Moe Lane's Blog, page 82
February 20, 2025
90.6% to the first stretch goal, and watch this space for an announcement next week!
We have two weeks to go on the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit, and we’re just over $200 away from the first stretch goal! These are the slow days in a crowdfunding project, so I’m asking all of you to spread the word about my project. If you know somebody into post-apocalyptic fantasy tabletop roleplaying, or who just wants a peek into the world of my books, let them know about this project.
And if you haven’t backed yet, feel free.
Says it all, really.Current stretch goals:
$2,500 (current): A PDF adventure! This will be available for all backers at Senior Adventurer and above. It’s based off of my short story “The Wolf-Man of Westhaven,” and will double as a look at a different time period than the main campaign’s. There will be a map!$3,000: Tip the team! I’m a firm believer in spreading around good fortune. If we hit this goal, I’ll toss in a little something extra for Ben Fleuter (artist) and Dungeon Master Tuz (layout maven). More about them here.$4,000: Another PDF adventure! Like the current stretch goal, this will be available to for all backers at Senior Adventurer and above. The actual details are to be determined, but again: there will be a map!Also, keep watching this space Monday. There’s another announcement brewing.
So, is AVOWED any good?
I’m getting the impression that AVOWED is being well-received, but I’ve got five billion things to do, as usual. Anybody play it yet? Will I regret waiting until it goes on sale at some point?
#commissionearned
February 19, 2025
02/19/2024 Snippet, JUDITH STORMCROW AND THE FLIM-FLAM MAN.
Gregor needs his tone tweaked. I’m still trying to figure out how he’s being changed by circumstances.
…
“I’d tell you the job was so simple it can’t go wrong, Mistress Stormcrow, but we both know that’d just alarm you.” Gregor was smooth, damn the man. What was interesting was that he wasn’t turning on the charm. It looked like she had a client who could take a hint.
“I’m still not honestly expecting there to be special problems,” the man went on. “Silvergrove is claimed by no particular realm or cult, the site has been abandoned since the fall of the Great Realm, and there’s no local history of monsters or specters. I’m looking for old texts, and historical relics in general, but nothing specific. If some of those relics turn out to be made of gold or shiny bits, I’m perfectly fine with letting your company get a decent taste, once I have the things I need. ‘Do not begrudge the worker his morsel,’ after all.”
That sounded like a quote of some kind, although Judith didn’t recognize it offhand. It admittedly sounded like a sensible attitude to have. “‘All fingers are sticky,’” she quoted back to him, which made him frown for a brief second. Judith didn’t know why. It was practically the same sentiment.
Patreon!
02/19/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.
Sat down and did two solid hours of writing today.
…
“Not a transmitter, just some wires in the dust… crap. It’s connected to something bigger up front, and something behind us. This screams ‘booby-trap,’ sir.”
“And we’re the boobies.” Some kind of bird, wasn’t it? Never mind that now. “Can you disable it?”
“Yes. Connie!” One of the Squaddies perked her helmet up, despite the fact that he and Buckley were on a private channel. Tobias flicked a quick look at Reithner, but she didn’t seem to notice anything. “There’s a wall mine by you. Lock into it, and rip the wires when I say. Ready?”
Connie nodded, and so did Buckley. “Okay, three, two, one, now.”
Tobias avoided looking, which meant he did not see Connie’s fingers move before they were suddenly full of wires. Things like that happened, and that was fine. He didn’t look back when Connie loped back to the other bomb, casually running along the walls almost as quickly as she could the floors. Again, it was the Moon, there was less gravity, it was all fine.
Instead, he just switched to the public circuit. “Do not assume peaceful intent,” he told his forces, and tried not to notice the anticipatory stirring that went through their ranks.
Movie of the Week: War of the Worlds (Spielberg).
Not entirely sure why: that version of WAR OF THE WORLDS has been coming across my screen a few times over the last week or so. It’s actually not a bad film, although it grapples with the usual problem of How do you make an almost entirely reactive protagonist heroic? that WotW movies have. I also remember being amused at the time at how Spielberg did everything to favorably portray American soldiers except put actual halos around their head. Given the absolute crap that passed for war movies in the Oughts, this was no small act of defiance.
#commissionearned
The CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE Trailer.
CHEECH & CHONG’S LAST MOVIE first drops April 20th. …Yes. Yes, of course it will. I would be disappointed in them if it released on any other date.
This is actually more a movie for people in their sixties and early seventies than it is for people in their mid-fifties. …Still. They’re looking well, aren’t they?
‘Two Types of Cosmic Horror Stories.’
As a Type Two kind of cosmic horror writer, I feel kind of seen.
February 18, 2025
‘Rose Tattoo.’
#commissionearned
More yet on Milken Forts (Back the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit!)
Please? Nine more backers and $245 dollars to go before the next rewards. ‘
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/flying-koala-publishers/fermi-resolution-worldbook-ttrpg
Milken Forts were an iconic element of the First and Second Ages of Magic, before ‘proper’ fortification techniques were rediscovered and implemented. Their greatest flaw was the need for a reliable water source, one that could be protected by the Fort itself. Everything from cisterns to ground-level wells and pumps to actual magic was used to keep the reservoirs filled, but it was a fundamental problem. Their greatest advantage was that a properly staffed Milken Fort provided excellent overwatch of the area, and of course act as the anachronistic castles that they were.
There was certainly the need for even the crudest and slapdash castles, back then. The Twenty-Third century in particular was an extremely chaotic time in the middle of the North American continent, as the Mages’ Alliance alternately struggled and schemed with both the Kingdom of Nebraska, and the Kingdom of the Lakes. The Ohio Marcher country in particular sprouted petty-kingdoms that formed around every defensive position, both natural and manmade.
This ironically preserved that area’s hardscrabble independence during the Dominion’s first conquests in the Twenty-Fourth Century. The Dominion chose instead to conquer first Nebraska outright and the Great Lakes by proxy; both of those states were centralized enough to discourage semi-independent baronies and free cities. The combination of the Dominion’s curious reluctance to start direct wars east of the Mississippi, coupled with the plethora of castles in the region, kept the Marcher lands independent long enough to be purchased by Greater Hershey, instead. The inhabitants of Ohio, after seeing what happened in what used to be Illinois and Indiana, quickly decided that they had met a much better fate.
