- Hello!
- Corax, Nevermore
- Newsletter Q&A
- Kickstarter - Moonstone
- Interviews
- Upcoming Events
- Blog Post Round-Up
- !Submission Alert! - Behind The Mask
- New Book Releases
- Hard Drive Hot List - What I'm Working On
- Bi-Monthly Competition Winner
Hello!
Apologies for the delay in this missive arriving, a combination of planned breaks and various unplanned plagues have played merry hell with my schedule over the last several weeks.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, most of my upcoming writing projects are under wraps for the moment, with the exception of the recent announcement that I will be making a contribution to the Primarchs series for Black Library, with a novel focused on Lorgar (with the tentative subtitle 'The Golden One'), and after that I'll begin work on my novella for the Cryptid Clash series (looking forward to starting that). With that in mind, I want to focus a little on the gaming side of things this month.
Early next year is a new event, ROBIN, being run in Nottingham. I’ve been asked to do a panel, seminar thing, which all sounds great fun. On top of that, I took a bit of a leap and asked for some space to run a demo game. Now that was a few months ago and it’s reaching the point that I need to decide exactly what game I’m going to put on...
It doesn’t have to be a game of my own design. It is, after all, perfectly allowable to run demonstrations and participation games of existing rulesets. I could theme something for Open Combat, for example, or maybe make a nice board for Anyaral: The World of Twilight.
But that does seem a bit of a wasted opportunity. I’ve been tinkering around with various rules designs for several years now – well seriously for about five years for some of them. Giving myself a bit of a deadline to have something workable would be a nice stepping stone. It would also be a great chance to put an idea out there, in front of actual gamers who aren’t me. I think I’ve got some neat ideas, but are they the sort of game that will gain a following if I was to publish them?
I don’t need to have a full rulebook ready to go, just enough to put some miniatures on a table and run a few games. Some of my rules are in that state already, some aren’t. And like many gamers my attention span is fly-like in duration so that what I want to work on changes pretty much on a weekly basis.
At the moment I have a set of World War Two rules that are, aside from actually playing some more games, good to go. While the beauty of the system I am designing is about giving players the choice to field whatever they want from their collections, and a scenario generation system tailored to pick-up play, the gameplay could easily be showcased on a demo event too. This is my default position.
I have some rough Old West gunfight rules based on poker that are quickplay, which might be fun to turn out. On the downside, I have the figures but not painted, and absolutely no terrain yet... Good convention fodder, I’m sure, but more work than the WWII game.
And then I come round to my game of the moment, a hankering for some 15mm massed mech combat. This is perhaps the game closest to my likes and interests, and hence something of a work of passion. The reality is though, aside from a few vague thoughts, I have nothing written, no miniatures painted (and probably not enough unpainted for what I have in mind), and no table to play on. This could be the spur to get me going, or a massive rod for my own back.
And of course, by this time next week I might have changed my mind again...
Corax, Nevermore
My new Corax anthology is now available to order online, and will be hitting the shelves this Saturday 8th October.
Thanks to everyone who came to the signing at Warhammer World on Saturday.
"After Isstvan, after Deliverance, the Raven Guard still endure. Their primarch Corvus Corax has rallied countless warriors to his banner, striking back at the forces of the Warmaster on every front – from the degenerate hereteks of the Mechanicum to the cruel legionaries of the Sons of Horus, none shall escape his wrath. But although Corax has managed to stall the physical corruption of his own Space Marines, what of their spirit? And what sinister end must await those who dwell forever in the darkness?"
The anthology contains my brand new novellaWeregeld, bringing Corax’s legend to its grim conclusion, plus all of my tales of the Raven Guard in the Horus Heresy since Deliverance Lost – the novellas Soulforge and Ravenlord, along with the short stories The Shadowmasters, The Value of Fear andRaptor.
Newsletter Q&A
Robin asked via Facebook: I have a bit of a Fluff/Insignia question and I figure you might be the man to answer it: Have the Dark Angels always used the winged sword icon as their legion symbol, or was that introduced by the Lion? If so, what was it before they found the Lion? Just a 1 or an I?
Judging by the existing material the Winged Sword is the symbol of the Dark Angels Legion. Perhaps a more interesting question would be what the symbol was of the Order before the arrival of the Dark Angels? Or maybe, what symbols did the Six Hosts of the Hexagrammaton use before they became the First? Alas I do not have the answers to those questions, but maybe a forthcoming Forge World book will shed more light on the matter…
If you want to ask a question, just reply to the newsletter and I'll get back to you as soon as my schedule allows. I'll pick a question to go in the next newsletter, and combine them all into a blog post for the website. Click the button below for the full Q&A round-up for September.
Kickstarter - Moonstone
A heads-up this time for a Kickstarter that is due to go live on 17th October.
"Moonstone is a tabletop skirmish game for 2-4 players set in a grimm fairytale world. It uses unique Poker-like mechanics; players must read their opponents intentions well and bluff their way to victory.
Alongside it’s human population, Tauber is inhabited by mischievous Faeries, trickster Goblins, gruff Gnomes, revolting Trolls and stoic Giants to mention just some of the incredible biodiversity on display."
You may remember back in June Iblogged about the free Firespitter miniature they sent me, but I can assure you I'm not receiving any money under the table for promoting the new Kickstarter (but if you're reading this guys, I'm always happy to receive free stuff retrospectively ;)
Interviews
Just the one interview this month - discussing The Beast Must Die (book eight in The Beast Arises series) over at the Combat Phase podcast.
I'm always happy to chat about the hobby, so if you'd like me to be interviewed by your favourite podcast, just ask them to get in touch with me!
Upcoming Events
Do come and say 'hello' if you are attending these events (and feel free to bring any books you'd like me to sign).
Blog Post Round-Up
Elsewhere on the blog this month, you may have missed my review of Tabletop Gaming Magazine, plus details about the new Warhammer 40k Legends Collection, and Black Library Live! 2016.
! Submission Alert !
The submission information for the Behind The Mask: A Superhero Anthology, was very popular last month, so I thought I'd share details of another opportunity.
Tentatively titled First Hand Accounts, Siren's Call Publications are after some true 'horror' stories for their next anthology. Just reading the outline below gives me chills (as well as lots of story ideas).
"What does horror look like through the eyes of the witness? Whether the pivotal event is psychological or physical, we want it to impact us, to affect us; to make us never want to see it come to fruition.
For this anthology, we’re looking for stories of first hand accounts of horrific acts, unimaginable horrors, and terrifying moments. Take us into your worse nightmare and make us feel your fear, your pain, your frustration; show us what it looks like throughyour eyes. The setting is yours to choose, just make sure you chronicle what’s going down when the proverbial shit hits the fan and the world becomes a much uglier place to exist in!"
The deadline is 1st December, so there's a bit more time to get writing for this one.
New Book Releases
It has been another bumper month for releases - we've had:
One of the most common questions I get asked is "What are you working on?", so here's my (sorry, sometimes cryptic) list of works in progress, plus future releases.
Hard Drive Hot List
- Space Marine Legends - Azrael (Black Library)
- Horus Heresy - 13th Wolf (Black Library Audio)
- Primarchs Series - Lorgar (Black Library)
- Cryptid Clash - Conquest of the Nu-world: Ban-manush versus Buru (18th Wall Productions)
- Phoenix Lords - Jain Zar (Black Library)
- Sharkpunk 2 - Peregrinus Cibus Cedimus (Snow Books)
- Scrape To Victory (Black Library)
- Vengeance of the Immortal (Black Library)
- Horus Heresy - Grey Raven (Black Library Advent Story)
- Horus Heresy - Valerius (Black Library Advent Audio)
Bi-Monthly Competition Winner
One of the perks of subscribing to my mailing list is that you get entered into the bi-monthly draw to win a personalised, signed copy of one of my books. This month's winner is Gary Walker from the UK, who will receive a signed copy of the new paperback edition of Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan. The next winner, to be picked in November, will receive a copy of 13th Wolf, my forthcoming Horus Heresy audio.
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