Dust Off the Old Blog for a New Endeavor

It's time. Time to come back. 

A lot has happened since I last updated anything here. Back in the day, this was all about gamebooks and interactive fiction. While I'm proud of everything I accomplished in that area, and gamebooks will always be an important part of what I do, it's time to admit that that's no longer my main focus. It was an important era of my life, and one I will always cherish--and I do hope to write more interactive fiction in some not-to-distant day!

But for now, my focus is shifting. I think the best way to sum it up is to cross-post a Facebook post here, which effectively states where I'm at in my life. I'll paste it in below, to capture it for the ages (Facebook isn't good for long-term), and otherwise, expect to see more updates here soon :)

For those of you who are long-time followers, I won't blame you if you leave. But if you find that DnD, creative writing, game design, and comments on DMing professionally are of interest to you, then I encourage you to stick around. Without further ado...

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I turned forty last month. Four decades: childhood, teens, twenties, and now thirties, all complete and under my belt. 

I remember a Calvin and Hobbes comic I read when I was young; Calvin starts thinking ahead to future him, thinking of all the things that future him has done that kid him hasn’t yet done—the foods he’s eaten, the sights he’s seen, the friends he’s made. So often we fear aging, but isn’t it wonderful to have so many things that the younger versions of ourselves didn’t have? 

Younger me didn’t have Forrest, didn’t have Callie, didn’t have Story Tables, didn’t have five years experience teaching wonderful students at an amazing school. Didn't have memories of going to conventions and all the wonderful friends I made there (you will be missed, Geoffrey) I am so grateful.

And yet, of course, the clock is ticking. How many more decades do I have? We never really know, but another four or five at the outside, most likely. Could be a lot less, if the dice don’t turn up in my favor. I feel like my professional career is just getting going, and yet the years ahead to accomplish my goals are starting to look mighty short. 

If I could give twenty year old me some advice, I would encourage him to find his path early, not to wait. Pursue his dreams sooner rather than later, get married sooner rather than later, get started! Life isn’t as long as you think it is. 

This is true: I feel like I’m just now entering my prime. I think this decade will be the most productive and successful of my life. 

I was never very good at being young. I didn’t know how to let my hair down (ironically, since I kept it long) and have a good time. While others were out living it up, my idea of a great time was waiting until I found love to have sex, and staying up late with the guys playing Vampire the Masquerade. I regret nothing! Those times were amazing. And yet, I do wish I had danced more often.

I feel strong. I feel ready. And that’s good, because Callie and I are undertaking the most ambitious endeavor either of us has tackled yet: we’re trying to build a business out of our passion.

Decades seem to be a time of change; at least the last two have been, for me. When I turned thirty, I ended a failing relationship and moved halfway across the state to find a new beginning. I had the hard conversation with her the night before I turned thirty, so that I could go into the new decade on a clean start. It was hard, but it was the right move. It’s hard to believe that was ten years ago. Five years bouncing around the Bay, finding a career, finding love, earning a degree. And five years back in Ojai, working in paradise, but sometimes lonely.

This year, my relationship is the one thing that I’m 100% on. It’s a different kind of change the new decade ushers in: I gave notice at my job. Though I love teaching at Oak Grove (I can’t imagine a more perfect school for me!), teaching was never the long-term plan. Teaching, instead, was always intended to be a step on the path. For a time, I thought the next step on the path would be education administration, perhaps someday leading to founding a school of my own, based on revolutionary new ideas in education—ideas that the current research supports, but which the educational institutions of our society have not yet caught up with.

But in my heart of hearts, what I always wanted to do (and half the reason I became a teacher) was run roleplaying games for kids. I wanted to, like Becky Thomas at the Roleplay Workshop, eventually leave teaching to do this full time. But I don’t just want to run games for my little circle of students, I want to make an institution out of it. I dream of Story Tables branches in every major city in America, in the world. That, of course, is a damn long road, and I wouldn’t dare to make predictions about how far we’ll get, but hell if I don’t give it my best shot.

I look around, and I see a world that’s hurting. I don’t have much, but I have this one little salve, this pleasure, this escape, this opportunity for reflection and personal insight and growth, all rolled up with entertainment of a kind more satisfying than any other I’ve ever tried. I have that, and I want to share it. Somewhere out there are kids who need the same salve I was lucky enough to find, and I want to grow the institution that will bring it to them.

This is what I’m doing with my forties. Here’s to another great decade: the best yet!

Demo Story Available for "The Good, the Bad and the Undead"

The Kickstarter goes live in one week! Aaaaaauughg! To commemorate this occasion, I've put together a short demo story for your amusement and edification.

In case you have managed to get this far without being aware of what "The Good, the Bad and the Undead" is, I like to describe it as 'Clint Eastwood meets Night of the Living Dead.'

It is the result of a collaboration between myself and Jamie Thomson, in which we both created the story and content, I'm doing the writing, and he's editing, revising, and providing creative input as I go along. Originally, this was borne out of an idea he had that he was going to write himself, but time constraints interfered (as they so often do) and I came on board to help make it a reality.

The cool thing about "The Good, the Bad and the Undead," (aside from cowboys vs. vampires... duh!) is the style of interactive narrative it uses. It's not so much a 'gamebook' in the traditional sense, as instead an 'interactive novel.' There are absolutely no mechanics, no dice, no character creation, no inventory--nothing that would interfere with your experience of immersing yourself in the story.

Furthermore, it's written in past tense, third person, just like most mass market novels. And it even jumps around in point-of-view between three protagonists.

So how is it interactive, then?

As you read, you get to inform the decisions of the whichever character is in the driver's seat at the time. Your choices let you discover and create that character at the same time. You get to make decisions that reveal who that character is, while simultaneously changing who that character is. You can tilt them toward good, or toward evil. You can tilt them toward cooperation, or toward strife.

It blends the lines between reader and author, between recipient and creator. As you read, you will make decisions as to which character's point of view you want to follow, and affect choices that character makes while you're following him or her. And your input, the way you influence these characters, can have a profound effect on how the story turns out.

It's a pretty unusual interactive fiction style. To my knowledge, it hasn't been done before, at least not in a paper book. Therefore, to help people get a sense of what they would be getting into should they decide to support the forthcoming Kickstarter...

I have prepared a short demo story for "The Good, the Bad and the Undead!" It is a short story, written in the same style, set in the same world, featuring two of the same characters, but at a different time and place compared to the main book. You could consider this a hint of a prequel.

Will you read the demo story? Will you capture the criminal, or let him escape? Will you save the family, or let them die?

Will you support the Kickstarter and read the full book? Only YOU can choose!


Read the full demo here :)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ODM0C0gB6oWTl6TzdlcVFaUlU/view?usp=sharing

It's Official: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

Hooray! At long last the official announcement is made: http://fabledlands.blogspot.com/…/…/the-good-bad-undead.html

So, when I was a kid, I came across the choose your own adventure books like everyone else. I even thought, "hey, I could write these!" but the actual CYOA books weren't honestly that great... the one that won my little pre-adolescent heart was a book called, "Talisman of Death" by Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson.

Now, years later, as I'm working on kicking off an actual writing career in interactive fiction, I am lucky enough to have the chance to collaborate with ***Jamie Thomson himself*** in writing, "The The Good, the Bad, and the Undead." It was initially a book he was going to write as part of another venture, but both his writing of it and that venture fell through. His company, Fabled Lands LLP, put out a post to the community saying the project had died, but if some valiant community member wanted to step up and take it on, they'd consider it. I volunteered, citing my modest successes with the Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction, and what do you know---they accepted!

So here we are, two years later, with the book coming along nicely and the Kickstarter coming up around the corner. This is one of those transitional moments... not only my first published novel, but the fact that I'm doing it in collaboration with one of my childhood heroes.

Fortunately, I have an exciting publicity campaign planned with Callie MacDonell's help, which I don't think anyone here will object to ;)

Stay tuned for more updates, and keep it real, guys!

Follow us on Facebook to get real-time updates and info about the book! https://www.facebook.com/goodbadundead

Happy New Year!

Hello loyal followers and friends. If you're still with me after all this time, it'd be a miracle. But hey, miracles have happened before! 2013 has been a slow year for the blog, and I'm hoping to get it back up to speed in 2014, starting with getting my Windhammer reviews up (at last!)

The good news in my life is that I'm in grad school. The bad news in my life is that I'm in grad school. Hyuk hyuk. No, it really is both good and bad. I'm glad for my life, but it is a huge drain on time and energy, alongside trying to keep up with my various projects (which will be coming out soon now, I swear!). I really expect to have at least two major projects come out this year. One will be my first formally published, real, full length interactive novel (!), more on that later, and the other will be Dwarf King, the android game I'm writing for, which is being developed by Micabyte Systems and is based on "Peledgathol, the Last Fortress," my Windhammer Merit Award winner from 2012. They are both going to be freaking awesome. You should be excited :)

In the new year, I'm also considering expanding the scope of this blog past just being about gamebooks, but I haven't made any firm decisions yet. I'm considering expanding it to topics of writing and game design as well, even outside of interactive fiction in particular. What do you all think? What would you like to see here in 2014?

For now, I'm pleased to say that I've got my Windhammer reviews ready for you at last! This is just a brief intro post, but you can expect to start seeing them coming up at a rate of two a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, starting day after tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Back from the dead?

Wow... sorry it's been so long without posting! Life has been pretty crazy. I've started grad school and, well, legends speak of those who go down that path. They are never heard from again...

Anyway, I'm writing because the Windhammer Prize is mid-stream, and if somehow you've been living under a rock and haven't noticed, you should absolutely head on over there to check it out. There's 14 brilliant works of short interactive fiction, and if you read them before Oct 30, you can vote on your favorites!

Go. Go now: http://www.arborell.com/windhammer_prize.html

I've always enjoyed Windhammer because of the innovation it shows, and from what I've managed to glance at so far, this year is no exception. As my past blog posts show, I'm very interested in innovation in gamebooks, and I regret that I haven't taken the time to get more involved in some of the very cool discussions going on in the blogosphere this year about innovation in interactive fiction.

That said, I do hope that I'll be able to show some of my own ideas about innovation in interactive fiction in my own current works. More on that later.

Which leads me into a difficult explanation about a difficult decision...

As you have no doubt noticed, despite being a three-time Windhammer Merit Award winner, my name is not on the list of entrants. It wasn't easy for me to restrain myself from taking the time and energy to write up a new submission for this years contest, especially since I was bursting with ideas about what I could do. But at the end of the day, it just didn't make sense, for three reasons.

First, I feel like I've done my time. I've won a merit award the last three years running. If I were going to win first place, I would have done it by now. Winning another merit award would feel anticlimactic at this point. And if I didn't win at all, that would just be sad. At this point, it's time for me to step aside and make room for some of the other talented authors in this space.

Second, I've gotten what I needed to out of the contest. My successes in Windhammer have helped me get recognized by the community and landed me some truly incredible writing opportunities. What I needed from this contest was a leg up into the community, an opportunity to prove myself and gain some credibility. I've done that. Now, if I want to keep moving up, I have to follow through with the real-world writing opportunities that Windhammer has helped me get to.

Third, and possibly most important, now that I've been offered some incredible writing opportunities, I feel like I need to prioritize working on those. I'm working on two interactive novels and an android game, as well as some side projects of my own. All of these people are expecting me to produce, and though the time scales are flexible, I'm in grad school. I only have so much bandwidth to put toward this, and it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is and actually come out with some of this stuff. At this point, definitely more important to work toward completing professional projects rather than submitting yet another Windhammer entry, no matter how much I enjoy them.

On the plus side, I do feel very optimistic about the projects I'm working on. It's frustrating that they're moving more slowly than I would like, but now that the school year is in full swing, I'm definitely hitting my writing groove. Stay tuned.

I'm going to try and get this blog started regularly again, posting my thoughts about the Windhammer entries (once the voting is done!), more gamebook theory, and updates about interactive fiction products and authors, as well as information about my own works as they come along.

If you have anything you'd like me to post about, a project you're working on that you want to promote, or a recent release you'd like me to review, feel free to let me know!

Vigilante RPG

So, this is a crosspost from the Black Hat Writing blog, but since this blog gets a lot more traffic, I thought I'd mention it here as well. This is an attempt to do a more formal writeup of what the Vigilante RPG is all about than my last post on the subject. See the original post, or sign up as a playtest GM at www.blackhatwriting.com. Thanks :D


The Beta rules for Vigilante are complete! With this milestone, I am now actively recruiting playtest GMs to read, run, and make every effort to break my rules. I'm planning on releasing in November, and I want to make every reasonable effort possible to make sure that the ruleset is prepared for the wilds before I release it.

One of my prospective playtesters asked me, "What kind of game is it?" Well, let me explain...

Vigilante is a simple but firm system designed to tell stories in a modern, realistic setting. It uses an innovative, 'blackjack-style' core mechanic that is designed to minimize calculations in your head, relying on number comparisons rather than arithmetic. The core rules are designed around building vanilla mortals and playing in a totally mundane world. That said, there are optional rules for various supernatural elements which may be included, and the fact that the players don't know what's actually going on allows for real tension in a way that other games don't support. You could find that it's a ghost, or you could find that it's just the guy who runs the water slide. Only the GM knows for sure.

One of the things I love about Vigilante is that it supports making realistic human characters from any walk of life. A PC could be a gun-toting assassin, or a coffee shop barista who paints in her spare time. It's about bringing the world to life, not trying to fit all characters into some sort of mold. Character creation uses Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences for the statline, and there's a fairly deep skill system that can represent just about any possible skill set. When people look at the character sheet, a common first response is, "Well, Music is clearly the dump stat." To which my response is, "Sure, if your character is not musical." The game isn't about making a badass. It's about making a person.

In Vigilante, normal humans are at the heart of the entire story. Maybe there's something else going on... or maybe not. Most games open with the players in the dark. As far as they know, their characters live in a world just like ours. Because mundane reality is so strongly established as the standard, if something supernatural does come up, it's that much more powerful. In my own Vigilante game, the first time a fae lord appeared and started growing long teeth and claws, the look on my players' faces was priceless. Jaws dropped. My own girlfriend whispered, "I didn't even know that was possible..." If I'd called them together for a game of Changeling, I never would have gotten that response.

Before I leave you, let me address the system briefly. First, it's a firm system. By this I mean that if a PC wants to leap across a crocodile-infested river, the result is determined by considering the width of the river and his skill at jumping, not by considering the arc of the story and whether it's his turn for a success. Beyond that, every effort has been made to keep the system simple, realistic, and easy to use. The core mechanic relies on the easiest of mental functions: number comparison. It's a blackjack system, so higher numbers on the dice are always better, but if the result exceeds your skill number, then it's a failure. In contested rolls, there's simply two comparisons: compare your result to your skill; if you succeed and your opponent does as well, then compare your respective results. Whoever has the higher number wins. Done. No shenanigans. As for difficulty, difficulty is increased by using larger dice, rather than modifying the target number. The target number is always equal to your character's skill. It's a little different, but it works smoothly. And there's almost no math involved.

In a few words, Vigilante is a system designed to get out of your way and let you tell a story. It solves the problem of trying to figure out what happens when A wants to shoot B and B doesn't want to get shot, but it doesn't take up too much of your time while doing so. Combat moves quickly, guns are lethal as all hell, but characters don't have to be combat oriented to have a place in the story. It's focused on the mundane, normal world, because that's where we all live. Somewhere in our secret hearts, we all want to believe there might be monsters lurking in the shadows. When you play Vigilante, there might be.

Next Big Thing Part 1: Dwarf King

I've been tagged by Stuart to participate in the "Next Big Thing" round robin, so I guess it's my turn to talk about what I'm up to. Since there are several projects, and I would rather give each one full attention, I'll do this as a series of posts, focusing on one project with each post.

To start with, I'd like to talk about a project that I've been working on for about six months already, but has actually only just been announced, as of yesterday: the android game Dwarf King.

Dwarf King happened when Michael of Micabyte Systems contacted me regarding my Windhammer Merit-Award-winning gamebook Peledgathol: The Last Fortress. He approached me about using his engine for Pirates and Traders to turn Peledgathol into a full RPG Strategy game. It took me about 0.37 seconds to reply with a resounding "Hell yes!"

Why will Dwarf King be awesome?

* Expanded RPG Story: Dwarf King is based on the award winning story of Peledgathol: The Last Fortress, and uses a gamebook-style interface to give the player an immersive, interactive fiction experience. The story is massively expanded, with the introductory storyline alone reaching the entire wordcount of the original.

* Over 30 Characters: The story will have over thirty characters, each of whom has character art, names and backstories. Many of these characters can be recruited into your party. Furthermore, in the Gold Edition (paid version) you as the player can also create your own characters.


* Party-Based Adventures: Gather a small party of dwarf adventurers, or recruit allies from neighboring factions and go on adventures into the dangerous wilderness around your fortress. Uses Micabyte System's original "Small Battles" combat system to handle party combat.

* Strategic Kingdom-Building Simulation: Manage your resources, explore the surrounding countryside, defeat threats and expand your influence in order to guide your fledgling Dwarf Hall to glory and renown--or watch it all come crumbling down around your ears with a wholly original civilization development gameplay system.

* Massive Battles: Bring your armies to bear against the forces of darkness, or against those pointy-eared elven fops across the river, or really against whoever you happen to not like today, using a modified version of Micabyte System's "Small Battles" combat system. Prepare to defend your fortress against an epic siege before the game is done.

* Faction Relationships: Negotiate, trade and war with your neighbors, or play them off against each other--but always keep an eye to the north, because sooner or later Goza the Goblin will find you and try to finish the job he started when he killed the rest of your family.

* Item Creation and Crafting: True to the roots of your good dwarven ancestors, take advantage of a rich crafting system to create arms and equipment for yourself and your loyal followers.

* Stunning Artwork: No expense has been, or will be, spared to bring you the most beautiful artwork that money can buy--and lots of it. Our team of talented artists will bring this world to life.

* Play it on your Android: An adventure in the palm of your hand, unlike anything else on the market for Android today.

Stay tuned by following Micabyte's blog, or the Dwarf King Facebook Page. We will regularly post teaser artwork and bits of world lore to feed your growing curiousity. Expect release sometime in 2013.

Convolution 2012

I don't know what's more amazing, that it's here at last, or that I'm basically ready!

I'm sorry for the radio silence folks; the last two weeks of my life have been nothing except Vigilante, the RPG. Which I am happy to announce is at last complete!

At least an alpha version of it. Which is still pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Thanks in no small part to contributions by Jonas Smith-Strawn and Benton Brahm, as well as my absolutely stunning illustrator, Kempo Cornelius. Thanks to all of you!

If you happen to be at Convolution, come by the gaming room at 1:00 on Saturday to see the first, live, public demo of the game. If you miss that one, and want to see it, I may be scheduling another session for friends for Sunday after the con.

I've also got my first short story being reviewed in the Writer's Workshop, and--if I get a chance--I may try and bust out old Goblin Kite Racers as well. Hell, Steve Jackson is going to be there. Maybe he'll notice one of my games and offer me a job. *sigh* That'll be the day.

Anyway, big day tomorrow. Night, all!

Whoa... somebody left this blog here

Hey guys, look! There's this kinda cool blog about gamebooks that somebody left lying around here. I love gamebooks!

Aw, it doesn't seem like anybody has done much with it in a while. Maybe, if nobody minds, I'll just write a post or two...


So yeah... sorry for all the silence. In the last few weeks, I have A) gotten a new job that's pretty time intensive, B) started dating a very cool girl, and C) been very focused on finishing my submission for the Windhammer Prize.

You can see why I might have been a bit busy ;)

Anyway, the main thing I would like to say is, "Windhammer Prize Fuck Yeah!"

So, one week ago today I submitted my entry for the 2012 Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction. A few days later I found that there are no less than 21 other contestants this year, an unprecedented number and something I am delighted to find out (even if it lowers my chances!)

Today, the voting phase of the contest officially opened, and all 22 entries are now live on Wayne Densley's website. If you haven't checked it out yet, I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

May glory and renown follow all who have entered there!

Storytelling Festival!

First of all, thanks to all the wonderful people who stopped by due to April A-Z! I had a wonderful time participating (even if I didn't make it all the way through!)

From here on forward, I would like to get active again with the blog. I would like to plan on posting three times per week at this point, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Most of these posts will be fairly simple things. At this time, these posts will consist primarily of continuing my way through the Lone Wolf adventures. But once in a while, instead of (or in addition to) the story posts, I will also write other thoughts or announcements about events.

In this case, I just want to share with you about the Ojai Storytelling Festival, which I attended this weekend. It was a beautiful weekend, with some amazingly talented people. Kevin Kling is a genius; I recommend his book "the dog says how." It will have you laughing out loud within a few pages. And then on the verge of tears a few pages beyond that--then back to laughter.

I was blown away by the masterful performance of the Chameleons. I've never seen mime-work that I enjoyed so much before. They combined the physical art of miming with a sophisticated storytelling technique to sweep the audience away.

My other favorite was the great storyteller Baba Jamal Koram, who just has such an amazing presence and connection with the audience. You feel as if he could be your own grandfather, using folklore to tell you about yourself and your people. I'm not black. There's not a single soul from Africa in my ancestry. We came over on the Mayflower. But Baba Jamal's words gave me that tradition. He gave me those stories and made them my own. Thank you Baba Jamal.

Storytelling is something I've always had an interest in. It's something I love, and a skill I hope to develop myself. This is about the fourth Ojai Storytelling Festival I've been to, and I think, after this one, I might be about ready to start trying it myself. Wish me luck!

P: Passing on the rest of April A-Z

It is with great regret that I must announce that I will be withdrawing from the rest of the April A-Z blogging challenge. I simply have too many other things going on, and I'm not finding it easy to write short, simply posts just for the sake of meeting the blog challenge requirements.

I am happy to say, however, that some excellent posts came out of this challenge. For any passerby who come this way, feel free to check out the links below for some of my proudest posts from April.

I've also been tackling a personal challenge to write a novel in one month. Here are my thoughts on novel-writing before and after this attempt.

Before: Basics of Writing

After: On Writing Novels

My primary interest and area of experience thus far is in writing gamebooks, not novels. Here are some posts for you gamebookers out there:

If you've never read a gamebook

How to Write a Gamebook

An original short gamebook, Mars 2112, to demonstrate what the genre is all about.

A post summarizing some of my thoughts on Gamebook Theory

And, last but not least, some silly Literary Jokes I made up.

If you like what you see and you want more gamebook goodness, allow me to refer you over to Stuart Lloyd's fine site on gamebooks, where he is doing a month chock-full of interviews with gamebook authors, illustrators and producers, along with many excellent articles about gamebooks (including an interview with me!). Of course, chances are good you came here from there, so this may be an unnecessary recommendation ;)

Next year, if I try this A-Z challenge again, I'm going to plan out in advance what the topic of each post will be, rather than trying to make it up as I go along. Lessons learned.

Thanks for dropping by, and rest assured, there will be more blogging goodness coming up. We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

A: Ashton Saylor

Hello visitors, new and old! Welcome to my blog. I have just signed up for the April A-Z challenge, so hopefully some new faces will be turning up around here. As my name happens to start with an A, I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself.

My name is Ashton Saylor. I'm an aspiring writer and game designer. I have a particular passion for the union of stories and games in the form known as the "gamebook." A gamebook is an interactive story. You may know of them from the Choose Your Own Adventure or Fighting Fantasy books of the 80s and 90s. Today, the Gamebook Adventures series is breathing new life into the genre, along with several independent sites and authors, such as the Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction, Lloyd of Gamebooks, and Lone Tiger Gamebook Reviews.

For me, gamebooks are a great form because I love creating both stories and games. This allows me to do both at once. I love the interactivity that they offer, letting the reader make choices as they read, which affect the outcome of the story. A lot of gamebooks, especially older ones, don't have strong narratives, but to me that is missing the point. What fascinates me is letter the reader enter the story. Letting them participate, make choices, and have to deal with the consequences of those choices, good or bad.

Of course, it's one thing to declare that as your vision, it's another thing to accomplish it. I'm still working on the latter ;) But someday, my dream is to create beautiful stories with strong plot arcs, compelling characters, and memorable scenes in the form of gamebooks. In the meantime, I'm doing the best I can ;)

I should mention that, while gamebooks have a special place in my heart, I do also work on straight fiction and traditional game design, independently. My current project is to write a novel in time for submission to the Angry Robot Open Door Submissions for fantasy novels in late April. I'm neck-deep in writing, so taking on the April A-Z Challenge as well may be insane, but who am I to complain :)

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you come again. On your April A-Z journey, please take this blessing to the end:

May good blogs rise up to meet you.

May the tubes never lead you astray.

May visitors rain down upon your site.

And may spam avoid your inbox.

Amen.

AFK

Hi guys,

You may have noticed my formerly daily posting rate has been interrupted. My life is going through a shift right now. I think it'll be for the best, but it's scary, and I'm adjusting.

Basically, my contract ended in my day job and I'm thinking of taking the next few months just to spend writing. I'm incredibly excited about this, but it's also very, very... something.

I'm struggling with the transition. Expect a longer post once I've got my own thoughts worked out on the subject.

Cheers,
Ashton

P.S. Stuart, I'll respond to those emails once I'm back! Thanks for your patience =)

Invitation to the Isles of Mist

Hello comers and goers, prospective players and party makers,

I am hosting an online game which, for some mad reason, I think I have time for, and I need one or two more players!

The Game: One part strategy game, one part RPG, one part writing extravaganza.

The Setting: In a world where there is no solid land, but only a hundred islands and continents floating in the mists, the death of a High King has left twelve great realms vying for power. Using wisdom, negotiation, and might, you must take responsibility for one of these realms and lead your people to glory--or destruction.

The Players: The twelve realms are each controlled by another human being (except for a few NPCs, whose identities are secret). A set of skilled writers and gamers, they bring more to the game than I ever might have dreamed.

The Peoples:

The Eldryn are an immortal race who awoke from collective amnesia just over 800 years ago. Only surviving as long as their passion for life does, they must find causes to strive for, or they slip into silence... forever. Their noble caste, called the Nobilis, are creatures of elegance and arrogance who would drive their peoples to the brink in their struggle for dominance against one another.

The Duor are a race of pacifistic giants who were plunged into war, death, and slavery when their continent emerged from the mists to collide with Alendia, the Eldryn homeland, long ago. Having lost the ensuing war, they have spent the last 300 years as a slave race. Will the current chaos and turmoil bring them freedom, or extinction?

The great and beautiful continent of Alendia was shattered in a titanic magical war for dominance between Eldryn noblility long ago. Now, it is divided into two lands, each of whom hate the other. Celida and Quienenas call themselves High Alendia, claiming they inherited the culture and civilization of Old Alendia. Ardath and Essetia name themselves True Alendia, insisting that they carry on the morals and honor of their forebears. Between them, the high city of Tyrenegarde floats, a relic of an ancient age, now closed with the High King's death until the twelve realms can sort out their differences and come to peace.

The remaining lands, scattered beyond the limits of Alendia, are collectively called the Outlands. Perenor is a land of startling civilization, with great cities and broad boulevards, and their own musical language. Sitokia is home to a race of learned barbarians, savages who will quote poetry as they cut your throat. Rhosyn, called the Enchanted Isle, is a place of knights and princesses, jousting and festivals, where it is said that mysterious creatures emerge from magical glades to dance with the Nobilis after too much wine is had. Tilaria is a stern land of merciless laws and hardened warriors. Khande was once a beautiful land--but the warrior caste, the Bushin, rebelled against the Nobilis and left, taking many of the other castes with them. With too many Nobilis and not enough followers, Khande has spent the generations since then in eternal civil war. Only now has a promising young leader emerged to rally Khande from the fallen glory of her past. Orenspeak is the high, cold land where the Bushin and their allies settled after abandoning Khande. From their high mountain peaks, they rule the skies as traders and pirates. They are widely hated, but the High King's laws granted them immunity. Now that the old order is gone, the martial power of Orenspeak is once again free to sway the world.

Where will you fit in? Which of these great lands will you take leadership of? And what future will you guide your Realm into?


Okay, on to the practical stuff:

To be honest, most of the roles are already taken. We've done one turn of the game so far, but the amount of time and energy it took from me was overwhelming, so I went back to the drawing board to put in some more infrastructure to help the game move more quickly. It's looking good, and almost ready to play again.

To give you some context, I someday want to run a roleplaying program for teenagers (like the Roleplay Workshop, where I once worked), and this is the world it will be set in. Half the purpose of this game is to flesh out the setting and backstory for that future roleplaying game. This is your chance to get in on history in the making! Literally!

The goal of bringing in more players is to lessen the burden on me, as storyteller. Managing all the correspondence and turn orders for several NPCs was just too much. I don't want to give up all the NPCs, but I can definitely relinquish at least one, maybe more. This is NOT big enough that the entire internet can join. I've only got space for a few people, but if a world-building game on an epic scale, a strategy game heavy with roleplaying, sounds amazingly awesome to you, then please let me know.

I can link you to the rulebook, character sheets, public book, etc.

(If you want a preview of the map, see the map that's used as the background of my twitter profile: twitter.com/#!/AshtonSaylor.)

Hope to have you on board! Or, if not, hope you've at least enjoyed the read ;)

Content Uploaded!

Over the years I've accumulated massive amounts of detritus, scraps and bits of pieces of games or story ideas. Very little of it is in any sort of usable form, but as I look back over the last few years, I find that I actually have produced several complete, or complete-enough, works.

I have added two new pages to my site, one to showcase all the gamebooks I've written, some of which have never before seen the light of day, and another to show a bit of the game design work which I've done.

Enjoy =)

I apparently have a blog now

I've always looked on the personal blog with a certain amount of derision. Who really cares about your asinine personal thoughts, not in any polished, purposeful form, but just whatever you happen to feel like writing about today? So it is with a certain degree of abashed guilt that I start my own.

But I think it is, or rather, can be, useful. My excuse is that a lot of this stuff I'm thinking about anyway. Writing it down is wholly useful for my own sake, and that is enough to justify the existence of this blog. If other people can get some benefit or enjoyment from reading it, so much the better. Furthermore, if I'm really lucky, I might provoke dialogue and thoughtful responses to inspire my thoughts in new directions that I might not have otherwise explored.

I basically have three interests: Writing, Game Design and Society/Economics/Politics. There are many other interests I have, in theory, but in practice, those three topics are what I find I spend most of my time thinking about. At the moment, my primary focus will most likely be discussing my ideas as I work through writing a gamebook and, in a broader sense, exploring how to write a good story.

We who are about to die, salute you.