The Press on Nerd’s Variety Cast

 I get interviewed by Jason on all things USR and then some!

Nerd’s Variety Cast

Hardcover Fantasy Journal Now Available

on Drivethru RPG. [Update: Attached are pictures of the initial product. Please note currently the journal is with the depicted green cover with a wizard. I'm going to update Drivethru to reflect this and add the red cover edition as a separate title.] 

These 10" x 7" hardcover journals are customized for use as a "living document", chronicling the feats and fates of your favorite characters. Inspired by day planner formats, the pages provide an elastic document which capture game-relative "focus" items.

Pages in the Fantasy Adventure Journal are arranged in a Three Act structure, with a cover page.

As a Character evolves over time, so does a campaign world. Writing prompts steer your adventure chronical into a coherent narrati
ve, with drive!

For Players and Dungeon Masters alike. These journals come in a red cover and original art from Vanishing Tower Press! The current illustration is Martial Order of Ghouls known as the Order of the Maggot. They prefer to fight with weapons and feel defeating their foes through paralysis is dishonorable.

OSR Compatible 2nd-4th lvl dungeon AA01 Purging Woth N'rld Okwy's Muddy Hole Now a Reliable POD

 AA01 Purging Woth N'rld Okwy's Muddy Hole, my first and only dnd module has finally seen the light of day on DriveThru as a physical book!

Not only a physical book, but all the art is "fixed", new art introduced, and the Appendix is better organized. It is still the twisted little weird dungeon Bryce Lynch loved, so if you are looking for another decent adventure for your OSE sandbox you can't go wrong with PWNOMH!

40 pages, A5 (digest?) size, black and white illustrations and text. Several of the pages in the back are just VTP ads, but I think the book looks cooler with them in than out. 

The book is organized with a simple adventure "hook" and a dungeon "ecology" page. Dungeon Ecology is a bird's eye view of how the denizens of the place go about their business. How the different factions interact, and conflicts between the facts of the fables, and the dungeon itself... 

Every one of the creatures described in the key come with complete statistics in the Monster Gallery. I think it is important for an old school adventure module to include all the stat's for the Monsters and NPCs which will be encountered in the course of events.  So my first old school module includes those.

One critique leveled at the module is the treasure is not substantial for the levels indicated. Fair enough, each to their own. But I did look at the treasure horde in the module and have increased it here and there from the original edition.

All in all, like many rpg products, this second edition is an improvement over the first. While the content and quirky ideas remain, the organization is better, and therefore should be a more enjoyable product for the DM to run at the table. 

Successful delving!

Anchor Podcast Question & Answer

 I've been receiving questions on the VTPs podcast from long time compatriot from across the pond, Mark Grehen, on how we been running games here on the Press. Specifically, we have been talking about what we have seen in the many different playbacks available at the VTP YouTube Channel. 

I've got more questions to go through from Mark, but here is our latest exchange on Anchor, the simplest way to do a podcast! :)

Original Design Metal Gamer Tees I Made

I've been wanting to do this for some time. I imagine it has already been done, is being done. This is an easy phrase to stumble over when thinking what would make a good t-shirt? What this tee has that no one else does is a piece of my original scribble art found in my new OSR compatible module I recently released to loud acclaim (see review link right). 

So that is why you need to get this DIY indie shwag! These will be available for the next twenty-five days, so no dawdling.

Silver Best Seller is USR Sword & Sorcery it is!

I don't know how long it has held this position but USR SWORD & SORCERY is a Silver Best Seller on DriveThruRPG. Not bad for an obscure ameture publication. I think I even saw a few months back a pirated copy available online. So it is that big time as well :)

Anyways, really proud of this little game with big ambitions. Deluxe is moving along at the heart-breaker hobbiest pace. The AA03 module is still waiting on an acceptable proof to release the hard and soft cover editions with color covers. A whole back-log of shit really. Fear & Loathing in Fat City needs to get off the outline board and yellow-lined sheets of paper and squished into my laptop. That's another thing, the longer you work on a project the more certain you get your laptop is going to crash.

The total numbers include free copies, many of them mine. I believe how that works. Just volumes of copies downloaded. The actual paid for downloads of USRSS numbers is 188, just shy of 200. Total downloads is over eleven-hundred, so free copies boost your rankings kind of unfairly. Either way, this slim publication will be yanked as soon as Deluxe comes out, so who knows how long you have for an "original" edition?

Oh yeah, my other early on project, Classic Modules Today, at DMs Guild continues to be as stand-out success for the Vanishing Tower. CMT B2 Keep on the Borderlands has gone PLATiNUM thank you very much. This goes to show you the value of a sellable brand. My stuff combined barely hits five hundred units moved while the licensed products, the Classic Modules Today, are in the thousands for downloads. Most of the other conversion guides have hit Silver or at least Copper as well. Once again, Vanishing Tower's most successful venture so far.

Santapocalypse has moved a whopping 4 units in legit sales, but hey, you do it for love of the game! Cio for now from the old VTP.

Back Ad Copy for Deluxe and classic USR Sword & Sorcery and Horrors Material & Magic Malignant

The primitive media operation which is Vanishing Tower Press has been busy making product ads for all the mad DIY zine and POD products Vanishing Tower Press products can currently be found.













Here is what I am using right now.

Santapocalypse - Holiday Themed Wargame

Is NOW released in PDF form from Peryton Publishing for the holidays. Not an overtly complicated miniature/P&P wargame, it is heavy on theme!  A commissioned piece (yes I take paying work blind, unquestioned and with enthusiasm), the publisher seems to be really pleased with the game because they really delivered on adding commissioned art for the game cover.

The rules are a minimalist distillation of my years reading and not playing hex-and-chit wargames, and my developing rpg mass combat system for Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery.

The only components of the game will be the rules and counter sheets. If you are familiar with miniature war-gaming you will know what to do. Even so, I think you will see where I am going with a role-playing mass combat mechanic; random tables to generate unique encounters, while underneath is a simple, scale-able, playable set of rules which facilitates getting the battle completed, with interesting results, and leaves traditional role-playing unhindered.

The order of battle is, under the leadership of Santa; reindeer, toy soldiers, and toy cannon. The elves do not have leaders, but their force pool is as such; elves, elven archers, and some candy cane pickets which may or may not come into play.

No pretense of a balanced engagement being modeled here! The counter sheets don't represent a limit on force-pools, print as many as you like? The combat resolution mechanic is a contested dice roll with results being rolled on a Christmas Carnage Table. Right? Who doesn't want to roll on that?!

I designed the game basically around one result off of the Christmass Carnage Tabel; Mound of Bodies!. If this result is rolled..., well, you will have to play it to find out.

http://www.perytonpublishing.com/ 

OSR adventure AA03 early edition is now available!

Purging Woth Nrld Oekwyn's Muddy Hole, Vanishing Tower Press' first OSR-compatible adventure module is available for purchase as a PDF.

It is a tight little work and is available in PDF form for $3.99. 

[10/13/19] Final edits complete, the PDF is clean with little or no typos now!

The set-up: 

A gasping faithful of the Grim Gauntlet, gripping bloodied mace in gashed hands, lies

wounded in the forest. They have just crawled out from their failed mission within the “Hole”. A trio of fanged-mouthed humanoids killed their party before they escaped with their life. Robid has sworn to destroy this forgotten shrine of evil. Will the PCs help?

The POD version and the PDF with internal links is most likely two weeks out. I could have the book go through another round of layout. I may for the POD version.

But for those who want to put this adventure into play now use PayPal to send payment. I'm at jay@vanishingtowerpress.com!


It is 40 pages, includes original art from myself and others, has had editing work done to it, an Appendix and a full monster "manual" of all creatures used. 

Keyed dungeon map and a "dungeon ecology" breakdown to help the DM run the dangers fully.

Feedback is encouraged. The PDF is also on DriveThruRPG if you can't wait for me to get home and email your copy, but I do take the hit on OBS's commission. 

That is about it. Perfect Bound, I don't think I can do saddle-stitched. If it is an option I will make it saddle-stitched. 

Don't use Camtasia and Review Opportunities for the Interested

AA03 Purging Woth Nrld Oekwn's Muddy Hole is now in the editors hands, the Lulu files completed, proof ordered to inspect layout and graphic design issues! When final draft is uploaded I will want to offer PDF copies for interested reviewers. Richard Leblanc gets his own copy obviously. I used his illo's and stats for several monsters from Big Dragon Games CC1 Creatures Companion. 

The inclusion of creatures from this OSR packed bestiary guarantees your players will have some surprises. Nothing chills a player more than confronting a brand new species of monster! 

So, if you see yourself actually using this short adventure for an upcoming crawl I am happy to distribute. Email me at jay-at-vanishingtowerpress.com.

In other news; 

The audio production of my last live game session is complete, at least as far as I intend to take it. I should have just stripped the audio like I did at first and be done with it. Time involved properly editing an audio project is a time sink like you wouldn't believe. Camtasia is nothing special except a two hundred fifty price tag! There are solid, free screen capture and video editing software choices. Search around and review. You will find something which suits your needs easily.

With AA03 mostly in the bag work can resume on Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery. My work that is. Daniel Hernandez is still working on his fantastic line illo's but the previews he has sent me are amazing! Adventure drafting and setting guide drafting are the predominate work right now. Everything is now kind of assembled on a cork board of lines like a police investigation. Slowly you see parallel paths of work start to merge towards a finished product. Like driving a new road and suddenly finding yourself at your destination. 

Winter 2019-2020 looks to be a busy season for VTP releases, to see some of these long-simmering projects become adventure books for you to use!

YouTube/Hangouts Live Stream, What I did...

With the disconnect between Goggle Hangouts and YouTube's Live Event function I had to find another way to record my live sessions. I will miss the ability to Live Stream my sessions, but capturing the entire session on tape is my default DM notes I reference, establish canon with my players and use for verisimilitude in game session prep.  Much higher priority.

My first hit, and the only software I have used so far, was Camtasia. It sells for more than I want to spend, but with little time before the game I took advantage of the 30 day free trial and began to familiarize myself with its capabilities. It captures your computer screen and allows to edit this content and convert to video. This part of the software worked just fine. I hit record and did not hit stop until the three-hour session was over. Everything was there. Some spot editing and then I went for upload to YouTube. I believe the inevitable crash is due more to the capabilities of my laptop rather than Camtasia. Either way, it figures into Camtasia as a "no-buy" for me. Conversion from "project" to video file is expected to be slow, but it was going to be a ten-hour(?) process to upload. No way this works. But I tried a couple of times with a couple of different formats and unsurprisingly the process choked and "closed unexpectedly". I then stripped the audio from the video, added a title page, and then went for it. This time I had the format as avi. It went up rather quickly considering. Now I and the players can listen to the session replay at our leisure.

I really like the audio format. TTRPG's are theater of the mind anyways. As a fan of radio broadcasting it didn't take me long to warm up to the idea. I started dropping in images related to what was currently being described, but I'm not sold on that. Title Page, sure. If I do include images it will sparsely done.

So I get the original "tape", video and all, upload audio only. For now. And I still need to "cast" about for a more affordable option.

Going in Hack & Slash MEGADUNGEON #4

Courtney Campbell of Hack & Slash blog fame is offering ad space in his new Megadungeon 4 release. Vanishing Tower Press is sending this in;

Hire Daniel Hernandez Fantasy Line Art before your Competition does....

I was still fishing around for another artist to do commissioned work for the ever-in-progress Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery and I reached out to Drowsy Maggie, an old friend in San Diego. She turned me onto the Gor books back when we wore flowers in our hair. Perhaps she could help.

Drowsy Maggie put me in contact with Daniel Hernandez (makestuffsd@gmail.com), a Sand Diego artist and my hail-mary struck gold. I should keep close wraps on him until my book is out, but that would be criminal knowing my vanity press production schedule. He deserves more paying work sooner than that!

Most of his line art for the book is individual combat (go figure) and it is gorgeous. But he did do one featuring the Sorcerer's bread and butter - The Summoning Ritual! It isn't finished, but I think the quality of his line art shine through. Put him to work before someone else does.

Partial Migration from Drivethru

The site is still essential to produce my three POD titles, but my Products Page gives you my Paypal address. This way you can purchase PDF versions direct from Vanishing Tower Press. That additional $0.68 will go a long way towards hiring a decent editor around here!

Vanishing Tower Press by the numbers

I started selling products at the DM's Guild in the spring of 2016 with the Classic Modules Today Conversion Guides. Here is a screen shot of the money put in my pocket after OBS's commission.

June of that year I released my own game USR Sword & Sorcery utilizing Trollish Delver's USR game mechanics. Over the last two years I've added additional titles, PDF's, some POD of these games and here is what the numbers look like for my non-licensed properties.

Obviously brand name products with a D&D label slapped on them completely outperforms my own creations and this should come as no surprise. And my game books aren't all that great. Amateur productions where each one is a learning experience leading to the next design/presentation of POD game stuff. I'm surprised I've sold as many as I have.

With Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery I'm taking a big step in making a better/interesting/playable/obsessive/love-for-the-genre game book which has got me looking at other print options than OBS. Should it be broken up into three separate booklets? One perfect-bound volume? Like starting a painting my books take shape as I work on them and radical insights have a tendency of leading my layout back to START OVER.  This means unknown completion dates. 

But being a DIY hobbiest I have the ability of being nimble. I'm only burning my time. The world keeps moving if I decide to rewrite wholesale and unlike a professional game company, I have unlimited pages, no budget needed until I want to add art that I otherwise can't produce. No matter how much more I want to add into the overall book be it art, text, or tables, I can. With unlimited word count there is no artificial shape the book has to be shoved into. For digital distribution an individual publisher can make hourly decisions and changes to the final product. With POD typos and errata can be fixed and a new print copy available within weeks. 

This year looks like it will be more of the same for the VTP. Pushing my experience with format while at the same time writing/re-writing content.