My updates to the Island of Xao

Just to let you know I am always working on parts Xao, I modified the map and added cities.  I liked the original map but it need some changes due to some of the changes I have made with the history of the island.  This is a little some thing to let you know that I am still working on it. Just don't expect it anytime soon. I have a few other projects to finish first.  Talk to you later...

What do Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed and NeoExodus have in common?

For those that are video game fans the Ubisoft title, Assassin’sCreed, is one of the better known and respected game tiles. Recently two of Ubisoft’s writers on Assassin's Creed III: Liberation won the Writers Guild of America award for outstanding achievement in video game writing. One of those writers was Richard Farrese. Richard worked for LPJ Design as a writer in the past including working on the NeoExodus Campaign setting and the upcoming Xao: Island of Iron and Silk. So when I started this kickstarter for Free RPG Day  it only made sense to get in touch with him to help out and of course he did.  

So with that our $10,000 threshold goal is that of a NeoExodus novella eBook written by Richard Farrese exclusively for our Imperial Elder ($50) donors and higher.   

So if you are a fan of Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed, NeoExodus and cool fantasy fiction in general, now is the time to support this kickstarter. There are only 15 days left. Don’t miss out on even MORE cool rewards we have planned. Talk to you later…

Just a little graphic design work...

Here is a little something that I am working on. No it is not for Xao: Island of Iron and Silk but I can understand why you might think so.  The text is just there as filler text to test the layout, so don’t work about it.  So what do you think? Talk to you later…

Return to Xao: Island of Iron and Silk - Map of the island

As usual I am working on several things at once. But one of my more fun things, Xao: Island of Iron and Silk, is currently at the forefront of my mind and I wanted to should you something fun from it. This is the VERY rough draft of the map I have planned for Xao. It gives you the locations of cities, the major kingdoms and the areas in black in the “undiscovered lands”. While nothing on this map is set in stone, it does give you an idea that we are looking to make this not only an interesting island but that one that works in conjunction with the NeoExodus Setting. Talk to you later…

Changing the Xao main Logo…AGAIN!

So on Sunday I made a whole new logo for my upcoming (only 4 years into it) dream project, Xao: Island of Iron & Silk. But even after I finished it I was not happy with it (welcome to the world of graphic designers). So I did ANOTHER logo and I think I like this one EVEN more then the last one. So here we are with the all new NEW Xao: Island of Iron & Silk logo. Tell me what you think. Talk to you later...

Changing the Xao main Logo…

I have been working on Xao: Island of Iron and Silk for several years and the one thing that has never come out the way IO have liked is the main logo for Xao.  Well this morning I was inspired so I sat down and started work on redesign the logo and a few hours later I came up with this all new logo. While drawing inspiration from the original logo I added a few elements that give it more on an Asian aesthetic to it.  So what do you think about this newest one? Let me hear your opinion on this. 

Xao is back in my mind again, so now you have to hear about it…

So as always I am in the background thinking about new projects and the one project that I love comes back to the forefront of my mind and that is Xao: Island of Iron and Silk. For those who don’t know what Xao: Island of Iron and Silk is, then read these blog post.  So I have been thinking about the main monsters / races again (P’Tansha – light based P’Tan; stone monkey men; Khaynite hybrids; and more) and of course the idea of new feats for the setting came up. Originally I decide to grab feats from other 3.5 OGL sources (when I started this it was going to be 3.5 OGL) and pulled out all the feats that I thought would work in the setting. Years later I have been going through those feats removing and adding them and I think I am to a place where I am going to send them to our mechanics people and get the gaming mechanics more in line for Pathfinder. But on top of that I am thinking about releasing everything I have for Xao in its rough, unformatted, unedited format to let people kick the tires and see where I am going with this in it RAW format.  After seeing the response from what we did with the Machinesmith and the interaction I wanted to try it again with a bigger project.  So if you want to see Xao and better yet what to help building it, send me a comment here and we will see what we can do. Talk to you later…

Looks like Pirates of the Bronze Sky is back on…

Chris Field emailed me this week and said he was about to start releasing material for Pirates of the Bronze Sky.  That made me very happy since people keep asking me, “When are you going to release something for Pirates of the Bronze Sky? I so want to buy it.” I am glad for all the interest in the project, but since I have been focusing on NeoExodus many of the other side projects like Obsidian Twilight and Xao: Island of Iron and Silk have taken a back seat.  But with the release of The Sky Sailor -A NewCore Class for the PFRPG it looks like Chris is moving into a very active release schedule.  So if you are interested in Pirates of the Bronze Sky, I suggest you start saving your money.  Talk to you later…  

Working on stone monkeymen for Xao: Island of Iron and Silk

So I have been kicking around ideas of what races we are going to have in Xao and I keep coming back to the same place.  Stone monkeymen with sticky lava for a breath weapon.  I KNOW these sound more like a monster or NPC then a PC race, BUT I can’t get them out of my mind.  You can blame JP Chapleau and Igoo from theHerculoids for all for this. I like the concept of them. I like that they have sticky lava breath weapon.  I like it even more they can’t swim (no buoyancy, they are mad out of stone) and they live AKA trapped on this island.  You then add light powered P’Tan (Yes we do need another name for them) and Khaynites who have taken over the island and hidden it from the rest of Exodus (which means they have been in control of this hidden island since the defeat of the First Ones) and it only get crazier from there.  Add some cool Central & Southeast Asian influences in here and we can have a lot of fun here.   Lots of cool ideas with Xao now I have to work on the updated outline for this.  Talk to you later…

We don't make bits you play with, we build worlds you play in...

When we first came out supporting Pathfinder, we started doing the same things we did when working on 3.5 OGL. We made small / short PDFs that focused on feats or spells or magic items or whatever.  These things are great to get people interested in you as a company while at the same time generating some quick cash. This is one of the tactics that I used to grow very large, very quickly in the PDF world.  It’s a solid business strategy and it works well. Except that you only have “bits” of something.  Just little bits and pieces of something. Now it is not a bad thing, but it is just a small bits of something, often not connected in anyway. 

When doing NeoExodus for Pathfinder is started with this same plan in mind, make small bits and then build the world.  But it the middle of discussing what people would want to see in the the setting I decided that doing small PDF for NeoExodus may not do as well due to the story we are trying to build with the setting. So we decided to change up ore business focus a little bit.  We made the monsters for the setting short small PDFs (5 of less pages), while the other source material like adventures and sourcebooks would be medium sized (at least 12 pages) sized PDFs.  Making this change made doing NeoExodus a little more risky, but in the longer term for the setting it would be the best business move. 

Right now, with the excitement of Pathfinder picking up, there are more and more 3PP coming into the arena with them focusing on smallPDFs to gain interest in their company.  In this day and age I would not even waste time like that.  If you are a small start up 3PP, I would focus on medium sized PDF and give small short PDF away for free at RPGNow / DriveThruRPG / One Book Shelf, but NOT at Paizo.  The reason for this is on RPGNow / DriveThruRPG / One Book Shelf you get direct access to the email address to people who give free products away to. While on Paizo you don’t get that. Getting the ability to potentially connect with a future customer is AMAZINGLY powerful and should be exploited.  Better yet giving it away from free reduces the risk to the purchaser and if they like it makes it easier for them to be customers in the future.  So when you get to the size of LPJ Design with over 500 products, you can make worlds that people play in, being long term customers and not worry about fighting over the scraps of the bits that people can play with. Only dogs worry about scraps.  Talk to you later…

Cool Ideas for Xao: Island of Iron and Silk and how to get it made...

Yesterday I wrote this at Facebook:

So I am thinking about doing Xao: Island of Iron and Silk AGAIN as a special project sourcebook to go into NeoExodus. What will be the ”hook” for this one? I was thinking of focusing on the non-combat / role playing / highly political / covert spies sides of the setting. Lots of secrets, back alley deals, ”Cold War” -esqe ideas and playability. Less combat, lots more use of skill usage. Just a thought, so what do you think? This is for everyone to comment, BUT JP.

Then today I wrote this on Facebook:

So It looks like Xao: Island of Iron and Silk is moving along well in my head. I have found a way to tie it to the First Ones, create two new races (1 completely new, 1 an interesting variant/variation of a current NeoExodus: A House Divided race), add ship based combat, add Dreamscarred Press based psionics and include cool Chinese (NOT Japanese) influences concepts. This pet /side project might be perfect for a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game based Kickstarter project. Would you like to see this as a kickstarter project?

So what do you think, try it as a Kickstarter project? Maybe just a simple add on sourcebook we do? What would you like to see?  Talk to yo later...

Countdown to NeoExodus: 35 Days Left...

Countdown to NeoExodus: 40 Days...

We have always planned to do a Kickstarter project with NeoExodus.  But deicding what that project was was always a tough decision.  We have a lot of products that will work well with Kickstarter but it had to be the right project that we thought would also help expand NeoExodus to more people.  So after much debate, we can up with a few that would work very well.

The first project we are working to do with kick started is the NeoExodus Novellas.  These are short stories that we have planned to help expand the world of NeoExodus beyond the RPG campaign setting into the world of ebook and paperback book fantasy fiction.  We have been in talks with Robin Laws to get this on off of the ground.

The second project we plan to use Kickstarter with is our Usual Suspects sourcebook.  Similar to the NPC gallery that you can find in the GameMaster Guide by Paizo, This sourcebook would focus on NPCs for use specifically in your NeoExodus: A House Divided home games.  Nobody likes building NPCs on the fly and with this sourcebook you will no longer have to.

Third and final, we would like to do my personal pet sourcebook for NeoExodus, Xao: Island of Iron and Silk.  I have been working on this project for years behind the scenes.  A homage to the Shaw Brothers Kung Fu flicks of the 70s and 80s influenced by such movies like the Kid with the Golden Arm and Five Deadly Venoms.  While not focusing on 90s influence of wuxia, the Shaw Brothers film are the precursor and the "foundation" to the wuxia genre films in general.  Lots of cool kung fu action for NeoExodus.  Talk to you later...

I need to do a Kickstarter project, but I have no ideas to to do... OK maybe only one or two ideas...

If you don't know what Kickstarter is, go check out there site and read up on it.  Best of all, check out  Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple - A Storytelling Game success story. This sells the concept of Kickstarter better than I ever could.  Don't worry I will wait until you get back...

...Ok back? Good. Now I have wanted to do something with Kickstarter ever since I flopped with my first try of getting funding for Obsidian Twilight. Even though this first one sucked with me, I know the power of a good idea and Kickstarter is a good idea.  So I have wanted to go back to do some cool and interesting.  But what should I do?  I have one rally cool idea, but a few factors need to be in place to do them to work, so I have to wait a bit.  But I still have the "bug" to do something cool.  I would like to possibly do Xao: Island of Iron and Silk as a project, but I don't know the interest level in NeoExodus yet ( I mean, I, JP and a few other people know it is a great setting, but not everyone else who plays Pathfinder knows yet).  So I am waiting on that.  Maybe I could do a cool monster book for NeoExodus or just Pathfinder in general.  Maybe I could do a Pathfinder version of the Chaos Effect book I did for OGL Superpowered (This is an idea that Monte Cook started with his Event Book line). I will have to see what I can think of that is worth doing.  Talk to you later...

Pulling the curtain back at LPJ Design and take a look at how we build worlds...

So I am sitting here looking at some old files and I cam across the outline for Xao: Island of Iron and Silk.  I have talked about Xao: Island of Iron and Silk in previous post and I have always wanted to go back to it to work on. The concept of doing Xao: Island of Iron and Silk was inpired by my love of the Shaw Brother Kung Fu movies I used to watch on Saturday afternoons from 3 to 5 PM.  Those were good times.  Xao: Island of Iron and Silk was a nice add-on to the NeoExodus: A House Divided universe.  We everything else going on in my life, I never really got it off of the ground, but a lot of the original outline and development was done for it.  So I decided that so many of you are interested in how I build campaign settings, I thought that this might be a good time to take a look at Xao: Island of Iron and Silk ouline that I created for a smaple of what it takes to create a campaign setting.  All the text in black is "finished" meaning I think this is the way I am planning for it to go; All the text in red is stuff that is still up in the air to be developed. Just click on this link and you can get a PDF copy to download and enjoy.

Splitting up the sales...

With the introduction of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License, I think I will be selling my Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License products exclusively at Paizo.com and I will be opening my own PDF store at my website, LPJ Design.com. Now that does not mean I will stop selling at RPGNow.com, but I will be changing what I sell there. Basically I have broken it down like this:

• Exclusive, unique and speciality products like Obsidian Twilight or even Xao: Island of Iron and Silk, I am going to set them up for sale on LPJ Design.com.
• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License products will be sold at Paizo.com
• OGL Game lines and materials like NeoExodus: A Hosue Divided or Haven: City of Violence will be sold at RPGNow.com.

The reason for this is I want to experiement with drawing different types of customer traffic to different retail locations. I think different websites can server a different purpose. Think of it like this: Ecko brand clothing sells is a lot of locations like Macys (Think RPGNow.com) but they also have their own stores where they sell specific items exclusive to Ecko (Think LPJ Design PDF Store). Ecko has also have very speficic lines like Mark Ecko Cut & Sew that are more premier lines (Think Paizo.com). Very basic business ideas that can be used by many up and coming RPG PDF publishers and virtually no cost. Tell me what do you think. Talk to you later...

Working on Xao: Island of Iron and Silk...Again

While I am working on the new adventure, Obsidian Temple of the First Ones for NeoExodus: A House Divided, I decided to go back and add some cool stuff to my old asian influenced sourcebook/setting, Xao: Island of Iron and Silk. I took a look at the outline and I realized a lot of work has already been done for this sourcebook. So now I am thinking that maybe I will go back to this one again. And maybe I will finally put it out. It is a little delayed but still a good idea and workable. Only time will tell. Talk to you later...

What ever happen to Xao: Island of Iron and Silk?

That is a good question. I did all the inital work on it. The outline. The basic setting information. Prestige Classes. Races. All the history of the Crescent Jade Dynasty with August Jade Emperor, the Heavenly Mother in Silk and the Eight Hsien (Immortals). We even put out the Demonfaced Killer as a toe in the water to see what people thought. Even with all this, it really never got off the ground. I had wanted Nick Logue to write it. His experience and love of the Asian culture with his actual time having been over there to live and study made him a perfect connection. But due to time issues it made it not possible.

But the good news is that Rite Publishing is doing The Lands of the Jade Oath Patronage Project! It looks and feels how I wanted Xao to be. I might have to pick this on up when it hits the digital PDF shelves. Can't wait to see it. Talk to you later.

New Artist ... maybe

I have been in talks with a new artist in the hopes to get him to work on NeoExodus: A House Divided and Xao: Island of Iron and Silk. He has a interesting art style and I think it will work out well. I have given him and new monster we are working on as a test to see if he will work out with us. He seems like a good fit and I hope it works out. I think keeping artists is WAY tougher than keeping writers. Once everyone hears about a good artist (Anthony Cournoyer for example) they all go after him. That is the one thing I really hate about RPG Publishing. Not many publishers go out looking for new artists, they see who you got and go after theat person and in turn the artist INCREASE the rate that artists charge because they are in demand. The increasing cost of labor on production. It is economic 101 all over again. Talk to you later...

Back to Xao...

Well over the last few weeks, I have been working on the outline for Xao: Island of Iron and Silk, and I have hired a few writers to help with the world building part of the setting. It has been nice doing this setting and focusing on the "Chinese / Indian / Southeast Asian" -ish element of it. I just amazes me how little information is available on this type of historical / fantasy type setting material compared to Japanese mythology and fantasy. I think the world is turning Japanese. I looks like we will be releasing a few classes and a new race for the setting some time by mid-January and most likely the setting will be released by February or March. So if you are a fan of NeoExodus: A House Divided then this will "plug-in" your game quite nicely.

May be after Xao: Island of Iron and Silk is completed maybe I will do my setting, A Place Beyond Hell. But who knows. Talk to you later...