Ninefox Gambit RPG cover reveal + preorders open June 5
Howdy! The Ninefox Gambit RPG cover reveal is coming June 5 at Locus Magazine. Preorders will open June 5 as well at Android Press.
NINEFOX GAMBIT RPG is a tabletop roleplaying game of heresy and hard choices set in the tyrannical interstellar empire known as the Hexarchate.
YOU belong to one of the Hexarchate’s six factions. YOU are entangled with a regime that can change the very laws of physics—at the cost of human sacrifice.
Will you…
CONFRONT your leaders, at the risk of being labeled a heretic and hunted down?
CHANGE the system from within, despite the chance that you’ll be crushed by it instead?
COLLABORATE to preserve what you can, at the cost of your principles?
Assimilation is a fate worse than death.
Designed by Yoon Ha Lee and based on his Hugo-nominated Machineries of Empire space opera series. Included are three starter scenarios by Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent and, with Alyc C. Helms as M. A. Carrick, the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy.
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Sorry it's been a while; I'm still dealing with health stuff. (I don't want to discuss details, thanks for understanding!)
Meanwhile, Jenna sent in these HILARIOUS Google Translate renditions of some Machineries character names:
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FAQ (Foxily Asked Questions)
What are you working on?
Currently I'm revising Lancers #2 as my health permits. If you're wondering where Lancers #1 is, it hasn't been scheduled yet. You haven't missed it. :)
What's one thing that you're reading right now?
I'm reading Arkady Martine's sf novella Rose House and enjoying it tremendously: a house haunted by AI and the specter of its brilliant architect, the two women left investigating a murder within it. Spooky and evocative.
What are you listening to lately?
(G)I-DLE's album I Feel (K-pop)! I was so hyped for this and the album exceeded my expectations. The two MVs "Allergy" and "Queencard" are amazing, and should be watched in that order. :)
What's a game you're playing lately?
My family has gotten back into board games. Lately we've played Pandemic (...yeah), Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, and Starfighter (the board/card game by Stéphane Boudin, from Yskari Games). I really enjoy all three.
On the Nintendo Switch, Regency Solitaire is my distraction of choice.
Which fields of math (if any?) inspired the formation and calendar mathematics used in Machineries of Empire?
I was originally going to put together an abstract algebra/number theory combat engine before my husband talked me out of it. My husband is an astrophysicist with a PhD from MIT and is currently a staff scientist at Caltech, so he's not afraid of math; rather, his concern was that publishers/most readers hate math, which turned out to be true.
The vestigial mathematical flavor terminology that made it in was inspired by linear algebra (I joke that Ninefox Gambit got bounced by the Big Five because I used the word "diagonalization"), some concepts from vector calculus (gradients and vector field), brief mentions of concepts from number theory/cryptology regarding the factoring of large numbers.
The more obvious influence is ethnomathematics, which I learned about through the works of the late Marcia Ascher.
I love the catten pix. Has or will she ever be a character in your books, in cat or human form? I know Shuos Zehun had all the cats.
Jedao the Calico Cat is very loosely based on Cloud, although she's a dilute tortoiseshell and not a calico, strictly speaking. Maybe someday!
How many meals do people in the Hexarchate eat a day?
Ha, I never thought about this other than "probably breakfast/lunch/dinner" even though I know not all cultures or people do this! So the real answer is that I have no idea. I imagine that the Kel have scheduled mess and also that schedules get disrupted by the business of battle.
I have a foxy question you haven't answered here!
Sure, please email deuceofgearsart@gmail.com and I'll get back to you!