[Monkey] The State of Monkey

[Newt Newport]

Hi all

I've just come back from a quiet family holiday and I took a bit of time to look over Monkey to see where I'm up to with it.

Couple of immediate things came out of my Bill Gates style retreat and muse.

1. The existing text needs a through revision by me.  My writing style is very stream of consciousness and when I wrote the basic text almost two years ago I didn't have a firm grasp of the finer points of grammar or game logic.  One of the things I realised recently, when on a very boring IT management course of all places, was the text and rules need to be clear and unambiguous.  Also I wrote the game coming out of HeroQuest, and I've found that through playing the game that Monkey while still being a very narrative game has become more of its own man, or should that be monkey.  All the HQ influences need purging and the clearer vision of what Monkey is in its own right needs to come out.

2. Recent playtesting has highlighted some tweaks to the rules.

• The need for Mook rules.
• The rules for how you take out Major Opponents need making more tougher, since currently its too easy for the PCs to gang up and  take down the major villan of the piece.
• Simplified attitude rules. Basically one attitude per Mind/Body/Soul area.

I'll get these typed up as a separate page, which will get massaged back into the main text when I do the rewrite for people who are actively playtesting the game. This should be with you this weekend after a playtest session of my own on Sunday.

3. As well as dedicated setting chapters, I'll be writing quick introductory text for each of the areas of the setting (Western Heaven, 10 Hells etc) to litter around the 'players' chapter in pull-out boxes. This is because the game seems to work better if the players have a basic grasp of the setting.

3. My basic plan for getting Monkey is;

Dec - Jan. Revise the current text

Jan-Feb Finish off the writing:

• Setting Chapter. More details on West Heaven, East Heaven, 10 Hells and the Tang Empire.
• Immortals Chapter: All the main characters from the books, plus some more interesting characters from Chinese Mythology that could be used in adventures.
• Narrator's chapter. Taking real examples from playtests explain how to run the game. There will be a guide to writing adventures and setting up opponents.
• Possibly another introductory adventure.

Mar - Edit of the complete text

Apr - Layout.

May- Release

My aim is to have a big release party at UK Games Expo (Birmingham July), which you are cordially invited, and have lots of copies for sale! Getting it into the distribution channels is also high on my priority list as well.

Post release support is still in the planning stages, but I will be doing something even if it is only running it at cons and occasionally releasing a free adventure.  At the high end of what I'm going to do support wise is a sort of 'Living Monkey' type con campaign.

So overall the break and rethink has done me good and there will be concrete movement on Monkey early next year.

Thanks for your support so far.

[chanuphis]

Just a quick summary of what I emailed Newt earlier this month about Monkey

Clearer ideas for Mooks would be good. I'd go with the Feng Shui approach - add more mooks, lots of mooks. Eventually even large numbers will cause the players to think twice (hopefully). I was shocked when players took out the fort so easily when running ministry of thunder, maybe even limit the amount of mooks a player can take out per turn to the rank of the skill they are using.
Qin's version of Mooks is very dangerous as even 3 or 4 mooks can really mess a character over especially as the healing in the game is not particularly powerful!

As for bosses, last game ran everyone ran upstairs to save butterfly (or what ever her name was) leaving 1 person downstairs taking on the boss. It was close, both the player & boss had taken 2 strikes but the player just managed to get in there with the last blow. With that NPC I was using their magic in a pretty devastating way (combat skill backed by their hypnotism skill) so he always had far more cards than the player
 
As for rules, I've been playing it with the players deciding what skill they want to use to dodge/block blows, some of the non combat orientated characters have better rogue skills so I allowed that to be used as a dodge ability but if they won the combat the player didnt get to strike the foe back (they just looked good while avoiding being hit) where as the combat players probably stood there took the blow. Looked down at the fist that had hit them, then looked at their foe, smiled & pummelled them into the ground.
 
You've probably already seen it but Qin has a good description of the 10 hells.
More art would be good as well, though this is more of a cosmetic thing than anything else.

[Newt Newport]

Work has finally started on the final draft of Monkey aka The Metal Monkey Edition (because it will be polished and robust).

This happens in three stages

   1. The Bronze  Monkey – an internal version of the complete that goes to the Mighty Monkey Army for comments, and then off to Mark Galeotti for final edit.
   2. The Silver Monkey – the laid out version, which will go tot the MMA for comment and after tweaking magically becomes….
   3. The Gold Monkey – The final version of the game.

Hoping the end of May beginning of June is the release for this Monkey

[Newt Newport]

Now seriously working on the final release of the game.

Looking at a June/July release.

An artist has been commissioned to do a colour front colour.

[Newt Newport]

Can you say 'slip'. Yup that's were I'm at. However my current deadline to get the manuscript to the esteemed Prof. Mark Galeotti (author of Cyperpunk Eurosource, numerous HeroQuest books and Mythic Russia) for editing is the end of August. Once I get it back from him everything else, art, cover is ready and its just a matter of laying out.

So October doesn't seem to unreasobable.

But this is all entering the period were I become a dad for the second time so it may all....'Slip' once again....bah!

[Newt Newport]

Monkey has now gone Bronze - i.e I've got all my edits done on the first complete draft of the game.

its now gone to its editor - Mark Galeotti, and depending on how much work needs doing on it I could have it back in a week or two at which stage Monkey will go SILVER:)

Layout and art is ready to go, so we could go Gold by the end of February (which is when I send off to Lulu for the proof )

The procrastinating, working on other stuff is over.

MONKEY IS COMING

[Newt Newport]

The editor is well into edting the book, done 2 chapters out of seven (including the big character gen chapter) and is now working on chapter 3.  He's going to start sending back chapters as he finishes them so I can put them straight into layout.

Looking at a mid March release