RONIN 47 has funded on Kickstarter!

I am very pleased to report that earlier today RONIN 47 funded on Kickstarter! Thank you to everyone who has pledged their support to the project so far, and if you haven't, there's still time.

The Kickstarter funding means that not only can Snowbooks go ahead and publish the seventh ACE Gamebook next year, it will also feature 15 full-page illustrations by Neil Googe, as well as the filler pictures you may have already seen dotted around the Kickstarter project page.

There goes Tokyo!

If you are a fan of comics, especially the UK anthology title 2000AD, you will already be familiar with Neil's work from such strips as Survival Geeks and Cadet Dredd.

Now that RONIN 47 has funded, we can start talking about Stretch Goals. Many of these come in the form of special bonus pin-up pieces of art by other stalwarts of the British and international comics scene.

If we achieve the first two, it will mean that the collector's hardback edition of RONIN 47 will feature bonus art by Nikolai Dante's Simon Fraser, and Killing Time's Chris Weston.

So, you know what to do - go tell all your friends to back RONIN 47 on Kickstarter today!

Gamebook Friday: Mechageddon!

RONIN 47 has been live on Kickstarter for a week now and is already 90% funded, with three still to go!

But of course, £10,000 is merely the basic funding goal - what we really want is to be able to hit the art Stretch Goals.

With that in mind, and due to popular demand, a new retailer pledge level has been created. To find out more, click the image below...

Gamebook Friday: RONIN 47 is live on Kickstarter!

RONIN 47 - a Mech-vs-Kaiju ACE Gamebook - is now live on Kickstarter! Check out the video below to find out more, and pledge your support here.

Christmas in July?!?

If you thought 'TWAS - The Roleplaying Game Before Christmas was a one-trick pony, you'd be wrong. I did hear one reviewer ask on YouTube how much longevity the game would have, considering its setting and the nature of the adventure in the core rulebook, but you would be surprised how many stories you can tell using the game rules.

As an example of the sort of alternative adventures you could embark upon, I have released Christmas in July, a brand new unseasonal seasonal supplement, that includes new creatures and four new Player Characters, that can also be used with more conventional games of the 'TWAS RPG.

When the north winds blow,

Bringing with them ice and snow,

If Midsummer’s weather’s numbing,

Then know that Fimbulwinter’s coming.

What's that? A reference to the Fimbulwinter of Norse mythology? Yes, you read that right.

A copy of ’TWAS – The Roleplaying Game Before Christmas is required to use the contents of Christmas in July, and both are available from DriveThruRPG. You can also secure a signed softback copy of the 'TWAS RPG here.

Gamebook Friday: K-Day is coming!

It's official! RONIN 47, the seventh ACE Gamebook, is coming to Kickstarter a week today, on Friday 16 July 2021! Put the date in your diary now!

I hope you will check it out and pledge your support to RONIN 47 when it goes live, and it pays to back early. Back within the first week and you'll get a discount on your pledge price. Back within the first day and the discount doubles!

Rewards on offer to backers include signed hardbacks, custom dice and playing cards, and exclusive art prints, as well as a unique slipcase edition that includes both a paperback and a signed hardback copy of the book. And everyone who pledges to receive a physical reward will also receive a collectible ACE Gamebooks pin badge.

As well as paying for the production of the RONIN 47 gamebooks and backer rewards, the money raised by the Kickstarter will also pay for fifteen full-page illustrations and other filler images by Neil Googe.

We also have a whole host of incredible art Stretch Goals, and every piece of pin-up art unlocked will appear in the collector's hardback edition of RONIN 47. Whether you are a gamebook fan or a comics aficionado, you are going to want to back this Kickstarter! And then get all your friends to back it too, so that you can have even more incredible artwork in your copy of the book.

You can check the project page here, but please bear in mind that it is still a work in progress. That said, if you do notice any glaring errors, please do let me know.

Please spread the word far and wide, and I shall look forward to seeing you again next Friday, 16 July 2021.

Gamebook Friday: RONIN 47 is coming to Kickstarter!

I have been sitting on this one for a while, dropping random hints here and there, but I am finally ready to announce that my next ACE Gamebook is going to be RONIN 47, a Mech-vs-Kaiju post-apocalyptic epic, and the Kickstarter to fund its production will be launching later this month.

One hundred years from now, following an attempt to genetically re-engineer coral to make it more resistant to climate change (using something called the K Compound), Earth has been overrun by what are effectively, if accidentally, man-made Kaiju. Society has collapsed and groups of people exist in isolated bubbles around the world.

The apocalypse has been and gone, and amidst the ruins of the old world, what is left of the human race fights for survival against gigantic, hyper-evolved Kaiju. Mankind's most effective weapons against the monsters are the colossal Mechs developed by the Guardian Programme.

One of these pockets of humanity is Ako Base, a heavily-fortified and well-defended island community in the Philippine Sea. Squads of mechs operate out of the facility, tasked with keeping the tide of ever-evolving Kaiju at bay.

In RONIN 47, YOU take on the role of Commander Oishi, a Samurai-class mech pilot and leader of Phoenix Squad. When Deputy Director Kira turns traitor, killing Director Asano and stealing the new prototype Shogun-class mech, only YOU are left to pursue the villain and bring him to justice, battling all manner of mechs and mutated monsters along the way.

My 23rd gamebook will be illustrated throughout by acclaimed British comic book artist Neil Googe. Neil is an extremely talented artist, who also works in commercial illustration and concept development. He is well known for his work for the UK anthology comic 2000AD (and its sister title The Judge Dredd Megazine), which includes Judge Dredd, Survival Geeks, and Hondo-City Justice. He has also worked for DC Comics, drawing the likes of Wonder Woman, The Flash, Harley Quinn, Injustice, and Wildcats. As one of the co-founders of the British independent comic publisher COM.X, he is also the creator of Bazooka Jules.

There goes Tokyo...

There are all the usual kinds of rewards on offer that you would expect to see from an ACE Gamebooks' Kickstarter, but it really pays to pledge your support to the project early on. Back within the first week and you will receive a discount on the listed pledge levels, but back on Day One - K-Day - and you will double your discount!

Also, anyone who pledges to receive a physical reward, at any point during the Kickstarter's run, will also receive this brand new ACE Gamebooks pin badge!

So keep an eye on my social media feeds - and this blog, of course - and make sure you get in early when RONIN 47 launches on Kickstarter within the next couple of weeks.

International Steampunk Day 2021

Happy International Steampunk Day!

Having been a part of the UK Steampunk scene for several years, from the late Noughties to the mid 2010s, I have not produced as much Steampunk fiction in recent years.

That said, both Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! have some Steampunk trappings, while The Wicked Wizard of Oz features elements of the genre's slightly younger cousin Dieselpunk.

You can still read my Pax Britannia series, courtesy of Abaddon Books, and the first novel, Unnatural History, is only 99p on Kindle at present.

In other news, I can't believe I missed World Dracula Day on 26th May! Bizarrely, I was utterly absorbed finishing a new supplement for 'TWAS the RPG on that day. But have no fear, I will be ready for it next year! After all, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire will be out by then.

Speaking of which, here's a never-before-seen piece of art from the adventure, by the gamebook's illustrator, Hauke Kock.

Dracula - Curse of the Vampire will be published in October 2021, by Snowbooks.