Our Big Announcement(s)

Well, I said in my last Line of Sight that this week we'd have two big announcements for you. The fact that Sue and I are sitting here today with Sean Reynolds (right) and Bruce Cordell (center) gives you a pretty good hint as to what these announcements are....

Monte: We're here today to tell everybody that the two of you are designing new products for Malhavoc Press. I'm really excited to announce that Bruce Cordell is going to write yet more wonderful psionic stuff for Malhavoc in a product called Mindscapes, due out early next year. AND, Sean Reynolds is also going to write at least one product for Malhavoc as well.

Bruce: We should probably say something about Sean's background....

Monte: What do you want to be: "Longtime Wizards of the Coast game designer"? "Forgotten Realms superstar"...?

Sean: "Cranky ex-WotC-ite." Or just "angry bald man."

Monte: Bitter*, laid-off Sean Reynolds, who has incriminating photos of Monte Cook and is therefore getting to write....

Sue: Oh, come on, now, guys. Be nice. Bruce, say something nice.

Bruce: I think it's great that someone of Sean's incredible talent and past writing credentials is able to work for Malhavoc, which is a pretty darn good company.

Sean: Bruce has always been nice to me, even though he was afraid of me when we first met.

Sue: Is that true?

Bruce: He did give me pause, with his black armbands and his shaved head, and the spikes.

Sean: Spikes? You're embellishing.

Bruce: That was in my head, but you remember those black wrist things....

Sean: I had tendonitis.

Monte: Well, I think this is really cool because, while Malhavoc started out to be just a personal imprint, we've been able to expand it with the help of people that I respect, and who I know I can stand behind and be assured of cool, quality work. That's most important to me.

Sean: This is great, because the last product that Monte and I worked on, we didn't have a big chance to work together. With this one, I'll be able to have an opportunity to work with Monte in such a way as to take advantage of his skills. We've been friends for a long time now, and it's nice to write something for someone you respect and of whom you think highly.

Sue: So, when Bruce joined the team, you two talked about your similar design philosophies and sensibilities. Does that still hold for all three of you?

Bruce: Well, back when we were all gaming in South Dakota....

Sean: Just "S.D." for me. [Sean's from San Diego --Ed.]

Bruce: Really, our strength is also our commonality: that we all have a really good grasp of the rules. The strength in our divergence is that we all have different forms of writing and storytelling.

Monte: But it's true that if you pick up a Malhavoc product written by Sean, Bruce, or me, you shouldn't expect it to be some low-magic "I'm Joe the butler" adventure....

Bruce: And then they met orcs on a road...

Sean: Guarding a treasure chest with rage in their eyes.

Sue: Hey, this could rival "Orc and Pie" as the shortest adventure on record.

Sean: I like pie.

Monte: Since I've worked with both Bruce and Sean, I can see that we all have similar notions of what's cool and not cool.

Sean: And good and not good, which is different, but just as important.

Sue: What's not good?

Sean: Critting undead.

Sue: Okay, what's cool?

Bruce: Tentacles.

Monte: People pulsing energy out of their fists and reshaping matter.

Bruce: Reality alteration through mere force of will has always been one of my favorites.

Sean: Freaky messed up stuff that shouldn't exist in the real world. Usually involving cross-breeds. "So tell me a story about your parents...."

Monte: One thing you and Bruce both have in common is the format of your next Malhavoc Press products. You're both writing products that will come out as two 32-page PDF releases, and then be combined into single print volumes.

Bruce: I was wondering what Sean's products were.

Sean: Listen and find out!

Monte: Sean's product is called The Bonds of Magic. In PDF form, part one, Cabal, comes out in early September. Part two, The Faithful, is due out in mid-October, and the print edition of the book will be released in December. The Bonds of Magic is part of a potential series called Skreyn's Register.

Sean: The Bonds of Magic: Cabal is a book of characters which can be used as NPCs (for use by DMs or by players as cohorts), with information also on how to update each character to be used as a PC, if you need a quick PCs. Each character also has a unique magic item, spell, or feat. And all of them are either sorcerers or wizards. The second book, The Faithful, is a similar format-information on updating to player character, each one has a unique spell, feat, or magic item. The only difference is they're all divine spellcasters. The books are going to use material from The Book of Eldritch Might, Book of Eldritch Might II, and The Book of Hallowed Might.

Monte: When you played in the playtests for Demon God's Fane, you ran this sorcerer based on an old girlfriend of yours. Will we see her in the new book?

Sean: I have her on my website, but I think having her in print would be a little too much like throwing out the fishhook for trouble.

Monte: Okay, what will be included?

Sean: I want to get a spread of levels, from the 3 to 4 range, topping out at about 12th, to be useful for any range of PC levels that might be involved. For example, a 4th-level NPC is a CR 4 encounter, which is on the high end of what a group of 1st-level characters can handle, so it makes a good "boss" encounter for a 1st-level group. Beyond about 12th level, villains should really be customized for your group of characters.

The 4th- to 12th-level range is a good range for a nice cohort as well. You can get the Leadership feat at 6th level, and your typical character can probably handle a 3rd- or 4th-level cohort, depending on Charisma score. And if you wanted to use these characters as PCs, 4th to 12th is a good range to grab a character and go. Below 4th level, a person can make up their own character very easily, and above 12th, again, you really want to tailor the character to the particular campaign.

Another cool thing about this book is that all the characters are going to be released as open content under the OGL.

Monte: Which I think is very cool.

Sean: It just makes the book even more useful, not only to players and DMs out there, but to other d20 publishers. They can probably make use of a well-designed character...

Monte: If you do say so yourself...

Sean: ...(if I do say so myself) that may play an integral part in someone else's d20 setting, such as a character in Freeport (hint, hint). The point of this book is that it's supposed to be as useful as possible to as many people as possible. Plus, I like sharing.

Monte: I think that, while we won't make every book completely open the way this one is, we want to tend toward more open content in general.

Sue: And Bruce, what about Mindscapes? Do you still have more psionics material that didn't fit in If Thoughts Could Kill?

Bruce: There is more, because as people's games develop, they learn that it's an ongoing experience.

Monte: People on our message boards have been begging quite a bit for a psionics rules book, a class book.

Bruce: That's exactly what this is, at least in part. I noticed that a lot of people have been wanting more prestige classes. So the first part of this book is going to focus on that, a lot of types and themes for prestige classes.

Another thing that has not fallen on deaf ears is an alternate psionic combat system. Along with Monte I've developed a variant psionic combat system, which works differently than the current system. The DM can keep using the current system, but they can alternately use this variant. I really like the original system, and have fond affection for ability damage, but I thought I'd explore a different way of doing it. One of the criticisms of the ability damage system is: Why would a psion character spend time draining ability points when you could use the power brainlock, which has a more immediate effect? This alternate system will address that issue.

Monte: Some of these ideas we came up with in the car on that long road trip together....

Bruce: Yeah, we were tossing around ideas, and I think we came up with a good one. I have a journal that I was keeping on the trip, and I want to make sure that I get the prestige classes that we came up with out of it. That's also the road trip where we came up with the title. After many a sad attempt at an interesting title, I like Mindscapes: A Psion's Guide.

Monte: I still kind of like People with Great Big Brains.

Sue: I can just see the message board thread now, with people guessing at the other possible titles...

Monte: No, there already is one! [You guys are always a step ahead of me. --Ed.]

Bruce: Of course, we couldn't use the favorite, The Will and the Way, because we don't own the rights to that. [TSR published a Dark Sun title by that name in 1994. --Ed.]

Sean: We could call it The Will and the Grace.

Monte: The second volume of Mindscapes, PDF release two, is going to be a monster book called Mindscapes: Beasts of the Id.

Sue: Bruce, you can always be counted on to come up with weird titles.

Bruce: That might have been one of the titles we were throwing around on that road trip.

Monte: I think you're right.

Bruce: The first three monsters will be based on the artistic renditions of Alan Pollack, who has created three nasty-looking customers for the cover that I'll happily give psionic stats to, and then create new creatures from there.

Monte: Occasionally that's a fun way to design monsters, to design them from illustrations.

Bruce: I think I got the idea from you.

Monte: In fact, that's how the gray render, the frost worm, and the destrachan were created. A few others too. For a lot of monsters in the Monster Manual, we just had an idea that we needed another sonic monster, and gave that to the artists. We were amazed at what they came up with.

Sean: Will the Far Realm [from Bruce's Gates of Firestorm Peak and Tome and Blood] be included?

Bruce: The Far Realm will remain firmly in the hands of Wizards for now.

Sean: How about the Near Realm?

Monte: The No-So-Far Realm?

Bruce: In my current project for Wizards, I'm toying with the idea of bringing the Far Realm into it.

Sean: What's that project?

Bruce: That's my super-secret project. No words about it shall pass my lips.

Sean: Can't you give us a hint?

Bruce: Well, it's not named after a magical item.

Monte: You mean you have a super-secret project you're working on for Wizards and you're not telling us about it? Only a jerk would do something like that.

[Long pause]

Sue: Hey, the print edition of If Thoughts Could Kill is almost in stores!

Bruce: I'm really looking forward to it. I just love the cover art. It's interesting that this version has some different art in it thanthe PDF had. I will be eager to hear the consumers' reaction to the book.

Monte: The people who bought the PDF version are just overwhelmingly positive. The only thing they said was they wanted--

Bruce: --prestige classes and psionic combat alternatives. Mindscapes also will have some feats and powers too, but that won't be the focus.

Sue: Are you thinking about other things you'd like to write for us next year?

Bruce: Maybe something besides psionics...

Sean: I'm thinking mind flayers.

Monte: I'm thinking The Bonds of Skreyn....

So, once again, welcome to Sean! I know I'm looking forward to reading his new product, and Bruce's as well. Here's our official press release version of this announcement [significantly shorter and less silly than this ramble-fest].

 

* To be fair, Sean has told his friends and fans that he volunteered to be laid off from his design job at Wizards, since he already had plans to leave for personal reasons. The bitter thing's all an act.

Back to Line of Sight Archive Page / Back to Monte's Home Page