I’m sure that everyone is pining for my words of wisdom.

Just let me have my delusions.

You can head over to Black Gate to read another article on the business of RPG PDF publishing.

Be seeing you.

Anyone still here?

Usual “sorry I’ve been away” stuff aside, I wanted to mention my vision of Viking mayhem and adventure, Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death is now available in PDF and Print. January of 2012 will see the release of Suffer the Witch, an adventure for Kiss My Axe.

Also? I finished another story somewhat in the Sword Noir vein using the characters from “A Dead Pound of Flesh” (Black Gate #15). After I finish proofing and editing (and getting others to help me do so) it, I’ll start shopping it around. Editors of the world, beware!

You can find Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death here.

Other awesome Sword’s Edge Publishing products can be found here.

Get yourself some Black Gate here.

Cross-posted from Sword’s Edge Publishing:

A duellist in a dying city facing a weapon of fiery death, not to mention temptation.

Two fur trappers hunted by a spirit of hate that feeds on the very fear it engenders.

An arrogant apprentice to a vain wizard finds himself in a race to unlock secrets hidden for centuries.

MacBeth, beloved King of the Scots, faces his last day and learns his name will damned.

A cunning sorcerer has decided he will not be a victim, he would rather be a victor.

These are the wizards and warriors that populate Gifts of the Elder Gods. Join them in their adventures, touched by magic and the supernatural, with wits and weapons of mysticism or steel to overcome the snares of diabolical enemies.

Gifts of the Elder Gods is the new short fiction collection from Sword’s Edge Publishing. You can find it at RPG Now and Drive Thru RPG. It is available in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats, with print-on-demand coming soon.

As opposed to firing them off? Oh, the other kind of RPGs.

A lot of my creative energies recently have been focused on RPGs rather than writing fiction. I’ve been asked why. It’s not something for which I had a ready answer. It was one of those things that just happened; you know, bright shiny object and all that.

Giving it some thought, I can think of three reasons why I end up writing RPGs instead of fiction: control, accomplishment, and reaction. There’s money as well, but while I’ve always been open about my mercenary inclinations, it’s not a large factor in this decision.

I am a control freak, it is true. In much of my life, it’s not an issue, because that particular idiosyncrasy only affects my creative output. And it isn’t a fear of losing copyright (doesn’t happen) or someone stealing my ideas (also doesn’t happen, besides, it is the execution rather than the idea that sells fiction), it’s control over when and if my stuff gets released. When I work on an RPG, because I self-publish, I know it is going to get out there. I don’t know how well it will be received, but I know that—some process complications aside—it will get out there in a particular quarter of a particular year. When I sell a story, it just kind of disappears for a while. Sometimes that’s a number of months, sometimes that’s a number of years. In the lead up to release, sometimes I worry something will happen and my story will never see print. I still have the money for it, but that’s not the entire equation, is it?

By accomplishment I don’t feel a greater sense of accomplishment for RPGs than I do for fiction, what I mean is that RPGs get accomplished—they get finished. I’ve got three stories right now that are either incomplete, or completed yet problematic. I cannot say the same for RPGs. For whatever reason, it’s easier for me to finish the 75 pages of Sword Noir and the 63 pages of Kiss My Axe—not to mention about 40 pages of adventures published or ready for publishing—than the combined 30 pages of fiction. I can’t say why that is, but it is so. I need more discipline in my fiction writing—that’s part of it. I also recognize that when inspired, I can fire through RPGs much quicker than I can fiction—again, can’t say why, but it is so.

Given my ego, public reaction is probably a big component of my focus on RPGs. Check out RPG Now, and you will see a large number of reviews for my stuff. There are also other reviews out there, most linked though the SEP Reviews page (I really need to update that). I have maybe two (more like one very short review and one mention) reviews of my fiction. Also, I have received much more correspondence related to my RPG work than my fiction. I love feedback—positive and negative—so it seems pretty logical that I would continue to put efforts into the work that gets the most reaction.

But which has greater cachet? That would be writing fiction. I get a heck of a lot respect as a published author of fiction. People, even those within the RPG community, are far more impressed by a short story in a magazine/journal than an RPG game or supplement credit.

And then there’s money. Yeah, in some respects this dictated a lot of my previous work. Mundus Novit was about getting paid. Not to say that I was not enthusiastic about the project or even that I’m not proud of the work I did, just that this was a company’s proposal and I worked within their strictures rather than something that came fully formed out of my forehead.

The work I am doing now is more about ideas and enthusiasm than about making money. Sword Noir likely won’t turn a profit for at least another year, and Kiss My Axe likely longer. I’ve done a playtest document for Centurion: Soldiers of Rome, but I am going no further because I honestly don’t see profit in it. I am now chasing the cachet again, and working on fiction. But I had to get that playtest document done first. I had to get those RPG ideas out. That’s the inspiration part. But now that’s done. I have three novels plotted and three stories that won’t finish themselves.

Time to write some fiction.

The great dilemma, as revealed in the last post, is the system which I’ll use for a new modern military, Covert Forces-style campaign I’m plotting out.

Crunchy/robust or smooth/light? How do you like your peanut butter/RPG?

In order to answer this question, I need to decide what I am doing with this game. What is it going to be about it?

Here is the sequence of “scenes” in the initial session/adventure: mission planning; movement to area; movement to objective (which will require acquiring transport, and this may involve combat); infiltrate objective (which may include combat); acquisition of package which will include combat; exfiltration from objective (which may include combat); delivery of package.

While there is a lot of possible combat there, there is only one sequence of assured combat. The rest—the acquisition of transport, the infiltration and exfiltration—may be accomplished using other skills/talents/abilities. I’m thinking there could be a fair amount of stealth and/or social manipulation.

And for the use of skills/talents/abilities, I can’t say either is superior again—they are just very different. The crunchier games are about resource management and mechanical builds—optimization if you will. This can be extremely enjoyable, but I’m not sure it works for what I envision.

I’ve built a fair number of special operations force characters, and in systems like d20 Modern or Savage Worlds, the characters need to be relatively high level (10th level or Veteran) in order to be as competent in the general skills SOF personnel require. True20 and Modern20 were better, in that I could design relatively capable SOF characters at a medium level (6th level). High and medium level characters aren’t bad per se, but the time to build the characters is discouraging.

What I appreciate about lighter systems is that there is less concern about building it right. A general focus will work fine when it comes time to use the skills. In something like PDQ or SES, I can argue how the question applies to my character’s concept, and would likely be able to pile on other bonuses through the use of Qualities.

But what about combat? I had a general unease in approaching modern combat with abstract rules. I needed to quantify what it was I wanted when I ran combat. Was it lethality? Was is complexity? Was it tension?

Let’s get one thing out of the way: there is no way for RPG rules to replicate combat in any meaningful way. Even the most complex mechanical algorithms are not going to give the feel or sense of combat.

So what did I want? I looked to my inspirations for combat scenes: Black Hawk Down and Band of Brothers. To a lesser degree, the movie Tears of the Sun and the TV series the Unit and Ultimate Force inspire me when I’m planning or running combat. So what do these shows and films present that is inspiring?

Competence and tension.

There are characters in these movies and series that have exceptional combat competence, and that is great for RPGing, because we want our characters to be competent. There is exceptional levels of tension, especially in Black Hawk Down and Band of Brothers, as there is no guarantee that any given character will make it out alive.

As mentioned above, it is easier to build a competent with a lighter set of rules.

For tension, there needs to be a real threat that the characters could die, and that is frankly present in all the rules discussed. I have to say I found that d20 Modern’s Massive Damage Threshold instilled a lot of tension into combat, moreso than any other crunchy game I’ve ran. They all do it, but MDT seemed to do it best. One shot kill is not always a part of lighter rules, but I know one set of rules in which it does play a part—my own! Probably because the tension that lethality creates is so important to me when I rune combats.

So I think I can go with a lighter system to run this campaign. I think I just might be able to pull it off.

But there are two further factors that concern me with using a lighter system, especially my own: gun pron and cool kit.

But that’s another story. Stay tuned.

Here are links to the games mentioned:
d20 Modern
Modern20
True20
Savage Worlds
PDQ
And, of course, SES.

I’ve been thinking about, plotting, and planning a new RPG campaign. This one is going to be a modern Covert Forces style campaign. Now, in the past, there would have been no dilemma—I would have run it in d20 modern, the game for which Covert Forces was designed. My problem this time is that I have fallen out of love with d20 Modern.

Don’t get me wrong, d20 Modern was my favourite Wizards of the Coast d20 product. I liked it better than D&D 3/3.5, even for fantasy. The thing is, I am now interested in decidedly un-crunchy systems. Just a perusal of my free RPG, SES, will reveal that. But for a modern, covert military game, will rules-light work? Will the abstract combat system scratch the itch?

Part of me still thinks I need a crunchy system to run modern military. Although it was what I chose to run my Spec Ops game for Games on Demand at Gen Con 2011—which never did get played—I’m left concerned that even True20 is too light. When I started thinking up this campaign—and no, I won’t be getting into the specifics of this new campaign in this post—I was thinking about using Spycraft 2.0. I would, of course, use a hacked version . . . because that’s what I do. Covertcraft, if you will.

But why does modern military need to be crunchy? I used to be the same way with historical games. My initial thought for Kiss My Axe—my soon to be released RPG of Viking mayhem—was to go somewhat crunchy, something on the level of True20. For some reason which I have been unable to elucidate, robust rules seemed necessary for a historical game. Chris Groff—the man whose superpower is to break games—challenged me on that, saying a hack of Sword Noir would work fine.

That made me ask myself what I was trying to accomplish with KMA, and how I could meet that goal. It made me list my inspirations. That led me to the realization that what I really wanted was a game that delivered cinematic excitement, and that led me to realize I didn’t need robust rules at all. A hack of Sword Noir it is!

So now I’m wondering what I want to do with this modern campaign. Knowing that no game I would wish to run can provide any level of “realism”—whatever the heck that actually means when applied to an RPG—and knowing that I’m not really seeking “realism” anyway, I’m forced to once again reconsider my intentions.

What the heck am I trying to achieve in this campaign?

Stay tuned as I try to figure that out.

You can find Covert Forces Redux here.

You can find lots of other modern military stuff here.

You can still have a gander at d20 Modern, if you have not yet examined it.

And you can find SES for free here.

I posted the pre-gens for the Games on Demand Spec Ops game at SEP.

Both True20 and Spycraft 2.0 are excellent games, just no longer the kind of games I want to run.

Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death should be out soon. You can find more information here.

Go buy Sword Noir: A Role-Playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery here.

Gen Con proved to me that I’m still having issues with two of my personal—and linked—failings: my shyness and my attendant inability to sell my wares.

If you met me at Gen Con and I seemed a little distant or somehow removed, that’s not because I’m arrogant or anti-social, it’s because I am actually painfully shy. People who listen to the podcast likely have a hard time believing that. Actually, most of my friends have a hard time believing it. It’s something I’ve known about for as long as I can remember, and something I’ve attempted to address in my own way—usually by overcompensating. This Gen Con, though, reminded me that in uncertain social scenarios or when dealing with people I don’t know, I tend to withdraw.

Take the Media Meet & Greet on Saturday night, hosted by the Pulp Gamer podcast. At first, I hung back, talking to only people I knew, hovering in a safe area away from the main crowd. I made myself complete a circuit of the venue once, but didn’t really connect or greet anyone I didn’t already know.

Why am I telling you this? Just in case we met at Gen Con and I came off as arrogant or anti-social. Others in social situations sometimes perceive shy people in these ways. Trust me, I’m not arrogant—though I can play up to that if it will get a laugh—and also trust me that I did not mean to offend.

A corollary to this is that I find it really hard to pimp my own stuff. I can pimp other people’s stuff all day long. I’ll tell you why you need to play Old School Hack or buy Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3e. But when it comes to getting you to put down money for Sword Noir or Kiss My Axe, I suck. It’s part shyness, sure, but it’s also overweening humility that I can’t tell you how awesome my stuff is, and I certainly can’t push it on you.

Why am I telling you this? I still have a few copies of Kiss My Axe: the Quick and Dirty Gen Con Edition lying around. Now, the actual product is going to be a few weeks at the very least coming out, and likely longer due to the print proofing process, so if you are interested in Kiss My Axe, and are willing to do a review for your podcast, site, or blog, let me know and I’ll see about getting a copy to you.

Gen Con was awesome. Everyone was great. And I learned that maybe I haven’t overcome my personal issues as well as I had hoped. Fun and self-knowledge: that’s a win.

This is as good as I can get at pimping: please buy Sword Noir here.

So one of the reasons Sword’s Edge has suffered so much is that I’ve been neck deep in projects all aimed at Gen Con 2011.

For those of you not in the know–and I have a hard time believing anyone who reads this blog is not in the know–Gen Con is a convention for role-playing, boardgames, and general geekery. I was lucky enough to attend in 2008 and will be doing so in 2011 as well.

One of the projects I was working on was the Quick and Dirty Gen Con Edition of Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death, a Viking role-playing game which uses a version of the Sword’s Edge System, also used for Sword Noir: a Role-Playing game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery. The other two projects are one-shot adventures to run at Gen Con.

Just in case you aren’t keeping up with my Gen Con 2011 schedule posted at Sword’s Edge Publishing, I plan to be at Games On Demand, which one can find at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Pennsylvania Station C (which is a ballroom set aside for Gen Con gaming). Look for me on Thursday August 4 at 10:00 to 14:00 and Saturday August 6 at 10:00 to 14:00. I’ll have one-shots for both Sword Noir and Kiss My Axe. If I get a couple of people, I’ll be running a game, but I max out at 6.

You can find more information about Gen Con here.

My Gen Con schedule is here.

You can find Sword Noir: a Role-playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery here.

You can find the Sword’s Edge System and lots of other awesome products here.

Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death will be debuting at Gen Con with print copies of the “Quick and Dirty Gen Con” edition.

Can you . . .

-ahem- This post is going to have language which may offend some. You have been warned.

Can you fucking believe it? One of my RPG products was plagiarized. For those of you who know me from my RPG stuff, you’ll like know Sword Noir. If you know me through my fiction, Sword Noir is an RPG based on a genre I try to write to, the same genre as “A Pound of Dead Flesh” in Black Gate #15.

Some jackhole plagiarized basically the entire text, threw in a few new paragraphs, wrapped it up in a shittily designed package, and had people pay him real cash money to own it.

People do this? There are seriously people who can sleep at night by stealing creative ideas and the expression of those ideas and passing them off as one’s own?

I rant about this to a greater extent over at the SEP website.

Still kind of in shock. Time to eat some apple cake and have an evening coffee.

You can buy Sword Noir here.

You can buy Black Gate # 15 here.

You may have seen this over at the SEP site, but if I’m going to pimp, I’m doin’t it strong, so here she be again. SEP just released its first adventure for Sword Noir: A Role-Playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery called the Kheufer Scrolls. In this adventure, the PCs find themselves caught up in the search for scrolls belonging to the ancient necromancer Kheufer. Allies, enemies and the unknown all intersect as the sand runs through the hourglass and the plans of an ancient power, long thought dead, move toward fruition.

The Kheufer Scrolls is a 34 page PDF including 5 maps and 10 pages of narrative characters. It is designed for up to six starting characters. While the adventure does not require the use of Sword Noir, the narrative characters and some situations are based on that system and would require modification to use with another system.

You can expect a second Sword Noir adventure in September 2011. This is going to be a version of the one-shot which I will be running for various people at Gen Con. Also in August or September, Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death will be available. An adventure for KMA will soon follow in October or November 2011.

You can buy the Kheufer Scrolls here.

You can buy Sword Noir here.