In RPG Storytime, the Game is Like the Writers’ Room

 For my series RPG Storytime, I take stories generated out of role playing games, and I make narrated videos and podcasts out of them.  The finished videos tell the stories like audio books or radio dramas.  I tried to tape the games live, but some of my players were shy, and ultimately I’m just not good at improv, so I don’t think they would have come out very good.  I’ve also fixed some dramatic elements before telling the story, so they wind up better.

As a result, an interesting thing has come to my attention.  This method I use makes the role playing game itself the writers’ room.  Rather than the players being performers, like they are in other RPG shows, they are my fellow writers.

Promotions on Social Media

I have definitely not mastered the art of promotions, and I struggle to get people to look at my work.  I love the world we’re in where anyone can release their work to the world, but I would still love to have that advertising staff promoting my books.

Since I am self-publishing, I have to get the word out myself, and I’ve learned a few tricks to at least letting people know my work exists.

First, of course I need to post about it on the three main platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  I need to remember to put hashtags under everything so people who are surfing those subjects can find them.  However, I haven’t had much luck with those.  I don’t know if I’m doing anything wrong, but for the most part, people don’t find me with hashtags.

Where they seem to find me the most is when I share the posts on Facebook.  First, I make sure to start a page for my projects.  I post updates on those projects fairly regularly; but most importantly, I make posts that are intended to be shared.  I’ve joined a bunch of groups that have people who would be interested in them, and I share these specific posts on them.

Important note, however, when I share these onto groups.  I can’t just share them and run.  I have to say something about them that’s relevant to each group.  So as I’m sharing it, I’ll make a little statement that speaks to the people who are there.  For instance, if I’m sharing Relic Worlds with an Indiana Jones group, I’ll say that this is a series that was inspired by Indiana Jones, and the most recent book is coming out, so I thought you all might like it.

I wish there was some way to do that on Twitter and Instagram; but at least with the latter, I can share it straight from Facebook.

 

The Sudden Rise in Interest of the Starkweather/Fugate Story

I grew up surrounded by the story of the Starkweather murders; in particular Caril Fugate’s part in it.  My grandfather defended Caril when she was 14 years old.  She claimed to have been kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend Charlie Starkweather as he went on a murder spree.  All the evidence backed up her version of events, while Charlie, who said she helped him, changed his story every time he told it.  As such, my grandfather believed Caril and continued to defend her for 18 years until he got her out of prison.

What always angered me about the story was not the various opinions, it was the irrational beliefs of people based on no evidence.  They wanted Caril to be guilty, therefore they believed any rumor that claimed she was.  Most books and documentaries made her out to be the new Bonnie to Charlie’s Clyde.

I finally wrote Pro Bono in response to a lot of these claims.  (I also wrote it to honor my grandfather, whose search for the truth was a big influence on me.)  Many other people have recently learned my frustration during the Trump administration with their “alternative facts.”  This was what I grew up with.

I believe it is because of this struggle for the truth recently that there has been a renewal of interest in the Fugate story.  Now there’s a documentary series being made, another book being published, and I’ve been contacted for interviews recently.

It’s a case that’s more than 70 years old, but will probably keep coming up at times when the truth is at risk.

Current Projects

I have a tendency to overwhelm myself with projects.  The problem is that I have too many things that I want to create before I die.  In fact, I have currently have more ideas in me than I likely have life left.  So I try to get as many of them out as possible.  I’m like a sinking ship with passengers who I’m trying to put onto lifeboats before I sink into the waters of mortality.

Here is a list of the projects I have coming up later this year:

RPG Storytime podcast

Finish RPG Storytime Star Wars

Re-release Pro Bono

Release a companion piece for Pro Bono

Relic Worlds Adventures board game

Relic Worlds RPG

Relic Worlds short stories

Relic Worlds podcast

Command Combat 2^nd edition

Book about Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant

Book about my childhood with Ryan

Star Wars fan fiction

 

We’ll see at the end of the year how much I get done.

Podcast Interviews

I’ve been interviewed on several podcasts recently regarding a couple of my books.  I obviously enjoy being on these because they get the word out there about the books.  But I also just generally appreciate the world we live in now where independent hosts can run their own shows. 

House of Mystery (Two Gun Hart):

https://bit.ly/3eEsz2n

House of Mystery (Relic Worlds):

https://bit.ly/3vssgOV

Most Notorious (Two Gun Hart):

https://bit.ly/3u7nI0k

Relic Worlds Expeditions & Showdown

Relic Worlds has two miniatures games: Expeditions and Showdown.  The reason for this is because Showdown is a more popular system based on Savage Worlds, and I developed the game for them first.  However, because of the nature of the relationship, I’m locked in to whatever they do with their game.  Creating one of my own frees me up, and allows me to change things how I want them; thus Expeditions was born.

Showdown gets more publicity because the system is more well known, while Expeditions has the freedom to do some more creative things.  Plus, players can just get everything they need in one place rather than having to jump between the Savage Worlds site and Relic Worlds.

As a result, though, when I make an expansion pack for one, I have to make it for both, so it takes a little more time.  It’s one reason I haven’t done so up until now.  However, later this year I will be releasing a couple expansions:

Underworld – Crime is relative in the universe of Relic Worlds; it all depends on who you pissed off.  But some characters always live in the shadows, making a living outside of the local laws and serving no government.

Mercenaries – Hired guns and bounty hunters, these are the characters who work for whoever pays the most.  They will include characters like Dillon, who has come up recently in the series.

Relic Worlds – The RPG

While Relic Worlds has a lot of products associated with it, the one I’m most excited about right now is the role playing game that I’m developing for it.

What I’ve always loved about RPGs is the story element of it.  Players create characters to run around in the world generated by a game master.  In this case, those stories can be uploaded onto the website for everyone to read, and some will be chosen to be canon; part of the Relic Worlds universe.

I’ve been play testing the system and I think I have the mechanics down.  I’ll soon be putting it all into rulebook form, and later this year, I’ll be sending it out to the world to be play tested there.

Coming Up for Relic Worlds

Now that book 4 is out there, I’m looking ahead to what’s next for Relic Worlds.  There are 9 stories total in this main storyline, which means there are five more books to come.  (I can’t believe I’m not even halfway done!)

The overall structure was inspired by George Lucas’s idea of having 9 stories in the main storyline with 3 separate arcs.  Star Wars has a more obvious break between each group of stories, having 20 years and 30 years between them respectively, (that is, if you count the sequels, which I don’t.  I’m just using it here as an example.)

In Relic Worlds, the separation is thematic.  Books 1-3 are about Lancaster finding disjointed artifacts and trying to understand what they mean.  They’re more episodic in nature.  Books 4-6 are about the growing war between the corporate baronies while Lancaster gets on the track of what caused alien life to disappear.  Books 7-9 will deal with that answer, and what humanity will have to do to survive.

The short stories in between will deal with what’s happening at that time, and there will be stories even told by people who play the role playing game.  More on that coming up.

http://www.relicworlds.com/

Relic Worlds, Book 4: Lancaster James & the Salient Seed of the Galaxy

 Book 4 of Relic Worlds is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback formats!  You can find it here: https://amzn.to/3nvpJRf

In books 1-3, Lancaster has been locating artifacts and piecing them together to try to understand what happened to sentient life in the galaxy.  Now he’s searching for something different, a man.  Mika’s husband has gone missing, and though she is Lancaster’s ex-wife, he is the only one she knows with the skills to find him.

Book 4 was meant to be the shortest of the Relic Worlds books, but has turned out to be the longest because it’s building up to what will be known as the Relic Wars.

Relic Worlds, Book 4 - Part 3

Relic Worlds, Book 4: Lancaster James & the Salient Seed of the Galaxy is releasing this year, first as a serialized story in three parts, then as a completed book.

In it, Lancaster James is helping his ex-wife Mika locate her second husband, who went missing as he was searching for a lost treasure.  In part 3, the group comes upon a much bigger secret far bigger than they had anticipated when they started.

Part 3 is available exclusively on Amazon at the moment: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0916X1JLB?pf_rd_r=01DMEAZBN16WGR3PX32X&pf_rd_p=5ae2c7f8-e0c6-4f35-9071-dc3240e894a8&pd_rd_r=9eb3fcb8-c027-486b-b663-1d15d2717f30&pd_rd_w=g1kon&pd_rd_wg=qzNjP&ref_=pd_gw_unk

Relic Worlds, Book 4 - Part 2

 Relic Worlds, Book 4: Lancaster James & the Salient Seed of the Galaxy is releasing this year, first as a serialized story in three parts, then as a completed book.

In it, Lancaster James is helping his ex-wife Mika locate her second husband, who went missing as he was searching for a lost treasure.  In part 2, Lancaster and Mika are following the trail of Teo, finding out where he might have gone on his search.

Part 2 is available exclusively on Amazon at the moment:

https://amzn.to/30ajzLB

Relic Worlds, Book 4 - Part 1

Relic Worlds, Book 4: Lancaster James & the Salient Seed of the Galaxy is releasing this year, first as a serialized story in three parts, then as a completed book.

In it, Lancaster James is helping his ex-wife Mika locate her second husband, who went missing as he was searching for a lost treasure.  In part 1, Mika narrows down the search as to where he might be.

Part 1 is currently only available on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3kJMxvg

RPG Storytime - Gangbusters

The next series on the RPG Storytime podcast is Gangbusters.  This is a game from the early days of the 1980s which reflects the Roaring '20s.  Characters are typically gangsters or detectives dealing with the law from either one side or the other.  This series follows a private detective and his friend, a reporter.

I hope to one day use these characters in a book series.

Here is the first of the Gangbusters adventures, but there are a lot more, including more that are still coming out.

https://rpgstorytime.buzzsprout.com/1015516/4003847-gangbusters-mad-dog-johnny-drake

RPG Storytime - Dungeons & Dragons

The first weekly episodes of RPG Storytime had to be the classic where it all began: Dungeons & Dragons.  And what better adventures to do than some of the early classics from back in the '70s and '80s when I first began playing?

I've taken these adventures from my childhood and adjusted them to fit into my current world of Angepa.  I'm hoping to tie it all together as one large world where everything connects.

One of these D&D series is Indiana Jane & the Lost City.

https://rpgstorytime.buzzsprout.com/1015516/3380611-dungeons-dragons-indiana-jane-the-lost-city-episode-1

RPG Storytime - The Podcast

I've been enjoying making RPG Storytime so much that I want to make it portable for people to listen to it.  That means doing it as a podcast so people can listen to it in cars on their way to work, and in the office...

Of course, that sort of changed during the time of Covid, when everyone ended up staying at home.  But I was told people still listen to podcasts at home, so I launched the channel anyway.

RPG Storytime takes the stories that were generated in role playing games and turns them into narrated stories, much like audio books or radio dramas.  The podcast can't use images and has fewer sound effects than the Youtube version, but it provides a sort of atmosphere through its radio feel.

You can find the channel and all the episodes here: https://rpgstorytime.buzzsprout.com/

I hope you enjoy it, and happy gaming everybody!

RPG Storytime - Star Wars

One of my favorite projects to work on is RPG Storytime.  It's where I take stories generated out of role playing games and turn them into narrated videos with music, sound effects, illustrations, and miniatures.

The latest campaign is an epic sized Star Wars one where we follow all the characters within a pair of sectors.  We use all the Star Wars games made by FFG that involve miniatures.

The webisodes that came out at the end of last year are from my favorite part of this story.  In it, a woman named Ellor Sundown is hunting the man who experimented on her, an unnatural Force wielder named Rixar Traln.

The beginning of the story is below:

 

Dirty Old War - Pictures from Vietnam

Dirty Old War released earlier this year.  In it, I tell the stories of various people who lived through the Vietnam conflict.  A few of these people shared their photographs with me, allowing me to use them in the book.  These are some examples.

Lance Block:

   

Glen Bailey:

   

Dirty Old War - Tales of Vietnam

Dirty Old War tells various stories of people's lives during the conflict in Vietnam. Rather than talking about the politics or the big picture, it tells of individuals whose lives were affected irrevocably.

I chose to write this book when I got to know people who had been there and began to hear their tales. I learned quickly that the war was far more complex than is usually discussed.

Dirty Old War is now available on Amazon, and you can find it at: https://amzn.to/3qf4jHU

#vietnamwar #vietnam #war #history #amazon #militaryhistory #eastasia #military #truestories

Disappeared for a While

"Well... I'm back."

The immortal words of Samwise to close out The Lord of the Rings.  It seems those are my constant words here on Blogger as I swing between intending to continue blogging and wanting to give it up.

To be honest, I would rather leave blogging behind as I'd rather be writing my books rather than talking about them.  I believe that the main reason a lot of people don't fulfill their dreams of writing is because they're so busy doing everything around it rather than doing the writing itself.  Blogging is one of those distractions.

However, it is good to tell people about what's going on and provide behind the scenes looks, so here I am once again.  (Plus, it seems that there are a few more people reading my blogs now, so here you go.)

My time during Covid has been used intensely to get through projects and release them.  Millions of people out there have been captive audiences for a while, so there will never be a better time to provide entertainment.

As such, I've made more videos for Bandwagon Games, started a podcast for RPG Storytime, finished my book on Vietnam, gotten most of the way through the latest Relic Worlds book, and built a little studio in which to do everything.

I'm going to be posting about all of this over the next few weeks, so I hope you enjoy it.  Take a look at the links and you'll see the results of all my hard labor.

Enjoy!