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Expectation and Optimism

Now that Dark Horizons has concluded, things are going back to their quiet default. This isn’t because SEP is getting buried. It is actually SEP is about to resurface, if only temporarily.

Those of you hanging around here will know that I’m working on a role-playing game system called Sword Noir. While I haven’t been as diligent in my posting about that design as I could be, the discussion over at the Accidental Survivors forum and the play-testing that has been done so far has helped me to hone the initial concept and mechanics.

Along with Sword Noir, I’m working on a game called Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death. As one might guess, this is going to be a Viking role-playing game. After some design prototypes and discussion, I’ve settled on a hack of the Sword Noir rules themselves.

So there are two actual games coming from SEP, hopefully in the near future. I would like to say that Sword Noir will be available before the end of 2010, but that is an optimistic forecast. The mechanics are still in the play-test stage, and the book itself still requires writing.

Let’s say that you can expect Sword Noir coming first quarter of 2011, and Kiss My Axe soon after.

If you are wondering what these games will be like, this part of the introduction should give you some clues.

The inspiration for the creation of this game comes from Tim Gray’s Jaws of the Six Serpents and published by Silver Branch Games. It is an excellent sword & sorcery RPG. It is based on the PDQ system designed by Chad Underkoffler over at Atomic Sock Monkey Press. Further inspiration was provided by The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Dixon—another foray into S&S–Fate 3.0 by Robert Donoghue, Fred Hicks, and Leonard Balsera—which provides a more generic game that can be easily focused to represent almost any genre—and Lady Blackbird by John Harper from One.Seven Design—which is a kind of pulp/steampunk adventure and system all in one.

You can find the discussion of the game design here.

You can read Dark Horizons here.

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Mundus Novit: On The Horizon

We are about two-thirds of the way through Dark Horizons, and things are starting to fall in place. Things are falling in place for Mundus Novit as well. I’ve seen proofs for the sourcebook and the Modern system supplement. They are looking good. It’s been a while, and I admit to having moments of doubt, but Neal Levin at Dark Quest Games has done what I had hoped and created a fantastic product, one I can be proud of.

I can’t say when it will be out exactly. What I saw were proofs that needed corrections. Neal also runs Dark Quest Books, so he has a lot on his plate. That and there is always real life, which has thrown me more than one curve ball.

But for those of you interested in the setting, you shall not be waiting much longer. For me, this has been a long, long road, and I will be really glad once I’ve reached my destination.

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Mundus Novit Update for June

Things are moving along nicely now with Mundus Novit. You may have noticed the first chapter in Dark Horizons, the Mundus Novit serial fiction, already published on the site. I thought I’d give you all a quick update, as some things have changed.

The work to bring Mundus Novit to fruition was daunting, and frankly I needed help. So, as previously planned, Mundus Novit will be released through Dark Quest Games. It will initially be a PDF, though there is talk of getting it to print. It will be released later this year. It is being updated and slightly changed.

The plan now is to release the setting as a systemless source book first, followed by the first system supplement–that one for the Modern version of the world’s most popular role-playing game. More supplements may follow, possibly published by Dark Quest Games and possible published by SEP.

SEP will be releasing a collection of adventure frameworks. These will no longer be titled “the Osiris Files.” As envisioned, the Osiris Files don’t fit perfectly into Mundus Novit, so they will be reworked and released under a different title. The format may be reworked slightly, but they will remain frameworks, more like the plot points campaigns from Savage Worlds than an adventure module like the Qalashar Device.

Another change that may happen is releasing Dark Horizons chapters weekly. My biggest concern with that is that I won’t be able to get the proofread and edited as well as I am right now. It’s a lot to ask friends to fire through 1500 words (on average) and provide critiques and line edits every week. So while the frequency would increase, the quality likely would. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

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SEP Update, Spring 2008

Here’s an update on what we’re working on at Sword’s Edge Publishing.

Covert Forces Redux Print-on-Demand
Covert Forces Redux has been redesigned for the print market and is in the middle of layout. Once this is complete, print versions of the supplement will be available through Lulu. SEP is looking to increase those products available in print through Lulu, but this is not a high priority for us at this time. Should Covert Forces Redux perform particularly well as a print product, the SEP print catalogue will certainly become a higher priority.

Cyber-reality Avatar Toolkit
The Cyber-reality Avatar is the persona of a character immersed in a virtual reality information network such as represented in many works of cyberpunk. The product is being called a toolkit as it offers a multitude of options for each particular issue when playing an Avatar in an RPG. This product is being planned as part of the Modern Dispatch line through partnership with RPG Objects.

Roles & Classes
Two new advanced classes will be available through SEP’s popular Roles & Classes line. The Military Recon is a modern army scout, moving ahead of the main force on foot or mounted in light armoured vehicles. The Shadow Op is an intelligence operative that disappears into the local populace to strike like a ghost and disappear like morning mist. Both of these new classes will be available in the third quarter of 2008.

Fist Full of Comics & Games Interview
Fraser Ronald was interviewed for the podcast Fist Full of Comics & Games. The interview focused on the upcoming Mundus Novit: The Changed World, being released in partnership with Dark Quest Games.

Check back in later for further updates and news.

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SEP + DQG = Mundus Novit

It is official, you will be seeing Mundus Novit from Dark Quest Games. No time frame yet, but I know it has been in editing as I have been asked to make corrections. As I have said elsewhere (such as the Accidental Survivors), this version matches my vision for the project rather than meeting a style or paradigm dictated by another. I am thrilled to be working with Neal Levin at Dark Quest Games again, as he got me into RPG writing, and has always been very supportive.

As I learn more, you will learn it here. If you are interested in seeing any of the other collaborations between DQG and SEP, check out the Teams and NPG series. Serieses? Spell-checker says no. In case the Accidental Survivors doesn’t fill all your Fraser’s Voice needs, there are “blodcasts” available for some of these products, which you can find here.

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Mundus Novit: The Changed World

This is not our world. This place is different. It is not just a place of adventure or intrigue, it is literally a place of magic. It has always been with us, unnoticed or ignored. It is ignored no longer. It has not arrived alone. Along with those who warp reality with ritual and mantras, there are those who do so with their minds. There are those who have abilities beyond those of normal men.

How did this happen? When did our world become so different? So strange?

The flavour text for Mundus Novit has been completed. At this point, there remains some crunch to update, but things are going well. I expect that this will be released in partnership with Dark Quest Games, though the final details still need to ironed out.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Mundus Novit before, it is a campaign setting for d20 Modern. It posits the release of genetic virus from a secret super soldier project that changes those whom it infect. Grand Orders of magic have existed for millenia. Parapsychic phenomena have been cataloged since the 1960s. In 2003, a brief glimpse of the paranormal is caught by a television news crew.

And the world changes . . .

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Changing the Changed World

Those of you who have followed the Accidental Survivors know something of Mundus Novit, the Changed World, which is a modern d20 campaign setting I was writing for joint release with another publisher. That publisher was Silven Publishing, and Silven has gone out of business. I’d be upset, except Dark Quest Games picked it up and now I’m revising it. There were some aspects of the setting dictated by Silven that I wasn’t 100% behind, so now I can change those.

Magic is no longer the result of a virus, but something that has been around forever, though secret. The virus released by the secret super-soldier program has physically altered those infected by it. There are also “parapsychic” powers.

So, a fair amount of work to be done. Neal at DQG is hoping to see a final draft by the end of December. I hope I can deliver.