Wednesday, December 9, 2020

RIGHTEOUS BLOOD, RUTHLESS BLADES: THE DARK AND GLAMOROUS WUXIA RPG IS COMING

When I think of my favorite kind of wuxia films, they all share a dark glamour. They paint a martial world that is alluring but dangerous. Each film is a swirl of deadly swordplay and eccentric martial experts, all building to a moment of emotional catharsis (usually a violent one, but not always). Many of them are based on the stories of Gu Long, and a fair number are directed by Chor Yuen. They are dark, but also have room for humor (even if the humor is itself pretty grim). There is mystery and intrigue, death and betrayal. And always plenty of wine. This is the sort of thing I wanted to bring to the table with Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades. For the past two years, I have worked alongside my co-designer, Jeremy Bai, to produce a wuxia RPG that fit this goal. The game will be released soon (as of now, it will make its way to the states in early January, and elsewhere December 10th). I just received a box of advance copies of the book and it looks beautiful. In the coming week I hope to share more about this wonderful RPG. 



Sunday, December 6, 2020

ARE BEDROCK GAMES BOOKS AVAILABLE IN PRINT?

Yes. The answer to this question is yes. We have always been a print RPG company. Most of our books, with a handful of exceptions, are available in print. Basically our core games and modules are in print. Occasionally we make a PDF only supplement (and some of those even eventually end up in print too). However our print books are not sold at DrivethruRPG. I realize it is becoming more the norm for publishers to have both print and PDF available on that platform. We don't do that. Our print editions are all sold through Studio 2 Publishing and also available in stores and online vendors. If you go to our Bedrock Games website you will see links to the print versions of our books. 

Also I want to make a point of clarification. Our books are not printed through off-set printing, they are done through Lightning Source. But we have arrangements through Studio 2 Publishing. My understanding is DrivethruRPG also uses Lightning Source (it is possible my information on this is out of date, but this was the last I had heard). We have a good relationship with Studio 2, and do not plan on changing this. 

Another reason for keeping this arrangement is, while Drivethru is a very convenient platform for getting all your stuff in one place and we like having our PDFs up there, I think it is better for the hobby in general if we don't have a situation like Amazon. There should be a variety of viable platforms and pathways for books to reach customers (otherwise you end up with a platform that has too much power in the industry). I've simply never been comfortable with the idea. This is just my personal opinion. But it means I don't plan on putting out books in print on Drivethru. All of our PDFs are available there though.