Tortured Earth

  This weekend was spent at ContraFlow. It was a smaller con in Kenner, LA. The con has a really good feel to it and had the potential to becomes something much bigger. However, the organizers decided this would be the last year.   ContraFlow was marketed as a Relaxacon, meaning it had a few minor guests and lots of after-hour parties. For vendors, these are typically low performing conventions. Most vendors who attended also attended previous shows, so the layout was not a surprise. I was not one of those vendors. Admittedly, we were caught off guard by the small attendance and laid-back attitude.   Due to the financial burden of hiring two workers, food for three people, and all the accompanying incidentals, we decided it best to shut down after the second day and return home. As a vendor, I absolutely hate leaving a convention early. However, when the financial weight overshadows the possible gains, it’s the only decision.   Fortunately, the convention organizer runs other sho

Part of launching into this industry is the continual creation process. The development of Tortured Earth was a means to an end - the development of a framework in which a broad range of stories could be told. Now that the system is finalized, the process of storytelling must begin. Kevin and I are currently focusing on the development of one-shot adventures. These kits are retrofitted from the 2.0 Core Ruleset and give players a taste of the system without having to invest in multiple books. Other game systems have developed similar products for the same goal. The Rules Lite versions allow for replayability while the core books provide the full flexibility of the system. A creative GM will be able to adapt the Rules Lite version for homebrew adventures fitting in the world setting for which the kit was built. Currently in the editing phase are four such adventures. Two have been completed and are already in production and being distributed through the convention circuit. Eventually, t

Since June of 2020, we've been refining Tortured Earth 2.0. The process hasn't been easy: making sure the document is clear and concise while maintaining a degree of interest. Rules must be checked in play tests, written, rewritten, examples created, and checked for compatibility with all other rules in the system.  The editing process alone has taken fifteen months to complete. Once the document is prepared, the fun job of finding a publishing house begins. For those not familiar with this little joy in the process, allow me to enlighten: each publishing house has its own set of standards and terminology. Aside from the standard publication jargon, setting margins, spine width, page counts, and all the other components required to produce a professional copy must be learned and sorted through.  Novelists reading this will recognize some of the heartaches. The main difference between the struggles of a novelist and a game developer falls in the degree of art associated with the

Oklahoma is a strange place. I know that sounds bad. That's not my intention. I've worked the convention circuit promoting Tortured Earth since the summer of 2014. In that time, I've traveled largely through the southeastern US, cycling among the coastal states. Convention attendees and vendors alike easily identify the culture of the convention and adapt accordingly. Typically, the spending habits are predicted based on the interest of the convention, the makeup of the community, etc. This simply doesn't exist in Oklahoma City. For nine hours on the return and each night at the hotel, we debated what the focus of the group could be, what items they would most likely be interested in, specialty items we could use to draw customers to our booth, etc. We just couldn't figure it out. The people are incredibly friendly, the attendees are very generous in their purchases when they do purchase, the organizers are super friendly and accomodating to both vendors and attende

Image Courtesy of Shutterstock The day I thought would never get here has finally arrived! The new books are finally in print. After editing what seemed like an eternity, and formatting for a lifetime after that, we are now in print. Currently, only two titles are available - with the third soon to be released: Tortured Earth Core Rule Book  Tortured Earth Supplemental: The Unofficial Account of Gavin Harris Tortured Earth Supplemental: The Travel Journal of Mica Greer (Releases on 7/16/2021) With the core books released, we now shift gears to writing modules and stories to expand the Tortured Earth universe. Over the next several months, we will travel through the convention circuit promoting the new books, writing new material and, hopefully, pick up a few new writers. A few items of interest: We will travel with Cactyys Totem and Chronicles of Ember to Arklatex Comic Con and host an independent gaming area.  Our convention schedule is pretty much packed. However, if you're in a

Last night was spent refining the Magic section, ensuring the abilities align with the new rules, and correcting grammar. A large part of the editing process is making sure that official terms are capitalized while the usage of the same word as a description is lower case. It. Is. Maddening! I managed to squeeze in a little time working on the setting for the podcast. I'm not sure if it is the prospect of working on something that is not editing or the opportunity to write creatively again, but I find the work gratifying and refreshing. After editing, I did take some time to record the intro segment for the podcast. A few minutes ago, I let a colleague listen to it. He was impressed. Despite editing dragging on for what seems ages, I still feel confident the final product will be available in March. The podcast is scheduled to begin recording on February 6th, with releases beginning two weeks later. For those interested in the intro to Tortured Earth Presents , please click on the

  I am finally able to take a few steps from grammar editing and focus on creatures. Naturally, updates and refinements are needed. Some creatures were created in the early stages of revision and needed to be brought in line with current rule sets. Fortunately, these corrections are not nearly as complicated as balancing the rules. The process is not as paralyzingly slow as it is in the rule book. Kevin is going back through the chapters and making sure the rules align throughout the entire book. It is one of those projects that the more you have working on it, the more distracting it becomes. As hard as it is, I am taking my hands off that part of the project and allowing him to work as needed. Naturally, modifications to the rules still need to be reviewed, but this is an editing element, not a development issue. Honestly, I am quite excited as I edit the creatures. Going through the descriptions and stats is refreshing after the previous work. Adding abilities, modifying stat bl

Picture by Dakota Naramore, Facebook Group: Abandoned Louisiana The current edits are resulting in fewer and fewer mechanical errors. Most corrections are grammatical errors caught with Grammarly and other editing software packages. We have made a few changes from the original version, which change how gameplay. During combat, characters received damage as LP (or Life Points), and weapons received damage only on critical fails as IE (Item Efficiency Points). The system was clunky and prevented an easy transition from item to character damages. Questions often arose when a character decided to wail away at a wall to knock a hole in it. How did was damage dealt? At what rate did it accrue? At what point did the weapon damage convert into IE damage? Items still receive damage on critical fails. The Item LP serves a function similar to that of IE. Now, attachments require the Item LP of the host item and are lost when the Item LP holds them in place. Specific Status Effects can now del

Despite the best-laid plans, there always seems to be some interruption that steers me away from my chosen path. Of course, such are the holidays. Family, friends, and plain ole' laziness conspire to provide tempting distractions from writing and designing. And it's ok.  Now, it's back to the mission: editing. The bombing in Tennesee has knocked out most of the internet in the Monroe region. I have a hotspot, so I shared it with Kevin to get some basic editing completed. We are reviewing the book's GM portion and making sure it aligns with the Player's Guide. Some elements were overlooked and are now being corrected. Due to the internet issues, Kevin is now taking a portion of the book and moving forward with grammar review and mechanical notations. I will branch off and start working on the creature manual. That will be rough at first. The manual has never really been reviewed. A few days ago, I started looking at the player species and found several structural and

One of my former convention workers stopped by today for a visit. Normally a rather mundane exercise, the visit brought to light several interesting things. First, on the realizations list: I need to put more effort into maintaining contact with friends. Over the course of a year, not only has my young friend traveled a rough road, but he'd grown considerably in the interim. Despite all he'd been through, the changes in his self-awareness were refreshing. At the end of the visit, we parted with a heartfelt hug and promises to make a better effort on both our parts. A large part of his visit was spent with him flipping in amazement at the new Tortured Earth edition. Over the past year, only a handful of people have seen pieces of the project. To date, he was the first to see the entire scope of the new edition. With each page turned, he seemed to glow with anticipation of the next page. It was quite a show. After spending nearly a year burrowed in balancing mechanics, formatting

Source: Dakota Naramore, Abandoned Louisiana Today, we reviewed the first 13 chapters of the GM Guide. The goal was to make sure each was grammatically correct and mechanically sound. Although we covered 13 chapters, it does say something to the refinement of this review. It is nearing the final stages.   The process is actually sped along by various types of editing software, our ability to align the items we've written with those we are currently checking, and the nearly wrote familiarity with the document. Finding repeated information and previous references is far quicker than it was at the start of the process. Barring any unforeseen disasters, I'm hopeful we will wrap up the GM and Player's guides by the beginning of the new year. This leaves January and February to complete the Creature Portfolios and launch a Kickstarter. The ultimate goal is to have the source material ready by the opening of Convention Season and promote the new version of the game heavily over th

As a writer, what draws me to the apocalyptic storylines is the wealth of storyboard material. Stories hinge on points of conflict. Apocalyptic scenarios abound with conflict. What makes an apocalypse so disruptive is the sudden deviation from the normal to a volatile nature. I live in a rural setting. During hurricane season, we can realistically expect at least a week without power at some point. Even indirect hits from hurricanes can cause major disruptions to fuel, food, and power supplies. Most people in this region prepare for the season months in advance - stockpiling food, basic house supplies, and fuel. I see similar community behaviors in rural areas regarding winter seasons in my travels through the American mid and north-west. An apocalyptic storyline takes this mentality and extends it over months and years. Depending on which time frame the writer is focusing on, the struggle will either be one of struggling to reconcile the previous norm's loss and attempts to establ

By definition, apocalyptic refers to a sudden and abrupt end. The mechanism from which the event emerges becomes part of surviving lore of the world while the survivors are left struggling with the remnants of the old way of life.  As a writer, this simple description provides a tremendous amount of material to craft a story. With the placement of a specific moment of the apocalypse, three-time frames emerge: Before, During, and After the apocalypse. Each time frame creates a powerful setting from which character development may be facilitated.  Before. In the events before the apocalypse, the world operates pretty much as normal. Animals are tended, fields plowed, people go to work, and all the things we attribute with normalcy predictably occur. With the simple introduction of unusual or out-of-place elements, tension can build. Depending on the writer's intent, this segment may last a moment or for several series. In terms of story building for a roleplaying game, this time fram