Working as a freelance writer often comes with its fair share of peculiar situations. While interviewing for an ongoing contract to write obituaries, I once provided a sample based on a fictional client that I'm fairly confident was MacGyver. Then there was an ill advised dip into the murky waters of the content mills. The story I want to tell today is my personal favorite.
Over the past two years I've backed a significant number of Kickstarters, most of them related to tabletop role-playing games. Despite a less than stellar track record for tabletop RPG related Kickstarters, most of these projects were able to deliver on their promises. In April, I came upon a Kickstarter from Conflict Games for Combat Description Cards for Storytellers and GMs. Here is a short excerpt on the product -"You hit for 17 damage."What will he say next time?"You hit for 16 damage."Booor-ing!The rest of the game is so imaginative, so immersed in the world; let's not let combat be the one thing that breaks the flow. Instead, we propose enhancing your combat narrative with this easy-to-use descriptive card deck.Is your player using a blunt weapon? Imagine pulling the Blunt card and simply selecting one of the actions description listed right there on the card. Read it aloud, filling in the specifics as you need. And suddenly, you're breathing life and excitement into your combat (just as you're taking it away from someone in the form of HP).Then, if the damage dealt by the player is going to finish the enemy off, there are Death descriptions for that as well, conveniently marked off by a skull-icon. Read off the Death description and give your player a thrilling and vivid description of their combat triumph!
Having a strong affinity for narrative intensive game sessions, this project immediately caught my attention. Wanting to support the project, I signed on as a backer. Then its funding took off, earning $50,000 with an original goal of $5000. Two weeks later I sent the resume to Mark M. Scott in response to an game related job listing. Not realizing at the time that Mark was the owner of Conflict Games and the job was writing stretch-goals Combat Description Cards. I've started calling it “That time I was hired to write for a product that I had already purchased.”
For more on Combat Description Cards visit http://www.conflictrpg.com/
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