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Loviatar's 9th issue does!

So somewhere in the shuffle of stuff I did not post my thoughts on the latest issue of Loviatar.  To you not so smart people who have not subscribed to it, get an automatic +1 boost in Intelligence for doing so.  And there is a cumulative 10% of each issue read your Wisdom will increase. 

I reread it recently and think its Christian's strongest offering.  The entire issue is dedicated to another hex.  Hex 005 to be exact.  It is a very, very cool hex.  As a GM you have a lot to play around with, a lot of intricate relationships going on coupled with some great detailed locations.  I won't go into too much detail because I'd rather you experience it in Christian's words.

The best part.  There is a sequence in the Knockers tunnels that fucking rocks.  It is seriously good stuff.

I would be a bad person if I didn't mention the incredible artwork of Jay Penn.  He's done all the artwork for the issues, but he really out did himself in this issue.  Look at that cover if you don't believe me.  Tell me Morgan Stringman doesn't look like he couldn't shoot the pucker out of a gnat.  I dare you.  Jay also has a handful of excellent interior art pieces that elevates the already great setting.

Yeah, I know sounds like a lovefest.  I don't care.  It's a great issue.  Probably my favorite.  Great job Christian.  Looking forward to the Cthulhu stuff.

The Cover of Issue #2

I took off some time this weekend to play Secret World (MMO) and think its good.  It'll be released in June.  Also during the weekend I was fill out some orders for the first issue of The Manor and talking to a couple people about the second.  And jotting down ideas for future issues.  I've got a mock cover made for the second issue made and more than half of the second issue is written I just need to edit it.  Boy does it need it. 

This charming guy was drawn by Emily.  Someone I work with.  During a boring training she started doodling portraits of the bored people around us.  Afterward I asked if she would like to help out.  She was part of my newbie group and jumped at the idea.  

A few post ago I did one on map comparisons featuring Hugo's Healing Potions.  Well, meet the lovely face of Hugo.  In the second issue you will get a fully developed specialty healing shop you can plop into any fantasy type campaigns.  Includes the map, personalities involved, shop description and adventure hooks.  And probably my favorite feature of it is my Random Customer table.  So when the players walk into the shop, it has a life going on.

Those of you who received the first issue and like Oren's Boots should really like this entry.  Both are version of the way the old CityBooks from Flying Buffalo used to make.  I've always been a huge fan that series.  So Hugo's Healing Potions and Oren's Boots are my tip of the hat to them. 

First Dungeons and a Thank You to Mom

First dungeons.  The discovery that got me started in developing dungeons was a graph paper tablet I found in my mother's supply closet at her office.  I'd never seen one before.  Didn't know they existed.  Holy crap, I just found gold.  I asked if I could have it and she said of course.  Armed with a ruler and pencil I drew dungeon map after dungeon map. 

After I finished a few dozen maps I chose the maps with the best personality and started room descriptions.  There was no logic or theme to the dungeons, just rooms with monsters and loot.  Blink dogs next to a room of ogres next to a hallway of Type 2 demons with an alcove where Beelzebub lounged.  Didn’t matter how ridiculous it was, it was cool.  I was doing it.  I was making dungeons.

With map mapped, descriptions described, I thought I was ready but it didn’t feel right.  Back into my mother’s supply closet I went.  Good god all mighty, a box of manila folders.  She said take them.  So I borrowed her stapler and stapled my map to the inside of the folder.  There was room on the other side.  So I made up a wandering monster table on her electric typewriter and stapled it there. I set the folder on its side and wa-la, I had a cardboard screen just like those TSR modules.

I walked the school halls with my homemade modules waiting for a study hall to break them out.  I had one dungeon called the Taps Six Dungeon.  It got kinda famous in my school.  Everyone wanted to go through it.  They wanted to know what the name meant.  I just smiled and said there is only one way to find out.  Actually, it didn’t mean a damn thing. I just thought it was a cool name.

So thanks to the supply closet at my mom’s office, my career in developing dungeons then eventually world building started.  And being that it's Mother’s Day, I want to give a huge thanks to you mom, for allowing me to raid your office closet, and understanding and allowing me to indulge in this weird hobby I really love.

Breaking My Stuff Again and Subscription?

It is Saturday and my string of things not working continue.  For what ever reason Skype has decided it is not going to work.  Won't connect to the net.  It stopped working after it insisted I upgrade.  How many folks are sick of 'upgrades' that completely screw up a perfectly fine program?  And my graphics on my computer are wonky.

Where I live I need to drive 35 to 40 minutes to a store that sells a graphics card.  The Staples nearby has two, but they are low end cards that have less umph than the one I bought five years ago that just croaked.  So its Best Buy bound I go or just do Amazon.  I'm too impatient though and will probably brave the Mother's Day weekend traffic in Erie. 

Gaming stuff has been going superb.  Many are grabbing a copy of The Manor and writing posts.  I've got most of them linked on my THE MANOR page above.  If you wrote a review of it and I missed it please just put the link in the comment section.  Even if thought it was a steaming pile of crap I'll still link to it.  Sales continue to be steady.

THE MANOR ERRATA

• There was one embarrassing typo, I misspelled  Trey Causey's last name in the credits.  So if you will please get out a fine marker and put in the 'u'.  All copies have the correction.
• Another slight change that has been made is the original title font has returned.  The font matches the title of my blog. 

Second issue is progressing.  I am considering doing a subscription, but it would be issue based and not monthly.  Where as I can promise you 4 or 6 issues, I can't promise they would be monthly.  Two may come out the same month and there might be 6 or 8 week in between.    

I have some fun ideas coming up for future issues.  Just me having fun with the whole zine thing.  I saw something last night that got me excited for a future issue.  Within the next week or so I should have some stuff to show for the next issue and news about possible subscription.  As always I will toss it out there to of you would you like to have a subscription be available as an option?

Have a great Saturday.  Oh, and a special thanks to Ray B. for being my first Canadian print customer.  I'm headed to the post office now.

The Manor Hits 50

Just got a few more sales in today and as of this moment I've sold 50 issues of The Manor.  Thanks to everyone who has bought an issue.  I appreciate the support and look forward to putting out the second issue.

As it stands I've sold 25 print copies and 25 PDFs.  This surprises me a little I figured the print would outsell the PDF by a good margin, but it seems that many people prefer the electronic version.  I'm glad I made the choice to offer it in PDF.

Everyone who has ordered a print copy, all been sent in the mail.  Even those who have just ordered.  I like any kind of sale, but I get a bit of a rush printing a copy, constructing the zine, putting it in the envelop and putting a creepy butterfly stamp on it.  Feels good and with each issue I send a batch of good mojo.  No charge.

Game Night Recap or Three Woodies and Chest of Silver

Game night went well on Monday.  Had the full crew for half the session.  Actually the bard came in right when the players discovered 2.6 million silver.  But I get ahead of myself.

Boog sees Boog.

Bad Boog is leading chant of chanters.

Weird circle in the middle.

Party says 'this is crap' and attacks.

Battle, battle.

Wound.  Blood.

Ah oh!  Players are being absorbed into monster that look like them.

Ewww.

Boog fails.

Corum fails.

Boog sucked inside bad Boog can't get out.

Corum's holy necklace blows up.  Bad Corum goes away.

Grim smart.  Knocks over font. 

Boom.

Wipes out all bad versions of the party.

Except bad Boog.

Boog fail save for third time.

Boog now looks like bad Boog.

Instead of half-orc, Boog is full orc.

Boog mad, but then gets scared.

Boog never gets scared, but scared now..

Death god says Boog is paladin.  Lump it orc.

Boog not happy.

Death god don't care.

Fast forward through boring talking part.

Find 2.6 million in silver.

Grim pops a woody.

Boog pops a woody.

Corum tries not to pop a woody, but fails.

Try to leave, but party outside cast fireball.

Retreat!

Go the other way.

Weird room with numbers and a dead dwarf.

Room worries party.

Goes to leave.

Party sees three War Wights stalking toward them.

GM end game.

Boog, Grim and Corum loose their woodies.  

Random Ramblings on a Rainy Monday Morning

After a day of breaking everything I touched, computer, ipod, xbox, mower and weedwacker I'm hoping all that bad mojo has left me.  At least I got everything back up and running again. Game night is tonight and by god we got the whole group back or so I hope.  The crew is in the middle of the Burrowmaze, with adjustments of mine.  The encounter we left off at should be very interesting to pick up from.  I can't write too much or prying eyes will search for spoilers.

Everyone is singing the praises about the Avengers and I'm hoping to see it soon.  I'll wait for the hysteria to die down a bit before I go.  I'm sure this goes without saying, I really hate going to movies these days because people still feel the need to talk or text on their fucking phones.  I think bad thoughts when I'm watching a cool scene and the next thing I see from below or to the side some guy flipped open his phone and some god awful music starts playing as a ringtone.

I've been researching a new MMO that looks awesome, Secret World.  If you are so inclined, Google it and watch the videos.  I've been looking for a modern day setting world I could get into and this one seems to fit the bill perfectly.  Now I have to get a new video card or computer.  Two blue screens in one week...not good.

I'm working on the second issue of The Manor.  Sale of the first one went well this weekend.  I was hoping to get a few more, but I'm hoping once these red covered beauties start landing in mailboxes a few more will go out.  I'm doing a different layout for the second issue.  I'm working out the bugs.  I don't know why I have such problems with page numbers.  They hate me.

Off to work.  Game night tonight.  Looking forward to it.

Stoned Sleestak Sunday

 

This is what a sleestak would look like if it got a peek at a medusa.  Brought to you by the excellence of Spanglerart. I need to find some cool sleestak paraphernalia around my desk.  A cool statue would do the trick.

The Manor is chugging along.  Hit #5 on RPGNow and will send out a 3rd batch of zines tomorrow morning.  I'm already working on the second issue.  Although when I did I got another blue screen fatal error on my computer.  It spent some time repairing.  No idea.  I think I need to look at a new computer. 

Have a great Sleestak Sunday.  It's actually nice here so I need to mow.  I want to invent grass that only grows two inches tall.

The Creepy Butterfly

Headed to the post office to drop off a batch of issues.  Through the assistance of Christian and my main man at post office I discovered 2oz seems to be the gold weight to be under.  The Manor at 24 pages with cover and envelope weigh in at 1.7oz.  This allows me to ship to the 'all over the place' without having to fill out customs papers.  In the US its 65 cents.  I bought these cool stamps.  Creepy butterfly stamps.  I never knew they had 65 cent stamps.  I'm glad they do and I'm glad they are creepy.  They remind me of the mothman.  Sending The Manor out to the rest of the world is a little under two bucks give or take a cent.  I don't know what it costs to ship to Canada yet because none of them have order one *looking north and giving it the stink eye*.

This whole thing has been a great learning experience.  For me and Ivy.  I think helping me last night got her to thinking about doing a self-published cookbook.

I see The Manor is already #12 on RPGNow which is always great to see.  I have no idea how they figure that out.  For some reason I don't think it's based on number of sales, but how much money was made.

Anyway, I'm in need to get to the office of the post.  To those who ordered a print copy, keep en eye out for the creepy butterfly.

Issue 1 of The Manor is Available on PDF

I was able to get it uploaded without too many problems this morning.  One question that popped up is when the PDF is DLed why is it regular sized instead of booklet.  I use a booklet printing feature on my printer.  You can find the PDF version of The Manor here.

For the PDF I broke it down into two files.  One for the guts and one file for the cover.  I found this worked best because when I tried to combine the two files too many weird things happened. 

MAILING SCHEDULE
For those who ordered a print copy, those will be going out tomorrow. 

KNOWLEDGE ILLUMINATES UPDATE
While I was on RPGNow playing around with my account I saw Knowledge Illuminates reached Silver Medal status. 

WEEKEND UPDATE
I am so glad I have the next two days off! 

The Manor Issue 1 on Sale

It's done.  The print version is available and I'll get the PDF ready by tonight.  I lot of work went into this project with help from some very good people. I can't count how many times I tweaked it trying to get it right.  I think I'm done.  If you are so inclined, please take a look and I hope its useful or more importantly fun to read.  I'm excited about releasing the first issue.

You can buy the print copy only on this blog.  You can click the cover in the upper left hand corner or go to THE MANOR page under the banner.

The PDFs will be available at RPGNow later today.  And possibly Lulu.

Have a great day everyone and I hope you enjoy The Manor.

The Dimension that Jack Built

Or I should say Trey built.

Last night, the full Weird Adventures crew gathered together after a few weeks of spotty attendance.  We continued our search for John Vandemaur.  We are trying to recover his body, but in truth we have no idea if he is even dead.  Boris has some thoughts...

Our investigation picked up with a visit to the Magic Library.  Creskin and Don looked through a book I couldn't read.  Looking at those two you would think they were a couple Nancy boys who would be terrified to piss in public.  But they got an edge.  Creskin tore out a page from a book.  Wild man.  That page ended up being some sort of door into a some sort of secret realm of Indrid Bliss. 

We went in and there were holes in the floor with nothing but night sky filling them.  A floating giant head that mumbled and spit acid at Creskin.  It popped when I planted a bullet between its eyes.  Don was fascinated by the doors.  He was looking through one door and could see the back of us.  He kept doing it.  Never seen a man so interested in looking at his own ass before.  

There was a door in the ceiling.   For them being mages they never seem to have a spell that helps.  I got a ladder from the hardware store nearby.  I forgot what happened next.  But we all got up there eventually into this other room.  Indrid's place.  We looked around.  Found some financial papers, a picture and another glowing orb.  I've grown fond of those orbs.  They keep the gargoyles away.

When we tried to leave.  Indrid was there.  He was pissed, but backed off when Creskin threatened to destroy it.  He keeps saying stuff that worries me.  Like before he vanished he said we might not be able to handle his beacon.  I'm guessing not.  He did tell us that body we found is a botched sacrifice.  Amateur hour he said.  Another dead end.  For being dead, Johnny V is one slippery SOB.

Now Urania Vandamaur, the reining queen of the wealth family, wishes to speak with us.  I've been clubbed by ghouls, attacked by gargoyles, bitten by hellish imps and traveled in a dimension of confusion, but now I got to do the hardest thing I've had to do since this investigation started...buy a tie.

Map Time! Comparisons

A while back I wrote a couple of projects around shops.  I developed shops, populated them and then added adventure hooks.  A direct rip off of the CityBooks.  Those were always one of my favorite gaming series.  Anyway, the first one in the series is called Hugo's Healing Potions.  I'll give you three guesses what he sells.  Anyway I created a map then had Rob redo it.  I did mine in Paint again.  Just the simple draw a line and spray can modes.  And Rob did his in Corel Draw something.

This one is mine.  The color pallet was limited so that's why all the weird hospital green.  I only see that color in hospital scrubs.  All that pinkish stuff is the work room with the alchemist in a rush there is not much time for cleaning.

Here's the one Rob did.  Nice lines, but the scale is a bit wonky I just noticed.  It would make those bets 7.5' long.

Hugo will be in the 2nd issue of The Manor.  Yes, I am already working on the second issue. I just saw them side by side in my folder and thought is would be cool to post them together.  Cheers.

Issue #1 of the Manor at the Proof Readers

Despite having a stupid ass head cold, again, I managed to get through my last go through with the text and layout last night.  Game night was cancelled due to lack of players so it worked out for me and gave me the extra time I needed. 

One of the weird problems I ran into was I had an invisible page two.  It was there, but didn't show up.  It was screwing up my page count.  I wanted to get to 24 pages and it kept saying I had 25.  If I had any hair I would have pulled and pulled, but instead when I am about to recycle my computer I give Rob a call and he figured it out quick enough.  Whew.  I have no idea how to find an invisible page.  I think that was my first encounter with one.  So I earned some much needed Word experience points.  I don't think I leveled, but I'm close.  I could use some extra hit points.

I tweaked the text for rural PA.  I wrestled with that piece more than the others.  But I've got it now I think.   Overall, I am very happy with the result.  Now I have to be patient and wait for proofreaders to tell me my screw ups.  I would tell them to forgo any family time, skip doctor appointments and even hold it for bathroom time so they can get through it quicker, but I can't.  Can't I?  Okay maybe just skip Aunt Regina's funeral.  You didn't much like her any way.

As soon as they finish with the proof and I fix my screw ups I'll be figuring out how to sell this thing.  Here's my plan again.  I plan to sell the print copy directly from my blog and PDFs from RPGNow and Lulu.  My prices will be as follows:
Print: $3.50 in USA
         $4 Canada
         $4.50 for the rest of the world
PDFs will be $2.50. 

I thought about doing a delayed PDF, but I really don't see the point right now.  If I can get everything to work (and that is the key) they will be released at the same day.  I encourage people to buy the print copy.  If for no other reason to justify me buying a beautiful new printer I call Hugo.  Plus I'm looking forward to using my long stapler and playing with the envelopes and card stock and...  Sorry, just geek out for a moment. 

Timeline for the release you ask.  I am hoping this weekend.  Saturday is what I'm shooting for.  I'm stoked.