Seeing Stars
Well, August is shaping up to be a good month, at least in Spes Magna world. Sales are going well at both DriveThruRPG and Paizo. On the former site, In One’s Blood actually hit number 32 on the Top 100 Small Press Items list. I’ve gotten a few good reviews as well. The aforementioned In One’s Blood has a 5-star review at Paizo and a 4-star review at DriveThruRPG. Making Craft Work received three 5-star reviews at Paizo and another at DriveThruRPG. Rewarding Roleplaying has a 5-star review at Paizo.
With the constant stream of rejections from prospective employers this week, it’s nice that at least that much goes well.
The Barbaric Traits Preview PDF lands in Quid Novi? subscriber in-boxes this Sunday. This preview of character traits inspired by Robert E. Howard and Thundarr contains 12 new traits, divided evenly between the Combat, Faith, Magic, and Social categories. The for-sale Barbaric Traits PDF sits on my table in very rough draft form. The for-sale PDF offers 36 new character traits. I’m shooting to have it available for public consumption by about 15 August 2010.
Playtester volunteers still have their capable hands on Ars Metamagica. I’ve received some insightful feedback already. A couple of playtesters homed in on some unintended quirks in the system. I’ve got high hopes for this PDF. Ars Metamagica guts the metamagic feat system in the core rules, replacing it with a metamagic check system not tied to either skills or feats.
My adventure-writing funk still hasn’t completely passed. My much delayed The Case of the Purloined Princess still remains unfinished. A shorter adventure, Down the Rabbit Hole, is closer to completion. I’m not sure why I’m having such a hard time getting these done. I used to love writing adventures.
On the homefront, I got sick and tired of sitting around the house this week. My daughter was visiting one of her friends. I woke up my son Giant Boy and urged him to get bathed and dressed posthaste. We then walked about a mile to Denny’s and split the discount biscuits and gravy, pancakes, eggs over easy, sausage, and hashbrowns. After breakfast, we mosied over to the movie theater and saw Salt. It is a wildly improbable action flick, which, as Roger Ebert notes, manages to do everything that bad movies do in a really good way. Giant Boy and I then trekked through the 100-degree Fahrenheit heat to relax in the dim, air-conditioned comfort of our living room.
