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Well...

My bad on the RPGNow/DriveThruRPG hardcover not being available. It's still awaiting review. I've tried contacting them twice thus far with no response. I'm thinking holidays are impacting response/review time. If anyone grabs a hardcover copy via Lulu, email me your preferred RPGNow/DriveThruRPG email address, the date of your order through Lulu, and your order number and I'll send you a coupon for a free PDF through RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. I should have an update after the new year that will detail what's coming for Transylvanian Adventures  in 2014. It's going to be an exciting year.

Just in time for Friday the 13th

Print editions of Transylvanian Adventures  are now available. The softcover edition  is $19.99 and is only available through Lulu.com. There is a  hardcover edition available  for $34.99 through Lulu as well. There is also a hardcover version that will be available through  RPGNow  and  DriveThruRPG  after they complete their review process. The Print+PDF bundle can be purchased at either of those links. Those who have bought the PDF and have allowed publishers to send them promotions through email will receive a discount coupon for the RPGNow/DriveThruRPG hardcover in their inbox. If you bought the PDF and don't have that set up, now's a good time to do that to get that discount. You could turn it on tonight or tomorrow and then turn it off after you get the TA discount email. It's also worth noting that Lulu is running a holiday sale for 10% off (up to 30% if you purchase over $80). They periodically run specials for free shipping too. Of the two, I prefer the

Revenants and Ruminations

Following up on Alex Lucard's  review of Transylvanian Adventures , I'd like to say, first, thanks. I'm grateful for everyone who is spreading the word and getting information out there on TA. I'm not Hasbro. I'm not Fantasy Flight. I'm not even Frog God Games. So the only thing that's going to keep the undead heart of this game beating are those who appreciate it and have a passion for it. That said, I'd like to clear up a couple of things in the review. Transylvanian Adventures  contains an insane (and insanely deceptive) amount of information. I tried my best to convey it all as clearly as possible. But I'm afraid that sometimes I zigged when I should have zagged. If I may, I'd like to clarify some points and answer some questions raised in Lucard's review. 1. Core character classes are interesting, but I wouldn’t say balanced. Depending on your alignment, a class may get more or less abilities. For example, only a Chaotic Exotic

Long time, no update

So here's what's been going on in the world of Transylvanian Adventures  of late... Alex Lucard (awesome name, btw) has put up  a nice review of TA . I think it's fair and a generous 4 star rating. So that's cool. There are a couple of inaccuracies in there (likely my fault as a writer) that I will try to clear up in a blogpost soon. If you haven't already,  checkout the Spellburn podcast . They're awesome and should be on your regular podcast rotation. As for the print books... I've gone through a couple of rounds of minor edits. Each round takes a while to clear through the approval process. That's the big hurdle at the moment. Bad News: I may have one more edit cycle to go. As for what's next... You might guess that supporting and finishing up the print-on-demand version of  Transylvanian Adventures has absorbed most of my time. That's true. So no new progress has been made on the second book. After the print-on-demand

Tales from the Tomb: Crunch De-Fanged

This week I was on a podcast with the guys from  Spellburn . It should be out soon. There was a lot of focus around the new character classes and the rule enhancements in Transylvanian Adventures . Moreover, there were some comments directed at the "crunchiness" of  Transylvanian Adventures . Something that surprised me because, frankly, it hadn't translated to play. And here's why I think that is... First, the rule enhancements introduce "crunch" of two varieties: situational and optional. Situational crunch covers rules like Ruin, firearms damage, Fear, and damage recovery. These only rear their heads every now and then. Ruin enters play 3 or so times a session when a character is dropped to 0 hit points. Fear, once -- maybe twice or not at all -- at the Judge's discretion. Optional crunch represents rules like the different approach to Luck spends and the bonuses and penalties around the "Mad Libs" section. This is crunch that a group ca

What's the hold up?

Sorry it's taking so long to get the print-on-demand books together. Here's the whys and wherefores... I'm getting some edits in. I'm taking care of a few of the issues that have been raised over the past month or so. The PDF should be updated around the same time as the POD is made available. I misunderstood how Lulu handled discounts, coupons, etc. I know I've gotten coupons in the past for specific titles or authors. But, apparently, I can't offer them as a new publisher for some reason. I'm currently in the process of getting POD set up through DriveThruRPG/RPGNow so that those who have the PDF can receive a discount on the hardcover as promised. Canadian folks can contact me directly if they don't want to pay across-the-border shipping costs. We'll work something out. The extended kerfluffle at Lulu dovetailed nicely into the need for me to clean up a couple of items. If it wasn't clear, there will be a hardcover version available at

Busy night

Proof copy of the hardcover and softcover just came in today. Looks good so far... Doug's art looks amazing, by the way. And yes, that wall in the background is really that color green.

Not sure what's going on with the character sheet but...

I've gotten more than a few heads up regarding the non-printability of the character sheet in the PDF. I'm still unable to track down why the character sheet in the big book doesn't want to play nice yet the same character sheet in The Winter Home  looks fine. Score one for Adobe. I've put together a  PDF Character Sheet  that I'm hoping will do for now until I can track down the reason for this rascally situation. Sorry for the craziness. I promised there wouldn't be any Sanity Checks...

So... What About a Sequel?

It's been just a short while that Transylvanian Adventures has been available as a PDF download and there've been some common questions brought up about its future and what's coming up. I'll try to answer the biggies here... Print Copies? The plan is to go print-on-demand as soon as possible. First, through Lulu, so my Canadian pals can get copies without paying ridiculous shipping. Then, through RPGNow. I'm trying to get that process underway this weekend. For a time, I will be giving those who buy a hardcover at Lulu a free PDF. I only have so many free PDFs I can give out. Fortunately, I'm pretty stingy with them. So there's a good number of them. Conversely, I will try to give a decent discount for hardcover copies to those who buy the PDF. I'm still working out the details but it should be pretty comparable to the other route as well. After I get the book up at RPGNow, there will be a print+PDF bundle. Until then, I'll have to do it t

Tales from the Tomb: Humble Beginnings?

It's hard to believe but I started working on  Transylvanian Adventures  back in 2007. The impetus was a series of threads on a number of role-playing game sites debating the value of a Hammer Horror style of game. It was the conversations in these threads that steeled my resolve to undertake what I'd hoped would be the definitive Hammer Horror RPG. Back in the early days, the biggest thing with which I struggled was finding a system to use as a base for  Transylvanian Adventures. I vacillated between Barbarians of Lemuria  and Swords and Wizardry, while devouring hours and hours of much-beloved Hammer films and reading page-after-page of Gothic horror. It was a time-warp back to my youth, when a Slurpee and the latest Tomb of Dracula  was all I needed to dull the doldrums. In all honesty, it was probably my favorite slice of the early days of  Transylvanian Adventures. As time went on, I began collecting research on Romania and Transylvania, even briefly interviewing peopl

Update: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

The final draft of Transylvanian Adventures  has entered into the approval process. Once Goodman Games and RPGNow give it the okay, it will be available for PDF download. Following that, work will begin on offering a print-on-demand version. The final PDF comes in right around 300 pages. Price for the PDF is still in question. I have a better handle on how much the POD version will cost. For a limited time, I'll be able to offer a free PDF to those who buy a hardcover POD version. I'll try to offer coupons for those who pick up the PDF early, so that they get a decent discount on the POD version. I'll have more details soon, including a post where I feature the amazing cover art by Doug Kovacs.

Terrifying Tales of GenCon 2013, Part 2

Following my  first GenCon 2013 post , I'm going to recap some highlights from my second (and last) day at GenCon. The second day I was there, GenCon seemed no less large. It was a bit comical at times because Indianapolis had managed to schedule a biker rally, a music festival, a baseball game, and GenCon all on the same weekend. The foot traffic around the convention center was pretty wild at times, between Cosplayers and Bikers who, for all I know, might've been cos-players themselves. The people in Indianapolis seemed very friendly and had nothing but nice things to say about the GenCon attendees -- which was nice. I did my best to help out on the second day. I did a coffee run and helped Doug Kovacs out at his booth. I had a game scheduled in the afternoon but, surprisingly, it was a no-show. But that was okay because Saturday night wound up ending with a bang. We had a group that evening that ran  TATG characters through   DCC RPG's Tower Out of Time by Michae

Terrifying Tales of GenCon 2013, Part 1

Last weekend I attended GenCon in Indianapolis. It was sort of a last minute decision so I didn't get to go all out with time off or lots of events. Mostly I went to help out where I could, run a few games of Transylvanian Adventures , and generally do what I could to get the word out about this book. It was pretty much all of my "marketing budget" for all time. As evidenced by the total lack of Transylvanian Adventures  movie trailers all over the net. Cool Stuff My first impression of GenCon was that it was really big . I had never been before. So it was all new to me. It was altogether exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time. I got to see a lot of neat things people were working on. And we all got to talk shop and compare notes. That was a lot of fun. Some of the more interesting things I got to check out were: This supplement Jim Wampler is making for DCC RPG. It is seriously, awesomely cool. It's kind of a hush-hush thing at the moment. So I won&

Paper Hero vs. Transylvanian Bad A** (Level 0)

I'm putting together a series of posts contrasting the characters from Transylvanian Adventures  to their corollaries in more recent versions of the World's Most Popular Fantasy Roleplaying Game. The hope is to illustrate what makes these characters playable and heroic in their respective games. Some will resonate with what I'm calling "Paper Heroes" -- which are those other  characters. Others will find  Transylvanian Adventures' approach more appealing. And while the term "Paper Heroes" is a bit pejorative, it's not my intent to alienate those who find fun in both types of characters. I have played RPGs since 1981. I've played all sorts of characters in all sorts of settings and games. If there's any negativity associated with this blog's characterization of those other  heroes, it's of the snarky and harmless variety. I'd throw down in 4e and Pathfinder just as soon as OD&D and DCC RPG. It should be apparent that my p

Update: So proof-reading... takes... forever...

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, there's a reason I had to split this mammoth into two (and then THREE) books. It's big. Well... maybe not big compared to the World's Largest Dungeon  or Starblazer Adventures or even DCC RPG. But... gah! I've finished proof-reading 11 chapters. That's right. 11. There are 4 more to go. These four are much smaller. Consisting mostly of random tables. The first two chapters are through layout. We're about 2/3 of the way through the 3rd chapter. That's the 0-Level chapter, for those keeping score. It's huge. And we're debating presentation at the moment. This week will not feature much progress. I'll be at GenCon. And I have a few materials to get together. Those materials will not  include deadtree versions of anything. Which makes me sad. But time and financial constraints conspired to run out the clock on me. Come by for some business cards, though. And I should be prepped to run a ton of games

Update: What's Taking So Long?!

Yup. I know. I said layout would start this week. Yeah, well. I was wrong. Proof-reading is taking longer than expected. I'm right now about halfway through the book. I have two very big chapters to get through. And then 6 other smaller chapters to get through. The book should go to layout about the same time the Gamma is sent out. I've had to go back and add some sections. Move a few things around. And rewrite a few parts because I think I was suffering from sleep deprivation when they were first written. I'm also getting ready for GenCon. And that's its own ball of wax. News coming out of the batcave this week... There will be a free version of Transylvanian Adventures . It will contain a subset of the classes in TATG. It will only be available in PDF form. It will not have any art in it. It will have the Sample Adventure and Rule Enhancements. It will not have all the tables in it. It will be (roughly) 40% of the real book, sans art. It will have the map

Updates...

The Winter Home  has been updated. I added a Male Valiant and Female Hunter. So now all 5 pre-gens are available in male-female varieties. I've been busy proof-reading and editing the draft. Right now, I have completed 7 chapters. They are awaiting layout. I have either 7 or 8 left to go. As I've edited, I've added a few sections. Most of them try to clear up things that seemed less than clear such as: can a 0-Level clergyman turn unholy? I went back and added a section on Lifepaths. It's not as gonzo as Cyberpunk 2020. And not as detailed, deadly, or focused as Traveller. But it helps distinguish between a character that's 15 and one that's 50. Mostly it addresses the character's circle of friends and loved ones. As well as any good or bad things that may have happened to the character prior to the 0-Level Funnel. I also added a section to the CharGen chapter that should make the history buffs happy. And as a last bit, I went back and detai

Mad, Mad Libs!

The last, hugest piece I've been working on for Transylvanian Adventures  was what my wife and I have affectionately called the "Mad-Libs" section of the character sheet. And, as it turns out, that has been the most asked-about section of the character sheet since it was introduced with the updated Winter Home  pre-generated characters. For those who still have not ( warning: shameless plug )  picked up a copy of the Winter Home Introductory Adventure yet , the Mad-Libs section (titled "My Story" on the character sheet) looks like this... This section tells a player the pertinent facts about his character, while giving enough information for the player to roleplay that character immediately after reading it. Appearance, motivations, character flaws as well as what makes a character "heroic" are all represented in this section. All generated through random tables. It takes about 5 minutes and 4 dice to fill in that block. The tables deliver c

Tales from the Tomb: What's The Point?

Oftentimes, someone asks me a variation of the following question: It sounds like Ravenloft . What's the point? Why not just play Ravenloft ? Once I regain control of my beserker rage, I try my best to illustrate how Transylvanian Adventures  is so fundamentally different from every other attempt at a horror RPG I've ever seen. But I always fall a little short. Every other attempt at a horror-themed roleplaying game follows this kind of approach... Something weird happens You freak out and lose some important bits that means you'll... Freak out more! And then you die... But despite all best intentions, a competent Judge/GM and the most efficient, tight and infinitely enforceable testicle-vice mechanics, 80% or more of all horror roleplaying games play out like this... Something weird happens You freak out and lose some important bits that means you'll... Go find a shotgun! And then shoot it until it dies... Transylvanian Adventures  follows the

Another Update

It's been an exciting time. The Winter Home  has been updated and I'm still almost, kinda getting close to finished with the book. It should be going into layout mid-July -- which is good news. It will have the same sort of look as  The Winter Home . I'm not sure about the release date (yet) but I hope soon-ish is good enough. I'll be sure to give plenty of advance notice as it's getting closer. So what's been going on in TATG the last part of June? OLD NEWS ALERT: I updated The Winter Home . Wouldn't you know it? I found some typos and math errors on the character sheets (as well as a couple of curious omissions in the Equipment list). Expect another update in the not-too-distant future. I'm still trying to block off time to do those last two Examples (In-Between Adventures and Investigation). That's it, that's all, once those are done. I've got some interesting life activity coming up in the near-term so I'm hoping I have enoug

We're BAAAAA-ACK!

This was the news I was hoping to be able to give sometime today. The Winter Home is back online . Updated version and all. Sorry for the mix up. Now go forth and be awesome. P.S. Alex Lucard has a  great review of The Winter Home over on diehardgamefan.com . It's awesome and please check it out.

I Am So Grumpy Right Now

So I do something I think will be really, really awesome. And that is, I updated The Winter Home  pre-gens to be closer to the characters in the finished book, Transylvanian Adventures . Things are going swimmingly, especially considering I haven't done layout since the heydays of Quark and Pagemaker. I get the file finished up. Upload it. Click to send all the customers an email saying "Hey, guess what? The pre-gens are now about 12 hundred-thousand percent more awesome and.... BOOM! Not only is my updated PDF incapable of being downloaded but the product is now "inactive" (again). Overall, I look and feel like this right now. I have two support tickets open for DriveThruRPG/RPGNow at the moment. One for the file not really being updated (despite the spiffy email I received saying it was) and the other for the de-activation of The Winter Home . So far... not loving it.

The Winter Home Now Available

The wait is over! Sort of. An introductory module for Transylvanian Adventures  is now available on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG. The introductory module is titled The Winter Home.  It includes some abridged rule enhancements from  Transylvanian Adventures and  5 pre-generated 4th level characters (Valiant, Exotic, Half-Breed, Reaver and Hunter). It's worth noting that these pre-gens are scaled back a bit and don't feature all the options available to characters in Transylvanian Adventures. Why? Mostly because some class abilities would've required more of the rule enhancements from the book to make sense. So head on over to the Land of Phantoms online store . Or go directly to the page for The Winter Home . The Winter Home  is available for $3.99. And an update... The final chapter needing draft has been completed. Most chapters have been proofed and are headed to layout soon. I was also able to finish up a couple of random tables I'd forgotten about. O

Free RPG Day

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm working my way through getting the Transylvanian Adventures Introductory Adventure  available for download through RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. It's been kinda-sorta-maybe sitting in "Product Approval" now for 24+hours. I don't think it's going to be approved by the time Free RPG Day hits (which would be now). It's my bad for not anticipating the duration of the product approval process on their end. I've also submitted a support request for some clarification but I would not expect any more information until Monday at the earliest. So here's the deal-ee-oh, starting at midnight tonight (now for many of you), email me through the blog or PM me (smathis) over on the Goodman Games forums. If you give me an email address, I will send you a promotional coupon to download the  Transylvanian Adventures Introductory Adventure for free when it becomes available at RPGNow. As a bonus, I'll add you to a TATG mai

More Updates

It's been a busy few weeks... NTRPG I got a chance to head up to Dallas for NTPRG Con. Got to meet Doug Kovacs, Harley Stroh, Paul Wolfe and Michael Curtis among many others. Had a great time. Quickstart: The Good News It's been through layout. It's been approved. It's good to go. After a couple of minor edits, it will be available for PDF download on Free RPG Day. The finished booklet is 50 pages long. The cover art (shown below) is by Doug Kovacs. And it looks amazing. Quickstart: The ?! News I'm going to be selling my books through RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. It's the best option I've found thus far and allows people to print-on-demand for hardcopies. I don't quite understand the RPGNow/OneBookshelf approval methods. So I don't know if the book will actually  be available for download on Free RPG Day. It appears I can't only have one  product and have that product be free. We're not unhappy about the prospect of people a

Just Another Update

This has been a crazy, crazy month. To say it's gotten away from me would be an understatement. I won't bore you with the grisly details of life outside the lines of TATG but it's been a doozy of a month. Research and Investigation? Done. The entire chapter has been re-written, simplified and tested out thoroughly. It does what you'd think it would do. I had more grandiose plans for a sub-system of Investigation and such but that blew up in the face of people trying to, you know, play it... so... I settled for a section that promotes highly emergent play with a few guidelines and rule enhancements to help groups out if they need it. In-Between Adventures? Done. This chapter retained its same core. The tables in the chapter have been simplified and the rules for using them have been simplified as well. Rules for "Assets" and "Relationships" have been added. These rules are very  simple. Like 1 or 2 pages simple. But they're just enough to ge

Sneak Peek at the Quickstart Map

I'm still going through the chapters of the first book ( Transylvanian Adventures ). I've hit a couple of snags in the Research/Investigation chapters and I already had a known issue I wanted to resolve with the In-Between Adventures chapter. The purpose of resolving these issues is to provide two optional "mini-games" for groups to play through if they want to blow through these portions of game prep or pre-dungeoneering. They're essentially "emergent play" engines. I should write a blog on what that means. I'm probably working on that for the foreseeable future. I don't expect to be done before the end of the month. When I am done, the alpha/beta groups will get a "Gamma" copy to review, Hulk up and smash the internet to little pieces because they will be irradiated with awesomeness (I hope). I've also been going back through the Quickstart. It's drafted but there are a couple of issues I ran into with mapping it that wil

A Logo and an Update

Transylvanian Adventures has a new logo. The old one from the flyer in DCC  was a placeholder. I put that flyer together in about 4 hours, logo, creepy art and all. Didn't have much time to do more with it. I needed a logo and art for the Free RPG Day Quickstart adventure so there it is. I'll also be taking a stab (ha!) at a Land of Phantoms logo too. Land of Phantoms is the publishing imprint I'll be using. Regarding the Quickstart, it's drafted. I need to draw up the map. I've sketched a cover piece and need to drag it kicking and screaming into the line art phase. Beyond that, I'll be doing a few interior pieces as well. The Quickstart has been a great mental exercise for me. In the process of reducing the scope of the rules to just a few pages, I've greatly simplified a number of rule enhancements. In addition, the classes chapter has gotten one further refinement -- each time getting less and less complicated. Right now, Transylvanian Adventu

Update April 2013

What I've been up to recently. Usually I put these  over on the forum  but I decided this one was a big enough item to put it on the blog. Free RPG Day I'm working on the Free RPG Day adventure. It's going to be a doozy. I'll give some more details in a sec. Two of three floors of the adventure are drafted. I have one more to go. I've also sketched out some cover (more like "front page") art and have started working on the map. I intend to make this free "quickstart" adventure a downloadable PDF. It will be available somehow, somewhere... and it will be free. The Free RPG Day adventure will feature some pared-down rules from the first and third TATG books. Specifically, fear, dying, healing up and what crosses do to vampires from the first book and ritual casting from the third book are covered in a very limited fashion. There's an opportunity for the pared-down rules to sneak into the final publication, however, if people feel they

I Got XP!!!

I could go into the whys and wherefores of how all this came about. But the summary is... A long while back, I worked with an awesome group of guys led by Brian Isikoff that included Mark Humphreys and Mike Holmes. We were all working on a second edition of the role-playing game Hero Quest, which eventually would be handed off to Robin Laws. I was working on genre chapters, some examples of play and actively involved in some of the mechanics discussions back then. After the publisher shifted over to Robin, Mark Humphreys took over the project and took it all the way to completion. It recently came to my attention that the project was published as  Other Worlds . The two genres that I'd worked on that were adapted into the book are the Horror and Pirates genres. While my text has been heavily edited, there's still some stuff in there that I put my John Hancock to. First off, kudos to Mark on doing such a great job. The book looks fantastic and he should be really proud

Please Judge This Book By Its Cover

It can't get any more official. So here's the scoop.  Doug Kovacs  is doing the cover for Transylvanian Adventures  and, if I have any say in it, he'll be doing the covers for the other two books as well. Even if I have to go rescue him from a clan of rabid ninjitsu monkeys. Or UNDEAD, rabid ninjitsu monkeys. Suffice to say, I'd save him from kobolds. He's awesome and I am humbled and deeply thankful to have him on the team. Now here's a sketch Doug sent of the cover. It's brilliant. Thank you, Doug.

Drachammer 20K

For those who've been following Transylvanian Adventures, it is probably no surprise that this haphazardly updated blog has been hand-in-hand with the TATG forum over on the  Goodman Games website . About a week ago, I posted that I'd show a glimpse at the TATG character sheet when that forum logged its 20,000th view. Much to my amazement, it eclipsed the 20K mark in no time. So here is the TATG character sheet, filled out with the details of one of the playtest characters -- H. Meneleus Collins, Esquire -- an 8th level Polymath played by Tony Hogard. Enjoy! And thanks again for all your support and interest in  Transylvanian Adventures. The first book is almost to layout.
Going Back to Where It All Began A short while ago, I put together a high-level play test of Transylvanian Adventures using the module that started it all. You've probably guessed it already but it was the original adventure for the World's Most Popular Fantasy Roleplaying Game. Rhymes with Hassle Gravencroft . What I Learned I learned many things about both old-school modules and the game supplement I'd been putting together. Maybe I'll share my old-school observations at some point in the future. But in the interest of brevity, I'd like to stick to what I'd learned about Transylvanian Adventures . High-level adventuring in Transylvanian Adventures is nothing like high-level adventuring in DCC Especially at this point in time. Spells and magic aren't the same. They're similar. But very different. Giles (from Buffy ) is different from Gandalf who, himself, is different from the typical 10th level DCC Wizard. Even though all three of thos