The Keyboard Speaks

Stone Horizons

2007-08-04T13:04:19Z

There is the castle and then there is the outside. They are one and the same.

The beautiful forest is home to a hunter’s lodge and flowing close by its stone foundations, a deep river flows. It meanders between both the trees of the forest and the lofty stone gazebos, open-air temples and the fifty-yard wide metal ducts that poke up periodically from the loam of the forest floor. When it reaches the forest’s edge, the river encounters only stone; gothic archways in the walls lead to corridors, leading to more passageways and yet more. The river plunges down one such passage until the vista changes to a subterranean river, lit only by torches placed at irregular intervals on the walls that frame its progress. More archways and passageways lead from the river channel, small landing areas are dotted about it, walkways sway above, bustling with denizens. Bobbing along its course is a primitive raft crafted from small bits of flotsam that have been lashed together. A dozen pairs of eyes stare from the junk at the people on the riverbank. The river next enters a large courtyard, splitting it in two. Each side of the courtyard is riddled with opening and passageways and above the waterway is storey upon storey of walkways and openings, leading to yet more passageways, and then, yet more. The river then enters a narrow tunnel, and the only company it has are the spindly beings that cling to the walls, coming and going into tiny apertures in the wall and barking excitedly at the men on the raft. The river then emerges into sunlight and a rocky channel carved into a mountainside by millennia of erosion. To each side of the channel, the castle rears again; gargoyles peer at the travellers from tall towers that dot the skyline for as far as the eye can see. Maidens watch the raft pass by wistfully, wishing to be taken away to new climes. Eventually, the flotsam raft passes from their view. Then, framed by cyclopean buildings to each side, carved and raised on a hundred mountains, with innumerable warrens, passages, mighty dwellings, sewers and a thousand other buildings hidden below each peak like the ice of an iceberg; showing only the tip of its immensity, the river and its raft pass beyond the stone horizon…To be confronted with yet another vista of crowded turrets, walkways, stone temples, barracks, covered cloisters and buildings of a hundred types; all clinging to the earth like limpets. Desert, jungle, grassy plains, icy wastes; they have all been claimed by the castle.

The river passes beyond these Stone Horizons on a journey that few take, to dump its waters into the sea. Boats dot the water here and trade, hunting and piracy take place here much like any other ocean. There is one difference though. If you can find the right ship captain at the right time in a suitable state of inebriation, he will tell you, “Across the ocean? The castle is there matey. The castle is everywhere and the castle is everything. Let’s hope whoever built it never wants it back eh?”

Welcome to Stone Horizons, where the castle is everywhere and the castle is everything!

2 for 2!

2007-07-10T12:22:30Z

Well, the ENnie award nominations have been announced and both of the things i contributed to in the last year have been nominated! The WFRP Companion for Best Supplement and the Liber Fanatica website for best fan site! So, my first forays into RPG writing have both been recognised! I was a small cog in both endeavors of course, Jude asked me to collaborate on the Companion article and i only joined the LF crew pretty late. So many congrats to Jude (and thanks for inviting me to work with you on the Trade article), Wim, Henrik, James Walkerdine and all the others who have made LF super cool for the last 2 years. Congrats also to Green Ronin and Black Industries for an impressive haul of nominations and to Steve Darlington and Jody Magregor for the impressive nomination of best writing for Children of the Horned Rat.

I feel a bit spoiled now. Will the other 3 projects i'm working on receive similar recognition next year? I doubt it very much, but i'm hugely happy with a 2 for 2 record as of this moment, so pardon me a bit of undiluted self congratulation.

Game Design ADD

2007-06-24T16:04:54Z

Not happy with writing for three current game lines, i've been tinkering with my own systems for a while now. I've only started putting a bit more effort into it in the last couple of months...and i've discovered that i get really enthused over my current project and then come up with another idea that supplants the previous one(s).

Having said all that, i'm jumping up and down with joy at my latest home-brew attempt. The mechanics i've been playing with are those that i was going to use in previous homebrews, but they have been refined and simplified a fair amount. This one just could be the one i finish. The idea took me yesterday afternoon to complete. I've done the mechanics already, have an advancement system done and am currently working on character backgrounds. Once that is done, i just need to do some explanation as to how skills work and how you assign them, a bit on equipment and then an introductory adventure. I could be done by this time next week!! (well, maybe two weeks then)

My thoughts as to the name of the game so far are either Bloodhounds or The Game is Afoot. Should give you a clue. Anyhow, i'm off to write up the Interrogation Matrix...

Winter is Coming...

2007-06-12T13:04:12Z

...and it's coming to me. Too much excitment to hold in on this one, but i'm trying. Honest. The new ASOIAF RPG from Green Ronin will be splendiferous, balls-to-the-wall and many other colourful terms.

If you want to find out some more details, check out the Green Ronin site. They have a funky forum set up just to discuss this. So head over there! What, you're still reading? Oh, a link. Sure.

http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/

The Fear of Fear

2007-05-23T14:05:25Z

Most of us play RPGs to actually play them. It's not much fun if you are forced to do something that you don't want to do. I'm thinking of things like Fear, Charms or Sugestions and the like. The stuff that essentially makes your decisions for you, removing your free will and forcing you, the player, into an avenue that you might not want to travel down.

Seems like every system that i see that has dedicated fear rules or magical effects that screw with your character are pretty much the same. You lose control for a while. Great once or twice, if annoying, and a source of roleplaying posibilities as well, but does the choice in the matter have to be removed from the player?

What if things like rolling fear checks, gaining insanities and fear spells, charm spells etc relied on the player they affected to decide what happened? Would everyone just say "oh, bollocks to that. I'm not scared!" every time? In times of need, then i expect that most times that would be the response. If you're just triggering a glyph and no-one is around then maybe people wouldn't mind so much.

So, i think that the key to putting the onus on the player and not the rules is to have incentives for the player to act according to the stimulus (or a variation on it), so that a fear spell may result in him running away during a big fight, or curling into a ball. But, this has a good effect either later down the line or right there and then. Maybe seeing their comrade go comotose sends a shot of adrenalin through the other characters; +1 to hit and damage right now! Or added movement or a Strength increase until the battle is over. Maybe the affected character gains a bonus to future rolls if he succumbs this time, maybe he discovers that he now has a sixth sense where his fear is concerned, so that he might be able to avoid it in future. Maybe it is as simple as awarding bennies for use later in the session for the player giving up control of his character because of fear or charm.

Or it might just be as simple as saying to the player that he suffers a certain amount of minuses if he chooses to disregard the effect on him, but he can act normally (with fear anyhow), then if he buckles he get rewarded like above.

The End is Nigh

2007-05-15T21:28:49Z

So, i only have 2 thousand more words to write before i'm out of freelancing jobs for the first time since, well christmas, i think. It will be odd to get home, stare at the computer and go "huh?" instead of frazzling my brain on plots, plans and the odd motivations of strange people in an imaginary world.

What comes next i wonder? One can only hope it proves diverting and stimulating. So until i have anything to report, i guess i'll fill this blog with ramblings.

Speaking of which, i haven't spoken much about Tottenham FC this year. What started as a difficult campaign ended with a great run in the league which resulted in a 5th place for the second year running. More European football next year! Huzzah! And Dimitar Berbatov rocks. Hope we can keep hold of him over the summer...

Peace out kids.

Brought to You by the Letters L & F

2007-05-10T10:44:26Z

Liber Fanatica IV has finally been released for the slavering masses of WFRP fans to lap up. It's a free pdf download available from the LF website here:

http://www.liberfanatica.net

It has all kinds of goodies in it, from an in-depth look at Altdorf University, to guidelines for library research, counterspells, a look at the celestial bodies and my own piece on the Alchemy practised by the Gold Order.

Enjoy!

Far Cry From Their Best

2007-05-04T11:11:50Z

So after a half dozen listens, i'm fairly noncommital about the new Rush album - Snakes & Arrows. Musically, some of it is bordering on great, lyrically, most of it is bordering on crap. Seems to me that the lryics get in the way of the songs. That's probably why i like the instrumentals more than the rest (mainly). Certainly not Neil's best efforts in the songwriting department and it sufers from the one good, one poor album cycle that Rush seem to have ever since Hold Your Fire really.

The exception is Spindrift, which is a cool song. Other than that, Hope and Malignant Narcissism are my favourites on the album.

Distinctly average IMO. I think i'll stick Vapour Trails back on and follow it up with Caress of Steel.

So, My Computer Went Pop Again

2007-04-30T18:37:27Z

A year, almost to the day, since my last computer totally dies on me, my 'new' one decided for some bloody reason to have a fit last week. Some garbled message about 'fatal error' and suchlike and i found that i had to restore a lot of files that had bizarely been lost. Luckily, since last year, i have been doing some backups, but still not enough, alas.

I've been hastily re-writing some stuff and hoping that it resembles what i had before the meltdown. The computer has been behaving since then, so i'm no closer to understanding why it happened.

Still some wordage to restore, so this is a brief one!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-04-25T12:23:10Z

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smokin'

2007-04-21T12:45:32Z

Been a while since i posted. I've been insanely busy writing for money! Got two new projects that are a short turnaround, finishing off some stuff for Green Ronin and done the edits on my last WFRP job. I am eagerly awaiting news on a new project that i should learn about after the GAMA trade show. What that is, who knows? But the mystery itself is exciting. I doubt i'll be able to say anything here even after i find out about it, but i'm hoping it's a goody. Things are beginning to take off a bit on the writing side. If only the money was decent...

Today Was More Fun Than Usual

2007-04-12T22:09:07Z

So after weeks of having to run around after ill parents (not that i begrudge it at all) and having it impinge on my RPG work, today that ended. Not because they have got better sadly, but because i've got worse.

What was an innocent enough early morning coughing fit suddenly had me rolling around in agony after something went twang in my back, causing silly amounts of pain and not much movement. A whole day of waiting for a doctors appointment and i've found that i've torn a muscle, damaged ligaments and displaced a rib (at the back of my chest, eek!) because of the swelling caused by the first two. I ain't gonna get much sleep or movement in for the next week or so.

On the plus side, this has given me the time to take on a new RPG freelancing gig that i'm pretty stoked about. In a strange way, i wish that i'd done this a few weeks ago so that i didn't need to let down a decent guy who i was working for. Swings and roundabouts i suppose. So for the next week or 10 days, i'm going to be high on painkillers and strap myself to my computer so that i can get much good wordage out.

So Rob Vaughn, sorry i didn't nearly kill myself at a more opportune time and Henry Lopez, really looking forward to working with you in the coming weeks!

One Down

2007-04-10T16:51:31Z

Well, that's one project finished (hopefully). All the edits have been finished and it's been sent to the great editor in the sky. This one has been a year, yes, one year, from inception to conclusion. I can only hope that there isn't another round of edits that puts it into the 18 month bracket. Still, the changes were worth it and made the finished work better, so i guess it's been worth it.

Now to buckle down and finish the other two outstanding jobs, one a fan project and one for those worthies at Green Ronin.

Frantic

2007-03-25T19:05:27Z

The next three weeks are going to be busy, busy, busy. I've got the final edits to do on my Alchemy article for LF IV, i've just received edits for a WFRP project and have a first turnover deadline for Freeport in three weeks time. Not to mention finishing off a rush job that i'm already overtime on. Many, many words to come from my keyboard in the next 21 days. I can feel some blisters coming....

Bleak House

2007-03-20T13:22:58Z

That's were i am at the moment. In a bleak house. Running out of money, running out of time and running out of energy. In a deep, dark, hole. I'm a stranger in a strange land, in paradise lost and a spectator to Lovecrafts ancient evils awoken.

That is all.

Oh and bloody Spurs lost to Chelsea in the FA cup. That makes my day even better.

It Lives!

2007-03-08T11:00:19Z

Well, the word on the street is that a new license to produce George RR Martin's Game of Thrones RPG is in the offing with several companies in the running for the new license (don't know who they are yet). The Guardians of Order hardback is a beautiful book and adapted nicely to the feel of the novels. I, for one, would sell my own grandmother for the opportunity to write for the new game line, whenever it is announced and whoever gets it. Hell, i nearly started writing a conversion using WFRP for it, as well as my own supplements for the GoO book.

That book got me jazzed and the demise of GoO really hacked me off, but this news is great! Fingers crossed that someone groovy gets it and i have a chance to write for it. (He says in true pimping stylee).

Huzzah!

Freeport Info

2007-03-05T10:52:22Z

Although i can't talk about the specifics of my work on this line of products, those helpful people at Green Ronin have put up a page detailing the new Freeport line. This gives out a few nuggets of information and teasers as to what is coming down the line.

http://www.greenronin.com/freeport/

Look What I've Found!

2007-03-02T16:28:14Z

BI have just put up my latest fan material.

It's all about what "the dirty hobitses have in their pockets."

http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=WH&content=fanmaterial

The Obscure Lyrics Test!

2007-03-01T13:38:46Z

Get those thinking caps on! What is the song title and the artist of each of these snippets of lyrics?

1.
"the first time i got it, i was just ten years old,
i got it from some kiddy next door,
i went to the doctor and he gave me the cure,
and i went out and got it some more."

2.
"ah yes to yes, to a-ha to yes, why the sun, why the sun."

3.
"Talk me down, safe and sound, too
strung up to sleep. Wear me out, scream
and shout, swear my time's never cheap.
I fake my life like i've lived; too much,
I take whatever you're given; not enough"

4. (easy one!)
"Read 'em and weep, the dead man's hand again."

5.
"You're very young, but you're over age,
i don't care, 'cos i like your style."

Philosophers & Football

2007-02-28T21:45:36Z

First off, i've said hardly anything about my beloved Tottenham Hotspur during this current season. It's been a middling season so far in the league, but we got to the semi-final of the carling cup and are in the quarter-finals of the FA cup and the last sixteen of the UEFA cup. So, it's not all bad. A great 4-1 win against Bolton at the weekend and we are suddenly in the frame again for European football next season. Which would be nice 'cos i doubt we'll win the UEFA cup. Also, even though he cost upwards of £10 million, Dimitar Berbatov looks like the real deal and is a snip, even at that price.

Enough about football. At long last, my Liber Fanatica alchemy article has been submitted and recieved edits. Hopefully the document will be out soon. However, having struggled through this project due to multiple factors myself, i don't begrudge anyone extra time to get things done. This is a fan product, after all, and we all have multiple other things to do in our real lives.

Anyway, look out for the next LF soon. As soon as it's released, i'll post a link here.

Hubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

2007-02-25T12:21:49Z

Well, there's a nice title for my thoughts today, if i do say so myself.

It nicely describes my RPG work at the moment. Coming out soon will be an article for WFRP that will involve some hubbling and bubbling. Be sure to wear eye protection and rubber gloves!

I have about 25 thousand words for professional projects to write in the next 30 odd days. That doesn't sound a lot, but working around a job and a life and getting that done will not be an easy task. That's the toil.

Now for the trouble. It's another article for WFRP. It'll meet with mixed reviews, i think. Simply because of some prevelant feelings about the way the game should be run. But hey, there's nothing else out there that covers this area, so it needs to be done. I'm trying to meet people half-way on this one, so there will be some grimness and peril along with the....oh hang on, i can't tell you about that yet. Look out for a new piece on the BI website in the next week or so.

One Door Opens, Another Door Closes

2007-02-15T11:28:40Z

Well, apart from being busy with family emergencies, i've been very busy on the freelancing front the last couple of weeks.

I'm currently finishing off my half-way turnover for a Freeport project, and have just been contacted by Fantasy Flight Games for a super project. Fast turn around for this one! Only a few weeks.

As that door opened, another door closed. It might come as a shock to some of you, but i applied recently for a full-time RPG writing job at Mongoose publishing. Today, i found out that i hadn't made the cut. This one has demoralised me somewhat. For some reason, i really thought i had a chance of getting it. For someone with only one published credit (and two more on the way), that may have been wishful thinking, but i did hold out hope. Oh well, back to the drawing (or should i say writing?) board.

Good luck to whoever gets the gig.

I'm Bad At Waiting

2007-02-08T13:26:58Z

I suck at it. I've mentioned before in blog entries here that i want things now! Waiting for feedback or news or even a phone call is agony for me. I watch the proverbial pot all the time and it never boils until i've given up on it or somehow forgotten about it.

I find it difficult to concentrate when i'm waiting for something. It's always buzzing at the back of my mind and quite often jumps to the front to taunt me. I can't work, sleep or relax whilst waiting. It consumes my waking hours and haunts my dreams.

I'm a bad, bad waiter.

Work can push the anxiety away for a while, as can a good movie or book, but it's never far away. It's on the grassy knoll, under the bed and in the glance of stangers. My waiting anxiety leaves me in the world of John Carpernters They Live! Where subliminal messages constantly bombard me and say "Where's the news?" "Where's the phonecall?" "Where's that taxi?"

I guess that makes me an infuriatingly impatient person. I can live without fast food, i cook and wait for the bounty, but for the life of me i can't bring that patience to things that affect me personally or emotionally.

I'm a bad waiter and i've probably vented far more than i should in a public place. Thanks for your patience. For i have none.

Is There a Better Job?

2007-02-05T13:15:40Z

In my hunt for a new job, i've just arranged an interview for a job that surely can't be bettered anywhere in the world.

What is it?
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Quality control in a brewery!

It's a bit less glamorous than it sounds, as it is largely checking via organic chemistry whether alcohol levels are within tolerance, but still, there has to be a taste test as well. Right?....Right?

Phew!

2007-01-30T12:41:57Z

With a whole 36 hours to go before i started incurring fines, i finally managed to get my tax return filed online this morning. With everything going on in the last few weeks, i wondered whether i'd get it done.

Well, that's one thing preying on my mind that's done. Perhaps now that things have calmed down a bit, i can actually write shitloads for my outstanding freelancing project. I've got two weeks to do it in and it's going to be another close thing...and i'm frantically hoping that revisions for another project don't come in during that time.

Maybe after that i can finish a project that has been dragging on for months (my fault really) and discharge my obligations there. I'm sorry to say, that all things considered, this one has hardly been on my radar recently and i feel bad about holding people back because of my own priorities. But i've had to order my work and family life somehow in recent months and this one fell by the wayside. So apologies to all the Liber Fanatica guys. I'll be in a position to complete this in two weeks, not before.