Owen Street Press

My very hectic semester ended on 18 December, and after a hiatus to basically paly Half-Life games, I'm back to work on the Emerald Press product. Technically, I think I've been back to work since my semester ended, but I've only just stated actually working on it. I've been talking to Todd at Emerald Press about the title and possible supplemental material, reworking the projected offering to fit better with EP's 2008 business plan.

As for LPJ, I wrote Louis when I finished my semester, and haven't heard back. The project in question was put in indefinite hiatus in lieu of D&D 4e, so that may have something to do with it. I'm not really sure what's going on there, and I should probably write him again and figure out what's going on.

However, I do have a contract with EP, and not with LPJ, which makes the EP project a higher priority. In addition, the fact that the EP project is d20 Modern, and the LPJ project is for D&D means that the former won't be as affected (I hope) by 4e as the latter, so it's understandable for EP to be more interested in finishing the project in question than LPJ.

It feels good to be back to work again on some d20 stuff, even though I haven't run any d20 in well over a year (in fact, sometime in July it'll be two years if I don't run something before then). There was a momentary flirtation with running some Star Wars d20, but I think it's pretty safe to say that urge is dead.

EP is also going to be giving me some actual deadlines for this project, which is fine by me, as I work much better with deadlines in mind, as I outline on my blogspot here. We'll see how that goes, and hopefully I'll have more to say here in the comming weeks.

No, this blog is not dead, it's just on a semester based hiatus. Being as I have three papers to write this semester, as well as a GRE to take and a plethora of meetings with professors, and also work, I don't have any time to work on d20 material. Both LPJ and Emerald Press know this and are fine with it, so I'm off the hook!

However, a friend of mine, the fellow who's runing the True20 game I'm playing on Role-Playing Online, sent me word of this contest by the nice people at Paizo Publishing. It's called RPGSuperstar, and they're doing an elimination contest to find somebody to write a module for their GameMastery line. The first round is to design an wondrous item, in 200 words or less, and they're going to pick 32 people out of the deluge they will no doubt get. I, of course, am entering, and will likely post my item on here regardless of whether I make it into the first round or not.

After the judges choose the 32 starting contestents, the rest of the steps are voted on by fans, which should prove very interesting.

It might seem obvious, but stress seems to lead to more stress, and lots of stress doesn't really help the writing process along.

Stress at work, because of school and in my personal life combined, over the last week, with the stress of writing two very differant d20 projects for two rather differant companies has made getting anything done rather difficult.

Tip of the day? Take a break. A friend of mine recently wrapped up his dual majors at Michigan State University (history and German, if you're wondering) and he's back home, currently writing away at a novel he's been thinking about for years. He's pounding out pages at a healthy rate, but he made a point the other day that he can't force himself to write (he doesn't seem to have to, which I'm jealous of).

When it comes to fiction, or home use stuff such as house rules, setting or adventures, I agree with this completely. When it comes to freelancing though, one is generally on a time table. While I don't have official deadlines (yet) from Emerald or LPJ, I can't afford to dally about and not get any writing done. I have to try and get as much done as I can fit into a period, especially with school looming so large on the horizon (I start again on 5 September). That means that sometimes I have to force myself to write when I don't really want to.

Joss Whedon, the creator of such TV shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly (in that order) has gone on record, concerning writer's block, suggesting that, when faced with this worst of demons, to move to something else. I assume he meant that, when stuck working on Buffy, he would go to Angel, or something along those lines. I'm lucky, right now, in that if I get stuck on the LPJ project, I can switch to the Emerald project, and vice versa.

Sometimes it's just not working either way, and I simply have to do something else with my time. This, lately, is where The Lord of the Rings comes in. When you hit such a hard block, on projects like these, and you need to get away from it with some other kind of mental stimulation, try something from that pile of influences that, knowingly or otherwise, you draw from. I've found on a number of occasions that watching, reading or playing something that influences my current work has been just the spark that I needed to get back to work.

The Lord of the Rings is not, actually, influential for either of my current projects, but I could have done worse when working on the True Arcane Story pieces. Which, by way of a plug, my final work so far, The Cloak of Arachnida, is up at rpgnow.

My fourth True Arcane Story, this one for the Goggles of Night, is up at rpgnow as of today, and also as of today my final TAS piece has been submitted.

Still no word from WotC about either my adventure or article queries, but that's to be expected.

Now it's time to get down to brass tacks on the larger LPJ and Emerald Press projects. I've still got a lot of reading to do before I feel comfortable writing that NeoExodus book, but I can get to working on the Emerald Press project while I'm doing that, for sure.

The subtitle of this blog is "The creative works of Jason Black," so I thought I would mention that I used to write fiction and poetry sometimes, even though I haven't done much of either in the last year or so. I did write up a short piece the other day though, designed to act as a prolouge to a story inspired by my research into World War II Yugoslvia. It actually has nothing to do with Yugoslavia, and is actually some very low-magic (or no magic) fantasy in the same vein as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, which I adore for a number of reasons, not the least of which is it's incredbly low magic.

I've also been inspired, this morning as it happens, for a story set in Depression era Appalachia. It'll take a lot more work on that concept before I can really explain the premise or anything.

Okay, so I just got off the phone with Louis Porter Jr., which marks the first time I spoke to a publisher on the phone, and I've been tagged for an upcomming NeoExodus book. I'm pretty excited about that. I've also been cleared to finish the last two TAS pieces.

I also just fired off another query to WotC, and read all the stuff about 4e they've posted yet. Overall, it sounds pretty neat, we'll know in just under a year. The D&D Insider seems promising, but I'm not sure if I can use my existing forum ID (lifespeed), or if I have to make a new one (which I did, callmejeed). When I tried lifespeed it wouldn't let me have the name, so I think I can maintain my old one, but I couldn't log in with it. The log in function seems to be broken.

Anyway, I fired off the article idea that I wrote about earlier today.

So this new Neo Exodus project is a bit bigger than the TAS pieces (at least taken individually, combined we're looking at the same size or so). No details, of course, they'll be presented once they come out of LPJ's mouth.

The project with Emerald is moving along, kind of slowly, but I'm still wrapping my mind around d20 Modern enough to write more fludily, and there's some serious research to be done, sooner rather than later. To be honest, aside from a lot of reading about NeoExodus, this project should be somewhat easier or quicker than the Emerald project.

So, a plan of action! First thing's first, I'm going to bang out those last two TAS (I'm about half through one of them already). Then I'm going to devote my time pretty much evenly, I guess, between LPJ and Emerald Press, and try to get a lof ot work done before classes begin again in September. I'll have something of a grace period that first month or so to get more work done, since I'll just have reading and, well, less hours at my retail job.

Onward, to glorious word counts!

While I havne't yet been given clearance to get back to work on the next two TAS pieces yet, my third one, True Arcane Story: Monk's Belt, is up on rpgnow.

Wizards.com is just down right now, the traffic is seemingly so heavy. That's to be expected, but unfortunatly it means that I don't have access to the Dungeon/Dragon writer's guidelines. I have a couple article ideas that I'd like to query to them, actually for three linked aticles as well as a less developed idea for another article/series.

The former could (and will) easily be put out in a collected .pdf book on rpgnow if not picked up by WotC. I'd really like them to pick them up though, I could use the significantly more income that I'd get writing even one article for Dragon as compared to what I'd make putting all three articles out in a book on rpgnow.

Well, Wizards has officially announced Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. I can't say that I'm surprised. The website has been redesigned (again), but is so bogged down with traffic that it's basically dead. Can't say that I'm surprised about that either. It's too bad, because I could use some reading about D&D 4e. But it can wait.

I did get to read Bill Slavicsek's first column for Ampersand, which was insightful and put to rest any (minor) fear I had about the new edition making this whole freelancing thing harder. As of right now, the last two True Arcane Story pieces I was working on are on hiatus. I recieved the e-mail today when I got home from my normal job, and now that the 4e info has dropped, it's only a matter of time until I'm back on it. I'm taking today off them.

I did just finish the TAS for the monk's belt though, so that should be up soon. Did some solid work on the Emerald Press project over the last couple days as well. I'm really excited about that project, though not really at liberty to give out details yet. Suffice to say it's d20 Modern and I'm really digging that.

It's been a while since I've posted, but I don't really have much to post about.

I've finished my second True Arcane Story piece, and am working on the third. Writer's block got in the way and prevented me from turning the second one around as quickly as the first.

I'm also working with Emerald Press, as I mentioned before, and that's comming along quite well, the contract hasn't been written up yet, nor have any deadlines been set, but Todd and I have done some significant groundwork for the project, and I really like what's come out so far. I've actually written the first chapter of my own book so far, although there will likely be some slight edits still.

In light of Wizards of the Coast canceling the print versions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, they've moved that content (well, future content) to the web, and have released writers guidelines for contributing to the online versions. I just sent out a query for an adventure idea, so I should hear back from them within 60 days as to whether they want the full manuscript or not. Hopefully they'll be able to get back to me sooner rather than later, as in about 60 days time I don't know how much free time I'll have, between school, work, and writing for Emerald Press.

Still, working directly with WotC would be a good experiance and certainly look good on a resumé, especially one submitted to WotC.

In other news, I got myself an incredibly cheap copy of d20 Modern, and have fallen in love with the thing. I'm quite enamored with d20 Modern these days, especially in light of working on a Modern setting for Emerald Press. Considering that my friend Erik will hopefully be running D&D soon, if I run anything soon, aside from play-testing the adventure for WotC (if I ever write it) or stuff for Emerald, I think I'm going to run d20 Modern.

In fact, the idea has surfaced in my mind of running a Firefly d20 game, being as it is my favorite show, and the most excited I've been about a property in a long, long time that I wasn't creating myself. Sad as it is that Firefly was canceled in it's first season, it does mean that one can learn everything there is to know about the 'Verse without much trouble.

Firefly is quite a popular property to convert to an RPG as well, there are a number of versions out there, including the official Serenity RPG, which I might pick up simply for fluff. I have found a pretty decent Firefly/Serenity d20 write up by Scott Metz that seems promising and which I'll likely steal from. If I were to run Firefly d20, of course.

My first offering for Louis Porter, Jr. Design (I'm sick of writing that out, I'll be calling them LPJ from now on), The True Arcane Story: Clay Golem Manual, is now up over at RPGnow. Seems that it went up on Friday. I've signed on to write four more.

In addition, I heard back from Emerald Press about their post on EN World, and I'm in. I'm actually the first writer to get invovled in the project, which is in a very early state as of now. We've been trading e-mails on how to progress (no doubt an easier process once we get some more writers involved).

Things seem to be going well with Louis Porter, Jr. Design. The sample, which is actually the first in a series of five shorter works, was accepted pretty warmly. I've already seen the PDF version that will appear on RPGnow, so that's probably a pretty good sign. I'm about halfway through the next piece now in fact, and the last three are already chosen and formulating ideas in my head. Things aren't really official yet, and I'm not sure when the projects will be going on sale, but I'll let fly with more information (and a link) when I'm able too.

As of a few minutes ago I've also sent a query to Emerald Press about a project detailed here on EN World. The project, which involves crossing over d20 fantasy with modern in a variety of timelines, is right up my ally. I am, after all, a history major. I think I might also have an edge because I already know Todd Crapper of Emerald Press through Dog Soul Publishing. The site is currently down or I'd link it for you. Dog Soul is actually a division of Emerald Press, so I'd be keeping things in the family, so to speak. But I'll neither get my hopes up nor uncross my fingers until I hear back from Todd. After that I'll tell you how this whole "networking" thing has worked out for me.

As for the offering hinted at in the title of this entry, I've been thinking about D&D a lot lately, in no small part inspired by reading The Hobbit and starting The Fellowship of the Ring on Wednesday. At any rate, I've several adventure ideas brewing in my head, which I doubt I'll run in the near future, but that'll have to wait and see.

I'm not offering adventures though. What I'm actually offering is a system I jotted down the other night for motivations in D&D. The idea is inspired in part by the same in White Wolf's Exalted, and possibly their other story-teller games now. Mechanically however, it does call the Sweet20 XP hack, pointed out to me by fellow designer Zak Arntson, a sibling.

It's not really complete yet, but I've included it behind the following cut, in the hopes of getting some feedback. Because it deals with the awarding of experiance, I guess it falls under OGL, not d20, but that's not really important right now. I also plan to post it over on the WotC forums and see what people think. Eventually I'll put it into a pretty PDF with the OGL legal matter at the back, but this will do for now.

( Motivations )

Concerning the now, I'm in "negotiations" with Louis Porter, Jr. Design about doing some work for them. What that means is that I'm signed on for a project, tentativly, and have to get a writing sample of about 2,500 words or so to him before I'll know if I'm in for real. Not to sound cocky, but I'm pretty sure I've got it in the bag. It's nothing big, and it's not related to NeoExodus, but I don't feel it would be professional to get into details on here until things are official. I'll post on here once things are though.

Concerning the maybe later, one possible goal in my life is to write professionally. I'm finishing up my undergrad in history at Wayne State University, and while I love my major, it's not one that's going to place me in a job as soon as they hand me my degree. To that end, I have a few ideas of what I'd like to do with my life. As you can probably guess from the existance of this blog, one of those involves designing games professionally.

The be all, end all goal? Well that would be to freelance until I get enough recognition or experiance to either be approached by, or approach an established company that could pay be to do this for a living. Somebody like Wizards of the Coast, for example. Is it a pipe dream? Well I kind of hope it's not, because that would be pretty sad, but here's hoping.

Until then, I'll continue to take pretty much any work I can get.

Before heading off to a meeting for my regular paying job, I perused EnWorld some this morning, looking for work.

As it turns out Loius Porter, Jr. Design is looking for people to write adventures set in their admittedly rather interesting NeoExodus: A House Divided fantasy d20 setting. I've spent most of the day reading the twenty-eight page setting "brief," offered for free on RPGNow, which is pretty cool.

I just fired off an e-mail to Mr. Porter hoping to score some work, doing so would entail my familiarizing myself further with the game, namely the extensive list of new feats, spells, classes and races that it involves. Hopefully I can work something out with them, especially since writing an adventure for them means I really should play-test it with my own group as well. You know, to get the bugs out and such.

Only time will tell. Untill then, I'm playing Exalted tonight, which should prove a worthy distraction from professional suspense.

Those of you that frequent my personal LJ might remember VampStick: The Stick Parade, a setting I designed for Chris Gunning's amazing StickGuy system. Basically I made fun of the World of Darkness and drew some silly pictures.

Anyway, the thing is hosted over at One Thousand Monkeys, One Thousand Typewriters which is a pretty cool site in and of itself. I linked to the PDF above since it's the version with the art and the nifty fonts that I put a lot of work into stunbling through. There are a few grammer points that I missed and I forgot to add a picture of the Bigfoot (I was going to use that blurry one that's so famous) so there's a joke that doesn't really make sense towards the end.

Overall though, I'm pretty proud of VampStick, although I doubt I'll ever do any spin-offs like I was talking about at the end there.

Well, here we have the innagural post on Owen Street Press, an LJ I created specifically to talk about game design stuff.

Mind you, I'm not some famous game designer or anything, but I figure I have written a few things, and I'd like to write a whole lot more, so there you have it.

I don't have much to talk about on here yet, at least as pertains to my own design, so I'll also be using this journal to talk about pretty much anything that pertains to gaming.

That in mind, I'm pretty excited to hopefully be playing D&D again soon. My friend Erik will be starting a game pretty soon, with a very dungeon heavy feel. This pleases me because I've been wanting to play a dwarven rogue who get's to muck about with traps for a while now.

I expanded upon that idea significantly and, since we're starting at level two, I'll be running my first level in rogue and my second in fighter, giving me additional fighting capabilities but mostly martial weapon proficiency so that I can use axes. Lots of axes.

As far as his personality is concerned, I'm borrowing heavily from Jayne Cobb from Firefly. Namely, he's going to be a morally ambiguous, greedy, selfish thief who likes axes and isn't afraid to use them. He's also going to be neurotic about dieing in his sleep and obsessivly place alarms and insist on only the safest places to bunk down and the constant posting of guards. He'll be a blast to play, although he doesn't have a name yet.

I've also discovered a site called RolePlay onLine which allows you to set up and run games online. I haven't seen it in action yet but apparently I've signed on for a Blue Rose game run by a friend of mine, which is exciting for me because Blue Rose piqued my interest a year or two ago and I've never gotten around to doing anything with it.