Sorcery & Super Science!

I've created two S&SS characters today (A Catalyst mutated woodchuck and a Mutant Master mutated saguaro cactus) and each took around 25 minutes to create. I'm satisfied with this creation time, but I would like it to be even less. I'd prefer under 20 minutes. Unfortunately this creation time includes at least a passing familiarity with the system, and I'd suspect it would be slower for a complete newbie. Hrm... I'll have to think on this a bit and see if there's some way to streamline the process. I suspect some sort of archetypal character samples would ease entry into the game.

The rules of S&SS are less than 20 double-columned pages, so it's a far from complex game and I think having it be point-buy and highly customizable slows things down a bit due analysis paralysis on the powers. The question is do I want to change than or just accept it as a result of having some significant customization ability? As of right now, I think it will do. I'm tempted to include random character generation as a method of creating characters - randomness is a beautiful thing, IMO.

We're going to have the 1st play test of Sorcery & Super Science this weekend. Busy working on sample characters and once I get those done, time to expand upon the thoughts I have for an adventure and create all the necessary creatures, items, and artifacts. I'm excited about testing out the game - I have a lot of high hopes for how it plays, but we'll see how it really works out once the die hit the table. I know I'll get a lot of feedback by watching how the game performs in action.

Now, if only I wasn't ill. :)

We've been harvesting periodically and today got our first batch of cucumbers. Totals are updated below. Now  we have to decide if we want to make fridge pickles or just eat the cukes fresh. Hrm...

Radishes: 8 oz ($.5)
Kale, Green: 9 lbs 12 oz lbs. ($15.6) ($0.1 per oz)
Kale, Red: 8 lbs 0 oz. ($12.8) ($0.1 per oz)
Lettuce (mix): 9 lbs, 10 oz. ($15.4) ($0.1 per oz)
Sweet Peas: 2lbs. 1oz. ($7.26) ($.22 per oz)
Dwarf Peas: 1lbs. 7 oz.; ($2.99) ($0.13 per oz)
Wando Peas: 2lbs, 4 oz ($4.68) ($0.13 per oz)
Oregano: little bit, it's a herb. :) (nada)
Basil: disappointing little bit (nada)
Spinach: 1lbs. 4 oz ($2.60) ($0.13 per oz)
Swiss Chard: 5 lbs. 2 oz ($8.2) ($0.1 per oz)
Blueberries: .4 oz (unknown)
Kohlrabi greens and bulbs: 1 lbs. 15 oz. ($4.65) ($0.15 oz)
Cucumbers: 8 lbs. 11oz. ($8.65) ($0.0625 per oz.)
Green Beans: 3lbs. 7oz. ($4.40) ($0.08 per oz)
Raspberries: 4.1 oz (unknown)
Zucchini 2.lbs. 10 oz ($2.63) ($0.0625 per oz)
Garlic 7 oz (unknown)

(Shelled pea total Wando and Dwarf: 1 lbs. 9oz)
(Grand total: $90.39)

I think I've got the rules of V.2 of S&SS done. Now on to populating the game with items and critters. Look like I'll be able to hit my 64 page or under goal. I'm glad I changed the item construction system: it's a lot simpler now and I think it will run faster as well as feel more like what I'm aiming for. Soon I'll have to start playtesting to see how things work out.

Rainy day and cool - working on Freeport 4e - listening to Coltrane...

Today, it is Pea-Day in the garden. Harvested 14.8oz sweet peas, dwarf peas 9oz, wandos 15oz. That's all of the sweet peas and dwarf peas unless they flower again (unlikly). We have some more wandos to pick later.Also picked 4.7oz of swiss chard and 13.7 of red kale, 7oz kohlrabi greens, and 5 oz. of koklrabi bulb. Totals are updated below:

Radishes: 8 oz ($.5)
Kale, Green: 6 lbs 8 oz lbs. ($10.4) ($0.1 per oz)
Kale, Red: 6 lbs 14 oz. ($11.0) ($0.1 per oz)
Lettuce (mix): 7 lbs, 15 oz. ($12.1) ($0.1 per oz)
Sweet Peas: 1lbs. 14oz. ($6.90) ($.22 per oz)
Dwarf Peas: 1lbs. 5 oz  ($2.73) ($0.13 per oz)
Wando Peas: 2lbs, 4 oz ($4.71) ($0.13 per oz)
Oregano: little bit, it's a herb. :) (nada)
Basil: disappointing little bit (nada)
Spinach: 1lbs. ($2.08) ($0.13 per oz)
Swiss Chard: 1 lbs. 14 oz ($3.0) ($0.1 per oz))
Blueberries: .4 oz (unknown)
Kohlrabi greens: 13.5 oz. (unknown)
Kohlrabi bulb: 10 oz (unknown)

(Shelled pea total Wando and Dwarf: 1 lbs. 8oz)
(Grand total: $52.55)

Harvested 14 oz of lettuce, 1.5lbs of red kale, and about 10oz of peas today. I've updated the total below. I'm going to have to find a price for the peas once we have them in our local market. It's nice having a garden and I'm having fun with my running totals. My $ estimates are low as well: we're growing organically, but I'm pricing against conventionally grown produce. Our organic lettuce is around $5 per pound here in Coshocton, so a method-for-method price comparison would be about $28 just for the lettuce.

Radishes: 8 oz ($.5)
Kale, Green: 6 lbs 8 oz lbs. ($10.4) ($0.1 per oz)
Kale, Red: 5 lbs 6 oz. ($8.6) ($0.1 per oz)
Lettuce (mix): 5 lbs, 10 oz. ($9) ($0.1 per oz)
Sweet Peas: 14oz. ($3.06) ($.22 per oz)
Dwarf Peas: 12.2 oz (unknown)
Wando Peas: 9.45 oz. (unknown)
Oregano: little bit, it's a herb. :) (nada)
Spinach: 12 oz. ($1.56) ($0.13 per oz)
Swiss Chard: 10.3 oz ($1.03) ($0.1 per oz))
Blueberries: .4 oz (unknown)

(Shelled pea total Wando and Dwarf: 8.11oz)
(Grand total: $38.65)

On the work front, I've finished the layout for Advanced Adventure #13: White Dragon Run and now have to do the art direction.

And our first wee berries are harvested. We have 3 small blueberry plants, 3 goodly sized blackberry plants, and 3 raspberry plants. The raspberries have shot out runners and we've got 4 new plants in small pots right now that we're probably going to transplant. But anyway ,the first few blueberries are in our kitchen, so I'll add the berries to the garden list below. :)

Picked another 1.5lbs of green kale today along with 3oz of lettuce to supplement our Community Supported Agriculture's pound we got for this week. I've updated the totals below:

Radishes: 8 oz ($.5)
Kale, Green: 6 lbs 8 oz lbs. ($10.4) ($0.1 per oz)
Kale, Red: 5 lbs 6 oz. ($8.6) ($0.1 per oz
Lettuce (mix): 5 lbs, 10 oz. ($9) ($0.1 per oz)
Sweet Peas: 14oz. ($3.06) ($.22 per oz)
Dwarf Peas: 12.2 oz (unknown)
Wando Peas: 9.45 oz. (unknown)
Oregano: little bit, it's a herb. :) (nada)
Spinach: 12 oz. ($1.56) ($0.13 per oz)
Swiss Chard: 10.3 oz (unknown)
Blueberries: .4 oz (unknown)

(Shelled pea total Wando and Dwarf: 8.11oz)
(Grand total: $37.62)

I've edited Advanced Adventures #13: White Dragon Run and have done the wilderness map. Today I'll try and get the other bazillion maps done for that adventure and then begin layout.

Yesterday was nice. I promised 50 years when I got married, so only 42 more to go. :)

Suzi and I were married. Today we're spending the day working, dieting, doing the laundry, and watering the garden.

Couldn't really ask for a better anniversary gift than being together and healthy.

Malevolent and Benign is a brand new 128 page, 1e monster book featuring 150 creatures (and more than 85 illustrations) compatible with the first edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Confront the most experienced player with unfamiliar monsters such as the fearsome fungal render, the vicious hellscorn and the terrible herald of armageddon. Includes 4 appedices: new magic items associated with the monsters, monsters by level, monsters by rarity, and monsters by terrain type.

M&B is out now in hardcover at Lulu. The softcover version will be hitting FLGS in about two weeks as will the PDF hit digital stores. I'm jumping the gun on the hardback version a little be, as there will be the typical production and shipping times associated with Lulu, so those who prefer hardback won't have to wait longer than those preferring other formats to get their book.

http://www.lulu.com/content/hardcover-book/malevolent-and-benign-a-first-edition-bestiary/6529030

Hope everyone enjoys!

Joseph Browning
Expeditious Retreat Press

Just picked another 1/2lb of lettuce, 1oz of spinach, 6oz of dwarf peas, 1.25oz of wando peas (I'm keeping them separate to determine which variety produces better) so that brings us up to:

Radishes: 8 oz ($.5)
Kale, Green: 5 lbs. ($7.5)
Kale, Red: 4 lbs.($6)
Lettuce (mix): 4 lbs, 9 oz. ($6.85)
Sweet Peas: 6oz. ($1)
Dwarf Peas: 6 oz (unknown)
Wando Peas: 1.25 oz. (unknown)
Oregano: little bit, it's a herb. :) (nada)
Spinach: 9 oz. ($1.13)

(Shelled pea total Wando and Dwarf: 2.6oz)

On the work front just accepted an Advanced Adventure manuscript from James Boney entitled White Dragon Run. It's for 2-4th levels and opens up roughly a county-sized area for adventure. I think it's a good addition to the line. Now to editing and then layout. Looks like I'm going to have a fairly large backstock for Advanced Adventures. Which is good.

I just realized that I should keep a running tab of what's come out of our garden so far. Suzi and I just harvested some from our red kale bunch and it came out to be 2.1 lbs. I'm going to estimate what we've already harvested in total as we've harvested several times on our kale. Not scientific, but hey, it's just for fun. So below are my estimations on what we've yielded so far.

Radishes: 8 oz ($.5)
Kale, Green: 5 lbs. ($7.5)
Kale, Red: 4 lbs.($6)
Lettuce (mix): 4 lbs. ($6)
Sweet Peas: 6oz. ($1)
Oregano: little bit, it's a herb. :) (nada)
Spinach: 8 oz. ($1)

Our total garden expenses this year has been about $100. A pitchfork and trellis poles account for around $70 of that - hopefully we won't have to replace the pitchfork again if Suzi can control her Hulk-Like strength  (Suzi Smash!) and the trellis poles will be good for years. We've harvested around (conservatively) $26 of produce right now at local prices. We're still early in the year and I'm hoping to break even this year at least. I'd love to get to around $150.

It's dreary here in good 'ole Chococton, but I like the cool weather (supposed high of 61 today). Our garden has gone nuts and I'll be eating my weight in kale, lettuce and peas shortly. We finally got some rain, so things have been growing like mad.

Had a busy last week with Suzi's mom being here. She enjoys shopping so I got to be the driver, but it was far from bad. I was able to start reading a new book I got from 1/2 price books - Profit and Power - which is about medieval trade. Interesting book and well worth the price.

On the business end I've gotten the layout for Advanced Adventures #11 & #12 done and need to write up the art direction. It's nice working ahead on these and it surely helps our release schedule for the year. Now it's time to buckle down and get the NPCs for the 4e Freeport companion finished.

All in all, it's been a good past week.

It's been a while since the last update and a few things have occurred:

(Business) 1. All the monsters for the 4e version of the Freeport Companion are finished, and npcs are next on the chopping block.

(Business) 2. Have two more Advanced Adventures in the works (numbers 11 and 12), The Conqueror Worm by Alphonso Warden and The Barrow Mound of Gravemoor by Andrew Hind. Worm is in the mapping phase and Gravemoor's had the first round of editing.

(Business) 3. We've gotten a 4e manuscript for Joseph Miller's Nevermore setting which we've previously published for True20. He's been working like a badger at it and we should have it out in fall.

(Business) 4. I've been working in fits and starts on Sorcery & Super Science, but it's going much slower than I'd hoped.

(Business) 5. Suzi's updated the first 10 1-on-1 Adventures for Paizo's upcoming Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. We're waiting to see the final rules before putting the finishing touches on the manuscript. It will be at GenCon.

(Personal) 1. Got the garden up and running, fixed the kitchen lights, put up some carriage posts to protect the corner of our alleyway hill, fixed a leaking toilet, healed the back injury, went to Ohio Game's Day (although I only worked and socialized while there), managged to get a month without heating/cooling the house, and will host Suzi's Mom at our home until next Monday.

(Personal) 2: Finally broke down and got a garden gnome. Our front and back gardens are coming into swing and we needed a spiritual ad visor for the plants. Hopefully, he'll be able to bring the rain as well - we're under half of what we normally get for this month.

(Personal) 3. Finished reading the 1st compilation of the Savage Sword of Conan. Now on to #2.

(Personal) 4. Just picked up our first Community Supported Agriculture distribution and will have a strawberry rhubarb pie tonight as a direct result.


Been busy.

I managed to hurt my back Friday before last, so I've spent much of the time since lying down reading. It was bad enough where I could not sit for more than a hour, and that puts a big crimp on writing and other work. I managed to read 2 good books about castles and sieges all the way through, which is an unusual feat for me, as I tend to jump around and read the things that most interest me instead of reading from cover to cover. So, although I could not do "real" work, I was able to do more background reading for the next Magical Medieval Society book about castles.

The funny thing with the back injury is that the day after I hurt it I went into Columbus and gamed and, although it hurt, it didn't really kick in until the next day and I had to skip the next weekend's gaming session 'cause I could barely get in and out of our little truck. It sucks getting old and hurting yourself. I used to be a powerlifter, benched around 240, military pressed around 220, and squated over 450, but now I managed to hurt myself lifting 50lbs. bags of crushed rock. Ha!

My sister's been in town for the past week so we haven't gotten much done. She packed off yesterday after a nice vacation so it's time to get back to work I suppose. Ah well, it was nice having a break. :)

Did you know that gorillas are herbivores?  I didn't - thought they were omnivores who mostly ate plants - like common chimps. But gorillas are herbivores that only accidentally ingest insects while foraging. Another not very useful bit of information permanently placed into the old melon, but that's how it goes.

It's been a while since the last post and things have been pretty busy here in XRP land. We're chugging away at the 4e Freeport Companion, editing the latest Lands of Darkness, starting layout for a new Advanced Adventure, working on a new 1-on-1 Adventure for Pathfinder and, on top of all that our magnolias have started to bloom. Outside our office window we have two giant flower-trees. :)

We've got much of the garden in with peas galore, radishes, kale, kohlrabi, garlic (planted out of season, but you still get a nice return) and some different types of lettuce. The potatoes are in the ground, but not doing anything yet - they tend to take a wee bit longer than the others. We've got basil and orgegano as well. I love having a garden.

Well back to work!

Just wanted to let people know that our April Fool's Lands of Darkness, The Home for Wayward Minions, is for sale at www.yourgamesnow.com. You may want to pick it up if you're interested in Lord Vaxlor and how he's managed to turn minions into real monsters. A hardcopy's available at our website if you prefer that.

Happy April Fools, all!