My Events at THE KRAKEN

Along with such illustrious names as Sandy Petersen, Jeff Richard, Ian Brumby, Jason Durall, and Michael “Mob” O’Brien, I will be doing the guest thing at THE KRAKEN, October 7-10 at Schloss Neuhausen, Germany.

This year THE KRAKEN celebrates the 50th anniversary of Glorantha and, of course, the 500th of the Reinheitsgebot, Germany’s most beloved set of government regulations. And did I mention that it’s in October?

To celebrate the Glorantha bit, I’ll be running two games: one Hillfolk, the other HeroQuest, both set in the early settlement period immediately prior to the events of King of Dragon Pass. The first may inform the other but no one will have to play both sessions to follow the action. This is important because slots in each game are made available via a lottery system.

I’ll also be taking part in the following panels:

Sharper Adventures in HeroQuest Glorantha: inspired by the best-selling convention chapbook of the same name, this examines ways to make your Glorantha-games more dynamic and player-driven.

Fix My Game, Robin! The perennial GMing master classs panel gets an imperative name.

Advanced Gaming Lore: More tips and tricks, and a free-ranging Q&A.

And here’s where we get to the Reinheitsgebot part—I’ll also be helming a German beer tasting. Root for your favorite product of the German brewing industry to win my seal of approval! London bookmakers heavily favor the Doppelbock but the truth is in the tasting.

THE KRAKEN is no mere convention, but a gaming retreat. I’ll take my trusty mic along to talk to event organizers to explain just what that means, gathering audio to recycle on future editions of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff.  And since I’ll be in the same room as Sandy Petersen it would be remiss of me to fail to snag an interview with him as well.

As of this writing, one slot has opened up for a full attendee package including accomodations. One can also attend as a day guest, if one happens to be in or around Germany’s least populated region. Book here. Cake has been promised.

Not in Germany but want to check out the proceeds? You’re in luck; they’ll be recording everything for their YouTube channel. Might a mysterious new chapbook be announced?

And if you’d like to celebrate the Gloranthan anniversary with a special feathered message for Greg Stafford, join the duck army.

For more on THE KRAKEN, follow on G+, Twitter or Facebook.

Finding Me at Gen Con

Once again that mammoth wave of sensory overload we call Gen Con,wherein we all magically remember again that gaming is fun and community brings joy, approaches at its typical barreling speed.
I’m very much looking forward to this year’s event. My top priority during exhibit hall hours is to chat with the people who read my books and play my games. By all means, please feel empowered to swing by and strike up a conversation or get a book signed. That’s what I’m there for. My newest game, The Gaean Reach, would look very nice with my signature on it. So would Hillfolk, The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition, or any number of fine products, recent or classic.
When I am not palavering at a panel, I’ll do my best to be at the Pelgrane Press booth during show hours—with the usual gaps when I am pulled away for interviews and business entreaties, or succumb to the cruelly inevitable exhibit hall pizza slice. That’s the auspiciously numbered Booth 101.
My public events sked goes like this:
Thurs 4 pm, Feng Shui 2 panel
Join the Feng Shui 2 team for scoops, teasers and art previews, including announcements regarding the upcoming Kickstarter campaign. (Crowne Plaza : Conrail Stn)
Fri 1 pm, Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Live
Robin D. Laws and Kenneth Hite talk roleplaying, history, conspiracy, occultism, writing, food, movies and whatever you ask them about in this live edition of their award-winning podcast. (Crowne Plaza : Victoria Stn C/D)
Seminars don’t generally require tickets, but people have been grabbing them for KARTAS Live, so if you’re the cautious type you might want to pop over to the Gen Con site to reserve.
Fri 11 am, Pelgrane Press panel
Lob questions at the Pelgrane conclave regarding GUMSHOE, 13th Age and more. (Site TBA)
Note new time!
Sat 4 pm, GUMSHOE Adventure Masterclass
Learn to structure investigative scenarios with the GUMSHOE gurus. (Site Westin)
The last two events have yet to propagate to the Gen Con site. I’ll update when locations become available, and spread the word via social media on the day.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: A Damp 1968

In the latest episode of our submersible podcast, Ken and I talk sunken Dunwich, Gulina Karimova, professionalism, and saving Anne Boleyn.

Hillfolk Nominated for 2014 Diana Jones Award

It is with surprise and gratitude that I pass along the text of this press release, in which it is announced that Hillfolk has made the longlist for the 2014 Diana Jones Award. I very much want to see DramaSystem make its way into the bloodstream of tabletop roleplaying, and greatly appreciate the opportunity to spread the word this most prestigious nomination brings.

Congratulations to my collaborators, including Pelgrane Press’s Simon Rogers and Cat Tobin, erstwhile Pelgrane Beth K. Lewis, and the exceptionally long roster of distinguished series pitch writers and evocative illustrators. Special picture-making kudos go to lead illustrator Jan Pospisil.

I also owe mountain-sized thanks to the game’s 2185 Kickstarter backers, whose essential support allowed us to expand the project’s scope beyond my wildest expectations.

To be nominated such stellar games and entities as ROFL, Terra Mystica, Evil Hat and Paizo adds further luster to this true honor.

---

11th  June 2014    

For immediate release

SHORTLIST FOR 2014 DIANA JONES AWARD ANNOUNCED

Two publishers, a hobby game, a family game and an RPG
vie for hobby-gaming's most exclusive trophy.

From a long and extremely diverse long-list of nominees, the secretive committee of the Diana
Jones Award has distilled a shortlist of five items that it believes best exemplified ‘excellence’
in the field of gaming in 2013.

The Diana Jones committee is proud to announce that the shortlist for its 2014 award
for Excellence in Gaming is:

EVIL HAT, a publishing company run by Robert Donoghue and Fred Hicks
Ever since the release of FATE as a free RPG in 2003, Evil Hat Productions has aimed at two
usually difficult goals: skill and elegance in game design, and professionalism and transparency in publishing. Honesty and openness about business realities, and excitement and perfectionism about game possibilities, built the Evil Hat audience from a corner of the
Internet to a loyal horde numbering in the tens of thousands. From Don't Rest Your Head
through Happy Birthday Robot, Penny For Your Thoughts, Diaspora, and Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, Evil Hat has combined the key features of a design house and a best-of-breed imprint while nurturing its core FATE system through three major editions without forking its player base. By co-creating Bits and Mortar, Evil Hat pioneered PDF-retailer cooperation; using the Open Game License and Creative Commons, Evil Hat built on a tradition of trusting players and designers to build better games. In 2013 Evil Hat hit both its design goals and its
deadlines with FATE Core: five books Kickstarted, printed, and delivered, and over 60,000
copies sold. And FATE Core is still a free RPG.

HILLFOLK, a role-playing game designed by Robin D. Laws (Pelgrane Press)
The Hillfolk Kickstarter asked for $3000 and offered a 96-page softcover; it raised $93,000
and delivered two full-colour hardbacks filled by some of the brightest names in story-game
design. But it only happened because of the game-engine at the heart of Hillfolk: Robin D.
Laws’s DramaSystem, an elegant and clever take on group storytelling that puts gameplay and
competition on an equal footing with structured narrative and individual creativity. Hillfolk
and its sister-volume Blood on the Snow showcase a leading ludonarrative designer at the
height of his powers, and inviting his friends to come and play.

PAIZO PUBLISHING, a publishing company run by Lisa Stevens
One of the hardest things in business is to unseat a market-leader, particularly when that
market-leader created the entire field, but 2013 was the year when word spread that Paizo's
Pathfinder RPG was outselling Dungeons & Dragons. It’s official: Paizo has used the OGL
and a single-minded commitment to talent and quality to create a better D&D than D&D. Its
achievement only seems extraordinary to those who don't know CEO Lisa Stevens’
extraordinary track record in the games industry, from Lion Rampant through White Wolf
and Wizards of the Coast. Paizo's ability to raise $1m to crowd-fund a Pathfinder-based
MMO in January 2013 was simply the apple at the top of the industry's new tallest tree.

ROFL!, a family card game designed by John Kovalic (Cryptozoic Entertainment)
In game design nothing is harder than simplicity, and in no category is that quality more
required than in the family/party game space. With the brilliant, elegant and delightful
dynamic animating ROFL!, designer John Kovalic provides a masterstroke of the KISS
principle. Just as amazingly, he does it by finding an original take on the word game sub-genre. ROFL!’s phrase compression conceit rewards both clue-making and guessing, supplying an essential skill-levelling element many party games lack. And if that weren’t enough, he somehow inveigles tabletop’s most beloved cartoonist to lend it the light, joyous visual look that its play style demands. Though created by someone steeped in the adventure game tradition, it could and should appear on shelves at mass-market retailers wherever they are found. GRTGMJK!

TERRA MYSTICA, a strategy board-game designed by Helge Ostertag and Jens
Drögemüller (Feuerland Spiele/Z-Man Games)
In the land of Terra Mystica dwell 14 different races in seven landscapes, each bound to its
home environment. Each race must terraform neighboring landscapes into their home
environments in competition with the others. It's a brilliant piece of state-of-the-art design:
there are no stunning new mechanics here but the game takes a number of clever, intriguing
systems and combines them in a bravura piece of game-creation to build a sublimely engaging
experience.The game emphasizes strategy over luck, rewards planning, and provides a huge
amount of delightful replayability.

PRESENTATION
The winner of this year’s award will be announced and the Diana Jones trophy will be
presented at the annual Diana Jones Party, which will be held at the Cadillac Ranch, 39 West
Jackson Place, Indianapolis, at 9pm on 13th  August – the night before the Gen Con games
convention opens to the public. All games-industry professionals are invited to attend.

ABOUT THE AWARD
The Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming was founded and first awarded in 2001. It
is presented annually to the person, product, company, event or any other thing that has, in the opinion of its committee, best demonstrated the quality of ‘excellence’ in the world of hobby-gaming in the previous year. The winner of the Award receives the Diana Jones trophy.
The Diana Jones Committee is a mostly anonymous group of games-industry alumni
and illuminati, that includes designers, publishers, cartoonists, consultants, and some content to rest on their laurels.

Past winners include industry figures such as Peter Adkison and Jordan Weisman, the
role-playing games Nobilis, Sorcerer, and Fiasco, the board-games Dominion and Ticket to
Ride, and the website BoardGameGeek. Last year's winner was Wil Wheaton's webseries
Tabletop. This is the fourteenth year of the Award. More information is available at www.dianajonesaward.org.

CONTACT
For more information you can contact a representative of the DJA committee directly:
committee@dianajonesaward.org

Check Out this DramaSystem LARP Report

I was wondering when someone would run a DramaSystem LARP using Emily Care Boss’ brilliant live action adaptation of the rules as seen in Blood on the Snow. The answer, it turns out, is last November. The Twin Cities’ LARP House, a group dedicated to Nordic-style play in America’s Scandinavia, ran two events using the “Family Business” Series Pitch by Aaron Rosenberg. They’ll be running it again in June; see announcement in above link. While you’re clicking, check out these notes on play from participant Adam McConaughey, who makes some key observation about the nature of power and the weakness of coercion in DramaSystem.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Suckytown was Already Taken

In the latest episode of our eponymous podcast, Ken and I talk character agency, palimpsest recovery, Hillfolk Kickstarter logistics, and saving Vinland. Featuring special Pelgrane guests Simon Rogers and Cat Tobin!

DramaSystem SRD Now Available

As a result of the Hillfolk Kickstarter, Pelgrane Press and I proudly make the DramaSystem rules engine available under two open licenses; the Open Gaming License and the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Unported License. If you backed the campaign, take a moment to congratulate yourself for making this possible.

Download the CC version here.

Download the OGL version here.

Gen Con 2013 Gloating and Thanks

Another Gen Con now recedes into the Mountain Dew-scented mists of time. Now in an O’Hare waiting lounge, a familiar mix of euphoria and sleep deprivation dulls my cognition.

The Pelgrane Press decisively smashed previous sales records. I’ll let Simon provide the percentage figures, should his argent reserve permit. Most pertinent to my agenda, Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow posted very satisfying numbers. The companion volume did surprisingly strongly. You expect supplements to sell a fraction of the core book. Here that fraction was much bigger than the norm. Even better, sales picked up on the Sunday, suggesting that people who’d earlier on picked up the core back came back later for the companion.

13th Age and Eternal Lies were no slouches either. Double Tapped, the new goodies book for Night’s Black Agents, sold out, and the core game, buoyed by Ken’s double silver ENnie triumph, all but did so as well.

Gen Con offers a chance to spend time with a large swath of my favorite people, and I cram moments of catching up into my schedule as greedily as I used to trawl the halls for signs of the new hotness. A record number of past and present members of my game group made themselves present, including illustrator Rachel Kahn and illustrator/graphic designer Chris Huth, both immersed in the giant festival of gaming love for the first time. I loved seeing the experience through their bedazzled first-timer eyes.

A couple of big future projects solidified at the show and I look forward to spilling the beans on them in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by with kind words for my work, including a certain much-lauded podcast. This tight shot of ego gratification now goes into emotional storage to be fed upon until, oh, say, Dragonmeet.

Thanks to the Hillfolk contributors who took part in our two mass signings, in all their chaotic, ink-stained glory.

And thanks to Hillfolk backers who picked up their copies at the show. As you may have heard, shipping costs have spiked horrifyingly since our campaign in the fall, so by grabbing your books in Indy you helped the project yet again.

Now time to rest…oh, wait. Tomorrow is programming day for the Toronto International Film Festival. And then Ken arrives on my doorstep Friday so we can descend as a dynamic dyad on FanExpo Canada.

I might catch some rest in October, I guess…

Gen Con Day One: The Best Kind of Dwindling

Yesterday at the Pelgrane booth, fat stacks of Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow dwindled satisfyingly throughout the day. Once refreshed, they dwindled again. We had both sales and plenty of Kickstarter backer pickups. The day also dished up a lesson in the nonmonetary rewards of Kickstarter. I could see how much awareness the campaign had created for DramaSystem in that I had to do very little cold pitching of the basic concept; because people swung by already knew what it was. In fact I was able to talk to people who have already played it, because the backers have had a fully functioning copy of the rules since October. So the project gives off the glow of newness while also being something that people know enough about to get excited.

Thanks to all the contributors who took part in the Hillfolk signing event. I look forward to the next one with a fresh crop of signers at 11 AM on Sunday.

This is not to imply that the other many new cool things at the Pelgrane booth were not also briskly dwindling their own stacks away. It is particularly fun, as Ken pointed out, to hand someone a copy of Eternal Lies and watch the recipient’s arm abruptly drop with its unexpected heft.

I already have what my wife very sweetly refers to as my sexy convention voice, which is to say that the vocal apparatus is already showing the strain. You know what that means-- it's seminar day!

At 1 pm, it’s the Campaign Doctors Panel with Jack Graham, Luke Crane & Amanda Valentine at the Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B, thrown by the good singularitans at Posthuman Studios.

Then at 3, it’s that perennial fave, the GUMSHOE and Investigative Roleplaying Panel with Kenneth Hite and Simon Rogers, also in the Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B. We will attempt to capture audio for later recycling on the podcast.

Most of the rest of the day I will endeavour to be at the Pelgrane booth. That’s booth 101, free ice cream for the kiddies (ice cream and cones not included.)

Time to Hit That Gen Con Floor

It was a delight to behold the obvious joy that Diana Jones award winner Wil Wheaton exuded as he accepted his mysterious Perspex pyramid for Tabletop. In his speech, after lofting the trophy above his head in happy triumph, he talked about gaming as the refuge that got him through his early, lonely awkward stage. In other words, he told the same gaming origin story many of the thousands of people gathered here at Gen Con this weekend could easily echo.

It may be the unexpectedly moderate weather, it may be that I have some new posse members to introduce to their colleagues, but whatever it was I can’t say I’ve enjoyed a Diana Jones party more. The sense of reunion that comes from seeing the gang together in one place washes away months of self-imposed stress and nonsense.

But that was last night and at least one shot of tequila ago. Now I steel myself for the glories of the exhibit hall. I have been told that Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow have in fact manifested in physical form but have yet to run my paternal fingers across their hardcover surfaces. After a year heavily dominated by the process of making these, I could not be more stoked to finally see them reaching you, the gaming  public. If you’re a backer picking up the show I will feel an extra frisson of satisfaction to see them move from the booth table to your capacious bags o’ loot. I will be haunting the Pelgrane booth (101) pretty much through the day today.We have one of our two mega signings this afternoon at 3 PM so if you can swing by for that we have Sharpies ready and waiting to personalize those pages.

Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow are but a fraction of the bounty that you can grab at the Pelgrane booth. The Esoterrorists second edition is here. 13th Age is here. Eternal Lies is here, which I didn't even know to expect! And I have it on good authority that there might be other game products at other booths.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a date with some piles of books…

Finding Me at Gen Con 2013

Once again it’s the time of year when hobby game designers start posts by telling you it’s that time of year. Gen Con is right around the corner, luring us in with the scent of fresh polyhedrals and keeping us there with the glow of community and creative renewal.

My big focus this year, barring catastrophic tinkering by the print gods, will be on the arrival of Hillfolk and its companion, Blood in the Snow. I had this largely designed by Gen Con 11, was plotting initial Kickstarter moves at Gen Con 12, and now look forward to see it finally realized as a physical object. Backers have been playing the game for a while, based first on their preview editions and then with the finished PDF. But there’s nothing like a tangible item to infuse one with a sense of completion. Swing by the Pelgrane Press booth to pick it up, at its new upsized digs: #101, across from the Paizo booth.

Also at the show, the GUMSHOE game that started it all, bigger and more unremitting than before—The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition! I am stoked to see that hit the trade table, too.

When not otherwise booked I’ll mostly be haunting the Pelgrane booth. I’m there to chat, so don’t be shy. I’m happy to sign any of my books for you, not just Pelgrane stuff.

To catch me in a more structured circumstance, join me for any of the following events:

Thurs	3-4 pm	Hillfolk Signing #1, with Jennifer Brozek, Paula Dempsey, Steve Dempsey, Dave Gross, Rob Heinsoo, Ryan Macklin, Michelle Nephew, Jeff Richard, Rob Wieland & illustrator Rachel A. Kahn	Pelgrane booth
Fri	1-2 pm	Campaign Doctors Panel with Jack Graham, Luke Crane & Amanda Valentine. (Posthuman Studios)	Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B
Fri	3-4 pm	GUMSHOE and Investigative Roleplaying Panel with Kenneth Hite & Simon Rogers. (Pelgrane Press)	Crowne Plaza Ballroom A/B
Sat	Noon-1 pm	Table to Page: Narrative Gaming Panel with Corey Reid, Gareth Skarka, Emily Care Boss & Kirin Robinson (Scratch Factory)	Crowne Plaza Victoria Station, C / D.
Sun	11 am-Noon	Hillfolk Signing #2, with Keith Baker, Emily Care Boss, Steven S. Long, TS Luikart, Andy Peregrine, Wade Rockett & Pedro Ziviani,	Pelgrane Booth

Hillfolk Signings at Gen Con

Hail, raiders of the Gen Con high country!  To celebrate the launch of Hillfolk and its companion volume Blood on the Snow, we've arranged two signing events at the Pelgrane Press booth. We have so many contributors at the show that we're going to be splitting our signers into two bunches.

On Thurs Aug 15th at 3 pm swing by to grab autographs from such tentatively scheduled luminaries as Jennifer Brozek, Steve Dempsey, Dave Gross, Rob Heinsoo, Ryan Macklin, Michelle Nephew, Jeff Richard and illustrator Rachel A. Kahn.

Then come back on Sun Aug 18th at 11 am for the cuneiform stylings of Keith Baker, Emily Care Boss, Steven S. Long, TS Luikart, Andy Peregrine, Wade Rockett and Pedro Ziviani.

The Pelgrane Booth has moved to bigger digs this year, and is now #101, across from our fine pals at Paizo.

I’ll be there for both events, and around the booth for much of the rest of the time. As always I’ll be happy to deface any of my books, new or old, for you.

Many other contributors are at the show but unable to make this event. This will not prevent you from suavely bushwhacking and/or waylaying them as they perform their duties at booths elsewhere on the exhibit hall floor.

Kickstarter backers will be able to arrange ahead of time to pick up their books at the show. And of course there will be copies on sale for those of you who did not join us for the campaign back in October.

Hillfolk, Blood on the Snow, The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition Now Available to Pre-Order

Gen Con fast approaches, and you know what that means. A number of projects I’ve had on the go for a good while are now coming out at the same time!

Which in turn means that Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow, and The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition are all on their way and now available for preorder.  Click the preorder buttons on the above-linked product pages or go straight to the Pelgrane Store.  (Eso 2 has actually been on preorder for a while but is now at the printers.)

These orders include instant PDF access.  This is your first chance to get Hillfolk or Blood on the Snow since the Kickstarter closed in November. PDF-only purchases will follow after a suitable window to highlight the print release.

For the benefit of those headed to Gen Con, the pre-order function will give you the opportunity to arrange to pick up your copies of Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow at the show. The Gen Con pick-up option will also allow you to pre-book Pelgrane’s notoriously generous 4-for-3 deal, otherwise available only in the fever of the moment at the Pelgrane stand.

Hillfolk Goes to Layout

I am very pleased to report that editorial for the core Hillfolk book has been completed. The last submissions are in, edited, and proofed, and the text and illustrations are now in the hands of graphic design supremo Christian Knutsson. That final straggler of a Series Pitch is now in hand at last. Barring unforeseen calamity, that means that Blood in the Snow should be ready for layout by the time Christian has finished with the core text. He estimates that layout will take three weeks. After we sign off on the layout, we’re looking at an eight week turnaround for printing.

We will fulfill electronic editions as soon as layout is ready, so everyone will have the PDFs in hand even as the presses are rolling on the print copies.

So raise your cups of mead, raiders. The snows of an overlong winter have delayed us, but we have finally equipped our forces. We now ride off into the badlands, to claim our victory.

If you missed the Kickstarter but want to jump on board now, stay tuned for pre-order details.

And here, apropos of nothing in the first paragraph, is John Kovalic’s illustration for his Blood on the Snow Series Pitch, “The Dagon Bar and Grille,” which brings to DramaSystem the vibe of an animated sitcom. Plus tentacles, natch.

Hillfolk Mystery Contributor Revealed

If it’s mid-April it must be time for another Hillfolk progress report. Here’s where the project stands.

I am still awaiting submissions from three Series Pitch writers. Once those are in I’ll be know how the actual word count compares to the goal.  This will allow me to edit two other pitches that came in over the requested length, because I’ll then know how much of these I have to cut.

That’s the work of a few days.  Once everything’s in and proofed, layout will take about three weeks. We can’t assume that Christian can immediately clear his schedule of other projects when I drop the manuscripts on him, so there’s an indeterminate amount of time there.  Once he’s able to start work, we can estimate a hard release date.  Turnaround from layout to print is eight weeks. Then the shipping starts.

So our current timeframe looks like [waiting for final submissions] + approximately 1 week final editing + [deck-clearing for Christian] + 3 weeks layout + 8 weeks printing.

Absent a hard release date, let me see what else I have up my sleeve…? How about the long-teased identity of Hillfolk’s mystery contributor?

That would be Ed Greenwood, whose pitch “For Queen or Country” mixes espionage and faery folk in Elizabethan England. Ed surprised me with this over-the-transom submission of piracy, subversion and the Horned Man. This will appear in the main Hillfolk book. The illustration is by Aaron Acevedo. Looks like the original inspiration for Tinkerbell preferred Tudor-era court dress to a miniskirt made of leaves.

Hillfolk Actual Play Series Kicks Off on NYERD Podcast

I’ve had a lost of requests for an actual play series to introduce people to Hillfolk and DramaSystem and have kicked around various ways of making this happen. Turns out all I had to was to wait for the NYERD Podcast to take care of it for me. And they found a great twist, too—rounding up a player group made up of experienced actors who have never roleplayed before. The series kicks off with a fab character creation session that really captures the creative process that emerges as a group finds their concepts and builds a web of relationships. The group’s actorly training kicks in as they zero in on strong choices providing plenty of grist for drama.

Also, kudos to the team for a well-recorded show, not an easy thing in Actual Play.

Head over to the NYERD episode post for more, or subscribe to the show on iTunes.

Hillfolk Marches Into March

After a brief break to complete another commitment, I am once again at work assembling Hillfolk. Here’s an update for backers and future buyers.

All of the key art for Hillfolk and its companion volume, Blood on the Snow, is now in. We’ll need a few spot illos for the LARP and Master Class sections of the latter, but I have an ingenious plan for that and it shouldn’t impact the schedule. This project not only allows for, but requires, a range of illustration styles as great as the range of settings you can bring to life in DramaSystem. So you’ll see a much greater visual variety in these books than any one RPG project would normally accommodate, from line drawing to digital manipulation to painted work to photo collage. At right appears Aaron Acevedo’s evocative illustration for Lester Smith’s ghostly series pitch, “The Spirit Is Willing.”

As of this writing, I have 96% of the text for the core book in hand, and 93% of Blood on the Snow. Almost all of this has already been copy-edited. Two pitches from each book have yet to come in. These include pieces from key names I greedily wish to keep in the books, rather than shifting them to the Pitch of the Month Club. Two of the submitted pitches exceed the standard length; I can run them in extended form if outstanding submissions remain in the wind too long. A fun pitch from an aforementioned and unannounced gaming guru also grants me flexibility to shift the line-up if need be.

I’ve been discussing with graphic designer Christian Knutsson how to handle the presentation of the two books. He’ll be creating two layout styles for us: the Hillfolk theme previewed during the Kickstarter, and a more generic DramaSystem look for the series pitches in the main book. The latter will also appear throughout Blood on the Snow. Christian has valiantly agreed to go above and beyond his original commitment to complete both books for us and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

When we launched the Kickstarter, for a 128-page book from a team of five people, I estimated an April delivery date. I had hoped, against all logic, that we could stick to that after stretch goals expanded the project to two books of twice that size, and a team of approximately eighty contributors. (Eighty? Good grief!) Reality has now set in, and I’ll get a revised publication date out to you when we have one nailed completely down. I don’t want to issue a series of guess dates and then keep having to revise them, so please bear with us as we finalize our duck alignment.

People have been asking how they might support the project now that the Kickstarter has closed. We’ve suspended orders for the moment, in order to concentrate on making the books. When we draw nearer to the final release date, we’ll open a new round of pre-orders for those who missed the crowdfund. Watch this space for further announcements.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Finally, the Woodrow Wilson Throwdown

In this week’s episode of our humble podcast, Ken and I talk game design economics, why we game, and silver-shirted Hollywood Nazi occultist William Dudley Pelley. Long-awaitedly, we re-enter the historical cage match to once again take on the legacy of and Woodrow Wilson. Was he, as Ken asserts, America’s worst president?

Pre-Deadline Hillfolk Progress Report

Hillfolk backers, hackers and gawkers take heed—it’s time for me to pop up from a pile of virtual manuscripts and illustration submissions with a progress report. A shockingly high percentage of series pitch writers have gotten their pieces in ahead of this Thursday’s deadline, making my job easier and giving me a big head start on the gargantuan task of assembling the core book and its companion, Blood on the Snow. As of this writing I have over half of the submissions for Hillfolk and over a third for the sourcebook.

Since my last update I’ve edited Emily Care Boss space colonists, Josh Roby Machiavellian Florentines, Dave Gross Shakespearean festival noir, Pedro Ziviani feuding Icelanders, Jesse Bullington backcountry bootleggers, Rob Wieland multi-generational mafioso, T. S. Luikart’s regal rabbits, Gareth Hanrahan high-fantasy heroes and Ian “Lizard” Harac’s 1960s nuke survivors.

Waiting patiently on my hard drive are contributions from Jason Pitre, Will Hindmarch, Eddy Webb, Wade Rockett, Steve Darlington, Ryan Macklin, Chris Lackey, Steve Long and Angus Abranson.

Emily has also submitted her DramaSystem LARP rules, which will constitute a prime reason to grab Blood on the Snow.

I’ve written my own series pitches for Blood, adapting Mutant City Blues and my short story “The Dog” to the DramaSystem platform.

My main contributions to that book’s DramaSystem Master Class are also done.  The biggest piece provides players with 14 different approaches to scene-calling. No matter how your creative brain works, there’s a step-by-step for unstumping yourself when the GM calls your name.

If you’ve been planning to submit to this section, by all means do so. We’ve got some great pieces so far but there’s still room to squeeze in a few more.

Our stable of artists has also been hard at work. At right is the subtly compelling illustration for Wade Rockett’s “The Secret of Warlock Mountain” pitch, by the stellar Jonathan Wyke.

An Intriguing Experiment (That No One Will Ever Do)

Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under and True Blood, is about to launch a new cable show, Banshee, about an ex-con who, through the peregrinations of an opening plot twist, becomes sheriff of a small town in Amish country. This will give Ball another chance to air his issues with conservative Christianity and presumably his mother. Given the wildly contrasting tones of his previous shows I’m curious to see where he takes this one. Also, they had me at Ulrich Thomsen.

It’s on Cinemax in the US and, through the peregrinations of pay TV licensing, HBO Canada here in the land of the silver birch.

I mention this here because it inspired a thought experiment. The synopsis given on the HBO Canada site (and presumably repeated on its Cinemax counterpart) goes like this:

From Alan Ball, creator/EP of True Blood, this exciting new Cinemax action drama charts the twists and turns that follow Lucas Hood (Antony Starr), an ex-convict who improbably becomes sheriff of a rural, Amish-area town while searching for a woman he last saw 15 years ago, when he gave himself up to police to let her escape after a jewel heist. Living in Banshee under an assumed name, Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic) is now married to the local DA, has two children (one of whom may be Lucas’), and is trying desperately to keep a low profile – until Lucas arrives to shake up her world and rekindle old passions. Complicating matters is the fact that Banshee is riddled by corruption, with an Amish overlord, Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), brutally building a local empire of drugs, gambling and graft. With the help of a boxer-turned-barkeeper named Sugar Bates (Frankie Faison), Lucas is able to stay on even footing with Kai and his thugs, and even manages to bring a measure of tough justice to Banshee. But eventually, Lucas’ appetite for pulling heists pulls him and Carrie into a dangerous cauldron of duplicity, exacerbated when Mr. Rabbit (Ben Cross), the NY mobster they once ripped off, closes in with vengeance on his mind.

That’s complete enough to serve as the basis of play for a DramaSystem series. As a series pitch, it’s way truncated, but you don’t need a series pitch for everything, especially stories set in our familiar world.

The experiment would go like this: take the synopsis of this or any other upcoming serialized cable drama. Use it as the basis of a DramaSystem series...without watching the show. Or otherwise keeping up with where it’s going. When you finish you own series, rent the original on DVD, and compare and contrast.