Welcome Wayne to Heroic Journey

One of the best things about being a part of Heroic Journey is that I get to work with some of my best friends and occasionally even get to bring them in to the fold.  That’s why it makes me extremely happy to welcome my friend Wayne as a super-volunteer/not-quite-employee of Heroic Journey.

In his new quasi-official role, Wayne will be overseeing our social media, PR, web site, blog relations, and generally getting the word out about us and what we do.  It’s already paid dividends as he’s probably the reason you’re reading this right now!

Anyway, if you talk to him, congratulate him.  Being a super-volunteer at HJP isn’t quite the same as being a staffer for say WoTC, but I’d like to think it’s kind of fun and it’s not very stressful since we suck at deadlines!

Anyway, thanks again to Wayne!  We know he’s going to do big things.

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Get Mekayana

It must be strange seeing two blog posts from us in one week, but alas, it’s true!

We had to post because we’re giving Mekayana away to anyone who wants  a copy.

What is Mekayana?

Mekayana is Mecha meets Bollywood!  It’s missiles and leading men, lasers and dance numbers, nova bombs and star power.  And it’s awesome.

The book contains everything you need to play Mecha in Bollywood from a brief survey of the culture to a fully realized SRS with optional rules to turn your Mecha game into a mecha silver screen extravaganza.

Seriously, Jake Baker did an excellent job putting this supplement together and we really hope you enjoy it.

How do I get Mekayana?

All you have to do is click, let us know who you are and we’ll send you a free copy of the first official Mecha supplement (that means you’ll need Mecha core, but hey that’s a good game, too)!   Seriously, there’s no reason not to get it, read it, play it, whatever.

Then, if you like it, we’d love it if you’d consider making a donation.  Every dollar we collect will go to buying art and printing physical copies of the book.  Even better, everyone who donates now will get a PDF if we can get enough money to do the game right!

Thanks!

Oh, and if you need to buy Mecha Core, you can grab a copy at

Indie Press Revolution (paper)
DriveThruRPG (PDF)

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Don’t Count Us Out Yet

Rumors of Heroic Journey’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

The good news is that there’s a lot going on with Heroic Journey.   Literally, Mark and I talk every day about the company.  The bad news is that it’s all behind the scenes.

However, I believe in being as transparent as possible, so, here’s what’s going on…

Heroic Journey’s Vision for 2012

Okay, the end of February is a bit late to visioncast for a year, but better late than never?

Mecha

Mecha is most assuredly not dead.  In fact, prior to Gen Con, I’m hoping to have a flurry of activity on this front.

Mecha Core Rerelease

First and foremost, Mecha is getting a facelift and a bit of a reworking (mainly just some edits and such at this point, but the book will also be re-laid out.)  The new cover is sweet and we’ll unveil it soon.

I’m glad for the chance to redo the interior, but I always liked that cover so I’m kinda sorry to see it go.  However, we’re currently working out a deal to get Mecha into distribution and the new cover is seen as one of the book’s selling points.  More on that soon.

Oh, and in future posts, Mecha Core (that is the original MECHA role playing game) will be abbreviated as M0.  (M-Zero…it’s kind of anime-ish, yeah?)

Mecha Combiners

Well, it only took two years, but Mecha Combiners has been written and the editor has beat it into shape.  There’s also a cover for it and some interior art!  There’s only problem…we need more and we’re going to need your help!  Yep, we’re going to do a Kickstarter for Mecha Combiners hopefully within the next month!  I’m just waiting on voice talent and video editing for our Kickstarter video.

I’m really hoping everyone will consider contributing and if not everyone, then everyone who reads this.  Combiners will be a much better book if we can get the art funded and I have some amazing stretch goals if we can make it.

Oh, and in future posts, Mc will be Combiners!  (That’s why Mecha Core is Mo…)

Mecha Mercenaries

Most of my game development efforts on the Mecha line have been on this new book, which is a reformulation of the rules.  It’s kind of funny, but I’ve basically added a bunch of things back into the game that I originally took out.  The result is a book with more crunch without taking it too far from its roots.   Playtests are positive and an early release draft will be available to those who contribute at certain levels to the Kickstarter.

(Hint: This is Mm!)

MechaWest

Not going to say too much about this, but think Old West/Weird West with Mecha.

Mekayana

Can you say Mecha + Bollywood?  This manuscript is so awesome it makes me cry (or as I said on RPG.NET, it makes my eyes bleed.)  Jake Baker, a supremely talented writer and Mecha fan, wrote this bad boy and I can’t wait for you to play it.  It’s going to be available this month on a sort of reverse-Kickstarter idea we’ve got going on.  More on this later.

More Mecha

If that weren’t enough, we have an expansion for Combiners already purchased, a historical game using the M0 rules, Mecha Gladiators, an epic-scale mecha expansion, kaiju and a bunch of other stuff in the wings.

Elemental Clash

A friend of the company, Andreas Propost, who wrote the Elemental Clash card game, approached us about doing a role playing game adaption of his game.  We jumped at the chance and we’re now wrapping up playtesting on the game, which uses the 4C (original Marvel Super Heroes) rules.  Players take on the role of mages who cast powerful spells using inscribed runes, summon deadly allies, and duel for fun, profit, and saving the world.  Just about every mage is possible from the Old Wizard in his tower to an Indiana Jones-style mage and everything in between.

It’s been fun to work on a licensed product!  It’s been challenging to keep true to the original world, while expanding it and fleshing it out.  It’s been even more fun to try to adapt card game mechanics to an RPG, which we think we’ve done pretty well.  Andreas is doing all the art for the game, which will feature, we’re hoping, at least 100 pieces of interior art!

We’re targeting July 2012 for the release of this game.

I20

Some of you may know that the system that powers Bounty Head Bebop is called I20.  It’s a cinematic, rules-quick system and has powered BHB perfectly.  Right now, we have two new games in the works using the system.  The first is called Hexslingers and introduces spell-casting to the world (BHB has psionics, but the magic rules are different.)  The rules will slot into BHB with no additional work, but the game will come with 1-3 magic-related settings for players to explore.

The other game takes the I20 rules and overlays them on top of a space/naval combat game.  The results on this are promising, but it’s going to take a lot of extra structure to go from RPG to mini game.  Hopefully there will be something on this by the end of the year.

???

The last game that’s getting a lot of attention doesn’t really have a name. Mark, inspired by epic MMO/Skyrim style gaming, is working to capture that feel in a tabletop game.   The system is quick, light-yet-crunchy-in-the-right-places, and the way the campaigns are structured should blend the best elements of console RPGs and tabletop RPGs.  More on that when we can.

So, as you can see, we’re definitely dead, but we are small and sometimes blogging falls by the wayside.  If you ever have any questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter or visit Heroic Journey’s Facebook page.  I’ll also try to do weekly posts.  Cross your fingers!!

Thanks and more soon!

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Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

As of today, it’s official.  There will be a Dungeons and Dragons Fifth (5th?) Edition coming to your gaming table as early as Spring of this year.  Well, in playtest form, anyway.

Why playtest form?  For the first time, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) has promised that they will have a huge open playtest and incorporate as much of the feedback into their final as makes sense for the game.  The end goal is to produce a game that will make as many people as happy as possible and bring everyone back to playing by the same rules (clever subtext: avoid the mistakes of 4th Edition and get people to stop spending money on Pathfinder.)

Given that this news broke this morning, I’ve had a good half-day to ponder what the release of Dungeons and Dragon Fifth Edition means and to the best of my ability, I’ve come to these conclusions.

Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition: The Personal Viewpoint

Even though this is the Heroic Journey Publishing blog, I couldn’t help but share a few personal thoughts.  Mainly, I’m excited about Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, but then again, I’m one of the few people who liked 4th Edition.  (Yeah, I know, weird, huh?)  While I’m not the world’s biggest D&D fan, I did enjoy the ideas behind a lot of what went into 4th Edition, namely healing surges, Skill Challenges and powers.

In fact, I find it funny when people say 4th Edition killed role playing since Skill Challenges almost forced it.

With all that said, I look at Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition as a potential watershed, or at the very least, a cool time in the history of gaming.  We just don’t get new editions of Dungeons and Dragons that often and for some reason, I don’t think that WOTC will deliver a product people don’t like this time as long as they listen to fan feedback and take advantage of it.

Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition: Heroic Journey’s Viewpoint

With my personal feelings aside, HJP is looking at Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition with cautious optimism.  While there is no reason to believe WOTC won’t create something commercially viable (and fun to play), there is more to a Dungeons and Dragons game than just the core books.  We all know that WOTC will step on the supplement treadmill as soon as it can and produce copious amounts of material for their new game (an Eberron source book, a Forgotten Realms book, martial combat books, wizard books, adventures, a Something of Elemental Evil book, Neverwinter, etc. etc.)

However, what really interests us a publisher is how open the final license will be.  The greatest strength of 3/3.5 was the openness of the Open Gaming License (OGL), which allowed just about anyone to write material for Dungeons and Dragons, D20 Modern, or D20 Future.  The second Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition came out, an entire subset of the RPG publishing community sprung up to produce OGL material for various D20 games.  As far as HJP is concerned, this is a Good Thing.

Why the OGL Is Good

First, while we acknowledge that not all of the material was of the highest quality (some far from it in fact), there were some true gems from all that OGL material (Ptolus anyone?)   Secondly, we are all for factors in the industry creating opportunities for more people to publish (full disclosure: HJP does have a line of OGL products it is considering) as this generates excitement for the industry and aligns with our core values.  Third, and the most compelling for WOTC, is the buy-in the OGL created.  Suddenly anyone who wanted to write material could and, in doing so, they knew they were leaving their stamp indelibly on at least a small part of the Dungeons and Dragons world.

Then Came the GSL

When Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition dropped, it was also open, though not as open as OGL games.  It used a different license, the Game System License (GSL), which restricted the genres of which material could be created and it restricted how the core material could be used.  These restrictions, along with the fact that WOTCs tools for organizing powers do not support third-party material and how annoying it is to create 30 levels of powers for classes (believe me, I tried), stifled the creation of additional material.

To this day, for the most part, books available for 4th Edition are written by WOTC.  Still, 4th Edition was technically open.  Part of me wonders if perhaps some of the reason why 4th Edition didn’t do so well is due to the fact it lacked buy-in by player/creators.

Make Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition Open

All of this, then is a fancy way of saying keep Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition open!  The kind of open like the OGL was instead of the GSL.

We support Tracy from Sand and Steam in his Open Letter to Wizards of the Coast where he asks WOTC to make their new game open for expansion.

The fear around HJP is that, ultimately, Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition won’t be open at all.  While this won’t keep everyone from creating new feats, powers, items or whatever for it, it will undoubtedly stifle that spark and all our campaigns will suffer for it.  The only good news is that individuals will continue to create material for their favorite fantasy game, it’s just that their favorite game will continue to be Pathfinder and the unity of rules WOTC is striving for will continue to avoid them.

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Mecha Combiners

So after a bust of activity brought on by some really great games at KantCon, I have delivered the final draft of Mecha Combiners to the editor.  (Cue applause) As I sit back and reflect on the work, I keep thinking that “final draft” sounds so optimistic since I know there will be at least two rounds of back and forth between myself and the editor.  Along with rewrites.  Woot.

Still, for now I can sit back and relax.  And by relax I mean blog, work on Gen Con pregens, and put together the playtest drafts for Mercenaries, Transformables, and Kaiju.

With that said, I’m pretty excited about Combiners.  All of the playtests (once the rules got solidified) have produced some really fun games.  I just hope that my writing is up to the challenge of transferring the fun in the game to the written page so that others can experience that same enjoyment.  If not, I guess I can come to your house or game store and run a few sessions.

Also, the first art order has gone out for Combiners.  Hopefully the artist will take the commission because I like her work a lot and the right art will make this book come alive.

With that said, let’s look to the future…

The Schedule

Just so everyone knows what’s going on, here’s the schedule for releasing Combiners.

1. Submit Final Draft
2. Receive First Art Order
3. Edit Draft
4. Create a New Character Sheet
5. Create a Playtest Draft (This will be the full book without art.)
6. Release Draft to Public as a PDF
7. Collect Feedback
8. Produce Final Book with More Art

So, one step down…7 to go.

More soon.

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