Hey Man, well this is Babylon

I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on the current status of Cannibal Contagion’s first print run and pre-orders. I received the initial test print prototype a week and a half ago, and it was indeed very nice. The layout was fantastic, the art was crisp and evocative of the atmosphere I seek to create.

There has been a minor problem with the cover, though, that I am seeking to get straightened out. Only problem is that Lulu’s support team takes at least a day to respond to any email and follow-up, which adds up when multiple questions and interactions are necessary. Once the cover issue is resolved, though, I’ll be placing the first bulk print order. I hope to do this before this weekend. I don’t want this sitting on my shoulders while moving to my new place, ugh.

But yes! Soon! The book is AWESOME, and just holding it in my hands and smelling it’s freshly-printed deliciousness almost brought me to tears. I finally accomplished one of my dreams. Awesome.

I totally forgot to mention this, but in the most recent edition (March 2009) of the RPG Review, both QUAD and my KnownWorld hack were featured for all to see. Awesome! Thanks, Lev, for helping to spread the word! If any of you read the RPG Review and found your way here as a result, I welcome you to head over to the new forums if you have any questions about those games, or just want to stop and chat.

As for the rest of you, if you haven’t heard of the RPG Review, I highly encourage you to check it out. It’s a RPG Fanzine along the lines of the late Shadis, Polyhedron and Dragon (pre-3rd Ed, that is) Magazines, only in a completely digital format. This magazine covers just about every RPG under the sun, from hardcore combat grinders to intense storytelling games and more. The format is simple and easy to digest, and reading it takes me back to the joys of my younger days of gaming, when similar fan magazines could only be acquired by special mail-order or through old Prodigy dropboxes. Ah, nostalgia!

I just now finalized my order for the first test copy of Cannibal Contagion. Lulu estimated a delivery time of about 2 weeks, based on print time and shipping speed. At 206 pages, it has greatly exceeded my initial estimations of size, and that’s with only fairly minimal art content.

So in more of less two weeks of time, I’ll be looking it over, and if all is well, placing the order for the first 100 copies. I’ll be shipping the pre-orders out ASAP. I’m expecting to have them in the mail by the middle of May, but the print time might change that.

I’m overjoyed right now, if you couldn’t tell.

Last night I played my first game of Left 4 Dead in months, and while a bit rusty, we kicked ass. It was great to buy a new Xbox, take it home, plug it in, and get an invite to play within 10 minutes. Fabulous. So yeah, I have zombies on the mind, oh yes.

The Cannibal Contagion Print Draft is about… 3/8 of the way to completion. I’ve got the basics the way I want them, and I’ve formatted and inserted the art all the way through to just at the end of the character creation section. I want to take this moment to once again elucidate how fucking awesome I think the internal art is. Leo and Vero did a knock-down bang-up fantastic job capturing exactly the feel I was looking for. I’m almost getting a bit choked up each time I place another of their pieces within the text, because each one works so damned perfectly. Seriously, folks, mega kudos. You rock.

Something else? Thanks to working on this document, I can’t get “Eye of the Tiger” out of my head.

One Last Thing: I Promise you, I am working on some play reviews of the GameStorm sessions. However, they are far from complete, and I’m choosing to put more creative direction into assembling the print draft of the game by next week’s deadline. So, once that deadline is reached, and the draft has been sent to the printer, rest assured there will be reports. Oh yes.

Now that I’ve had more time to reflect on the past weekend, I’ve made a short list of regrets from the convention.

First off, I forgot to pick up several things that I wanted: the Yeld whitebook, the Crossroads 2nd edition whitebook, the Spectre of the Beast document, and Dine n Dash.

Second, I didn’t actually get to play anything at all. I ran four games, but was a player in none. I think next year I’ll split my time more evenly. I really badly look forward to this Friday Night’s game, so I can roll some dice and take some names, ryargh!

Finally, I didn’t get to shake Jonathan Tweet’s hand and thank him for creating the wonderful game that is Everway. Ah well, maybe next time!

That’s it, really. It really was an otherwise fabulous weekend.