A Million-Colored Sun Hath Dawned
Somewhere outside the realm of logic and linear time lies the Akashic Library, its phantasmal shelves stretching infinitely into the distance. What esoteric miscellany shall we discover there today? Read on, wayfarer . . .
I'm writing this on Sunday. Yesterday I was at my parents' house, feeling good, and my wife and I got in the car to run an errand, and then BOOM, my throat started hurting. I didn't feel sick, then suddenly I did.
The sore throat's gotten better but I'm very tired. Fatigued, you might say. This might not end up being very long but I am here typing so that you, the people, can get the newsletter you deserve.
Speaking of newsletters, my friend Steve Johnson, co-creator of the hot new game Million-Colored Sun, has relaunched his newsletter, and you should subscribe to it.
What's this "Million-Colored Sun" I speak of? I'm glad you asked . . .
BEHOLD THE MILLION-COLORED SUN!
Steve, Josh Burnett, and I wrote a sword & sorcery game, we're crowdfunding it, and now the Million-Colored Sun Kickstarter has launched!
Steve wrote a description that I like better than the ones I've written. He says, "Leighton Connor, Joshua Burnett, and I have strong feelings about sword & sorcery gaming, but for years we were convinced that the world didn't need another fantasy game. After several years of all three of us buying new fantasy games, we realized that was probably an incorrect assumption. Million-Colored Sun distills our collective experience as sword & sorcery fans, GMs, and players into a 100-ish page RPG for running rules-light pulp fantasy adventures using a slightly modified version of the QAGS system. In addition to our outstanding knowledge, the book features beautiful cover art by James West."
That's still a pretty general description--you may want a clearer idea of what the game's like before you commit to it. Makes sense, and I am here for you! We have a 9 page preview you can download, absolutely free, right here.
This is a sample of play that Josh wrote, it demonstrates the game rules and the tone, and it's also fun to read. Plus, like I said, free.
Once you've read that preview, if you want to back Million-Colored Sun, do so here; you can get a PDF, a paperback, or a hardcover copy.
OTHER ESSENTIAL KICKSTARTERS
February is Zine Quest, and also Zine Month, on Kickstarter, so there are lots of indie RPG projects out there. I'd like to draw your attention to Million-Colored Sun's two sister campaigns, by co-creators Josh and Steve.
Josh Burnett is acclaimed for both his writing and his artwork; he writes and illustrates the DCC zine Crepuscular, which I highly recommend, and has done work for a variety of companies.
Josh's current Kickstarter is Fantastical Classes: Blobs Vs. Blades.
Josh describes the book thus: "Fantastical Classes: Blobs vs. Blades is a collection of brand new character classes for old-style fantasy roleplaying adventure games. Specially designed for use with Old School Essentials, this book contains six exciting character classes that you didn’t even know you needed! All of them are lovingly written and illustrated by your old friend Joshua LH Burnett, the guy who brought you Crepuscular, Draugr & Draculas, and Them’s Monsters!"
I backed at the print level, but if you don't want a physical copy, you can get a PDF for just $7. Click here to check it out.
Steve Johnson and I co-founded Hex Games in 1997 and we've been collaborating ever since, on games such as QAGS, M-Force, the ENnie Award-winning Hobomancer, and many, many more. This year Steve is Kickstarting a game called Castaways and Conspiracies.
Steve describes the game as "a QAGS adventure that long-time fans might recognize as Project G, which we ran at dozens of conventions in the early 2000s. The basic premise is that it’s Gilligan’s Island, but all seven castaways are sabotaging attempts to escape because each one has a secret reason that they want to stay on the island. Thanks to all the convention games, this might just be the most heavily-playtested product Hex Games has ever released."
Dozens--maybe hundreds?--of congoers can attest that this game was always crazy fun, and I'm thrilled that it will finally be available to the public.
It hasn't launched yet, so click here to be notified when it does.
LIGHTNING MAN IS BACK!
I'm still drawing and serializing Lightning Man #4, though I've taken a short break due to my illness. I feel good about the progress I've made, as I've drawn 18 pages and the book is probably going to be 26 pages long.
This issue has involved more visual research than previous ones because so much of it is set in the past and involves preexisting characters. The latest page is set in the 1950s and I had to use a lot of reference to get the clothes, typewriter, and celebrity cameo right. It looks like this:
I'm happy with how it turned out. I had one page to establish how Isobel spent the 1950s and I wanted her to seem cool and countercultural. The most efficient way to do that was to have her hang out with Beat poets. I had planned to fit a few of them in there but, again, space is very tight on these little pages, so I ended up with just Ginsberg. Still, that one panel evokes all kinds of bohemian shenanigans.
All the pages of Lightning Man are online here.
BOOKS AVAILABLE THROUGH KINDLE VELLA
There are currently 28 chapters of my science-fiction adventure Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation available on Kindle Vella, and you can also read the entirety of my occult detective novel The Lobster-Quadrille there. If you like surreal detective stories, go ahead and start at the beginning.
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST TIME
Star Trek: The Return, William Shatner, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
“Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman
My child Blu wanted me to read 1996's Star Trek: The Return, so I did, and we have both now accepted it into our head canons as a sequel to Star Trek: Generations. It gives you the Kirk/Spock/Bones reunion that you were denied in the movie. Those parts were good; sadly, there are parts that are quite boring.
The poem "Song of Myself" is not technically a whole book but it's pretty long and it took me a while to read so I'm counting it. In my secret identity I'm a high school English teacher, and I teach excerpts from "Song of Myself" every year. This is my second time reading it in its entirety; the older and wiser I get, the more I get out of it. Personally I think Whitman's poetry is American Scripture and is at least as spiritually rewarding as any other sacred text. I'm in the process of reading Whitman's Leaves of Grass, at least until I get distracted and start reading something else.
You can read "Song of Myself" here, but you don't have to read the whole thing in order, just jump around, have some fun with it.
And there we have it, another newsletter out the door. Time to go take a nap.
Your Pal,
Leighton