Over the last week and a half I've been putting together a podcast to support the game. I got a couple of guests to help flesh out some of the details from the early posts in the blog and I've spent quite a bit of time lining up what I hope will be some interesting and relevant interviews for future shows. Judging by how long it's taken so far to put the first one together I'm not sure that I could make it weekly but I plan to do a few shows before committing to a schedule.
It's been an interesting learning experience and a little disconcerting to discover just how many times I say "umm" in any given sentence! I also discovered that with just one person speaking it's a challenge not to drone so the solo parts will likely comprise a limited amount of the show.
The drivethrurpg/rpgnow store front is bringing previously unheard-of levels of traffic to the site and is also having an appreciable impact on sales. As a result I've added a POD version of the book to the products offered through them.
For those considering purchasing the POD version a few details that you may wish to know ahead of time. The book's printed on 50lb paper (thinner) than the 70lb paper used in the print version, its not numbered or signed and there are no maps on the inside covers. The maps are duplicated in the back of the book however, as they are in the print version. Lastly the shipping costs are about $8 less and as they print in the US and England the delivery time may be reduced from what I'm seeing coming out of Canada.
Thanks to everyone for all the support.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Post 25- drivethru/rpgnow
After a bit of down time I'm into promotion for the book "full time". This just means the time I used to spend writing I now spend answering forum questions and finding outlets for the book in its two forms.
Today I submitted the file to drivethru/rpgnow and have had it approved for addition to the catalog. You can find it here:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/
The payment structure is %65 to me %35 to them. If you're reading this, haven't purchased and want to, buying it from me directly is of no advantage to you at all but means I can buy a few extra seconds of dialysis for my sixteen sick adopted children. Well that, or a cup of coffee for me if they've been misbehaving and, you know, spending all my money on that medicine stuff.
Seriously though I don't have sixteen sick orphans, it's seventeen, another one's just been dropped off.
Buy the sweet, life-giving .pdf here...
http://www.hazardgaming.com/buy.html
Today I submitted the file to drivethru/rpgnow and have had it approved for addition to the catalog. You can find it here:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/
The payment structure is %65 to me %35 to them. If you're reading this, haven't purchased and want to, buying it from me directly is of no advantage to you at all but means I can buy a few extra seconds of dialysis for my sixteen sick adopted children. Well that, or a cup of coffee for me if they've been misbehaving and, you know, spending all my money on that medicine stuff.
Seriously though I don't have sixteen sick orphans, it's seventeen, another one's just been dropped off.
Buy the sweet, life-giving .pdf here...
http://www.hazardgaming.com/buy.html
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Post-24 Books in Hand
Well, I have the finished product in my hand and I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. I knew a proper printer would create a better resolution than I was seeing from the one I have at home but the images look so much crisper than I was hoping for.Altogether they look and feel like the "real roleplaying books" I've been buying for years and it's nice to reach the end of this phase.
Next... promotion!
Did I mention you can buy them here.
Next... promotion!
Did I mention you can buy them here.
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| The Final Product |
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| What a delivery of 100 roleplaying books looks like. |
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Post 23- Publication!
On Friday December 1st I finally handed over the book for printing.
The image right is the "mock-up" including the cover. It's different to the cover I had at Origins and GenCon but I felt this cover better represented the contents of the game.
The other image I have lined up as the cover of the next book Steam Chamber (working title), a steam-punk genre game based, again, on the Hazard resolution system.
The books themselves will be ready to ship by December 9th leaving plenty of time for shipping to those who want it before Christmas. I hear it makes a great stocking stuffer!
Cover Price is $25, $30 if you'd like the .pdf too and $15 for your very own digital copy of the book so you can peruse it before the physical copy arrives or you decide to commit to the hard copy. The "buy now" button for the book is not active yet because of Christmas.
If you want to be sure to get it and you're far afield let me know and I can check out faster shipping.
You can get the details at www.hazardgaming.com.
The other image I have lined up as the cover of the next book Steam Chamber (working title), a steam-punk genre game based, again, on the Hazard resolution system.
The books themselves will be ready to ship by December 9th leaving plenty of time for shipping to those who want it before Christmas. I hear it makes a great stocking stuffer!
Cover Price is $25, $30 if you'd like the .pdf too and $15 for your very own digital copy of the book so you can peruse it before the physical copy arrives or you decide to commit to the hard copy. The "buy now" button for the book is not active yet because of Christmas.
If you want to be sure to get it and you're far afield let me know and I can check out faster shipping.
You can get the details at www.hazardgaming.com.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Post 22- Final Pre-publication Update
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| Queen Victoria. Age: 18 |
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| Robert "Admiral Bob: Broomhall |
I flirted with the idea of hiring someone to do the indexing but describing the book to them made me realize just how unusual a roleplaying book is. I've looked at them for years so they seem normal to me but when you try to size them up from an outsiders perspective they're actually a strange combination of fact, fiction, technical and scholarly writing. This makes it impossible to even send a sample of your writing for quoting purposes as there is truly no representative passage you can send out.
For all those patiently checking back from time to time I present the last drawing sneak peeks. Enjoy, and stand by for publication
Monday, September 5, 2011
Post 21- Odds and Ends
I'm just coming to the end of my last run through and discovering a few odds and ends I mistakenly believed I'd taken care of: hence the delay to publish.For those ladies, or women (I'm never quite sure if the former is considered sexist) who valiantly took up a male character because I'd (foolishly) only commissioned one I give you: Kate Guscott, Elizabeth Merriweather and, for those of you who can't get their mind off squid-man; Bartholomew Caxton.
These ladies will appear in the character template section while Squid-man will be a part of the artwork in the sample adventure section.
Once again thanks to Vin who can see pictures so much better than my imagination can come up with.I've also seen a copyright lawyer, registered my book with the Canadian copyright people and most excitingly, for me at least, acquired my very own isbn 978-0-9877822-0-5 which I used to generate my own barcode. What a handsome little devil it is.
Other than that I've collected quotes for an initial print run of 50 books (be in quick!), inserted the last few images into the text and lastly, but not leastly, tweaked a rule or two after the experiences of playing with you guys at the conventions and reports I've received back from play-testers. Thanks to all you guys.
With all of that in mind, my last couple of tasks are to edit and insert the sample adventure A Victorian Prometheus which conventioneers will be familiar with (although there are a couple of new twists and some extra depth in there) and to generate an index.I'm not giving myself a deadline but I feel like it's very close to going to the printers. I just have to remember (and flatter myself that what I'm producing qualifies)...
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
Leonardo da Vinci
Monday, August 8, 2011
20- Gencon
After the trials of getting to Indianapolis it was nice to actually sit down with some great people and actually do some roleplaying.
I'd made a few very minor adjustments to the system between Origins and Gencon and, thanks to the people that played it at origins, a few improvements to the game itself.
The first game of Friday (and apologies again to those that missed out on Thursday) was at 10. After some unpleasantness with inappropriate touching of Anne and Shelly's dice we got underway. Thanks to Pat (not shown below) for her patience and grace. I've not had experience witha visually impaired gamer before and was completely unprepared. Thanks too to Jason who did all the heavy lifting with reading the skills and dice for Pat and played a mean Reginald while he was at it.
It was nice to have Robert along too: a hardcore board-gamer who thought he'd give us roleplaying simpletons with our cute dice and colourful picture books a try.
Jason (Reginald), Robert (Isambard), Shelly (Katherine) and Anne (Harold).
The second game of the day went well too. Watkins was in fine form which Patty seemed to enjoy. The John's were earnest but very effective Isambard and Dave driving the group along while James and Matt bludgeoned and threatened anyone that got in the way. Nicely done; the Doctor didn't stand a chance.
John (Isambard), Patty (Katherine), John (Dave), James (Saul) and Matt (Reginald)
I was a bit worried about attendance for Saturday morning's game. There was a rumour going around that a gamer had snuck a couple of wine coolers out of their parents basement and brought them to the con.
Turns out my fears were confirmed and three of the six players signed up didn't show. Never-the-less, Keeley, Karen and Sean were all big enough personalities to count for two characters each.
Sean's Reginald proceeded to try drinking the imaginary world dry which must have fortified him somewhat as Keeley's Harold and Karen's Katherine, became progressively more horrified as events unfolded.
I'm not sure if these are smiles of joy or of madness...
Keely (Harold), Karen (Katherine) and Sean (Reginald).
Unfortunately there was only one person signed up for my second game on Saturday and Geoffrey was sad...
The last game of the con (for me) was a full house plus Geoffrey from the previous cancelled game. With all the characters taken there was someone finally playing Burt AKA Hannibal. I'm not really sure why he the least favourite character but with the two conventions this year combined this was only the second time he was selected.
In any case, with a full house and no ladies in the game it was a rowdy affair but great fun. Doug's Burt was fabulous and Martin's hilariously inept Harold was a real treat. Geoffrey, Ron and Scott's Isambard, Reginald and Saul kicked some ass and tore a few heads off. All the while Bruce's Dave ran around putting out fires while Paul's Katherine made London unsafe for anything not nailed down.
After the last game I went for a stroll along the street from the convention centre in search of something to eat. Most of the places were full and I was about to give up and head back to the hotel but I happened to go back past the noodle bowl when there was almost no line.
Apart from getting some excellent pad thai I also had the good fortune to catch up with Karen and Sean from earlier on in the day when they graciously invited me to eat dinner with them. It was a good to meet a whole group of people including CJ and Kevin from The Walking Eye Podcast Paul and Jeff and a charming lady whose name I confess I do not recall.
It was the perfect end to my 2011 Gencon convention.
I'd made a few very minor adjustments to the system between Origins and Gencon and, thanks to the people that played it at origins, a few improvements to the game itself.
The first game of Friday (and apologies again to those that missed out on Thursday) was at 10. After some unpleasantness with inappropriate touching of Anne and Shelly's dice we got underway. Thanks to Pat (not shown below) for her patience and grace. I've not had experience witha visually impaired gamer before and was completely unprepared. Thanks too to Jason who did all the heavy lifting with reading the skills and dice for Pat and played a mean Reginald while he was at it.
It was nice to have Robert along too: a hardcore board-gamer who thought he'd give us roleplaying simpletons with our cute dice and colourful picture books a try.
Jason (Reginald), Robert (Isambard), Shelly (Katherine) and Anne (Harold).
The second game of the day went well too. Watkins was in fine form which Patty seemed to enjoy. The John's were earnest but very effective Isambard and Dave driving the group along while James and Matt bludgeoned and threatened anyone that got in the way. Nicely done; the Doctor didn't stand a chance.
John (Isambard), Patty (Katherine), John (Dave), James (Saul) and Matt (Reginald)
I was a bit worried about attendance for Saturday morning's game. There was a rumour going around that a gamer had snuck a couple of wine coolers out of their parents basement and brought them to the con.
Turns out my fears were confirmed and three of the six players signed up didn't show. Never-the-less, Keeley, Karen and Sean were all big enough personalities to count for two characters each.
Sean's Reginald proceeded to try drinking the imaginary world dry which must have fortified him somewhat as Keeley's Harold and Karen's Katherine, became progressively more horrified as events unfolded.
I'm not sure if these are smiles of joy or of madness...
Keely (Harold), Karen (Katherine) and Sean (Reginald).
Unfortunately there was only one person signed up for my second game on Saturday and Geoffrey was sad...
The last game of the con (for me) was a full house plus Geoffrey from the previous cancelled game. With all the characters taken there was someone finally playing Burt AKA Hannibal. I'm not really sure why he the least favourite character but with the two conventions this year combined this was only the second time he was selected.
In any case, with a full house and no ladies in the game it was a rowdy affair but great fun. Doug's Burt was fabulous and Martin's hilariously inept Harold was a real treat. Geoffrey, Ron and Scott's Isambard, Reginald and Saul kicked some ass and tore a few heads off. All the while Bruce's Dave ran around putting out fires while Paul's Katherine made London unsafe for anything not nailed down.
After the last game I went for a stroll along the street from the convention centre in search of something to eat. Most of the places were full and I was about to give up and head back to the hotel but I happened to go back past the noodle bowl when there was almost no line.
Apart from getting some excellent pad thai I also had the good fortune to catch up with Karen and Sean from earlier on in the day when they graciously invited me to eat dinner with them. It was a good to meet a whole group of people including CJ and Kevin from The Walking Eye Podcast Paul and Jeff and a charming lady whose name I confess I do not recall.
It was the perfect end to my 2011 Gencon convention.
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