Quick update

Writing has been coming out in drips and drabs. I finally finished my first stab at the outline for the novella, and now I have the lovely wife reading it over to provide feedback. My next deadline is to get a first draft of the outline plus the first chapter to the publisher by early September.

Submissions are still floating out in limbo. I haven’t had time to ping any of the markets to find out if they had any interest.

The next issue of Arcane Magazine, which might be when my story “Kiss of Death” will appear, has been pushed back from July to October due to poor sales of the first issue. I’m a little surprised that they expected to break even with the first issue, but I also know little of the publishing end of things. All I’ve successfully done as the owner of a small business is run it into the ground.

I’m also considering consolidating my gaming blog into this blog, and mirroring it all into bolthy.com. I’m open to any feedback you might have for this.

Scion: Diceless?

I’ve been poking around Scion books for the last few weeks. This started because I came up with the final game I’d like to run at AmberCon Northwest. Just as I ran a diceless Exalted: Dragon-Blooded game at AmberCon in Michigan, I want to try and run a diceless version of a game where I love the setting but find the rules frustrating. I’ve got a rough frame work for what I’m thinking, so I thought I’d toss it out there for people to respond to.

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Norwescon 34 Recapitude

Over Easter Weekend, I attended our local convention of geeky goodness: Norwescon. I had a much better time this year than last, due in large part to seeing people I know throughout the event. With all the workshops and writer events and conventions I’ve gone to, I’ve managed to connect with a lot of really awesome writerly types. So I had no lack of cool people to stop and chat with throughout the weekend.

Now, for the rest of the recap.

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AmberCon US 2011 Recap

Once again, the soon-to-be-wife and I flew out to beautiful, scenic Livonia, MI, to spend four days drinking deep from the well of playing make believe in an Embassy Suites while a couple wedding receptions raged in the background. That’s right: Ambercon.

Here’s the recap.

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Games for Ambercon

I need to get game submissions for AmberCon US turned in pretty damn quick, so I figured I’d post them here for people to review and offer feedback.

Title: Rebma Confidential: Undercurrent

Description: It rose up from the oceanic trench, a dark holdover from primordial times: Long needle like teeth, large eyes the size of saucers, an appendage tipped with a bioluminescent nodule dangled in front of its face. Smaller fish trailed in its wake. It didn’t belong in water this shallow, but it also didn’t care.

“Steve,” it growled, its voice tinny underwater.

“F’Kilk,” I said, using only its name as a greeting. “Long time no see.”

“Not long enough. I got your message. I’m here. Start talking before I get hungry.”

“I heard you found one of Caine’s ships at the bottom of one of your trenches, from when Corwin attacked.”

“I might, I might not. What’s it to you?”

“My patron thinks Caine may have left something valuable behind, and is willing to pay handsomely for its retrieval.”

“Keep talking, monkey. You’ve got me curious.”

Setting: Rebma, between the Corwin and Merlin series.

Genre: Mystery

Type: Traditional Amber

Format: Tabletop/Traditional

Character Instructions: Rebma is a hard realm where death comes easy, especially in the poor parts of town. All types can be found living in the rough parts of the city: criminals, Amber nobles looking for a piece of strange, political refugees, migrant demons from the Courts of Chaos and squamous entities from the pelagic depths. They live and die in perpetual water and darkness, struggling to find their way in a harsh land of predators and prey. This game is a gritty, street level game set in the poor parts of Rebma where the players will get caught up in intrigue, vice and murder. My hope is to have this be a character-driven mystery game. It will use a simple character creation system to build characters. Characters created before the Con will have more perks than those created at the Con. Because I build the game around the characters, your ability to enjoy this game will be severely impacted by not providing a character in advance. Players must have e-mail access.


Title: Land of Ten-Thousand Dragons

Description: For seven hundred years, the Scarlet Empress has ruled over the Blessed Isle. She has kept the forces of darkness at bay, and established over a dozen Great Houses populated by her descendants. But the Scarlet Empress has been missing five years, just as the evils of the past return to Creation. Will her scions keep Creation from descending into chaos and darkness.

Setting: The Blessed Isle of Creation, as described in the Exalted roleplaying game.

Genre: Mystery

Type: Non-Amber

Format: Tabletop/Traditional

Character Instructions: Characters will be Dragon-Blooded members of the Scarlet Empire, representing the different factions. There will be a mystery that the characters will be drawn into that will need to be solved. Characters will be built on a diceless system based off of Amber Diceless but not using the same attributes and powers.


Title: Worlds’ End

Description: You were travelling. You remember that. A storm came up out of nowhere and you were soon lost. As the world fell apart around you, you saw a light ahead and found a rustic inn that provided shelter. But the denizens of the inn, who filled the inn to the rafters, were nothing you found in your own world. Fairies, spacemen, talking dogs, demons, centaurs, sentient colors. To pass the time, each takes turn telling a story.

Setting: The inn called “Worlds’ End” during the reality storm of Patternfall War.

Genre: Other; N/A

Type: Amber with a Twist

Format: Tabletop/Traditional

Character Instructions: Drawing heavy inspiration from the “Worlds’ End” story from Sandman, player characters will be stranded travelers staying at the Inn and waiting for the storm to stop. The game will use the indie game In a Wicked Age, with each story representing a story told by a player character. That player character will get to sway the structure of the story through his character’s point-of-view, and may also play his character in the story. All stories must be a story that involves some sort of interaction with Amber and/or Chaos. Add the end of the game, Oberon’s funeral procession will pass by and the storm will end.