Zarking FardwarksThis is a featured page

MetabaronWelcome to Metabaron's Game Design Blog. Here you will find thoughts and insights into the development of Don't Panic! as a role-playing game, updates about what's new and why, and general procrastination about life, the universe, and all things Douglas Adams.






Why Zarking Fardwarks? Well, game design is four parts cursing and one part punching your fist in the air. I also wanted to use a Douglas Adams reference without it later conflicting with a guide entry or a page about game mechanics.



I've been a fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide since my big brother tuned into the radio show's 1978 Christmas episode. I obsessed more of the Hitchhiker's Guide than anything I had ever seen or heard before, and I started tuning back in to Doctor Who just to catch a glimpse of Adams' work.




This show more than any other fuelled my obsession with writing, and as early as 1982 I was immersed in hitchhiker roleplaying, first in a one-off Stormbringer adventure, and later in my own homebrew system.
Much of what appears here is based on my 1984 homebrew game. It was a completely original system with 3 basic traits - Body, Mind and Character which in turn generated Health, Sanity and Luck Points. And there were lots and lots of tables. Months and months of work went into a game I ran... once.




I remember the cast. There was Ranx Engleburger, a mohicanned Arcturan Megacommando, Zimmerman Lennon, an audiosexual hippy, Fats Gurtyveiser, an Ogre-like Hell's Space and resident Racketeer, J-Püsnek Voorhacker the robosexual Cyberjock, and Sir Basil Upton Fosdyke, Edwardian inventor and protagonist lost-in-time.



I was always a fan of comedy role-playing games like Paranoia and later Ghostbusters. I did, of course, run hitchhiker's adventures under both systems.



Fast forward to 2007. Now. Having spent the last few years writing, playtesting and debating d20 rules for Doctor Who role-playing, I've set up a yahoo group and a wetpaint website, and there's no end to the project in sight. Fourth Edition D&D has been announced, and I was a little wound up by the lack of progress.




At the end of the summer term the Birmingham University Roleplaying Society asked for a light-hearted one-off game for fresher's fair this September. The scenario hasn't been printed here yet, but this game is the result...






Date Title Tags
2008

Saturday, 13th DecemberThe Holistic Link
Monday, 1st DecemberThe Ends of the Earth and beyond....
Saturday, 8th NovemberNot another thing...
Wednesday, 25th June The Movie Unseen
Tuesday, 17th June Unintelligent Design
Saturday, 24th May Normality has been Resumed
Monday, 4th March Doing Doctor Who
2007

Thursday, 27th December The Christmas Adventure (Part Two)
Wednesday, 26th December The Christmas Adventure (Part One)
Wednesday, 21st November The Round Tuit vs. The Panic Button
Wednesday,14th November The Wrong Number
Monday, 12th November The Non-Game
Sunday, 28th October Testing the Limits
Sunday,14th October Back in a Jiffy
Tuesday, 9th October Return to Sender
Saturday, 6th October The Guide for Games
Thursday, 27th September Ordering Holistic Pizza


All text contained within Zarking Fardwarks is copyright © Adrian Middleton, 2007. All thoughts and opinions expressed within the confines of this thread are those of the author and do not, in any way, reflect the views or opinions of any other group or individual connected with the Don't Panic! site.


Metabaron
Metabaron 		Latest page update: made by Metabaron , Dec 13 2008, 6:18 PM EST (about this update About This Update Metabaron Edited by Metabaron


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