28 August 2008

As if I don't have enough irons in the fire.

Or test-tubes over the Bunsen burner. Maybe that's a better metaphor.

In the works (running in parallel with Creation is Burning) is Exalted: City of Darkness, which is an alternate-universe take on Creation. Imagine the guy who says "In a world..." at the beginning of the movie trailer. Now, say it with me:

"In a world... where the Primordials failed to hold back the creeping tides of Chaos. Where Autochthon's last desperate act to save Creation was to merge his Primordial essence with Mount Meru, the very axis upon which all the world spins. Where there once was a Blessed Isle... there is now the City of Darkness."

(cue Matrix music)

This is a kitchen-sink setting for a game line that lives and dies by kitchen-sink settings. The idea being that the Primordials' ability to spin order out of chaos was overmatched by Chaos's ability to go beyond order (or something like that). As Creation withered away, the Most Mighty and Ancients retreated to the Blessed Isle, and there made their last stand. In an effort to fortify the place, Authocthon merged himself with the Earth pole – and amazingly, his gambit succeeded... but at a price. As the Builder's spirito-mechanical soul merged with the land, nearly all facets of the landscape became reflections of his technological nature. Cart paths became maglev tracks: trees became utility poles. In one swift "Oh shit, we've converted the planet to stable strangelets" moment all of Creation that remained had changed. Where once stood grandiloquent Manses were now harsh-edged arcologies of stone and steel. In Mount Meru's place stood Authocthon's immanent Core, a megalopolis of sky-piercing crystalline towers. On the shores of the Blessed Isle sprouted adamantine walls, grim and grey and glassine.

And then the normal Exalted history we know and love/hate/ignore takes over from there. At its cold, cybernetic heart, Exalted: City of Darkness is but an excuse to get all the Exalt types under one roof, in the same game, with moonsilver sniper rifles and orichalcum hovercycles.

Also, there's a detective story in the works, tentatively titled Monkey. I am sorry to report it has nothing to do at all with real monkeys.

Ook ook!

Dr. Madu

Edited to add: "That movie trailer guy" mentioned in the link above is the inimitable Don LaFontaine, who died Monday, 01 September 2008.  It's the passing of a voice without a face.  I will miss you, Don.

"In a world... where voiceovers are not what they once were."

21 August 2008

The cyberpunk future I ordered looks nothing like the catalog photo.

Finally! Finally someone makes a reverse trike! Something that doesn't resemble a cross between a La-Z-Boy and a Bigwheel, something that a young buck such as myself can ride without feeling geriatric!

It's the Can-Am Spyder roadster, and almost all the photos you see of it look like this:




My god, is that sexy. Just look at the thing! It screams anime! Adventure! Excitement! All that shit that a Jedi most definitely does not crave!

When you look at if from the front, though, it just looks like someone shoved a Model T up a snowmobile's ass.




How bloody disappointing. That big boat nose out front... just bleah.

I guess I won't be reenacting Venus Wars any time soon.

I remain (still on four wheels) –

Dr. Madu

17 August 2008

A novel in search of a good title.

Wordcount: 40,034

Deathmagus! Okay, I know that doesn't have much of a ring to it. But it's a working title, I assure you: and if there is a publishing house out there that can suggest a better one, I am all ears.

I won't lie to you: this is pretty transparently revenge fiction. Which is not necessarily a bad thing — Elron wrote a shitload of unflinchingly revengeful books, and they did well enough to found a religion. My ambitions are far lower, dear reader: to sell tell a good story. And now, the words all gamers love to say and hate to hear:

Let me tell you about my character.

So the plot, or premise, or genre, or setting, or all of them at once is this: a young man, third son of a minor noble, is given a choice — the priesthood, or a far-off and rather disreputable school of magic, a place called Kingsguild (which, in its heyday, was in fact the headquarters of a thaumaturgical guild chartered by the Horned King (more about him later)). Milesos (for that is our hero's name) picks Kingsguild in a totally uninformed decision, and in six weeks he's packed off through rolling, flinty hills to this rambling keep dozens of leagues from anywhere.

Kingsguild is no longer in its heyday. It's just this side of a ruin: and where once it may have been a place of light and learning, it's now home to a very motley collection of magi, who (sadly enough) represent the best of the best among extant (legitimately chartered) sorcerers. One's a rapist, another an alcoholic, a third mad as a sunbathing bat.

I mention here that everyone I've talked about the novel to, at this point, exclaims "Hogwarts!" or something to that effect. While I enjoyed the Potter books as much as any other fellow who cut his teeth on AD&D and Edgar Rice Burroughs, it pains me to think that the first image that comes to mind is the goofy-scary-but-essentially-harmless academy that M. Potter has the honor of attending. In fact, Kingsguild is not modeled on the British education system — it's more like college. It's a place where you can do whatever you like, basically. Drink all night? Skip classes? Summon demons? Who will stop you? No one, really, until you piss off the Archmage who runs the place and he turns you into a whirling column of fire, and the drunk, fat old Healer has to reconstitute you from ashes in a lengthy and excruciating process. Hogwarts will enchant you: Kingsguild might kill you.


No one wants a laundry list of what Milesos did on his first day at school, and his second, and on and on ad nauseam. I don't want to write it any more than you want to read it. So instead the story's told (from first-person — I can't help it, I ran too many roleplaying games and read too much Haldeman) as a memoir or narrative of current events, intercut with flashbacks or scenes from Kingsguild that remind Our Hero of something happening now.

That's the nutshell version. I'll talk more about the difficulties and the sticky points and the two or three sentences I like in a near-future post. I will also attach a sample chapter or two so (as Tom and Ray say) the three members of my audience can read them and laugh, weep, or sigh as appropriate.

For now, dear reader, I remain–

Dr. Madu

PS I prescribe a gin and tonic for myself, and one for you. Go watch a movie or something while you're at it.


10 August 2008

Current and upcoming projects

Greetings! The Doctor here, with the obligatory intro post — mostly an excuse to list a few of the things I've done, am doing, or are contemplating doing (forgive the jumbled tenses, please). Each of the projects mentioned herein will certainly have their own time under the microscope for those that take an interest in them. To wit:
  • Deathmagus (necromantic revenge-fiction/dark fantasy: currrent)
  • Crows (system experimentation/role-playing game about crows: current)
  • Creation is Burning (Exalted as seen through the lens of Burning Wheel: currently contemplating)
  • The Illustrated Adventures of Herman von Shnout (work-in-progress young adult mad-science fiction: semi-current)
  • Painting from Dreams (series of acrylics based on dream-images: semi-current)
In addition, one may expect to see occasional links posted from such sources as the Daily Illuminator, rpg.net, and other fine sources of information.

Until next time, dear reader, I remain–

Dr. Madu