Winter 2008

[Christopher Ashe]

Well guys I know school and a big turnaround in life has kept me barely involved in things for some time, but I have a break between semesters now and I plan to use at least some of it to get things on track here.
For one my distributor has books again, so if there are local game shops near you that previously had the book and think they can no longer get it - they can. Tell them to contact Esdevium distribution International or Alliance here in the states, and the book can also be found on key20.com

For here, I'm going to try and update the website a bit over the next few weeks and start working on new content for the game. As things are I don't know if I will have the income or the time to get another book, but I am going to start adding content as features. What would have been the Book of Races and Wielding the Ether are going to become features basically free so I can put them up. I'll keep you updated with things

- Ashe

[ThePainter]

Welcome back Ashe

I'll have a word with my local shop (either 'Forbidden Planet' or 'Travelling Man') as I wouldn't mind owning another copy of the rules: one for use and another for show :)

I can only say that it's a great pity that you have neither the time nor the money to produce real books. Personally, I find that there's just something more pleasant about owning a physical book rather than a pdf or some such! Not that I'm denigrating pdf's or your willingness to provide them, it's just that I like holding and owning books.

I'll definitely look forward to the web/forum updates. I know that everyone in my group is looking forward to seeing 'The Book of Races' (we have human, Asa and Silana in the party) and that Elune, our Ethromancer (and I) will appreciate 'Wielding the Ether'.

Once again, welcome back, cheers and regards of the season!

[Christopher Ashe]

I agree. I was always reluctant to go to the PDF route that a lot of the industry is moving toward: there is something that can't be replaced about having the text right there in front of you, being able to thumb through it and whatnot. All told, however, after artist and printing and whatnot, I put easily the cost of a decent car into the game and I'm not sure when I might have that money again to keep the quality of art and printing up, which is my main concern. Text is easy but I prefer to pay my artists well ;)

Perhaps there will be another book in the future and I have considered that the information I add onto the game here I can still add to further, typeset and put into print for hard copy should I ever get the cash to do so, but I would rather continue the game digitally than leave everyone who plays hanging with no forseeable future.

[Elune]

One of the things we liked about the rule book was the consistency of the artwork - too many games have art going from really good to really poor, within pages of one another.

I agree with you both about having the real book- but have you thought about perhaps releasing everything (or an introductory subset, perhaps, of the system (basic character generation etc) on a cdrom as a complement to the real books?

As an example, Marcus L Rowland (a veteran UK rpg writer/developer produces a game "Forgotten Futures" - which I recently purchased - which he distributes as a cdrom (as well as in printed and pdf forms), with many period essays, articles and images to complement his work:

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/

I'd like to see a search-able copy of rules and source books on p.c. too - a CofE interactive cdrom encyclopedia (with free dvd supplement:Elune- fashion and make up for the modern Ethromancer about town.)

[ThePainter]

I tend to agree with El on this. One of the main points that drew my initial attention to the game was the quality of the artwork. The artwork said to me 'this person/designer cares about the game enough to make it look good'! Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have purchased the game because of the pretty pictures, but the quality of the artwork certainly caused me to look at the game more closely. I should also mention another point that helped my purchasing decision, which was how inexpensive the game was in comparison to other new games. Ultimately however, and not too surprisingly, it was the actual content of the game that finally sold me on CoE.

Unfortunately however, as you point out, putting a game together takes money, and putting a quality game together takes even more! Rats!!! Damn money! It’s never as complicated as this in the game world!!!

As for continuing CoE digitally, by all means please do. We’re all grateful for anything that you throw in our direction. Keep up the good work, it’s certainly appreciated!