Six bucks.

Six bucks today gets you the PDF download of Shambles the day it’s available for release (it’s gonna be soon. Darn soon).

You can go here for details, or if you’ve heard enough, jump right in.

All you Twitter and Blogger and RPGBN types, I could use all the love you can spare on this.

Six bucks. I bet you’ve paid more for a sandwich. Nobody reads sandwiches. Not anymore, anyway.

I spent some time since last week’s update reflecting on some of the things in this list. When I first put this list together, I wanted a list of ten things. What this ultimately meant was I put a couple things on the list that I have been wanting to work on, but hadn’t in a while.

Since then, a couple other projects have gotten some life and energy, while other projects have gone virtually untouched since I added them to this list.

In light of that, I am creating three lists: On The Table (active projects), In The Closet (mothballed projects), and In The Trophy Case (completed projects). This will allow me to keep track of inactive projects, and track things on which I am actively working. Right now, the Trophy Case is empty. But I’m going to list it anyway.

On The Table:

1. Shambles – I still expect to see a finished download this week. I was told of the cover “It is going to be so awesome you will pee kittens of pure joy.”
2. Codename: Obnoxious Howler Monkey – Unchanged. I still have all the parts for it, I just need to sit down and assemble.
3. Codename: Simulated Jocular Anaconda – I was in contact with one of the principles behind this project, specifically inquiring about deadlines. I was not given any, which is good and bad. Sunday will be entirely devoted to sitting down somewhere and writing for this project.
4. Shambles Source Material – Unchanged
5. Codename: Unwashed Repeat Pedestrian – Unchanged.
6. Codename: Enormous Intersected Automaton – Unchanged.
7. Codename: Gremlin Persistent Malice – I circled back with the freelancers who did some work for this, paying the ones who needed paying and securing the necessary rights to the works in question. Next step will be to integrate them and see what still needs to be done.
8. NEW Codename: Big Audio Dynamite – I put out some feelers on this, to see if it was feasible.
9. NEW Codename: Pandoran Apothecary Chest – I had a conversation with someone about launching this project, and we have an informal appointment to discuss the particulars over dinner.
10. NEW Codename: First Rural Delusions – This is a proposal that was accepted, but one I have not worked on. I need to get it worked out.

In The Closet

1. Codename: Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda – I was informed that the work required from me on this project has been completed. It’s not “done” yet, and won’t be “done” (as in, ready for production or purchase) until next year. I am putting this in the closet, until they need something else from me or until I can discuss the project further. Mothballed 10/28/09.
2. Codename: Cackle Smash Soup – Mothballed 10/28/09
3. Codename: Tactical Plastic Laser – Mothballed 10/28/09

In The Trophy Case

Nothing. It’s empty. For now.

Excuse Of The Week: I spent several hours doing major server work to change my hosting package. It was work that needed doing, but it did take up a chunk of time.

Without going into details, we suffered an unfortunate setback this weekend. I had hoped to be announcing a release today, but instead I am posting this notice that we’re still delayed, and it’ll be up when it’s done. That should still be soon.

If anyone out there has connections in the realm of Voodoo or Santeria, we would take it as a great kindness if you would kill a chicken on our behalf.

I am, in the meanwhile, attempting to conjure up a wonderful giveaway for release day. I think I’m pretty close to a good package, but I’d be interested to hear what any of you may have to say. What makes a good giveway to celebrate the launch of Shambles?

I’ve made a bunch of hosting changes over the last couple days. If anyone notices anything not working or unusual, please let me know.

Thanks!

It goes something like this.

I want to put together an album of music for gaming. Specifically, I want to put together an album of electronic music suitable to background music when running a Paranoia game (or other SciFi type games).

In my head, the music sounds something like this track from Zombie Zombie (the video, by the way, is f’n awesome).

I don’t see this as a money-making project. Just a cool project. I’d like to be able to sell the album electronically, maybe do a run of limited edition CDs, and then once the album has more or less broken even, release the tracks using a Creative Commons license.

I know there’s plenty of stuff out there that could easily be used as gaming background music. I have some favorites myself, and old SciFi soundtracks are a great source. But I think this could still work, and be interesting.

I haven’t done “proper” music in years and years, so it’s not like I can do this myself. I know some musicians, but not a lot of electronic ones. And I don’t want to get wrapped up in royalties and the like, because I don’t want the book keeping headaches.

So, what I’m looking for is musicians who are willing to put together tracks for the album and release them to me using a commercial CC license. This means they keep their own rights and ownership, but I can use them for the album, with the intent to later release the whole album using a non-commercial CC license.

The feedback I need:

1 – Do you think it’s a cool project?
2 – If you are a musician, would you be interested in participating?
3 – If so, would money need to change hands, and how much?
4 – If you are a musician and think I’m out of my frakking mind, why?
5 – Is there a better way to do this?
6 – Would you buy an album like this at a reasonable price?
7 – What do you normally use for background music when you are gaming?

Leave comments below, or if you like you can email me by clicking the ‘webmaster’ link in the lower right corner.

I can’t actually believe it’s a month since I did this. That’s going to make this update all the more embarrassing.

1. Shambles – All the art is in, the layout guy is hard at work, and we should see a finished product available for download by next week!
2. Codename: Obnoxious Howler Monkey – Unchanged
3. Codename: Simulated Jocular Anaconda – Unchanged
4. Codename: Insignificant Diversionary Anaconda – Unchanged.
5. Shambles Source Material – Unchanged
6. Codename: Unwashed Repeat Pedestrian – Unchanged.
7. Codename: Enormous Intersected Automaton – Unchanged.
8. Codename: Gremlin Persistent Malice – Unchanged
9. Codename: Cackle Smash Soup – Unchanged.
10. Codename: Tactical Plastic Laser – Unchanged.

Excuse Of The Week: None. I have no excuse. I’ve not touched any of the outstanding projects, except for Shambles, in almost a month. Things have been a little busy, but I haven’t been making time for projects either. I’d like to say I’ve been sinking all my time into Shambles, and to a degree that’s true, but in a month, I could have gotten something done, and I didn’t.

I will be offering electronic downloads of Shambles products through DriveThruRPG

This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who already buys and sells electronic copies of RPGs online, but it may come as a surprise to anyone who knows me that I didn’t spend a stupid amount of time rolling my own shopping cart and selling the product myself.

I thought about putting up the free preview edition I did before Dundracon a couple years ago, for free download, but given the stylistic change between that edition and the one that’s coming out in a few days, I thought it would be better to wait. Not to mention, I’ve moved domains since that edition was done, and I’d rather not put that up for download.

But, I put in the MP3 of Floyd The Mailman that I recorded for the DVD that I inserted into the free prerelease (didn’t know about that, didja!) and you can download it for free for… well, probably for a while.

Have a listen.

(Sorry all, it’s not been the best month for updates. Was sick last week, but will try to get back on the horse, starting with this.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to report that I now have all the outstanding art for Shambles! The last piece came in the week before last. While the piece below isn’t the last piece, it’s the one I’m showing you for now.

This is a HUGE step forward. Shambles has been unfinished for so long chiefly due to a lack of art, at this point it’s just a matter of plugging it all together.

That’s where the bad news comes in.

Yesterday, my layout guy experienced a near-catastrophic hardware failure, that has set Shambles back some number of days. I had wanted to be releasing by now, and at this point it’s going to be a race to get Shambles completed by Halloween.

Wish us luck.

(Holy crap, it’s really been almost two weeks? I suck badly. Prepare for a flurry of updates)

So I’m starting a game next week (or the following week) that’s going to be very interesting. It draws heavily from a number of books I haven’t read (the Un Lun Dun books) and one that I have (Neverwhere).

My friend and I were told we could be anything we wanted to be, so long as we could pass for human when walking down the street if we put on the old “big coat, hat and glasses” disguise.

My friend’s suggestion was that one of us should play a Hat, and the other one should play a Coat. After pointing out the difficulties that would arise should one of us fail to turn up one week, we decided to go with being empty, animate clothes.

So, we went to the GM, and came up with some good character concepts. I can’t draw for a damn, but I want a character drawing. Thing is, I blew all my art money on Shambles art (oh yes), hookers and blow.

So I decided to make it a Twitter type contest. Draw my character, and if I like the drawing, you will win a dollar. One genuine US dollar, delivered virtually and electronically, to your paypal address. There is no time limit, and I may award more than one prize. Mostly, I just want a drawing of this character. And I have like a dollar. Email me your entries, or comment below telling people where to find them,

Name: Professor Donegal Tweed

When people string washing across the alleyways of London, bits of the washing tend to blow away. Sometimes you’ll find a coat or stockings laying on the ground, but most of the time, the blown bits of washing just never turn up.

There is a strange place, where these bits of washing fly up into the sky, and circle like a great flock of passenger pigeons. It is from this great flock that Professor Donegal Tweed was formed, from bits of clothing hand selected by the Bureau. Professor Tweed awoke on a great table, and instructed to find a specific someone and serve as their protector.

Were you to undress Professor Tweed, what you’d see is a sort of lumpy, shirt-and-sock filled faceless voodoo doll made from the cloth that is his namesake. Fully clothed, he wears a large, heavy, high collared overcoat, hard-wearing dark canvas slacks, hunting boots, large dark goggles, a scarf, gloves and an Irish walking hat. What you might be able to see of his ‘skin’ would easily be mistake for bandages (though there would be very little left uncovered by his outfit. In his front breast pocket, a fine pair of scissors would be just visible.

Feel like taking a crack at it? Let me know.

You, yes YOU, could win a dollar.