Reflections on 2013, and Announcements for 2014

It's now two weeks into 2014, and Arcana Rising has been on the market for just about two months. So how did BWP do in 2013, what's next in 2014, and what about all that 'no negativity' stuff? Let's talk about that.

For starters, let's talk about 2013. Thanks to the fans who bought the book, those who backed AR more or less sight unseen during the Kickstarter campaign, and a crapload of hard work, I'm pleased to say that Arcana Rising has proved to be a pretty decent success. Proceeds in total so far just about edge out Hulks and Horrors in fact, and while reviews are still few, they've all been great so far. Thanks to AR and the continuing sales of H&H, BWP is starting to resemble a respectable bit of extra income for me, and I believe if I keep working I can keep it going.

That's fantastic. I am eternally grateful to all of you for your support and your willingness to spend your hard earned cash on the idea that I can make something you will love. One fan actually wrote a blog post in which he vowed not to buy any new RPG books this year, except for anything with 'John Berry' on the cover.

You can't buy that. You can only work at it. That is not something a marketing budget will buy, that is not something a focus group will tell you how to make, that is something that comes because you put your heart into something and gave it your all. I am both proud and humbled that I've made the progress I have in just a year and a half's time.

That all said? Holy Erebus was it also stressful as all hell. And the thing is, did you catch what I just said up there? About AR just about edging out H&H? While I can't discount the impact that the original failed IGG campaign had on Hulks and Horrors' visibility, the fact of the matter is that game is still selling, and the simple fact of the matter is that it's awesome. And I wrote it in half the time I wrote AR, and to be honest, I think I had a lot more fun doing it. Realistically speaking, I simply can't afford to pull another AR, the time-per-dollar isn't there and as a one-man show it means neglecting my other releases while the latest huge project barrels forward.

With that in mind, it's time to step up my game and start supporting H&H. It's what I want, it's what you want, everybody wins, right?

Accordingly, I am announcing today a line of companion volumes to H&H. Each Companion will provide a range of optional rules, new classes, monsters, and other toys, all centered around a general theme. Since the day I put down the pen on the H&H corebook, I've continued to have dozens of new ideas and cool stuff I wanted to add to it, and now I can do all of them. Through the Companion format, these can also come in a steady wave, meaning smaller projects, more releases, and thus more fun in your hands on a schedule that won't drive me to drink and divorce.

The first Companion book is in the writing stages as we speak, and will bring some fun new material to play with, and I've an outline already developed for at least two more to follow. I'll have a fuller announcement for  Companion I very soon, once I can get a better handle on how big it's going to be and how long it's going to take, but the goal is to have Companion I-III out by the end of this year.

2014 is going to be the year of Hulks and Horrors, and I am delighted to be returning to what is still my favorite project so far.

Finally, some of you may remember that late last year I pledged to disavow online negativity until the end of 2013. I would like to say I was successful in that, but in truth I did slip up on IRC a time or two, for which I apologized to those present. A promise is a promise though, and so I must confess that in the end, the experiment was kind of a failure. What I learned is that real life is not as simple as just trying to 'turn off' the negativity, and that shutting down the valve when the tank is already at pressure is not the best idea. Mostly what I've felt since I realized my self-imposed ban was over was relief. I've learned that expressing negative emotion is as important as expressing positive emotion, it's just a question of how, when, and to whom. So perhaps the real lesson is just learning a bit of self-control and understanding context, and the difference between healthy release and just meanness. Hopefully I know that a little better now. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and thanks for making 2013 a very interesting year.

Heaven's Shadow on even deeper discount!

It's that time for DriveThruRPG's New Year, New Games sale, and Heaven's Shadow is now taking an even deeper discount until the 12th! 

That means you can get the corebook in PDF right now for just $3.75, and the print edition for a mere $11 and change! Get it now while you still can, and see the game Tommy Brownell called one of his Top Six of 2013!

Heaven's Shadow is on sale!

To celebrate our recent selection as one of Tommy's Top Six, BWP is offering a discount for the month of January on Heaven's Shadow.

From now until January 31st, Heaven's Shadow is 25% off at DriveThruRPG! Swing by and pick up a copy today!

Heaven's Shadow gets a Top Six nod

Tommy Brownell has posted his Top Six games of 2013, and our own Heaven's Shadow makes the cut, alongside such giants as Dragon Age and Dresden Files.

Check out his post to read the rest of his picks, and enter for a chance to win a copy of Heaven's Shadow, should you have the misfortune of not owning it just yet. Otherwise, check out the link at the top of the page or look us up on DrivethruRPG and pick up 2013's stealthiest sleeper classic.

Arcana Rising is now in print! (Plus, Neuro City!)

With our Kickstarter backers already finding books in their mailboxes, that means its time to greenlight Arcana Rising's release in print for the public!

You can now purchase Arcana Rising as a paperback from DriveThruRPG, and if you've already purchased it in PDF, take a gander at your email inboxes and spam folders for a message from me and DTRPG for a special thank you surprise.

Welcome to Neuro City, our cyberpunk fantasy mini-supplement, is also now available in PDF as well, so be sure to take a gander at that too!

Thanks for all your support, folks, you've helped make Arcana Rising a surprise hit at a time when Maru and myself really needed it. BWP fans rock!

Arcana Rising is now available in PDF!

As of today, Arcana Rising is now available in PDF! At long last, BWP's old-school take on the urban fantasy genre is now available in digital form.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/121426/Arcana-Rising?src=social_media_link

Print copies will be along soon, once the Kickstarter backers start getting theirs, but don't let that stop you from checking out the PDF. I'll be sending out discount links to anyone who bought the PDF once the paperback edition is live, so you can still get both for the same low price!

My name is John Berry, and I have a negativity problem.

I read a really great article last night. The Onion, as part of an ongoing series on shows that lasted 100 episodes, did a profile on Homestar Runner. I loved the SBemails from the get go, and fell in love with Strongbad like everyone else did on the Internet in the early '00s, but something that caught my eye especially was this quote:

'But Homestar Runner ended up feeling very like the purest possible expression of one corner of the Internet, the one that wanted to just like stuff, instead of always feeling at a remove from it. It codified the pureness of being a little kid and falling in love with your first TV show or movie or book...'

This is exactly the same sentiment that I had in mind when I started BWP. The thought process that ran through my head when I was designing the logo, when I was writing Hulks and Horrors, and when I decided that naturally the first sourcebook for my new urban fantasy game should go back to the world of cyberpunk, one of my first loves in RPGs.

But the article ultimately comes to a conclusion I can't quite agree with, deciding that the show doesn't feel as refreshing today in 2013 as it did in those days. But the thing is, that feeling that I quoted, I think it's even more relevant right now that it ever has been: the importance of actually just enjoying things, instead of confronting everything with cynicism and criticism.

Over the last year, a lot has happened in my life. I left school. I had to move back in with family. I funded a book. I wrote that book, and I'm in the process of editing it. I emigrated to Finland. I married a Finnish woman who I love dearly. It's been a lot of change, and because of that change and the stress of all that work and the culture shock, I've spent a lot of time online because it has always been kind of a fall-back for me and it provided something like a consistent virtual home when everything else in my life has been so changeable.

But I've been getting restless with it. Frustrated. Angry. Even afraid. Most of all, though, I've just been more and more tired of it. The internet has always been a place where the disaffected vent their frustrations, but in recent times it seems like it has grown worse by orders of magnitude. As if the entire web has lost the ability to communicate in anything but a relentless torrent of hostility, cynicism, and negativity. The rough-and-tumble fun of internet discussion has given way to one battleground after another, its warriors entrenched in this or that camp and seeing anyone outside of it as nothing less than the enemy, and no battle tactic is unacceptable in assuring that enemy's utter destruction.

But here's the thing: the warzone starts with those who fight in it. And I am by no means an innocent party to that. While I've increasingly been quite publicly vocal about the ugliest side of these never-ending battles, I've had my own part to play in others. We make the environment around us in our own image, by how we choose to act and the face we project to the world, and mine has long been just as negative in many cases as those I have grown so weary of.

My name is John Berry, and I have a negativity problem.

It's time I fixed that.

Last year, Monte Cook made a pledge. For the entire month of August he vowed to abandon the negativity, to post only positive contributions to the online world. It worked out pretty well for him. I seriously considered joining him, especially after Numenera became such a flashpoint as he fell under the crosshairs of another warrior camp. For some reason, I didn't.

Today, I honestly can't say I know why. I mean really, what have I to lose? Why cling to the very same negativity I see as so destructive? It does me no favors. It does my mood no favors. It adds pointless stress. It certainly doesn't help creativity in the slightest.

One of the things I was trying to do when I started BWP and when I made H&H was to stop just bitching about stuff not being the fun I wanted, and make my own fun. Well, the internet is the same way: if it isn't fun anymore, it's time to look at what I'm doing and make it fun again. To ditch the negativity and the snark, and focus on the fun. These are games aren't they? I should have fun talking about them, right? And besides which, what kind of face am I putting on BWP when my public persona is still one of such an asshole? I want to be welcoming to potential new players, not drive them away.

So consider this my pledge: I'm done. I'm done being negative, I'm done taking sides, I'm done drawing battle-lines, I'm done flinging snark. For the rest of this year, I will be taking the same pledge Monte did: no more negativity online. And likely, beyond.

I don't expect this to be easy. In fact, I expect it to be pretty fucking hard. I've lived and breathed cynicism for a lot of years now. But you miss other things, being that guy. You miss joy, you miss excitement, you miss that very feeling that Homestar Runner captures, and that I try to capture with my own games, because you can't put yourself in that head-space when most of your daily life is reading and doling out more negativity and snark.

It's time to get back to making the stuff I want to see and talking about how awesome it is, and do my little part in creating a better atmosphere for those games to be received in.