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Progress Report #2: Comic, Violet War, and More!

Monica Valentinelli — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:30:48 +0000

February’s progress report kicked off this new series, so this month’s introduction talks a bit about a dry, boring subject: the internet. I do want to point out a couple of things in case you didn’t know already. First, be sure to check the front page of mlvwrites.com; I updated that with a few new books.

When I’m online or have chat open, I’m working. I can’t play games or socialize too much; if you see me on Twitter or Facebook it’s usually when I’m taking a quick break or have it on my phone. I wish I didn’t have to be on either network, but this is how I get my news and stay on top of what people are doing. Sometimes, though, I wish I could filter out the news, rants, and ridiculous negativity. It’s hard some days, because I’m a writer, and words resonate with me musically and literally. I suspect there’ll be a purge coming at some point, but regardless I have to use these networks wisely so I can keep creating. I guess that’s why I love my Tumblr account so much! It’s pure, unadulterated joy. Love, love, love logging in and seeing new art filter through every day. Yay!

Does this mean I work too hard? I do put in more than fifty hours a week when you factor in reading and research, but I also have a life and I would not be doing this much if I did not enjoy it immensely. I don’t mean to say that in a snarky way; I’m very intense (as others often point out) but that’s only because I try to make the best out of every possible moment. I don’t always succeed or I go into a mood, but the point is that I’m living. Doing. Writing. And very, very happy I can do this. It may not always be realistic, so I have to take advantage of the time I have now. Many pro writers aren’t making what you might on a salaried position. (GalleyCat has a great collection of three testimonials if you want to see some reports.)

Even when I’m not on a gig, though, I’m always working on something. I have to have a pen and paper and art materials close by or I’ll go crazy. I can tell when I haven’t been doing much of one thing or the other, because that’s when my mood really suffers. I guess you can call me the pragmatic writer? Holistic? Not sure… Either way, if you’re going to chase the rainbow, put your tennis shoes on first.

Without further adieu, here’s the updates!

Games

I announced that I’m the Brand Manager and one of the writers for the Firefly RPG line, which will be published via Margaret Weis Productions. I’m knee deep in outlines and scripts at the moment. More than that, I dare not say…

I’m wrapping up my work for the Mage 20th Anniversary Edition contribution and also working on a Vampire: the Masquerade supplement. Plus, there’s a few other things in the works that I’m not ready to announce just yet. My goal is to wind down work on other games so I can focus on the Firefly corebook and GenCon for this portion of my business over the summer.

Fiction…And COMICS!

I’m excited to say that my first comic will be published via Red Stylo Media! *throws confetti* “Last ~~Man~~ Zombie Standing” will be available in an anthology called Unfashioned Creatures, A Frankenstein Anthology late this Summer. If you want to check out some of this publisher’s comics, they do have some available at DriveThruComics.com.

I have also honed my new, original fiction projects down to two: a science fiction novella titled The Red Door and a massive project for the Violet War, which is the setting for The Queen of Crows. Remember, you can now get multiple versions of the original, full color edition from DriveThruFiction.com.

Consulting

John “The Muskrat” Kovalic went to the GAMA Trade Show this year and some new business initiatives that we’d been working on will spring from that. Ninth Level Games launched a Kobolds Ate My Baby Kickstarter that I’ve been behind-the-scenes on; that’ll end on April 3rd. The 50K mark combines Munchkin with Kobolds Ate My Baby!

Onyx Path is moving along; there’s a lot of questions right now, and Rich is taking the time to really think about what the company is doing and what he wants.

We’re focused on GenCon and a few, other foolish surprises…

This post originally appeared on www.mlvwrites.com

The ‘Verse And Your Dice

Monica Valentinelli — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:13:53 +0000

I announced recently that I’m the new Brand Manager and one of the writers for the Firefly roleplaying game line. Recently, I published my first update about what we’re up to on the Margaret Weis Productions website.

Here’s a quote from the post that clarifies one of the common questions:

Q: How does the Firefly RPG differ from Serenity RPG?

A: The new Firefly RPG, which is based on the hit Fox television series by Joss Whedon, is scheduled for a 2013 release; the system(s) are currently in development. Margaret Weis Productions did put out a game based on the Serenity movie produced by Universal Studios in 2005. The system for that game was a science fiction flavor of Cortex Classic.

If you’re a reader here on my FlamesRising.com blog, I’ll also be linking to the updates and sticking them underneath my progress reports, since this’ll be one of my projects. I plan to write these bi-monthly and will keep you posted about new titles and some cool ways you can get involved. If you haven’t checked out this publisher’s games yet, you can find a lot of them at DriveThruRPG, too.

For more information, read: Ain’t No Better Place In The ‘Verse.

‘Til then… I have a lot of work to do!

Progress Report #1: A Long Update

Monica Valentinelli — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:45:52 +0000

Today, I kick off a new series that specifically talks about what I’m up to work-wise. I’ve made it a policy not to over-publicize games and stories that haven’t come out yet, primarily because I’ve been burned on that before. It’s tricky to manage because everybody’s promoting, but sometimes deals go bad or businesses fold or what have you. Hence, progress reports. Not promising you anything, but these are some projects I’m working on, have been involved with, and may be coming to a book store, game store, or online retailer near you.

Not taking the full-time Marketing Director position with Steve Jackson Games down in Austin, Texas was a tough decision and it left me a little sad (everybody there is just fantastic and ridiculously talented) yet curious about where to go next. (Previously, I was telecommuting and traveling a lot.) When I realized I’d go back to full-time freelancing, I took a look at what my core business will be. I did not want to “leave” gaming nor did I want to “stop” consulting or writing or cat herding. I like working in the creative industries and enjoy seeing projects through to completion.

Before I took on any more freelancing, I righted my wrongs. e.g. I had to get back into the discipline of writing for long periods of time again, and that meant I had shift gears dramatically. I also launched The Thirteen and we’ve been grooving and jiving for a few months now, too. That’s had a positive impact, overall.

Once I got back where I needed to be, which is approximately 2,000 to 5,000 words on average, I pushed the business aspects forward beginning in January. Everything you see here may seem like a ton, but remember — many of these are smaller, a couple-hours-a-week, projects and you’re catching the notifications of these announcements either after the fact or in mid-stream.

Since this is the first progress report, it’s definitely the longest, but next month’s will likely be a lot shorter. With that in mind, here’s some updates in that trio of spheres:

Consulting

The financial reality of being a writer can be *ow* — which is why I’m consulting for select clients based on an hourly or flat rate. Namely, John Kovalic, who I’ve been working with for over a year now, and Onyx Path Publishing, the official licensees of White Wolf Publishing.

When wearing my consultant hat, I’m typically invisible. It’s part of these part-time gigs. I’m pleased to say that I was heavily involved with making ROFL! a reality and getting Kobolds Ate My Baby back off the ground. ROFL!, which was designed by John and published by the excellent folks at Cryptozoic Entertainment, will debut in March. Our friends at 9th Level Games will also be launching a Kickstarter on March 4th for a brand new edition of Kobolds Ate My Baby.

For Onyx Path, wow… Well, let’s just say that there’s been some serious discussions and a lot of progress made behind-the-scenes. I just started this part-time job in early February and we’ve talked a lot about fans, GenCon, and [redacted]. Since I occasionally freelance for the company *whistles innocently about [redacted]* I “get” White Wolf. There’s the joke in the industry about the White Wolf freelancers, right? We drive gold-plated Cadillacs, drink to oblivion, partake in recreational drugs — we’re the “cool kids,” living the life, swimming in money. Um… Okay, while some of that may (or may not) be true, the message here is that it’s too early to announce anything — but we’re working on wrangling several pieces while Rich focuses on producing games and fulfilling Kickstarters.

I’m open to discussing smaller consulting gigs, but I’m not taking on any other long-term clients right now. I’m heavily focused on what I can provide creatively and leverage my years of experience to consult, primarily so I can continue to write.

Games and Game Design

I’m reluctant to talk about what I’m working on (or with whom) right now, just because of my history with projects not coming out or businesses folding or goals changing, etc. There’s projects that sometimes get buried and then return from the dead — zombie projects!!! — which can bork expectations. What I can confirm, is that I am freelance writing again for games.

The Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide Kickstarter just ended and I sent in bonus material for my essay “Roleplay Like You’re On TV.” Margaret Weis Productions and everybody I’ve been working with has been fantastic. I’m very proud to be part of the Firefly RPG team and will have an announcement soon about my role with that.

I want to launch a Kickstarter for The Queen of Crows RPG, but I’m still waiting on other people right now. There’s been some “hurry up and wait” related to that and there’s some concerns I, personally, have on the back end. I’m on deadline right now, meaning I have a few <20K pieces to deliver for other game lines by the end of March, so this isn't as high of a priority right now, and I'll likely push this back to the Fall. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on creating what *I* can in my spare time. Everything I do for The Queen of Crows RPG is on spec, so I don’t count that toward my core business, but… I care very deeply about making this game happen. This is the game I want to make, distribute, and get out there into the world. Badly.

Fiction

Let’s see… I have a few stories circulating out in the wild right now. Some I’m waiting edits for; others are completed and I’m waiting for the final word. Exciting news, my first short story comic will debut sometime this year. I had about seven or eight stories published in 2012, you can see what came out in my list of publications, and my first reprint for “Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs.”

The reprint was hilarious, and by “hilarious” I mean this is a typical Monica-ism. So, a big milestone, right? You get reprinted in an anthology and your story debuts before George RR Martin. You see him at a convention just walking around. Do you a) say how proud you are to be in a book with him? or b) babble like an idiot. Annnnnnd that would be “b.”

I made some headway on short storytelling last year and I was hoping the second novella I published, Redwing’s Gambit, would serve my goals for a book deal, but it hasn’t been “officially” released yet from Galileo Games. I have print copies if you want them. Just give me a holler on my contact page and we’ll work out a deal.

Right now, I’m kicking back and focusing on narrative prose that will sparkle in novel and novella form. More than that, I cannot say, but this will be a longer release/announcement cycle than anything else I’m working on this year.

So that’s it for Progress Report #1!

Questions? Ask away!

Do Some Evil for Crestline Elementary

Monica Valentinelli — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 19:11:38 +0000

Today FlamesRising.com readers, I appeal to your dark side. I ask you to fan the flames, stoke the fire, and spread the world about the Evil for Crestline Auctions going on this weekend!

Drop what you’re doing! ‘Cause, that’s RIGHT now!!!

Lilith Saint Crow, who you may recall is a fantastic writer and aficionado of great food, fabulous wine, and maniacal laughter, recently experienced a tragedy. Her son’s school burnt to the ground.

Now, members of the creative community are donating their talents for a variety of services and goods to help raise funds for these kids.

Two auctions just launched; the goods were provided by yours truly. The first is a lot of a few of my short stories and novellas (included in five FABULOUS books) PLUS a $20 gift certificate to DriveThruFiction.com. The second, are the first three trades in the Dork Tower series, signed by cartoonist and Munchkin illustrator John Kovalic!

The auction ends on Monday, February 25th. If you don’t have the funds, please help spread the word. That’s still evil, though of a different sort.

Thank you!

Fearful Symmetries – An Ellen Datlow/ChiZine Kickstarter

Nancy — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:44:08 +0000

Ellen Datlow is one of the world’s best, most awarded, and most well-known editors. She has showcased the talents of hundreds – probably thousands – of writers over the years. Her anthologies are legendary.

Now, Ms. Datlow has teamed up with ChiZine Publications to bring a new anthology of horror into the world. According to the new Kickstarter page, Fearful Symmetries is set to be a work that brings forth “both veteran talent and new voices.” See more at Kickstarter.com.

Anthologies are a fantastic way to introduce audiences to the works of authors they might have heard of before, as well as introducing them to previously unheard-of writers. But they are expensive to produce.

While both ChiZine and Datlow have had much success over the years, they’ve decided to get the fans involved with this venture. And not only will the anthology feature familiar writers, it will also have an open submission period. To find out more about this project, visit the Kickstarter page.

If you’re not familiar with Ellen Datlow, check out her website at www.ellendatlow.com. ChiZine can be found at www.chizine.com.

Need a Lovecraft fix? Check Out the Lovecraft Zine!

Monica Valentinelli — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:25:37 +0000

November’s issue of The Lovecraft eZine features a sordid tale of madness and persistence penned by yours truly. Titled “The Dig,” this is a gender-neutral story about a person and something (or someone) known only as “It.” Also included in this issue’s Table of Contents are stories from many illustrious writers — including a tale by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who hails from the Innsmouth Free Press.

What’s more? You can read and listen to The Dig for free online.

If you have an eReader, there is an Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook version you can download straight to your device. That format is not free, however, and requires payment of the monetary sort. You can, however, investigate back issues for more creepy, Cthulhu-esque stories.

I do hope you’ll drop by and check out this issue and my story “The Dig.” Sometimes. . . Well, it’s not always a good idea to listen to the voices you hear inside your head — is it?

Happy Cultist-ing!

Blockbuster Costumes: Movies That Inspire Dressing Up on Halloween

Flames — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:28:23 +0000

Movies, TV shows, video games and comic books provide inspiration for some of the best and most elaborate Halloween costumes. Costume play can get so extreme that subcultures are created and acted out. If you go to a renaissance festival, which is highly recommended, you will see cosplay in it’s finest, most innocent moments. People of all ages, cultures and backgrounds don themselves in rich fabrics, corsets, bodices, peasant outfits, head pieces and doublets. They carry ribbons and daggers and speak in an Old World accent. The best part is watching the cosplayers interact with one another in character.

On that note, because Halloween is just around the corner, it’s time for a little cosplay of your own. Browse the Internet for good Halloween costumes of your favorite action movie this year, or make one yourself.

Katniss Everdeen – “The Hunger Games”

If you want to be fierce this year, get into character — carry a bow and quiver with arrows. Put on a V-neck tee, a pair of women’s military style boots, cargo pants, a black or gray jacket with a hoodie and carry a back pack labeled “12.” Now you’re on your way to winning the “The Halloween Games.” Be sure to pick up a pin with a bird representing a “Mockingjay,” a side-braided dark-haired wig and pop in some mesmerizing gray contact lenses — don’t forget the attitude.

Other optional costumes include Katniss during the reaping and the eccentric Effie Trinket. If you are a guy, sport a blue wig and eyebrows while transforming into TV personality Caesar Flickerman, or become the ever-drunk Haymitch by wearing baggy linens, a tie, vest, suit coat and some very messy blonde hair. Don’t forget to carry a flask.

Catwoman – The Dark Knight Rises

Kids and adults alike are seriously considering trick-or-treating as one of Gotham’s menaces. Catwoman is a pretty simple creation in that she wears all black. It’s the accessories that will make this costume. Put on some leather or vinyl skin-tight pants and a super skintight shirt as your base.
Add a thick belt, thigh-high stiletto boots, a very important accessory found at costume stores online, a chunky toy gun, cat mask and hair — lots and lots of hair.

Ted

Who doesn’t love a great teddy bear costume? This vulgar and crude furry little guy would be a great costume for Halloween. You can buy a whole or half “Ted”dy bear costume, or simply get a bear hat or head and dress as something different below the neck. Don an apron and carry a spatula and be a teddy bear chef. Suit up in a baseball uniform and be a baseball player with a bear head. Don’t forget to carry a bottle of whiskey. You’re sure to get lots of hugs as a sweet “Ted”dy bear.

The Avengers

Have a group of friends and want to go as a bad-ass Superhero? This is your year! The Avengers is your ticket to ruling the party. These costumes might be difficult to make yourself, so browse costume shops in person or online for your favorite Avenger. However, if you are a clever little designer, Black Widow and The Hulk would be the easiest of the crew to emulate.

Michelle Cook – 2012

Michelle is a freelance journalist who covers pop culture, including movies and TV shows. Her favorite genre is superhero movies.

Action, Adventure, Costumes and more at NYCC

Matt-M-McElroy — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:27:21 +0000

I just got back from New York Comic Con and I had a great time at the show. I was mostly there in my role as Marketing Director for DriveThruComics.com, but I somehow found the time to have a little fun for Flames Rising too.

There were certainly plenty of awesome Horror & Dark Fantasy items on display to catch any fans interest. One of my first stops was the Black Watch Comics booth to check out The North End of the World by David Hunsaker and Christopher Shy. Conveniently for me, the Monarch Comics booth with new and collected issues of the Witch Hunter series was right next door. This is also where I ran into Brian and Matt from the Secret Identity Podcast (of which Brian got me to do a short interview, yikes!) so this area kind of became my “home base” for the show. Great books, good friends and a cool place to hang out between other meetings and wandering the show floor.

This was my 3rd or 4th trip to NYCC and it gets bigger every year. ICv2 is reporting 116,000 attendees this year. Here is a shot I took while walking around on Friday:

As we posted earlier, Avatar Press had a lot going on at the show and every time I stopped by their booth it seemed like cool stuff was going on including signings with various creators. Archaia Entertainment always has a great presence at the show as well. I stopped and talked with David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Chandra Free (God Machine), Mark Smylie (Artesia) and a number of other very talented folks.

The Rebellion/2000 AD booth had some very cool Judge Dredd goodies up for grabs, many of which we’ll see over at DriveThruComics in the coming months. Dark Horse was promoting the Hellboy in Hell series and the Image Comics booth was over 50% Walking Dead as is usual these days.

The Studio Z crew was on hand showing off the Z-Girl and the 4 Tigers series. I also caught up with Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen over at the Burning Wheel booth. Luke had copies of Christopher Moeller’s Iron Empires graphic novels as well as the Burning Empires and Freemarket RPGs. Jared had copies of the excellent Parsley mini-games on-hand, of which you should definitely pick up Pumpkin Town and Spooky Manor for Halloween fun.

I spent quite a bit of time in Artist Alley checking out some of the awesome creator owned and indie titles (as well as some truly excellent art).

Jim Zub and Edwin Huang were doing sketches and selling a brand new volume of Skullkickers called Six Shooter on the Seven Seas that you should definitely pick up if you haven’t already. Enrica Jang from Red Stylo Media was offering up some great deals on the Azteca series as well as collected editions of Shakespeare Shaken and Poe Twisted.

Also hanging out in Artist Alley was Ryan Colucci of Spoke Lane Entertainment with copies of the awesome Harbor Moon graphic novel. the dynamic duo of Comfort Love and Adam Withers were blazing away on custom sketch orders as well as selling copies of The Uniques and Rainbow in the Dark series.

There were so many cool displays and talented people in Artist Alley I don’t think I’d be able to list them all here. Artist Alley was pretty packed with attendees all throughout the show as well. Here is a shot from Saturday:

I had a great time at the convention and we’ll likely get some reviews from new books up on Flames Rising before too long.

Did you attend the show?

If so, what were your highlights?

Let’s hear ‘em in the comments below!

The 13. Final Days to Apply!

Monica Valentinelli — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:30:44 +0000

Do you have what it takes to be one of my thirteen? October thirteenth is coming up fast. That date marks the day I’ll contact applicants who applied to become one of my thirteen. I blogged about that on my own website, but wanted to extend the invitation to FlamesRising.com readers, too. Many of you have been following my career from the very beginning — after all, it was here where I first posted game fiction for Obsidian: the Age of Judgement. It was also here where we published The Devil’s Night for White Wolf fans and here where I was able to announce projects like Strange, Dead Love, Scenes of the Embrace, Worlds of the Dead, and so many more.

This group I’m putting together is unusual in the sense that I’m providing readers with the ability to get to know me in a more intimate fashion than folks normally would be able to online. I’m also going to talk about the deep, down, and dirty parts of the submission process for my original work and throw a few stories to them.

Questions? I’m sure you do. For that, let me quote the original post I had on my blog here:

When I released The Queen of Crows, many readers said I was fearless. Now, I am opening up my author’s door for you to do the same. I am asking thirteen brave souls to be hands-on participants in my journey as an author.

What does this mean? Are You Brave Enough To Be One Of My Thirteen? on mlvwrites.com.

I then went on to list a few planned perks here:

In exchange for your support, comments, and feedback, you will be rewarded in the following ways:

You’ll be notified first of any upcoming publications, whether you’ve read that particular story or not.

You’ll receive an annual Thank You present that’ll include some of my stories and other niceties.

You’ll be acknowledged, whenever possible, for your feedback. That means if you comment on one of my novels or novellas, you’ll get publicly thanked in the book.

After I received some entries, I fielded quite a few questions in The 13, A FAQ list which clarified some reader questions. If you have some, start there or post a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!

Interested? Just say “Yes” to Are You Brave Enough To Be One Of My Thirteen at my website www.mlvwrites.com for more details and apply!

Time to Kill Some Zombies

Michael Holland — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 16:25:38 +0000

“I want to kill some zombies.”

That is what my daughter said to me just the other day in the matter of fact kind of way which meant no matter what I wanted I was going to do exactly what she said. It doesn’t matter whether I had an opinion on the issue or not we were going to “kill some zombies.” I timidly said okay and did my damned best to choke down my geeky tears of pride and joy (which may or may not have looked more like a seizure). My little girl was growing up!

So I ask her, “Why do you want to kill zombies?”

Without batting an eye she shoots back, “Because it’s Monstober dad, duh!” Then she walked away as if I had just offended her sensibilities.

Dear lord, how could I not know it was Monstober!?! Monstober is… Monstober is… Hell, I had no idea what Monstober was other than obviously being a mash up of the words “monster” and “October.” So I jumped on the trusty internets and did some research. It didn’t take me long to find Monstober had something to do with the Disney channel and their Halloween line up of shows. Most of it had nothing to do with zombies but it made me realize what my daughter was really saying. Halloween is coming and my daughter was in the mood for some supernatural horror oriented gaming.

Halloween is pretty big in my house. In fact, we have two of them. We have the big event on Oct. 31 like everyone else in which we dress up and stalk the neighborhood demanding candy lest we vandalize people’s pumpkins. Okay, we would never vandalize pumpkins. It’s not the pumpkin’s fault their owners give out lame treats (or no treats at all). Well, actually we might vandalize the guy who gives out toothbrushes. Who the hell wants toothbrushes on Halloween?

The other Halloween consists of the entire month of October and as much of September and November as I can squeeze out of my wife before she drops the hammer. Yes honey, I will take down those decorations. I’ll get right on that. I just need to… adjust… my dice drawer first and then I’ll do it. Is she gone kids? Quick, hide! One more day of Halloween for us! Yes!

Boiling my daughter’s message down to its obscure while obvious meaning I needed to start prepping some supernatural and horror oriented games. That or risk she and her two siblings would hunt me down like ravenous animals and rip out my spleen. Yeah, they do that. Kids are vicious. I’m still missing a kidney.

There are a lot of different kinds of ways we celebrate Halloween. Decorating, “Trick or Treating,” the annual trip to our local apple orchard to pick out our pumpkin for the year, movies and games. Oh yeah, we play lots and lots of games. It’s what we do anyway and it only makes sense that we combine the best of Halloween and gaming at this time of year.

But what to prepare?

Obviously I am not the only one who asks this question this time of year. I imagine for most gamers Halloween is a much beloved holiday and the perfect time to drag those themed games out of the darkest corners of the game closest. Fortunately for us there are a lot of great options to get our spooky game on.

When it comes to horror-themed roleplaying games, you don’t have to look far to find the granddaddy of them all, Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium. Players take on the roles of intrepid (perhaps foolish?) investigators who delve the madness of Lovecraftian horror. Match wits with crafty cultists, dodge the walking dead and flee from anything that completely unnerves you. On a good day you make it out alive and sane. On a bad day you end up being sucked dry like a grey matter Capri Sun by a tentacle horror from beyond space and time. But hey, at least you go out with a smile on your face.

If you don’t have time for a creepy night of Cthulhu you can always get your madness fix from other games like Cthulhu Dice or Munchkin from Steve Jackson Games. Cthulhu Dice is a fast paced dice game of strategy and madness in which you are trying to be the last cultist standing who hasn’t lost their mind. Each game is very short and you don’t need to carry a lot of game material to play it (just the Cthulhu die and glass beads).

Munchkin Cthulhu brings the best of Lovecraft to the popular Munchkin card game. Play as one of four classes (including Cultist) and do battle with the forces of madness. Steve Jackson also offers a number of other card sets which work quite well this time of year. Munchkin Bites! (vampires and such), Munchkin Zombies and Munchkin Apocalypse are all great choices as well. The best part is you can mix these sets and use them together in one big, slimy tentacle, blood sucking, brain-eating and end of the world monstrosity. That sounds like fun to me.

If board games are more your thing Fantasy Flight Games has you covered with Arkham Horror. Up to eight players play investigators facing off against the Ancient Ones and their minions. This is classic horror gaming at its finest and when your brains are leaking out your ears you can keep going with FFG’s expansion, The Dunwich Horror. Then hop over the Mansions of Madness (and its five expansions) to keep the board game investigations going all night long.

Man that is a lot of Cthulhu awesomeness but there is definitely a lot more to horror than the mad children which danced in Lovecraft’s head.

You can spend a life time in White Wolf’s Worlds of Darkness. What’s that you say? White Wolf makes a horror-themed roleplaying game? Holy crap, who knew!?! Yeah, they make a whole lot of them. From vampires to werewolves to mummies White Wolf has what you need to keep yourself running scared. And now Onyx Path Publishing is surging forward with support for all of the Worlds of Darkness, classic and new. Grab some ten sided dice and become the monster.

If you are like my daughter and you want to experience survival horror there really are hundreds of games out there for you to try but I my highest recommendation goes to Origin Award winning All Flesh Must Be Eaten by Eden Studios Inc. This game includes everything you need to bring zombies to “life” at your game table including zombie creation rules and eleven different settings in which to set your story.

Honestly, the list goes on and on and on. Beyond the Supernatural from Palladium Books, Deadlands by the Pinnacle Entertainment Group and many, many more. If you find yourself hurting for inspiration or you’re just low on cash drop by DriveThruRPG and do a search for “horror.” You will find somewhere around 1,800 product hits which range in price from FREE (hundreds of them actually) to bundles around $80 to $90. The important part is you find something you are interested in, get your friends together with some snacks and play games. There really is no better way to celebrate Halloween than that.

My daughter is eye balling my copy of All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Should I be disturbed that my spleen stealing children love zombies so much? Oh well, at least there is work for them in Florida if times get tough.

Time to kill some zombies.

Michael Holland – 2012

Matt’s PAX 2012 Adventures

Matt-M-McElroy — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:47:41 +0000

PAX Prime 2012 has wrapped up and I had a great time at the show. That unfortunately meant I had to miss out on other great conventions like Dragon*Con in Atlanta and WorldCon in Chicago. I could go off about the scheduling demons that need to be exorcised to ensure that doesn’t happen again. Mostly, because I’ve heard all kinds of cool stories from those other shows that I missed out on…but anyway, PAX was pretty awesome so let’s talk about that…

While I do play a few video games, I don’t really go to conventions to play demos or get swag related to the new hotness of the next console game. The line for the Resident Evil demo was 2 hours long on Friday afternoon; I didn’t even see how it looked on Saturday. Mostly, my interest in PAX Prime was related to the Tabletop track of panels and events. I was invited to speak on a couple of topics, including “Gaming Grows Up: The Evolution of Modern Gaming” and a very cool GMing roundtable discussion.

I stopped by the Wizards of the Coast booth where they were showing off some very cool Rise of the Underdark campaign events. As usual, they had a great-looking booth with life-size drow and other monsters on display. In addition to a selection of D&D hardcovers they had copies of Charon’s Claw, book 3 of the Neverwinter trilogy by R. A. Salvatore. The booth crew was also running some very fun demos of the Lords of Waterdeep board game. I give great credit to Wizards of the Coast for having an enthusiastic and helpful crew working a very busy convention. Not once did they seem tired or bored and they were some of the friendliest and coolest exhibitors of the entire convention.

I ran into Jim Zubkavich at the UDON/Oni Press booth. Zub was showing off his new series, Makeshift Miracle and doing sketches for fans. He also had copies of the awesome Skullkickers, which you should check out if you haven’t already.

While I’ve been to PAX East and many other conventions, this was my first time at PAX Prime. Friday especially seemed really disorganized with Enforcers (i.e. volunteers tasked with controlling lines, helping people find various booths/events and generally keeping things running smoothly) who didn’t seem very busy or helpful. Multiple times I ran into big pileups of attendees having trouble getting through aisles and were clogged in locations throughout the exhibit hall. I asked four different Enforcers where the Indie Games and/or Games on Demand was located and got four different answers. Worse, the Tabletop rooms and events were spread out across multiple buildings and the open/free play rooms were also pretty scattered. I’m not sure whose idea it was to cram Fantasy Flight Games into a tiny room on the 3rd floor of the hall…but I don’t recommend it for next year.

All that aside, I had a great time at the show and met some excellent people. On the “Gaming Grows Up” panel I was honored to be sitting with Ben Mandall (The Art of the Table), Sarah Lynne Bowman (The Functions of Role-Playing Games), Jess Hartley (Changeling: the Lost, Haunted), Robert Gifford (Geek Chic), Travis Stout (Hunter: the Vigil) and Elizabeth Shoemaker (Two Scooters Press). We covered a variety of topics including gaming with kids, social contracts, trolls in fandom and more. Any one of which could have taken up the entire hour by itself, but Ben kept things moving along and even made time for some interesting questions from the audience that allowed us to explore even more cool topics.

At the Games on Demand room I finally had the chance to play Apocalypse World, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages. Playing AW of course makes me want to see the tremulus Kickstarter succeed even more.

There were of course tons of sessions of great games like Fiasco, Mouse Guard, Maschine Zeit, Little Fears, InSpectres and more going on pretty much all the time. Plenty of shared enthusiasm from game designers and fans kept the room moving. I think this is one of the best evolutions of the “indie scene” in recent years. I remember constant demos at the Forge booth at GenCon over the years. Games on Demand shares some of that same vibe of constant games from very creative folks. Different designers running each others games and introducing them to new gamers and an all around great scene.

Other than a few logistics issues with the crowd and one or two attendees with poor social skills…PAX 2012 was a great show for me.

What about you?

Tales from a GenCon First Timer

Flames — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:35:58 +0000

As a first time Gen Con attendee that finally made my way to Indianapolis after years of attempting to make it to the “Best Four Days in Gaming,” I was both unprepared and blown away by this year’s event. With some understanding of the convention’s significance to the gaming community I knew I was going to be in for at least some surprises!

Overall the weekend was an absolutely amazing rollercoaster of nonstop gaming and chatting with industry folk, trying out games all over the release schedule from wargames that first hit shelves years ago to roleplaying games newly-minted just for Gen Con to card games that wouldn’t be released until September or later. It was extremely thrilling to experience such an exciting event first hand and meet so many wonderful people, as well as a great way to kick off the next season of new releases and see what we had to look forward to over the next couple of months.

Game Demos & New Releases

Though it would be near impossible to speak to each and every game we picked up, looked at, or played over the course of the weekend, the stand out item for our group by far was Apocalypse World, a quick and dirty indie offering published in 2010 that we discovered in Games on Demand. Though reaching a concise ending in the two hour time slot left something to be desired, the game was a dark, gritty storytelling game with a flexible setting and that grew as we worked our way around the table each turn. With players being pitted against one another rather than working together as a team, it kept things interesting and made for a unique mood that kept all of us on our toes.

Also worth checking out was Monsterhearts from Buried Without Ceremony, though I highly regret not jumping in on a session (since it was also offered at Games on Demand) it uses core mechanics of Apocalypse World to explore the lives of teenagers in a supernatural universe, resulting in a story that feels like an episode of True Blood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. From just a few sessions at Games on Demand it was easy to see that it was one of the most popular games offered all weekend.

In addition to the games that we actually got to play, I was personally very excited to learn more about Monte Cook’s new solo venture, Numenera, which is currently making the rounds at Kickstarter. It’s extremely interesting to see a fantasy setting so far in the future, and it should be interesting to see the final product once it hits store shelves. We also got a peek at the new boxed set for Legend of the Five Rings, which was looking pretty tempting despite the $80 price tag.

Fantasy Flight Games also brought it with the first series of their Star Wars X-Wing miniatures, as well as beta copies of a new tabletop Star Wars offering titled Edge of the Empire. Though the tabletop game immediately caught my eye due to it’s similarities to the 3rd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, only time will tell how it actually feels at the table.

Other highlights included the new Evil Baby Orphanage card game from Wyrd Miniatures, which is nearly exactly what it sounds like – a game where you go back in time and kidnap evil babies before they turn evil, taking them to an orphanage where they can grow up to be less evil and hopefully leave a happier mark on the world. We also thoroughly enjoyed playing demos of the Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game and Dragon Age from Green Ronin Publishing, as well as my first ever try at the Warmachine Miniatures Game, which was immediately jotted down to check out once we returned home.

As we had a hard time actually playing demos of all of the new and exciting things available, hopefully we will be able to check them out as they continue rolling out to the local game stores in the area.

The “Big News”

With Gen Con unofficially kicking off the “gaming new year” each summer, it came as no surprise that the larger publishers were armed with huge announcements to shape the industry market over the next few months. Some of the most exciting news bites that caught my attention:

White Wolf’s move to Onyx Path as a licensed property seems like a good fit for the brand; while I was initially surprised by the announcement, it feels like a smart choice on the tail of the re-releases of the “classic” World of Darkness lines and seems like an exciting way to bring more attention to the World of Darkness setting in general, as well as the other new and previously established lines that they’ve taken under their wing. (See TheOnyxPath.com for more information)

Wizards of the Coast’s decision to release digital editions of their back catalog also seems like an extremely smart move – though I’ve fallen off the Wizards bandwagon in past years, it does give me a renewed interest in checking out the older releases, if only to grab some of the old 3.5 books that I borrowed from friends years ago for “nostalgia.”

The ENnie Awards decision to accept digital submissions and submissions without an entry fee was an extremely exciting announcement as well – despite other obvious flaws in the ENnie awards system, I am personally extremely thrilled to see that small and independent games publishers – both companies and individuals – will have a much easier shot at having their products seen and could ultimately be a huge game changer for those who aren’t publishing under a “big name” company.

On an ENnie Awards footnote – it was also excellent to see such a huge love for Lovecraft this year, with a large variety of submissions representing some aspect of the Cthulu Mythos. I am personally hoping that this trend keeps up through the next year, as it should be interesting to see where it takes us next.

In Review

Having had such a blast this year, we rolled out of Indianapolis already planning to attend next year. The Gen Con staff did an absolutely amazing job of planning things, most of the lines we had to wait in – even Will Call – moved extremely quickly, and it was quite an eye opening experience in regard to exploring the variety of things that the gaming industry and community has to offer. The only regret I had was not spending more time playing games – despite the many games that we did play and demo, there was almost too much to be seen over the course of only four days. Until next year, I suppose I’ll be keeping a close eye on our FLGS for the games and supplements announced in Indianapolis to arrive to finally get my hands on them.

-Manda Collis 2012

Manda Collis is a freelancer of many hats, most often writing about games and geekery over at Charisma Bonus. She currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin.

Michael’s GenCon 2012 Adventure

Michael Holland — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:44:55 +0000

This was nothing less than a monumental year for GenCon. Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing put on impressive shows but it was the smaller publishers who stole the spotlight this year. As the gaming industry continues to evolve creative forces are emerging to bring gamers new and interesting ideas. These are the kinds of ideas that larger companies forgo in favor of their big ticket items allowing room for designers to fill those special niches in our gamer hearts. In other words I spent way too much money but these products are so phenomenal I don’t have a single regret. The best part of GenCon was getting to see friends we only get to see at events like this and sitting in on some of the most exciting seminars to date.

What’s Up with White Wolf? covered the evolution of the company since 2008 when they realized traditional publishing was not working for the company. They merged with CCP so WW could get off the product treadmill and focus on the next stage in the company’s life. This became White Wolf 2.0 as they tried to take emerging technologies and integrate them not only with new products but also with the enormous catalog of products they had already produced. This led to the partnership with Onyx Path Publishing.

In regards to the New World of Darkness they decided the back log of S.A.S. adventure modules are fairly substantial and they wanted to focus energy on larger projects. These modules will become something they release along with larger projects like Mummy and Werewolf in the future.

The fan reaction to the Classic World of Darkness has been so huge they had to keep moving with support for those games. Work is ongoing on Werewolf and they are hoping the cogs will keep moving and Mage will happen as well (although it is too soon to commit to that idea).

Rich also spoke about Exalted which he felt went off the rails somewhere during second edition. So they have moved forward on work on Exalted 3rd Edition. As it turns out there was a small army of writers willing and ready to jump into that project.

White Wolf’s “big announcement” had been pushed back and finally at the What is the Onyx Path? seminar Rich Thomas, Eddy Webb and company were allowed to pull back the curtains. After Black Wednesday it became apparent that CCP was no longer in the best possible position to keep publishing books for table top games. Exploring their options Rich Thomas made the decision to become an independent publisher (Onyx Path Publishing) where he and a talented team of artists and game designers could get back to the core of what made White Wolf great, creativity and awesome games.

Onyx Path now owns both Scion and the Trinity Universe. They are still working on Werewolf but their next big projects will be focusing on new editions for those games. Rich has always been a fan of both of these game lines but they never really got the support they needed under CCP’s tenure.

Onyx Path will also be helping independent game designers bring their unique ideas to the public. Russell Bailey’s Cavaliers of Mars will be the first new game under Onyx Path. Cavaliers of Mars is a swashbuckling game of adventure and heartbreak on the canals of Mars in a Venice-inspired setting. It is the kind of game that wouldn’t necessarily fit well under the auspice of White Wolf but is perfect for Onyx Path.

We have been catching glimpses of Mummy the Curse on White Wolf’s development blogs for some time now. Colin pried back the cover a bit and started tying together the elements we have been seeing into a cohesive vision for a game that sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. Mummy represents a return to the gothic horror for which the Worlds of Darkness are most well-known. Inspired by both literature and film Mummy taps into everything that we love about mummies and then develops the idea into a new kind of White Wolf game. Mummies were described as the inverse of vampires. Vampires are inactive for short periods of time with long periods of activity. Mummies are dead most of the time and wake up for short bursts of activity. This is the tragedy of their existence in that they have all the time in the world but they can only do so much with the time they have.

The Werewolf the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition seminar highlighted Onyx Path’s work on this game. A lot of work went into capturing the original feel of the game. Although there were several opportunities to make changes to the game (especially in terms of the rules) they avoided doing so because they did not want to change the quintessential werewolf experience.

Kudos to DriveThruRPG for acquiring perhaps the most strategically well placed booth in the entire exhibitor hall. As the doors opened on Thursday the DriveThruRPG banner loomed before us all, the first to greet us to gamer heaven. At the center of that magnificent booth waited beautiful print copies of the V20 Companion, revised copies of the Book of Nod and layout demos for Werewolf the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition. A lot of White Wolf’s older books which are now available in print on demand were there as well.

Pelgrane Press has a lot of great projects in the works. They are taking preorders for 13th Age now and they have launched a Kickstarter for the second 13th Age book, 13 True Ways. This book will be a grab bag of new material for 13th Age including new classes, monsters, stats for the icons, rules for riding dragons and so much flavor for the Dragon Empire our heads might explode. They did quite well at the Ennie Awards. Graham Walmsley & Pelgrane Press’ Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Apocalypse Machine won a gold Ennie for Best Electronic Book. The Investigator’s Guide to Occult London won a gold Ennie for Best Writing and Lorefinder—The Pathfinder/GUMSHOE Mashup won a silver Ennie for Best Rules.

Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu) was happy to share news about the seventh edition of their popular game which is currently in development. The new edition could easily be described as a face lift with streamlined mechanics because they plan to make the new edition 100% compatible with earlier editions of the game. This has always been one of the strengths of the game and they are not straying from that goal. They are also working on bringing Horror on the Orient Express back into print and updated to the seventh edition. The day before the start of Gen Con they launched a Kickstarter to fund production of the boxed set. Having already reached their goals they are plugging away at some goodies for their stretch goals. Cthulhu by Gaslight won a silver Ennie for Best Art, Cover.

Dominic McDowall-Thomas, CEO of Cubicle 7 (The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild, Doctor Who – Adventures in Time and Space, Cthulhu Britannica) was on hand as an Industry Insider Guest of Honor. He participated in several seminars covering such topics as submissions and proposals, how to publish your game, game master tips and the RPG scene outside the United States. Fans of the British science fiction series Primeval were able to get a good look at the Primeval Roleplaying Game by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan at the Cubicle 7 booth. Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows Over Scotland won a good Ennie for Best Setting.

Stopping by the Wildfire LLC (CthulhuTech, Chthonian Stars/The Void, Poo! Card game) booth I was disappointed to learn that Burning Horizons, the newest story book for CthulhuTech, did not make it to them in time for the convention. However, they informed me the book should be coming in sometime in the next few weeks and they were more than happy to take preorders. I was allowed to browse through a PDF copy and I think fans of the game will be very happy with the final product. It was absolutely gorgeous and the story unfolding was… Well, that would be spoiling too much now, wouldn’t it?

We discussed Wildfire LLC’s new business model which will involve a mix of print on demand as well as traditionally printed books. They like the options available through print on demand but they don’t feel it works for all of the kinds of books they want to print. All in all, it is nice to see the company standing on its own two feet again and moving forward.

The CthulhuTech living campaign, Face of R’lyeh, kicked off at the convention. Event organizers reported full tables and lines full of generic ticket holders. They weren’t able to seat everyone but they did their best, a promising sign for the game line. The Face of R’lyeh website will be going up soon.

Arc Dream Publishing and Pagan Publishing shared a booth this year which packed a lot of great game designers in one place while also making it one of the busiest booths in that section of the exhibitor hall. Pagan Publishing (Delta Green, Final Flight) had copies of Bumps in the Night on hand and Scott Glancy was signing them for fans. Arc Dream Publishing (A Dirty World, Godlike, Monsters and Other Childish Things) had plenty of great stock on hand as well as an impressive lineup of game designers to talk about the games while you shopped. Between the exhibitor hall and an impressive list of events and seminars I am not sure how Arc Dream and Pagan managed to cover everything during Gen Con but they did.

Matt McFarland is one sneaky game designer. Like a ghost lurking at the edges of your vision I almost ran into him numerous times during the convention. On the second day I asked Rich Thomas if he had seen him and he told me he had been looking for him too but he was at a loss. I never did track him down but I was able to pick up a copy of curse the darkness at the booth he was sharing with others. Matt had copies of the book on hand as well as extra copies of the kits for those who wanted to purchase them in addition to the book. The kits included everything you need to play the game. So to Matt McFarland I say, “You eluded me this time but I will find you! Oh, and thanks for the book and kit.”

Zombies are as popular now as they have ever been and it was hard not to stumble across them all over the exhibitor hall. In the CoolMiniOrNot section of the exhibitor hall Guillotine Games was showing off their newest board game of zombie havoc, Zombicide. One to six players control survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Each survivor has unique abilities and teamwork is essential to achieving their goal, the complete eradication of all zombies! The zombies are controlled by a set of simple rules and a deck of cards. Several scenarios are available for the game which is played on modular tiles.

Twilight Creations Inc. (Zombie Survival: The Board Game, Zombies!!!, Humans!!!) came prepared with a plethora of stock and a horde of zombies, err… volunteers, to help out. Their newest expansion Zombies!!! 11: Death Inc. will be hitting stores very soon so keep an eye out for it.

Palladium Books was back again this year. The Dead Reign Roleplaying Game (zombie survival using the Palladium Megaversal System) has become a popular addition to the company’s catalog. Dead Reign Sourcebook 3: Endless Dead (along with the entire line of Dead Reign games) was available for purchase. This sourcebook adds several new types of zombies to the game as well as new O.C.C.s for players to enjoy. It also includes rules for creating safe havens in a zombie infested world and suggestions for how to manage your campaign’s time table.

Kevin Siembieda, the driving force behind Palladium Book’s survival, was excited to be in attendance and between flurries of book signing and posing for pictures he shared with me that the company is finally in a really good place. Between a trio of crowd-funded projects and a steady stream of books things are looking good for them. Although he didn’t know when he was hopeful the company might be able to do another open house event at some point in the future.

I was excited to find Pinnacle Entertainment Group had print copies of Hell on Earth: Reloaded at the convention. This book updates Hell on Earth (1998) to the Savage Worlds rules set and should be available to the public very soon. While purchasing this book I also grabbed a copy of Weird War II and leafed through copies of the Deadlands comic by Visionary Comics. Visionary has really done a great job of capturing the essence of the Weird West and the four part series has been so successful they aren’t stopping. Deadlands: The Kid: Origins #1 is available now and continues their exploration of the Weird West. PEG’s Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition won a gold Ennie for Best Game.

Speaking of comics, Pathfinder #1 hit the shelves and generated quite a buzz at the convention. Produced by Dynamite and based on the characters and world created by Paizo Publishing for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game the comic was destined to be a success. Jim Zub and Andrew Huerta have crafted a dark tale featuring iconic characters from the game line. Goblins are attacking during the day which is uncharacteristic of them. When the intrepid pathfinders put them down they find the creatures infected with a maddening plague. Who has corrupted them and driven them into this blind rage? The story has only begun to unfold but it has already grabbed my interests. As a bonus issue #1 also includes game material for Sandpoint, the characters in the story and an adventure which follows the same general story which the comic does. For the price of a normal comic readers are also getting a complete sourcebook.

Wizards of the Coast’s Madness at Gardmore Abbey (Dungeons & Dragons 4E) won a silver Ennie for Best Adventure as well as a silver for Best Cartography.

Steven Jackson’s GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition won a silver Ennie for Best Supplement.

Green Ronin’s dark fantasy adventure game continued a successful run when Dragon Age: Set 2 won a silver Ennie for Best Art, Interior.

It was an exciting convention for everyone who attended. Although some of us are down with the con crud or wearily trying to catch up our schedules there are a lot of smiles floating around the gaming community right now. GenCon broke the record books again this year and hopefully next year we can do it again. See you all then!

Michael Holland – 2012

Cthulhu At Your Luau

Monica Valentinelli — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:45:29 +0000

Back in June, I pledged to The Horror in Clay Kickstarter. The concept? Simple enough. Cthulhu’s sanity-blasting image immortalized in a glazed tiki mug. The Kickstarter got a lot of acclaim and was picked up by sites like Boing Boing, iO9.com, and the like. Their original goal was $12,500 and they successfully raised over $75,000. I was thrilled to be one of the people who pledged to this and look forward to sipping refreshing beverages out of Cthulhu’s unhallowed form.

To me, this is a great example of what Kickstarter can do: bring dreams into reality that would have otherwise been impossible to create without a small business loan. Because Horror in Clay was extremely successful, the manufacturer was able to open a webstore so more cultists… er… customers can add the Elder God to their luaus.

The updates fascinate me because I’m able to watch the manufacturing process as it happens. I feel like I’m a vested partner who bought a small share of this company and I’m being rewarded for it as one of its founders. Additionally, I’ve been very impressed with the professional tack on how this is structured. This may be two people with a dream, but they are serious about running a business and their marketing and website is spot on. Now all we need is a Hawaiian shirt and tentacle leis to go with! Waiting for a new Kickstarter in three… two… one…

If I had any criticism to give, it’s that their logo is pretty complex and definitely pops out more when it’s viewed in color. Given how many Cthulhu-related images you see out there now-a-days (even poor octopi are now getting tossed into the tentacle-loving ring o’ Lovecraft), I can see why they went in the direction they did.

To check out their wares, visit the Horror in Clay webstore. If you do wind up buying one of these, post a comment below so I can toast to your madness. Ia! Ia!

Monica’s GenCon Schedule

Monica Valentinelli — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 15:19:29 +0000

This year, for GenCon, I will be working in my capacity as Marketing Director for Steve Jackson Games. We have a giant eye-in-a-pyramid at the top of our booth so you can’t miss us in the Exhibit Hall. If you don’t spot that, we’re listed as Booth #1301 in the program book.

This is my first fan-facing convention for the company and I’m pretty excited about it. I coordinated a Munchkin Apocalypse preview contest on Twitter and the winners will be sitting down with the Munchkin Czar, Andrew Hackard, to play this upcoming release. (Hint: we also have a capsule machine in our booth and the last golden ticket… Er… seat will be won there.) There are also a ton of signings, interviews, and announcements planned.

On Wednesday, I’ll be headed to the Diana Jones Awards and am very anxious to see all my friends. Then, on Friday I’ll be representing our company for the ENnie Awards. Both of our submissions, GURPS Horror Fourth Edition and GURPS Social Engineering, were nominated for a total of four awards. There’s a ton of great games and supplements nominated; I’m sure it was very tough for fans to decide the winners.

And now, I pause for a bit of self-promotional awareness.

My Signings

The first is at the IPR Booth #2120 on Saturday from Noon to 1 pm for Don’t Read This Book, the anthology published by Evil Hat Productions for the Don’t Rest Your Head RPG.

My second signing takes place at the DriveThruRPG Booth from 11:00 to Noon on Sunday, August 19th. I’ve been told there’ll be a ton of publications new and old at their booth including print copies of: Strange, Dead Love for Vampire: the Requiem, Falling Scales Part II, Exquisite Replicas, The Queen of Crows, Haunted: 11 Tales of Ghostly Horror, Redwing’s Gambit, and quite a few other stories, games, and supplements!

At the same time, Stone Skin Press, the new publishing arm of Pelgrane Press, will have a signing for their new fiction line. I contributed to the New Hero anthology and The Lion and the Aardvark collection of fables.

Truth be told, there was only so much of me to go around this year. There’ll be other 2012 releases I’ve worked on debuting at GenCon, so be sure to review my latest publications or drop back for a post-GenCon update.

See you there!

Shane Ivey on the Godlike PDF and paperback edition

Flames — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 17:41:37 +0000

After more than 10 years, GODLIKE: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire, 1936-1946 now has a PDF edition with a paperback on the way. Editor and publisher, Shane Ivey, tells us what it was like running the Kickstarter and getting the game ready for these new versions.

Editor’s commentary: ‘Godlike’ PDF and paperback edition

Gamers have wanted GODLIKE in PDF from the very beginning, and gamers made it possible in the Kickstarter project that we held to raise money to get the ancient layout files converted to a modern format and to commission new cover art. We have sent the PDF to Kickstarter backers. Thank you, everyone who supported the project!

Speaking personally for a moment, GODLIKE is to this day one my my favorite roleplaying games of all time. Dennis Detwiller and Greg Stolze did amazing work to not only present a superhero game that felt like no other, but also to create a game that fully embraced its setting. In GODLIKE, the way the rules work shapes the alternate history of world and the way the fictional world works shapes the rules. Playing it consistently evokes the kind of suspense and terror that makes clear that the fictional men and women are at terrible risk at all times — and it’s their willingness to face that risk, not their superpowers, that makes them heroic. In that way GODLIKE honors the courage of real-world soldiers in a very real way.

And check this out. In 10 years of running it at conventions with total strangers, most of whom had never played it or read it before, I have literally never had a bad game of GODLIKE. Granted, there’s a chance that some players pretended to have a good time — but when you run games enough, you can tell when one flounders. I’ve had convention games of Monsters and Other Childish Things, Wild Talents, and Delta Green go bust. Not often, but it’s happened. It’s never happened with GODLIKE.

I just love this game.

Producing this edition required a ton of work. I spearheaded the effort with tremendous help from Allan Goodall and Mike Montesa, as well as a team of volunteer proofreaders. Graphic designer Jessica Hopkins converted the old layout to the new format so I could go in and tinker.

OLD AND NEW

This isn’t exactly a new edition of GODLIKE the way we usually think of game editions. It’s mostly the same text as the original printing — but not entirely. It’s more like Edition 1.5.

I knew early on it would need new cover art to stand out from the 2001 hardcover. Arc Dream regular Todd Shearer designed it with his usual skill and patience. In fact, I sent Todd a detailed first concept, which he executed perfectly; but after revision after revision it just wasn’t quite working for us. I realized eventually that the problem wasn’t with Todd’s work but with my whole idea for the composition. So I asked Todd if he could suggest anything, since he knew the game and its themes as well as anybody. He came back a couple of days later with an image that just knocked my socks off. It got a couple of minor adjustments and then it was done. That’ll teach me to try to tell an artist how to make art!

Inside the covers the essential rules and background are the same as always. But many of the details got updated and corrected along the way. I’ll discuss them chapter by chapter.

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

The introduction to the game got trimmed a little, mainly for timeliness. Dennis wrote his original justifications for GODLIKE in 2000, when there were fairly few superhero games around. No sooner had GODLIKE appeared in 2001 than a slew of fine superhero games came out, spurred by the D20 boom. So in the new edition I took the liberty of removing a few lines where Dennis bemoaned the state of superhero roleplaying.

PART 2: GAME MECHANICS

Here’s a chapter that got a lot of minor tweaks and one major revision.

In the combat section, I added a section saying explicitly what the rules imply elsewhere, that while Hit Location 10 is usually the head it can also be used for any part of the body where a single wound might kill you in short order — the spine, the heart, internal organs.

I also added a line here and a couple of lines there addressing things that have come up over the years. If an explosive weapon goes off in a bunker, double the Area damage. If your commando needs to sneak up and take out a guard but it’s not quite as easy as murdering a bound victim, use the new sneak attack guidelines.

The biggest revision is in the Character Advancement rules, where we tighten the requirements for spending Will points to improve your skills and powers during play. In a nutshell, you can spend Will on advancement only in a monumental crisis when you’re subjected to the worst kind of stress and pressure. It takes more than just being in the middle of the game and more than just being in combat or highly motivated. And it can be done only once per game session.

PART 4: TALENTS

The Go First power got a price hike to reflect its effectiveness.

The Multiple Actions power got a complete overhaul, adapted from the revision that Dennis and Greg and I put together (if I’m remembering right) back in 2002 or 2003, soon after the game appeared.

The Battle Fatigue rules got a couple of new lines making explicit how they apply to ordinary, non-Talent humans.

PART 5: BACKGROUND

No huge changes here, but a lot of corrections. You won’t find any more mentions of Finland mountains. The French Talent Luc Besont’s nom de guerre, “The Summoner,” is now L’Invocateur, not the nonsensical Le Sumner.

PART 7: FIELD MANUAL

We added a line for anti-tank rockets in the Base Damage Table, and we revised the way land mines work to make them way, way more dangerous. Seriously. You do not want your character to step on a land mine now.

We added the Bren gun and the Sherman Firefly to the British lists and reined in the Tommygun’s range stats in the American section.

PART 9: TOG COMMANDO SQUADS

The pregenerated characters got a few minor corrections, and I adjusted the layout so each man now occupies his own column of a page to make for easier printing and handing out.

APPENDIX C: OPEN SOURCE SUPERHERO RULES

These “D20? rules for GODLIKE, written by Dungeons & Dragons guru Mike Mearls, were eclipsed very early on by the excellent Mutants and Masterminds RPG. But as D20 rules go, I am very fond of GODLIKE’s. I made a few corrections and added a couple of new bits and pieces, mainly to expand how combat actions and attacks work. Nothing really deep.

APPENDIX D: MORE RULES OPTIONS

This is an entirely new chapter of the book, bringing in our favorite rules that have appeared in GODLIKE supplements and campaign books over the years.

Squad Combat: This is a revision of the rules I wrote for Donar’s Hammer in 2003, updated with lessons we’ve learned from playing with them and with similar rules in later games like Wild Talents and Reign over the years. Allan and Mike both said they found these rules indispensible in their own GODLIKE campaigns, which I took as a huge compliment.

Bombardment: Did your Talent team get caught in a zone sighted by the enemy’s big guns? Get your dice and prepare for pain. From Allan Goodall’s Black Devils Brigade.

Minefields: Got a minefield to cross? As above: Dice. Pain. From Allan Goodall’s Black Devils Brigade.

One-Roll Patrols: I love, love, love this set of rules. The GM needs to decide what the environment is like using the campaign construction guidelines in Part 8: The Campaign, and then rolls 11 dice. In about two minutes you have everything you need for a fully fleshed out patrol mission complete with complications. From Allan Goodall’s Black Devils Brigade.

FUBAR!: Another fun set of rules, meant to evoke the weird, crazy things that often happen in the heat of battle. From Allan Goodall’s Black Devils Brigade.

Skill Additions: Details on using the Explosives, First Aid, Forward Observer, Intimidation, Leadership, Mortar, Parachute, Radio Operation, Running, Skiing, Swimming, Tactics, and Telephony skills. From Dennis Detwiller’s Talent Operations Command Intelligence Bulletins 2 and 3, my own Donar’s Hammer, and Allan Goodall’s Black Devils Brigade.

Character Creation: New guidelines for putting together your own character templates if you don’t want to use the TOG Commando template given in the book. It includes two examples: the U.S. Marine Corps Special Instruction School, adapted from Dennis Detwiller’s Talent Operations Command Intelligence Bulletin 3; and the joint U.S.-Canadian First Special Service Force, adapted from Allan Goodall’s Black Devils Brigade.

New Miracles: Plasticine Touch, Size Shift, and Unconventional Move, from Dennis Detwiller’s Will to Power.

New Extras and Flaws: Also from Will to Power.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Finally, in the book we recognize the Kickstarter backers who made this new edition a reality. You people are amazing. Thank you.

WHAT’S NEXT

In about two weeks, we will get the paperbacks from the printer and ship them to backers. Then the paperback will go on sale for the general public and we will bring copies to GenCon 2012 to show off.

Allan Goodall is putting the finishing touches on a new GODLIKE scenario for Black Devils Brigade that we’re going to put online in a few weeks as a further “thank you” to the Kickstarter backers.

James Knevitt is presently editing the first draft of the first part of Mike Montesa’s Day of Days, a full-length GODLIKE campaign that will take soldiers from the carnage of Omaha beach through the Normandy campaign to the liberation of Paris. If you followed Mike’s amazing, heart-wrenching Actual Play report series on RPG.net, this is that campaign. I hope to release it in early 2013.

Allan Goodall is working on our long, LONG-gestating campaign book Operation TORCH, which has been bouncing around half-finished since about 2003. That too will probably see the light of day in 2013.

And now that GODLIKE is available in PDF and paperback, we aim to present more short adventures and supplements along the way.

There’s great stuff coming for GODLIKE. I can’t wait.

Shane Ivey – 2012

Vampires Are Not Dead

Monica Valentinelli — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:06:37 +0000

This is not a rhetorical statement, dear readers. Vampires are *not* dead. Today, Stone Skin Press shares with you a taste of “Fangs and Formaldehyde,” which was included in the upcoming New Hero anthology. This anthology is part of a Kickstarter for Stone Skin Press – Anthologies of New Fiction.

Why are my vampires different? To be blunt, I wanted a legitimate reason why vampires could not fall in love or get too emotional. In my setting? They die. Not only that, they die horribly. Their death is so terrifying to them, in fact, that the ones who have stuck around for a while strive for ennui just to survive.

Want to know more about Atlas? Gene Ha provided an illustration of my character for the cover which you can see on the publisher’s website today. The folks over at Stone Skin Press write:

You’ll get no sparkling from Atlas, the tortured bloodsucker prowling a modern day Vegas, this tough-guy vampire protects a diffuse and not-always-grateful undead community from those who would prey on them. Here a pair of surprise no-shows at a poker game lead him to the trail of an old love…and a threat that makes a wooden stake seem quaint. — SOURCE: Meet the New Heroes: Atlas

The Kickstarter is still going strong. More than that, I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed the opportunity to develop a new type of vampire mythos for this anthology. Yes, there will likely be more of Atlas, and your support will help him soldier on. If you like vampires who typically regard humans as food, then give this story a try. To me, there’s always something new to explore within the fang community and I’m very grateful I could introduce something a little different — maybe a vampire that’s even a little scary…

2012 ENnie Awards Nominees Announced

Matt-M-McElroy — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:19:18 +0000

Congratulations to the 2012 ENnie Awards nominees!

See the full list at Ennie-awards.com.

Some excellent Horror & Dark Fantasy entries in the list this year from Pelgrane Press (Trail of Cthulhu), Cubicle 7 (Cthulhu Britanica), Steve Jackson Games (GURPS Horror), Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu), Green Ronin (Dragon Age), White Wolf (Vampire: the Masquerade) and a few others. Of course there are some dark fantasy elements in the various Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder nominations as well. Traditionally Wizards of the Coast and Paizo do rather well at the ENnies, which is not surprising consider ENWorld is a D&D site first and everything else second. I’m usually more interested in who wins the Silver awards for each category.

Voting for a favorite will be rather challenging in a few categories this year. Pelgrane Press has 3 of the 5 slots for Best Adventure, which means they are competing not only against WotC and Open Design, but themselves as well. If you are a fan of the GUMSHOE game line, which one do you choose?

Voting begins on Friday, July 20 and runs to Sunday, July 29. The ceremony itself will be on Friday, August 17, in the Union Station Grand Hall at 8pm at Gen Con Indy.

So, which are you voting for? What on the list surprised you? Why?

Writing On, Writing On for the Clarion Write-A-Thon

Monica Valentinelli — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:31:56 +0000

Last Sunday, I started writing for the Clarion Write-A-Thon to raise funds for their workshop. I have pledged to write 50,000 words by August 4th.

So why am I doing this? Well, it’s like I said in this blog post:

It’s a rough publishing world out there, I know, but part of what Clarion and other places like this provide is a sense of community. We all love to tell good stories and read them. Now we have the chance to share them and get to know one another, too.

Regardless of whether or not you sponsor me, personally, I hope you’ll consider helping someone else in any way you can. The path of a writer is not an easy one, but sometimes all it takes is a little encouragement to boost an author’s morale.

Don’t let my bad bookkeeping on my Clarion writer’s profile fool you; I’ve been writing and revising in between my other responsibilities. I talked a little about what I’m working on, by way of introduction, for my Team blog – Team The Stars My Destination.

Besides two short stories for Kickstarter projects, I’m working on a series of novellas and novel revisions. One novel I buried in my Morgue. It’s not salvageable without extensive work. The others I’m developing on spec. Really, is there every any shortage of stories out there for me to tell? Nope!

Hope you’ll get the chance to check out my excerpts and learn more about the workshop. Hey, you’ll never know…you may just find good storytellers you either want to look up or support!

Celebrating International Short Story Day with New Hero Launch

Monica Valentinelli — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:21:07 +0000

Yay! Today is the official pre-release of New Hero from Stone Skin Press. This day also marks International Short Story Day. What a great day to launch an anthology of iconic heroes!

You’ve heard me talk about “Fangs and Formaldehyde” before when I said why I couldn’t wait for New Hero. This story features a vampire named Atlas who helps other vampires. To celebrate this character’s debut, I would like to answer a Reader question.

I think sultry, romantic vampires and scary, monsterous vampires both have utility for good horror fiction but it looks like most vampire fiction these days takes an extreme stance on what should be a sliding scale. Plus, vampire fiction has been around since, what, late 1790s? How do we write something original and gripping? I’d like to really fear/desire the fangs on my neck again. — Scott from Atlanta

What a great question! Well, Scott, let me put your question into perspective before I talk about the vampires I created. I feel the biggest challenge that all writers face today is one of saturation. More media is being produced and published (both digitally and in print) than ever before. With the demand for something new and fresh, the sultry vampire who seduces his prey was bound to take off as an exploration of the genre. Romance, however, has always been around in vampirism.

When Jess, Filamena, and myself wrote Strange, Dead Love for Vampire: the Requiem, we explored this in great detail from a genre perspective for the game. The key thing to remember is that romance stories have a plot focused on the consummation of a relationship, or getting two characters to progress nice and neatly until they resolve their differences, overcome their fears, and fall madly in love. To do that with a supernatural character like a vampire, however, the monster becomes less monstrous — he (or she) has to in order for the romance to take place.

On the other end of the scale, you have vampires as monsters, sometimes even inhuman creatures who no longer resemble their mortal selves. Personally, I feel that the monstrous vampires have emerged as a direct rebuttal to the softer, more romantic vampire. In many ways, monsters have always been a warning or an allegory for what we should fear. What happens when we are no longer frightened of the unknown? Of the supernatural? Of the monsters who view us as food? Well, authors have stepped up and said — the monsters become scarier, because we should always be afraid of something.

But what about the monsters themselves? What are they afraid of? And what of the cost associated with falling in love with a human?

This is how I built my world of bloodstalkers. Humans are inconsequential, though, the majority of vampires have trouble letting go of their mortal existence. Atlas (not his real name, by the way) is a vampire who helps other vampires. This is unheard of in this community and, as more stories beyond “Fangs and Formaldehyde” are revealed in this world, you’ll find out why.

So what is different about these vampires? Ennui exists for a very good reason. If a vampire loses themselves in their emotions — fear, anger, passion — they die. The ones that figure that out “live” longer and disassociate themselves very quickly with the human world. They become sociopaths to survive. The vampires that don’t? Can’t let go of the tattered and tenuous threads tying them to their human existence.

Atlas falls somewhere in between the two. There are certain “tells” of being a vampire that he has made it a point to master. He has a weakness, too, which is why he has found a purpose — to help other vampires.

So in my case, humans don’t really factor into the equation as a main storytelling device. Usually, it’s vampire versus vampire or vampire versus mortal. There is no such thing as ghouls, no vampire society, and they are not created from the typical blood exchange, either. Usually it’s every vampire for him (or her) self, as they try to cope with the reality of their situation. A lot of vampires die within the first two years, too, so bloodstalkers like Atlas are very scary to the community-at-large.

Are my vampires creepy? Well, I don’t know. That’s where you — the reader — comes into play. I wanted a “cost” for not falling in love or getting too emotional. I wanted them to fear something real. And I wanted the ability to provide deep characterization so every vampire was unique. This construction allows me to achieve those three goals, but still have enough flexibility to explore that creepy vampire who stalks his prey if the story warrants it.

Will Atlas and my other vampires work for you? I hope you pick up the New Hero anthology and find out!