Recently, I was contacted by someone about my RPG Duel Blade. I wrote Duel Blade back in 2007 after reading a review of a fighting game for the original Playstation called Bushido Blade. The review talked about Bushido Blade's "Body Damage System" which sounded very interesting to me, and I tried to create an RPG based on the idea, even though I had never actually played the video game.
The person who contacted me wanted permission to release his own version of Duel Blade which I very happily gave. Many of my works were produced before Creative Commons was a thing, but I consider everything that I write to be Creative Commons - Attribution - Share Alike. Just give me credit and don't be stingy with the stuff you make based on what I make. That's all I want. (I've added a note to that effect at the top of my blog page.)
I looked back at Duel Blade for the first time in years. It's not bad, but there's also not a lot to it. I did use it as the basis for Prometheus Blade, Powers Brawl, and Xceptional. So, I must have thought there was something to it back in the day. Looking now, I am actually pretty interested in revisiting the system especially how it manifested in Powers Brawl.
There are some clunky bits that need to be filed down, but I think that may be worth doing, and I enjoy having a project to work on. The person who contacted me also mentioned that they were very happy that they still had their PDF of Duel Blade. This made me aware that I wasn't offering a link to the game in my side-menu.
I had Prometheus Blade and Powers Brawl in the side-menu, so I just assumed that the lesser Duel Blade wasn't needed. My recent experience with Bigfoot should have taught me better. (Recent ... Heh. Back in February.) The point is: sometimes an improvement isn't an improvement, and I never know what bit of my work might appeal to someone. So, I have decided to make sure that all of my various works are available all of the time.
If you glance over at the side-menu on the right, everything is there now. I'm not sure how to get at this if you are on your phone. The menu doesn't seem to be accessible from the mobile version of the blog page. (But, you can choose "web version" in your browser to see it.) I consider some of these good, and some not so good, and sometimes I surprise myself when I look back at an idea that was forgotten -- like Duel Blade.
Who knows, maybe you'll find an interesting idea for your next RPG among my many experiments? I have certainly shared more than a few wacky ideas over the years.
Join my Facebook Group to discuss this post and anything related to RPG's and geekdom!
