Akhamet Released, New Campaign Toolkits

With FOE Legacies rapidly approaching its 5 years of operations, now is time to go through and update a lot of the files for the campaign. Not only is a good shake up beneficial it injects new life into a campaign.

I am very happy to announce the release of the Akhamet Campaign, inspired by Ancient Egypt. Pharaoh ruled for 25 centuries but earlier this year, the High Priest announced he was dying. Akhamet and all its content will be incorporated into the Legacies Organized Play Campaign.

For your continued support, you get to be the First to know of the release of this exciting campaign setting!

I have just given the Legacies Campaign Toolkits a major overhaul and added a bunch of new things to it. Check it out, it is free!

In the last year, the Legacies campaign has gone from a purely Pathfinder-back campaign to now being a purely 5th edition campaign. As part of this change a lot of things had to change.

- If you had a Legacies character built using the Pathfinder system, create a new starter (3rd level) character. Keep all your favor points, as your new character is assumed to have performed these actions. Contact us directly if you received a unique item for an updated version (yes, your character keeps the item).

- If you never played Legacies, we organize our games mostly through our Facebook Group. We are always looking for additional players (and GMs). Make a character or play one of our flavorful (and interesting) iconic characters. With the upcoming release of the Akhamet setting, this means you can pick up to 24 characters (6 for Saggakar, 6 for Rhym, 6 for Akhamet, and now 6 from Mythic Greece).

- This update to the Toolkit, includes two maps: One of Akhamet and one of the ArchDespotate of Faremh, 24 pre-genrate iconic characters, and the updated 2018 Character creation Guide.

You can see out ever-growing list of character resources on our revamped website: FOELegacies.com

Thank you for your support! We look forward to seeing you at the gaming table at Gencon!

JP

Hypericon 2018 in Nashville AAR Part 2

Part 1

Sunday morning came too early, but the kids and I, made our way back, this time with more mcmuffins. I asked Kitty if she wanted to come, but she was not interested. Attendance, as is typical for Sunday morning was low. So none of my games went off that morning. More time in the arcade, playing pinball. By the time 11 came rolling in, I packed my stuff and went around with the kids, shopping, talking to other writers. Letting them show me what they thought was coolest.

I sat down with Jojo - ActionMan went back to the arcade - for the end of a panel on anthologies, something I am interested in.

The next one was on Urban Fantasy, a topic I know Jojo is interested in because she reads a lot of it. As a writer, is there a better way to learn about these things? The panel and I share the opinion that defining these sub-genre is difficult. I have difficulty keeping track of them, mostly because I'm not big on them myself, so they blend into "Teens with magic somehow", but the panel sorted out a few things. I left knowing a little more. It's still not my thing but if I wanted to write for it, I have a few leads.

The next panel was one I was part of, "Selling books without being annoying". Now I must've been off for that panel. Entertaining, but off. I thought this was selling yourself/ your brand. So some of my topics may have been odd. Still I am lucky I attended this one because I learned a few good tricks I will use going forward. Now I am not a salesman. I can be, but it is not something that is natural to me. I'll get back to this later.

After that, we had an hour to pass and we attended a panel on Villanous. I thought this would be a guide to being a villain. Which it kinda was. A guy cosplaying as the main character in the show, introduced us to that show. It was funny, and he did not break character which made the presentation funnier. The kids liked it a lot.

Then I had my final panel: Gamer Shark Tank. As it was the end of the con this one did not go off, but I spoke with a pair of teachers from Davidson County schools (that's Nashville's county) about organizing a D&D club at the school. I would be willing to donate some FOE material to schools starting/ running a program for the kids. Contact me with details.

Lessons & Resolutions

I was glad to offer FOE products for the Charity Auction. I know they sold, but I wasn't able to know how much they went for. In addition to the books, I offered to run a game for the winners and run a special game for them that would have some elements that would bind the setting.

I think next year, I may opt to get a Booth or Table and only run games during the evening. This would keep in line with the "Focus on my business" resolution. With Akhamet being out now, I now feel like I have enough of a variety of products to offer different things to potential customer, more than "just" a game experience. With any luck, I may get more players than I expected for my games, create more of a buzz.

My father and my brother are natural salesmen and they are awesome at it. Me? Not so much. I hate to bother people and that is what I feel I am doing. People at cons see what we are doing, the quality of our products. How it improved like crazy from our first products in October of 2013. I grew a lot myself since that time, as a person, as a writer, as a publisher.

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So Hypericon was a great success for FOE. Maybe not in the sales dept, but in the realm of learning and opening my eyes to additional avenues of expanding my business.

The kids really loved the Cosplayers and the variety of them.

I will return next year for sure.

Hypericon 2018 in Nashville AAR Part 1

On July 6-8, I was a Featured Guest at this year's Hypericon and as far as I know, the one gaming guest. I was contacted by my friend Alison-R with whom I worked on products long, long ago. Products that never made it to print for many bad reasons. Regardless, we both kept in touch and when I moved to Nashville, we kept meeting each other at writers and cons. It was really cool to be invited and I created two adventures for the Akhamet setting.

I had plans to take Jojo one day and ActionMan the next. My schedule was tightened by the fact that we had been invited to a massive Fourth Of July event on the event. But Alison and Miranda (the gaming overseeress) created a schedule that allowed me to attend all my events, and run a few games.

Friday evening, I had Jojo with me. I was due to run games that night. When I asked her whether she wanted to play D&D or go about and check out the many cosplayers and shop... well she disappeared I did not see her again until much later that evening.

I had planned short 2 hour adventures back to back, making a 4h block if I had people. One thing I learned is that when going to convention where you are unfamiliar with the attendance and are not certain of what is happening, create short events that you can expand.

So I ran a short adventure called "The Lost Temple of Seth" which served to introduce concepts of Akhamet to the players. We played for all 4h, with one player swapping out at the mid-point to attend a performance. Great tables of guys!

During that second slot, Jojo returned and was ready to do. My phone was also filled with selfies and pictures of cosplayers. Talking to her, she had a great time and was sad when I told her ActionMan would be coming the next day.

Saturday morning, ActionMan and I left for the con early, had some mcmuffins and from 9-11, we played at the video arcade. Classic games like the Simpsons fighting game and Double Dragon. Games that were awesome when I was 12-13 (for Double Dragon).

At 11, the guys returned and we played another adventure. This one had more lore about the setting. But in 2h, I kept it short and sweet. ActionMan kept warning the guys of the type of evil person I was and I felt awesome. That my kids become suspicious of a man who smiles too much...

At 1pm, I participated in a panel about "Encounters to scare your PCs" where Art and I provided a number to tricks to would-be GMs on how to scare their players. This was a very interesting panel in that since there were two of us, we got to bounce ideas off each other in a dynamic I thought was really entertaining. Heck! I was on the panel and thought it was awesome to listen to!

My 2pm panel was "Self-Publishing for Authers and Gamers". Now I do not remember the names of all the people on the panel, there was Louisville's own Lydia Sherrer and a lady who wrote some steampunk. This was another interesting dynamic where we shared our path to publishing. I got a few really good ideas that I will be implementing in the coming months. Although publishing for gaming and publishing for RPGs is different, there are still a lot of similarities. For example, taking writing classes has improved the quality of my writing of RPG material I know for sure. I don't look at written material the same way I did.

After that panel, we headed back home to get ready for some BBQ (my friend Hope and her husband Russel were grilling and bbqing). The massive potluck left my belt tight and wondering why I did not come wearing stretch pants or shorts... The hour-long fireworks display to patriotic music was just awesome. A great time was had by everyone in the family.

BiggestRayRay was there and filmed it all. His quality is amazing! And I even get a talking part, next to my lovely wife... find us at the 1:38 mark! That will give you an overview of the awesomeness of the event.

However, check the fireworks that span the final 5 minutes of his vid. Sensational!

Pre-Gencon Updates... What's happening

A few random notes on what has been happening behind the scene. Hopefully giving you an idea of why I have become something of a recluse in my own blog.

Gencon Updates

I have just done the biggest purchase of FOE promo and books at once ever. With Gencon approaching and the release of Akhamet approaching, I got a first run of Akhamet books, the (expanded and redone) map of Akhamet, a banner, and finally new shirts for Isabelle, JS, and I to wear at the con. I cannot explain how very excited this makes me. Akhamet is the product that has so many of you really excited about.

I will have to make myself a new set of holder for my banners to accommodate both my Akhamet and the one for Saggakar and Rhym. I may have to do a "composite" so I don't have to swap them. I don't quite know yet. Those banners have been a massive help to me to draw the eye and get people talking about the product.

With more FOE games than ever getting run at Gencon, this promises to be a memorable year for us. It is even more exciting to know that everything is sold out already!

I will post some pictures of the unboxing of all those goodies.

Now that said, I am behind the ball on writing the final adventure, my Sunday morning madness. I need to frame it better because I don't really like what I have right now. So I need to refine the product. I'm not (yet) worried about it.

Okay, I am worried about. But that's because I worry about everything, so by worrying, I'm not worrying.

Gencon Slot Zeroes

Those are in full swing! I will be running them in the next two weeks (the two I still need to do, Rhym and Saggakar). If you are interested and available, go check out our Facebook Group to be appraised the times, and when.

Akhamet Updates

I made a change to the Akhamet deluxe/regular editions. The regular edition will be in black and white on plain white paper. The cream/yellow looked awesome but some of the graphics just did not look right.

I plan to release the book official the day before Gencon (so August 1st). There *might* be a few books floating before that, for collaborators, and the like.

Other writing Updates

I have three major books in the works right now.

Tyrants of Saggakar Houses of Faremh expands on the background of the House of the First Ones from Faremh. Details the three major, and many minor ones. This book includes a series of stat blocks for BOTH 5th Edition and Pathfinder.

Gostor Centaurs, Fauns, Nymphs, and Sphinxes adds to the races of Mythic Greece.

DM's Guild City of Dust is a Ravenloft-style project I have been working on and adding more and more stuff to it. Ravenloft is perhaps the best place to put this adventure because it could be set anywhere. It touches on themes from a lot of different settings from the FOEniverse...

Gaming

The kids are playing more often, and they are getting quite good at 5th Edition. I have been running adventures for them, mixing the different FOEniverse world. We are now playing in Rhym where they are exploring a mansion in a swamp in the lands of the Dorian Republic. This adventure is dubbed "Jojo's adventure" because all they encountered were bugs, snakes, crawlies, and other things Jojo is a big fan of.

I have been playing with other youngsters, introducing my friend Donan and his son with my own kids... They seem to enjoy it.

I am running an on-again off-again campaign set in Akhamet the players are really enjoying thus far. There were naval battles, odd traps, and more goodness...