Greetings fellow fans of shiny math rocks! Rick here with a chonky update. Imma divide this one up into a few sections: Cthulhu Dreamt, ST Forge future goals, and finally a Black Ballad update (with art). Officially... ST Forge is 1 Year Old!
Yes. I'm totally making you scroll to the bottom to see our insane vampire Kel'Zier who steals hearts.
Okay... I've known the Action Fiction crew for a while. All the way back to my Geek & Sundry days. They've put together a project that is right in line with what we do at ST Forge (Immersive RPG + Metal Music + Novels). So... we decided to partner up! Action Fiction and Fable Factory have designed a wickedly cool modern day near sci-fi Cthulhu game that is every bit of a mental twister as you'd want from dealing with eldritch horrors.
Officially, they launched last week... and are hitting aiming to hit the stretch goals, including a detailed map of R'Lyeh. But the greatest thing (imho opinion which can never be swayed on this particular matter) was revealed during their Dev Q&A last Tuesday: "The Ugly Chocobo."
See it! Right there on the cover! YOU CAN HAVE ONE AS A PET!
I'm sure it's probably evil as hell and has an insane unpronounceable name, but hey... I'll let Jaron steal a section here and talk about Cthulhu and why they totally need help to bring it across the needed thresholds.
Hey gang! My name is Jaron R. M. Johnson. You might recognize some of my work with Rick from Storyteller's Forge, from the Soul Thief Warlock and Lifeblood sidequest in The Red Opera, to the Unhallowed, Soul-stitched, and Ashed Shepherds in The Black Ballad. Right now, a game I designed is live (and over 500% funded) on Kickstarter: Cthulhu Dreamt. It's a near-future sci-fi take on the Cthulhu mythos, powered by an all-new RPG system, with an original metal soundtrack just like Black Ballad and Red Opera! If you like Cthulhu and metal music, or stuff like X-Files and the SCP Foundation, you should check out the Kickstarter campaign for Cthulhu Dreamt! We've got some sick add-ons like a prequel novel, awesome shirts, a dice tray, and more. One of our next stretch goals lets us make a rad high-detail map of the island of R'Lyeh, so players can explore it and discover all of its secrets. Come show your support!
Storytellers Forge Future!
Math time! So Black Ballad was a huge hit for us (thank you everyone!), and everything is coming along smoothly on that end (more below). But what's next?
-We are going back to crowdfunding for The Black Ballad in January for novels! Everyone who has been able to read the full campaign has basically...had a million ideas. Several of them happen to be full time authors from all walks of life. So in the future, for all you book nerds, we are going to have expanded, official, cannon lore from different authors each telling different stories in the Sunless Crossing.
-RPG in a Castle and Black Ballad Launch. This is a super early announcement, but next Feb 9th thru 11th in 2024, we will be returning to RPG in a Castle and by all horoscopes and forecasting - have it be a celebration for the dead and launch the Black Ballad in style with a nice party and plenty of gaming.
-Dark Carnival (2024). Are you familiar with an eldritch patron for warlocks that stalks the tiktok? Turns out Michael, the cryptid behind the screen is a fantastic writer. ST Forge can officially announce we are developing a warlock / carnival themed players guide and campaign meant to plug into any campaign (including Black Ballad!) and will focus on new subclasses, spells, items, and multi-session adventure that reminds the characters about what is truly important.
-Modern Gods (2024). Belief has birthed gods, beings of great power who thrive off the energy of worship and belief. Written by Michael Oldziej, this Apocalypse Engine TTRPG focuses on you playing a god of either your own creation or a historical figure in a modern age as your followers faith dwindles. What power plays and which gods will you ally with in order to secure your future for another millennia against the tide of A.I. and Blockchain?
-The Sunless Crossing (TBA) (Basically, after the Black Ballad is out we can start). Next on my personal que after I finish my third Seventh Age Novel... is working on the Black Ballad players and setting guide. Voted number 1 in Backerkit Surveys of future projects. So, I'm bumping down Seventh Age Ravenous in the que, will finish third novel, and then jump right on this.
Black Ballad Update!
Everything is still on track! (How strange is that?). Of course, printing delays are still a huge probability, but at the moment we know that creation and production of at least the PDF is spot on for all predictions.
-DiAmorte has fully finished the entire soundtrack, and the CD's are being made right now! -Black Ballad Dice and Coins have been finalized and are in hand! -The Adventure Journal finished up creation this weekend! Now it's off to layout! -Duskwalker Novel is past the dev edit stage and into copy editing! -The Black Ballad main book is in the hands of copy editing. -The Pathfinder Conversion packet is in editing! -The Sidequest Gamble of Fates is ready to hand off to copy editing! -Once the Purgatory Poker Deck is finished, I can make all third party assets like the ST Screen, character sheet bundles, maps, and poker deck and get those in hand for the loot boxes. -Art... well... art is coming along swimmingly. After reading all of this: I'll shut up now and post some art!
Kel'Zier by Jarret Katz
The Siege of Nox Valar by Reyna Rochin
