Hell Bent to the Tower's Top

If you haven't noticed it yet,the Troll Lord Games homepage has undergone a major face lift. Brian Kowalski, our inventive webmaster, has spent many, many hours laboring over a new, more efficient design for our homepage. He's created a new product viewer, streamlined the news section and modernized the look and design. A special thanks goes out to Brian, Aztecman on the boards, as he has really put the effort in to the website these past several years, expanding and growing it to meet both our needs and to make the whole site easier to navigate.

Hail Brian Master of the Web! Trollzah! Trollzah! Trollzah!

With this new website we'll endeavor to get updates out in a more timely manner.

I need to take a moment out to apologize to the United States Marine Corps! Apparently the photograph we had up on the site, the one linking to the military support page, had a picture of Marine wearing his insignia backwards. I hadn't noticed it before, though a close examination proved the truth of it. But thank you to Gunny Sergeant Brian Deming for pointing it out to us. The picture was promptly replaced. I would offer the Marine Corps "beers on me" but that would get very expensive very fast.

Its been over a month since I updated this blog and there is a deficit of information out there. But we have been working like madness to bring the Upper Works up to speed so that it makes it out in July. Jeffrey Talanian, Peter Bradley, Cory Caserta and Jason Walton have done an amazing job in bringing the final pieces of this project together and their work and labors would, I think, make Gary proud.

LGGC IV was a good show! Attendance was down just a bit, but the show was one of the best. The porch party was moved to the Legion Hall and the crowd swelled all night until we had over 50 people gathered about gaming and chatting. The hall was a constant buzz of gaming goodness with C&C, LA and AD&D dominating the playing field. I didn't see any 4e, though I was hoping for a look see at how it played. I ran a fast paced game for a bit on Saturday and the gang did a sound job of adventuring through the Darkenfold! Joe Goodman was good enough to join us and played one tough gnome fighter who rode the shield of a greater orc while pounding its head in. Sweet stuff. A thanks out to Frank Mentzer, James M. Ward, Tom Wham and Tim Kask, all great guys who went out of their way to participate and help grow the show. And a special thanks to Gail Gygax who made a wonderful ham and turkey for the feast at the Legion Hall. I'll post more later but good times were had all around.

We have more news coming, exciting news I think that may help propel the game you and I have built these past years into the general pit fight that is our common hobby. This will be around the Gen Con time frame....that's assuming I get my end of it done.

I'm really just babbling at this point and need to sign off. Hope you enjoy the new page and look to the post man cause Crusader 10 is at the printer now!

Thanks for Playing
Steve

The End of May

TLG has had another good month this May. We've been working extremely hard to bring the whole company into fighting trim for many, many long months and it seems to be paying off.

Dro Mandras shipped to retailers and Crusader 9 is on the press machines and being printed. I'm in the middle of a re-write on Shades of Mist...not really a re-write so much as a read through. The intro was pretty jumbled but after fixing that the reading picked up. I expect it to go to Cory tomorrow.

I've also been compiling my files for release on Paizo.com and we are planning on a big electronic release on Sunday, June 1st. June may be a good time to launch a certain annual event we have grown accustomed to doing. Check back on Sunday for that too...assuming I can get Brian to upload everything on the weekend. Sometimes he has a life or something like that.

But more importantly I've spent a chunk of this week working over CKG files. Davis turned the mass over to me for organization. I'll soon know where the holes are and what needs to be done to fill them and what we need to do to completed material. This will not move to editing or layout until Upper Works is 100% in the bag and Lejendary Pantheons is 100% in the bag and Lejendary Rules for All Players is 100% in the bag. It does look like it will be close to 180 pages with a $29.95 price tag.

Concerning Upper Works, pre-orders will open up on June 1st. We've about set the price tag. It is not going to be the $70.00 - $100.00 that other box sets go for, but it will probably be $39.95 or $44.95. This is way beyond what I would like to see in a price tag, but we are looking at some 30+ maps, some 11 x 17, one color. scores of illustrations 7 books with 5 covering levels the other two art and player handouts. Its a big project and we want to do it correctly.

Okay. Back to work for me.

Thanks for playing!
Steve

Merry Go Round

Its been a good solid work week here. With Free RPG Day wrapped up we moved on to other things. We've shipped off Dro Mandras and Crusader #9 has landed and is being prepped for printing.

Things have gotten a little bit busy and convoluted with the number of projects and now the number of associates working for TLG that I've taken to making lists of things that have to be done. I decided to do this Sunday night, late, while musing on all that Monday would bring. So while sitting on my screened in porch, overlooking the trees of the little valley behind the house I sketched out 20 things that I had to do on the following day.

I'm not much of a "list" kind of guy, but in this case it seems to have worked. It keeps me focused. And I try not to do anything else other than the items list, working from top to bottom. I'm also trying not to multi-task as I think that multi-tasking actually lets you do alot and finish little, sort of like the "short cuts cause long delays" approach. It all seems to be working. What I don't finish from the previous days task, move to the next and so on. Its not completely possible of course as the biz is a bit fluid and things come up that I can't control but have to be tackled. But the idea is to keep a good balance. We'll see if I can keep this up.

I have just wrapped up my articles for Crusader #10. We are starting a new column called "Monsters of Aihrde" where we will present a new monster each issue. This issue sees the Naerlulth, a creation of Unklar the Horned God. These beasts were powerful servants of his, not far removed from the Mogrl. Jason had read over for them and had this to say: "but if you want this thing to be a TPK machine then THUMBS UP CHUM, HE FULLY IS!" LOL It is poweful. But it creates its own landscaped within which a CK can run whole adventures without ever encountering the monster, as it spawns creations of its own...of course the first of those will be showcased in Crusader #11.

I also finally had a chance to sit down with Davis and get caught up on a number of projects. Personal issues have kept him from much involvement for a few months and it was good to touch bases and find out what is happening. His approach to gaming and design are not far removed from my own and we work well in tandem, thus making the Chenault Brothers the heart of the Swords & Sorcery milieu around here.

Lots of shipping today, and finally able to work on the Encounter Tables. We have some new product announcements this weekend that you'll see, so check back often.

See you on the boards and as always, thanks for playing.
Steve

Back to Aihrde

Wednesday at last found me back in the office. I spent the better part of the morning not writing as I had intended but working out freight problems with ABF for all the Free RPG Day material we've been shipping, paying some bills and clearing the desk of two weeks worth of paper work . . . invoices for such things as paper, new blades for the cutter, hoses for the cutter, UV coating etc etc. After lunch I discovered that my solicitations were due and I had to scramble to put that together. Of course, then I discovered that I had only half converted my dozen or so word sheets to the single excel sheet. Finishing this task I set myself to finishing the product announcements, getting the ISBNs set and stock codes determined. All this was wrapped up and it was suddenly 5 in the evening, quiting time.

Wednesday night is generally game night for us, so after some family biz I headed over to Todd's to run the crew through more adventures in the southern Darkenfold. The game went so well that it fired me up to get back to Aihrde.

Which is what I did today. I finished up some minor biz and spent a great deal of time on the phone with Jim Ward, Aldo, ABF (setting up TLG's shipping account) a few customers determined to get their copies of Crusader despite my apparent inability to ship them and some various and sundry other folks. By 1 p.m. I found myself in Aufstrag, in Klarglich with Unklar as he forged the Naerlulth, foul creatures of his design set to mock the trees of the All Father. These powerful creatures turn all that they touch to ash and live in the desolation of their never ending hunger. They attract the dispossessed minions of Unklar to their service and spawn other creatures of like evil.

Its brought me back to Aihrde with a gusto. This creature will be showcased in a new column in Crusader, starting with issue 10, that highlights Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde. And yes, for the doubtful, we are working on issue 10 already, as 9 should print next week and ship the week after.

Tomorrow is a short day as the family and I are off to Muskogee to hang with Peter at the Ren Faire. They do a big canon salute on Saturday that I know the youngins will love. On Monday I have cleared the docket for work on Shades of Mist ( a few hours at best before I turn it over to Cory) and the Castle Keeper's Guide. So with luck Monday's blog will bring some long sought after news about that little project.

Thanks for playing.
Steve

Machine Gun Kelly

I headed out bright and early to find a replacement hose for the cutter. I went to several hydraulic supply stores and came up empty, finally finding Royal Brass & Hose on Baseline Rd. It took about an hour for them to fabricate a new hose with new fittings. With replacement parts in hand I headed back to the print shop. Mark was arriving about then and we put the whole back together. Of course I had to head out and get some hydraulic fluid and while I was at the hardware store I decided to get 6 feet of rubber tubbing to extend our shop's indoor air conditioner's drain (the supplied hose was only 1 foot long and not able to reach anywhere, so in typical Arkansas fashion we jerry rigged a garden hose to it). After clamping that on and putting a fresh batch of fluid in the cutter we were back in business. Mark commenced to work and I did some shrink wrapping. The heating element promptly burned out and that machine went down. We had spare parts for it and after a bit had it running again.

This consumed much of my writing time of course and I pushed back to tomorrow what I wanted to do today. But we did manage to put to bed two outside projects and get Dro Mandras off to the Impressions warehouse in Ft. Wayne. The cover on that book looks great, a deep green to draw out the colors in the picture Peter Bradley drew for it. Great stuff by Casey and Peter.

Tomorrow we have some major shipping to do, the last of the Free RPG Day material goes out as well as one large outside job. Once that is in the bag I'm back in the office to catch up on email and writing. Things should lighten up and I fully expect the next couple of weeks to be very C&C productive.

Thanks for playing.
Steve

Good Weekend and Back to Work

After a long week last week Mark, Davis and I all scattered to recoup a bit (Peter was at the ren faire so he had to keep "working", I put working in quotes because there are many good looking young lasses wandering around that faire and he was probably not "working" that much ;) ). I spent the weekend on my folk's farm walking the fence line and repairing damaged fences. I got caught in a tremendous thunderstorm whilst out in the wood. All very relaxing, but it did make me wonder what it would actually be like to be in a suite of chainmail and get caught in that kind of weather. Mark spent the weekend hanging with my dogs and playing Lego Starwars on the Wii.

We opened shop early this morning and tried to get some outstanding jobs wrapped up. We are only half way through Free RPG Day now and stopped it to get Dro Mandras finished. We had a few outside projects that needed some TLC and we tackled those, only one of which was actually finished. I abandoned Mark in the afternoon and returned to the office to wrap up some ads for Crusader 9 which should be to press next week, and get some files out to editors and the like as well as upload A2 Slag Heap to Paizo's PDF warehouse. If the opportunity presents itself I'll upload a file each day until I've brought the Paizo website up to speed with RPGNow and Drivethru. I've neglected that site far too long.

Mark worked on into the evening until a hose on the cutter burst and sprayed oil all over the place. He called and I went over to the print shop and he and tried a patch job, but no dice, the split was too severe. So we pulled the hose and figured out what I'll be doing at 8 in the a.m. tomorrow. Hopefully we can get it up and running pretty quick as we need that machine.

Tomorrow I tackle Crusader 10 articles and start my re-read of Shades of Mist . . . after finding a hose of course.

Thanks for playing,
Steve Chenault

Long Time No Post

Well hello everybody! Its been over a month since I updated this thing, but I do have reasons. We've been busier than busier than a stump tailed mule in a fly patch. Mark barely had time to get his bearings one working full time and all that that would entail before Free RPG Day came roaring on us. Of course we weren't very prepared for it so after some scrambling and two odd week's worth of work we've caught up. This took myself, Peter, Jason Walton and Josh quite a bit of hoping to make it happen. But the end result is pretty good. We'll be shipping (and have already shipped some) 3000 books for C&C Quick Start and a further 3000 for Starsiege Event Horizon Quick Start to retailers.

All the while Jeff has put a wrap on Upper Works, Cory has begun the final edit. Spencer has finished Lejendary Rules for All Players, Peter is almost done with the cover. Casey Christofferson has sent in three small books, Cannfield whole sections of Essential Places. Davis has dropped part of the draft for A5 (Peter has also finished the final cover for this one) on my desk and some CKG material. Robert is busy on conversions for Lejendary Pantheons (not to mention Peter's new cover, now complete). Liz and Jim have hammered out Crusader 9. I've finished Dwarven Glory II and Shades of Mist. It lacks only a final reread.

So things have been a bit wild around here and I'm playing a heck of a tune trying to keep it all organized.

More as it comes to me.

Thanks for playing.
Steve

The Merry We Go Round

So where do we go from here? The answer is as simple as the question. We go on. Gary would have wanted and expected no less.

Many have asked if TLG can survive without Gary. “What are you guys going to do?” we’ve been asked far more times than good manners permit. TLG will continue to do what we’ve always done, we’ll make and publish games. We have a very diverse portfolio and we continue to diversify. Castles & Crusades remains in its infant state with much room to grow as our fellow gamers realize that it is the real McCoy. A host of other games and products are in the docket, Star Siege, Crusader and so on. But even beyond that our relationship with Gary Gygax continues. He made certain of that.

Gary and I worked together for the better part of 7 years. We worked on a multiple number of projects from d20 to the Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds, from Lejendary Adventure to Castles and Crusades and Castle Zagyg. It included articles for Crusader, games and short stories and a host of products that TLG hadn’t the resources to produce but he entrusted to our vaults to preserve and publish at such a time that we were able. He was impatient of our produce and he had hoped that he would live long enough to see these many projects in print, as in many ways these works would redefine his role in the game and fiction world.

We had hoped he would live as well.

In truth some of the passion for this business left me after March 4^th. It doesn’t help as I realize that many of the projects Gary had wanted to come out (King of England King of France, Castle Zagyg, the LA Core Books and the Gord Reprints) are nearing completion and had he been able to remain with us for a year more he would have seen the shelves of many shops filled with his games and perhaps the conversation would shift back to the craft of having fun and away from the craft of making the “perfect role playing” game.

But passion aside, Davis and I, and everyone here at TLG have recommitted ourselves to Gary Gygax, what we could not fully deliver in life, we’ll do so in death. The heirs to Gary’s material have graciously allowed us to continue working with his material and what in many ways will be his legacy. It is what Gary wanted us to do and I think he would be happy to note that we continue the drive forward.

Gary was energized in the last four-five months of his life. Somewhere in October of last year he emailed me with a bunch of projects he wanted to resurrect. He was pushing hard to get KoE KoF done by Winter Dark, but too he wanted to launch a series of short adventures for LA, the Jolly Jungeleres and another series of Castle Zagyg adventures for C&C. The former were small advents previously published and on which he had a host of notes that he wanted incorporated and updated. The CZ advents were concepts he had long running adventures in and around, each of them coming with extensive “bible” notes. He had discussed adding more content to the Castle itself as he always expressed that Castle Zagyg was a living project and became quite furious with me when I published a fixed number of levels . . . “How do you know how many levels it has!?!?!” he would shout at me across the ether. With this host of new projects was the desire to put the final touches on Essential Places, add an LA column to Crusader, add several more books to the GFW Encyclopedia series and put out some children’s short stories. On top of this he and Kerry B had written two new Gord short stories and planned to begin work on a Gord novel.

After thousands of emails I came to know the direction that Gary wanted his products to go in. Of that I am confident.

And though TLG was never able to put out material quick enough for Gary we have long been committed to a schedule filled with Gary’s works. We continue to be so committed.

Castle Zagyg: I have assigned Jeffrey Talanian to head up the Castle Zagyg project. He worked with Gary on a daily basis for the past 2 years and knows better than anyone the direction Gary wanted the project to go in. Upper Works is on schedule for a summer release, we hope at LGGC IV. There are 20 more Castle Zagyg Town Expansion books that are on target for release of one a month. Beyond that there are a host of small adventures set in the environs of Yggsburgh in the East Mark. All these are being managed and produced.

Lejendary Adventure: When Gary passed he and I were in the middle of assigning a supervising editor to merge his latest notes and game developments with the old rules. Though the full team has not been assigned I will note here when it is. But the Lejendary Rules for All Players is scheduled for a Summer release. The other core books will follow suite. We will continue to support the line with more adventures and source books.

Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds: Of all Gary’s works I liked these the best. They were my speed. He did not work with any one individual one these projects other than myself, so I assume the role as Editorial Supervisor on the GFW books. We have a 2^nd printing of the Canting Crew and a 3^rd printing of the World Builder in the offering as well as Lejendary Pantheons and Essential Places. The former is the book Gary was presently concentrating on as he wished to see a C&C conversion in the work to go along with the LA descriptions already in it. He had asked me to assign Robert Doyel to take up this task and he was working with Todd Gray as well. These assignments continue.

Gord: TLG will print and publish the hardback reprints of all seven Gord novels. The first is already out.

KoE KoF: In December our lead designer on this vanished. He left us in a horrible bind. Peter Bradley took up the task of laying the game out as quick as he could for Winter Dark. Sadly it wasn’t completed and Gary did not get to see his game finished. In many ways he wanted this out more than any of the other products. But he and I exchanged a host of emails on it and we shall proceed apace and try to have it out by late summer.

Other Projects: There are other projects, too numerous to name here that are going to be worked on so long as the Gygax’s allow us the honor and we feel that we are doing Gary’s memory and legacy justice.

LGGC: This convention continues in all its Glory.

Winter Dark: We are seriously considering merging Winter Dark with a new convention in honor to Gary’s memory: Gary Con.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Gary Gygax in the twilight of his years. He was a good friend to me and to TLG. He was jovial most of the time, kind with a good head for business and working out deals that were fair and equitable . . . Gary’s response to our first offer of X% when we were negotiating our first contract was typical Gary. He expressed astonishment that we had offered to pay that percentage for HIS work, promptly cutting it in half and explaining to Mac and myself that TLG would go out of business by paying such high rates . . . he was quick to anger but just as quick to get over it when things were explained to him or no excuses given. He appreciated honesty and was always forthright with Davis and I and I think respected our inability to deliver a load of bull shit to his stoop. But most of all Gary enjoyed a good smoke, a drink and good plate of food . . . frowning at me for not polishing off everything on my plate, which I never did . . . he loved games, playing them and designing them. All in all Gary had a good life and he did not look back on any of it with regret, always looking forward. He was a good friend and not a day will pass around these offices that his absence isn’t noted.

He's left an empty chair at the table, and we'll never fill it, for indeed we cannot. But in truth that empty chair is not empty at all for Gary continues to reside at all of our tables and on our computer consoles, in the games we play and will play in the future.

Davis, Mark, Peter, myself and everyone here at TLG will do our best to serve his legacy and bring to you all more Gygaxian fun!

To our Captain, Goodbye & Godspeed.

To his Fans and the Gaming World, lets go 'Round the Merry Go Round one more time.

Gary at Gamefest (my favorite video), skip to 1:20.

Futurama

Thanks for playing.
Steve Chenault

March is Upon Us . . .

Holy Carolina! March is already upon us. I managed about 9500 words on several projects last week, primarily articles for Crusader 9 and CKG. But once more Shades fell to the wayside. I'm going to attempt (for the 14th time according to these blogs) to finish it this week. Peter has done much of the art, maps and has a little to do on the main map I think and this thing is ready to go. After that back to the CKG for about three weeks and then to Crusasder 10.

Crusader 8 should be this week I think. I'll keep you posted.

I'm really not clear what the heck is going on around here. I spent the weekend on the farm. Its always very quiet. They are on dial up so internet is almost impossible. I can't figure out how to work the digital on the tv and don't really want to. We spend alot of time discussing politics, the War in Iraq and Afghanistan and other sundries. But the weather was nice so me and the kids went out to skip rocks on the pond. But I didn't last long and ended up "resting my eyes" stretched out beneath a sycamore tree. It was a comfortable 72 degrees with a nice soft wind blowing over the hill and through the trees. All things troll were lost, drifting down wind as it should be. So the website didn't get updated, the message boards were neglected and I haven't too much idea what I'm supposed to be working on.

So my plan for Monday is to bug Peter and find out what he's doing.

Here's a little something for the western in you. Take it away Johnny . . . .

Thanks for playing.
Steve

Keeping up With the Jones'

Its early Friday evening. I generally try to shut all things down by 5 p.m. (knowing that I'll be back at the comp in the late hours after all are asleep), but due to unusual circumstances I find myself still on the clock. So its a good time for a quick blog.

Many of you have heard me say, over and over again, that the company is undergoing near constant reorganization. Its true, and it continues to do so. Many of the problems TLG faces are due to personnel changes. People come and go as life's own schedules conflict with their work load. Peter, Davis and I are the only real consistent work hounds here, though that is changing as Mark Sandy gears up for full time employment.

These are good things, but I am very happy to note that the constant cleaning and re-organization is finally showing results. The past two weeks my desk has stayed largely clean and I've managed to react to issues quickly, so that they don't stack up. And that is a good thing as it keeps my mind clear of undone clutter and allows me to focus on projects that are both late (CKG) and projects that are almost finished (Shades of Mist). Also, the increased presence of Mark and Davis has allowed me to focus on marketing the game we have all come to love . . . er Castles & Crusades :) . . . and reconnect with retailers and distributors. This seems to be yielding some fruits as our orders have gone up slightly (though this may be a reflection of discontent with other RPGs on the part of retailers and is definitely impacted by the customers an fans who continue to push the game all over the place).

But as importantly and the gist of my post this eve is that I managed to write over 6000 words this week, both on Shades and, yes, the CKG. Not a massive achievement, but its more than I've been able to do in some time . . . this and not fall further behind.

So I say, guardedly, that perhaps things are going to improve and hopefully next week will see even more productivity.

Thanks for playing.
Steve

Save the Tar but Hold the Feathers!

Ahhhh The Castle Keeper’s Guide. It seems that the more I answer questions about this project the more I have to answer questions about this project. That is a good thing though, so no complaints from me.

But I would like to set the record straight a little bit and hopefully remove a little of the confusion.

The CKG has never actually been put on our release schedule, meaning to say that no hard and fast target dates were set for the book and resources devoted to it. To this day Peter has little more than a working cover and I think he’s changed the idea he wants to put on it. Davis posted a massive TOC last year to give folks an idea of what it would include. But the book was never actually announced and put on our release schedule. Other projects, as important to our financial well being, precluded this, as well as the 2^nd and then 3^rd printings of the PH and MT interrupting it. This is why you rarely see us talking about it, at least until of late, because now it IS on our release schedule. This means that it moves up in priority.

But how did it get on Amazon? Well, that’s my fault of course. In talking to one distributor about things that might be coming out in the summer (this was back in 2005/6) I sent over some info on a bunch of projects we were working on. The CKG was one of them. Either I did not understand him or he me, but he took the list as a hard and fast product release schedule for that summer whereas I thought it was supposed to be a blurb in a catalog. Amazon promptly announced it and we we’ve been looking like boneheads ever since.

So, technically, the book is not late. J I know no one is going to believe it, nor care about this technicality, but with as many projects as we have late, I would like you to know that the CKG isn’t one of them.

And before I go on the book will not be announced until the text is 100% complete and at the editor and the cover is 100% done and the interior shots are 50% complete. We spent 2007 trying to catch up with our releases and bring late products out so that 2008 would be on a more professional track. Though this doesn’t affect direct consumer sales so much it does retail sales. Retailers need to know that they can depend on a company to support a market. We have worked hard on that and are on track for weekly releases for some time. Many of these projects are on autodrive, meaning to say that they were completed or brought to near completion in 2007 and they can make release dates in 2008 on time. This is all a good thing. Check the boards and you can see our releases.

We are working on becoming more dependable.

But where are we on the CKG. It still is not announced for release. We are into our June releases and it is my hope that if Davis and Peter can draw their ends together we can announce it for August. This would be a coup of biblical proportions for us. I’ve had nauseatingly long talks with Davis about the book and tremendous progress has been made by him and he team. But if we are to meet the August release date the book will have to be brought into a formatable format by late March for Peter to have a go at it. It is my understanding that we are presently on track for that.

I hope that helps and we really do appreciate the continued interest in the project and we will get er done!