TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

[Lethosos]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

For better or worse' date=' to make money at writing I have to be able to just sit down and start working, day after day. That's what makes doing some books, like [i']The Turakian Age,[/i] so difficult. Having to come up with 60-some different kingdoms/political entities and make each one interesting and cool somehow really taxes the creativity!

I hear you. I think that's what's keeping me from actually working on Eight Sages--the thought of fleshing out the lands of the Empire of Jade is pretty daunting, since it's roughly the same area as China/Mongolia and some of Indo-China.

 

Oh well.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

I hear you. I think that's what's keeping me from actually working on Eight Sages--the thought of fleshing out the lands of the Empire of Jade is pretty daunting, since it's roughly the same area as China/Mongolia and some of Indo-China.

 

Oh well.

 

If you don't have a deadline, try to do one or two a day, or whatever you're comfortable with. Doing them in tiny increments over time is easier than creating them all at once, if you have the luxury of time.

[Lethosos]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

I'll probably do it like a painting--start with some rough ideas, possibilities, then go back and start fleshing it out further, and further. (Of course, too much detail is bad for the painting--you want to make the person see what they should see, not every hair on the hero's head. )

[strayth]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

I'd love to see Talianora, Logres, and Bythainia.

[Norm]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

For better or worse, to make money at writing I have to be able to just sit down and start working, day after day. That's what makes doing some books, like The Turakian Age, so difficult. Having to come up with 60-some different kingdoms/political entities and make each one interesting and cool somehow really taxes the creativity!

 

OK, OK..... I will stop begging for more material from The Turakian Age.

 

Looking forward to spending money on your work. Although, after the chunk of change that I dropped on the Cityographer Kickstarter Project, I hope that these trickle out instead of appearing all at once.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

OK, OK..... I will stop begging for more material from The Turakian Age.

 

Well, to be clear -- in what you're quoting all I was saying was that writing some aspects of TA was difficult. I wasn't saying I'd never write about it again. Though I have said in other posts (in this thread and others) that it's not likely I'll return to TA; I have plenty of ideas for things I like more. But you never know when inspiration may strike. It would certainly be my more or less "default" setting to go to if I had an idea for something suitable for a typical High Fantasy-style gaming setting.

 

 

Looking forward to spending money on your work. Although, after the chunk of change that I dropped on the Cityographer Kickstarter Project, I hope that these trickle out instead of appearing all at once.

 

Oh, if and when they come out, they'll come out one at a time. To do them all at once I'd have to make this my main project for a month or two, and I have no intention of doing that -- it won't earn enough to justify that. Acquitaine is just something I felt like working on for fun, and if I do any other mini-books detailing other parts of the Northlands it'll be for pretty much the same reason and at the same lackadaisical pace.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

For those of you interested in updates -- today I'm doing some more work on the magic system, mostly assembling a bit reference table listing the appropriate spells for the setting from TM and the HSG (sometimes with name changes or minor tweaks). After that I'll have to go on to create some Acquitaine-specific spells, but hopefully there won't be too many of those to slow me down. Acquitainian Demonology I can probably take care of with just two or three spells in addition to ones borrowed from the HSG. Acquitainian Alchemy, OTOH, I will have to pay a little more attention to, because I want it to have a good, setting-specific "feel." Or at least be different from the typical High Fantasy sort of Alchemy you see in the HSG.

[EvilDrPuma]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

For those of you interested in updates -- today I'm doing some more work on the magic system' date=' mostly assembling a bit reference table listing the appropriate spells for the setting from TM and the HSG (sometimes with name changes or minor tweaks). After that I'll have to go on to create some Acquitaine-specific spells, but hopefully there won't be too many of those to slow me down. Acquitainian Demonology I can probably take care of with just two or three spells in addition to ones borrowed from the HSG. Acquitainian Alchemy, OTOH, I will have to pay a little more attention to, because I want it to have a good, setting-specific "feel." Or at least be different from the typical High Fantasy sort of Alchemy you see in the HSG. [/quote']

 

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Yet another brief update for those who are interested.

 

I've come up with some great stuff for Acquitainian Demonology, and dug up some great stuff for Acquitainian Alchemy via research. But I've also concluded that both systems have ended up feeling far too Late Medieval/Renaissance for Acquitaine as I envision it. So I'm taking 'em out and saving them for a more appropriate place (maaaaaybe Talianora, probably some other setting altogether). Instead I'm going to create a darker, more appropriate form of Demonology and probably ditch the Alchemy altogether (or maybe replace it with some funky rules for witch's brews or the like).

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Almost done with the magic system! I'm working on a few Acquitaine-specific spells to give it a bit of zest and then I think I can safely wrap that part of the "supplement" up in a bow and pronounce it finished. Then I just have a couple more monsters and the Bibliography to go, and voila!, she is ready for ze layout.

[ghost-angel]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Are we there yet?

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Well, not quite, but we're getting close. I'm doing some work on monsters and spells, and maybe Templates/character creation, today. Once all that's done I have a couple things to add, clean up, or tweak in the rest of the text, and when I've finished that I'll be ready to go to layout.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Aaaaaand done! Aside from my checking over the math and giving it all one final read-over, Acquitaine is completed! Depending on how things go I may be able to start laying it out next week.

[Scott Baker]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Aaaaaand done! Aside from my checking over the math and giving it all one final read-over' date=' [i']Acquitaine[/i] is completed! Depending on how things go I may be able to start laying it out next week.

 

That's good news.

 

And to answer your original question, I'll continue to show my support with a purchase.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

I won't be showing my support when I buy this thing. I'll be buying it because I want it. (I will be "showing my support" when I buy Tuala Morn though. But that's because of my personal boycott against the Celtic Renaissance.)

[DreadDomain]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Aaaaaand done! Aside from my checking over the math and giving it all one final read-over' date=' [i']Acquitaine[/i] is completed! Depending on how things go I may be able to start laying it out next week.

 

Looking forward to it. Just looked at the map and I can see three annoyances though.

1) The use of direct real name. That was kind of expected looking at Tuala Morn and the very name of this supplement but...

2) Coupled with the fact they are not even placed at the "right" place geographically, it's a bit annoying.

3) The name of the capital. It just doesn't sound right with all the rest of the names which are French derivative.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

1) The use of direct real name. That was kind of expected looking at Tuala Morn and the very name of this supplement but...

2) Coupled with the fact they are not even placed at the "right" place geographically, it's a bit annoying.

 

These two concerns, with all due respect, don't bother me in the slightest. The average reader isn't going to know or care, and I like the sound of the names I chose (and their placement where I chose). Most names I altered at least a bit, but some were fine as is.

 

 

3) The name of the capital. It just doesn't sound right with all the rest of the names which are French derivative.

 

It's a derivitate of one of the Roman names for Paris that I tracked down somewhere. The name dates back to the time the Talianoran Empire (the Northlands' version of Rome, though it's quite different in many respects) ruled Acquitaine as a province.

 

You are, of course, free to change all the names as you like -- I've done that myself with more than one Fantasy world. But I likes 'em and I'm stickin' with 'em.

[djkester]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

i'm in for $5 if you put it together.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Oh, I'm putting it together, have no fear. No point coming this far and not taking the final steps.

 

I've spent the weekend puttering around with Assyro-Babylonian and Finnish mythology just for funsies, but starting tomorrow I'm going to edit Acquitaine and get 'er all laid out and such. Then it's on to the wondrous world of PDF sales.

[DreadDomain]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

These two concerns' date=' with all due respect, don't bother me in the slightest. [/quote']

 

It always feel good as a customer when an author tells you he doesn't care about your concerns

 

It's a derivitate of one of the Roman names for Paris that I tracked down somewhere.

Sure but is still sounds ugly to my francophone ears

 

But I likes 'em and I'm stickin' with 'em.

But of course and I wasn't suggesting otherwise. The map is done, the book is written, changing names now would be asking for trouble.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

It always feel good as a customer when an author tells you he doesn't care about your concerns

 

I didn't say I didn't care about 'em. I said they didn't bother me. If the issue you were citing bothered me, I'd've changed the names in the first place.

 

I always care about what customers* say -- though that doesn't always mean I agree with it. At a certain point I have to trust my own creative judgment.

 

 

 

*: Non-customers, OTOH, I don't really care about. Catch me at a con sometime and buy me a drink and I'll tell you some stories along these lines that will make you shake your head at the folly of the human race.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

Latest update: my editing read-through has begun. I'm not going to stress over it so it'll probably take a few days worth of my spare time in the evenings to finish it.

 

Then Acquitaine goes to layout. It clocks in at nearly 27,000 words, so I'm guessing it'll be somewhere in the 30-50 page range, but it's hard to say since I haven't really begun to consider layout specifics yet.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

You are' date=' of course, free to change all the names as you like -- I've done that myself with more than one Fantasy world. But I likes 'em and I'm stickin' with 'em.[/quote']

 

You'd probably wince at all the tweaks I made to your Turakian Age. But I'm sure you'd agree that since I bought the book, it's mine to tweak as I choose.

 

I always assume that people will change any game-related stuff I write to suit themselves. Saves me stressing over it.

[ghost-angel]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

You'd probably wince at all the tweaks I made to your Turakian Age. But I'm sure you'd agree that since I bought the book, it's mine to tweak as I choose.

 

I always assume that people will change any game-related stuff I write to suit themselves. Saves me stressing over it.

 

Actually - I'm pretty sure Steve doesn't even blink when people change stuff for their own games.

[Steve Long]

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

 

I'm pretty sure Steve doesn't even blink when people change stuff for their own games.

 

This would, in fact, be correct. While I think you'd all be better off simply to stick with my Sublime Artistic Vision , you bought it, you can use it however you want. Change it, cut it into pieces, convert it to another rules system, I do not care one whit.