Welcome to the first true devlog for SPAR!

What is SPAR?

SPAR launches Chris McDowall’s Mark of the Odd framework into the golden age of thrilling danger, impossible odds, and groan-inducing one-liners, encouraging players to straddle the line between explosive cinema and dramatic theater. At the intersection of the action/adventure and science fiction genres, SPAR draws heavy inspiration from campy 1980’s and 1990’s action sci-fi greats like Alien, Predator, DOOM, Total Recall, Universal Soldier, The Terminator, and many, many more.

Under the guidance of an Operator, a squad of 2-5 Assets will enter the field of play. The Operator prepares missions, guides Assets through their response to bizarre and otherwise inexplicable events across the globe, and portrays any non-player characters (NPCs) the Assets encounter. Assets will need imagination, wit, and gumption to complete their missions and get back in one piece!

Where is SPAR at in development?

SHORT ANSWER: The core rules and base Operator interactions are pretty much complete. A more expansive Operator Resources section is very much still in development.

LONG ANSWER: Let’s do a little show and tell.

Barebones

This is the “barebones edition” of SPAR, 40 pages in all their lack of glory. Art is minimal to none, and specialized formatting is non-existent. This edition simply gets the words on the page in a decently-arranged way.

Some of what will be in the beta version of SPAR is not in the barebones edition (ex: surge, a meta-currency mechanic I think y’all will love), and some of what’s in the barebones edition will not be joining us in the beta (ex: strain, a condition I liked in theory but not in practice).

What might stand out from that image—if you can see it—is the very partially-filled bestiary, called “Anomalies & Combatants”. I’ve written the guidance section of how to create your own anomalies and combatants, as well as six bestiary entries (with lots more in draft form), but this section’s been coming along slowly and steadily. I have loads of ideas, but right now, I’m lacking the inspiration. Another day.

Now, let’s check out how the more polished beta version is coming along.

Beta

Already seeing more color on the page, a great start! In this version, I’m using a different color for each section of the book, accenting each page in various ways with the section color.

You may notice as well that, even though currently unfilled, there are many, many more pages slotted for the core rules in this version than the barebones. Aside leaving more room for art, we’ve also altered our approach to layout. After consulting Clay Notestine’s “Classic Explorer Template”, I realized I wasn’t giving my text enough room to breathe on each page. I’ve adjusted my baseline grid and leading in this version to give the text more space, which in turn gives it a better readability (and, frankly, more room for style).

Right now, I’m in the process of bringing all the core rules into the beta document. This has involved—as you might suspect from the aforementioned—some reformatting and tweaking. For example:

BAREBONES

BETA

The main slowdown in the transfers has been tables. Affinity table formatting is…something. BUT, in the transfer, you’re also getting a massive table of Asset call signs (109 and counting!) that you can pick from or roll on to make Asset creation that much easier.

I’m also working on fleshing out the “Operator Resources” section. (If you check out the screenshots on the SPAR listing, the six tenets comes from the opening of that section!) There’s going to be a lot of content in there, and I’m working at it as quickly as I can. Aside containing the “Anomalies & Combatants” section, I’m already anticipating creating the following:

• A genre immersion section, introducing players and GMs to the campy 80s/90s action sci-fi genre
• A mission structures guide, talking about how to approach structuring goal-oriented and open-ended missions – taking inspiration from Tales from the Loop and cyclic dungeon generation
• Numerous tables for generating mission goals, names, loot, NPCs, encounters, anomalies, corporations, and more
• A repository of pre-made NPCs—freelancers, mercenaries, scientists, normal folks, and more—as a part of formal APB canon (if there would be such a thing, and if you’d even want to adhere to it)
• A guide for how to modify and augment normal gear and weapons with anomalous technologies and powers

This list doesn’t even touch some of the other tables I’d like to modernize out of the original Oddpendium (ex: hazards, arcana, alternate character groups).

Suffices to say: there’s a lot happening and even more to be done!

What comes next

I have a couple immediate priorities to knock out:

1. Finish transferring barebones information into the beta version.
2. Slightly rearrange Loadouts (starting gear packages) to more accurately grade by power relative to maximum Ability Score and HP.

From there, my priorities are, in no particular order,

• Further fleshing out the bestiary
• Completing the “Genre Immersion” subsection
• Framing out the many, many Operator Resources tables
• Creating art to fill the blocked-out spaces in each section, as well as for the section headers
• Writing a “Mission Excerpt” to showcase the different facets of gameplay

If you have any questions, comments, etc., please feel free to leave them below, or tweet at me!

Be good y’all, cheers!