Land of Phantoms

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...

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...

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...

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 ...