Song in the Dark, Day 1

Unless you count my various Chronicles of Darkness fictions (which take place in a vague setting without a whole lot of strict 'canon' other than what I put into them), it's been forever since I've dabbled in fanfic and I'm not sure I've ever finished a proper one. Either way, this isn't something I do often. But playing through Night in the Woods sparked something in me; while I didn't grow up in a town exactly like Possum Springs, I saw enough of similar places and met enough similar people that the game struck a chord and I took it upon myself to start writing.

Admittedly, I don't know exactly how long the whole story's going to be. I've got the plot roughly worked out, and I've got this much and a bit of the next chapter and we'll see where it goes from there.

The story overlaps with the timeline of the game, and while people who've played the game should recognize where they link up (and which story choices contributed to the 'canon' in which this fanfic resides), I've endeavored to write this such that you don't need knowledge of the game to enjoy or understand it. I hope I've succeeded.

Anyhow, let me know what you think, that'll help me decide how and whether this is worth finishing.

The story begins just below the cut. If you'd rather download this as a PDF and/or read it on a site other than this blog, I also have it up on my FurAffinity page and on SoFurry. (Warning: Neither of these sites should be considered SFW in general.)

No Rest for the Wicked: Old Business

Greetings, minions. I know this seems pretty quick, but a few things lined up to get us another session of No Rest For the Wicked right away, which means you get another write-up!

No Rest for the Wicked: Hashtag Badass Crater 2

Helloooooo, minions!

Welcome back to another write-up from my No Rest for the Wicked game. We've had all sorts of scheduling madness and overcoming them required performing a series of devious challenges -- First we had to collect 139,377 brown rocks, then kill Ug-Thak, Lord of Skags, then pilfer the Lost Staff of Mount Schuler, defeat the Destroyer of Worlds, then dance for Claptrap's enjoyment.

But we did that, and then we got to play.

As a wise skeleton once said, let's just get to the point.

Dead Suns: The Ruined Clouds (Starfinder)

Hey there, folks, I've got another Starfinder write-up for you. As of now, the group has properly ventured into the fourth volume of the Dead Suns Adventure Path, The Ruined Clouds (with a tiny bit of wrap-up from volume 3, hence the tag). As is sometimes the case, this is a couple of sessions' worth of adventure stitched together and the lineup doesn't always remain consistent throughout. I don't go out of my way to draw attention to it, but when folks seem to drop in and out of the narrative, that's why.

Also, before I get on with it, I have an announcement! Night Horrors: The Tormented (a book I worked on), is now available in print! You can get it at the link in the previous sentence. (Which means also that the Advance PDF stuff from the prior posts no longer applies, this PDF is the final version barring some technical problem, and so forth.)

And with that, let's move on to... SPACE!

Recent and Upcoming Writing

Okay, so first off, much sooner than I usually manage these things, I've got another chapter of my Conversion story up. It's a little shorter than the last couple, partially because I'm trying to manage the size of the updates so they don't take as long to finish. Also, partially, because I'm going to try something a little different and that'll fit better with a chapter break. But either way, here's a link to that.

Conversion Chapter Seven -- Measures

Here's links to prior chapters, just for easy of access:
Chapter One (for which I need a proper chapter title)
Chapter Two - Coming and Going
Chapter Three - In the Light of Day
Chapter Four - Couriers
Chapter Five - Familiar Spaces
Chapter Six - Allies


I also have a side-story in the same setting that I've been trying to get published with no success. So I said 'screw it' and posted it. It stands well enough on its own, though it does serve as something of a sequel to a story I had published in FANG Vol. 8 a year and a half ago (knowledge of the earlier story isn't necessary, but it does feature the same characters). And here it is:

Renegotiation


Now, in case it needs to be said, these stories are more or less safe for work. There's some swearing and some violence, but nothing you couldn't see at 8 or 9 PM on a network TV show. (Though Chapter 7 does imply some particularly unpleasant violence off-camera, though still nothing you couldn't have gotten on, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) Now, of course, if stories featuring anthropomorphic animal characters aren't your thing, feel free to give it a pass.

Speaking of which, something related I wanna mention here.

At any given time, I've got a few different writing projects at once. Basically so that if I'm having trouble with one story/setting, I can usually switch to something else. Some of the stuff is anthro-related, but not all of it (I've got an urban fantasy setting I've been trying to get going, but the stories I've cranked out for it so far have all been too high word count for most venues and too low for the rest).

One of the things I've been poking at is, of all things, a video game fanfic. Specifically, Night in the Woods. Without getting into excruciating detail, there's a lot about the story and the setting that grabbed me and gave me the itch to play in that sandbox as a writer, which I rarely do. I don't have any hard plans for the story regarding length or anything like that, but I've been considering posting it in chunks and seeing if I get any feedback or response. So I'm wondering if anyone would be interested if I posted installments here as well as my other usual haunts. (Knowledge of the game shouldn't be required, though it'd certainly be a benefit since parts of the story will overlap with parts of the game.)

Any thoughts, questions, whatever, would be appreciated.

No Rest for the Wicked: Up the Hill

Helloooooo, minions!

After the usual round of scheduling snafus, my gaming group finally got back together for another session of No Rest for the Wicked this past week, so I've got a write-up for you. We're still settling in, players getting used to a new system. It's also been interesting, playing a fan-made system and learning to work around the handful of rough edges. (Admittedly, this might not have been the best introduction to PbtA for some of these folks, but learning experiences and whatnot.)

If you missed it, here is the first session in this particular game and here you'll find detailed descriptions of the cast of characters.

Anyhow, here we go.

Dead Suns: The Wasteland (Starfinder)

Alright, folks, welcome to another of my Starfinder write-ups. We've had to reshuffle a few things schedule-wise, but this coming Friday should be our second game of No Rest of the Wicked.

This will be kind of a short write-up, as this session takes us through the rest of Dead Suns' third module, Splintered Worlds. There's a little bit of epilogue left, but to be frank I'd rather go ahead and get this up than let it sit, run the next session, and tack on the epilogue later. (also, it feels like it would be awkward to have a post that starts with some combat and then begins the next leg of the adventure)

So here we go!