Our Week of Adventures
The month is already halfway over and it has been such a whirlwind! We’ve spent most of it on the road, now we’re back just long enough to take a breath and tell you all about our adventures.
Our core design team headed off to Boston at the beginning of November to run our bi-annual Harvard Zombie Simulation. When Mark Diaz Truman was attending the Harvard Kennedy School, he worked with Senior Lecturer Christopher Robichaud to develop a zombie pandemic scenario aimed at developing leadership and decision-making skills. Since that time, we have continued to send a few people to help run the simulation, and this year, it rose from the grave to reach new heights of success!
Later that week, Mark, Brendan, and Marissa made an appearance at Metatopia, a gaming convention centered around playtesting unpublished games and unveiling new and exciting ideas. Every year, the Indie Game Developer’s Network selects new designers and sponsors a trip to Metatopia for them, giving them a chance to playtest their games in production. It was so exciting to have the opportunity to meet all of the bright new minds still getting a start in the industry. We also got the chance to meet some designers through the new RPG Publisher Pitch program -- while we can’t say anything for sure, we saw some innovative new designs that might show up as future Magpie Games books!
While part of the Magpie Games team was meeting new people, another part spent Metatopia running playtests of our upcoming games, Root and Armored Society. In Root, the players got up to all sorts of mischief: espousing mad theories to a pitchfork-bearing mob, taking out guards to get access to records and information, and pickpocketing each other during a very tense card game. In Armored Society, the characters performed processions, leading massive parades showing off their noble houses' wealth while sending messages to their peers, and then they participated in a dance, trading partners, barbs, whispers, and flirtations -- showing off the best and the worst of high society with the highest of stakes!
It was an amazing and fast-paced week, and now we’re back, just in time to get ready for PAX Unplugged at the beginning of December! Whether we just saw you through our whirlwind travels through the Northeast, or it’s been a minute, be sure to come say hello!
