Outpost Alpha on Sale

Outpost Alpha, my new 2D terrain supplement, is now available to buy. It allows GMs to quickly (and cheaply) create rooms and corridors; perfect for most sci-fi “dungeon crawls.” Outpost Alpha can be used with my 3D miniatures, including the next batch I plan to release in a month or two.

Meanwhile, I’ve been writing about the Magna home world in my new sourcebook Pool of Memory. Called Diavol (Romanian for devil), the home planet of Imperium’s enemy is a volcanic hell world with vast tracks of land covered in free flowing lava. Since the Magna, with their horns and reddish eyes, are demonic-looking, I wanted to carry on that theme throughout my design of their home world.

I also talk about the Magna caste system. I started by using the traditional Indian castes as a guide, and then changed things around a bit. In the Indian system, for example, the Kshatriyas (warriors) are second to the Brahmins (teachers and scholars). In the Magna system, the warrior caste (Regatul) is first while the teachers (Preda caste) are relegated to the bottom (since they don’t “contribute” to society according to Magna values). Of course, those who reject the caste system (or run afoul of the government) are exiled from their social group, becoming Outcasts. In my graphic novel Alexander the Prince, the character Maal-Bok was an example of this.

Scent of Decay Now Available!

Scent of Decay, my first adventure module for the Imperium Chronicles, is now available. It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I’m happy with how it came out.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last blog post. Besides putting the finishing touches on the module, I’ve been working on my next project, a supplement I’m tentatively calling Pool of Memory. It’s a source book for my game featuring lore for the six non-Human races. The name comes from part of the lore I’ve written so far. Basically, the Dahl, who specialize in chronicling all knowledge in the universe, store this information in a “liquid” computer called the Pool of Memory. A water nymph called the Oracle rises from the pool and acts as an interface to the computer. I like this because it mixes fantasy and sci-fi, which has been my goal for the Imperium Chronicles since the beginning.

I’ve also been creating maps and flags for the home worlds of the six non-Human races. I’ve been fascinated with heraldry and different flags, so I’ve really had a blast making the flags for each race. The one below is for the Gordians. I picture them as hard drinking Scotsmen who swear a lot and have poor personal hygiene (FYI: I’m part Scot). For the flag, however, I was having a lot of trouble deciding how it should look. Then I came across the image of the Celtic Knot. This fit perfectly because the Gordians get their name from the Gordian Knot, due to their stubborn and often obnoxious behavior (which is probably why I like them so much). Anyway, I put the Celtic Knot in the middle of the flag and gave it a Celtic border around the edges. I also used the color gray because their home world is called Grarfell (Old Norse for Gray Mountain).

Dark Psi

Scent of Decay is now with the Editor who, with a Mai Tai (with a little paper umbrella) in hand, is sitting in our comfy chair scanning the pages for mistakes. She should be done soon enough, but I probably won’t publish the module until next week.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on my next project which is currently untitled. It’s a source book with information about some of the playable races (and their home worlds). I’m also including weapon modifications (i.e. adding a grenade launcher to your blaster rifle) and some new psionics. The latter ties into what I plan to write about the Dahls, namely an off-shoot group called the Forgotten. Basically, the Dahls are a mostly non-violent, studious people who chronicle everything that goes on so it can be remembered forever. Ironically, the so-called Forgotten are Dahls who’ve turned away from that lifestyle, preferring to seek fame and fortune in any way possible. This has led them to research a new form of psionics called “Dark Psi.”

Dark Psi are psionics with a more sinister nature than the kind introduced in the Basic Rules. For the new source book I’ve created over a dozen psionics in two basic varieties: disease and biomorphism. The first kind revolves around Necromancy spells typical in many fantasy games. These include psionics that require the victim to make a DISEASE resistance roll to avoid damage. The other kind allows the caster to mutate his body at the molecular level, changing his hands for example into animal claws or making his skin as hard as stone.

Again, I don’t have a name yet for the new source book and I’m not even sure what it’ll include, but I have about 3-4 months before I plan to release it so hopefully I’ll come up with something by then. ;-)

Outpost Alpha

As it stands now, Scent of Decay is about 90-95% done. I’ve got a little more writing to do before I can hand it over to the Editor (aka Mrs. Big Shot). Today I worked on the cover art as you can see here:

I also wanted to update everyone on the other projects I’ve been working on (all paper miniatures related), including one I haven’t mentioned yet:

• Landscapes. This is on hold for now. I wasn’t happy with how it was coming out and I’m not even sure it’s a viable product to sell. I’ll revisit it sometime later, after I’ve thought about what I want to do with it (if anything).
• Cardboard Citizens II. This is still in progress. I looked at what I’d done already and realized I’m going to need a lot more renders before I’m satisfied with it. Each render takes quite a while and I need a lot of them, so it’s going to take me awhile to finish apparently. I’m really trying to improve the quality of each render over what I accomplished with Citizens I.
• Outpost Alpha. This is a new product I started only a few days ago, but it’s nearly done already. It’s a 2D product (unlike Dark Corridors I & II) that’ll have flat “building blocks” of rooms and hallways. You can combine the different blocks to form large complexes for use with your miniatures. Here’s a low rez example:

New Website Design

The People (God bless ‘em) have spoken and they’ve said the logo without the crests is the best. When Scent of Decay is ready to go, it’ll have the new logo on the front cover. It’ll also have a new header to replace the “cluster of arrows” design. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the arrows were too much like the one used by Franco fascists, so obviously I’d like to avoid the connection. ;-) The new one has five stars instead of arrows (see the logo on this blog). I can only guess what neo-nazi group probably uses that on their flag . . .

Using the new cover logo, I also tried messing around with a redesign of the Imperium website. Eventually, however, I decided that the logo took up too much screen space so I went with a flatter version. In fact, I published the new site yesterday and I’m happy with the results. The starry background and the new artwork on the main page give the site a more “sci-fi” feel. However, the new design broke the story pages (Alexander the Prince and Magnus Black). I spent a large chunk of today trying to fix it. For the most part, everything is fine now.

Part of the reason I’ve been working on the website is because I was procrastinating on Scent of Decay. I was at the part when the characters first meet the Nanomancer and he gives a little speech. It’s the classic Nemesis monologue, though it’s pretty brief. I’ve been struggling with it for a few days because I couldn’t think what he would say. Is it possible I’m not evil enough? (The Wife says “No.”) Anyway, eventually I jotted down something which I think will work. Hopefully it’s not too cheesy, because that’s certainly my strong point.

Enter the Nanomancer!

I’ve been chugging away at Scent of Decay (oh, I rhymed!) this week, including a rewrite of the climax. I think the new one is more dramatic and introduces a nemesis character that I hope players will enjoy. I haven’t written too much about this on the blog because I didn’t want to give anything away. However, I’m about to change that:

Spoiler Alert!!

The climax of the module revolves around Jon Fletcher (a brilliant scientist) and his work on self-replicating nanos. He’s been doing secret experiments to reanimate dead bodies using nanites to effectively take over for the corpse’s failed systems (brain, lungs, and heart, etc.). When Fletcher’s fiancée dies, he has her body stolen so he can try to bring her back to life. After injecting her with the nanos, he makes the mistake of kissing her on the lips which then transfers some of the nanos into his own system. The nanites then start self-replicating and eventually take over his body (since the little machines don’t realize Fletcher isn’t a corpse). At this point, Fletcher ceases to exist; replaced by a new being calling itself the Nanomancer. This new creature inherits all of the ambitions and intellect of Jon Fletcher, along with several million nanos surging through its body. Most of all, the Nanomancer wants to survive and, like any self-respecting self-aware entity, it thinks that taking over the world is a good place to start. Obviously the players will have to stop this from happening, and prevent their characters from getting infected with nanos in the process.

So, in a nutshell, that’s what I’ve been working on lately with the new module. I think it’s coming together pretty well so far. Btw, here’s a picture I did of both Barbara Bennett after being re-animated, and Jon Fletcher after he turned into the Nanomancer:

New Logo Designs

It’s funny how much writing I got done on Scent of Decay in the first few weeks of working on it, and how little writing I’ve done over the last couple of weeks. On the bright side I’ve gotten several sections done recently so at least I’m making progress. Scent of Decay is now over 20 pages and will probably reach almost 30 by the time I’m done.

While I was working on the adventure module, I’ve also had a couple of side projects going. One is called Landscapes and it’s basically another paper miniatures product: this time 3D terrain. I’ve also worked on what I’m calling Paper Citizens II: Friends and Foes. Along with the 3-sided miniatures included in the original Paper Citizens supplement, I’m including A-frame and tokens in the new one. The tokens are probably my favorite because I can zoom in a little more on the image to give greater detail.

Perhaps most exciting (at least for me) is a new logo I’ve been designing. Originally, I created the first Imperium Chronicles logo to be simple and, dare I say, “elegant.” Well, I achieved the former but not the latter, so I’ve been trying to design a new one that looks better. A few days ago inspiration took hold and I created a round logo with the crests of the five families on it. After some feedback, however, I designed a second version without the crests. Not knowing which version would be more popular, I posted both on an RPG forum and put it to a vote. So far, the non-crest version seems to be winning, but we’ll see over the next few days how the vote goes (hopefully without the need for a re-count). Here are the two versions (click for a larger view):