Special thanks to https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmtimages/ for use of the image
Today is the day I was born. Not a lot of people know this about me, but I was premature by several months. Had to stay in the hospital until September. I believe on some cellular level this taught me to really enjoy every moment of life as much as possible. I try to live in the moment, in the present, as much as possible.
People ask me: don’t you feel old? 48 years is a long time, but I really prefer it to the alternative!
I am very happy to receive the birthday wishes of folks on Facebook and beyond. If you would like to send me a present, just buy one of my books (I promise Forever Diamonds is nearing completion, should have it done before Dragon*Con.)* If have already bought one of my books, go over to DriveThruRPG and leave a review.
I want to personally thank my partner Tabitha for her support throughout the year, and the people in my life who have supported my writing: Skye, Melissa, Alan, CynKitty, Shelia, Robin, Caoimhe, Dave, and many others. Thank you very much! I can’t do this without you.
* Originally I said GenCon, but I meant Dragon*Con. GenCon is in 9 days!
$6,400: The Dread of Bayou Sauvage (Writer Sam Chupp) Your team has been called to New Orleans, where there have been recent strange, serial murders: victims found bled out, bizarre suicides, deaths by mauling, and a body literally crushed flat as if it had gone through a steel press with claws. The bar-room gossip, the word on the street, and the recent urban legends whisper of werewolves, ghosts, hellfire-wreathed revenants, swamp monsters and worse. If you ask those who are tuned to such things, they will tell you that “spiritual activity” is at an all-time high. Out on Bayou Sauvage the vegetation has grown up nearly overnight. A satellite photograph shows the outline of a strange, manta-ray shaped object roughly the size of a basketball court is underneath all that vegetation. Could this be the start of a new invasion? Is it some strange creature from another world? Or is it a fell beast from the Prince of Darkness himself? Free PDF Adventure for all Backers.
Special thanks to https://www.flickr.com/photos/mickyshoots/ for the picture
I am at 5K on Forever Diamonds, yay! Still have a fair piece to go – I think this one will be from 20K to 32K words. Forever Diamonds is my campaign-length adventure sourcebook for Encryptopedia.
So far I have covered bits about:
The Heralds of the Queen, a faction that originated in the main Encryptopedia soucebook. The information presented in Forever Diamonds will be in addition to, not to replace, the information in Encryptopedia. So those of you who already own Encryptopedia will be safe.
The Shadowhood, a new faction representing a new type of espionage organization called the Cabal.
A new power system for talents owned by the Shadowhood (which has been a bit of a drain on productivity, I can tell you – power systems eat productivity for breakfast).
A new way of tracking inter-faction conflict between espionage factions.
I’ve also done some basic design work for the big story from which the little stories will get their structure.
All in all it has been fun, so far, but there are a lot more words to put down. More as it develops!
Special thanks to https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrabbit/ for Creative Commons use of the image
My official Gamerversary is always the Easter holiday. I realize it moves around a lot. But my very first Real Life Gamebook, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, was given to me as an Easter present by the Easter Bunny. I was 8 years old. Now I’m 47 and next year will have my 40th Gamerversary.
A side note: not long after this I got my PH confiscated by the principal at the private school I was attending, and was told that I should take it home and burn it because it was Satanic.
Needless to say, I did not. That poor book fell apart from use and had to be given a proper burial many years later.
Special thanks to https://www.flickr.com/photos/8593364@N06/ for use of the photo
I will tell you right out, I don’t know who originally thought of adding American Indian mythology to the game “Werewolf: the Apocalypse,” and frankly it doesn’t matter who did. What does matter is how the American Indian culture in the game was treated.
I truly believe that were the game introduced today, White Wolf would be in receipt of the same level of negative publicity as Monte Cook is experiencing right now.
I have had several people who are American Indian-identified speak to me about the mythology in Werewolf, and by and large their feedback has been positive. I believe the writers at White Wolf’s “heart” was in the right place; there was a respect for the traditions inherent in the work.
But cultural appropriation is cultural appropriation. The hazy illusion of privilege clouds many peoples’ minds – including mine. If there is to be a roleplaying game that is not cultural appropriation, perhaps it should be an Indian game by Indians. Even then, I realize that there’s no one great pan-Indian anything. It’s not a monoculture. It’s a very diverse culture full of a lot of different stories and meaning.
And understand – Indian folks may not wish to create an Indian game, one that speaks to the authentic voice, the actual experience of the people.
My words here are only here because I have come to a realization that it’s not just Monte Cook. And it’s not just The Strange. It’s Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, every game that touched on the Indian experience and mythology.
It’s not up to me to say what is and what isn’t cultural appropriation – that’s for the folks in the culture that was appropriated. And now I’ll sit down and shut up and listen to what they have to say.
Special thanks to https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/ for the picture
Starting right now and going until 3/5/2015 (whenever DriveThru turns it off), you may purchase Encryptopedia for $4.95 as a special price to celebrate GM’s Day.
This will be the only time this book is offered at a discount this quarter.
Encryptopedia normally sells for $9.95 so you are saving $5.00.
Use this code when ordering on DriveThruRPG: 95bdb2de56
Without that code you will still see the price of $9.95.
Here is a link to the Google Plus poll if you’d like to vote on the next project Sam Chupp Media will produce.
[googleplus url=https://plus.google.com/u/0/105216278926420992324/posts/egZSj9Q4ko6]
Special thanks to https://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/ for the use of the photo
One of my gaming beliefs is that every character should have agency. Frequently enough, however, I see games where this is not true.
In my opinion, every character should have their own story line and their own ability to do as they wish. It’s true that the filmic camera of our play may not include that character’s whole lifespan, but I feel as though you should be able to rotate the camera and follow the innkeeper as he goes about his duties, focus in on the midwife as she delivers another child, watch her travel out of the city to gather herbs.
This may be too much for many GMs to handle. I’m not asking for everybody to create multiple storylines for every character. I’m just asking for the fundamental design direction to flow towards agency for NPCs as well as PCs.
What does this accomplish? For one, it makes your stories richer. It also helps you handle players’ inevitable going off the map. For another it avoids cliche “Holy Light of the PC.” And finally it means that your players soon learn that there isn’t any such thing as a “throw-away” character.
People are not throw-away people. You may not be interested in the life of the baker across the street, the town watch officer, the clerk of court, the man who sells fish. That’s OK. Just don’t forget they are people, with their own motivations, desires, ideas, and agency.
Finally, making sure this is a part of your game means that you avoid marginalizing groups and being non-inclusive. There are no damsels in distress – a cliche that, to me, is right up there in offensiveness with “spear carrier.” Reducing someone down to a stereotype. Making the NPCs into a series of bonuses and penalties for the hero, nothing more.
Every baker can put down their rolling pin and pick up a quarterstaff. Every midwife can become a shaman. Every town watch officer could have been a veteran of a campaign where she learned all about rakshasas and knows just exactly how to kill them.
That’s what “agency” is – simply applying the same free will and personal power that PCs get to NPCs. It may seem difficult to accomplish, but with practice, you can empower them.
By the way, my adventure “Live and Let Dye” is full of NPCs with agency (one so much so that you might be better off having a PC play her) – if you’d like to take a read it is available for sale at Drive Thru RPG.
