CAMELOT Trigger - The Ingredients

At the behest of Fred Hicks and inspired by some of the other enthusiastic writers for the FATE Core stretch goals, I'm putting up some design blogs about the game. I can't promise keen designer insight or FATE system wonkery, but I'll do what I can to entertain.

So, to start, let's look at my inspirations for CAMELOT Trigger.

Battletech: This game is the gateway to a love of big stompy robots for so many people. For me, the real lure was the Battletech Center in nearby Chicago. It was a LAN party before LANs where you paid to sit in a simulator of a mech with all the buttons, switches and controls at hand. The original neo-feudal setting was also something I loved. This was where I pulled the idea of knights in mecha.

Pendragon: You ever have one of those albums that everyone tells you to should listen to and when you finally you feel like time travelling because you should have picked it up after the first friend's recommendation. That was Pendragon. Virtues and Passions are fascinating and flavorful mechanics. The dynastic game is also amazing and is one of those campaigns I wish I had the time and patience to run.

Mekton: My friend Deacon and I would sit around and design dozens of mechs for this game. He was a huge Robotech nerd. His love of big stompy robots was infectious, but I always had more fun running pilots through their life path. The mechs in this game a bit more anime than walking tank, but I want to make something he could sit down with and crank out some fun robots to blow up today.

The Once and Future King: This was my first exposure to Arthurian legend in high school thanks to my friend Jeff. It was mythic, funny and irreverent enough to make me seek out the original legends. I might even go so far at to prefer it to Lord of the Rings, but my taste in fantasy is not the usual. While I want to mess with Arthurian myth, I still want to be respectful of it.

Camelot 3000: This is one of those Iron Age comics that straddles the line between silly and serious. But it has some neat takes on elements of the myth and clearly does so out of love.

That's what's currently bubbling in the pot, . Thanks for taking the time to read this first entry. If there's anything you'd like to see in one of these entries, feel free to leave a comment or Tweet me at @robowieland.