A bit more about me. In case you read it, I did delete my first blog about Cloak & Laser, and I also took down that book. I'm instead putting it on Kindle Vella which is geared toward episodic short stories.
Anywho, I grew up as a Navy brat. Back in 1989, when I was just nine years old, we moved to Naples, Italy. My dad was an officer, and so we lived off base in an Italian neighborhood. One of the few American kids in the neighborhood introduced me to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
Although I wouldn't play again for a while, I was hooked. I really got sucked in later when v3.5 came out. This really sparked the ideas that would eventually become the books I'm producing now.
It all started when I was living with my mother after they had divorced. I ended up quitting high school at the beginning of my junior year as I was trying to pursue a music career. My mom's dad didn't like that and literally bought a house in Iowa for us to live.
When I turned seventeen, I decided that I wanted my diploma, and went to an alternative high school at the local community college. I managed to get thirteen credits done in one year to finish at the same time I would've graduated at a normal high school.
After this, my mother kicked me out. I was earning an annuity at the time, and had received a lump sum payment that afforded me a trailer. It would be here that these ideas would come to life.
In the beginning, I was trying to design a campaign to run as a Dungeon Master, but I also wanted it to be in my own setting. It was your typical medieval fantasy setting, but with my own twists on why things are and how they came to be. I plan to post the novella I wrote on here that is based in this setting.
After enlisting and failing after a year and a half or so in the Navy myself, I began to write a novel that is still a work in progress, but would lead me to start to develop my own tabletop role-playing game, that is also a work in progress.
This is where the setting, Xyphus, would be born. Like D&D, I wanted my game to have multiple settings, and have been designing the rules so that you can play in any timeline, and be able to merge magic and technology. A big part of the reason my game is still a WIP.
At some point during the process of designing this setting, I decided that it would be a good idea to start with something smaller in scale, and use the storytelling to sort of advertise what is capable of being done in the game with your characters.
It's still filled with orcs, elves, goblins, and the like, and even some magic, but there is also the element of the ancient but futuristic technology that sometimes still works. My favorite line to use is: You might be a master swordsman, but that orc is pointing a laser pistol at you.
I designed it this way because I wanted the player characters to be forced to make decisions that they're not used to in the typical hack-and-slash style gameplay.
I know RPG's have evolved, but D&D has made it even easier to just hack-and-slash.
I don't want to ramble on too long. Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day....[[|:-)
