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.

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…

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.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Forces of the Tomkitten

In the latest episode of our insidiously well-connected podcast, Ken and I talk the games we’re running right now, Beyonce illuminated, pastiche and Jamestown cannibalism.

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.

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.

Pirates, Bunnies and a Mystery Contributor Herald Hillfolk Progress

With the holidays in the rearview mirror, it’s time for another Hillfolk progress report. I continue to receive great contributions from stretch goal writers ahead of the Jan 31st deadline. This grants me a useful head start, one I’m sure I’ll need when February 1st rolls around and the task of assembling the full books begins in earnest.

Jason L. Blair’s “Inhuman Desires” delivers the promised paranormal romance in sterling fashion. It doesn’t let death get in the way of a tortured love story.

Meguey Baker’s “Under Hollow Hills” pours on the faerie atmosphere, bringing an evocative prose voice to her series of intrigue among the fae, and the humans caught on the thorny boundary between their realm and ours.

Jennifer Brozek’s “Transcend” brings the post-human condition to the dinner table, letting you explore the consequences of radical transformation either on a future Earth or in the social hothouse of an orbiting space station.

Graeme Davis has swashed his buckles with “Pyrates”, bringing the time-honored crime gang drama to the blue waters of the piratical Caribbean.

If you prefer your epic drama under the waves, Richard Iorio has turned in “Dolphins.” Just like he said, it bridges the moods of Finding Nemo and Lord of the Rings.

Compelling human storytelling occupies a smoldering center stage in Greg Stolze’s “Fire in the Heartland.” What is it like to serve as first responder in a community so small you know everyone you’re ever called on to rescue?

Also, I received an early Christmas present in the form of a completely unexpected, ready-to-print series pitch from an RPG heavy hitter I’m not quite ready to announce. This luminary’s surprise participation gives me leeway in the unhoped-for-event of a drop out from an announced series pitch contributor. For the moment I’m keeping both the name and the concept under my hat.

Contributions from Ash Law, Emily Care Boss and Pedro Ziviani have arrived and will be reviewed over the next few days.

Meanwhile, I’ve completed work on the reference document for the DramaSystem open license. This will allow us to release it concurrently with the book.

Art contributions are beginning to roll in.  I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen so far and am confident that you will be, too.  As a teaser, at right is Rachel Kahn’s illustration for TS Luikart’s “Malice Tarn.”

An Early Wave of Hillfolk Series Pitches Rolls In

Although the stellar roster of writers and designers drafted to create Series Pitches for Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow have until the end of January to get their drafts in, an early bird brigade has already begun to submit their pieces. I’m happy to report that they all live up to the promise of their loglines—the only frustration being that, perhaps like me, you’ll want to play them all.

Jason Morningstar does the brilliant job you would expect from him with “Hollywoodland”, infusing his saga of Tinseltown’s silent-cinema infancy with glitz, corruption, and a battle between money old and new.

Cédric Ferrand splendidly evokes 1866 New York in “Grave New World,” finding a fresh angle on vampire intrigue by making it a metaphor for the immigrant experience.

Andrew Peregrine’s “Vice and Virtue” gives Jane Austen fans all they need to launch a whirlwind of lunches, balls, and passion within the tightest of social constraints.

With expertise honed in the creation of actual TV series, John Rogers zeroes in on the many clashing societies and factions of “Shanghai 1930.” This is one of history’s richest settings, and John shows you how to cut to the meat of it.

James L. Sutter’s “The Throne” draws on Milton, Blake, and Vertigo comics with his war in heaven, triggered by the sudden disappearance of the big boss. Come for the angelpunk, stay for the chance to remake the cosmos.

Allen Varney’s “Bots” delightfully realizes its hardscrabble, post-organic premise in a piece that could only be described as Fox Animation’s Robots as rewritten by Upton Sinclair. It’s been a long time since anyone lured Allen back to straight-up RPG writing, and I can report that he hasn’t lost a bit of his satirical edge.

Both of our revisionist superhero pieces are in, as well.

Michelle Nephew’s “Mad Scientists Anonymous” lets you choose between Dr. Horrible-style humor or a darker spin on pulp mythology as its titular characters struggle together to stay sane and institutionalized—but what about the strange machinery humming away down in the basement?

Gene Ha and Art Lyon (concept by Lowell Francis) tackle matters from the opposite end of the genre food chain in “Henchmen,” in which no-powered criminals crewing for a costumed madwoman try to survive in her absence, in a city swarming with masks who hopelessly outmatch them. They wound up taking a straighter, crime-drama inspired approach than originally envisioned. This loses the wonderful original title, “Witless Minions”, but will result in a much richer game experience.

Gene has also turned in his illustration for the piece, the awesomeness of which speaks for itself:

Meg Baker has finished “Under Hollow Hills”; likewise Jason L. Blair with “Inhuman Desires.” I look forward to reading them.

Art assignments for all of the Series Pitches have been made already, and we’re starting to get sketches and preliminaries in. So all is on schedule on that front as well.

The on-time delivery of these pieces represents the main scheduling question mark, so I’m taking these early arrivals as a positive omen. I’ll continue to update Kickstarter backers and punterdom at large as the books continue to take shape.

Call for Submissions: DramaSystem Master Class

Now that Hillfolk Kickstarter backers have had time to digest and play the game, it’s time to solicit submissions for the Master Class section of the Blood on the Snow Companion book. This is an opportunity for the emerging game writers among you to gain some experience and see your name in print.

 

The Brief

We’re looking for contributions of approximately 300-1000 words in length that will help readers understand, play, and expand DramaSystem.

The theme: challenges you encountered during play, and how you overcame them.

If you wish to submit a piece taking another angle on DramaSystem play or design, feel free to do so, with the understanding that pieces adhering to the theme are more likely to be accepted.

Whatever your subject matter, all pieces must show that you have actually played the game. Armchair ruminations will have to seek other homes.

The Context

These submissions will appear in a 20,000 word section of Blood on the Snow, interwoven with commentary by Robin.

The Process

This is an open call for pieces written on a spec basis. We will accept as many quality submissions as fit within the section’s word count. In the case of similar submissions, we’ll pick the one of greatest utility in DramaSystem play.

Deadline for submissions is Jan 14. Send submissions in .doc, .docx or .odt format to the address given in the About/Contact banner entry above.

You will not be asked to perform rewrites. Instead, Robin may adjust your prose for clarity, brevity, and maximum impact, allowing you the opportunity to comment on these changes.

The Deal

Authors whose pieces are accepted for publication will receive 3 cents a word US, due on acceptance, in exchange for all rights to your text. You will receive credit both as a byline and on the table of contents. Due to the brevity of these pieces our budget does not permit us to offer complimentary author’s copies. (Remember that all Hillfolk backers already receive the book in electronic form, whether you purchased the print copy or not.)

Note to Established Designers

This open call addresses new and emerging game writers. If you are an already established designer and wish to submit, contact me with a concept brief and we’ll discuss alternate terms.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Undetectable Notes of Irony

In the fourteenth episode of our above-named podcast, Ken and I talk Chicago film fest, DramaSystem vs. Skulduggery, gangland mapping and the burnings of the Libraries of Alexandria: