Another Day, Another Product

Finally!

It seems like it took a long time to get here, but our second Malhavoc product, Demon God's Fane, is finally ready to go. Originally, we had hoped to publish it much sooner, but so much has happened since the release of The Book of Eldritch Might. For starters, there's our whole new relationship with Sword & Sorcery. The fact that our products will now also be printed changed, well... everything.

Suddenly, Sue and I had to come up with a whole schedule of products that Malhavoc would publish. We had to learn how to format our products for print layout at S&S. Working out these kinds of details delayed Demon God's Fane probably a month, and when we saw that it was looking like the product we come out around Gen Con, we had to delay even further -- because we knew the con would seriously screw up our work schedules (and we were right).

There were other issues to consider. The Book of Eldritch Might was great, but there were things we learned from it. I decided that a black-and-white art style fit the mood of our products more than the color, quasi-photographic style we used in The Book of Eldritch Might. We needed a way to please people who wanted the PDF to be like a traditional game product, as well as the people who complained about their overtaxed printers when they tried to print it all out. And, of course, Demon God's Fane had something that The Book of Eldritch Might did not -- maps.

So, we looked at art styles. We found a really nice guy named Stephen Shepherd who wanted to do some work for us. He worked very hard to make sure we were happy with the illustrations. His work, alongside the Unseelie Court's art and cartography, makes this product really shine, I think. And of course, we decided this time around that we wanted an actual cover. Luis Corte Real came out of nowhere and knocked my socks off with what he could do electronically. You haven't seen the last of his work, by any means.

When the design was finished, or at least close, I called together some good friends and experienced gamers -- Bruce Cordell, Sean Reynolds, Chris Perkins, and Jeff Quick. A playtesting dream team, really. They ran the adventure through its paces and provided great feedback. Many of you know that I am a huge advocate of playtesting, and this is why: No plan survives contact with the enemy, and in this case, the players are the enemy. No designer can predict every course of action, and playtesting directly displays what happens when a group of gamers are presented with points A and B. Sometimes, A and B lead to C, which is what the designer wanted. Sometimes, they lead to D, which is also good to know. Sometimes, they lead nowhere -- and then the designer has to fix what went wrong. Playtesting also can provide brand-new ideas for encounters, descriptions, NPC tactics, and who knows what else -- ideas that are better than what the designer originally wrote. And of course, playtesting can show a designer if the module is too easy or too tough. (The final verdict is that Demon God's Fane is really tough, but not too tough).

Of course, a few things had to go wrong, right? We were going to include, in an appendix, the stats and information on the demon prince, Ochremeshk, whose followers figure prominently in the adventure. But the adventure ran long. Now, for PDFs, that's no big deal, but for the print version, it's a very big deal. While the demon's stats actually aren't at all crucial to the adventure, they are nice to have if you're going to expand on the scenario in your home campaign. So we decided on a pretty good solution -- one that we hope makes everyone happy. We're going to give Ochremeshk away for free here on the website. Look for him in "The Stuff" next week. Now you can have your Demon God and defeat him too.

I must admit, secretly, that I feared that people thought Malhavoc would be a one-hit wonder: that we would publish one product with great success, and then no one would hear from us again. It certainly happens in the game industry all the time. But I didn't want to be the Dexy's Midnight Runners of gaming. So I anxiously awaited today -- when Product No. 2 finally became available.

But there's no rest for the wicked, or for the tired. I'm already planning out The Book of Eldritch Might II: Songs and Souls of Power (look for its electronic release around January 31), and Malhavoc's going to have at least one big surprise for you before then, as well. If you're interested in the print versions of our products, look for The Book of Eldritch Might in November, and Demon God's Fane in January. The printed version of The Book of Eldritch Might II should be in stores around May.

My personal commitment to Malhavoc Press is very strong. I hope that's been obvious to those of you who have needed customer service for The Book of Eldritch Might orders, those of you who wanted a patch for the PDF after the errata was released, and those of you who had rules questions regarding the product. My commitment is so strong, in fact, that I plan to do less to give you more -- that is to say, I probably will be doing less freelance design for other companies in the next year, so I can devote even more time to Malhavoc Press.

I've received so much support and encouragement from all of you. It's exciting that so many of you have been with us here from the beginning. A few years from now, you might all be saying to your jealous gamer friends, "I was there when Malhavoc Press was launched." I seriously could not -- would not -- have done all of this if so many of you hadn't sent me emails telling me how happy you were with The Book of Eldritch Might. For all of you loyal folks -- Demon God's Fane is for you.