And There I Go Again

I guess that I'm writing a new game... I started with some notes, and before I knew it I had about 15 pages of ideas on the new edition of Army Ants! Here are some of the things that have come from this:

- It's essentially the Resolute game system, although I've limited the number of core abilities (I have a list of ten I'm working from right now), and everything else is an application linked to one of those abilities. For example, stealth will not be a distinct ability; it is an application of your intuition.
- Its big deviation from Resolute is the lack of a referee; the role of narrator is shouldered primarily by one player, but other players take turns narrating scenes depending on what's happening. I've got notes in place for a system whereby you randomly generate events as you go (inspired by reading about the Mythic Game Master Emulator, although I still haven't ponied up the $ to actually get a copy of that and read it). I like how it feels so far, but until I actually play test it with other people, I won't have an idea of how it actually works.
- I'm going through all my previous edition of Army Ants and taking the stuff that worked from each edition, and trying to make it all fit. I want this to be the COMPLETE game; I want to include every foe, every predator, every vehicle, every weapon, and every option from every edition of the rules I've published in one book. The Resolute engine presents information in such a condensed form that I can pack a lot of information on a single page. I'm thinking of the 160-page range right now. That's a total guess. I want it to be a digest-sized book. I've always wanted an Ants RPG printed in digest size; it's my big chance!
- The book has to be available as both a print edition and a PDF.
- When it's finally ready, I'll also be releasing the complete Army Ant comics as a digest-sized book, assuming I can get all of that into one book (it's over 300 pages). If not, I'll have to break it over two volumes. Don't know about the logistics of that yet.
- There is NO chance this is done anytime soon (as in 2011). Look for it some time in 2012. I want to do a better job marketing this as I go, and this blog is the first step. I know that it's a bad idea to announce a project when you don't have more than a few pages of notes and a spark of inspiration, but I've written enough games at this point that I am pretty confident it will eventually get done- and I'm not looking for kickstarter money or anything (yet... although that's definitely a possibility... hmmmm). I'd really like to hear about anyone's experiences with kickstarters, and how that turned out (either as a consumer or creator).

Thanks and happy gaming.