The Vanagard Stories

As I mentioned before, a long time ago, I was a storyteller in Jungle Cat World in Orono. It was an experience that changed my life, I loved it. I want it back, hence I’m telling  Vangard Stories on the internets.

Of course, these tie into the game, which you can back here. Their purpose is threefold:

1. To promote the game
2. To provide lore and ideas for running the game
3. To share a story that’s been rattling around in my head for a while

It’s a fun thing to write. I have an opportunity to fill in the myths in my own way.  I’ll tell the story of when Odin and Loki met Freya, how Frey got his magic sword, why Nord has such fine feet and how Freya gained her field of Folkvangr. None of what I’m telling is authentic buuut it’s based heavily on the myths. It’s my way of filling in the gaps. It’s a worthwhile project that I will see to completion.

There will be 12 stories that can be listened together or individually. I’ve completed three and am well on my way to the fourth.

I plan on releasing these in written format; if we make our stretch goal.

You don’t need these stories to play Vanagard. We won’t arrest you for straying from the myth and the lore, in fact, we’re hoping you do. The stories you tell with our game are yours, you can add as many Norse and non-Norse elements as you’d like. Still, if you enjoy the mythology and the set up of the game, I fully believe listening to these will enhance your experience.

You can find my stories on:

• YouTube
• Google Play
• iTunes

So please take a look and, if you like them, feel free to back our Kickstarter.

 

 

Seith and Sword – A Novel of Vengeance In Eastern Midgard

Four months ago I put this blog on hiatus while I worked on a new novel. Said novel is finished, so I now proudly present Seith and Sword. It has been very gratifying to write, especially since it has allowed me to utilize my knowledge of Norse mythology, the Sagas, the Eddas and add my own particular little twist to FoTN setting. I’d like to thank Andrew Valkauskas, who is a most accommodating publisher, he allowed this story to remain under my control with only a few, minor, caveats. I’d like to thank my significant other Jenny Doleman, who put up with long nights of me using her as a sounding board and nipping away in the evenings to write for hours on end. I’d like to thank all my friends who were very patient with my madness. I’d like to thank our backers, without their support this novel would have never been written.

Do you smell what the Chall is cooking?
He’s cooking awesomeness.

What will you find in Seith and Sword? Primarily it’s written to show what kind of adventures one could have FoTN. Think of it as a whirlwind tour of eastern Midgard peppered with adventure, joy and loss. I kept the stakes desperate but small. That way I could avoid solving the major plot points of the setting. I did this on purpose, it has always aggravated me when RPG setting novels change the game landscape so drastically that it wipes out everything the player characters could have done.

Seith and Sword avoids two of the most prominent fantasy meta-plots. The crux of the story is not the retrieval or destruction of a powerful magic item. Nor is t a war story. Instead it’s a tale of a family feud, Nibelung VS Volsung, rekindled. It is a quest for vengeance but told from the perspective of those who are fleeing it. It’s a terribly dark story with little breaks of music, laughter and light, just to remind the reader why those fleeing still struggle not to succumb to their ever growing list of powerful foes.

There are no clear cut good guys or bad guys in this novel. No generic Orcs or evil magicians, just good people struggling for survival and doing terrible things. Morality in this novel is messy. What drives the Volsung is a desire for a life of freedom. What drives the Nibelung is glory, anguish, and rumor. I play a lot with rumor in this book. In fact, if you took the rumor as truth then would Seith and Sword would become a tale of good vs. evil. Which is apt, since such stark contrasts tend to break down upon under deep scrutiny.

If this type of story rocks your fancy,  I suggest checking my novel out. You can purchase it in the link above. If you’re a backer or you’ve already purchased this, thank you. Please tell me what you loved and/pr hated about it. I live for your feedback.

Seith and Sword Is Funded – I’ll Be Incognito For A Bit

So, good news,

Seith and Sword is fully funded.

A big thanks to my backers, my friends and family. I am very excited to write this novel for this particular game setting. Fate of the Norns is the truest rpg to the Eddas that I’ve encountered. Furthermore, as I discovered while writing the kickstarter blogs, their take on Norse Mythology is pretty much my own. I’ve got the novel all planned out and the rough draft is already a quarter of the way done. I’m so looking forward to getting this novel to my backers. They won’t be disappointed.

I’ll be very busy. While my daily word count is manageable I want to blow away my deadlines. The earlier I finish the more time I’ll have to refine. I’m putting my all into Seith and Sword, and as such, until it’s done, I’ll have less time for blogging. So if you don’t hear from me for a while, this is why.

When Sieth and Sword is complete, you will hear about it, trust me.

I hope to have Seith and Sword done well before Ragnarok.

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.

True North – Grave Walker

A commission by Heather Bruton, her work is in In Nomine. I gots connectionz.

Grave Walker’s been with me for a while.

I drafted a short story called the King of Nines, which was about tracking down a haunted gun. Later, I wrote another short story, a prequel, about her dad struggling with a blood curse. The third story, involved a child murderer who hoped to resurrect his son by sacrificing other children to various death gods.

I like these stories but the publishers I sent them to didn’t so they got rejected.

Oh well.

Perhaps I like the character too much? Perhaps she broaches on Mary Sue territory? I hope not. I leave you, the readers, to judge.

Grave Walker’s origin is inspired by the Grim’s fairy tale, Godfather Death. I chose Anubis specificaly because, A) he’s cool and B) he gets slagged in most modern stories. He is not an ‘evil god’ by any means, despite what the 80s would tell you. Heck, he was instrumental in resurrecting Osiris.

In my universe he’s a powerful, patient and awesome deity.

Name: Grave Walker – Michelle Graves

Affiliations: Solo: D10 Buddy: D6 Team: D8

Distinctions

• Godfather Death
• Urban Amazon
• Compassionate Pyshcopomp

Power Sets

Anubis’ Goddaughter

• Attack (Staff, Eternal Rest): D6
• Invisibility: D8
• Mystic Resistance: D10
• Mystic Sense: D6
• Sorcery (Pyshcopomp) Adept: D8
• Teleport: D10

SFX

• Area Teleport: When you teleport between graveyards, everyone who is travelling with you follows.
• Afflict Terror: Use Sorcery to inflict a ‘terrified’ complication on a living target. Add a D6 and step up your effect die.
• Undeadbane: Step up Eternal Rest twice when attacking undead.
• Magic Weapon: Eternal Rest will hurt incorporeal targets, undead or no.

Limits

• Limited Teleport: You can only teleport between graveyards.
• Conscious Activation: When mentally stressed our or unconscious shut down Anubis’ Goddaughter. Recover power when stress is recovered or you wake up. If you suffer mental trauma, shut down power until you recover from said trauma. Gain 1 PP when Anubis’ Goddaughter is shut down in this way.

Specialties
Acrobatic: D8 Business: D8 Combat: D8 Mystic: D8 Psych: D8

Background

• Childhood: Michelle grew up in Victoria BC. Her father was killed by a blood curse before she was born. She was raised by her mother. She had an odd childhood, with her godfather and various ghosts visiting her often.
• Day Job: Michelle works in Toronto as a very successful undertaker.
• Origin: Michelle’s father, William, was inflicted by a blood curse after disturbing an Egyptian artifact. It would have killed his daughter as well but he managed to save her by giving her to Anubis as a goddaughter. Anubis has been a constant presence in Michelle’s life and bestowed upon her some of his ancient rites.
• As a Hero: Michelle never planned on being a hero but a number of child murders, that ended up on her table, forced her hand. She avoided the limelight, ‘this is serious business’, and became an urban legend. Given the nature of her magic the underworld feared her.
• True North: Michelle was one of the experts brought in to diagnose Hallow’s condition. They became fast friends. He insisted she join True North as his second in command. Michelle accepted reluctantly. Now that Grave Walker is a public figure she’s been able to do more good but this has also complicated Michelle’s life significantly.

Personality

• She has a calm, adventurous personality.
• Outside of work she practices parkour and various marshal arts.
• She’s a good listener and wise counselor.
• In relation to Hallow: She was brought in to diagnose his condition. They became fast friends. When True North was founded she was asked to join and found she couldn’t refuse.
• In relation to the Angel of Montreal: The nicest person Michelle knows, who can snap a Buick in half. Despite her raw power Clara’s the little sister Michelle never had.
• In relation to Nanuk: Nanuk is a powerful spirit being, Michelle treats him with the same caution that she treats all powerful spirit beings.
• In relation to Trickster: He’s funny and dangerous, a bad combo. In spite of her better judgement Michelle likes him.

Appearance

• A tall, African Canadian woman with an amazonian build.
• Long black hair, usually bound in a pony tail or flowing loose behind her.
• Dresses in a simple black tux for work. In other cases she dresses athletically.
• Costume is black tactical armor and an Anubis mask.

Note: If you’d like to see more of Heather Bruton’s work, go here.

ADX – Dragon Trinity Crash – More Flash Fiction

Princes Drive, Guardians of Steel and Vimanakatha are all unlocked.

Thank you internet. 😀

My setting is up next for the ADX Anthology. That AND David Hill’s Bubble Gum crisis inspired: Cyber Saber Ascension. If this puppy gets funded to $15’000  both will be added.

We have 4 days and roughly $1’300 to go. Let’s make DTC a reality. Here’s the link.

In the meantime here’s some further Dragon Trinity Crash flash fiction:

Note: I’ve altered Dejana’s dragon armor  and dragon armor chant slightly. This has to do with how the game’s evolving while I’m writing it.

+ + + + +

”MEGA SLING!” The double-doors buckled and crashed. Standing there, as the dust cleared, were Jadran the Badass Halfing, Iset the dark, mysterious elven swordswoman and Dejana Half-Elf sorceress merc.

The young woman chained before them was dressed in royal finery.  She looked terrified.

Jadran immediately slid her side and held her hand gently. “No need to fear lass, we’re here to rescue you.”

“SEA SLASH.” Iset summoned a blade of shimmering water and cut through the chains with a single swipe.

Dejana pulled an official looking scroll from her belt and unrolled to show it to the former captive. “Princess Obscura, we’ve been hired by your kingdom. Please come with us.”

The young woman glanced in confusion at the scroll and her saviors.

“I’m thankful for your help but I’m not Obscura.

Your princess is in another castle.”

“WHAT?” cried the three adventurers.

+ + + + +

“MEGA SLING!” “SEA SLASH!” “THUNDER LANCE!”

Boulder, sea sword and lightning blot crashed into the Minotaur with colossal force. The creature let out a horrendous groan and fell, the floor rumbled when he hit.

Iset stood on his corpse, her blade buried in it, catching her breath. Jadran sat and against the body and started chanting Bless Mend to ease his broken arm.

Dajana stepped past them, her armor dented and scuffed and stood before the former captive. She was a dark haired beauty dressed in royal finery.  She she nodded appreciatively at her savior.

Dajana pulled down her gag. The princes gasped “RUST CURSE.” and her chains dissolved. 

The merc smirked. “Princess Obscura I assume?”

The dark haired one frowned. “I’m sorry but no.

She’s in another castle.”

The three groaned.

+ + + + +

“You cannot defeat me! SKY HAMMER!” The warlock shrieked as a hammer of lighting crackled in his hand and he swung at Iset.

“SLATE SHIELD!” The swordwoman rolled to the side as Jadran leaped between them. The hammer BOOMED against his rocky shield, it held but the Halfing was crunched against the opposite wall.

“BLAST GUSH!” Iset summoned a powerful jet of salt water against the warlock and he was knocked flying. “Gaaaaaaah!”

“FREEZE FANG!” Dajana’s hex, mixed with Iset’s spell, solidified the bad guy in place.

The three stood over him, looking battered, bloody and none-too pleased.

“There!” Iset hissed pointing at the tower just outside the court yard.

“That.” Growled Jadran.

“Is where Princess Obscura is kept, yes?” Finished Dajana, in a bedraggled tone.

The warlock glanced up at the tower and then back at the three, a big, mocking grin on his face.

“Hah! Hah! Hah! You fools. I was merely the distraction.

Your princess is in another castle!” He added a maniacal cackle for extra malevolence.

“Oh really?” Jadran asked.

An evil gleam shined in the three’s eyes.

“Uh. Yes?” the warlock said, seeming suddenly timid.

“Ullith.”

“Freya. “

“Xalladale.”

Their rage was able to bypass the normal chants. In a flash of magic three two-story tall dragon armors surrounded the warlock; one of jade, one of ice and one of ivory and gold.

The warlock screamed like a school child as the three stomped him.

+ + + + +

“Do you know what would be nice?” Cried Jardan as he leaped and rolled down the hill. A massive rock spike slamming into the place where he was.

“For Princess Obscura not to be evil?” Commented Dejana dryly as she followed suit.

“No!” Yelled the Halfing over the din of the Titan chasing them.

“What would be nice-”

The five story tall quartz construct opened its eyes and fired lasers  at Iset. She barely jumped out of the way and ended up tumbling down the hill.

“would be dragon armor.” Jardan finished with an accusatory point at Dejanna.

“You stomped the Warlock too.” Dejanna snarled.

“Children.” Iset inserted herself between them. “We’ve got bigger problems.”

A shadow fell over the the three and they saw, at the top of the hill, the Titan. In a ‘necklace compartment’ was Obscura leering down at them.

“Prepare to die!”

The foot came up.

The three ran and just barely made it out of the booming stomp radius.

“We need to summon Artaxerxes.” suggested Iset.

“We can’t.” Dejanna huffed as the three fled. “We need the other armors to build to him.”

“We’ve called upon the others but not him directly. If we all cast together we can do it.”

“If we fail,” cried Jardan, “we’ll be devoured,” they dodged another epic stomp.

“If we don’t, we’ll die anyways.”

“I’m for it.” Dajanna said, sliding to a halt and glaring up at the titan with determination.

Iset too slid to a stop, her glare at the monster was cold as ice.

Jardan groaned but also slid to a halt. “Fine.”

Obscura smirked down at the three from her pendant throne.

“Finally decided to stop running eh? I’ll just finish you off quickly then!”

“You who dwell in the deepest, darkest earth unseen.

Your roar terrifies the souls unclean.

You who carry all the  world on your back.

Call forth your first son, let the earth quake and crack.

Great Dragon who seeks Strength heed my call!

Power of Ullith be mine!”

Out of the earth sprung forth an enormous dragon armor made of jade. Immediately its torso split and slid open, combining with it’s massive arms to make a giant throne.

“Mother of peace, mother of wrath.

I call upon you for a dreadful task.

You who swallow the sun in the west.

Bring forth you child, with whose dread power I will be blessed.

Great Dragon who seeks Perfection heed my call.

Power of Freya be mine!”

A vortex of water erupted from the earth and out of it an enormous dragon armor made of dark sapphire ice.  It sat on the throne and shifted, folding into itself, becoming the body to Ullath’s arms and legs.

“You who wings span the the inky sky and encompass the stars.

Whose gaze sees all no matter how afar.

Bring forth your thunder, whose din terrifies the evil hearts.

I call forth your daughter, so she may rip and tear this villain apart.

Great Dragon who seeks Justice heed my call.

Power of Xalladale be mine!”

Lighting streaked from the sky and with it arrived an enormous dragon armor made out of ivory and gold. It melded from behind to became one with Ullith and Freya, her head and great wings  added to the mix.

As one the three’s voices boomed ” ARTAXERXES PERFECT CRASH!”

The Juggernaut armor stood before the titan.

Held aloft by magical forces in the armor’s third heart Dejana opened her eyes. She was pale, as if drained. Illusions Jadran and Iset were illuminated on the walls of the heart, they too were weak but unharmed.

“We’re alive?”

“It appears our gambit as worked.” Iset sounded exhausted but pleased.

“Then let’s show Obscura what we can do.” chuckled Jarad.

“Right.” Dejana said with a grin. She touched the wall of the heart and golden electricity ripped through the wall. “You’re up first Iset.”

Suddenly the left hand on Artaxerxes twitched, out of nothing a massive blade of salt water, crackling with golden lighting appeared. The armor’s wings flapped and he rose in the air, both claws now clutching the sword’s hit.

It said “Goodbye.” with a frigid finality in Iset’s voice.

Obscuria shrieked as the great Dragon attacked.

Knights of the Hidden Sun December 2012 Update: Adventures In Character Creation

As per my last update here’s what I have to look at:

1. Fix up 1 section in my Magic/Tech chapter.
2. Go over the Knights Chapter with a fine-tooth comb.
3. Tweak the Character Creation chapter.
4. Tweak the Rules chapter.
5. Make sure the GM chapter reflects the changes above.

It would have made sense to start with 1 but I chose 3 instead because I’m a rules monkey.

Here’s the gist of what I did:

Lower The Dice Pools

In the first draft of KoTHS a starting character could end with a 12D dice pool in his primary skill. This was a little much so I scaled back to afford smaller pools, around 4 dice smaller to be precise.

The lower dice pools, when used in conjunction with simple dice saving mechanics, has kept the dice hoard to a minimum. This in turn has lead to a much smoother game.

Everything In Its Place

Previously in KoTHS you’d list all your character’s Edges and Flaws, even ones that affected Attributes, in one place; a place that happened to be no where near Attributes. I found this lead to confusion; often players would simply forget such bonuses and penalties in their rolls thus making them meaningless.

The solution?

List Attribute Edges and Flaws under their prospective Attributes; easy peasy.

Edges and Flaws Are Meaningful

My original list of Edges had some minor advantages such as Desert Adaptation and Claws and minor Flaws such as Arrogant or Eccentric. In play-testing I found these never came up.

Desert Adaptation was no good because very few adventures ever required a desert survival roll, as for Claws, Hidden Sun weapons blow them out of the water. Also, most PCs are arrogant to start with and eccentric was often funny but rarely flaw-worthy.

So I decided to remove such  from my Edges and Flaws list and only keep meaningful ones such as Immunity to Fire and Bane: Silver.

That being said you can still get the minor Edges, they just cost a pittance  Being a clawed desert dweller is more a fun description than an appreciable advantage in KoTHS. As for the minor Flaws, I’m regulating those to ‘you’ll get rewarded with Character Points or Will Points for throwing your character into tough situations’.

The Results

I ran these by my play-test group and I’m pleased to say they were able to draw up comprehensive, interesting characters in a mere 1/2 hour. If they had to do it again I imagine it’d take them 15 minutes tops, even the ones who aren’t rules monkeys like me.

This makes me happy.

What’s Up Next?

I’m going over Character Creation once more. This is just to check for typos or grammatical silliness.  Unless play-testing reveals a major oversight I won’t change anything further.

I’ll move on, get’er done.

After that I’m going to tackle the minor addition to the Magic/Tech chapter. Not a big change and nothing to do with rules. Completing it will simply make Hidden Sun one step closer to realization.

Expect another update soon.

Knights of the Hidden Sun – November 2012 Update

As per my last update I was perusing the developed draft of Hidden Sun. I have finished this perusing.

First of all Malcolm’s and Geoff’s work is amazing. As I read through the draft I was extremely pleased and honored with their contributions. I’ve been generously authorized to use these but I won’t go through the details of the contract.

I can say that I’m allowed to keep my Ready2Run hack for Hidden Sun. Which is good because it fits with the setting, I enjoy the system and keeping it in Hidden Sun will enable me to get this game to market sooner than drawing on up a new set of rules.

I am toying with a Hidden Sun Fate hack but if that happens it will be after the main book is released.

All this being said there’s still some work to do:

• I need to make an ever so slight addition to the ‘How Magic Makes A Space Fairing Society’ chapter. This won’t take long .
• I need to tweak the Knight chapter. The current one a little disjointed so a cleaning up and clarifying is in order. This will take a moderate amount of work.
• I need to tweak, not drastically change, some of the rules. While development was moving along I ran a ton of games and the results of these extensive play-tests have shown me I need to:
  • Ensure all character creation choices are meaningful. Character perks or flaws that no one uses will be broadened or removed.
  • Simplify the ancillary rules. In a game of high action one shouldn’t perform algebra (even simple algebra) to determine how much a character can lift or how far he can jump. This isn’t Malcolm’s Ready2Run’s fault, I added these complications so I’ll replace them with something simpler.
  • I need to reduce dice pools. I have a plan, it will work.
  • This may seem huge but I suspect these tweaks will only take a moderate amount of work. I’m not rewriting, I’m reducing and simplifying.

All in all I’m hoping to have KoTHS ready for editing by the end of February. This is a rough overestimate, if I get my work done sooner there won’t be any complaints, least of all from me :).

I’m restarting my monthly updates so you’ll be kept informed..

Once the Chall fine tuning stage is done KoTHS will be off to an editor to check for spelling and grammar, then will be art and layout, then publish, then profit!

If anyone has comments, questions or concerns please feel free to comment below.

Knights of the Hidden Sun: Changes and Progress

This week Malcolm Sheppard stepped away as Developer/Marketer of Knights of the Hidden Sun. As mentioned in his blog there was no drama, far from it. He simply must commit to his own projects.

Let me say here and now that I appreciate everything Malcolm’s done for me over these past few years; from giving me the confidence to write KotHS to working with Geoff Grabowski to develop it. We’re still friends and I’ll keep him informed on the progress of this game.

As for what happens next:

• First I’m going to take in the Developed draft of KoTHS to take stock of what I have. Once that’s done Xenotropos and I will determine what’s needed  to edit, play test, type set and  finally publish the full work. At that time we’ll decide if we need a Kickstarter to offset the costs. I hope to have the final decisions on this figured out by the end of the month.
• After this I’ll set up a KoTHS Blog as a source site for all your Hidden Sun news and extra content. It’s high time this game had a web presence.
• I’m not giving up. I’ve spent too many years working on Hidden Sun and I won’t let them go to waste.

Now that I’m in sole control of the project I’m in a far better position bring it to fruition. While it pains me to see Malcolm step away I’m also excited to have Hidden Sun back in my court.

As a side note, while waiting I’ve nearly completed another project, a FATE adventure book called Space Pirate Alice Black. It’s a small journey into the stars, where the fate of trillions hangs in the balance.

Expect more to come.

Back On The Horse

It’s been over a year since I last posted.

Why?

Laziness.

Despite this I have updates on my recent work:

Knights of the Hidden Sun

It’s been in development for a looong time. The reason for this is Malcolm’s other commitments, White Wolf work. That being said Malcolm was kind enough to invest in Geoff Garbowski (of Exalted Fame, yay ) to finish the rest. This has gone incredibly well. Very, very soon KoTHS will be developed. After this is editing, and type setting which should go muuuch quicker. I’m looking forward to getting this out, holding a published book I authored will be awesome.

If you don’t hear from me after Hidden Sun’s published it will be because I exploded with joy.

Space Pirate Alice Black Journey 1

I wrote a Fighting Fantasy Amature adventure for Wizard Book’s Valintine’s Day contest. You can find it here. I didn’t win. However, I did get this amazing review. It blew me away, so much so that I’ve decided to write my own for self publication. Enter Space Pirate Alice Black Journey 1. It’s a 50 section Book where you play a feline space pirate who takes a villainous job in order to keep your ship, freedom and crew. So far I’m at 48 pages. I’m thinking it’ll be over 60 by the time I’m done. I plan to release it in parts for free and sell the compilation on LuLu. It’ll be a solo adventure book using FATE rules.

Fun, no?

I the meantime I plan to keep blogging.

Expect updates, reviews, alignment game stuff and other goodness.

Chall