State of the Press: July 2015

OK, a fair few things to cover.

Frozen Skies Setting Primer

Finally released something that'll serve as a basis for Frozen Skies games for the time being, namely the Frozen Skies Setting Primer.

It has some details on the setting, stats for the Wulvers and gear such as weapons and vehicles. You'll need a copy of the Savage Worlds Deluxe rulebook, but as I said the Primer offers a basis for your games. So pop on over to DriveThruRPG and check it out, what more its listed as 'Pay What You Want' so it can either be nabbed as a freebie or you can support the publisher.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/152526/Frozen-Skies-Setting-Primer

Frozen Skies In General

The main hurdle to getting Frozen Skies released was the artwork, chiefly getting it all paid for.

Recently I'd gotten a fair amount of money from a relative, but then discovered that the artist was on holiday until August. As frustrating as this was it meant that I had a bit more time on building up interest, work on the draft of the book and all the while the money sits in the bank earning a little bit of interest. Whilst I'm hoping to be able to release the proper main book for Frozen Skies this year I'm still weary of committing to a release date yet, so for now its a case of "done when its done".

But things are moving in the right direction and the basis of the setting in the form of the Primer is now out.

Looking at releasing a couple of Frozen Skies adventures, possibly another freelance adventure for Fabled Environments that may or may not be Frozen Skies related. The first adventure is The Lost Sodkan Mine that I've mentioned before and run a few playtests of, though a bit of tweaking is due before I can start writing up. Next will be an unnamed adventure, though it is based around a remote outpost under siege/attack from Wulvers. Finally the possible Fabled Environments adventure, nothing concrete yet as I have a few ideas but need to decide which one to go with.

Also looking at a possible book about a sky pirate heaven called Broken Spires, just ideas at this stage but looking at possibly inviting extra writers for this.

Cross-Promotion

Authoress and artist, of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy, VJ Bartlett has recently uploaded the first chapter of her début SciFi novel 'The Return of a Nagus' onto DriveThruFiction. Just like the Frozen Skies Setting Primer its listed as Pay What You Want, so you can nab it as a freebie to see what its all about before buying one of the print copies or giving her some support via a small donation.

I highly recommend you go and check it out.

http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product/152643/The-Return-of-a-Nagus-Preview-Chapter

Exilicon 2015

On Saturday Utherwald was in attendance at Exilicon in Cambridge.

This is the second year that this convention has been running, the brains behind it are called Exilian. They run it as a 'convention of creative geekery' to  showcase a number of creative projects, small and independent traders, and other interesting and exciting ideas. There was another of interest things doing and people in attendance such as the Ren fantasy TV series, the guy behind The Next Great American Game movie and the first demo of the Savage Worlds licensee setting Ultima Forsan outside of Italy.

Unfortunately they accidentally picked a bad date, there was a massive summer fair going in Cambridge over the weekend (hotels were fully booked for it months back) and the venue was a little tucked out of the way and signage could've been better. Whilst there was some trade it was fairly quiet for much of the day but did pick up halfway through the afternoon. The organisers have taken feedback onboard and are looking to improve things for next year, most importantly picking a date that doesn't clash with anything.

Heres the site if you want to check it out; http://www.exilian.co.uk/con/index.php

Other Events

Thus far that is effectively it for our event season this year aside from local fairs to sell copies of Alyeskan Tales. There are other UK conventions that we'd like to attend this year but it is a question of logistics.