A Bit About My Creative Process...

I'm working on Operation Rogue Lion (the first Classified mission) and thought some may be interested in my creative process.

I first start with a rough idea and then that idea is thrown away because another idea occurred during the "flesh the idea out" phase that was superior. Rarely do I use my first idea. My first ideas tend to suck, but they get me going creatively and that path inevitably contains a side-path that is much more scenic.

During the writing phase my Word document is littered with green, yellow, and red highlights. Green is for good ideas that need to be incorporated, yellow is for things I should decide whether or not to include after the manuscript has progressed a bit more, and red is for things that either *MUST* be done or *MUST* be excised from the manuscript in its finished form. I have a lot of these latter reds as I cut-n-paste from internet resources- real life provides a great resource for ideas, technical things (where is OPEC headquartered? etc...), and all other sorts of interesting things for making a manuscript "more realistic."

Well, there you go. For what it's worth, my creative process.

My first Wall Street Journal Interview....

Just finished a 10 minute interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter. Now I'll wait to see if I appear anywhere in the newspaper. Regardless, it was a somewhat surreal situation.

Sorcery & Super Science! 2nd Edition - On the Resolution Table

S&SS 2nd Edition uses one Resolution Table to determine success quality or failure for actions requiring adjudication. I imagine most people are familiar with the table, but I'm aiming to present the table information rapidly and easily in 2E S&SS using one new idea.

What I've done is put in the (low number-high number) range allowing players to simply place numbers next to their powers on their character sheet allowing them to immediately know the result of any roll without looking at the Resolution Table if there are no +/- Row Steps applied to the Conflict.

It's a small thing, but something I think that speeds play.

First Round of Classified Editing Finished!

Just finished with the first round of editing on the Classified core book. Now I'll put it away for at least two weeks and go back and do a second round of editing. It will then be done - meaning that I'll spot a typo immediately upon opening the printed book.

:-)

Such is life.

Advanced Adventures #29: The Doom of Red Rauthim PDF now Available!

Put up the PDF of AA#29 yesterday (I think) and forgot to mention it here at the blog.

The Doom of Red Rauthim is an OSRIC(tm) module designed for 4-8 adventurers of levels 7-9. Red Rauthim, adventurer and ruler of the city Erastavim, decided to right a wrong from his past. Nearly twenty years ago, Red and his adventuring party learned of the location of a great fire giant temple. Ever one to see a golden opportunity, Red thought it a great chance to slay some of the most wicked creatures to walk the world’s face and relieve them of their treasure. In these days Red was brash and hotheaded. He led his party straight into the temple killing anything that got in their path. However, they met their match when the head shaman, Thjazi-Loki, one of the most cunning and evil giant there ever was, roared and charged into battle with the adventurers. Red’s outmatched party soon turned to flee. Heroically the party’s priest, Father Ferrio, drew the giant’s attention as his friends hurled out of the temple. The last thing Red saw was Ferrio being cut in half by the giant’s great broad sword. For the last twenty years, Red Rauthim has felt guilty that his friend gave his life so that Red may live. Feeling his age upon him, Red left his city 6 months ago to personally kill Thjazi-Loki out of respect for his fallen friend. But Red has not returned although divinations ken he is still alive. You and your party have been hired to find and return him to his city, even if that means bearding a fire giant temple!

They're just games that I enjoy...

Sometimes I wish I was rabid about something. I suffer from a terminal case of "whatever you like/dislike is ok for you and it's unimportant to me that you like/dislike it"-itis.

This syndrome makes it sometimes difficult to push my business because I don't hype shit about shit. To me, there really is nothing *to* hype. They're just games that I enjoy that I made or published. Nothing more. They're not social statements, they're not lifestyle choices, they're not expressions of individuality. They're just games I publish and like.

As you can see, a marketer or advertiser I ain't.

The Big Book of Graph Paper's Awesome Review!

So I kinda suspect a bit 'o tongue-in-cheek with The Big Book of Graph Paper's review, but it made me chuckle nonetheless...

This is a great product! You just can't find graph paper like this anywhere. Sure some people will say you can get free pdfs on the internet that you can print out your own graph paper, but make no mistake, that is no substitute to the Big Book of Graph Paper! Once I started using this for my role playing games, my maps literally came alive and swallowed up my players transforming a mundane table top dungeon crawl into a real fight for survival! On the negative side, two of my players were killed when they fell into a pit of acid, but after hearing how exciting my games are using the hardbound 181 pages of .25 inch graph paper plus 11 pages of .25 inch isometric, I have a waiting list of new players to join the game. All of them are raving about the Big Book of Graph Paper. I plan to buy an additional book and use it to build my new castle with moat and drawbridge. For only $25 this is a real steal!

Advanced Adventures Compendium Three!

Just got my copy of Advanced Adventures Compendium Three (containing Advanced Adventures #21-#30) and it looks nice. I'm going to have a a few copies for sale at North Texas RPG Con - even before #29 and #30 are published. I suspect Compendium Three will be for public sale about this time next year or so.

So, if you're going to NTRPG, yah got a chance to score a little insider swag....

S&SS 2nd Edition Full-Spread Critter Sample

I've put up a PDF for download showing a full-spread critter sample for Sorcery & Super Science, 2nd Edition. Below is a down-sized image as a preview. Enjoy!

S&SS 2nd Edition Critter Layout Example 2

Another preview of Sorcery & Super Science 2nd Edition. I think I've got the general layout-for-critters down. There will be more fine-tuning, I'm sure, but I think this is 90% done.

 

Sorcery & Super Science 2nd Edition Powers Done!

Just finished the power descriptions. Got over 110 powers. Now onto spells. Got just as many of them to do.

On the Music Box and 'a Working...

Working on Advanced Adventures Compendium 3 (as an exclusive for NTRPG Con - but available to everyone eventually) and listening to Adam Ant. Great upbeat music keeps the fingers a click'n....

Sorcery and Super Science 4C/FASERIP Update & Preview Image

I've decided to call the 4C/FASERIP version of S&SS the 2nd Edition. So, here's a tiny preview of Sorcery & Super Science! 2nd Edition showing how I'm thinking about showing the Creatures Below the Shattered Moon. Below is the humble Horc, a common minion of foul wizards. They're none-too-bright, but they're tough and they do as they're told.

The red and green coloring has a purpose. The red background show the 4 Traits that combined provide the Life Secondary Trait of the creature, and the green background shows the 3 Traits that form the Luck Secondary Trait.

I'm fairly pleased with it so far. Underneath the stat block will be background/description of the critter and how it fits in with the world.

Advanced Adventures #28: Redtooth Ridge at the XRP website!

Redtooth Ridge is now for sale at the XRP website! An adventure I wrote for my campaign...

Redtooth Ridge is an OSRIC(tm) module designed for 6-10 adventurers of levels 1-3.

The plain wooden cup the dryad Aralina needs for her great oak’s rebirth has been stolen by creeping foul things! Small, man-like, creatures with great heads assaulted her and, in the confusion, pick-pocketed the cup before fleeing towards Redtooth Ridge. Without her cup, her tree with die before it can reproduce and she will die with it. In her distress, she has offered a reward of a beautiful coral necklace in exchange for her plain wooden cup. The call has gone out and surely a party exists willing to assault Redtooth Ridge?

 

Conflict Bullseye For 4C/FASERIP Sorcery & Super Science

So I've been thinking about colors and how to present conflict success in S&SS and this is my latest idea: The Conflict Bullseye. I think it's a very simple image that also works nicely with the driving concept of Red then Yellow than Green. I think the colors make more "sense" than the 4C Black, Red, Blue, Yellow. After all, everyone wants to hit Green lights, not Red ones.

I know it's just an aesthetic choice, but I think this one's better than my previous CMYK idea.