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Patreon is empowering a new generation of creators. Support and engage with artists and creators as they live out their passions!

Well, folks. I've decided to jump on the Patreon bandwagon. I'd like your help to make re-launching my feminist gaming blog, Go Make Me a Sandwich, a financially viable activity. Why start a Patreon when I used to blog for free? Let’s face it, the economy is tight, and with a toddler in the house I have to maximize the financial return on my creative output. As much as I love blogging, I just can’t justify the amount of time and energy that it takes away from paying work such as the freelance writing I’ve done for White Wolf or my own independent game publishing projects. But I still feel like I have important things to say, so I’m turning to you, oh reader, to help make blogging a financially viable activity for me.  Paying for a blog? How does that even work? Everything written for my blog will be published free of charge for the internet-viewing public. When you pledge money, that supports me in devoting creative bandwidth to creating content for my blog. Each time I publish a post, I receive money according to your pledge amounts. But have no fear! You can set monthly limits on your pledges, so if I have a month where I’m feeling particularly voluble you don’t wind up breaking the bank. In fact, if it helps you feel comfortable with pledging, I encourage you to do so! Also importantly, this is not a permanent commitment. You can withdraw your support at any time. Quality criticism of game and game culture is important. Any amount you care to give in support will be so, so appreciated. Thank you.

Dark Ages: Darkening Sky released on DTRPG!

Check it out! A thing I did got published today! Last year I did writing for two White Wolf projects, the first of which - Darkening Sky - was published today.

Description:

The Oath-Truce fell with the darkening sky

In May, 1230, an eclipse overwhelmed the sky, blurring the lines between day and night. What does this mean in the Dark Medieval World? Ask five people, expect ten answers. 

Darkening Sky is a series of five stories for the Dark Ages game lines. You’ll find a story for Fae©, Inquisitor©, Mage©,Vampire©, and Werewolf© inside, each with a unique twist on the 1230 eclipse. 

I am super, super proud of my contributions for this, and I had a ton of fun co-writing the Vampire adventure:

Under Sevilla sleeps an ancient Visigoth in torpor. Beset by Christian crusaders from the north and political enemies within her own kingdom, the Sultan Gerusha's position is tenuous. She guards this secret for fear it will be used as a weapon unleashed by her enemies. Far more dangerous than her political rivals, however, are those who want only to spread darkness and destruction. They will take advantage of the coming eclipse to loose the powers of darkness and wake the sleeping titan. If Sevilla is to avoid utter destruction, alliances will need to be forged against the awakening of the Visigoth and enmnities forgotten, or at least temporarily set aside...

I enjoyed designing an adventure where the standard Vampire solution of "hit them until they stop opposing you" is clearly the inferior approach. I also had fun writing an adventure set during the Reconquista, because apparently I can't get enough of writing about the Alhambra. (See also: Thou Art But A Warrior.)

Now I'll admit that the tabletop White Wolf system is not to my tastes. However, the adventure I co-wrote is a sandbox structure that would be very easy to map to a different setting. (I imagine FATE or another setting-agnostic system would work well for this.)

And while I'm generally not a huge fan of fiction-as-page-filler in game books, I'm very proud of the fiction that I wrote, both in terms of quality and as an illustration of the sorts of stories these adventures will tell.

ALL THE PROJECTS

I have been doing ALL THE ART lately. Unfortunately, 95% of it has been for the SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT, so I can't show any of it off - which makes me sad. Because I've been super proud of what I've been doing. Happily, however, I will be getting to post a teaser/preview image of the project soon. And hopefully in late spring/early summer I'll be able to announce the details once SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT is ready to crowdfund! Because that is a thing that will definitely happen now!

(Alas, as much as I love the actual title, I'm afraid it won't be as much fun as SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT.)

However, here is some art that I can show you:

(I apologize for the crappy cell phone picture)

This is character art for The Dude - one of the character classes in the soon-to-be-released SexyTime Adventures. The text is 100% done, the book is being laid out, and I should be able to start posting finished illustrations soon; the illustrations are all drawn and inked - they just need shading. I'm aiming for an April/May release, but layout is being kindly donated by the wonderful Josh Roby so if delays happen I won't complain because he is wonderful and not doing my own layout is just the best.

Plus, you know, all those other projects. And did I mention that I'm going to be getting the rights back soon to that Tenra campaign setting I wrote in 2012? And that I'll probably pretty that up with, you guessed it, more art and publish it as a small stand-alone product? Because I needed more projects to cheat on The Starlit Kingdom and Death Knights with, obviously.

First draft of Blood Spilled Upon Crystals 100% complete. (Attempting to arrange playtest now. And did I mention I hope to finally scan my sketches I've already done for that tonight?)

Second draft of SexyTime Adventures 100% complete. (Although I want to make proper character sheets before I send it back out.) Character designs for SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT under way, initial sketches 60% complete. So WHY IN GOD'S NAME am I going through Under The Sun (my Game Chef game from the year it was about deserts) and making notes for future revisions? SHUT UP BRAIN. SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP.

(Oh, and did I mention I hope to finally scan my sketches for Blood Spilled Upon Crystals tonight?)

Finished my DA: Vampire word count! That means I can work on my own stuff again!

Adding a page on GM Advice to SexyTime Adventures before I look for external playtesters. (Basically - does this game even work? What does it look like in play?) Wrote the following as an intro:  ----  It was almost deafening here at the base of the falls. The water crashed noisily on the rocks, the spray hung heavy in the air. Within moments she was soaked to the bone, her leather vest clinging like a second skin. It was hardly the ideal place for a fight, but the goblin ambush had left them little choice.  Andromeda carefully nocked an arrow and drew the bow, arching her back and thrusting out her ample breasts in the way of the best Amazonian archers. The cold spray from the waterfall glistened on her skin. She took a deep breath, voluptuous bosom heaving, erect nipples visible through her drenched clothing, and loosed the arrow, cursing when it went wide of the mark.  The goblins were almost on them! It was time to go all out. Quickly, Andromeda turned her back to the goblins and planted her feet. Then, thrusting out her rear end for balance, she turned to face the enemy and drew back for another shot. The dreaded Boobs and Butt stance of the Amazons. Those goblins wouldn’t know what hit them.

So I kind of disappeared

The holidays were kind of crazy for me, and I've been hard at work on the SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT. (It's going to be so awesome guys. So, so awesome.) I've been hard at work, though, polishing up some hacks for publication in 2014. Here's what 2014 is looking like for me so far...

SexyTime Adventures is having one final playtest, and then I'm going to finish illustrations, lay it out, and publish it as a PDF. Aiming for release March/April 2014.

After that it will be the SEKKRIT PRINCESS PROJECT'S turn. Expect to hear about that late spring/early summer 2014.

As for Blood Spilled Upon Crystals, I'm aiming for a Fall 2014 release. That's going to be a bigger project because I'm probably going to bundle that with the Polaris rules and have a KickStarter to gauge interest in a dead tree edition. However, I still have playtesting to coordinate, and I want to do some nice full-color illos, which is going to take some time. (It's also worth noting that I'm considering changing the title to The Starlit Kingdom. We'll see. I like them both.)

I'm also working on an Apocalypse World hack of Abyssals Exalted that I'm tentatively calling Death Knights. I think this is probably going to turn into a standalone game like Monsterhearts or Sagas of the Icelanders. It would be super nice if I managed to publish this in 2014, but realistically that is looking more like 2015 as that's going to be a much bigger project, wordcount-wise.

Also, I'm still beating my head against the hack itself, as the Exalted system is so. Needlessly. Crunchy. (Seriously, I like mittfulls of dice as much as the next guy, but Exalted takes it to ridiculous levels.)

At any rate, since it's been so long since I've posted anything, I'm going to be posting previews over the next couple of days just to give a taste of what I've been up to.