Breakfast and Games: A new blog (2010)

Submitted by Claudia on Fri, 16/07/2010 – 22:41 

This morning, Orlanth called thunder and lightning down on us – I decided it’s a good day to start this blog!

Introduction: My name is Claudia Loroff and I’m married to Jeff Richard – main writer of Moon Design. I love gaming for many years and I met Jeff gaming. However, making a hobby to your business is a very different thing and gives a new perspective on your hobby. Jeff did this and his work for Moon Design dominates a lot of our time at home – even if I’m working in a very different area.

During breakfast I get all the news about the good and bad comments fans made in several forums Jeff regularly checks (please – I prefer the good comments much more than the complaints about little things – criticisms are very important and good but also keep in mind what you do to our theoretically harmonious breakfast – please do it in a decent tone you would like to be treated when criticised and fair comments are even better and very helpful!), having lunch together he tells me about new projects and in the evening I’m allowed to make my comments about new art sketches coming in.

Finn – our one year old son – is used as a name creator by Jeff – more about that you can read later. You see – we are not only frequent con goers and play games from time to time (we are not students anymore so the time of having a game twice a week or more often is over but we still enjoy gaming when we have the time for it!) but gaming dominates a lot of our time (and space – all the rule and source books, print outs, my board games…).

Why do I write all of this? A lot of people share our hobbies and are interested in what Jeff is doing for Moon Design. However – he is the main writer and does also a lot other organisational work. And sometimes his family needs him a well. It’s very tough for him to keep everybody in the loop posting news and so on. Because I hear a lot of the ongoing stuff anyways I offered to write about it – bits and pieces we talk about anyways or things I’m allowed to peek into and so on. And of course – sold books means new diapers for Finn – another good reason to support Jeff’s work with a bit of writing!

What will be the content? The goal is to give you a peak into what is going on at Moon Design and maybe make you curious about new releases, let you know about new projects, introduce you to the team behind Moon Design and so on. However – this is a blog and following the spirit of this medium I plan to write about things which had popped up during the week without following a special structure. It could be about a new book or how Finn had eaten some of Jeff’s precious notes (yesterday during gaming it was close – he snatched Jeff’s notebook and ripped a few pages out until we could get it back…).

What is the frequency of new posts? I will try to post something once a week (very likely during the weekend).One last thing before I end this introduction and jump into the “content”: English is not my native language and I’m sure some denglisch or germlish will slip into my writings more often than I like. However – I’m sure you can cope with that.

17th July 2010

Hmmm… the next paragraphs sound more like an advertisement bit than what I promised above but as a start into the Blog an overview is maybe a good thing. I asked Jeff this morning at the breakfast table between pancakes, jam and butter what he is just working on. “A lot of different projects” was his answer and that’s true:

A scenario section for the Pavis book containing scenarios for Pavis itself and around Pavis which can be played as a campaign or not:

Some scenarios have the Griselda-Feeling (means stealing things, dealing with the criminal elements of Pavis and so on), others are radical updates of old adventures (the word “radical” was very important for him) from 20-30 years ago (like fighting against Muriay, witch queen of the broos, stealing from duke Raus). Some adventures reintroduce you to old acquaintances and famous items (a new adventure with Treasure Trove Hurbi, something in Sun County and the Yelmalions, an adventure around one of the fabled organ stone of Pavis).

Jeff says that he expects to finish the texts in about a month. Add another 2-3 month for art and layout and the release could be somewhere in fall of 2011.

The next project he is working on is editing Ian Coopers “Coming Storm”. This will be a book with adventures and background for Sartar but not connected to the Colymars (you will read about them in Sartar Companion coming out next month) but the Cinsina-Tribe. The release of the book is roughly planned for fall-winter 2011.

Jeff is also working on a Big Rubble Adventure pack (this reminds me of our game where he sent us into the Devils Playground but our group decided that it was too dangerous and after putting our noses into we immediately decided to leave. It was a short adventure but still a good one – and we survived! Jeff says that Devils Playground will make it into the new book – maybe there are braver adventurers to deal with it than we were!) which will be available around winter 2011.

The next thing he is working on are the final bits and pieces for the Sartar Companion book (final art and layout) which will – if everything is going fine – released sometime in August.

Two books are in commission (not playing in Glorantha) – one is Hero Quest Horror, written by Ben Monroe and the other one is as Jeff describes it a “Victorian literary HeroQuest Game” with the feeling of being in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe. No idea for when they are scheduled but I will asked Jeff about it.

So much for the overview. Now I will lift the secret of creating cool names for NPCs. All you need a little kid preferably around one year and just learning how to speak and some imagination. Due to the fact that our son Finn is challenged to learn two languages (English and German) right from the beginning he plays around with the stuff he hears and makes up new words which sound English or German (even if he can not speak yet). Jeff uses his approaches with some fantasy as input for cool names for monsters and weird foreigners. One example you will find in the Sartar Companion book: Ecklar the Easterner is one of Finn’s creations and one of his first words which nearly sounded like a word and not only like baby talk! Who still needs computerised name generators if you have somebody doing it for you?I would say this is now enough for the start.I plan to present on the end of every entry an art piece which will make it in one of the next books and which I personally find cool.

As an appetizer for the coming Sartar Companion book here a very cthulhuid picture which is actually the Crimson Bat approaching from Jed Dougherty, a fantastic artist from California. The resolution of the picture in the book will of course be much better than here.

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