So, a couple weeks ago I was laid off from my day job (which kind of sucks). The good news though, is that this meant I had time to work on other things. Given that the only thing I've made money doing in the last 5 years other than banking was tabletop game design for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, I figured I'd focus my efforts in that area.
One of the biggest issues with 3rd party game design is that your market is teeny tiny. You're basically relying on a fraction of the people who participate in a niche hobby to support you, and the competition for this itty bitty market is relatively fierce. I talk a bit about the struggles inherent in the industry here. In that post, one of the things I talk about is how important it is to promote amazing materials and challenge preconceptions, so I figure what better way to do that than by starting up an event dedicated to 3pp classes and adventures!
From 6pm to 10pm this Thursday, 3/12/15, I'll be running the first instance of an event called "Third Party Thursdays". I'll be using the abbreviation 3ppT for brevity's sake. I'll be running this event every week for the foreseeable future, and each week I'll be showcasing cool new materials from my favorite third party publishers.This week's event will be hosted by The Game Wizard - Blue Sky Hobbies here in Bremerton, Washington, a short ferry trip away from Seattle (or a reasonable drive from Tacoma). Chase Linbo, the manager at The Game Wizard, is working on adding a whole section to his RPG shelf specifically for 3pp products that might be hard to find elsewhere, and I've been working to keep him in touch with the best publishers of this material.
This week's adventure will feature classes and mechanics from two of my favorite publishers, Amora Games and their new book Liber Influxus Communis, and Rogue Genius Games with their Adventurer's Handbook. I've had the pleasure of working with both companies, and one of my classes, Amora Game's Battle Lord, will be available as a pregen character! Owen K.C. Stephens has also pitched in to back this event by providing me with several copies of his Adventurer's Handbook, so not only will we be featuring classes from that particular work, but we'll have a few on hand to give away to participants!
Our roster of pregenerated characters is as follows:
Avarlene Tertheniel, an elven Battle Lord who uses group tactics called Drills to organize and bolster her allies
Gruff Grimbeard, a dwarven Shadow Assassin who specializes in infiltration and espionage.
Thurlavald Turnipnose, a gnome Metamorph whose arboreal evolutions allow him to attack with tentacle-like vines while blending into wooded environs.
Morgan Fire-eye, a human Magi who blends the arcane healing capabilities of a witch with the metamagic mastery of a wizard.
Garn Blackhand, a half-orc Warloghe whose pact with an onryo, a spirit of spiteful vengeance, gives him dark and sinister magical abilities.
Menevian Duboise, a half-elf Death Mage who uses his mastery of the powers of life and death to hunt down and eradicate undead.
And if none of those tickles your fancy, anyone who shows up at the event at least an hour before the starting time can feel free to peruse through the table copies of Liber Influxus and The Adventurer's Handbook and make their own custom character following our table rules for character creation!
If you're in the area, or can be, we'd love to have you at this week's 3ppT!
