There you have it grydscaen style
Today was an excellent day. Went to the printer with all the grydscaen RPG Trading Card game files. The game is finished. We have tokens, 78 cards, 2 Rare cards, Tarot Guidebook, RPG Rulebook and a box with graphics. Should see proofs of the game set early next week after receiving the printing estimate tomorrow. Then onto proofs and then finally the actual printing.
The grydscaen RPG game has been a dream of mine for the last 7 years. Design of the game started in September 2016 and the full game with all the cards and elements including game dynamics was competed in 4 months. All the new artwork is original and also includes some iconography that relates to the grydscaen scifi cyberpunk story and includes 3 cards from The Seer of Grace and Fire that are relevant to game play.
The logistics for distribution are still in the works but we have a seller model that has been punching around in my mind for the last few weeks. Look for the game to be listed on the “Other Works” page of the grydscaen website when it becomes available for sale.
Next Steps for the game
The new step in the process of this whole gaming thing is play testing. I have 2 play testers lined up who are ready to have at it and get playing. The one play tester is a mathematician and familiar with hacking and network intrusion so they will be able to test the game mechanics as well as the play story for the hacker. I have a background in cyber security so I am familiar with remote tools, programming, pentesting and intrusion. You can’t give away the farm and teach someone how to bypass a firewall, hack a server, spam 1 thousand users with an auto bot, do a SQL Inject, or even execute a DDoS attack but you can relate to such things as they occur in the grydscaen story. The Packrats and the hacker guilds in the story are a major player in game dynamics. You can play as the hacker and try to infiltrate the Elite government mainframe onsite or remotely. Or, you can play the opponent and use your cyber security and networking skills to take down the hacker in a raid. You can attack along the way or save up your points for the final attack on the mainframe if you are the hacker. If the opponent you can launch a raid at any time with the right cards or send the Zone Police to question the hacker.
Use social engineering to steal passwords and IDs or take a break from surfing the gridscan and shoot up neurocyne to take away the pain and depression of living in the slum-level Echelons. There are elements of the game that mirror real life as we know it now couched in the confines of the near future of the grydscaen story.
The Rare Cards
Now I am not going to tell you what the Rare cards look like but I can say there is one for the hacker and one for the opponent. The card design is a little different than the other cards and includes original artwork. These cards will only be printed 5 times. That means that they will not be in every game set. I have not decided how I will go about allocating the cards to a game set. I have a few ideas which I will not share. You will have to just check it out and cross your fingers you get the lucky set. Both cards will not be in the same set so that makes them even more rare.
Guidebooks and Rules
The game includes a Tarot Guidebook which instructs how to do a divination reading using the 22 Major Arcana cards and those in the four suits. I used Coins instead of Pentacles as that applied more to the grydscaen story that a set of Pentacles. The suits include Coins, Cups, Wands and Swords and each suit has its particular purpose being either hacking skills, steal cards, trap cards or psychic powers/drugs. The RPG Rulebook outlines how to play the game and includes information about the suits, Major Arcana and playing remotely or with a partner. It tells you how to play win or lose as well as the rules for choosing your initial player character as the hacker or the opponent. Elaborate on the story provided in the cards and create your own unique interpretation and role playing story in the grydscaen world. The game world is based on the grydscaen books so the more you read the richer the world will be.
Although this is a 2-person game it can be played multi-player with more turns and a complex storyline where opponents can partner against the hacker or hackers can affiliate and team up to attack the mainframe.
Going to the Printer
Printing anything is expensive. Since no Kickstarter, Patreon or other crowdfunding site was used all costs are incurred by the author. This limits what can be done at any given time. The process for the game is submit files, get an estimate, proof review, batch run, then box dieline printing and folding then finally assembly of the game into a full set with all the pieces, dice and tokens. Originally today I was not planning to go to the printer but I had a whirling swirl of desire to get this done and wanted to see my 7 year dream come to fruition. I have been waiting a long time planning creation of the Tarot deck piece of the game. It was the RPG portion which was more recent and I had to do some research into game dynamics and play mechanics to get the system down for how I wanted the game to be played. All in all I am pretty happy with what we got. I just hope my proofreading caught any errors in the cards. Well, we will have to see once we get the final cards. And well, a flaw would make it unique, I guess.
About the Next grydscaen Book Release
The next book in the grydscaen series to be released is grydscaen: desecration which is due out sometime in July 2017. The longer wait time is so that we can release volume 1 of The Seer of Grace and Fire, my entry into the dark fantasy genre. Don’t get me wrong, there is still more grydscaen, we just needed to get that fantasy thing out of the way for the first book in the trilogy. As a writer you have to stretch your wings and test yourself a little. Desecration closes out the story arc on the battleship Escalon where the Psi Faction team is confronted with the cosmic event the Convergence finally where Lino had his life changed at the end of grydscaen: insurrection. The Escalon has travelled out of the Aeleon sea closer to the Atlantea Federation homeland at Londes. More military battles and tragedy will befall the team as they wrap up their tour.
The grydscaen: A Storm’s Coming anime
Another episode of the A Storm’s Coming anime has been greenlighted. Production for episode 2 will start in late February and continue the story of Rom the homeless youth who is a hacker as he tries to stay alive and is shadowed by a psychic killer who wants to murder him. Xander Storm the Zone Police officer plays a major role in episode 2 so we will see more of him as well. The animation production will take a few weeks and the voice over talent will have to be recorded as well. The character designs are done from episode 1 and new backgrounds will need to be created for the episode 2 scenes.
graphic noiz is live!
On another note, book 1 of the yaoi novella series graphic noiz goes live tomorrow. Check it out and learn more about the mangaka Noiz and his work as the artist on the scifi Fissure manga written by the bestselling author Shiro Ijima. The book has been on pre-order for the last 2 weeks and is available in ebook format. There is also a graphic noiz manga in the works. We are currently on chapter 2 and drawing every day pretty much. The manga will also be available in ebook when it is completed and we will look into physical copies from the printer as well. ebook will be available before paperbacks though due to printing costs.
Free serial story: Packrat Underground Starts Again this Friday
Packrat Underground the free serial grydscaen story returns to the grydscaen blog tomorrow Friday and every Friday like clockwork. Follow Rom and his antics as a hacktivist for the Packrat cause as he goes on ops, survives the streets and broadcasts his subversive radio show against the government. He also does a little tagging along the way. Love those spray paint cans. We stopped Packrat Underground in September of 2016 and went on a little hiatus as the novelette Read Only Memory was released in ebook. Packrat Underground picks up where Read Only Memory left off after a mass demonstration against the government that ended up in destruction of a government building in the Echelons. Rom led the charge and coordinated the action. Rom’s antics don’t stop there. More missions, subversive messages and broadcasts from the thick of it are planned for the series. Art imitates life so look for the hidden meaning behind Rom’s words. The free serial will be available on the grydscaen blog every Friday. I hope you will check it out. There is new Read Only Memory artwork that was created just for the serial story.
Well that is enough for me today. Tomorrow check out Packrat Underground as it starts a new season.
Till then. All Hail the Packrat Code!
Hackers Unite! Hack Till You’re Dead!