lancée à la mer. Je présume qu'actuellement ce blog n'est pas très fréquenté (mis à part de nombreux robots d'indexation, qui sont mes plus fidèles lecteurs !!!), mais à la l'ouverture officielle de Cycles, je crois que je serai très heureux d'en avoir compléter la présentation. Et puis, après tout, je m'amuse à écrire ceci.

So, I've decided to try to sell Avalanche, thru a monthly subscription on the web. But, to have a product that would attract people, I would need illustrations. I already knew the role I wanted them to play in Avalanche and how exactly to integrate them into my specific design. I also knew that I wanted to work with many illustrators, using a different one for each story. And also I was quite sure of one thing : I would need a lot, but a lot, of illustrations. My search was ready to begin.

A difficult task
Finding out illustrators is something of a quest. Personnally, I didn't know any, at least professionnal enough. So, at first, I decided to ask some of my friends who were doing some illustrations for the fun of it. The main adavantage was that I wouldn't have anything to pay. Wrong idea : too much illustrations. It wasn't fun anymore for them. So, I would have to pay. I planned a small (well, maybe not so small after all) budget for the illustrations.
I began to search on various forums used by illustrators. I quickly realised that my tariffs weren't high enough. Finally, it is on The forge that I found out my first artist. I'll talk about this site in a later post.
That said, I found three of my illustrators thru this site. Bérengère was met thru Sylvain and Gabrielle was recruted thanks to an ad at an university.

A first positive answer
The first illustrator who accepted to work on this project was Linus. Was I glad to have found a partner relating to the illustrations !!! But a couple of surpises were awaiting me.
As I was communicating with Linus in english, our common language, I needed an english version of the extract I wished him to illustrate. I didn't have it. So, twenty pages to translate under a short notice. This is when I realised I would need a translator : for time and quality matters.
How does one write a contract for an illustrator ? It took me one week to achieve this, taking extreme precautions toward the "ownership" part of the contract. But at least, now I would have had a contract I'd be able to use with other illustrators.
How do you pay someone who lives in Sweden when you live in France ? That was almost a nightmare until I thougth of Paypal.
Finally, the dimensions of the illustrations. Right from the start, Linus wanted to know the exact dimensions for each illustration, as they would be shown on the website. The first draft of the webdesign was done in a hurry to answer those questions.
A difficult, busy month. But, bottom line, Linus had forced me to answer many questions and the work I had done would serve me later. At least, I would look a little bit more professional with the next illustrators.
Thanks for your patience Linus.

Some advices
From my point of view, my quest for illustrators and their integration into my project was a success. They seem to have fun, and for my part, I find their job amazing and within the limits of my budget. You'll allow me to give some advices to those who would try to do this for their own project.
You need to look, at least a minimum, professional : propose a contract and pay on time. This is very important. Personally, I pay half upfront, half on delivery. The objective is to build a relation of mutual trust.
I would recommand to announce upfront your budget (price per illustrations). That way, no one is losing time.
I believe one of the main advantage of my project is the fact that the illustrations are inter related. On the long term, the initial work of the illustrators is always re-used, so their commitment becomes greater (they work less and less, since they get used to the elements).
Another advantage in my relation with the illustration is the fact that I order a whole bunch of illustrations at the same time. My tariffs are not great, but as I order 30 illustrations at a time, the illustrators can see me as a recurrent buyer, but they still can work on other projects, for which they receive more money, but less frequently. I do understand that would not be able to buy a single illustration at this price.
When I came to have my teaser, I found it easier to explain to illustrators what was expected from them and also what the overall project did looked like. A useful tool.
Finally, never hesitate to talk about your project and be prepared for negative answers. To recruit five illustrators, I must have contacted over 30 others. But, I believe there is out there a lot of talented people, looking to build up their name, their portfolio and who wishes to take part in an interesting project. Hardest part is finding them.

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Quelques conseils
De mon point de vue, cette recherche d'illustrateurs et leur intégration au sein du projet est une véritable réussite. Mes illustrateurs semblent bien s'amuser, sont motivés et pour ma part, je suis très satisfait de leur travail, tout en respectant mon budget. Je me permets donc de donner quelques conseils à ceux voudraient se lancer dans cette recherche pour leur propre projet.
Il avoir l'air un minimum professionel : disposer d'un contrat et payer à temps. Ce dernier est très important. Personnelement, je paie la moitié au démarrage du contrat, le reste à l'arrivée. L'objectif est de créer un lien de confiance mutuel.
Je crois qu'il faut d'emblée annoncer son budget (prix par illustrations). L'objectif est d'éviter de faire du temps à tout le monde.
Un des avantages de mon projet est que les illustrations sont liées entre elles, les illustrateurs travaillant sur un thème donné. Je crois que c'est un atout non négligeable puisque sur le long terme, l'investiment de l'illustrateur devient payant et son engagement envers le projet plus fort.
Un autre atout dans ma relation avec les illustrateurs provient du fait que j'achète des nombreuses illustrations. Mes tarifs ne sont pas très élevés, mais dans la mesure où je commande 30 illustrations à la fois, le contrat devient plus intéressant. Je ne pourrais appliquer ce tarif sur l'achat d'une seule illustration. Ainsi, mes illustrateurs peuvent me voir comme acheteur régulier, qui ne met pas la pression pour les délais, et qui leur permet de travailler sur d'autres projets, peut-être plus payant, mais ponctuel.
Le fait d'avoir une maquette à montrer peut également être un atout. J'ai remarqué qu'avec l'usage du teaser, il était beaucoup plus facile d'expliquer aux illustrateurs mon projet ainsi que leur rôle.
Finalement, il ne faut hésiter à parler de son projet et être prêt à essuyer de nombreux refus. Pour avoir cinq illustrateurs, j'en ai sûrement contacté une trentaine. Mais dîtes-vous bien que des gens talentueux, qui cherchent à se faire un nom, à se monter un portofolio et qui sont prêts à participer à un projet intéressant, il est toujours possible de les trouver.

First things first, I'd like to mention that I really, but really, enjoy the writing of Avalanche. This is more similar to shorts stories, which would be linked together, than a novel. The breath needed to write it is shorter, and the change of style easier.

That said, I'd like to begin a series of articles about the "web of events" that constitute the existence, the heart of the story ; the main new aspect provided by Cycles. I'll talk about construction, reading, DM's preparation and play itself. So, let's start this with the writing.

Prerequisites
I believe there is a need to separate the constrution of the essence from the existence. Somehow, it seems obvious that the locations, characters, races, groups must be defined, to some extend, before starting the writing of the story itself. That said, I don't think that the overall essence must be done beforehand. In fact, both aspects influence each other. While writing some parts of a given story, it happens that I come to "ha ... there I need a main character !!!". This was the case for Sophia, who takes part in the story of the secret expedition. Initially, it was just supposed to be a typical, nameless mage ; nothing more. Well, all this to say that it doesn't serve any good to try to foresee everything in advance (creating characters that wouldn't be used in the end) and that while writing the story, some good suprises arise. But still, a minimum must be done.

A first draft
The writing of the web of events, as enjoyable as it can be, may reveal itself tricky. The different plots crossing themselves, interacting with the notion of time might be hard to achieve. So, I do recommand to first work at a very "high level". Somehow like doing a sketch of a painting (in french, "painting" and "web" may use the same word). No need to decide any details at this point. To do this sketch, I use the concept of "story", which are linked to a chapter (in cycles' jargon, there are called "unit time 1", represented by a season of twelve weeks in Avalanche) : an overall description of the main plots to come. Then, along those "plot lines", I choose some generic, temporary titles for the events to come, for each and every week of the chapter. This is where it is very important to be careful of the crossover of the stories, where they influence each other.

Along the stories
At first, when I began the writing of Avalanche, I tried to write down all the events for a given week, and then do the next week. But, this was not a good plan !!! And for two main reasons. First, for any given week, there are about thirty events, along five different stories. The changing of plots in the writing process is very hard, since I always had to came back to the previous weeks to know exactly what I was up to. Secondly, I believe it is very interesting, as much in the reading than in the writing, to use different styles for the plots. But, changing the writing styles all the time is almost impossible (at least for me). This is why I strongly recommand to write along a given story, until it meets another one in the plot.

Into the details
From the initial sketch, the writing of the events, along a story, can finally begin. And this is where, as an author, I learned to really have fun. Avalanche is written on the basis of two hundred words for an event (more or less in fact, and not always respected). It is common for a predefined event of the sketch to "explode" into multiple ones. For instance, in the teaser, the dragon hunt. At first, it was only one event (the hunt). But, while writing it, I found myself having much fun while going into the details. This explains the numerous accounts of events. In fact, this is very enjoyable to write, since, as an author, I have no obligation to go into such details. So, this is by this process of "zooming in and out" that the story reveals itself, a single event being quite easy to write. I try to see those components as photos, snapshots. Also, there are two other things I particulary enjoy about the writing of Avalanche : style and point of view. This plot is about a politic intrigue as that other one is about terror ? They won't be written in the same style. Using Cycles' specific design, those two styles can easily cohabit together. Finally, some plots twist may see two main groups oppose each other. Why not write a first event proposing the description from the point of view of a group and then continue the writing using the "other side of the mirror" ? Those changing of points of view are pretty exciting to write.

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Tout d'abord, je tiens à préciser que l'écriture d'Avalanche m'est très agréable. En effet, ce travail ressemble davantage à la création de nombreuses nouvelles qui auraient un lien entre elles, plutôt que l'écriture d'un roman en soit. Le souffle demandé est beaucoup moins long, le changement de rythme plus facile à mettre en place.

Dans le détail
A partir du croquis initial, les évènements peuvent être finalement rédigés. Et c'est là qu'il faut apprendre à se faire plaisir en tant qu'auteur. Avalanche est écrit sur la base d'environ deux cents mots par évènements (plus ou moins en fait, et pas toujours respecté). Il est donc fréquent qu'un seul évènement initial "explose" en de multiples éléments, l'auteur se laissant porter par l'histoire. Par exemple, dans le teaser, la chasse au dragon. Initialement, il ne s'agissait que d'un seul évènement. Or, à l'écriture, je me suis pris de plaisir d'entrer dans le détail de ce moment de chasse, ce qui explose la quantité d'éléments. C'est très agréable à écrire en fait : rien ne m'oblige, à titre d'auteur, à travailler plus ou moins sur un élément de l'histoire. C'est donc par ce mécanisme de "recul" et "d'avancée", par ce balancier permanent, que l'histoire se révèle, un évènement simple, en lui-même, ne demandant pas beacoup de souffle en soi. J'essaye de voir ces éléments comme des photos, des instantanés. De plus, deux autres astuces rendent l'écriture particulièrement intéressante : le style et le point de vue. Cette histoire est une intrigue politique alors qu'une autre relève davantage de l'épouvante ? Elles ne seront cretainement pas écrites de la même façon. Or, ces styles complétements différents peuvent cohabiter grâce à la structure de Cycles. Finalement, un évènement met en scène deux groupes importants. Pourquoi ne pas écrire un élément qui présente le début de ce moment d'un point de vue, alors que la suite est présentée depuis "l'autre côté du miroir" ? Je trouve ces changements de point de vue particulièrement passsionants à écrire.