Scott King's Blog, page 17

Buffalo Bayou!

This is Buffalo Bayou with downtown Houston in the background. It’s one of my favorite picturesque spots in the city. It’s also one of the areas that got hit hardest when the floods happened in the spring. The water level was so high that it was almost to the overpass! The bridge I stood on to take this photo was under water.

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35 Free Books!

A bunch of authors I’ve met via a Facebook group have set-up 35 books that you can read for free. Some you can get directly off Amazon and others you can get by signing up for the authors newsletter.

35 FREE speculative fiction books

Amongst the freebies is my book The Eye of Hastur! So at the very least, head over there now and get my book.

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Family Time!

Lisa’s family got here a week ago. Aubrie my niece got here two weeks ago. Lisa and I won’t be alone again for another two weeks. So it’s CRAZY HECTIC. On the plus side, we are getting to do lots of cool things, like seeing this double rainbow when crabbing. I’ll be posting a lot more once things return to normal, specially because “Mermaids vs. Unicorns” comes out later this month!

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Creators Cast: Isaac Vega!

News:

You can checkout Rodney Smith’s indiegogo for Watch it Played here…

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/watch-it-played-season-5

Today’s Chat:

I sit down with Isaac Vega. Isaac is the Lead Game Designer and Art Director for Plaid Hat Games. He is best known for being one of the designers of Dead of Winner, for designing Bioshock Infinite: Seige of Columbia and for designing this summer’s hit card game, Ashes: Rise of the Phoenix.

iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/creators-cast/id907534102?mt=2

If you don’t use iTunes or prefer to manually download an episode you can do so by going to the libsyn feed.

Libsyn http://creatorscast.libsyn.com/ (for listening online or downloading)

RSS Feed: http://creatorscast.libsyn.com/rss (for subscribing via a podcast app)

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Creators Cast: Chris Michaud!

In the newest episodes of The Creators Cast I chat with Chris Michaud. Chris is the moderator for Flip The Table, one of my all time favorite podcasts. His show focuses on retro, weird, and licensed games and is one of the best produced podcasts I’ve listened to. So if you’ve ever wanted to know what exactly it takes to make a podcast where in Sovient Russia, Table Flips You, then make sure you listen!

iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/creators-cast/id907534102?mt=2

If you don’t use iTunes or prefer to manually download an episode you can do so by going to the libsyn feed.

Libsyn http://creatorscast.libsyn.com/ (for listening online or downloading)

RSS Feed: http://creatorscast.libsyn.com/rss (for subscribing via a podcast app)

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The 2016 Gaming Calendar: Watch it Played Edition!

There is a group of ten or so people in board gaming media who I now not only refer to as friends but they are also creators who I respect. Rodney Smith is one of those people. Rodney is known for his YouTube series Watch it Played. In it he teaches board games and then shows playthroughs of those games. He’s taught me more games than anyone else I know and since a lot of those have been games I’ve shot for clients, thats a HUGE HELP.

Watch it Played is Rodney’s full time job and he funds it yearly through an Indie GoGo campaign. Right now he’s trying to make enough to cover the coming season’s expenses. To do so he’s got a bunch of awesome promos up for grabs and an exclusive version of the 2016 Gaming Calendar! So if you missed my Kickstarter earlier this summer then here is your chance to get a copy.

Head over to Rodney’s IndieGoGo now!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/watch-it-played-season-5

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Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn!

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, designed by Isaac Vega, and published by Plaid Hat Games, is a deep expandable card game that’s full of strategy and has amazing art.

In Ashes, the Phoenixborn are demi-gods who have a piece of an old god inside of them. They are at war, trying to kill each other, so that they can absorb all the pieces and become the one new god. Gameplay is comparable to other card games like Android Netrunner or Magic the Gathering, though unique enough that it doesn’t feel like a re-hash of what’s come before it.

A lot of game comes inside the box. There are forty custom dice, wound tokens, status tokens, exhaust tokens, and over 240 cards! You can play in head to head matches with pre-built decks, build your own decks, or hold a draft. We’ve had the game almost two weeks and after playing our second match, Lisa requested that I get a second copy because she wants to be able to construct her own decks.

The dice are my favorite thing in the game, because I’m a sucker for custom dice, but its important to note that Ashes really isn’t a dice rolling game. Yes, you roll the dice, but they represent magic/mana/energy and have nothing to do with rolling to see who wins a battle like in HeroScape or Summoner Wars. Plus there are also ways that you can mitigate rolls, so you never feel restricted or stuck with them.



Ashes comes with six Phoenixborn characters and a seventh promo character if you picked it up at GenCon or order it through the Plaid Hat website. Each Phoenixborn has a unique ability that can sometimes be used once a round like hero-powers in Hearthstone while others have a power than can be used a bunch of times. In every round of the game the players have to make meaningful decisions and there is always something that you can do. You never feel stuck or are frustrated cause you don’t have the right kind of mana or enough energy.

If you like CCG’s or expandable card games then Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn is worth checking out. If you are still on the fence, scan the additional photos I have below and take note of Fernanda Suarez’s artwork. She did a fantastic job and Plaid Hat made sure that the graphic design was simple so that the art could be the star.

You can order Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn from The Plaid Hat Store!

Burning Ashes

In the short time we’ve had Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn we’ve become big fans. I’ve enjoyed not only the game, but the lore itself. Between the flavor text and few paragraphs in the rules book, much of the mythos is unknown to the general public, though I know Isaac knows it all.

Wanting more, I ended up writing a short story, called “Burning Ashes.” It’s pure fan fiction, clocking in at just under 6,000 words, and takes place more than 40 years before Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. If you want to read it on your computer you can simply open the .pdf below or use the .epub or .mobi file and copy it to your favorite ebook reading device.

The Phoenixborn and their world is fascinating. Fingers crossed we will get some REAL stories about them. Until then, enjoy what I came up with…

To download the book for Kindle (mobi format) click the link below:

DOWNLOAD LINK

To download the book for Nook, iTunes, Android, or Kobo (epub format) click the link below:

DOWNLOAD LINK

To download the book in PDF format, click the link below:

DOWNLOAD LINK

Instructions

If you’re using an apple device, click the download link above, then select “open in Kindle” or “open in iBooks”.

*** For iPad and iPhone, you might have to tap the download link twice. ***

If you’re using a different device, you may need to use a computer to download the file, then transfer to your reading app.

More instructions on how to do this can be found here:

For Devices using the Kindle app: http://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle
For the Nook app: http://www.barkingrainpress.org/faqs/...
For Kobo: http://www.ucg.org/help/how-add-ebook...

If you are still having trouble getting the files onto your e-readers, eBooksBridge is a great resource that has instructions for specific ereaders.

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The Graveyard Book Giveaway!

I’m giving away a first edition signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book!

To enter the contest head here:

http://www.scottking.info/blog/giveaways/neilgaimans-the-graveyard-book-contest/

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Shrimp & Grits!

Bacon, eggs, & grits is a breakfast staple in our house, but every now and then we like to switch it up and do shrimp and grits for dinner.

This particularly batch was inspired by Rodney Smith of Watch it Played. I showed Lisa a photo of Rodney with  where he was trying grits for the first time. Lisa & I were very disappointed that there was no shrimp on his grits. So this photo is dedicated to you Rodney!

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Creators Cast: Suzanne Sheldon!

In the newest episodes of The Creators Cast I chat with Suzanne Sheldon. Suzanne is a YouTuber for the Dice Tower network. She best known for being the go-to person for mobile board games and contributes segments for Board Game Breakfast and Board Game Blender. She also created and manages the very popular GenCan’t, an online virtual board game convention.

To get involved with GenCan’t visit: http://www.gencant.com/

iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/creators-cast/id907534102?mt=2

If you don’t use iTunes or prefer to manually download an episode you can do so by going to the libsyn feed.

Libsyn http://creatorscast.libsyn.com/ (for listening online or downloading)

RSS Feed: http://creatorscast.libsyn.com/rss (for subscribing via a podcast app)

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