Award-Nominated Ponies, With Lasers
Somewhere outside of space and time lies the Akashic Library, its phantasmal shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What esoteric lore shall we uncover there today? Let’s find out . . .
There’s so much bad news in the world, let’s start with some good news.
I AM NOMINATED FOR AN ENNIE!
The ENnie Awards are the best-known awards in the tabletop role-playing game industry. My co-authors and I won a Silver ENnie for Hobomancer back in 2013. And now, almost ten years later, my game Laser Ponies is a nominee for Best Family Game! Out of all the games submitted, the judges chose Laser Ponies as one of five finalists for that category. It really is an honor and I'm very excited about it. The next stage in the process is that the public gets to vote. Which means that you, my friend, can vote for the ENnies--just click right here. I encourage you to vote in the Best Family Game category, and when you do, I politely urge you to consider Laser Ponies.
You may want to read Laser Ponies before you vote for it. I get that, you’re a person of integrity. Well, as a special bonus to you for subscribing to this newsletter, I am giving you an exclusive discount. Click here and you can buy a PDF of the game for $5. Normally the PDF is $14.95, right now it’s on sale for $11.21, but for you, friend, it’s only five bucks. This discount is only available through that link, and it’s only good until the end of July. Tell your friends, if they want access to this great deal, they just need to sign up for this newsletter. 
BUT WHAT EVEN IS LASER PONIES?
Laser Ponies came out before I launched this newsletter, so it’s possible you’ve never heard of it. Is it some sort of ironic, post-modern satire of wholesome children’s entertainment? Nope, no irony, it's a fun game suitable for all ages. One of the reasons I started working on it in the first place, over a decade ago, was because I had a newborn daughter and I wanted to make a game that was appropriate for kids. It worked, because when she was old enough, my daughter started playing the game, and began coming to my yearly Laser Ponies game at GenCon. She named and co-created the pre-gen characters I’ve used for years in all my con games. Lemonbell, Moondream, Lilypad, Taco, Pickles . . . really excellent names, they’ve held up well.
By the time I was seriously working on the second edition in 2020, she was 11 years old and able to contribute. She wrote an appendix and contributed illustrations. She and my son also helped with the monsters. I had committed, as part of a Kickstarter stretch goal, to including 20 monsters and/or creatures in the book, and after 15 or so I was out of ideas. I remember going on long walks around the neighborhood with my kids, asking them for ideas, and brainstorming with them. They came up with some good creatures, which are in the finished book. It was a family project!
While we’re here, though, I’d like to mention some of the people outside my immediate family who made the book possible. Laser Ponies started as a joke with Amy Dotta, and the earliest draft was playtested by Amy, Meghan Ault, and their friends in St. Louis. The original version came out in 2010, and was beautifully illustrated by Katie Staffiera.
I drew the monster illustrations in the book and Jeffrey Johnson contributed a beautiful full-page illustration of the Laser Ponies fighting a giant. Most of the artwork, however--including the iconic cover--was by the amazing Lindsay Hornsby. Once she signed on, I knew the book would look great!
RPG superstar Joshua Burnett put it all together when he did the layout. He also contributed some art and shared his legendary cartography skills in creating the new map of Panagonia.
Of course the game wouldn't have rules if it weren't for Steve Johnson, co-creator of QAGS Second Edition. He wrote the rules summary that I used as a started point, and then adapted to make more Laser Pony-specific. He also edited the book. along with Josh and Stacy Forsythe, and Hex Games published it.
On the one hand that's a lot of people, but on the other hand, compared to how many people it usually takes to produce a 100+ page RPG, it's a small, tightknit group of friends and family. I love you, friends and family, and I thank you for all the great work you've done!
Finally, the game wouldn’t have gone to press if it hadn’t been for the generous support of our Kickstarter backers. Thank you, backers!
Reminder, you can pick up your dirt cheap copy here.
THE AKASHIC MARKET HAS OPENED
For years I've been meaning to open an Etsy store so I could sell artwork. Well, this summer I've struggled to keep up with a daily comic (see below), weekly installments of my novel (see below), and finishing up Akashic Titan: Blue Bolt (more on that next time), so not a lot of time for side projects, but I had all this art sitting around and wanted to be able to sell it. Fortunately my wife Alice came to my rescue and set the Etsy store up for me. It's called Akashic Market! You can buy artwork I made. Why Akashic Market? Well, don't tell anybody I said this, but the two Akashic Titan zines are my most financially successful solo creative projects to date, so when it came time to launch this newsletter, I thought it made good branding sense to call it the Akashic Library, and then with the Etsy store I figured I'd just keep the trend going. "Staying on brand" is not something I am traditionally good at, as you can see in this newsletter where I'm plugging my weird squiggly drawings, my magical pony game, and my new indie superhero comic.
Anyway, check out those arts I have on sale; there's a pretty nice tree drawing in there, a couple of hearts, some squiggles, stuff like that. And let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see in the shop! 
LIGHTNING MAN LIVES!
Remember my comic book Lightning Man #1? That number at the end implied there was going to be more and, yes indeed, I've started work on issue #2. I’m currently serializing it online, and you can see what I've done so far. Issue #2 begins here.
NEW ARMISTICE HAWKINS CHAPTER
I've continued to release chapters of my serialized novel Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation. Chapter 25: The Airfield just came out, it has some pretty funny snack foods in it, and you can read it here. You can see all the chapters listed here; the first chapter is right here.
GODZILLA CLUB UPDATE
We did it! Jackson and I drove down to Lexington where we watched Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah, the last movie in the Heisei series. Now I have seen every (live-action) Godzilla movie. Jackson only needs to see the American Godzilla from 1998, and he will have seen them all, too. Overall, I don’t like the Heisei (80s-90s) series as much as the Showa (50s-70s), but Destoroyah was excellent, a great ending to the series. And now it's been awhile since Jackson and I made our way through the Showa series, and it's about time to revisit some of them . . .
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST MONTH’S NEWSLETTER
Rabid Eye: The Collected Rare Bit Fiends volume 1, Rick Veitch
Pocket Universe: The Collected Rare Bit Fiends volume 2, Rick Veitch
Crypto Zoo: The Collected Rare Bit Fiends volume 3, Rick Veitch
I recently got into Rick Veitch’s Rare Bit Fiends, as you can see. Veitch self-published this comic book series back in the 90s. He kept a record of his dreams, then drew them as comics. There's not much continuous narrative from page to page, but once your brain tunes into the correct frequency, they're fun to read. Inspired by Veitch, I've also started keeping a dream journal. I'm happy to say I've managed to write down at least some fragment of a dream every morning for the past month or so. It's nice to flip back and read them, knowing that I would have completely forgotten them all if I hadn't written them down. I’m not currently planning on sharing any excerpts from the dream journal here because, sadly, my dreams are pretty boring. Lots of dreams about being back at my old job, back at my old school, blah blah blah. My brain saves the exciting fantasies for when I'm awake.
MOVIES I’VE SEEN RECENTLY
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock
Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home
Thor: Love and Thunder
Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier
Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek (2009)
So the kids and I have been on a big Star Trek kick lately. We loved watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, we eagerly awaited each week's episode, and were sad when the season wrapped up. So we started watching the classic movies and man, they hold up so well. I'd seen them all before but had not watched them in years, and had never watched them all in a row, and I was surprised by how much I love them. People say that the even numbered movies are good and the odd movies are bad. This is not true—the odd movies are good, and the even movies are phenomenal. I appreciate how the movies center around the deep bond of friendship among Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. At the end of the day it’s a series about three space bros who love each other very much, and it’s beautiful. I was sad when it ended.
Okay, that's enough for this month. Live long and prosper, and don't forget to vote in the ENnies!
Your Pal,
Leighton
www.leightonconnor.com