Vlog Post - Weekly Updates, Moving, & Future Serials

Hooray! A new Vlog post. check it out. As always, any questions, comments, concerns or criticisms, please comment below!

Massive Updates (plus some minor ones, too)

Hey readers!

Wow, two new posts inside of a week? What's going on!?

I've been really busy setting the groundwork for my coming serial releases, and I wanted to share the results of all that work with you, my loyal blog readers. A lot of things have changed or been added, to here, to the Round 10 Website, and to my new central author website, and I would love for you to check out any and all of them. However, for your convenience, this post breaks them up neatly so that you can skip right to the ones that interest you the most.

Zimildran Excitement to the Extreme!

I mean, look at that! How can this image not excite you? I guess the dinosaur junkie in me just gets giddy when seeing this image. Ramon is such a talented individual, and seeing him bring a specific, full world of my own design to life through wonderful art is, to me, breathtaking.

Zimildran has been going well, with the writing and development staying just ahead of our weekly play-test sessions. It is the culmination of almost everything that is at the core of my interests; dinosaurs, mysticism, intercultural diplomacy and conflict, with a dash of steampunk, all spread thickly over a thick base of cosmic horror. It feels wholly original, yet also like I've known it my entire life. Its ancient ruins, spiritual essence, and primal wildlife have stalked my dreams and sneaked into my writing over the years, and it is finally coming to fruition later this year. I am literally beside myself with excitement for this project to be finished.

I can only hope that this excitement holds true throughout the production of this book. It is already much larger than I ever expected it to be (130 pages and counting), and only continues to grow with each passing week.

Soon enough, in the next few weeks hopefully, I will post an excerpt of the world of Zimildran on the Round 10 website, giving you a bit more of a taste of the nature of this world, giving substance to the image above and a window into my imagination.

To Kickstart or not to Kickstart

While my personal experience with Kickstarter hasn't been the greatest (two failed projects in less than 6 months), I would be lying if I said I haven't considered using it again. A man with as many ideas as me needs all the help he can get when trying to turn those ideas into reality, and between Round 10, Zimildran, Dreams of a Dying God, and a certain other, unnamed gaming project, I have a lot of opportunities for help. Namely in the illustration department.

Round 10 Core Rulebook PDF is available!

Yes, finally, the Core Rulebook for the Round 10 Role-Playing Game System is now available for digital purchase as a PDF from RPGNow. Simply click this link to go to the book's page!

The Print-On-Demand should be available by the end of the month, as formatting for PoD is more time intensive than I originally expected. However, until then, you can get exposed to the initial Round 10 experience, a 217 PDF document, for only $19.99!

What does this mean for my other writing projects? Well, Elephants in the Living Room is postponed. It is still my goal to get it out before Christmas, but now with Round 10 making noticeable headway, my drive and effort is more easily placed in that venue. My other, mentioned-but-not-elaborated-upon, writing project is also postponed, likely until early 2014. My apologies to anybody who has been waiting for either of these, but my guess is that those individuals are few and silent. However, if you are waiting on those, then feel free to check out Round 10 until they release!

All jokes aside, I have always been one to undertake more projects than I can adequately finish in a reasonable time. And so I end up, weeks later, finding that I've over-committed and under-delivered. My apologies, but Round 10 has been almost 3 years in the making, and the excitement of it finally hitting digital shelves is too much for me to ignore right now.

As always, feel free to leave your feedback here. Check out the Round 10 website, Facebook page, and get the Quick Start Guide for free. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope to only continue to deliver quality written products to all of you, be it in the tabletop gaming venue or the digital creative writing venue.

The Round 10 Quick Start Guide is now available - for FREE!

Check it out at RPGNow.com! As always, let me know about your questions, comments, concerns and criticisms! You can contact me for Round 10 information at the Round 10 Website or by emailing support@round10rpg.com.

ISBNs and Barcodes

Just purchased the ISBNs and the barcodes for the Round 10 Quick Start Guide and the Round 10 Core Rulebook, meaning that the QS Guide should be available for free download within the next few days! Meanwhile, work on the Core Rulebook is nearing completion, though the June release date may be a bit ambitious, and it might have to get pushed back to July, simply to ensure it is complete and ready to go.

I've gotten a few questions about what sort of programs I am using for putting the book together, since I am self-publishing. I started using simple Microsoft Word for the rulebook, and after it's first draft was complete I moved it into Scrivner for basic layout editing and revising. Scrivner is great for layout work, it's cheap, and it allows me to achieve the look I want with the pictures I have. For the cover I've used Photoshop Elements to put together the images that were made by my illustrator, logo designer and typographic artist, as well as adding in the cover credits and (now) the barcode.

Not really much to report on other than all of that. I've been spending a lot of time both on Round 10 and on my schoolwork, as we're approaching the end of the semester. Blogging may be dropping down a bit for the next week or two, so I apologize to my more regular readers. Please, bear with me!

Round 10 Soft Release Info

The Round 10 Core Rulebook is growing a bit more each day. These last couple of days saw some additional work from my illustrator, Ramon Bunge, come in and continue to wow me. I took the opportunity to play around with the book's layout and toy with where various illustrations will go. It is my goal and my hope that the book will be ready for distribution by June 1st at the earliest!

With this in mind, I should also start focusing on the Round 10 Quick Start Guide, doing some final edits and getting that ready for digital distribution by May 20th. The Quick Start Guide will present the rules in a succinct and easy-to-learn, seven page format, along with a pretty cut-and-dry adventure and six premade characters. It will be the stepping stone into the greater Round 10 experience, and will be available for free download from the Round 10 website and RPGnow.com, so keep your eyes peeled!

I'm debating on the prices of the Core Rulebook. The physical copy's price is sort of out of my hand; it all falls on what Lulu.com or Createspace.com will charge for each printing (probably in the realm of $40, since it is almost 200 pages with full-color artwork), yet I'm still a bit up in the air on the digital book's price. I don't want to charge too much, since it was never my intention to make substantial money off of this game, but at the same time I don't want to undercut the work that's being put into it. I'm thinking a PDF of the book could go for around $15.00 at standard price. It seems a bit high for a digital download, but at the same time the Core Rulebook offers so much information that there is no need to purchase anything further.

Zimildran is even further from having a determined price, but I'd say in and around $15.00 for the digital book. I'm even entertaining the idea of running some sort of online deal when you purchase the Core Rules or Zimildran to get some sort of discount on the other product, encouraging the purchase of both items.

Of course, the marketing stage of multiple products is still up in the air, but it's exciting to think about, at the very least!

Round 10 Development Update

Most of my recent posts have been encompassing emotional reasonings, thoughts and ideas about the direction my life has been going, and the relationships I've been cultivating throughout the past few months. I understand that this blog was originally started with the intent to talk about the creative process around my writing, the journey I'm making in the self-publishing world, and the pursuit of a career in education. If you've been keeping up with my posts through all of this other, off-topic reflection, then I thank you. If you have found a level of annoyance in my posting inconsistencies, in my lack of discussion of the proposed, original topics, or in the general disorganized order of my posts, than I apologize, but know that every post in this blog is about things that are important in my life and that float in and around my mind on a daily basis.

That being said, I will spend this post talking about the state of the Round 10 RPG and my plans for the near future.

Round 10 RPG Core Rulebook - Overall Progress
Writing: 85% finished
Artwork: 76% finished

Ramon Ignacio Bunge, my wonderfully talented illustrator (who you can find on DeviantArt), is currently working on the last two black and white illustrations and then will jump into a final full-color image that I decided to add to the list last-minute. The pictures are turning out really well, and you can see all of the work he has done so far at the Round 10 RPG Facebook Page. Here is a taste of what he has done so far for the book:

As far as the writing goes, I've got to finish up the GM's section (genre-specirfic tips, running a scenario, running a campaign, and creating your own items, enemies, and settings), and fill out the remaining reference sheets (generic enemies, vehicles, ships), and then the writing will be 100% finished.

I'm debating if I should look into getting a professionally done layout for the character sheets and enemy sheets, but something tells me that a simple layout for those would work just fine. I'd rather spend time on the book's layout as a whole, ensuring that it reads well, has a proper and complete index and table of contents, and that it flows together well.

I'll likely be getting the Quick Start Guide up on the Facebook page and on RPGNow as a free download in the coming weeks, giving any interested parties the opportunity to get their feet wet with the rules system before the full game hits digital shelves.

I'm toying with the idea of posting weekly video notes on the Facebook page, an idea that has hit a wall simply because of my lack of adequate recording equipment. I'm also debating about posting some of our play-testing audio recordings for interested parties to hear, and get an idea for how the game plays. And finally, the Round 10 website is coming together, slowly but surely, and should be up and running for the public soon enough.

If you are one of the interested parties and you know of anything specific you'd like to see on the Facebook page, please let me know! I'm open to all suggestions.