Highmoon's Ponderings

Day 3 and so far so good; the words are flowing without much coaxing, and the act of writing feels organic, not forced. I was worried about that since I hadn’t written in quite a long time, but thank G-d, no problem there so far.

The hardest part for me is that I am writing a memoir, and shifting through the foggy mists of memory can distract you before you are even aware you are daydreaming and have lost 10-15 minutes recalling something that won’t be more than a couple of sentences on the page. The opposite of that is getting lost in the writing of a scene, recalling a particular memory and writing it out in excrutiating detail when just a couple of sentences would have sufficed. Now, of the two I prefer the second one, since it adds to the word count, even if I know I’ll have to revise and edit later on, but both are a danger one needs to keep in mind when writing a memoir.

The only problem with NaNo I (and my wife for that matter) have is that we are observant Jews that keep Shabbat, so Friday night to Saturday night NaNo is off-limits to us, thus our daily word count totals are slightly different than the standard 50K-divided-by-30. That means that when we need to be on top of our game even more, so we can make up the word count for the days we don’t have all day to write.

Now I gotta head home and prepare for Shabbat, though maybe I’ll have time to put down another 500 words before I have to go to prayers.

Well, it’s November 1st and that means NaNoWriMo 2006 has officially started! I’ll be tracking my progress with a nifty NaNoWriMo Word Count Widget.

This is now featured prominently on the sidebar of my website, so everyone can share my progress and praise me when it’s going good, or heckle me when I’m slacking.

Well, wish me luck. Now, to write!

Last year, designer Wolfgang Baur did a very strange and interesting thing, he announced he would be designing an adventure using the ancient system of patronage. To this end he created a website called Open Design and allowed people to buy into different levels of patronage for the project, with each level allowing more of a say in both the process and the final product. Once the amount collected from the patrons reached a pre-determined amount, the project got green-lighted (and if it hadn’t reached the amount, the money would have been refunded to each patron, so no risk there) and a couple of months later, all the patrons ended up with an exclusive, one-of-a-kind adventure never to be made available beyond those involved.

I recall when this was being announced at the various industry news sites, and recall the ongoing updates, both from industry sites and from my friend Mark Gedak’s LiveJournal, since he was one of the patrons, and I have to admit that I just didn’t pay attention to it simply because of scattermindedness and just plain being busy with other stuff. However, the results of the first Open Design project are in and everyone that has commented on it has said it was awesome. A quick look at the Open Design website showed me a bunch of really cool-looking stuff that instantly made me wish I had gotten in on it when I could. I mean, just look at the cover of the 115-page (!) adventure, Steam & Brass. That alone looks awesome.

I find the whole concept fascinating, and I have to admit I like the model and feel slightly annoyed that I both didn’t think of it first nor that I followed it the first time around. Wolfgang has a whole post on the issue of patronage where he explains how the system worked for the first project, and he makes a lot of good points; if the system worked for the artistic community of the Renaissance, then why not take it out for a spin today? RPGs are certainly a niche enough market that a person highly skilled in his craft (and seriously, check out the partial list of Wolfgang’s credits) or someone with a good amount of talent working in a sub-niche area of the same field could stand to benefit from the same business model that got the David made, among thousands of pieces of art from the last handful of centuries.

I’m not making the same mistake again. Wolfgang has announced that the second Open Design project is now underway and seeking patrons. Three different product options have risen to the top of the heap based on the votes of the patrons, with the one that is currently my favorite as well at the top: Castle Shadowcrag. So yes, I will be joining as a patron for the second Open Design adventure project, and thus support not only a really good writer in doing his craft, but also an economic system that for ages has allowed us artists (if I may humbly include myself there as well) to practice our craft in a highly materialistic world (funny how some things haven’t changed), not to mention a unique roleplaying product for my collection.

If this sounds interesting to you, too, check out the various Patron levels and join in as well!

I just received the proof from Lulu.com for our first print product, a hardcopy version of No Other Gods – An Adventure for Testament. It looks awesome. I can’t get over the giddyness of holding in my hands something that we created and that existed only as electronic data.

I’ll be posting soon info on ordering.

Highmoon Media Productions, in association with Reality Deviants Publications, is proud to present the first in our new line of d20 Modern/Future support, DaVinci Labs.

DaVinci Labs is a research and development facility specializing in mechanized systems, ranging from civilian solutions to military contracts. Simplicity of design and innovative concepts are our driving force, applying these ideals to everything we produce, be it cyber-organ replacements, nanotechnology, zero-G construction systems, mecha units and systems, or orbital and sub-orbital ships.
DaVinci Labs, A Renaissance in Mechanization. (TM)

UDR-4 Arrowhead

DaVinci Labs, Volume One focuses on the UDR-4 Arrowhead mecha, providing a history of the mecha, 2 variants of the design, new weapons and equipment and suggestions for using the mecha in your own campaign as well as in the popular Dawning Star campaign setting by Blue Devil Games.

, Volume One focuses on the mecha, providing a history of the mecha, 2 variants of the design, new weapons and equipment and suggestions for using the mecha in your own campaign as well as in the popular campaign setting by .This PDF comes with a screen version and a RTF file for your convenience.

Written by: Joshua Hoade
Mecha Artwork by: Adam Dickstein
Dawning Star is a trademark of Blue Devil Games, used with permission.

RDPDVL001 – $3.95
Buy it today from RPGnow.com.

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This is the product that almost never happened, seriously. The whole idea to start Highmoon Media Productions was due to me coming up with this series about 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, I have been trying to get it going, and for various reasons, I could never do it. I was almost resigned to have it be the product series that would break my heart (and part of my wallet, as over time I had paid for a number of pieces of mecha art to use), until David Jarvis came along.Reality Deviants had been putting out a series of single mecha PDFs called OGL Mecha that I thought were pretty cool. On a complete whim, one of those “why not” moments, I emailed David to see if he would be interested in collaborating on a modification of his OGL Mecha series, morphing it into the brand I had already been at work to get off the ground. I explained to him my idea of DaVinci Labs, what I wanted to accomplish with it, and the plan I had for our collaboration. I honestly expected to be told that it was neat, but no, thank you. To my surprise, David loved the idea, and wanted in. 

With the help of our mutual friend/freelancer/uber-helper Mark Gedak, David took the raw materials I gave him for this first issue and expanded them with excellent new material that further developed the concept of DaVinci Labs, and ended up with this awesome product. Thanks to David Jarvis and Mark Gedak, DaVinci Labs is now a reality, and my heart’s happy as hell.

We are already at work on further releases, so keep an eye out for more innovation from DaVinci Labs, A Renaissance in Mechanization. (TM)