Star Wars Wednesday - Future Power

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"Always in motion is the future." - Yoda

It is always interesting to see how a product I've worked on fits into the ever developing Star Wars universe. Nexus of Power for Force and Destiny is now listed as shipping on the FFG website, meaning it will be arriving relatively soon. Actually, Special Modifications for Edge of the Empire is also about to arrive, but that's another story. I'm going to touch on recent Rebels episodes, so spoiler alert. 

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Star Wars Wednesday - West End Style...Guides

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So, last week turned into another one of those unexpected travel weeks that crop up with my day job every so often. While I had been looking forward to trying to post from the road to the new website, in the end I had too little time and energy to do so. Posting to the old site from the road was always challenging. It was possible to do it from a phone or a tablet, but not easy. My web service theoretically had an app for blog posts, but in reality all it really did was accept drafts and refuse to actually post them live to the site. In theory the new site also has such an app, but let's say the reviews haven't been encouraging.

With the travel, I'm behind on Rebels, so I will catch up on that later this evening. Yesterday, however, Pablo Hidalgo came to my blogging rescue with images from the old West End Games Star Wars style guide. It truly was a great document for both Star Wars and RPG design advice. I still have my copy… Somewhere. As I just found out, somewhere is the key word. I was going to crack it open and share a couple of thoughts of my own. While rifling through my files, I found a similar document that was much shorter, as it was focused on writing for the game in general, rather than a full-blown style guide.

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Sterlinghershey.com Upgrade

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Welcome to the upgraded sterlinghershey.com. I finally foundsome time to switch to a more modern interface and update a few pages that were lagging behind or not all that visible on the old site. It looks like everything made the conversion without too many issues. I know there are a few missing images that I need to replace, along with all of the PDF file links (I think). Some of the lesser pages aren't live yet - like the Star Wars Miniatures scenarios list - because they need some more work.

I used the last format (squarespace v5) since 2009. This new one is v7 and much more mobile friendly. It has behind the scenes tech that makes it easier for me to keep some things updated. I've stuck to largely the same page names and types as the old version, so hopefully links back to the site won't break too often.

Here are some notable changes:

  • The front page features images of my latest and/or representative products of my freelancing work instead of going directly to the blog. If you want to skip the front page, you'll need to link your favorites/bookmarks directly to the blog page.
  • The blog page has three drop down menus on the right column, allowing one to search by category, tag, or month/date. I will eventually try to clean up the categories and tags a bit.
  • Freelance now features a couple of carousel galleries featuring my product covers and cartography projects.
  • The store is now the storefront. One of the reasons I made the switch was to improve this page and make it easier to manage. It's better, though not quite spot on. To buy items you'll need to use the "Buy at" links under the images. I call it a storefront because all of the actual purchases are at other sites. Only digital products are in the storefront. I don't currently have links to buy the physical products.
  • The cartography portfolio is easier to find and finally updated to include some of my work with the Lady Sabre and the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether products.
  • The cover gallery is easier to find and is updated for a lot of recent work, as well as a few covers I didn't track down previously.

DMs Guild: Uncommoners Now Available

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My latest DungeonMastersGuild.com product is now available for Dungeons and Dragons (5e). 

Uncommoners is a collection of 10 new backgrounds for characters starting their adventuring careers from commoner roles and unusual jobs. These backgrounds are suitable for most characters, particularly those starting in villages, settlements, or cities. Some characters may continue to use their backgrounds while adventuring, while others have moved on to greater things.

Uncommoners includes the following backgrounds, complete with features, personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws.

Apothecary
Boat Handler
Butler
Falconer
Lamplighter
Master Builder (Apprentice Builder)
Messenger
Sexton
Shipwright
Town Crier
Each background has flavorful story ideas to spur creativity for players and DMs alike. For example, the Falconer includes advice for using a trained bird in the game. The Butler features a table of reasons for their loss of employment that likely spurring them to a life of adventuring. Many backgrounds include possible ties to individuals at different levels of society. The Lamplighter is an expert on life taking place on the city streets at all hours. The Boat Handler knows vessels and waterways. The Sexton tends a religious site or building, often with a graveyard, and possibly one that requires extra precautions due to restless spirits. 

DMs Guild

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Wizards of the Coast announced the new Dungeon Masters Guild today. It's an online store selling D&D 5e PDF works. Here are a few of basic highlights: 

  • It is selling earlier Adventurers League adventures. 
  • People may create new D&D content referencing official books, though it must be for Forgotten Realms or setting agnostic.
  • Wizards splits the sales with the author for both the author's new works and Adventurers league adventures.
  • The system runs through OneBookShelf / DriveThru RPG / DND Classics / RPG Now, so people with one of the various DriveThru sites already have an account they can use.  

The new open gaming license SDK is also now available, and there are differences between publishing thru the GMs Guild and on your own using the license. 

My Adventurers League Expeditions Tyranny of Dragons adventure DDEX1-07 Drums in the Marsh is available right now for purchase and download. 

I've also updated my Store page for my other titles available on DriveThruRPG.

I have additional content I hope to post soon (the site went live a bit earlier than I expected). 

 

Star Wars Wednesday - A Big Map Game

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Last weekend's Midwest GameFest was a success. The new venue and setup worked well, and though there are always things to improve upon, it went very well. I kept very busy, as I was slated to do something every slot. It didn't always happen - they had the D&D Adventurers League tables covered so I didn't end up running AL. That wasn't a bad thing, though, since I was still putting aspects of my other games together. I'd been derailed by work, a freelance deadline, and the Royals great playoff run. I ran a session of Numenera, a couple of Savage Worlds The Last Parsec, and a couple of different Star Wars RPG adventures. I also participated in a couple of panels and wrapped up with an Aethercon panel on Sunday. More on that later. For the Star Wars RPG games, though, I tried a few new ideas...
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