Saturday, October 18, 2014

Firefly Online

I found this on moviepilot.com.  QMX and Sparkplug games, the makers of Firefly Online, have released a sneak peek of the game.  Built as an MMORPG, Firefly online is anticipated to arrive in store in early 2015.

Vew the preview here: http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/10/17/first-firefly-online-video-shows-off-creepy-derelict-ship-2354076?lt_source=external,manual

Monday, September 29, 2014

New Novel from the Walking Dead Series


As some of you might be aware, Robert Kirkman authorized a series of novels that follow the Governor, Phillip Blake, from the onset of the apocalypse until his fall at the hands of Rick and his crew.  Each is set in the comic book version of the series, and as such they don't match up well with the version we see on the TV screen.

Written in partnership by Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, the first few novels were great, and introduced us to new characters and corners of the area around Atlanta.  The first book introduces us to Tara, April, and David Chalmers, the inspiration for the TV series characters of Tara, Lilly, and David Chambler.

The books, in order, were:
  • The Rise of the Governor
  • The Road to Woodbury
  • The Fall of the Governor, Book 1
  • The Fall of the Governor, Book 2
The series is being given its 5th novel, Descent, which will follow Lilly Caul as she rebuilds Woodbury after the Governor's fall.

Having already read the 1st 3 books, I was impressed, and look forward to reading the forth novel, along with this newest one.


Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: Descent


Fans of the Walking Dead might also enjoy the zombie apocalypse novel Finding a Safe-Haven, available at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Walking Dead Companion Series (TWD 2.0) --- Characters Revealed

TV Line is reporting that the Walking Dead companion series has begun casting for 6 main characters.  read the original article here (Link here).

Here is what they reported for characters:
  • SEAN CABRERA | A Latino male in his early 40s, Sean is a good man trying to do right by everyone in his life.
  • CODY CABRERA | Sean’s whip-smart and rebellious teenage son. Known as the angriest kid in town.
  • NANCY TOMPKINS | A thirtysomething single mom to two kids, Nancy looks like the girl next door, but there’s an edge to her.
  • NICK TOMPKINS | Nancy’s screwed up teenage son. He’s too old to stay home, too scared to flee.
  • ASHLEY TOMPKINS | Nancy’s mostly level-headed teenage daughter. Her ambition is in direct proportion to her older brother’s failures. She loves her mom but it’s time to get out of Dodge.
  • ANDREA CHAPMAN | A somewhat wilted flower child, fortysomething Andrea — yep, another Andrea! — has retreated to the outskirts of the city to recover after a horrible marriage.
Fans of the walking dead may also like the zombie apocalypse novel Finding a Safe-Haven, available at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

AMC has declined to comment or confirm any of this information.  The little bit we do know for sure about TWD 2.0 (The Walking Dead Companion Series) is that Robert Kirkman has promised to explore a different area of TWD universe, and that it might include the early days of the zombie apocalypse, and efforts to contain the outbreak.

There is also a rumor circulating that Kansas may be the central location for TWD 2.0.  This is a long ways from Atlanta, the main focus of TWD 1.0.

Rosita Espinosa AMC Announces The Walking Dead Companion Series

Thursday, September 4, 2014

New Walking Dead Season 5 Photos and Poster

AMC has released the season 5 Walking Dead Poster along with some photos.

Fans of the walking dead may also like the zombie apocalypse novel Finding a Safe-Haven, available at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Here is the season 5 poster:
http://images.amcnetworks.com/blogs.amctv.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/The-Walking-Dead-Season-5-Key-Art-1280x965.jpg
View the pictures here (click here for link).

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Firefly RPG Review

If you are a fan of Firefly, you may also like my ebook series, now available in a 3 book value pack at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.




Margaret Weiss Productions released the core rulebook for the new Firefly RPG pen and paper game last week.  After taking a look through the book, I thought I would post a quick review.

What type of RPG gamer are you?  I saw an article that defined RPGers as generally fitting into 1 of 3 categories.  Knowing what type of RPGer you are will be important in deciding if you will enjoy the Firefly RPG.

  • Casual Gamer.  Casual gamers like an RPG with fun gameplay and easy rules.  Casual gamers like RPGs with a good story and lots of action, but despise RPGs that are overloaded with complex rules.
  • Hardcore Gamer.  Hardcore gamers like gameplay with lots of action, and very little talking.  They are the ones who tune out during box text and are deeply engaged during combat.  They also typically know every rule and have characters that are min/maxed to the extreme, and especially enjoy challenging combat.
  • Intellectual Gamers.  Intellectual gamers enjoy roleplaying, and games with a good plotline.  Mystery, intrigue, and surprises all interest the intellectual gamer.  Intellectual gamers tend to portray their characters very vividly, while shying away from an excessive focus on the rules.

The Firefly RPG is geared more towards casual gamers and intellectual gamers.  Firefly fans will find the game particularly interesting.  The rules are relatively simple to learn, and the focus is more on the storyline.  

Some of my observations about the game:

The good
The core rulebook contains rich detail about the firefly world, the characters of the TV show as they are at the beginning of the TV series, and a chapter that blends the game rules with the TV episodes.  The artwork is also really good.
  
A beginning adventure (episode) is included in the core rulebook.  The rulebook is written in a fashion that is similar to the way Malcolm talks in the TV show, which gives it a familiar feel for Firefly fans.

The rules are relatively simple to learn (except for the combat rules, see below) and creating a character is quick and easy.  You are even allowed to play one of the 9 crewmembers of Serenity.  

Gameplay is focused on roleplaying and storylines.  As such, skill checks move very quickly.  You do role multiple dice when doing an action, whether it is for combat or for a skill check.  On any dice roll, you will role a die for an attribute, a die for a skill, and up to five other dice.

Players can earn action points (called plot points) and use these to perform heroic actions or reroll dice results.

Overall, it is easy to feel like you are a character in the Firefly world.
 
The bad
The combat rules seemed rather muddled.  I took a break from trying to understand them, and am going back to the book later this week to see if I can get a better understanding of them.  The writing style of the rulebook became a distraction in trying to understand the combat rules.  Adding a sample combat to the rulebook to illustrate how combat flows would be immensely helpful.

Essentially, it looks like you win the combat if your opponent accumulates enough critical misses (1s, called jinxes in Firefly RPG) that they can no longer effectively fight, effectively knocking them out.  In order to facilitate combat flow, it might be handy to develop some sort of tracker to track the critical misses.

Because the TV show involved a lot of gunplay and fistfights, and even the occasional swordfight, having muddled combat rules is a serious weakness.  If it turns out that I am misreading the combat rules, and that they are actually much simpler than I originally thought, I’ll post a revision.
The other thing I didn’t like about the rule system is that there wasn’t as much room for customizing character stats as RPGs normally have.  For me, this was an area of disappointment, as I enjoy customizing a character’s stats.

I did get some clarification from one of the writers, Dean Gilbert (see below in the comments section) on how to find a few example combats in the book.

The awkward
Traditional RPGers are used to game sessions being referred to as adventures or modules, and a series of modules being called a campaign.  Firefly RPG calls adventures “Episodes” and calls campaigns “Seasons.”  I classify this as awkward, because it doesn’t mean anything to game play, but just seems weird to me. 

Likewise, 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons (a rules systems I utterly despise) introduced us to “action points.”  Firefly RPG calls these plotpoints, and again this language variation seems awkward to me.  You can accumulate plot points and use them in different ways, which is nice.

When I start my Firefly RPG homegame, I may just go back to using modules, campaigns, and action points.

Overall & recommendations
Overall, the book is worth the $50 price tag that is common to RPG core rulebooks.

A few items that might be helpful while playing the game include:
·         A list of all the possible dice you can add into a skill check (while you will always roll at least 2, there are as many as 8 dice you might be able to roll)
·         A tracking sheet for critical misses.

Monday, July 21, 2014

New 3 Book Bundle

In order to bring new fans to my work, and offer them a greater value, I am offering a 3 book bundle at 40% off the cover price.  Now available on Amazon, and hopefully soon on Barnes and Noble (their upload tool can be a bit glitchy sometimes), this bundle features the first three books of my Whisper in Space series, including:
  • A Whisper in Space (Book 1)
  • Big Damn Love Story (Book 2)
  • The Chancy Cargo (Book 3)
This bundle is available for $5.99 on Kindle at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.

Happy Reading!

Friday, January 24, 2014

New Book by Ciara Knight


Ciara Knight has now released two sequels to her first book, Weighted; Escapement and Pendulum.  These great books are available from Amazon.com in paperback or ebook.
Haunting memories. Terrifying dreams. Crippling lies. Trapped in a world of deception, my sanity rests with the love of Ryder Arteres and our renegade friends. Six months of scouring the ocean floor in a rebel ship fleeing our homeland, delivers us to a possible alliance with the opportunistic European Council. Our only hope is to utilize our forbidden gifts to free our people from slavery, proving our worth. But when a trusted ally turns traitor and a new breed of the queen’s weaponry is revealed, I’m forced to face the terror of my past to save our crumbling future.



Escapement (The Neumarian Chronicles) (Volume 1)Pendulum (The Neumarian Chronicles) (Volume 2)

Saturday, January 11, 2014

David Talks About Plans for Books 4 & 5

David's first 3 books, A Whisper in Space, Big Damn Love Story, and The Chancy Cargo, have done well.  Bow David looks ahead to books 4 & 5 in this exclusive release:

Book 4
Book 4 is in the works, and while I originally intended for an August release, I might miss that target.  In book 4, Miles is going to repay a favor to Ah Lam, by working to help her find her family.  It will turn out to be an arduous endeavor fraught with peril.  Other ongoing plot lines will be continued, with some new ones being introduced as well.  The working title right now is "Ah Lam's Quest."

Book 5
This book is goign to be a little bit different.  I've found that some of my readers really like it when I write in the first person.  The first person introductions to each book have been well enjoyed.  Meara's story from Book 2 and Miles' retelling of his time with Kaivo in book 3 were very well liked.  So in book 5, I've decided to make it a collection of short stories about the different characters in the series, Colorado, Taro, Mina, Ah Lam, Miles, Zhiyuan, Zell, and maybe even smaller characters like Royce, Sabina, Boyd, Kaivo, and Meara may see their own stories.  Each of them will be first person naratives, and it will add a lot of flavor to each of the characters as you read about them in future books.

The idea came from a series of books for the Star Wars Expanded Universe.  The series included Tales of the Bounty Hunters, short stories about each of the bounty hunters we see on the deck of the Imperial Star Destroying in the Empire Strikes Back.  there was a Tales of the Cantina and a Tales of

Kindle Users:
Chancy Cargo
2 Pack---Whisper in Space and Big Damn Love Story

Nook Users:
Chancy Cargo
2 Pack---Whisper in Space and Big Damn Love Story


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Firefly RPG Releases in February---Special Promo

For those who love Firefly, a new RPG by Margaret Weis comes out in February.  If you preorder it through her website, margaretweis.com, you will get a signed bookplate.

This is exciting, and I cannot wait to start my own Firefly RPG gaming group.  While I don't know how compatible this new system will be with the old Serenity RPG system, both systems were published by Margaret Weis and it does sound like there is some attention being paid to that.

One improvement is that the Firefly Characters are licensed under this new product, meaning the game could include characters like Badger, Safron (or Yolanda or Bridget), Niska, Patience, and other favorites.

For those who love Firefly, my books are similarly themed Space Westerns.  Book 1, A Whisper in Space and Book 2, Big Damn Love Story, are bundled into a convenient 2 pack for $2.00.  Book 2, The Chancy Cargo, is also available at Barnes and Noble (for Nook) and Amazon (For Kindle)

Kindle Users:
Chancy Cargo
2 Pack---Whisper in Space and Big Damn Love Story

Nook Users;
Chancy Cargo
2 Pack---Whisper in Space and Big Damn Love Story