FALLING IRON, Fantasy gaming in an author-built setting

Hello everyone! If you are new here welcome- if you have been following this Blog welcome back. First of all I would like to introduce the history of the creation, the basic concepts of the design and setting; following by a detailed description of work yet to be polished; finishing with some creator notes and information on the upcoming Kickstarter and the like. So let's get right to it- FALLING IRON is the descendant of a game I started in high school in the office of a friend. Typed out on computer paper on an old fashioned mechanical key, keyboard. Simple drawings and paintings described the lands contained within. I had been a gamer for near on a decade by this point and wanted to guide the rules for others to create their own stories. But over time other things got in the way- School, girls, music, art. In art college I used the setting for a myriad of projects- painting landscapes, creatures, weapons.Writing short stories and occasionally, returning to the rough draft of that rulebook. Then a fire. Took everything. Record Collection, comic collection, all my classwork from that year, and my game. All lost. Years passed, I thought of my game. I ran several other already published games written by nerds from around the world. We (Jacqui and me) had moved to New Orleans. The city was exciting but, dangerous. I spent most of my time in the tattoo studio at work, or at home working on artwork or bored at the computer. One day I told Jacqui I had this idea for a game system set in the world I had been using for fantasy games since I was young. (The setting needed to be updated and reworked to be far more adult and serious in nature; in the end changing and losing many of the tried and true cliches of fantasy worlds.) That all happened in 2012-2013. FALLING IRON was born. The words slipped off my fingertips. The rule system was loose and broad. The world was ephemeral and ever changing- eventually names began to give shape to the Kingdoms, the disasters, the challenges and the dangers of this world. Old ideas were replaced by new ones. Rules were dropped and replaced, or shifted back to more exciting or clearer earlier versions. Races were added, classes were added. The book began to swell and take form. Years passed. We moved back to New England. My game was growing but slowly and my momentum began to fade as well. Not for lack of interest, but the social life and activity that was lacking in New Orleans, was revived at home. Over the next few year, I was able to slowly add to the game. Eventually, because of calamity I was able to spend the better part of a year focusing on my game. Here is a hint of what will be contained between those covers. The world of FALLING IRON is Iloandir, a world of fallen kingdoms,First ruined by the wrath of Gods; then Destroyed by wars between themselves; only to be attacked by strange and powerful creatures from a reality parallel to their own. Uniting under a common banner they built an Empire. The punishment from the Gods loosed even more creatures from other unknown realms. The world of Iloandir, surrounded by evil and uncaring creatures holds intrigue, adventure, horror and mystery. The creatures and their realms of origin, the Setting (including one 15 province, empire. A secondary rebelling colony, with its own city states- often run by dark creatures or out-right monsters) as well as the 5 Outside realms- are all part of the game. The ruleset contains the Player's Guide, the Loremaster's Guide, the Bestiary and the Setting. Future expansions are already planned and will include more continents, monsters, classes and races. Book II will also include expanded rules for deeper play (including miniature and gridded combat!) The Player's Guide includes character creation, 15 Classes, 12+ Races, the system, skills, Talents (special skills), spells, a PC friendly History of the world and basic information of locations across the Empire and the Colony, Equipment and item creation rules, etc. The things remaining for readiness for the kickstarter: Final review of PG, LMG, and Bestiary Final Grammatical edit Reformatting of Bestiary entries (clarifying and streamlining making for quicker gameplay) A formal Glossary of terms (already 90% complete) a few small odds and ends Kickstarter presents a small challenge: I need a small group of players familiar with the concepts of the game for some quick play videos displaying basic rules and a simple teaser of the Dice rules. I will need camera equipment/camera-persons. I am currently researching companies which I can get professional looking dummy copies of the book so backers can see what the book will look like when it is finally printed. I already have 70+ illustrations for the books (done by yours-truly) I am looking into other artists (including at least 1 RPG legendary artist.) He and I have already spoke and I already know the cost of a full page or wrap around Illustration for a dust cover). I have begun to make a list of the amounts needed for the production of the books, the printing of the cards for each set, and shipping. I also have been working up stretch rewards. I am going to be writing in here once a week if I can to think. To plan. To share. Please come back. R