Dragon Trinity Crash – New Adventure Book, Will Be Working On Stand Alone Setting Book

Before I started writing Seith and Sword , and in between bits of Vanagard, I was plucking away at my 2nd Dragon Trinity Crash adventure book. Well, it turns out that I’ve had enough time to not only finish it; but also update the first one.

Therefore I proudly represent:

Dragon Trinity Crash Adventure Book 1: Call of Cakethulu

 

Click for Book

 

And proudly present:

Dragon Trinity Crash Adventure Book 2: Hamerkop Halfling Blues

 

 

Click for Book

 

As before the covers were drawn by the ever talented Gnaw.

Furthermore, I’ve talked it over with Olivia Hill and have decided to write out Dragon Trinity Crash as a stand-alone Fate supplement. Yes, it will still come out with the ADX Anthology, Olivia assures me that this will be released, however, I’d like to give DTC the attention it deserves, in that regard I’ll make my own book.

This book will be a pay what you want release, that way, those who bought the anthology will be able to acquire the PDF without paying anything more. It’ll have a healthy dash of setting information, the full rules, and plenty of sample aspects, stunts and spells. I hope to purchase more art from gNaw, and will put in as much as my wallet and bills will allow.

What’s the timeframe? I don’t know. I’ll be working on this in conjunction with Vanagard, however, Vanagard will get priority. That being said, I’ve impressed myself with the level of work I’ve been able to get done recently so this may get done soon.

I will keep you all informed.

December Update: Dark Crystal Author Quest and NaNo The Childe Hel

Sorry for the delay in posts, I’ve been incredibly busy.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Dark Crystal Author’s Quest

I found out about this in late September, so I thought I’d give it a shot. September was spent drawing up a plan for a full Dark Crystal novel. Then, in November, new information came up on the Dark Crystal Online Encyclopedia that blew a huge hole in my plans. Undaunted, (well actually VERY daunted) I picked apart my previous ideas for something that would fit. I have to admit, the rewritten plan is much better than my original so I went with that.

I spent most of October writing my submission. I can’t go over the details of it but what I will say is I’m proud of what I’ve wrought, it’s perhaps one of the best things I’ve ever written. If I get picked as one of the final five I’ll be over the moon. If not I’ll look into sharing what I wrote as fan fiction and move on.

Pick Chris’s novel, please? Make peace?

Speaking of which.

National Novel Writing Month

I completed this. I’ve always wanted to try NaNo so I pledged 2013 to it. I’m glad I did.

Some authors may scoff but I found this hard. I work full time 5 days a week, so to write 1667 words a day is roughly an hour and a half overtime every day with no days off. Furthermore I’m used to working form a detailed plan. All my recent projects are all fully mapped out on Xmind before I ever commit the first word to word processor. My Dark Crystal submission followed this path but I couldn’t do it for my NaNo novel. Why? Author’s Quest took my October so, when November came around I had minimal planning for NaNo. I had to write words, immediately, on the fly. Yikes!

I did it though and it was worth while. I used a very general idea as my guide and just wrote free from for 30 days. At one point I got stuck with doubt and confusion but I powered through that and eventually reached 50’058 words.

The key was to always stay a little ahead. I clocked around 1800 words a day. This meant, on the rare occasion where I was pulled forcefully away form my writing desk, I never fell behind because my ‘word credit’ was still good. On the other hand, if I had let myself fall behind, it would have been far harder to catch up. So the lesson is; if you need to do x words a day aim for x+.

I have to admit, this method has been rewarding. My characters and plot have developed in ways I could have never imagined. Oh, I’ll still plan the snot out of my 2^nd draft buuut I’ll have a wonderful 1^st draft to work from.

I’m actually not done my novel but that’s okay. NaNo has given me a sense of how far I can push myself when I really need to. I’m going to complete it. Furthermore, I’ve pledged myself at least 1000 words a day knowing that 30’000 compared to 50’000 is easy.

What I will be up to?

The Childe Hel

My NaNo novel is about the Norse Goddess Hel. Not much is written about her. All that is known is:

• Odin threw her into the underworld to gain dominion over it.
• She’s a badass, everyone’s scared of her.
• When Baldur goes to her domain it’s she who dictates to the Aesir the strict conditions for his return. The conditions are not met so Baulder says.

However, there’s no story, that I could find, on how she comes to power in the underword. When she’s tossed down there she’s a little kid. Therefore, I thought that a neat story would be how she fairs. This novel is about her growing up in the underworld.

When you were a kid you got Santa. I got the frozen wastes of Nifilheim.

It’s going to be a dark high fantasy about loyalty, family, love and war. At 50’058 words it’s about a third of the way through. Over this next month or three I’m going to finish the first daft and hammer out a solid second draft. Expect updates on it unless…

My Dark Crystal Novel (pretty please)

If I win Author’s Quest then my Dark Crystal novel will be my #1 priority period. If that happens you’ll here about it, trust me. 🙂

I’ll be orbiting the moon with delight.

ADX Anthology: Dragon Trinity Crash

David’s got my final draft of this. I’m waiting for him to release it to the backers before I share all the freebies I wrote about it. If you’re a fan of Slayers and/or Fate you’ll love this.

Space Pirate Alice Black: Blood Tribute

I’ve been pestering Jenny Xenotropos whose doing the art and layout. Truth is she’s super busy with commissions and Christmas stuff. She plans to get back on SPAB in January. Once she’s done I’ll be self publishing this on LuLu and/or RPG Drive Thru. More on this as it happens.

Knights of the Hidden Sun

Still shelved I’m afraid. So many new things have come up that I haven’t had a chance to take what Malcolm left me and finish the final draft. That being said…

I will finish this. My plan is, once I’ve written the 2^nd draft of The Childe Hel, Hidden Sun will get the lion’s share of my attention. That is unless I win Author’s Quest. I don’t think anyone will blame me for choosing the next Dark Crystal novel over it. Regardless, I will finish Hidden Sun, one way or another, eventually.

And thaaat’s me.

I’ll update again sometime in January.

ADX – Vimanakatha – Dragon Trinity Crash

Once again I’m here to pump the ADX Kickstarter for the multi-generational Fate based Mecha game.

So far the kickstarter’s at $10’900. Thanks to this we get the main book, Apotheosis of the Rose Princess Drive and Guardians of Steel. Up next is Gefforey McVey’s Vimanakatha.

Vimanakatha

Think sci-fi Bollywood Epic. You play the wielders of vimanas, intracate, beautiful mechs modeled after ancient gods. You’re a ruler, a celebrity and many consider you a deity. Your every move is watched, millions hang on your every word, you must always to act with grace and caution, failure in elegance or battle will lead to chaos.

Vimanakatha focuses both on the personal lives and the battles of the vimana pilots. It explores duty, responsibility and what one must sacrifice for the power to shape the world.

Also, your battles will be giant dance numbers.

This is awesome.

If the kickstarter reaches $12’500 we’ll get Vimankatha. So get backing.

Dragon Trinity Crash

Most games of Dragon Trinity will involve the goofy adventures of the PCs while they earn fortune and infamy in a tongue in cheek fantasy world. However, as demonstrated by my last post, every scenario will slowly lead, step by step, to a deadly serious climax.

To aid in this dramatic tension I’ve included some spell chants. Characters will get free invocations of their sorcerer Aspects when their players chant such things before releasing a powerful spell.

Of course, summoning Dragon Armor should always come with a chant.

Here are some samples. If I find I don’t have much room for others I will post further chants, in downloadable format, on my blog for free if DTC gets funded.

We need $15’000. We’ve got 12 days. I know we can do it!

+ + + + + + + + + +

Stone that breaks bone fly from your earthy tomb.

Strike the foe before me, bring him doom

MEGA SLING!

+ + + + + + + + + +

Goodness of the Earth feeds old and young

The warmth of hearth is kinder than the sun.

Father of below hear my call.

Focus your benevolence to show the mercy to all.

BLESS MEND!

+ + + + + + + + + +

The waves pull, the ocean devours.

Sharks end exhaustive hours.

I call the cold rage of the waters deep

Bitter vengeance is mine to reap.

SEA SLASH!

+ + + + + + + + + +

Mother of shifting waters, mistress of dreams.

You who’ve proven not everything is as it seems.

Weave a fantasy to my hearts delight.

That will bring sublime bliss or brutal fright.

Entrap those before me in your ethereal binds.

Banish them in a land of shifting space and time.

PHANTOM SYMPHONY!

+ + + + + + + + + +

Terrifying Master of the Sky.

He before whom evil trembles and dies.

Roll, rumble, flash your righteous power.

Smite Typhon himself this very hour.

I call upon your golden dancing flame, the light of all.

Crash down with your fury, so do I call.

SKY SMITE!

Apotheosis Drive X – Dragon Trinity Crash

So,

I recently joined Google+ and there met David Hill of Machine Age Productions.

He was looking for alternate settings to offer as a kickstarter incentive for his Apotheosis Drive X. I submitted an idea and he deigned it worthy to add as a possible reward.

Needless to say I hope the kickstarter goes very well.

Apotheosis Drive X

Is a Fate based, mecha table top RPG along the lines of Gundam and Evangelion. It’s a multi-generational, interplanetary romp where the stakes and the mechs, aptly named Myths and Titans, get grander as the campaign goes on. It encourages players to make a cavalcade of characters to crew their Mechs and ride their adventures till they become an epic saga.

I’ll be backing it. I want this book, even if my own contribution is not included.

Granted, the kickstarter’s generated over $2’400 in its first few hours, so things are looking good.

ADX’s setting also has something known as the ‘Stratos Commonwealth’, go ahead, say it out loud, the name’s pure awesome.

Dragon Trinity Crash

For the past month I’ve been working on an Anime style magic system for Fate. Given David was looking for ideas I thought I’d roll this into a mech game, hence Dragon Trinity Crash.

The setting’s based on three great Dragons; Typhon, Dragon of the Earth, Bahamaut, Dragon of the Sky and Tiamat, Dragon of the Sea. Together they created the world. They’re also, braty little siblings who constantly fight. Often these celestial battles rupture the fabric of reality and summon monsters into the world.

Some of these are freaking HUGE.

Fortunately, there live sorcerers who can call upon the power of the Dragons to slay said beasts. A few can even summon aspects of the big three to create humongous dragon armors. Also, in a last ditch effort, multiple armors can combine to create a single Mega Armor.

Unfortunately, sorcerers tend to be a selfish, destructive lot and often blow up as many villages as they do beasties.

Oh well.

Think of this setting as a mesh between Magic Knight Rayearth and Slayers.

Features of Dragon Trinity Crash

• An anime battle magic system for Fate. Low level’ spells can send a knight in full plate flying. High level spells can dispatch ogres with one casting. Legendary spells reshape the the landscape; you finally can carve out that bay you’ve always wanted.
• Simple rules for crafting your very own dragon armor and similar rules for combining it with your party’s armors.
• A tongue in cheek high fantasy setting with darker themes lurking just underneath.

Aaand, that’s my pitch.

I hope this entices you to become a backer.

Top 10 Badass Anime Women (Warning Spoilers)

Recently on Channel Awesome I came across two top 10 lists for Badass Anime Characters: a video by Distressed Watcher and a blog by Rosen Hacker. I respect both works but each were at a loss to find more than one woman badass. Please allow me to enlighten:

10: Asuka Langley Soryu from Neon Genisis Evangelion

Asuka aka ‘The Second Child’ is a mecha pilot who battles the angels of the Apocalypse. While this sounds pretty badass she only just made this list.  Asuka is an ill-mannered teenage girl with the emotional stamina of a chimp and thus swings into a tantrum at the slightest provocation. This does not a badass make.

On the other hand she is the tough girl of her series, especially when you compare her to the other ‘two children’. Child One, Rei  Ayanami, has the personality of a dial tone, she is a dial tone (long story). Child Three,  Shinji Ikari, the hero of the series, is to put it politely a complete wuss. Asuka can’t help but shine when standing next to No-care and Whiner Boy.

There is a scene at the End of Evangelion where Asuka battles 9 Cthulian mechs. Her Ava’s battery has only three minutes of charge left so she has to kill 1 biblical engine of destruction every 20 seconds or it’s all over. In the meantime the ‘hero’ Shinji decides that having an emo moment is more productive than helping. Asuka paints her three minutes with pure awesome slaughter, a vision of terror that would make King Leonidas of Sparta burst into tears. Against all odds she wins.

Then the Cthulhu mechs regenerate and kill her. The Universe hates Asuka and for spitting in its face in one last epic battle she makes this list.

9: Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing from Hellsing

As the immortal Ben Kenobi once said: ‘Who’s more the badass? The badass or the badass he follows?’

This man is the deadliest creature in existence. He’s a vampire who once wiped out the entirety of Brazil’s special forces by himself. He’s faced down the avatar of Set with a grin. He laugh at Edward from Twilight before stringing his sparkling entrails throughout the forest.

This woman commanded him when she was 13.

While we were deciding on whether or not to give up our toys she was in charge of the most vicious and powerful monster in the world, not only that but said monster respected her for it.

She’s been in charge of the Hellsing organization for years. She’s plays with THE old boys club that secretly rules the world and makes them look like a pack of sniveling cowards. All while cross-dressing and no one bats an eye because if they did her god-damn butler would kill them.

Her butler!

‘You rang madame? What would you like tea or assassination?’

8: Priss from Bubblegum Crisis

Priss is part of a secret organization of robot hunters known as the Knight Sabers. She indulges in this hobby dressed in power armor. Her main weapon is miniature shape charged bombs embedded in her gauntlet that explode when she punches her target. Her real job is being a rockstar.

The math of Priss just seems to add up.: Priss = (Knight Saber + Power Armor) x Knuckle Bombs x Rockstar = Badass.

She’s also got the ‘like I care’ ‘tude down pat.

Imagine if Biff Naked had access to Tony Stark’s armory, that’s Priss.

7: Deunan from Appleseed

Deunan’s like Jason Bourne except more soldier and less spy.  She grew up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and now serves in special forces for the last bastion of civilization on Earth.

You think she’d be safer there.

Nope.

While Jason Bourne has only to deal with pissant little humans Deunan has to take out super intelligent bioriods and combat class cyborgs. She rarely wears a mech to do so, most of the time she’s in tac armor like everyone else. No superpowers, no special gadgets (at least compared to the rest of the force), taking out meta opponents on a daily basis, pure badass.

Kinda like someone else we know minus the bat fetish.

Also her boyfriend’s full conversion borg, how hard-core is that?

Yes, he comes fully equipped.

6: Genie from Rune Solider

No, she’s not the one with the Rubix cube, she’s the one in front, the one killing you.

Genie’s a D&D fighter who lives up to her class. We’re not talking about the stereotypical dumb ass (sorry Gourry), we’re talking about a seasoned warrior who wields a Zweihander with deadly proficiency.

Genie is an amazon in a sea of swimsuit models. Most of the women in this list could pose for Anime Cosmo (or Anime Teen Cosmo in the case of Asuka), not Genie. She she’s not the delicate type. She’s taller than anyone in her group, she’s muscular and could take you out. No, I don’t mean taking you out for soda, I mean ripping you in two with her bare hands.

Only Genie wouldn’t do that unless it was part of the job and she was unarmed. Rune Solider is a comedy and as such it would have been typical to make her a stupid cliché: she’s a three day a month berserker, she speaks with a Swedish accent and crushes all men, she’s really a man. Rune Solider doesn’t go there. What we get instead is a cool-headed professional with a complex and believable past. The humor comes from the protagonist Louie who’s an idiot. Genie’s just playing the straight woman.

I couldn’t find any good pictures of Genie online and that’s probably because she doesn’t fit our common conception of beauty. Still, I think she looks awesome.

For looking so badass when the Invisible Hand of the Free Market demands that she be just another Barbie clone Genie makes this list in spades.

5: Lina Inverse from Slayers

Lina Inverse is THE sorceress in this western style fantasy/comedy (those Japanese sure think our dark ages of suffering and misery were funny). She has a number of potent black magic spells. Take for example Dragon Slave, its chant is this sweet little number::

Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows
Buried in the steam of time is where your power grows
I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand
Against the gift bestowed in my unworthy hands
Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power that you and I possess
DRAGON SLAVE!

Again Leonidas cries like a little girl before he’s annihilated by what can only be described as a mini-tac nuke.

Bibbity bobbity BOOM!

This my friends is only her second most powerful spell. Her most powerful spell, the Giga Slave, ends everything if she miscasts it.

Who does someone with this level of power answer to? No one. If Lina sets her mind to something not even a demon lord can stand in her way. In a comedic light, where one can blow up a village and the peasants only get at a little sooty, she’s not evil. Just a little clumsy with her power. Still she’s been dubbed by the populous as ‘’The Enemy of All who Live’ and if that isn’t badass I don’t know what is.

4: Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke

‘I’m here for the planning comity. . . well their lives at least.’

Lady Eboshi is a kind and caring ruler when it comes to her people but God help you if you’re in her way. If she was mayor of your town the roads would be damn well fixed even if she had to go to the capital to literally bring back some heads.

She takes on samurai, warlords and uber vicious animal-totems with an army composed of steel workers and lepers. With but this she beheads the freaking god of life and death. Does she have magic? No. Does she have superpowers? No. Does she have badassery. The word is inadequate. Didn’t know Bruce Wayne has a Japanese ancestor? Well you do now.

Also she’s one of the few fantasy women warriors who wears actual armor rather than Plate Mail by Calvin Klien.

3) Queen Esmeraldas of Captian Harlock

Queen Esmeraldas is a product of what the Nostalgia Chick dubbed the Smurfette Syndrome. She’s a female version of the protagonist of the series Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Given this the why is she here?Well Harlock is the quintessential badass. To quote JesuOtaku: “I think Chuck Norris checks his closet every night to make sure Captain Harlock is not in it.”  Somehow Esmeraldas is equally intimidating.

It doesn’t make sense. She’s dressed like Harlock minus the eye patch, she even has the same scar.  She’s armed with the same weapon. Her ship, a humongous zeppelin with a teeny age of sail boat at the bottom, is ridiculous compared to Harlock’s Arcadia. Logically she should be a pale copy of the original.

Admiral Piett: ‘Is that? Is that a balloon? Fire turbolasers!’

Admiral Piett: ‘Oh snap run!’

Yet she pulls it off like a kick ass cover song. Perhaps its the way she carries herself, or maybe it’s her strong unwavering voice. Personally I think it’s her eyes, if Roland of Gilead saw those he’d nod at a fellow Gunslinger.

Darth Vader: ‘Oh snap run!’

She even got her own movie without Harlock.

So for breaking our expectations to the Nth degree she’s number 3 on this list.

2: Dakki from Soulhunter

She’s going to serve the Man in the Moon a heaping dish of Hell.

Dakki is a demon who had the Yang Emperor tied around her little finger and used her influence on the royal court to  cause havock.  Does this mean she slept her way to the top? No. . . the Emperor was nowhere near her class, she reduced him to a drooling idiot.

As I got to know Dakki  I began to suspect the heroes were screwed. I hate tragedies but this I was okay with. Losing to Dakki is like getting beat up by Mohamed Ali, you will fail but you can still hold your bloody and bruised head high afterwards.

It’s not that Dakki’s overly powerful, it’s that she’s staggeringly cunning. Before the series even began she had the world three steps removed from checkmate. Near the end she had the heroes killing each other. The only reason was defeated was because she faced an equally cunning immortal who took pains to look like an idiot so as to be underestimated.

If she was given another chance I don’t think anyone could win. The Justice League? Toast. Superman would end up on a throne of bone giggling maniacally while holding the femur of Lois in one hand the skull of Jimmy Olisn in the other. The Avengers? Gone. By the end of the arc Captain America would be kneeling in a pool of Bucky, in a devastated New York, cradling a torn American flag, screaming to the heavens “Why? Why?”

Dakki, she looks and acts like a valley girl but it’s a ruse. By the time you figure out she’s no airhead you’ll be done Monte Cristo style.

1: Karla the Gray Witch from Record of Lodoss War

“You can’t dooo that! It’s not in the rules. *snivel*” 30th Level Archmage before he was reduced to ash. Karla hit him so hard his player died.

Karla’s an immortal witch living in a magic circlet. Someone wears it and bam she’s in control. Once she’s in control it’s on like Donkey Kong.

Karla’s powerful, so much so she can throw several fireballs with one spell. Given that Record of Lodoss War is based off D&D and given that such a feat is impossible this tells you how incredibly tough she is.

However, being a living force of arcane might is not what brings her to the top of this list. It’s her attitude and motivation. Like all D&D fantasy worlds Lodoss went through a ‘golden age of magic’ that inevitably went to Hell. Karla, not being a fan of apocalypse, decided she would never let that shit happen again. Therefore, whenever a nation becomes a superpower she uses her considerable cunning and mystic skill to drive said nation to ruin. It doesn’t matter if the kingdom’s benevolent, cruel, a monarchy, a democracy or a Little Orphans and Puppiesacy, she’ll mess it up good. It’s nothing personal. Karla’s not filled with hate, or greed, she’s just driven to a horrifying pragmatism. Karla  just simply does, she just simply is, a walking disaster with a dread purpose and there’s nothing more badass than that.