A geek with $15.00 walks out of a Comic store with nothing

First things,first: Progress on falling iron marches onward. The last few steps before beta playtesting can be readied (materials printed, groups signed up and ready to play) is finishing the descriptions of the last dozen spells and the descriptions of the talents, and to make quick start characters (gear, beginning stats etc). After the beta I am going to be reaching out to artists to work on the project, with me. So, soon my friends. Soon. Okay onto the reason for the title of this entry. I walked into a comic store today. A massive one. It is one of the largest in the region. The amount of titles is mind boggling. Yet, as I stood there looking at these titles, hopeful to find a new title, or a long running one to perhaps begin a subscription for something new, exciting, well written and well drawn. I did not find anything that fits that. I found the art lacking on nearly every title, save for a few standouts, such as Thor (they started off strong, but after the first 6 issue arc the art and writing fell short) Tom Strong, well written and amazing artwork abounds.) Titles like Moon Knight look horrible, as do the new Spiderman title and Wolverine. The art work is HORRIBLE. I mean I believe in a variety is good for comics, but the art in these titles is so poor that it is hard to get into the story. Have we passed through an age of great stories and great art? It seems so. I am willing to take suggestions; but as a lifetime comic-book geek, walking out of the store, I felt sad.

Falling Iron- Playtest approaches.

As I near the point at which I can release test materials for play-test groups I once more am looking at what I have here and I am so very excited and proud, even at the unfinished skeletal version of the game. I am excited to release materials and get feedback, I am also so tempted to work a bit longer and release a 80% version of the rules and setting, but I know it is better to hold a little back and keep some materials for the second round of Beta. I simply cannot wait for the day I can be sitting at a table running the first official game. I have more than a few outlets to have official release parties! Please share this blog with anyone that you feel may be interested

Falling Iron moving forward!

Falling Iron continues to march toward completion (at least to a point I can honestly say is ready for playtesting.) Skills, Talents, spell list and the monster list are all that truly remain before I can get the playtest materials prepared to send out to groups. The setting is nearly fully fleshed out. Once the playtest materials are completed I ill be fleshing every thing out even more. And finally the last step will be the Artwork. I will be doing the lion share and I think I am going to be hiring some people to do some additional pieces for the game's final version. I also will be putting together a kickstarter campaign as well.

Falling Iron. Setting teaser. first draft.

Falling Iron is a fantasy game. The genre is as bold and varied as the imaginations of those involved. Included is a setting called Aern. "Aern is a world with both kindly and treacherous Gods, legendary Heroes, myths and legends, customs, dark empires and just kingdoms. Cataclysms and disasters have shaped this world. Wars great and small have pockmarked its history. Dark forces always just at the edge of the light, wait to overtake the world. Monsters dwell in secret lairs, with gnashing claws and champing teeth. False prophets, poisoned princes and a thousand thousand other things wait to test your mettle." The setting can be used as the standard Falling Iron game world, or as a guide with which Loremasters can create their own fantastic world of adventure for their friends to explore. Strange and fantastic landscapes of imagined worlds, or twisted versions of our own world in a time forgotten long ago, all could be host to the tales told.

First rough description of the game. (sans description of the setting, waiting for copywrite)

Falling Iron is a tabletop RPG; much like Dungeons and Dragons,Worlds of Darkness, Burning Wheel, Pathfinder, etc. It is meant to immerse the players in a fantasy world; even with storytelling as the emphasis,a gritty, fast paced combat- using fluid combat and magic mechanics are included in the system. The rulebook will include everything a small group of players need to play, from the step by step character creation rules, (allowing players to make a extremely customized character, or a quickly built character to play in an impromptu game with friends) A full list of skills and talents, to further customize player characters. The rules for the players are light, stream lined and fun. Falling Iron uses a d10 system unique and easy to learn dice system which allows players to have more control of their rolls than other RPG systems. The rule book will have a section for Loremasters (those that run the game) with suggestions on play style, mood, setting, encounter and experience tables,etc. A group of players and a loremaster can use the Falling Iron setting included, or the Loremaster can use the rules to create their own world filled with adventure, strange monsters, daring deeds, heroes and villains. With 11+ races, 4 major classes with 13 sub-classes, dozens of skills and talents, 11 schools of magic and more players are able to create the character they want to delve deep in ancient ruins, hunt monsters through haunted forests, to lead a rebellion against an evil tyrants, become a legend. Included are rules for combat, magic, experience, movement, travel, survival, encounters and more to allow the Loremaster the tools to create cities, kingdoms, worlds. A Bestiary completes the book, giving the Loremaster creatures and villains to challenge the party with, haunt ancient keeps, to populate cites with and armies to overcome. The game is intended for 2 or more players ages 13+

Falling Iron, Worlds of Ether, The Acolyte and Schedules

So for years now I have been trying to avoid the obvious: without deadlines I get distracted by any shiny thing that crosses my path. It is not so much procrastination as much as a mix of ADD/worry of failure/and sheer lack of confidence that my ideas hold merit or validity. With that being said I am going to try to set some goals, some will be short term goals some a little farther out. List of Goals (aka demands on my self. Note: these goals are able to be surpassed, but must not be missed, to achieve a modicum of success) - at least 1 page of pencils on the Acolyte, per week (with the goal of 34 pages- working towards at least 1 finished issue) - falling skies spell list and Talents list done before November 15th, 2013 -world of Ether Retooling (version 3) finished by Feb 15th - 1 progress report of better yet Blog about something I have read/review of a movie, comic, art showing, album per week here on this blog. I have 11k+ views on this page anD still only 11 readers, doesn't seem possible. ~R

After a long Hiatus, Updates and news...

It has been a long time and over the course of using this tool, "blogger", I have learned more than a few things. Firstly, and most importantly, it is difficult to keep up with a Blog. Now, that seems obvious, but it now has become apparent to me that people that do them often and consistently have a massive amount of will power aimed at doing said blog, or absolutely nothing else to do. My life gets in the way all the time, and I do not have nearly as much to do as many others that run these. Perhaps there is also something to be said if it is a hobby, or something else motivates the writer. This is of course not taking the blogs attached to or entirely making up a job. Anyways, with that being said, here is what I have been up to for the better part of a year: -Left one studio, (sadly)only to join another (yay! new studio and gainful employment continuing)! -Comic on Hiatus while story is again reworked. argh. -work on a new Tabletop Roleplaying game system called Falling Iron (working title) nears test phase! -work on reworking of Larp system continues, albeit slower than originally thought and planned. - watched many many movies (which perhaps I will give my thoughts on at a later date) -got frustrated but continued to watch politics with baited breath. -continue to run 2 table top games So yep. Still working on art and music, and more but I'll write more asap.