The Tao of Zen Nihilism
Houses of the Blooded is back in stock at IPR!
The stock I sent them is already one quarter down, so I’ll be ordering more soon.
On a business note, this is a problem. It’s a good problem to have (I’m calling it "the Wii Problem") in that I can’t keep up with the sales of my new book. It’s a good problem to have, but it is a problem.
Meanwhile, writing on the first supplement, Slumming, is coming along better and faster than I expected. I’ll have an update on my video blog tomorrow.
(thanks to "Rob Justice" from the HotB Forums)
(Need a sexier name for "Buildings," but it’ll do for now.)
Here are the Buildings for the City System so far, divided by their Influence Type. Need more Law, though.
Slumming: Servants, Peasants and City Scum is nearly ready for playtesting. One of the funnest parts of writing this book is the City Management System.
In other words: Influences that work.
I’m as giddy as a school girl.
In Houses of the Blooded, country nobles build their domains from Farms, Plains, Mountains and other Regions.
With the Slumming rules, city nobles build their barrios with Taverns, Bordellos, Rookeries and other Buildings.
What Buildings should I add?
Here’s a list of the current Buildings. Note: They are far from finished. Really a working first list.
Every Friday, I’m gonna post a video about Houses of the Blooded development, actual play, writing, etc.
This is the first.
The Forums over at www.housesoftheblooded.net are rockin’!
I’m proud like a poppa. Thanks to everyone who’s posting.
When writing of No More Roses–the opera by Shivon Mwrr–scholars tend to call it one of his “mediocre masterpieces.” Mwrr wrote it in a time of mourning for his lover (the unnamed “Lady V" mentioned in his journals). His heart broken by grief, Mwrr made three aborted attempts to compose the piece, finally completing it five years later. He wrote, “Finished. And rightly so.” It was one of his last pieces before his lost swan song, Shadows and Love.
Mwrr’s opera is a re-telling of the Avreda and Ylvayne tale: two young lovers caught up in a game greater than themselves. In the end, they are manipulated and seduced by powers playing a complicated game of one upsmanship. Their love destroyed, one murders the other in a duel. An ending drenched in blood.
What follows is the rough outline we have for Mwrr’s opera along with the musical pieces he composed. It is not the final draft. Because we don’t know the ultimate resolution of the conflicts in his notes, we can only speculate how the opera may have ended…
Read more in the HotB Design Blog.
Listen to the Opera.
(a preview peek from the pages of Slumming: The Servants, Peasants and City Scum of Shanri)
Let’s assume everyone has a Valet or a Maid. If your character doesn’t already, congrats, you have one now.
First, get everyone in a circle.
Second, everyone turn to your left. That person, that player, is going to play your Maid or Valet…
* * *
More at the HotB Design Blog.
You can listen to it here. CDs will soon be available. (The bonus tracks will not be on the CD; those went exclusively to the 100 Limited Edition pre-orders.)
The music is from Shivon Mwrr’s version of Avreda and Ylvayne: No More Roses (the only complete ven opera we have).
I’ll have a summary of the plot–as well as notes on each track–in a little while. In the meantime, enjoy!