When you have your head down working time flies. It seems just a few months ago that I was designing the last birthday cover for The Oracle magazine. But on the other hand, it feels like ages if I think of all the things that have happened since - including the office move, the building success of Starship Scavengers, multiple versions of Zilight, the release of Mythos Rising, Xenos Genesis, Final Quest and others!
Time truly marches on and we are now entering our fifth year of business!
One of the biggest shifts of course has been a leaning away from Dungeons and Dragons compatible content and a focus on new games, or support for our own solo play sci-fi rpg Starship Scavengers.
That will continue this year as we have six campaigns worth of content coming your way. The current one is on Kickstarter right now and is Pyramids of Infinity:
At the time of writing there are nine days to go on the campaign and we have unlocked considerable extra content for what was already the longest adventure so far.
The next campaign for Starship Scavengers will be for a map of the home system in which it is set, and accompanying planet guide, and then further adventures will follow every two months this year. Including more adventures on starships which have rather been neglected up to now!
We do have some general fantasy RPG content on the ideas board so we haven't sworn off DnD completely, it just isn't our focus at the moment. We still like it, and play it, in the office (and my 4e home campaign continues slowly, slowly in the background) but for the business we are excited about our solo play gamebooks like Xenos Genesis and Mythos Rising (which we finished shipping to backers at the end of January). Both will be in the store very shortly.
Mythos Rising and Final Quest are both getting sequels this year along with at least two other solo play games, next months werewolf focused branching narrative game book, Rage at the Moon, several pocket games, and a new Zilight at the end of the year.
It being our birthday I have something for everyone!
I had actually hoped to produce something a little larger but circumstances have required me to work from home this last week and I don't have all the resources I need to produce a full adventure at home (one of the reasons why I pay for office space).
But still, here is a new alien for use in Starship Scavengers AND if you download the pdf linked below it you get background information, details of an encounter with the creature and background information on a scenario that will be coming soon, plus a map.
And all of the above also leads me an exciting announcement. I will be writing a specific guide for solo roleplaying. It will not just talk generally about the topic but give you step by step worked examples of how to build an adventure from bare ideas to something functioning.
At the moment, I will be using the Starship Scavengers rules as my example but I might bring in other rule systems as well. This is to make it easy for those of you who enjoy the game and want more adventures to be able to build them for yourselves. We will also release free assets through the year that will help you with this.
These assets will include creatures, maps, equipment lists and scenario ideas.
These will be in addition to any we write up more formally for publication in the Frontier Gazette.
Taking a look at the business and the games and content that is most popular, two things stand out. People really enjoy our solo play games, (and are easily expanding them to play them with other gamers), and people appreciate when we write advice articles and explain things. Putting those two things together makes the above decision, to produce the solo rpg guide, a no brainer.
Now, I do have a full desk of writing commitments already so this will be a background project which will be developed around the edges of the other work. I can't say when it will come out but I'd float a time-frame of within the next six months. And yes, the shimmer frog and the Roxtar Inc site will feature in the solo guide - along with at least one starship!
The company is in a great place as it starts into this fifth year and I am extremely excited about where it might end. We are considering numerous new activities but we are also conscious of the dangers of over reaching and aim not to crash the ship as we try to rocket into the heavens.
Another Gift!
Also, because I'm a bit hyper about the birthday, here is a 10% coupon off anything in the webstore, including physical products. You can use it as often as you like until the end of February.
Voucher Code: yearfivegogogo
Let me end with a thank you to all our fans, friends and customers - we couldn't have reached this point without you. You keep playing our games, we'll keep producing the game content!
Until next time, keep gaming.
Stephen
[Editorial Note: All our published work is professionally edited by a qualified editor, the blog is written and produced by Stephen on his own. When left on his own he makes mistakes. He tries not to, but he does. Please don't hold that against him.]
Happy Birthday to The Grinning Frog!
May I also mention that I've sent a message to Jessica Hancock at EN World that she might want to interview you for her series "Not DnD". Hopefully, you will hear from her soon.
Stephen,
I recommend that you consult with Peter Rudin-Burgess of Parts Per Million for your solo guide. He has written dozens of them for myriad systems, and, while I am sure that you can write one that stands strong on its own merit, I believe that his extensive experience in solo roleplaying endeavors will help make this particular work of yours the best that it can possibly be. Please let me know if you would like his contact email, and I'll put you in touch.
Happy 5th year (and many, many happy returns for The Grinning Frog),
John
P.S. About that time moving faster thing, maybe it's just age. At my own, I feel like I get my bimonthly paycheck…
Happy Birthday, Grinning Frog! Best wishes for a great year!