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: 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.

Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge

I am delighted to be able to announce that I am one of the guest writers on the new board game Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge, from Steamforged Games, that is currently funding on Kickstarter.

Here's the newsflash that appeared on an update this week:

I will be writing a standalone adventure for the game, which includes gamebook mechanics, as well as those of a board game and tabletop wargame.

Anyone who is already aware of my work will know that I have an abiding love of steampunk, golems, things with too many tentacles, and Scandinavian/British folklore. I also enjoy a good mystery, so I plan on my adventure containing elements of all of these.

There are daily updates and unlocks on the Kickstarter campaign page, and I have been particularly excited by those revealing new monsters that will be appearing in the core box, as well as the Lost Levels expansion.

I hope to use elements of these in the story I want to tell, and already have a number of ideas jotted down in my planner. 

So, if you've not checked out the Kickstarter campaign page already, why not do so today, and pledge your support?

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.

Short Story Saturday: Kaiju Rising II

Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters II is now into its final two weeks of funding and still has half the money it needs left to raise.

If you've been considering backing this Kickstarter project - which features a brand new story by Yours Truly, called The Ghost in the Machine - then you may be interested to learn that some new rewards have been added, along with a couple of stretch goals.

Outland Entertainment are now offering a limited edition hardcover of Kaiju Rising II, with a hand made slipcase from Two Tone Press. These will be signed, numbered, and extremely limited.

Furthermore, they are offering a limited edition hardcover of Kaiju Rising I with a matching hand made slipcase!

This will be your only chance to get a hard cover edition of Kaiju Rising II.

If the Kickstarter raises $16,000 (or more), the book will feature seven pieces of artwork. If it reaches $17,000, it will feature another seven pieces of artwork!

Outland Entertainment also have a few other things they're cooking up to roll out over the last half of the Kickstarter. So pledge your support today, and keep an eye out for more announcements!

Kaiju Thursday: Godzilla 2014

So Godzilla 2014 has a rather stylish poster and a full-on trailer at last, along with a 16 May release in the UK. I, for one, can't wait.

By the way, did I ever tell you that I met the film's director Gareth Edwards once?