Highmoon’s Ponderings

HIGHMOON MEDIA PRODUCTIONS TO PRODUCE TRUE20 ANCIENTS

May 12, 2008 (MIAMI BEACH, FL & SEATTLE, WA) — Highmoon Media Productions has reached an agreement with Green Ronin Publishing to produce the new True20 Ancients line of sourcebooks, bringing the critically-acclaimed historical Mythic Vistas settings to the True20 Adventure Roleplaying game. Highmoon Media Productions will act as a design studio for Green Ronin, performing the conversion to True20 of all the game material—done by True20 fan-favorite author Matthew Kaiser—as well as producing the finalized version of the product.

True20 Ancients will bring to the True20 game all the material previously found in Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era, Trojan War: Roleplaying in the Age of Homeric Adventures, and Eternal Rome: Roleplaying in the Age of Gods and Emperors, with some new material added in. The new line will reorganize the information and present it by cultures, making it easy for True20 fans get all the pertinent information for a specific culture in one package.

“I have been a passionate fan of Testament since its release, as well as of Trojan War and Eternal Rome,” said Daniel M. Perez, owner of Highmoon Media Productions. “Green Ronin did a fantastic job with these books, which is why I actively support them via Ancient World Adventures Magazine (formerly Targum) and why I sought to do this project as well. I am delighted that Chris Pramas accepted our proposal and entrusted us with this endeavor. I can’t think of a more fitting project to mark our entry into the world of True20 publishing than True20 Ancients.”

“I’m a big fan of historical gaming,” said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas, “which is one of the reasons we did the Mythic Vistas line in the first place. No one has been a more ardent supporter of that material than Daniel Perez, which makes him the perfect choice to develop True20 Ancients for us. This is great news for fans of True20 and historical gaming.”

True20 Ancients: Rome will be the first book in the line, followed by True20 Ancients: Israel & Canaan, and by the rest of the ancient world cultures presented in the original settings afterwards. True20 Ancients will be available in PDF from the Green Ronin webstore and vendor sites at RPGnow.com and DriveThruRPG.com.

Find out more about True20 Ancients at www.highmoonmedia.com/true20ancients

ABOUT HIGHMOON MEDIA PRODUCTIONS Highmoon Media Productions is a Miami Beach-based e-publisher of gaming products, including Ancient World Adventures Magazine (formerly Targum), a magazine supporting Ancient World campaign settings. Highmoon Media Productions also produces The Gamer Traveler Podcast and The Digital Front Podcast. Learn more about Highmoon Media Productions at www.highmoonmedia.com.

ABOUT GREEN RONIN PUBLISHING Green Ronin Publishing is a Seattle-based company known for its dedication to quality books and games. Founded in 2000, Green Ronin has won more awards for excellence and innovation than any other game company in the new millennium, and took home the coveted ENnie Award for Best Publisher an unprecedented three years running. With great licenses like Thieves’ World and the Black Company, groundbreaking games like Mutants & Masterminds and Blue Rose, and a roster of top flight designers and illustrators, Green Ronin Publishing is a leading light in the hobby game industry. Learn more about Green Ronin at www.greenronin.com.

# # # Highmoon Media Productions Media Contact Daniel M. Perez daniel@highmoonmedia.com

Green Ronin Media Contact Nicole Lindroos nicole@greenronin.com

Originally posted to Master Mines. 

Even though I rarely make an appereance here I keep up with the Master Mines feed, so I’m aware of how you’re all doing, and even more aware of how much I am not participating, either with posts or comments. This (and some other stuff) has led me to ponder why I have not been participating, why I haven’t really been working on the designs I said I would work on, which in turn led me to ponder about the type of designer that I am.

The truth is that I don’t know that I’m the kind of designer that would really have a place here at Master Mines, at least not most of the time, certainly not now. Why? Because as a general rule, I’m not the kind of designer setting out to create a whole game, whether original or patched/hacked from an existing ruleset. It’s not that I wouldn’t mind doing it, it’s just that it’s not my natural inclination. I am a system hacker: I love adding fidly bits to D&D/d20, creating quick scenarios, coming up with alternate rules for one subsystem. For example, I wouldn’t necessarily create 1st Quest as Judd Karlman did, but I would totally put together an article-type product with a whole bunch of new keys and secrets for The Shadow of Yesterday, or grab a bunch of keys and secrets and translate them to d20, whether as feats or as a whole new subsystem for story goals and rewards. That is the designer that I am.

Another example: recently, my attention has been grabbed by three big projects I have going. One is a d20 Modern/Spirit of the Century setting that I am contributing to/lead developing along with a freelancer, the second is the official True20 versions of the ancient world Mythic Vistas settings (Testament, Trojan War, Eternal Rome) for Green Ronin, and the third is the 4C system. My attention shifts between these three during the day, and some days I am totally all about one of them to the exclusion of the others for a short while (thus why I have freelancers working on two of the projects). Right now I am enjoying immensely playing around with the 4C System, the open emulator of the Marvel Super Heroes/FASERIP system; the system was released last year, everyone apparently forgot about it, and now my friend/co-developer Mark Gedak and I are making support for it and finding out there indeed is a market for it.

Now, there is obvious design work going on here all over the place. Story is being crafted and revised on all projects, and mechanics are being converted, created, brainstormed all the time. But these stages happen haphazardly, in the sense that while we work on one main part, things are thrown back and forth for later use. I could come here and talk to you about the issues of meshing Anime, Pulp and Horror in order to create a slightly campy/slightly action-packed/slightly horrific setting that can support all three aspects in varying levels of concentration, but not exclusively, because I might be working on that today, and tomorrow I might be writing about how to effectively model a system of Piety in True20, or laundry-listing a group of cool villains for the next 3000-word-max 4C product we put out.

It may be that one day I will be able to put aside everything else to focus on one game, but the thing is that more than a designer, I am a publisher and a developer. I enjoy the process of taking an idea and directing its evolution as a conductor directs an orchestra. I love designing my own stuff, but just as well I love taking a manuscript submitted and tightening it, fleshing it out, slimming it down, rounding it out to a level where I can say, “I would/can publish this.” I enjoy discussing an idea on Monday, having Mark work on it on Tuesday, getting a manuscript on Wednesday, editing/finalizing/laying it out on Thursday, and publishing it on Friday. Even more, I enjoy the idea that I could be of help to any and all of you to get your games in front of a bunch of people using the connections, deals and lessons I have learned after 4+ years of self-publishing.

Satisfaying as this all is, it leaves me with the same question: do I, then, belong in Master Mines, a place created to support fellow game designers during the process of creating a game? As a commenter, yeah, sure. But as one of the main members of the group? I don’t think so. Not because I don’t like it, or like being a part of it, but because I’m not doing what the site, what the group, was created to support.

I will one day get back to work on Grand Tour, and I will quite likely create that generational mechanic to plug it into the True20 Ancients line, but the truth is I don’t know when. Whenever I do I’ll be happy to share it with all of you, but I can’t promise that it will happen in a way that meshes with the rules of this group, mainly because my design is scattered and based in great part on what I find awesome at the moment and/or what I can get ready for publication to start making money for the next project.

So as of now I am withdrawing from Master Mines, hopefully to make space for someone who will make the most out of this fantastic group we have here. I won’t be a stranger, at all, and I am rooting for every single one of you and your games.

I just got done ironing out all the details with Chris Pramas, and while the contract is on its way from Seattle to Miami, I have been given the ok to talk about this (an official press release will follow soon).

Highmoon Media Productions will be doing the official True20 conversions of the historical Mythic Vistas published by Green Ronin, namely Testament, Trojan War and Eternal Rome. The resulting series will be called True20 Ancients and will be released in parts, each one focusing on one culture from the ancient world. The first one will be True20 Ancients: Rome and work on that is already under way.

For this job I have brought on board Matthew Kaiser, author of the True20 Bestiary. Why Matthew? That’s a good question and the story will be told soon, as I plan to start a design journal for this project over at HighmoonMedia.com. Let’s just say that Matt coming into this project means the circle is now complete.

I am incredibly excited about this opportunity Green Ronin has given us; I thank them profusely and cannot wait to get these books out there already. Keep an eye out here and at HighmoonMedia.com for more information.