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 organ...

Rogers, Arkansas is an amazing place for gaming. The community is supportive, the convention was well attended, and the scenery was really nice. Overall, the convention was a huge success. The convention team is looking forward to attending next year's show and seeing how it grows! Getting to Rogers is another matter. Traveling as much as I do, I've become rather dependent on Google! Maps. The problem with Google Maps is the complete lack of road-hazard awareness. Google! faithfully calculates the shortest distance between two points and plots a course from where you are to where you are going. It doesn't matter to Google! if the roads are broad, expansive highways or stretched like noodles on the edges of ridges that pitch at impossible angles as you are barreling down the highway at 65 mph at 11 PM. The path we were directed on meandered between Oklahoma and Arkansas, giving us the most challenging roads both states had to offer. At one point, the road seemed to simply dr...

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 th...

With the publication of Tortured Earth 2.0, production of minimodules, and the dreadful editing of our upcoming modules, Mountains of Mists and Mystery is now available as a download to fill the span between releases. For those wishing to launch into a post-apocalyptic campaign, please enjoy the story. As always, Tortured Earth is looking for module writers willing to contribute to the mad multiverse we propose. The current phase has Kevin and I converting the game demos into minimodules for our Game Night in a Box line. We are also writing and editing our own projects. We are also gearing up for a busy convention cycle, having been admitted into Origins in Columbus, OH and PAX - Unplugged in Philadelphia, PA. It's difficult to contain the excitement of being able to present at such large conventions.  After speaking with our caster, we are told the first line of miniatures is still a few weeks away. The ultimate goal is to have modules, books, and minis ready for Origins and pres...

This week finds us in Gatlinburg, TN. We are attending Smoky Mountain Fan Fest. Tomorrow, I'll be sure to have images of the convention floor before everyone gets there. It has been years since I was last in Gatlinburg. The last time I passed through this area was in the late 1980's. The town situated along a two lane road with a few campy shopping areas on either side of the lane. Now, it's a bustling tourist center with all the trappings of a typical tourist town: Hard Rock Cafes', Ripley's Museums, and Bubba Gump's Shrimp.  As my convention team often complains, I am a bit of a tight wad when it comes to purchasing hotels. I pick the cheapest lodgings within an acceptable driving distance. Rarely will I book something above $125 a night and have been been known to book a few $40 dives from time to time.  For this stay, I book a place called Deer Ridge Mountain Resort. Hotels in Gatlinburg were out of my price range, largely due to tourist season. Fair enough....

Over the past two years, I've been purchasing green masters of various creatures found in our universe. Yesterday, I mailed sixteen of these masters off to have molds made and begin the casting process. For the average RPG player, this might seem like a natural progression for a company to make.  As the person organizing and managing Tortured Earth, it's a terrifying step into the unknown. Each figure is unique to our universe. The sculptor we've picked up, Dejan Pavlovic you are amazing, has patiently sculpted each of our figures in his spare time. With the COVID 19 restrictions locking down conventions, our revenue stream has been meager, at best. The collection of figures has been a slow process, but ongoing. For fear of damaging the figures, I've stored each in an insulated container in a room kept at 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Yesterday, I packaged all 16 in a box and shipped it through the US Postal service to our caster to be incinerated during the mold making proces...

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...

Two of our March conventions were canceled. The COVID restrictions are causing delays and cancellations in a lot of cities. At the earliest, we are looking at April (realistically, May) before the convention circuits begin to open again. Fortunately, our time has not been idled away. We have been creating and refining since the closures began. The game guide is edited and printed for the graphic design phase. Next on the menu is the editing of the creatures. The creature manuals will be a little different from most other creature manuals. They are shaping up to become more or less expansion material. There are certain spells and abilities that did not fit in the main guide because they referred to creatures. This has been pulled and placed in the appropriate creature manual.   To add interest to the main guide, I've embedded a story in the form of journal entries throughout the document. Does anyone have thoughts or comments on this concept? The game guide is a technical manua...

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 ...

Image by Forrest Kidder Chicot State Park, Louisiana I'd like to begin with an apology.  Normally, I'm very focused on the blog and social media promoting our game and new developments. Christmas was a busy time - in both personal and business arenas. I've been writing, editing, and preparing. On top of it all, I'm now involved with a video game development business. Despite the excuses, I am sorry for pushing the blog to a back burner. This project is far from an afterthought. With all that laid out, here is the update: First, Sanctum Games is officially up and running. The company is now an independent entity with its first product available. I've met with the other owners and am impressed with the talent on board. The small company has its own programmer, sound personnel, and writers. Already, plans are being laid out for a new game, and the group is looking for ideas for a third. The edits are speeding along. The writing on the new game guide is not so much 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 sta...

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...