I never quite know which project is going to pull off the upset.

Way back when, I was sure that the Lost City was going to win, and Angels of Our Better Nature, and pretty much every time, I'm wrong. So... I shouldn't be surprised to see that now it's Wrath of the River King, the project that doesn't begin until July and that uses a GSL I haven't seen, that is drawing patron attention. It is just 15 patrons behind Tales of Zobeck, in fact.

And why not the 4E contender? If the Wrath of the River King commission is funded before the Tales of Zobeck/Courts of the Shadow Fey, I will write that one first. The paranoid side of me is convinced that patrons just want to see me flail around with a new format/ruleset/design parameters. "Wrath" would certainly involve a lot of that, as I'll be ramping up in a hurry.

Donate for Tales of Zobeck
Donate for Court of the Shadow Fey
Donate for Wrath of the River King

In other news, I've posted the first design essay for new project (or, if you prefer, another in the continuing series of Blood of the Gorgon design essays). This one is about encounter design, and especially about non-standard encounters. Patrons, give it a look and tell me what you think!

UPDATE: There seems to be some confusion about what I mean by writing Wrath first if it is commissioned first. It won't prevent Tales or Court of the Shadow Fey from moving ahead, but I can only write one project at a time, really. So, the first project to be commissioned gets more of my attention in June/July/August, but both will be written for the patrons who support them.

I'm delighted to say that the commission is about halfway met, and that the voting has gone smoothly so far. I also must, regretfully, cut Lords of Lost Arbonesse from the voting, because it is not generating the same level of support as Court of the Shadow Fey and Tales of Zobeck.

Also, note that I've suggested a possible format change to Tales of Zobeck, and Courts of the Shadow Fey has some acquired some interesting Zelaznian overtones. Take a look at the KQ forums for details.

The 4th Edition Wrath of the River King is also available, for those looking to expand their 4E adventure collection.

If you would like to support either Tales of Zobeck or Courts of the Shadow Fey as a patron, now's the time.

Please review the proposals for the project and choose your favorite!

Just a note to say that you can vote for what Zobeck article will appear next in Kobold Quarterly, and make your own suggestions, in this thread.

It's time to choose the Open Design adventure that I'll be working on for the majority of the summer, and part of the fall. Per yesterday's poll, I'm providing you all three options under consideration.

Note that the following three adventures will be designed for OGL/D&D 3.5 Edition; if you'd like to push for a 4E project, well, without a GSL it is slightly premature, but there is an option for 4E fans as well.

The final adventure will be delivered as a PDF to all its patrons in September for the shorter proposals, or in October or November for the longer project. A print version will be available for patrons as well.

Which will be the next Open Design? As with the first Open Design adventures, that is up to you.

( Court of the Shadow Fey )

( Lords of Lost Arbonesse )

( Tales of Zobeck, the Clockwork City )

( But What About 4E? )

Discussion
Feel free to discuss right here, but please note that I've opened up some threads over on the KQ.com forums just to keep the LJ discussion from turning into a giant hairball.

Commission Timer, Donations, and Refunds
As in past projects, if the commission is not met within 30 days, your money will be refunded in full. The two standard levels of patronage remain the same, $25 for standard access as a member, and $75 to $150 for Patrons of the Arts, aka the senior patrons. I'm adding a new option for people who cannot afford the patron level, which I'm calling Supporter donations.

Supporter Donations. This new level of access saves you some cash in exchange for your silent support and patience. In this case, you give up most of the commentary, discussion, design essays, Q&A, playtest reports, art/map previews, and so on. What you do get is a complete adventure, in PDF form, plus a chance to vote for your favorite proposal. If you change your mind later, you can always upgrade.

The Gen Con Game. In addition to the perks presented above, the senior patrons for this project will also have the chance to participate in a Zobeck game I'll run for some of them at GenCon this year. If too many people apply I'll limit it to the largest donors, the first to sign up or something similar. Or run two slots. I'm looking forward to meeting a LOT of people at the show this year, and gaming with some of you as well.

That's the scoop. Please support the Open Design project that interests you most!

I'm preparing the commission for the next projects, and I wanted to ask current and former patrons about how much feedback you prefer at the commission stage.

The first Open Design was a head-to-head slugfest of something like 6 proposals, knockout style, until one pitch was the winner and went into the design phase. That was interesting (the vote never goes quite as I suspect), but part of me wanted to get away from the voting.

So the following projects had fewer and fewer proposals to choose from, until in the case of Blood of the Gorgon, there was no voting between projects at all.

However, many patrons have said "I like watching the process, and the proposals all sound good." Plus, I know some patrons feel they want something very particular, and obviously there's disappointment when a certain project isn't commissioned. Heck, I've felt that myself, when the project I was rooting for didn't wind up on top. Fortunately, though, the chosen project has always been interesting from a design perspective. Probably because there haven't been a lot of dud pitches.

As you may suspect from all this, I'm debating whether the Open Design announcement tomorrow will be for one project, or for a choice of two or three. Do you LIKE having the options, or do you find them annoying?

I await the will of the patrons and the public.Poll #1180339 Freedom of Choice
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

I prefer an Open Design commission to be....

Skip Williams, a designer of 3rd Edition D&D and the author of the Ask the Kobold column in KQ, is interviewed by Pulp Gamer. Check it out!

An announcement today that the 4th Edition D&D Game System License will be released on June 6 and will be free of charge. Publishers can release materials starting in October.

This is quite a delay from the original GSL announcement (which offered the license in January and materials shipping in August). OTOH, "free of charge" is a huge plus.

There's additional good news in there about being about to identify a 4E product as D&D compatible with a "version of the D&D logo".

Note what is not released: the terms of the license and the contents of the SRD. More detail.

UPDATE: For what it's worth, we've been here before. The GSL was also announced in January, 2008.

I did a podcast this morning that should go live next week. In the meantime, I wanted to point out a specifically Blood of the Gorgon related podcast from a little while ago over at The Tome Show. Nicolas Logue spills the whole bloody story on the project in an sort-of-recent podcast there. No idea why I didn't mention it here sooner.

What else? Oh, I talked to the guys over at Private Sanctuary about KQ and gaming. Episode 28; they've been around a while.

Finally, I'm happy to announce that I'll be writing the next Open Design project. The system is likely to be 3.5E (unless there's a sudden surge of 4E support), and I'll announce the details on May 1.

The first note about Kobold Quarterly #4 has appeared in the wider press at WIRED. The blurb appears in the GeekDad blogs, and it made me cackle with glee.

This review, allow me to quote it to you:

"The sole remaining professional roleplaying game magazine, Kobold Quarterly became number one by beheading all of its competitors in spectacular urban swordfights."

I can't top that, though I am tempted to get it tattooed on my forehead.

If you don't subscribe (and it's just $16!), whyever not?

The next issue has gone to subscribers, with the Ecology of the Cloaker, an angel who has fought her way through Hell, and a mithral dragon.

It includes several articles by Open Design patrons, and some great new feats for fighters, plus drunken fey, gnome variants, cartoons by Stan!, and the Gangs of Zobeck by yours truly with eyebite79. And more, of course. The thing weighs in at 72 pages!

You can pick up a single copy at Paizo or DriveThruRPG, or treat yourself to a subscription for either the PDF or the print+PDF version at koboldquarterly.com. Subscribe before April 18th, and you get a free copy of the Havenmine Gauntlet mini-adventure and a copy of 2 detailed NPCS from the NeoExodus setting!

You know, between writing the Blood of the Gorgon, some 4E freelancing, the leadoff for the Crimson Throne, and now, oh, launching a whole new game company, I'm fairly certain that Nicolas Logue is a caffeine-powered robot. There's just no other logical explanation.

And yes, while it is April Fool's Day, the launch of Sinister Games is very serious indeed. The site is super-slick, the first wave of products is super-sweet (including a mini-download on Death Beneath the Waves by yours truly), and he's going in directions that most designers would fear to tread (think dark Gothic cults and horror crossed with nautical and piratical themes) — and he makes them work.

Check it out. Tell the robot I sent ya.

(P.S. Yes, yes, I'm insanely jealous of his sweet site design. Moving on.)

The success of the Kobold Guide to Game Design (Vol. 1) in PDF has prompted a paper edition. This is a digest-sized edition with a clean layout on heavy paper, and yet is slim enough for reading just about anywhere, with essays on game design basics and advanced topics. This particular volume is focused on worldbuilding and adventure design.

You can pick up the print edition of the Guide to Game Design at the Kobold Quarterly store.

As a way to say thanks to everyone who has supported Kobold Quarterly as a subscriber this year, I've given them all a Easter egg: a free adventure from Highmoon Media Productions!

No, it's not a trick, a scam, or a teaser for anything else. No, we are not launching a line of kobold-flavored adventures. No, it's not an epic, but it is fun.

The adventure is called the Havenmine Gauntlet, it is written by Adam "Trans Am" Daigle and naturally, it features kobolds.

Most people will have to pay actual cash dollars to get a copy, but not KQ subscribers! Anyone who becomes a new subscriber from now until April 18th gets a freebie copy too. So, um, why not subscribe? A PDF subscription is just $16 in our worthless American pesos. That's, like, 2 euros or something. And print+PDF subscriptions are likewise a bargain at 33% off the full retail price.

PS. If you are a subscriber and didn't get your copy, let me know your correct email address. A few bounced like bunnies.

Back in the day, long ages past, when Open Design was founded (better known as 2006), I had a problem. And that problem was this: How would I keep patrons entertained while I waited to see if gamers would chip in to fund the project? I mean, I wanted them coming back to the Open Design blog every now and then, because, hey, the project could start up at any time. I was worried that people would wander off because fundraising is inherently boring.

So what to do? I wrote a few things I called design essays, describing some of the tricks of game design that I know and love. And lo and behold, those essays were met with some acclaim. Most designers don't walk around spilling their guts about how they work, but it seemed like the right thing to do for a project called Open Design.

But the essays were transient, freebies, available to patrons only while the real show of designing was waiting in the wings. It was, to stretch a point, the opening band in my mind. When the next project came along, I expected they would no longer be necessary.

As usual, I was wrong. The design essays were popular and I kept at it, one a month or more for each project. WotC picked up a few of them for the Adventure Builder series. A few others were updated as Dungeoncraft. And all the rest are now available in public as well, as the Kobold Guide to Game Design.

The collection of 15 essays includes material by Ed Greenwood, Nicolas Logue, and Keith Baker, and it's a good start for anyone who's looking to design and write professionally, or who wants to bring some new tricks to the screenjockey position at the next weekly game.

Please give it a look, won't you? ( Table of Contents behind the cut )

I am pleased to announce that Blood of the Gorgon has attracted enough patrons that it will feature cover art by an artist who has done great work in the RPG field, including WotC work and book covers.

The adventure will also feature the first complete map of Zobeck. Not the complete city description, mind you, but the first complete map. Open Design contributor settembrini23 will be doing the honors for the Cartographer's Guild. Details on the maps and art will be shared early with the senior patrons for the project. How do you become a senior patron? Donate at a higher level of support, and you'll see more of the project, including much more of the manuscript as it is written.

Even if you support Open Design as a regular patron, you are in for a lot of opportunity to shape this adventure or follow the adventure as it goes from outline to playtest to final text. Nicolas Logue is on a tear, and the brainstorming so far has covered monsters, locales, street gangs, and more. It's shaping up to be a stunning adventure, worthy of the reputation of the man who brought us Viktor Saint-Demain.

Join Open Design as a patron, and help shape the Blood of the Gorgon!

Here's a 4E spoiler for a kobold skirmisher I just stumbled across via a link on the Paizo boards.

He's got combat advantage as the Rogue does, and a Mob power that seems appropriate for a creature like a kobold.

But 27 hit points? That seems un-koboldishly high.

Today is the last day to support Nicolas Logue's Blood of the Gorgon project at the lower rates of $25 or $75. Starting tomorrow (meaning, when I wake up and update the site), patrons will see a higher entry fee.

The discussion and direction of the project have been very impressive so far, complete with cults, blood magic, new monsters drawing on great mythological roots. The adventure work has also led to an expansion of the Zobeck setting, in particular a set of details on one of the city's gentry and the various gangs of the city underworld.

Mostly, though, the adventure has big dollops of Edgar Allen Poe-style horror and Logue-style nastiness. You know how nasty one DM's imagination can be? Well, imagine 50 or 100 seasoned DMs brainstorming the best possible villains, encounters, and plot twists, and having the results crafted by Mr. Logue's expert hands.

Patron discussion around setting the adventure in the Pathfinder or Eberron settings will make this easy to adapt to those settings, and it fits readily into any homebrew with an alchemical tradition as well. It's an adventure that will terrify your players and change their characters — if it doesn't drive them entirely mad.

Why pay more? Sign up today and see what Mr. Logue is up to!

It's been a little over one month since Wizards of the Coast announced that they were offering an Open Gaming License dev kit for the D&D 4th Edition. So far, there's been no further communication from them beyond the notification that they have gone "back to the drawing board".

If even the lawyers can't figure out what's going on for 4th Edition, I have to admit to a certain amount of concern. In any case, this note is just to let people know that there is, as they say, no news on whether Open Design and Kobold Quarterly will be migrating to 4th Edition.

Mind you, when there's actually news, I'll be NDA'ed, so this "no news" is somewhat different from the "no comment" you may hear from me later.

The commission for Blood of the Gorgon has been met, and the project is well and truly launched!

We will now delve into some of the details of the psychotic aristos involved in this plot, together with the various blood hags, the Gorgon Mother, cultists, and others who lurk in the adventure's corners and crevices, seeking to turn events to their own ends.

Ringmaster Nicolas Logue is at the helm, and we're underway with creepy villains and LOTS of excellent discussion to date about what works and what doesn't.

New patrons are still welcome until February 29th. After that, we may go quiet for a while as design closes in on a first draft.

Join us, won't you?

It's Superbowl Sunday, so I will naturally have an appearance today at 3:30 at Wordsmith Hall in Second Life. It's essentially a chat forum about writing and game design, and anyone can attend online.

What is Second Life?
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its residents. One of those residents is Michael A. Stackpole. He hosts writing groups and other events at ThirdLife Books and Wordsmith Hall.

What is ThirdLife Books?
ThirdLifeBooks is the hub of a community of like-minded individual interested increativity and exploring their full potential across a variety of mediaand areas of interest. It's a home for readers of fantastic fiction,for writers both beginning and accomplished, gamers, podcasters and anyone else who enjoys intellectual stimulation, is curious and just enjoys hanging out with a lively group of their peers. ThirdLife offers classes, writers' groups, contests, meet the author events, and other reasons to get together.

How to attend.
If you would like to attend this event, sign up for a free account at Second Life, then download and install the SL software on your computer. Once you have an account, fire up the software and click on this link, and you will be taken to the castle.

Everyone attending this event will have the opportunity to join the Second Life Kobold Army, and receive a special (FREE) t-shirt only available during the event.