This is something of a belated announcement, but as of December 10th, 2018, I am now the RPG Producer and Developer at Atlas Games. (You can tell it’s the real deal because I have a staff bio and everything.)

As the RPG Producer, I’ll be taking the reins on Atlas’ award-winning games like Feng Shui, Over the Edge, Unknown Armies, and Ars Magica. I’ll also be producing and developing all new RPGs, some of which I hope to be sharing with you much sooner rather than later.

What does this mean for the Alexandrian and Technoir and my other ongoing, non-Atlas RPG projects? Very little, actually. I’ll be able to continue working on the Alexandrian and my other projects outside of Atlas business hours, and I intend to do so. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any effect, though: My writing on the Alexandrian, for example, is often heavily influenced by the games that I’m currently running and playing at my own table. Since I’ll be spending a good chunk of my first six months here getting up to speed on Feng Shui, Over the Edge, and Unknown Armies by reading everything every published for them and also running one-shots and mini-campaigns (since nothing replaces actually getting a game to the table), you probably shouldn’t be too surprised if you see me referencing them more in my examples play, Thoughts of the Day, and the like.

In any case, I’m very excited by the opportunities I’ll have at Atlas Games to continue pushing the boundaries of what RPGs are capable of, and I hope all of you can share in that excitement as we begin this journey together.

New Supplements and New Transmissions Coming Soon!

The high-tech, hard-boiled roleplaying of Technoir has been acquired by Dream Machine Productions, the design studio owned and operated by Justin Alexander, and will be receiving active support — including new supplements, new transmissions, and new expansions — starting in January 2019.

Technoir, an exciting cyber-noir roleplaying game featuring a radical new mechanical approach and a revolutionary plot-mapping approach to improvised scenario design, was originally launched via a trend-setting and highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011. Designed by Jeremy Keller, the core rulebook was released in Fall 2011, with Mechnoir — an expansion player’s guide which took the game to Mars and introduced mechanics for running mecha-based scenarios — following in the spring of 2012. The game won a Judges’ Spotlight Ennie in 2012.

At that point, unfortunately, development stalled with several of the Kickstarter stretch goals still unfulfilled, and Technoir has lain fallow for the past six years. Having secured rights to the game, however, DMP has been quietly getting the core rulebook back into distribution channels via Indie Press Revolution, revamped the Technoir website, and begun development on a suite of new supplements for the game.

The first and most important goal for Justin Alexander and DMP has been to, at long last, fulfill the missing stretch goals which the original 600+ Kickstarter backers have been waiting for. We know that many of them have given up hope of ever seeing these stretch goals delivered, but we recognize that without them the game would not exist and we want to do right by them. Original backers of Technoir should return to the Kickstarter campaign page, where they will find an update explaining the steps they need to follow in order to claim their stretch goals.

All of this work culminates on January 1^st, with a major relaunch of Technoir featuring:

Morenoir. The original 12-page PDF stretch goal has been super-sized into a 38-page supplement featuring run-time operations, advanced options for the game, a transmission creation guide, and Jeremy’s Guide to Writing Player’s Guides for Technoir.

Indianapolis Conplex. A brand new transmission for Technoir, featuring the 6×6 Master Table of connections, events, factions, locations, objects, and threats that lie at the heart of every Technoir scenario.

Kepler Station. A twist on the typical Technoir transmission, set in the space station atop the Kilimanjaro orbital elevator. Kepler Station is more than just a highway to the solar system. It’s a city in space, with a population of 20,000 lurking within its spheres of plascrete, rock, and steel.

In addition to immediately receiving their long-awaited copies of Morenoir on January 1st, the original Kickstarter backers will also receive access to playtest copies of Hexnoir, the Technoir magic supplement. These playtest materials will include the full text of the Hexnoir supplement plus three bonus transmissions, with final PDF versions to be released within a few months after the radical new mechanics have endured a proper trial by fire.

Although this will, at long last, bring the Technoir Kickstarter to conclusion, it’s just the beginning for Technoir. Dream Machine Productions and Justin Alexander are proud to have received this baton, and they have plans to carry the torch into the neon-drenched future.

About Dream Machine Productions: DMP is the design studio and publishing house owned and operated by Justin Alexander, who is also known for his work as Lead Developer for Modiphius’ Infinity RPG, the Alexandrian (home to the Three Clue Rule, Xandering the Dungeon, Node-Based Scenario Design, and other GMing classics), and a long list of freelance work for Atlas Games, Dream Pod 9, Steve Jackson Games, Fantasy Flight Games, and others. More information can be found at http://www.dreammachineproductions.net.

About Technoir: More information on Technoir can be found at http://www.technoirrpg.com, including a free Player’s Guide, the free Twin Cities Metroplex transmission, and other resources.

BUY TECHNOIR NOW!

Bastión Rolero has been translating articles from the Alexandrian into Spanish:

• La Regla de La Tres Pistas (Three Clue Rule)
• No Prepares Tramas (Don’t Prep Plots)
• Diseño de Escenarios Basados en Nodos (Node-Based Scenario Design)
• Mistertios de los 5 Nodos (5 Node Mystery)
• Cómo Preparar una Fiesta (Game Structure: Party Planning)
• Plantilla de PNJ universal (Universal NPC Roleplaying Template)
• Consejos aleatorios para el máster: Presagios en los JDR (Random GM Tip – Foreshadowing in RPGs)
• Dándole vida al monstruo errante (Breathing Life into the Wandering Monster)
• Consejos aleatorios de dirección: ¿Estás seguro de que quieres hacer eso? (Random GM Tip – Are You Sure You Want To Do That?)
• Consejos aleatorios – El uso de la pantalla para dirigir (Random GM Tip – On the Use of GM Screens)
• Consejos aleatorios para el DM: Jugadores que no pican (Random GM Tip – Players Who Don’t Bite)
• Consejos al azar para DMs: Efectos especiales en el metajuego (Random GM Tip – Metagame Special Effects)
• Abriendo tu mesa de juego (Opening Your Game Table)
• Consejos aleatorios. Técnica de la investigación matrioska (Random GM Tip – Matryoshka Search Technique)
• Consejos aleatorios – Trampas mágicas (Random GM Tip – Disarming Magical Traps)

You can find the original versions of these articles in Gamemastery 101.

Places to Go, People to Be, a French RPG ‘zine, has published Structures de jeu 1-2-3, which is a translation of the first three parts of my series on Game Structures. (The original version can be found here.)

They’ve also told me that we can expect translations of Chapters 4-8 within the next few months.

You can check out previous PTGPTB translations of Alexandrian content here and here.

Check out L’Art du Rythme, Des Descriptions Évocatrices, and La préparation intelligente, the French translations of The Art of Pacing, Random GM Tips: Evocative Descriptions, and Smart Prep, respectively.

… que faites-vous? has also started translations of the GM Don’t List, under its English title. (For reasons I’m curious to understand.) English versions of the GM Don’t List can be found here.

Since I’ve been making some efforts to learn French this year, I’ve quite enjoyed my fairly inept efforts to read my own prose as rendered in a foreign language.

I’m actually a fair bit behind on sharing these international efforts, so if you’ve sent me an e-mail letting me know about a translation you’ve completed and it hasn’t been highlighted either here or on my Twitter account, I’ll be getting to it ASAP.

On that note, if you’re interested in writing translations of articles here on the Alexandrian, please contact me from the About page. I’m generally pretty easy going about giving permission unless there’s some specific reason why an article can’t be translated, and I appreciate knowing when the translations are available so that I can share them with other people.

It’s time for our local membership drive!

First, I want to thank all of current Patrons for all of their support. The Alexandrian has been pretty reliably updating 12-13 times to month in 2018, and that’s only possible because my patrons give me the time to create all the nifty content which (if you’re reading this) I hope you enjoy!

Since the last time I actively pimped my Patreon, there have been some changes to the way it’s structured. This is primarily because Patreon has been aggressively working to eliminate the micro-payments which originally made the platform so attractive. Without the support for those micro-payments, there are now two primary ways of supporting the site:

PER POST: Simply set a per post contribution. The goal is for the Alexandrian to update on a schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week. This translates to 12-13 new posts, which usually translates to at least 20,000 words per month.

MONTHLY: If you’d rather make a flat monthly contribution (regardless of how many posts I actually make), simply donate that amount AND set that amount as your monthly maximum.

TIER REWARDS

EARLY ACCESS: All patrons of the Alexandrian get early access to the posts. Sometimes this “early access” is only a matter of a few minutes because a post is going live immediately after I write it, but even then it can still be valuable because patrons get exclusive access to PDF versions of the articles.

Higher tier rewards include:

HANGOUT CLUB: Join me for a free-for-all chat on Google Hangouts. We’ll chat about gaming or anything else that tickles your fancy. The patrons are in in charge here!

REQUEST LINE: For special patrons, I’ll write articles or reviews on request. (Subject to approval.)

GAME CLUBS: For the highest tier levels, you can also join my ongoing open table campaign(s) via Google Hangouts. Check out the Patreon page for details.

WHAT’S COMING

What, exactly, will you be supporting? Stuff currently on my radar for development here at the Alexandrian:

• So You Want to Be a Dungeon Master? A step-by-step guide to becoming a DM.
• A fully developed hexcrawl mini-setting.
• An open table structure and adventure set for Prince Valiant.
• More Scenario Structure Challenges, Open Table Manifesto exposés, and Smart Prep focuses
• … and, by popular demand, my Taint and Kaostech rules for D20.

And, of course, the Running the Campaign featurettes following the In the Shadow of the Spire campaign will also continue as a regular Friday feature.

If you enjoy the content here at the Alexandrian, please consider supporting us! Even just $1 a month can make a big difference!

… even the smallest of pledges can add up to wondrous things.