The Tao of Zen Nihilism
Ven literature is filled with books, scrolls and other reading materials from the unspeakable ones. These Artifacts not only provide the ven with Rituals but also knowledge of the times before the Great Ruin.
Forbidden Tomes art Artifacts. Ven characters find them in Ruins, hidden libraries and elsewhere in Shanri. Yes, this also means they have Doom! Points spent on a Forbidden Tome can go toward the following benefits…
You can find out more at the HotB Design Blog.
Houses of the Blooded. FIVE BUCKS.
The four hundred and thirty-eight page Houses of the Blooded PDF is FIVE BUCKS.
Did I mention you can download the PDF of my newest book for FIVE BUCKS?
You know why?
Because I want you playing my game!
FIVE BUCKS. Seriously. FIVE BUCKS.
Not because I’m desperate (the book is selling like hot cakes — seriously starting to rival Cat sales), but because I want MORE PEOPLE playing my game.
Drop FIVE BUCKS and discover why people are ranting and raving about Houses of the Blooded.
(Black Hat Matt said if he had discovered this game in the ’90’s, his crew wouldn’t be playing Vampire, they’d be playing Houses of the Blooded.)
It’s a limited time offer. I’m not telling you when I’m taking it back.
FIVE BUCKS. Four hundred and thirty-eight pages of Machiavellian Goodness.
Hey, L5R Fans! "What if the whole world was the Scorpion Clan?" Find out in Houses of the Blooded for only FIVE BUCKS!
Hey, 7th Sea Fans! Wanna see what Vodacce originally looked like? The original vision for 7th Sea? FIVE BUCKS!
FIVE BUCKS.
My gift to you.
Enjoy it while you can.
D’Valesh gets mentioned in more than a few works–I found it in The Great and Terrible Life of Shara Yvarai–that takes advantages of the amazing ven metabolic system and their inbred sense of cruelty.
What you need are two contestants, six throwing knives and two large targets…
Learn more about this bloody and dangerous "garden game" at the HotB Design Blog.
Shipping Update
The books arrived on Friday and IPR starts shipping them on Monday.
THANK YOU to everyone who waited so patiently. Let me explain what happened.
First, the printer shipped books to me rather than IPR. This means it took an extra week for the books to show up. Not only that, but they showed up while I was at Gencon, meaning it took another week to get to IPR.
I had to re-label and send the books off–twenty-one boxes worth–on my own dime to IPR. I nearly threw my back out shlepping all the books to the PO. (For those who don’t know, I have a permanent back injury from a car accident in 1998.)
Then, the US Post Office shipped the books to the wrong address. Or I gave them the wrong address. Or something. I don’t think the second option is correct because the books eventually arrived at IPR (on Friday). So, the book arrived. Late, but they got there.
Also, I’ve been overwhelmed by book orders. I had to print another 120 books to keep up with you guys. Hopefully, by the end of the month, I’ll have to print 120 more.
What this means is the Brewery is gonna go through some changes. I’ve already talked to Jared and we’re going to have an announcement soon.
Website
The HotB Website (http://www.housesoftheblooded.net) is up and running! And boy-oh-boy are the forums steaming! FAQ, Actual Play, General Discussion, OOC and IC Forums. Go join up and enjoy!
Blog
I’ve moved most of the design stuff I’m working on over to the HotB website. I’ve already posted about a new Fox Blessing. I’ll have a new Wolf and Bear Blessing soon as well as a new game the ven nobles play. A damn bloody game, at that.
Forums
Like I said, the forums are up and running and we already have a bunch of very enthusiastic players making posts. Rules clarifications, a player-designed character sheet, and new research materials for Shanri research enthusiasts!
The Republicans have fucked themselves. Nominating an old man with dubious political decisions and a rookie governor with no foreign experience, relying on the ultra-conservative base to push them through the electoral college with promises of pro-life judges and creationism in schools. I mean, what the fuck are the Republicans thinking?
An old man and a rookie governor? The American people would never go for that!!!!
Except they did. Twice.
Joke’s on you, America!
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
What does America get for getting fooled three times?
It appears the books arrived at IPR last night. We’re still trying to confirm. I’ll keep everyone updated as things move along.
I hate this part of the business.
First, the printer was supposed to ship boxes to IPR, but they shipped them to me by mistake, adding a week on the shipping time to customers. So, I lug the books down to the Post Office and ship them off to IPR myself. About 20 boxes, each at least 17 pounds. 100 Limited Editions and 150 Standard Editions.
Now, it looks like the Post Office may have lost them.
I can’t get in contact with any living beings at the Post Office until this afternoon. (My work hours are 6 AM – 6 PM.) And when I arrive, they’ll probably tell me the same thing: we don’t know where they are.
At least I bought insurance.
If you ordered books from IPR, I apologize for the delay. I’ll find a way to make it up to you.
It’s hard to be a saint in the city.
— Bruce Springsteen
Those who have read Play Dirty are familiar with my old Champions campaign. See, I was “The Guy Running Call of Cthulhu” in the college gaming club and I already had the reputation as “The Guy Who Killed Characters.” I didn’t like that nom de guerre and I wanted to change it. Thus, when I was told “You just can’t kill a Champions character,” I took up the challenge of running the game.
Now, the thing is, I didn’t kill characters. I massacred them.
The players were costumed heroes in an organization with law enforcement powers. They acted like cops–with certain limitations–trying to bring peace, justice and harmony to a broken city.
(For more info on the game and how I ran it, you can check it out in the first few chapters of Play Dirty.)
For a long time, I’ve been thinking out writing out my old campaign as a sourcebook of some kind. A Champions sourcebook or something like that. But I never got the juice to do it. Champions wasn’t really the system to do the setting in. Yeah, that’s the game that spawned the campaign, but the rules really weren’t right for what I wanted.
(I started fiddling with my own supers system: something driven by motivations rather than powers. In other words, Batman’s Motivation is Revenge (no, it’s not Justice) while Superman’s Motivation is Justice and Wonder Woman’s Motivation is Peace. It don’t matter how big and powerful Supes or Batman are: the number of dice you roll is based on Motivation. If you are acting outside your Motivation, you get less dice. That’s why Batman can beat up Superman from time to time. Not all the time, but only when he’s acting on his Motivation.)
I gave up on that–not enough of a mechanic for a game. So, I put my mind toward other things…
Then, I started reading Jared’s DarkPages.
I now have a game system that really fits my old campaign. And it’s all because of one little word.
Pain.
Keep an eye out for Dangerous Saints: a new imprint for DarkPages.
DENVER — SOMETIMES life really does imitate art.
As the Democratic National Convention was kicking off, actor Richard Schiff, who played the White House communications director on “West Wing,” was holding court with a pack of reporters on a concrete version of a red carpet outside of a restaurant here.
The Emmy Award-winning actor was completely at ease talking about real-life politics and his favorite politician, Sen. Joe Biden.
Reading through Jared’s DarkPages makes me want to run my old Champions game.
There’s even a mechanic to break characters and remove them from play.
Thank you, Jared.