Many Mansions - Release!

It's here! It's here! 

[Technically this should have come out last week. I had internet issues.]

It's here at last! Or it will be once I sort out DriveThru.

See, I trusted that Beta system DriveThru has in place. I used the Old Ways for the initial post, the Main Book. That's why you saw that on DTRPG but nothing else; the old ways work. Then I figured I'd use the Beta for the other three in the series. 

Well, gosh. Also, darn.

Won't be doing that again.

What I will do is re-post using the Old Ways, so you should be able to see all four books soon.

However! Far be it for me to witter when I could Witter. It's out! It's here at last!

For those of you wondering, the Main Book covers everything you need to know about the main campaign concepts, the setting, important recurring locations, Read House, and so on. That's why that one is set as Pay What You Want. I was in two minds about this. I could have set the price at $4, same as the rest, since in terms of word count the Main Book is about the same count. Longer, if anything. But that didn't seem right, so I went with PWYW. 

An Extract!

Rome's Four Things

You know what Rome is, for Many Mansions: Cthulhu in its Chorazin avatar. What does this mean in practice?

1. Dream Logic, especially bizarre and disjointed imagery. 

2. A Sensation of Drowning or being trapped in a suffocating situation or location.

3. Empty Houses and Shopfronts, places that have been abandoned to time and the elements.

4. Blank-Faced Creatures or People, wiped clean of all features and expressiveness, with nothing left but a vacant mask of flesh.

As Keeper, feel free to invoke Rome whenever it suits you, or suits the plot. 

For example: the investigators walk down a busy street on a Saturday morning. Everything seems bright and cheerful. Until they turn around and look back the way they came and see that the houses and storefronts they just walked past are all empty. 

For example: the investigators walk into a dust-filled room. At first they choke and cough. Then their lungs begin to fill with liquid – or is it liquid? Can’t breathe! Can’t breathe! Must get out! Must get air!

For example: the investigators step out of their bedroom and straight onto Broome Street. How did that happen? Why did it happen? Why is it nighttime, when only a moment ago it was early morning? Why do all the clouds in the sky look like laughing faces?

For example: the librarian’s face is wiped completely clean, featureless, blank as the surface of an egg!

The other four books are scenarios in the campaign.

In Memoriam - In which the investigators may attend a funeral in a church that does not yet exist.

When Tides Are Right - In which the investigators may find themselves adrift on Pilot Island.

Your Number, Please - In which our protagonists chase up rumors of a fault on the telephone line.

I enjoyed writing these! I have a weakness for Dream or Dream-inspired stories, it's why I have a fondness for Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany.  This let me play with that idea for ... so many words! 

One of my weaknesses as a writer is that I have difficulty believing I can finish a novel-length project. I don't think I'm alone in this. Projects like Many Mansions proves to me - and me is the only audience I care about - that I can finish a novel-length project. Between them, the whole thing's about 60,000 words, more or less. 

I'm also getting better at Omitting Needless Words. 

See? I Omitted a stack of Needless Words just now. You can't tell, because they're Omitted. 

Darn, that feels good. 

Anyway! The added bonus is that I could slot in more of these without causing trouble for the existing work. None of them are timeline dependent. None of them depend on another scenario for their plot. Two of them introduce characters who could remain in the narrative but don't have to. 

So! Want to see more of these? Then buy these. Encourage your friends to buy them. 'Cause the only thing which will get me to write more is sales, buddy, sales. Also, constant praise. But mainly sales. 

I hope you enjoy Many Mansions!

Now, since I've had this in every other Many Mansions boost it feels a shame to leave it out:

Jacob's Ladder sourced from HD Retro Trailers

Have fun!