BNW Map News

One of my old gaming pals, Aaron Acevedo, contacted me as soon as he heard about my first 12 for ’12 Kickstarter drive. As he says, he’s “a huge BNW fanboy,” and he volunteered to chip in something awesome for my readers. As of this weekend, I’ve commissioned from him a full-color, 11″ x 17″ map of Crescent City, the main setting for Brave New World. We never managed to get one of these produced for the RPG, so it’s a real thrill to get one made for the novels.

At the moment, our drive stands at over $5,700, or 190% of the original goal! I’m confident we’ll make it to the $8k we need to get the second book unlocked, but I want to do everything I can to make sure we get to that $15k goal and unlock all three books.

To that end, I’m planning on adding Aaron’s map as a new stretch goal. If we reach $10k, I’ll send a free electronic copy of the map to every single backer of this project! 

In addition to that, I’ve been writing up all sorts of promotional bits for various blogs. You should see a lot of coverage of 12 for ’12 hitting the web this week. If you can help out with boosting this signal in any way, don’t be shy! And if you want to help promote it in other ways, I’m open to any and all ideas.

Thanks again for your support! As a reward, here’s an image from the original BNW game of Superior, the most powerful hero in the world. Even so, he needs your help so his story can be told!

12 for ’12 News Spreading

A lot of wonderful people have been out there telling folks about my 12 for ’12 project and the first Kickstarter drive for it, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. I’d like to highlight a couple bits today.

First, Cindy Au – who works at Kickstarter – blogged about the project yesterday in her post, “So You Want to Write a Book?” In it she writes, “Part of why Kickstarter exists is because money cannot be the thing that stands in the way of creation. That is not a world we can afford to live in.” That’s an amazing sentiment and one that makes me even happier to be working through Kickstarter for this.

Second, Richard Bliss interviewed me for the third installment of his new podcast about gaming-related Kickstarter projects, Funding the Dream. I had a great time chatting with Richard, and I hope you will too if you listen in.

To cap all this off, the Kickstarter drive now stands at just shy of twice the initial goal of $3,000, and we still have over three weeks to go before the clock runs out. It got a great kick in the pants yesterday when my friend and fellow game designer Matt James pledged $1,000 and grabbed the first of the five available Alpha-level rewards. Huge thanks go out to Matt for showing such faith in the project. I can’t wait to work up his Alpha-level character with him.

Geek Dad Book and Reviews

The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists came out on November 5. This is the third in the series by the head Geek Dad, Ken Denmead, and the first for which I chipped in. I built a potato cannon this past spring and fired it off over a couple lakes this summer just for fun. Pick up the book, and you’ll learn how to tackle that project as well as dozens of others fit for any geek parent to take on with a child. If you want material for the coolest science fair projects around, look no further.

On top of that, I recently filed a couple of reviews for Geek Dad. Head over to the site to read about my opinions on the iPhone/iPad app Meteor Math and the Stabile Pro iPad stand. Short version: loved them both.

RPG Geek of the Week

This past Sunday, I was named RPG Geek of the Week over at RPG Geek. I’m flattered all to hell, of course, and I’ve been taking care of my duties over at the RPG Geek forums. These consist entirely of answering the barrage of questions the fine folks over there have been flinging at me all week.

If you’d care to read my answers to queries that range from the standard to the provocative to the odd, head on over and give it a look. And if you find you have some questions of your own that I still haven’t bothered to answer, chip in over there, and I’ll give those a shot too.

Moving On Up

As of this morning, the Kickstarter drive for the BNW trilogy of novels for my 12 for ’12 project stands at over 140% of our original goal! Thanks to each and every one of you who backed the project to make that happen. I can’t tell you how thrilled this makes me.

That also puts us at well over halfway toward unlocking the second book. For those of you who’ve put in a pledge for an omnibus edition–whether ebook, paperback, or hardcover–that’s great news, as it means you’re that much closer to getting more books added to your collection for free!

If you only pledged for a single book, thanks to you too! I truly appreciate every backer. Keep in mind, though, that as we unlock books, those higher pledge levels become far more attractive. (Hint, hint. 😉 )

I’m busy lining up all sorts of interviews and other publicity for the drive, and I’m talking to some artists about some excellent extras we can add on to sweeten the pot. I hope to have more to share about that soon.

Meanwhile, please do what you can to help get the word out. If you’re a journalist, podcaster, or blogger, email me at matt@forbeck.com, and let’s set up an interview or guest post. We’ve already got a tremendous amount of attention and momentum here, so let’s see how big we can make this snowball grow.

1st Kickstarter Goal Smashed!

Wow, wow, wow.

Just a little while ago, the Kickstarter drive for the first trilogy the 12 for ’12 project–novels based on my Brave New World RPG–shattered its first goal of $3,000. That means I’m going to spend January writing the first book in the Brave New World trilogy! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am about that, especially since we pulled it off in about 48 hours.

The pledge that put us over the top also claimed the first of the limited rewards at the higher levels, and I’m just grinning that I’m going to get to come up with a new Delta character with that particular gentleman. It’s that kind of working with readers and players that makes creating this material so much fun.

Of course, this is just the beginning. The next number we’re shooting for is $8,000, at which point the second novel gets unlocked. With all the support we’ve garnered so far, I have little doubt we’ll be able to reach that. I’d like to get there as fast as we can, though, so we can tackle the later goals with plenty of time to spare.

First, though, I want to thank each and every one of my backers who jumped on this rocket early. I literally couldn’t do any of this without them. For the rest of you, well, the higher we go, the more books we get, and that’s going to make for a wonderful ride. Join us!

Carpathia Picked

The folks at Fantasy Faction asked the editors at many of the top genre fiction publishers to pick the top five books they’re most excited about bringing out in 2012. Angry Robot skirted the issue of having to pick favorites by choosing five of its novels with interesting stories about them. They highlighted Adam Christopher’s Empire State, Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds, Anne Lyle’s The Alchemist of Souls, Mike Shevdon’s Strangeness & Charm, and my Carpathia. 

About Carpathia, Angry Robot wrote:

April 2012 sees the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, and the subsequent rescue of the survivors on the RMS Carpathia. Interestingly, the Carpathian mountains are the ones that surround Transylvania. Forbeck’s book posits the question — what if the survivors of the Titanic were rescued by the Carpathia only to find it is inhabited by blood-sucking fiends? (Vampires, in this case, not bankers). Pure B-Movie thrills, where the lucky ones went down with the ship…

Look for Carpathia on shelves in March, just ahead of the 100th anniversary of the loss of the Titanic.

BNW Trilogy Kickstarter is Live!

I just launched the first Kickstarter drive for my 12 for ’12 project! This is for the trilogy of novels I plan to write set in the same world as my Brave New World Roleplaying Game.

Kickstarter is a fantastic crowdfunding service that helps creators (like me) take pre-orders for new projects from readers (like you!). The best part about it is that you can pledge as much as you like, but you only get charged if we hit the minimum goal. Even then, you only get charged once the drive ends.

In this case, I chose to end the drive on December 12 at noon. Sharp eyes might notice that this is 12/4 12:00. (Or “Twelve Four Twelve.”)

I have to thank everyone who’s given me so much advice about this project over the past few weeks. You really did me a world of good. Special thanks goes out to Jim Pinto for the 12 for ’12 logo and to Darren Orange for cutting the video together and doing such a great job with it. Speaking of the video:



I hope that whet your appetite. Be sure to head over to the Kickstarter page to check it out, and don’t be shy about spreading the word. I’m grateful for your support!

The BNW Kickstarter Rewards

I was all set to launch the Kickstarter for the first of the 12 for ’12 trilogies today, but I’ve been sidetracked by delays in Amazon Payments verifying my bank account. I love my small-town bank (1st National Bank of Beloit), but there are times that it would be easier to be one with one of the nationals instead. With luck, it should be a short delay, maybe a day.

In the meantime, since I have the extra time, I thought I’d run the reward for the first Kickstarter past you. These are for the trilogy based on my Brave New World Roleplaying Game, a dystopian world packed with stunning superheroes, powerful themes, and political intrigue.

This is all subject to change until I post the Kickstarter page. Here’s your chance to comment on the particulars before I launch the project, so don’t be shy. Let me know what you think.

Read More

Dorkland Raves over Amortals

Over at Dorkland, reviewer Chris Helton loved Amortals. He starts out calling it a “a cross between Robert Heinlein and Rudy Rucker,” and he winds up saying:

If Matt Forbeck’s Amortals had come out in 1986, I would have been grouping it along side of some of the greats of the cyberpunk movement. I think this is a book that can stand beside Gibson’s Neuromancer, Sterling’s Islands in the Net, Rucker’s Ware novels, or Williams’ Hardwired.

Those are some heavy names to toss around when discussing any book, but Chris justifies it with his excellent review. Be sure to check out the whole thing.