When A'n'SR -entertainments first started (in 2008), we made 3 games around a common theme. 1 game was a card game with character cards, ability cards, and dice made out of stickers and wood cubes. A second game was a customizable board game where characters progressed through stories via a series of events. The third game was a role-playing game about that world.

This was our beginnings. We had a lot of fun playing and making these games, but we made zero money producing them. The roleplaying game morphed over time, and what was once a single-Setting set of games became -U- the Game of Stories (our core RPG). We' have been using -U- to tell stories in this same Setting for well over 4 years now on a very consistant basis. In a weird way, this game and this Setting is what started A'n'SR -entertainments. It is the thing that we have been trying to do and get right and playtest more than any other game. Finally, we think we're ready to release it in 2012.  

In 2012, A'n'SR -entertainments is pleased to announce Angels - the Game of Divine Stories.  

Much like WyshMaykers, Angels will be released as a full game, with all of the rules (-U- the Game of Stories) and Setting information players and Story Referees need. We are in some of the final stages of art and content editing of the book now, and it should be on digital bookshelves by the end of March 2012. This is the game that started it all, and we hope you enjoy playing and reading this one as we have over the years. It has truly been a staple of the A'n'SR family for quite some time, and we couldn't be more excited about seeing it come to life after 4 years. 

P.S.:  We might still do the card game and board game idea one day.

After a little heartache and time, www.AnSR-entertainments.com is now back online and in its new home. This is a good thing. That's just one of the goals for 2012 crossed off the list. For those of you counting at home, here's the rest of what we have in store: 

1. Make $15 profit to pay for the website (always a goal)
   
2. Release the Print On Demand editions of -U- the Game of Stories and WyshMaykers core rule books  
   
3. Release a new self-contained role-playing game that uses -U- the Game of Stories as its base game mechanics by the end of March 2012  
4. Release 1 WyshMaykers supplement by the end of June 2012  
5. Release 1 supplement for the new game by September 2012  
6. COMPLTED - Move the URL AnSR-entertainments to this website (officially)  
7. (Optional) Release a new edition of DiColumns (with a theme)  
8. (Optional) Release a 2nd supplement for the new role-playing game  
9. (Optional) Make a whole host of supplements for WyshMaykers and the new role-playing game for 2013 release. 

Here is a great little 2-player betting game that you can play with 12 coins and a twelve-sided die (a.k.a. a d12). We call it: d12 Coins.  

Set-up:  
Have each player bring 6 coins of equal value to the table. Place all 12 coins tails-side up in a row and number them 1 through 12. Each player chooses "evens" or "odds" for the game. Choose a player to start.  

Playing the Game:  
On their turn each player rolls the d12 and turns over the coin of the corresponding number. If they roll their own number (i.e. the evens player rolls an even number), then they can opt to not turn over the coin. When a player has all of their coins heads-side up (all of the even-numbered coins for the evens player or all the odd-numbered coins for the odds player) the game is over. The winning player takes all of the heads-side up coins as their winnings. The other player takes the tails-side up coins.  

Enjoy this little game, and be on the lookout for a very expanded version of this game using twelve-sided dice, coins, and more.   

-A'n'SR

One of the big things we've been working on this year is our new role-playing game. We're going to release it in March of 2012. We've been working on it all year this year. While we're at the end of the process (including playtesting), we thought we'd let you in on our process that seems to have taken shape in developing our role-playing games. With WyshMaykers and this new one almost under our belt, a definite best practice and process has been solidified. 

*** The Overall Flow *** 
Making a game is basically like running a project in an office job, only more fun. You come up with your requirements, you determine your resources, you delegate or hire whatever it is you need to make the dream happen, and you work a lot on the follow-through of the plan. Beyond that, it is just details. 

*** The Requirements *** 
The primary requirements for any role-playing game can be simplified into 6 basic things: The game system, the setting, the art, the flavor text, the format(s), and the playtesting/editing. Sometimes there are a few extra considerations, but most stuff falls into those six. 

*** The Resources ***  The next thing is the Resources. We're small fish, and the only money we use to fund our games (for now) is money made on previous games. One day we may do a kickstarter project, but for now, what we have works for what we want to do. That being said, we have a limited pool of resources we trust and use. Primarily, we do everything in-house. Aaron does the art (he's getting better, honest) and the first pass of most of the writing. Stephanie does some of the writing and the (brutal) editing. Everyone (Aaron, Stephanie, family, friends, and whatnot) helps in the playtesting, with Stephanie being the lynch-pin in the process. So, beyond the sweat-equity put into our games, there are very little outside resources. 

*** Making it Happen ***  Once we know what we want and know who's working on what, we begin the longest part of the process, making it happen. It usually comes in phases with the rule being made (or altered), a quick playtest using a skeleton of the Setting, then Setting writing and flavor-text writing happens (with playtesting going on during the writing to flesh out things). Then an artless 1st draft is reviewed for editing. Then, the art begins to get drawn while more playtesting comes about. And Finally, the cover and the art are placed in the book with the final editing comments. All the while, we are making sure we stick to the core idea of the plan, and make sure we follow-through on the original plan. Quite franly, we'll probably do an entire post about this later. 

*** The Release ***  After all the work is done, we finally release the product on the date specified by the project plan. This is the fun part. It is great to see the sales come in, the comments on the boards, and even do a little promotion of the product. It is also in this part of the game that we look for ideas and things that people want to see next in the line or as a supplement.

Each year (if you've been reading our news blog you know), we gather together over lunch and decide what products we are going to release and when. It's tough, because Aaron has so many ideas, and Stephanie usually has a good reality check on production time and resources. As always, we try to have 3 products a year at minimum with a stretch goal or two. In 2012, we're going to try to take it easy since 2011 threw us so many curve balls. So, without further adieu, here are the 2012 A'n'SR -entertainments goals:

1. Make $15 profit to pay for the website (always a goal)
   
2. Release the Print On Demand editions of -U- the Game of Stories and WyshMaykers core rule books  
   
3. Release a new self-contained role-playing game that uses -U- the Game of Stories as its base game mechanics by the end of March 2012  
4. Release 1 WyshMaykers supplement by the end of June 2012  
5. Release 1 supplement for the new game by September 2012  
6. Move the URL AnSR-entertainments to this website (officially)  
7. (Optional) Release a new edition of DiColumns (with a theme)  
8. (Optional) Release a 2nd supplement for the new role-playing game  
9. (Optional) Make a whole host of supplements for WyshMaykers and the new role-playing game for 2013 release. 

So, there it is, 6 gotta-do's and 3 optional goals for the next year. As we move closer to the end of 2011, we'll reveal more about the mystery game for 2012 and our long-term supplement plans for both it and WyshMaykers.

Every October, we go off and plan what we want to do for the next year. It's a fun meeting, usually over a long lunch at a local restaurant. This year is no different. As it stands, here's what is on the list of considerations (in no particular order):

• A WyshMaykers supplement about Cabals
• A WyshMaykers supplement about the Society of WyshMaykers
• A new Powered by -U- game (going to happen, just don't know when)
• A 7-game deluxe edition of 100 Points Card Games
• A update to DiColumns... something with a theme
• -U- Options book about additional uses for Player Points in games
• A new dice/coin game that Aaron developed for his co-workers who asked "what am I supposed to do with this twelve-sided die you gave me from GenCon?"
• A new card game
• A customizable racing board game set in the future
• A novella set in the world of WyshMaykers
• A novella set in the world of the new game that is coming out 
• A customizable checkers variant
• A fantasy Setting line of books for -U- the Game of Stories
• A line of random Settings for use with -U- the Game of Stories that we've created using -U- Options: Creating Settings.

Needless to say, there's a lot of options. We generally decide on 3 things a year with a 4th filling in the gaps if there are any. We'll let you know how the meeting went later on... stay tuned.

For A'n'SR -entertainments, we usually stop putting games out by October so we can plan for the next year and play a whole lot of games ourselves. As such, we like to take stock of how we did each year around that time.

2011 has been a great year of A'n'SR -entertainments. We have finally got our footing under us and are doing better than we had hoped. So that you can appreciate our success as much as we do, here's a look at what we set out to do, what we did, and what that means for us. It's kind of like the Steve Jackson Games Annual Report (which we greatly admire), but not as cool.  

***The Goals***
When we began 2011, we set out with the following goals: 

1. Make $15 in profit to pay for the website we use. (same goal every year)
2. Release a new 8.5" by 11" version of -U- the Game of Stories to make it easier for people to print and play.
3. Release WyshMaykers the Game of Magical Stories. 
4. Release our new line of -U- Options books with at least 1 book. 
5. Begin the Powered by -U- line of products and branding. 
6. (optional) Do a new version of DiColumns and make a DiColumns deluxe for TheGameCrafter.com. 

***How We Did***
As of right now, here is where we stand: 

1. We made our $15 in our first month... we can keep making games.
2. We released our new version of -U- the Game of Stories. It's done pretty well.
3. We released WyshMaykers the Game of Magical Stories. It has done better than we expected.
4. We released not 1, but 3 -U- Options books. We're very pleased with that.
5. With the release of all the -U- Options books and WyshMaykers, we've begun our Powered by -U- branding for future games. 
6. We did nothing with DiColumns. 

***Other Accomplishments and Incidents***
In addition to publishing 2 more -U- Options books than planned, we also we forced to make some updates to other things that were totally not on the schedule.

• The Website. We got word that our website host was going to start charging $6.00 a month for services we didn't want in addition to the $15 we pay a year. Since we didn't want the extra services, we had to find a way to move our site to a new home for the same or less. We did not plan on building a new website, but we did. In 2012, we'll probably transfer the domain name to point to here properly.
  
• 100 Points 2nd Edition. This one really threw us for a loop, but a good one. TheGameCrafter, the folks that we publish physical card games through, upgraded their site. When they did, their tools changed (for the better) and forced us to re-look at our line of 100 Points Card Games. We totally halted everything we were doing, dusted off some old notes we had about a possible 2nd edition, and did a rush re-invention of the games. They came out awesome and more fun to play, especially 100 Points Poker and 100 Points Prediction.
  
• WyshMaykers Feedback. This one falls under the category of "we should have known better". Our original plan for WyshMaykers was to release the book as a stand-alone game with maybe 1 supplement in the next year. We knew we had a fun game, but we didn't know if anyone else would enjoy it as much. So, when a thread on RPG.net and some forum posts and a lot of e-mails started coming in, we were pleasantly surprised. In fact, we couldn't help ourselves but start participating in the discussions and creating a Designer's Diary article for RoleplayersChronicle.com.. It was a selfish enjoyment, we won't lie, but we did spend a little more time on it that the zero hours we had planned for. Silly us.
  

***Overall 2011***
Overall, 2011 was a really good year for A'n'SR. We accomplished all of our golas for the year, which is a clear win. Sales wise, it was our best year to date (2009 being 2nd runner-up and 2010 being the lowest yet) with September and August being our 2nd and 3rd best months ever in our history. Product wise, it was the fullfilment of a lot of dreams and work began on the dream that really started it all, our game about [redacted].

So, the 2nd Edition of all of our 100 Points games are out (see http://ansr-entertainments.weebly.com/100-points-card-games.html). But what's different? What's changed? A few things. 

** The Most Changed:  While a good potion of the games stayed the same (BlackJack, Hold'em, and Four Square), two games got a near-complete overhaul: Rummy and Prediction. Rummy and Prediction required a single deck of cards per player and used the cards to keep score of their wins. We thought that was kind of an odd "mechanic" for a family card game, in retrospect. Plus, we made a concious decision that any 100 Points game should be able to be played with a single deck of cards. This was very important in our 2nd Edition redesign philosophy. Also, we changed Predition from using a six-sided die in the game to using a four-sided die. The game works much better now. 

** 36 cards:  The new editions of the 100 Points card games are all based on a single deck of 36 cards. In 1st Edition, they revolved around 48 cards (for Four Square, Hold'em, Poker, and BlackJack) or more (for Rummy and Prediction). We moved from 48 to 36 to take advantage of the Game Crafter update to the way they cut cards. It is cheaper to cut 36 than 48. Plus, we found that the math of 36 cards made for a more compelling game in all categories. For instance, in Poker, the hardest combination of 100 Points cards to get used to be 50, 20, 20, 10. Now, it is 40, 20, 20, 20. This changed the way you play 100 Points Poker drastically, and made it more unpredictable and fun. In a round about way, the new cutting rules forced us to find a leaner, better way for our games. 

** Tokens:  In some games, we used tokens and in others we did not. We liked the tokens, so for those games that needed it (Rummy and Prediciton), we added the use of tokens as score keepers. The only game that doesn't need tokens is Four Square and it's priced at $6.99 on TheG. 

** More fun:  In general, these games are just more fun to play. We believe that less is more effective, and these 2nd Editions prove true to that mantra.

We are pleased to announce an unexpected surprise in this year's schedule: 100 Points 2nd Edition! If you've been reading any of the posts lately, you already know that the Game Crafter (the folks we print our physical copies of cards with) redid their site. One of the cool things they did was go from 16 cards per sheet to 18 cards per sheet. When they did that, it made our games cost a little more than we like. So, we took the opportunity to redo all of the 100 Points card games we had to fit in the new rules. In truth, we were planning on doing this anyhow, this just sped up the process. 

Check out the Printed and Print2Play editions of our 100 Points line of games at: http://ansr-entertainments.weebly.com/100-points-card-games.html.