Meeting Notes

• Since Rich and I met last week on Thursday, we didn’t have too much to go over this time around.
• I spent the weekend playing the Secret World beta, and got some interesting ideas, even if the background did remind me of an RPG design I had back in 1997.
• Rich is getting ready for his daughter’s wedding, and likely will be off the Internet for a few days this coming weekend. I’m not sure he’ll survive the experience.
• We both saw the Avengers. We both really liked it, and I tried to keep my gushing to a minimum.
• We debate the “grimdark” Batman.
• Getting to work finally, we talk over the final lingering points of Victorian Lost before it goes to the PoD printer.
• I let Rich know that CCP is moving offices from June 1-4, so white-wolf.com and email services will be down. It shouldn’t impact things like whitewolfblogs.com or the Kickstarter stuff, though.
• Speaking of which, the Children of the Revolution Kickstarter is rolling along nicely. 50% done already! All of the comments we’ve heard so far are appreciated, and we’re constantly improving how we do things, especially the Kickstarters for W20 and Mummy.
• Kickstarter has also taught us that no one wants to game with Justin.
• Sadly, Blood Sorcery is going to be pushed back a month as Rich works on getting art for it.

Today’s Reason to Drink: Diablo III launches at midnight tonight!

Meeting Notes

• A fair amount of the meeting was trying to work with Rich on getting pictures to work right on the new Kickstarter project page. Flickr doesn’t host photos the same anymore, which broke things, so we tried to use Photobucket instead, with mixed success. I ran out of tricks.
• We talk a bit about continuing to evolve the approval process.
• I got my badge for GenCon, so we talked a little about details for that.
• Children of the Revolution: 10+ artists hired!
• Victorian Lost is in my hands now, and I’m going to go over it for final approval. Hopefully it’ll be out in a couple of weeks at the latest.
• A lot of time was also spent talking about boring business stuff that we can’t share publicly yet.

As a side note, if you’re not already following the various open dev blogs, you should check them out:

• Children of the Revolution (V20)
• Mummy: The Curse
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition

Today’s Reason to Drink: On May 10, 1960, Bono was born. Whether you like him or hate him, odds are that’s a reason to drink.

Meeting Notes

• We moved our Monday meeting to Wednesday because I had a day-long planning meeting for the WoD MMO.
• We both lament having to take vitamins. I think they’re getting bigger as I get older.
• The Blood Sorcery and Children of the Revolution art direction is going on simultaneously. Rich is looking at some new talent.
• The physical proof process is a little unpredictable. Sometimes it’s a couple of days, and sometimes it’s several weeks.
• On an unrelated note, Geist 1.1 is up!
• Colin passed on that some people were having problems finding the other open dev blogs, so I added links to them on main whitewolfblogs.com web page.
• Rich asks me about Google Drive and how it changes things. I don’t think it changes too much right now, but long-term it might be powerful.
• We also talk about moving to an iPad for workflow. I find more and more that I’m using my laptop only for heavy gaming and other detail-intensive stuff, and my iPad is picking up the rest.
• We talk a little about the Children of the Revolution Kickstarter draft and image hosting sites.
• Victorian Lost is moving ahead.
• Rich has an action-packed day, so we call it early so he can have another meeting and then several hours of carting kids around.

Today’s Reason to Drink: On May 2nd, 1519, Leonardo da Vinci died, saving him from having to experience a terrible Dan Brown book about him.

So, not only is this my first WWblogs post, but it’s my first WordPress… well, anything of any kind, so I hope you’ll indulge me while I figure this interface out. In the meantime, it’s great to be here.

For those who don’t know me, my name’s C.A. Suleiman and I’m developing a Storytelling system RPG called Mummy: The Curse. It’s been a little while since the World of Darkness got itself a new core offering, and I couldn’t be happier to be shepherding this undead puppy through the process.

Fans of the classic World of Darkness might recall a game entitled Mummy: The Resurrection. That was the banner offering of the Year of the Scarab, and its core concepts revolved heavily around the metaplot that was spiraling itself toward the conclusion of all those classic game lines (a period called the Time of Judgment).  I was the developer on those supplements, too, and that game remains pretty special to me, even a decade on.

That said, one thing I can tell you about this new vision of a mummy-focused roleplaying game is that it’s very, very different from the previous iteration. Resurrection was one of the few “bright spots” in the classic WoD, with protagonists who, while just as flawed as any other denizens of the setting, were the keepers of a special flame, and as such, fundamentally driven to act heroically.

Mummy: The Curse invokes a different set of aesthetics, themes, and motivations. Like the other new World of Darkness games, it’s about a return to the Gothic form of its archetype — a roleplaying experience that focuses on occult horror and dark pulp-fantasy. You play a mummy, just like you did in the archetype’s prior game iterations, but one unlike you’ve ever played before.

I’ll be posting more here as we get closer to the core set’s release later this summer, but I wanted to introduce myself and the game I’ve been dying to design since the new World of Darkness came out. This is a pretty exciting time for me, and I’m glad you all will be here to join me for the ride.

In the meantime, I leave you with a picture of a sketch an artist friend did on my arm a few days after I got confirmation from above that Mummy: The Curse would finally make the transition from a long-standing personal dream to the head-on reality of an exciting new game line.

Senebti!

Fresh ink, yo

Count Cho... Dracula!

Meeting Notes

• Rich remarks on the funny Dracula bust I now have as my Skype picture. I point out that Bill gave it to me for my desk. (The picture is on the right — you can even see my bag cowering behind it.)
• I talk about taking a CS101 course to brush up on my English-to-programmer translation.
• The V20 Companion is in the process of being approved.
• Ethan is working hard on W20, and all art is assigned.
• Colin’s still going along with Mummy. We both poked at the Mummy dev blog site a bit to get that rolling.
• I sent off my two characters to Justin for Children of the Revolution.
• We didn’t have much to go over, so we wrapped it up a bit early.

Today’s Reason to Drink: I just found out that Professor M.A.R. Barker, author of Empire of the Petal Throne, passed away last month. Raise a glass in memory of the architect of  Tékumel.

Meeting Notes

• We only had time for a quick half-hour meeting this week, so we quickly hit the high points.
• We’re set for GenCon. I need to get my badge, though.
• Justin reached out to me to do some writing on Children of the Revolution, which I’ve started on.
• Victorian Lost first draft layout for review (although we’re still missing some final art).
• Rich’s computer acting crazy — spent several hours trying to get it to work right. Still not right, so he’s focusing on V20 Companion right now.
• We talked a bit about the backer “Thank You” pages.
• Falling Scales #2 is starting to come together.
• Rich is reaching out to artists for Blood Sorcery and Children of the Revolution.

Today’s Reason to Drink: I’ve got too much going on to drink!

Meeting Notes

• Lot of family stuff for Rich this weekend, between Easter and a bridal shower for his daughter on Saturday.
• We both saw Hunger Games, and we both really liked it. Rich liked the art direction. I liked the elements of the first-person perspective in the cinematography.
• Rich talked about a scary Rice Crispies cake that would not burn, no matter how much gasoline he put on it.
• He has a few more contracts to get out today.
• The 2012-2013 schedule should be pretty much sorted now. Info will come out about it soon.
• The V20 Companion rewards are going forward. Rich almost had a heart attack over the quotes from the printer, but it got sorted out.
• The Werewolf Translation Guide hardcopy proof should be coming to Rich Wednesday-ish. The moment he can confirm it’s accurate, it’ll go live.
• Aileen working on layout on Victorian Lost.
• Colin called Rich up to talk about some exciting ideas for Mummy.

Today’s Reason to Drink: Today is “Occupation of Denmark” Day, to commemorate the day when Germany invaded Denmark in World War II.

Meeting Notes

• Rich’s distrust of the medical community appears to be shared by the medical community.
• Art on Victorian Lost is iterating.
• Working on Kickstarter ideas for Children of the Revolution.
• Kelley Barnes is helping us out with some marketing ideas.
• The economics of going from Kickstarter to Kickstarter. Also, we both supported Dinopocalypse Now! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/spirit-of-the-century-presents-the-dinocalypse-tri
• Rich talks about his 70s prog rock musical tastes.
• The dilemma of the creative professional: are you willing to stand behind what you write?
• Werewolf Translation Guide is waiting on final PoD approval, and then it will go live! Could finally come together at the end of this week.
• Aileen is laying out Victorian Lost.
• Waiting on art notes for Blood Sorcery.
• Geist is going back through another hardcover proof pass (there were mistakes last time) before it’s finally all together.
• It seems there are some problems with tabs in the PDF and PoD process — something we’ll have to keep an eye out for.
• Rich has a phone call with Colin about the Mummy status.
• GenCon — Rich and I are both going!

Today’s Reason to Drink: You survived another April Fool’s Day. That’s reason enough.

Meeting Notes

• It’s pollen season in Atlanta. Of course, Rich is safely tucked away in a different state, so I’m the only one suffering.
• If you’ve never been to Atlanta before, that yellow crap in the picture is exactly what it looks like. It’s so damned attractive, let me tell you.
• We talked a bit about the future of Scion and Trinity. Nothing we can go public with, but we did talk about it.
• Werewolf Translation Guide should be wrapping up approvals finally. It should be live soonish.
• Rich has been talking with the lovely Kelley Barnes about marketing stuff recently.
• We also kicked around potential GenCon plans.
• The art for Victorian Lost is nearly all in.
• Surveys are going out for people who participated in the Kickstarter.
• We talk over some ideas for new Kickstarter plans, and how it would work with other, upcoming products.
• Werewolf 20th, Mummy, and Blood Sorcery are all moving along.
• Rich is talking to MrGone about character sheets.

 Today’s Reason to Drink: It’s Prince Kuhio Day in Hawaii! Drink to one of the two officially recognized holidays dedicated to royalty in the United States.

Meeting Notes

• Pollen has fallen in Atlanta. I’m still groggy from the allergy meds.
• Rich’s flu is about over, but a LOT of people in his area came down with it at about the same time. Weirdly, his kids didn’t get sick.
• We talked John Carter. We both really liked it. I see his point on how Woola should have been a monster that turns out to be a dog, but I admit that I’m biased by his pug-like looks.
• Discussion about schedules.
• Werewolf Translation Guide should be out soon.
• V20 Companion is going into layout, and information collection from the Kickstarter.
• I talked a bit with Rich about the future of the Blogcast. Hopefully we’ll have something concrete in a while, but it’s pretty low priority to other things going on.
• Rolling into the Victorian Lost layout.
• LOTS of PoD proofs coming in for Rich’s approval. Geist 1.1 might be in that box.
• Falling Scales proof problems, but they’re sorted out now.
• Blood Sorcery writing is done, and it’s making its way to editing.
• W20 still going forward. Some good conversation on the sketches. Rich is hearing from the artists that things are moving forward.
• Mummy is also still moving forward in Colin’s hands.

Today’s Reason to Drink: We haven’t yet been killed by our trees.