RONIN 47 Readthrough - live tonight!

Tonight, at 9:30pm BST, you can join Julian Sparrow on his Twitch channel as he performs a live readthrough of my most recent ACE Gamebook, RONIN 47.

Not only that, but you can get involved, as The Chat will help to decide Julian's fate! So set an alarm and join Julian tonight, Thursday 20th April 2023, for a good dose of mecha-vs-kaiju gamebook action!

Gamebook Friday: RONIN 47

RONIN 47, the seventh ACE Gamebook (to be published this summer by Snowbooks), now has a cover. And it's gorgeous!

Art and logo design by Neil Googe, colours by Len O'Grady, design by Emma Barnes.

I love how bright it is and the use of coloured text on the back, which you can see below.

Gamebook Friday: RONIN 47

If you want to place a Late Pledge to my latest ACE Gamebook, RONIN 47, you have until Monday 31st January 2022 to do so. After that, the In Demand Indiegogo page will close. Don't say I didn't warn you.

And if you are thinking of backing at a level that will reward you with a limited edition collector's hardback, your copy of RONIN 47 will feature pin-up art by the likes of Chris Weston and Tazio Bettin, as well as over 20 illustrations by Neil Googe! Like this one...

Don't delay - place a Late Pledge today!

Gamebook Friday: Last Chance to Place a Late Pledge

Today I finished proofreading the finished manuscript for the seventh ACE Gamebook, RONIN 47, so if you want to place a Late Pledge, you need to act quickly - especially if you want to be a play-tester!

Don't delay - place a Late Pledge today!

RONIN 47 finishes on Sunday 15 August at 1:00pm!

RONIN 47 is down to its final 24 hours on Kickstarter, so if you have yet to pledge your support, hurry before it's too late!

RONIN 47 and RPGaDay 2021

RONIN 47 - the mech-vs-kaiju seventh ACE Gamebook - has funded on Kickstarter but could do with some love to kick things up a gear, so that we can start hitting those awesome art Stretch Goals we have planned.

If you've been wondering about backing the project, wonder no more, since you can read up on the rules for mech combat in the game right here.

I've actually been thinking about offering including a set of Quick Combat Rules for mech combat in RONIN 47. If this is something you would like to see, let me know.

As it's August, it's also time for 31 days of #RPGaDay2021. I was a little late to the party this year but am now posting daily notifications (for the time being at least) related to the theme of the day, but also ACE Gamebooks and ACE Gamebooks Roleplay, of course. Just follow me on Twitter @jonathangreen, or join the ACE Gamebooks Facebook group to make sure you catch them all.

Gamebook Friday: Mechs Vs Kaiju!

Check out the new Kickstarter video for RONIN 47, and then - if you haven't already - pledge your support here.

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.

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.

Short Story Saturday: An Array of Audiobooks

I must apologise for the lack of blog posts recently, other than ones relating to my latest Kickstarter, HEOROT - Role-Playing in the World of Beowulf Beastslayer. I hope to start making more diverse blog posts again, but if you like the crowdfunding ones, there's another Kickstarter coming this summer. (And there's a clue as to what it might be about later in this post.)

Anyway, today I wanted to alert you to the fact that Judge Fear's Big Day Out and Other Stories is now available as an audiobook, from Penguin Audio.

The anthology contains all four of my Judge Dredd short stories in audio format, including One-Way Ticket that originally appeared in two parts in the Judge Dredd Megazine.

But of course, it's not the only audiobooks featuring my short stories available. In case you haven't come across them, here's the up to date list of all those currently available.

Features my short story The Hunting of the Jabberwock.

Features my short story Who Walks With Death.

Edited by Yours Truly.

In other short story-related news, I was delighted to receive this in the post today...

Kaiju Rising II: Reign of Monsters was published by Outland Entertainment in 2018, and I am very grateful to the team for sending me a slipcase edition of the anthology, which includes my Kaiju vs Mech short story The Ghost in the Machine*.

* It is particularly good timing, considering what I am working on at the moment.

Short Story Saturday: Kaiju Rising II - Reign of Monsters

Kaiju Rising II: Reign of Monsters is published today, by Outland Entertainment! And if you take a look at the book's Amazon listing you will be able to read an extract from my contribution to the anthology, The Ghost in the Machine.

Kaiju. Rising.

Last year, I was invited to contribute a short story to Outland Entertainment's Kickstarter-funded anthology Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters II. Almost a year later, the eBook edition has been sent to backers, meaning that the mass market paperback release isn't far away.

Now entitled Kaiju Rising II: Reign of Monsters, you will be able to get your hands on the anthology on 1st November 2018. Here's the cover blurb:

We are surrounded.

A wealthy man hunts the kaiju that killed his daughter on an island inhabited by mega-fauna.

They are everywhere.

By the light of a campfire a young girl shares the true story of the epic brawl that caused Hurricane Irene.

There is no escape.

Sabotage turns an international science competition into a monster and mecha massacre.

They Reign.

From deep ocean trenches and dense vibrant jungles to alien worlds and other dimensions, the kaiju have returned! This is a collection of sixteen stories by some of the hottest names in speculative fiction. These modern myths celebrate and explore the Japanese film genre popularized by films such as Godzilla, Gamera: The Giant Monster, King Kong, Cloverfield, and Pacific Rim.

My story is called The Ghost in the Machine* and I, for one, can't wait for the book's release!

* I think my story might have made the editor cry when she read it. ;-)

Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters II - 48 hours to go!

There are now has just 48 hours left until Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters II concludes its run on Kickstarter.

My contribution to the anthology is called The Ghost in the Machine.

Rewards include a limited edition hardcover of Kaiju Rising II, with a hand made slipcase, and a limited edition hardcover of Kaiju Rising I with a matching slipcase too!

If giant mutated coral monsters float your boat, make sure you back the Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters II Kickstarter before it's too late.

Short Story Saturday: Kaiju Rising II - 4 days to go!

Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters II now has just a few days left to run on Kickstarter with over £1,000 to go until it funds.

My contribution to the anthology is called The Ghost in the Machine and here's an extract:

Keoni gasped. With the appearance of the strange tentacles he had momentarily forgotten all about the Great White. It suddenly surfaced again beside the outrigger, threatening to smash the port boom to matchwood as it fought to free itself from the tightening tentacles. The huge fish twisted and turned with such force that Keoni was worried that, even if it didn’t destroy the outrigger with its desperate thrashing, it would swamp the boat with seawater and cause it to sink it just the same.

The shark snapped its jaws open and closed, as if in a feeding frenzy, but still it could not free itself from the clutches of the tentacles. Inexorably it was being dragged backwards through the water towards the centre of the atoll, where the water was darker.

The sea frothed and foamed as the shark continued to fight the tentacles, but it was a fight it could never hope to win.

But if being witness to what he had thought was the apex predator of the Coral Sea being captured by this only half-seen tentacled leviathan wasn’t shocking enough, what happened next expanded Keoni’s understanding of the truth of his world in ways he could never have imagined when he had set out that morning.

As the shark was hauled in, the tentacles began to rise out of the water, impossibly high for a giant squid, or even an overgrown octopus.

It very soon became apparent that it was no mutated squid that had caught the shark but something much, much bigger.

As the tentacles rose out of the water Keoni saw that they surrounded a vast mouth that now made the monster look more like a gigantic starfish or some impossibly large anemone. The writhing limbs were there solely to feed food into the gaping maw, and as Keoni stared dumbfounded at the leviathan emerging from the Great Blue Hole, he saw the frantic shark disappear inside.

Rewards include a limited edition hardcover of Kaiju Rising II, with a hand made slipcase, and a limited edition hardcover of Kaiju Rising I with a matching slipcase too!

So, if giant mutated coral monsters float your boat, make sure you back the Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters II Kickstarter before it's too late.