Hi chaps. You probably do not know it but I’m writing a fantasy young adult novel by the name of “La Montaña de Dios” (God’s Mountain). And yes, I’m using my mother tongue which happens to be Spanish.

So why should you care?

Because of this weird idea I’m having and that you might imitate if you are also into writing. I’ll be gaming the last few chapters of my novel. Anybody able to understand Spanish (or who would hire a translator) is welcome.

The idea is that the writer (in this particular case yours truly) will send an email to brief the player with an introduction to the world, the characters, and the events. Just as you would do in a role-playing game. Following this initial email, the writer will send a” chunk” of the novel with a few options at the end of the chunk. The player can choose any of these, much like you would do in a game book but it’s also welcome to add his own suggestions or take the initiative, just as you would do in a standard role-playing game.

I hope that it will help me to write a better, unique and much more fun ending to my fantasy novel; and it’s an idea that I want to share with the world.

Te espero, amigo

In the event that you understand Spanish, you are welcome to delve deeper in my main blog Sabia Vida

Recommended

• The Chronicles of Arborell

Concept:

She met the newsies and her life change overnight. “Who will teach me?” That question changed a fiber in her, and from that day on, she started an evening school on one of the parks of New Paris, without charging a penny.

Based on a true person

Stats:

• STR 3 d HTH 3 d AGI 3 d EDU 4 sd E&E 4 wd CHA 4 sd

Good At

Sweet Talk, Craft, Observation, Bicycles, Academics, Languages

### Bad At

Equipment

• Clothes B grade; Lovely hat
• $3.20 (on her wallet)
• Large bag with books and school supplies
• Portable blackboard (on an easel)
• A nice little apartment on Petit Street

Background

• Concordia

So this is the idea for the first supplement of Newsies & Bootblacks: a group of thousand islands somewhere in the southern seas of the Pacific Ocean. The archipielago’s sovereignity is disputed by seven powers: Prussia, France, The British Empire, Russia, the USA, Sweden and Japan; though none mantain more than a few outposts and a handful of gunboats and cutters. In practice it is the independent settlers and natives who run their own affairs, wherever they can resist pirates and criminals of every sort.

A few elements to spice it:

(just a few random ideas)

• Some ultra-expensive spice or rare materials -
• Ancient ruins of former civilizations
• Storms that make communications difficult with the outside world
• Runaway convicts and felons
• Explorers
• Missioners(?)
• Pirates
• Treasure Island(s)
• Exiled Chinese Warlord(s)?
• Sharks, Giant Squids, Monsters
• Undersea civilizations(?)
• Inventions
• An original native culture(s)?
• Tyrants

Our heroes

In Newsies & Bootblacks our heroes were children forced to live on their own assets. On Brave Islands, the age range for heroes will remain the same, but they would no longer required to be orphans or the like. Instead it would suffice that they are free to partake adventure. Yes, they could be orphans or runaways or native kids, or powder monkeys in some rusty gunboat, or the children of a research expedition, or even castaways on a desolate island or… Anything goes as long as the player can come up with a plausible story regarding the independence of his character.

I have turned out 40, which I reckon to be great news. This is, I hope, the beginning of my most productive era. Not too young to be naïve, nor too old to be wasted of energy. No, I don’t feel like I’m passing through any sort of crisis, nor that I have to catch up with anything. I’ve done my share of adventure; perhaps I was too cautious at times, but not in the sort that I regret with self-pity the fantasy world of what-could-have-been-if-only.

Life’s grand, there’s a lot to do!

Any time for gaming?

I have bought near a hundred games a supplements in my life, and got as many as presents and hand-me-downs. I have given away many of them, not because they were particularly bad, but simply because I could no find the time for gaming. And then I still tens of role-playing game, being published, day in and day out. (And hearing again the voices of doom that prophecy the coming death of the hobby).

And yet, having all those games, I find myself with less opportunities to play. I no longer feel at ease playing with teens, a few boys my age keep their dice. Thank God for the conventions, and the message boards, and the friendly local game store, but it doesn’t feel like a regular gamer group.

And then, when I do find the time to play I always feel like if a ghost holding a hourglass was next to me whispering…

Young man, what are thee doing with thy life?

I should be working on my novels, creating games or even taking care of my fat in the gym. I should be more involved in church, with family, at my main job, not dicing my life away. I should not even waste time longing for the next game.

Should I?

Gaming why’s for a kid

Gaming is natural when you are kid. I let you explore, i makes you learn, it’s the best way to make and keep friends, and even adults enjoy seeing you goofing around. Then you get a bit older, and gaming still makes a lot of sense. When you young your hopes seem far away enough to belong to the reals of fantasy.

Gaming why’s for an adult

It’s not the social convention that adults spend time on sophisticated games; beyond sports.True, times are indeed changing in this respect, but still when we adults play, we are expected to do solitaire, angry birds or minesweeper, not an evening of pretending to be knights in shining armor or wizards.

It takes a little courage to confess you still roll d20′s.

Let me share a little list of why’s, the standard fare you are expecting from a post. And then I’ll come up with the only one reason that seems to work, at least for me.

• It is fun.
• It is still a good way to make and keep friends.
• It is an exercise a creativity
• It is cheap -hey you have bought your game already, haven’t you?
• It makes you interesting
• It keeps you in touch with the younger generations, which comes handy if you write YA Fiction, like me. (If you are wondering at my grammar, let me assure you I write almost all of my fiction in Spanish)
• You can boast of your gaming knowledge before a captive audience. (OK, I’m stopping here)

And then you live

I refuse to believe that humans are some sort of machinery, even of a creative sort. Life’s purpose is not about creating thousands of works of art, even of wonderful art. Nor it’s about money, nor even about fun, religion, politics, charity, family or love. Life is a good, chaotic mixture of all that, in different doses along your years, but never completely deprived of any of those elements.

When you game, you put the daily cares aside, and let your days begin anew. Then every bit you do, makes sense, playing is a form of unconscious meditation in which you re-discover your true self.

Gaming is reclaiming the impossible. Gaming is hoping from your Hogwarts’ letter, your USS Enterprise command to where no man has gone before, or daring to be a Marvel artist, or superhero. Gaming is accepting that you are still growing.

Like food, rest, sex, charity and love, gaming gives us the potential to do great things. True, too often we have too much unrealized potential. But I don’t think you spend half a a lifetime “livin’ la vida loca” and then the other half slaving yourself away. You need balance.

And you know what? I’m stopping this article right now. See me having fun somewhere

I always roll my eyes whenever I am told New Paris (the game-world) is too harsh. That there could not ever be thousands or even hundreds of children living off selling newspapers on New York City. Their image of the homeless person is this 40 something ragged man, mean, bad mouthed, intoxicated or plain lazy.

If something New Paris is too soft. Even today with social services, aware church and dedicated cops, there are situations in which a child decides to runaway and play the streets. Bad move? Certainly, but you can only choose among the options you see. And the younger you are, these options are called people. If you haven’t met your cop on the street, you don’t know the police; if your teacher only cares about grades, you don’t trust the school; if a social worker is something your parents fear, you dread them; even as you try to run away from an abusive home.

Today being a homeless boy in America means living in shelters, motels, a kind neighbor’s room, trying hard nobody notices at school. And that’s lucky.

I think the results speak by themselves. http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

It feels like a merry coincidence, Greg has just released EABA Verne, a steampunkish suplement for his generic role-playing game: EABA. I am not going to compare his efforts to mine; he’s in the major league and EABA Verne shows it. Neither, I am going to claim compatibility: the very reason I decided to go ahead and make my own game was that most, if not all, generic role-playing game rules are not adequate to play heroic children.

Not withstanding the rule system you love, EABA Verne offers a great setting and/or ideas that could be inserted in any steampunkish setting; and improve it. For that alone, it is well worth the price.

As you can imagine, EABA Verne takes inspiration in the works of the French writer; but also from other classic Scifi masters and then integrates them into a coherent world. Every effort has been made to creat a millieu that is fun to play, dream-able, and yet solid and reasonable enough to look plausible to a 40 years old, like me. The publisher prides himself in attention to detail, and I can bear witness to it. I was expecting some vague reference to armour in a world dominated by rifles, but the book speaks of such unknown items as Korean cotton armour, and the somehow better known American Civil War experiments.

This might be the hightide of European domination, but the book does not forget minor powers (like Spain), South America, the Asian nations: notably China and Japan, even Africa receives a section worthy of that name. Mars, Venus, an empty core Earth with morlocks and possibly dinosaurs are all there for the gamemaster to include in his games, or not. There are secret societies, conspiracies and spies; some could have been a rival for Sherlock Holmes.

Steampunk, it’s there, with flying machines and interplanetary vessels, and yet they are rare enough to keep a Victorian world, well Victorian. No super-submarine is going to sink the Royal Navy, unless the gamemaster decides to let loose a Nemo; no airship fleet will bomb London, though one or two might challenge the skies. Mars would remain wild and enigmatic for decades.

Greg has nailed it this time. Well done, master.

Newsies and Bootblacks: First Edition, the core of the game is out. Over 220 pages which carry 60,000 words that include the main and optional rules, an extended introduction to the setting, sample non player characters, monsters and an adventure script.

I have made every effort to make the eBook readable. The text is set in a single column, so that you won’t have to be scrolling up and down on the screen. On a small kindle or other e-book reader the pdf should be immediately readable, just by turning the display 90º to a nice landscape orientation.

Rules favor the imaginative and courageous; not the rules-lawyers…

Looks guys, sorry, but to be honest I can’t seem to force myself to write about my own game. Let’s stop the bragging and self-praise. The game is here, just download it and have fun. Please, don’t forget to donate at least $1 to Love’s Bridge if you are indeed able; I believe $1 is a sweet deal for all the work I’ve done and you would be helping to save a young life. Thank you! If for some reason, like not having access to a credit card, you can’t donate, you are welcome to enjoy the game too.

Feel free to share this game in Twitter or Facebook, tell your friends if you love it, or your enemies if you hate it, distribute the file, p2p it, link it or place it on a public torrent. It would be lovely if you could mention the donation thing.

Scores of bootblack angels will sing you into your dream.

Download Newsies & Bootblacks 1st Edition

You know that many retailers offer a free introductory booklet of some new game. That is called a primer and that is exactly what I am offering you today.

Newsies & Bootblacks: First Game is 15000 words, 62 pages long, and features basic and simplified rules, and introduction to the setting, a character sheet and a sample adventure, complete with pre-generated characters: Forsaken. In Forsaken, the players play the children of well-to-do family who, after school, find themselves forgotten by friends, family and every other living soul. The characters will have to brave the streets of New Paris and an ancient and powerful enemy who feeds on their misery.

The primer does not include Character Generation rules; these and many more, you will see on the main book, which will be released tomorrow.

So, without further ado, feel free to

Download Newsies & Bootblacks: First Game

I am happy rpgnow.com customer. I believe they provide a great service to gamers and I wish them well. But I am not using their services as a publisher. Instead, I am going to let you download the game and then donate to Love’s Bridge. Or not, it’s up to you. This is why.

No red tape

I’m a Spaniard, and establishing a business here means a lot of administrative hassle. And it gets worse for me, as I am supposed to work exclusively for the Spanish state, for most everything else I need a special permission. Taxes, fees, queues and some headaches would pave me the way to online vendors.

Keep the earnings

With rpgnow and/or any other online vendors. (The rpgnow focus is just a reflexion of my unhealthy obsession with pdf rpg). They are here for business, and after this experience I truly respect that. But I have a few kids to care.

Get some cool factor

Because a free 210+ pages long role-playing game is cool.

Get some karma

Because allowing everybody to enjoy a game for free is kind. Or so I think

The flip side

True, I am losing the ability of making you pay. And true I am losing the benefit of getting listed on a page/s that rpg fans and fanatics just love. Like those who buy almost anything that looks remotely promising… Like er… myself.

How I hope to compensate for that.

I told you on the first item: I’m going to trust you. I hope that you will be kind enough to say a little thank you to me by donating $1 or more to Love’s Bridge –if you can’t pay, that’s OK, by the way–. I hope that if you like the game, you will be telling everybody. And I hope you will tell me what sucks so I can fix that. (But be specific please).

As for the second part, there are some good pages on free role-playing games. I hope to get listed on them and that by getting listed on them, I will be able to attract a few gamers. There are role-playing blogs, Twitter, lists, Facebook; all that will help me us to share the news.