CHA'ALT Books For Sale

 

Some recent reviews coming out now (and more on the way) for the Cha'alt trilogy.  Here's a video review for Cha'alt.  Here's the one for Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.  The third book is coming soon from that reviewer and RPG Pundit.

Not everybody loves it, but everyone has an opinion!  If forced to make a comparison, I'd say Cha'alt is similar in tone to Anomalous Subsurface Environment and Maze of the Blue Medusa.

BTW, you can also get the gorgeous hardcover Cha'alt books via my latest Kickstarter campaign for Encounter Critical III.  If you'd rather get them that way, cool.  If you're not into crowdfunding and all that, buy them direct from me (I also have a retailer special running the month of October).

Here are the prices...

• Cha'alt  -  $50 (add $40 for non-USA shipping)
• Fuchsia Malaise  -  $50 (add $40 for non-USA shipping)
• Chartreuse Shadows  -  $64 (add $40 for non-USA shipping)
• ALL THREE BOOKS  -  $140 (add $60 for non-USA shipping)
• FOUR TRILOGY SETS  -  $400 (USA only)

All first edition, professionally printed hardcovers come signed, numbered, and personalized with a little doodle.  Physical media always includes the PDF, just let me know your DTRPG email address.

Here's a testimonial from a recent fan who's just discovered a whole new world...

 

I recommend CHARTREUSE SHADOWS. I admire the quality of the book. The artwork, photos, & writing are entertaining, sexy, horrific. Hunter S. Thompson meets H.P. Lovecraft. A variety of adventures for heroes & scoundrels. Some exciting, some hilarious, some repulsive.

How do you actually purchase one or more of these eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic campaign setting tomes?  Paypal me at Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

If paypal doesn't work for you, email me for an alternative.  Thanks!

VS

p.s. Plenty of time to grab a ticket for July 2023's Madison, WI old-school, OSR, and traditional RPG convention - VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo (limited to 100 attendees).

MotBM an OSR Dead-End?

Ok, this deserves a blog post all its own...

So, I and many others read this review of Maze of the Blue Medusa right over here.  There's been a lot of feedback, as well as, quite a bit of push-back from the OSR.

Now, if the reviewer was railing against commonly accepted OSR staples, I would wholeheartedly agree with their rebuttal.  However, I got the sense that the reviewer is himself an OSR gamer and was judging MotBM on its own self-proclaimed old school merits... and found it lacking.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see the reviewer advocating for adventure paths.  He simply wants a megadungeon to have some logical cohesion along with something going on that relates to the PCs.  You know, an adventure!  That's not some newfangled modern 4th edition story-game nonsense.  On the contrary, it's the foundational bread and butter of RPG scenarios: there's something going on that draws the PCs in and makes some kind of sense as they involve themselves.

I don't know if this is quite right, not having read MotBM (though this is probably the 13th review I've read over the last year), but from the reviewer's perspective, it seems like a deconstructed megadungeon.  All the parts are there, but it tricks you into thinking it's fully assembled.

Just because an adventure (any adventure) says, "You can do what you want with it - make it your own!" that doesn't mean it's useful, what the customer wants, or is worth paying for.  Now, I think MotBM is worth buying and I intend on purchasing the 2nd edition yonder.  But my acquisition is not why the ordinary gamer wants it.  

I'm looking for inspiration, what worked, what didn't work, why it captured the 2017 imagination as hard as it did.  Why?  So I can surpass it, of course.  Hoping to publish my own megadungeon in 2019!

Anyways, when it comes down to it a gaming product should be gameable - especially when it's expensive, talked up to the nth degree, and was a work-in-progress by two accomplished gaming authors for 4 friggin' years (trying to verify that, but not finding a source - will keep trying)!

If the reviewer, and he's not alone - I've seen lots of feedback over the last 12 months - thinks it stops short of providing satisfactory gameable content, that's a flaw.  Thankfully, I don't believe MotBM's flaw is shared by the OSR.  If anything, MotBM strayed too far away from old school principles - and that's what bit it in the ass.  

But I'd love to read your thoughts, will gladly engage in discussion and hope to have my beliefs either verified or reduced to ash after I've read the damn thing (probably end of August).

VS

p.s.  Ever since I realized my interview with Patrick Stuart pictured not Patrick Stuart, I've felt a little bit bad about it (but not so bad that I actually did anything).  So, here he is pictured!  Also, here's a link to that post-MotBM interview.  For completion's sake, here's my post-MotBM interview with Zak S.

From Renaissance to Resurgence

I'm sure you've seen them...

Articles like this talking about celebrities playing fantasy roleplaying games, watching people play on youtube, listening to gamers talk about multi-classing or whatever on podcasts, the popularity of D&D's 5th edition, a new D&D movie in the works, $200,000+ Kickstarter for Mutant Crawl Classics, how nerd/geek/dork stuff is actually cool (again), and there's even a Trump D&D twitter account.

[Update] I just learned about something called HarmonQuest.  Check it out!

Ever so slowly, RPG content like Maze of the Blue Medusa * is (hopefully) breaking through the cultural barriers so that random people who might pick up Entertainment Weekly or Juxtapose might actually read about the RPG hobby and be tempted to try it out, and those watching Community, Silicon Valley, House of Lies, or Stranger Things can be exposed to tabletop gaming.

Lots of activity.  Things are happening.  But this is not the time to sit back and let people trickle down to our hobby.  Shouldn't we bring our beloved "elf games" to a future audience, grass-roots style - people who enjoy fantasy, science-fiction, and horror?  I say, strike while the iron is hot!

The renaissance worked, floodgates opened and everyone and their brother's wizard got into the indie spirit and did it themselves.  Now it's time to bask in the old school resurgence we find ourselves in, while simultaneously pushing that agenda forward until we achieve a third golden age!

How we bring roleplaying games to the masses is the question.  How do we make all of this awesomeness easier to find?  How do we make it so conspicuous that you can't help but be aware of roleplaying games?  For myself, I'm thinking of creating an outreach program of introductory seminars using Crimson Dragon Slayer 1.11.

Have an idea?  I'm open to suggestions and encourage all those reading this post to go ahead and suggest some things.

VS

*  In the past, I've insulted, ridiculed, and attacked +Zak Sabbath for a variety of petty reasons.  I privately apologized to him months ago, but not sure if I said anything publicly, so here goes.  Sorry for being a dick to you last year, Zak.  Congratulations on all your success!