Tynes Cowan Corporation News and Previews

Bumps in the Night: 400% funded means it's time for more rewards

As I write this our Kickstarter fundraiser for Bumps in the Night has just cracked the $10,000.00 mark. I continue to be astounded by the generosity of Pagan Publishing's fans and amazed at the goodwill that still remains for this company and products we make.

While I am still conflicted about whether to push this Kickstarter on to fund our next book (Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity) or run a separate Kickstarter for that project, I will nevertheless continue to add more rewards to Bumps in the Night for everyone who has contributed so far. Now that we have crossed the $10K mark I will add playtest notes for four of the five scenarios in Bumps in the Night. I did not playtest "The Westerfield Incident," but I did playtest all the others. And yes I will be speaking with the other playtesters and seeing if they might be will to add something of their own to the reports. 

I'm chasing down options for the other backer rewards you folks have suggested and will be adding them as soon as something can be worked out with the rights holders.

Stay tuned for more news.

Kickstarter Fundraiser Update: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

To say that I was surprised to see that you, Pagan's fans, met our fund-raising goal of $2,500.00 in less than 12 hours would be a bit of an understatement. By the end of our first day I was running out of words to describe how shocked I was by the generosity of our fans and by the good-will Pagan Publishing still has. Three days in and I am speechless.

Of course, since exceeding our fund-raising goals was not a subject I put any thought into, I have been playing a bit of catch up on this subject. Every time I think "I'll add a reward for everyone when we hit the $4K mark," suddenly we've passed the $4K mark. Okay, I'll add the new reward when we hit $5K...

ZOOM!

$5K is in my tail-lights.

$6K?

SPLAT!

We've got the $6K goal splashed all over our grill. Clearly I'm going to have to add the rewards and not worry about the pledge levels because you folks are exceeding my expectations faster than I can conceive them.

So let's begin by offering a couple of new rewards to EVERYONE who has pledged.

Everyone who pledged to this project will now receive two pdfs. The first pdf will be a collection of all the player handouts, floor-plans and maps for the scenarios in Bumps in the Night. That will save you from having to stretching the spine of the book photocopying those pages for your players.

The second pdf will be a set of pre-generated characters that I created for running the scenario "The Vengeful Dead" at game conventions. Your players may enjoy using them or maybe you can use them to fill out the guests at the resort if your players prefer to roll up their own characters.

However, that does not cover any so-called Stretch Goals, that is new aspects or enhancements for a project that can be added as new pledge levels are achieved. I won't add anything to Bumps in the Night that might delay the book going to press. I also don't want to collect funds for a project that cannot be immediately sent to press (or at least isn't extremely close to completion). Therefore the only Pagan project that could qualify as being ready to go sans an infusion of cash is the softcover edition of Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity. However, it requires a great deal of cash. To print and ship it would be (as per my last print bid) another $8,740.00 And that doesn't include paying the artists, the writers and the licensing fees.

So, I am hesitant to make the funding of Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity a stretch goal for this fundraiser. My inclination is to take any money over and above our goals for Bumps in the Night and put into a nice warm savings account, so that when we do a fundraiser for Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity, soon after this Kickstarter ends, then we'll just have that much less money to raise. I feel this would be less confused and allow for a package of backers' rewards that are tailored for a Delta Green product.

Nevertheless, none of this would be possible without you, Pagans fans and backers. So I am certainly willing to entertain any suggestions you have. Would you prefer a separate Kickstarter or would you prefer to try and pile on the momentum of this one and build it to a two-for-one fundraiser? I'm also interested in any suggestions you folks might have for additional rewards you might be interested in. Certainly there are playtest notes that could be shared. There are other Pagan Publishing books that could be mailed out with your copy of Bumps in the Night. None of these possibilities would be here if it wasn't for your generosity so I am open to any suggestions you might care to offer.

Kickstarter Fundraiser for "Bumps in the Night"

Greetings Agents and Cultists,

Pagan Publishing has just launched a fundraiser at Kickstarter.com to raise the rest of our printing and shipping budget for our new collection of Call of Cthulhu scenarios entitled Bumps in the Night.

Bumps in the Night was written by John H. Crowe III and is set in the classic Call of Cthulhu era in the early part of the 20th Century. All five scenarios use the Call of Cthulhu Basic Role Playing mechanics, but none of them are based on the Cthulhu Mythos. Instead the players will have to face obscure horrors from the world of myth and folklore. At 120 pages, Bumps in the Night is beautifully illustrated by Rick Sardinha, Heather Hudson, Samuel Araya and Rhonda Libby. It will be produced as a 8.5" x 11" softcover, with glossy color exteriors and grisly grayscale interior artwork.

All writing, editing, proof-reading, illustration and layout are complete. All we need now is our print budget. We've raised some money through customer pre-sales but still need to raise another $2,500 dollars to cover the rest of the printing and shipping to our warehouse. If we meet our pledge goals, we can have a full print run ready to ship to customers in nine weeks (which includes the time we have to wait for Amazon Payments to release the pledged funds).

Check out our Kickstarter page to learn all about the rewards available to those who help make Bumps in the Night a reality.

For those folks who pre-ordered Bumps in the Night at GenCon or from Arkham Bazaar, if you also want to contribute to the Kickstarter fundraiser, we'll add the money you've already spent to your new pledge for purposes of calculating rewards. There's no reason you should get less just because you supported this project earlier than anyone else.

Click anywhere it says Kickstarter or Bumps in the Night to go to our project page at Kickstarter.com and donate to the cause.

Pagan Publishing attending two (relatively) local Cons

Howdy Pagan fans,

Just a short note to let folks know that Pagan Publishing will be running games at a could of local Cons.

In just two weeks we’ll be running some games down in Vancouver WA (just across the Columbia River from Portland, OR) at GameStorm 14, March 22 -25. We’re set to run three games of Call of Cthulhu.

On Friday March 23rd I’ll be running The Last Flight of the L58 at 11:30am. It's 1918. The players are the crew of the Imperial German Naval airship L58. While on a secret mission over Persia, unnatural, impossible death stalks the crew. They will have to fight for their lives if they ever hope to return home to the Fatherland.

On Saturday March 24^th I’ll be running “The Vengeful Dead” at 9:00am. This scenario will be a sneak peek at our upcoming Bumps in the Night scenario anthology. In “The Vengeful Dead” it's 1921. Players are the guests of the rustic Grandview Lodge Resort in the foothills of the Appalachians. Undoubtedly they will find the peace and quiet they so desire. Nothing disturbing will happen. Not at all.

Finally on Sunday March 25^th at 11:30am I will run a Delta Green game I like to call "Gone South.” Here a 70-year old photo of something that should not exist leads our Delta Green agents to a quiet corner of Mexico where the drug war is a distant story. Does the tranquility mean that the danger has passed, or has it grown to horrific proportions?

The second con is The Emerald City Comicon here in Seattle. We’re going to support our favorite Seattle comic and game store, The Dreaming. Over the course of the weekend we’ll be running some Call of Cthulhu, some Hills Rise Wild and maybe even a couple of games we don’t even have stake in, like Fantasy Flight’s Arkham Horror or Flying Frog’s Fortune & Glory… ‘cuz well, they’re just fun. Hope to see some local Pagan fans while we’re there.

Oh, and stay tuned... we're about 24 hours away from launching a Kickstarter fundraiser to get "Bumps in the Night" to press.

Pagan Publishing Attending not one, but TWO! (count 'em) two Lovecraftian film festivals!

I can't imagine that I have to remind any of you agents and cultists out there that the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival continues to thrill and astound views both in its Northern and Southern incarnations. This weekend I shall be attending the Portland H.P. Lovecraft film festival at the magnificent Hollywood Theatre.There I will be taking in all the new short films as well as a German feature film based on "The Colour Out of Space" and the latest creation of those madmen from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society: a feature length version of "The Whisperer in Darkness" done in the style of a 1930s Universal monster movie!

Next weekend, however, there is a second film festival of similar bent up in my home town of Seattle. Lovecraft's Visions is a new film festival that will debuting at the Seattle Art Museum the weekend of October 7th, 8th and 9th. This will give folks in the Pacific Northwest a chance to see The Whisperer in Darkness again as well as a far rarer gem: the never before seen director's cut of The Resurrected! Dan O'Bannon did a pretty good job bringing "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" to the screen, but it wasn't the movie he wanted to make. For the first time an audience will get to see Dan O'Bannon's vision without the clutter and cuts forced on him by producers and the studio.

Come on out and see it folks. Who knows when it will ever see the light of day again?

 

Actual Play recording of "The Night Mission" from GenCon 2011 now up at RPPR

This past GenCon I played quite a bit of Call of Cthulhu. Some of it even got recorded. The first one has now been released online. It is a playtest of a scenario for our World War One project, Horrors of War, called "The Night Mission."

The players include Ross Payton, from Role-Playing Public Radio, who brought along his friend Caleb (whose last name escapes me), Kieth Potter (a regular contributor to the Delta Green Mailing List) his friend Ross (who we simply called Ross II: Electric Bugaloo), Greg Stolze and Shane Ivey. Flying WWI biplane bombers over the Italian Alps... at night... in a Call of Cthulhu game... What could go wrong?

You can hear it all by clicking HERE!

More actual plays are on the way.

The Unspeakable Oath Podcast interviews the team behind Delta Green

Shane Ivey and the folks at Arc Dream have done a great job bringing The Unspeakable Oath back from the dead. Now they've upped the ante with the creation of a Call of Cthulhu podcast called Unspeakable! For their first three episodes they included interviews with John Tynes, Dennis Detwiller and myself (Adam Scott Glancy). Check them out. The interviews are chocked full of product info, war stories, nonsense and segueways.

Bumps in the Night ready for Pre-Ordering

“From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!”

– traditional Scottish prayer

Go ahead…

Say your prayers
Light your lamp
Load your revolver

It won’t do any good.

Pagan Publishing is proud to present Bumps in the Night: five non-Mythos scenarios of supernatural horror and mystery from author John H. Crowe III. Inside this musty tome you won’t find deep ones, or shoggoths, or Great Old Ones, but you will find loathsome horrors perpetrated by both the living and the dead. Ghosts, demons, poltergeists, spirits and the undead are the order of the day.

What horror is devouring the locals in “The Westerfield Incident?”

What has caused the graves to open in “The Vengeful Dead?”

Can the Investigators save themselves from “The Bitter Venom of the Gods?”

Will they unravel the “Curse of the Screaming Skull?”

Can they bring peace to “An Unsettled Mind?”

It won’t help your Investigators if they’ve read the Malleus Monstrorum or own their own copy of the core Call of Cthulhu rulebook. There’s nothing in those well-thumbed volumes to help them here. In here, they’re on their own.

Bumps in the Night is written, edited, play-tested, illustrated, laid out and proofed. All we need now is our print budget, so we are turning to you, our fans, to help us bring this project to the public. We are asking those who pre-order to pay $25.00, (the full SRP is $24.95). In exchange pre-orders will be shipped out before orders to distributors are.

Also, all domestic pre-ordered books will be shipped out to customers for free. International pre-orders will come with a $5 discount on shipping costs.

Pre-orders can also get Bumps in the Night signed by author John H. Crowe III for a total price of $30.00.

We will take pre-orders until the end of September, then we’ll work on raising the rest of the publishing budget via other means.

Of course, if the book is not funded sufficiently to go to press by 12/31/11 we will refund your credit card for pre-orders or donations in full.

The ball's in your court Pagan Fans! Let’s make this happen.

To place a pre-order please follow this link to Arkham Bazaar, who handle all of Pagan Publishing's mail order business these days.

Looking for Old Unspeakable Oath Subscribers

Thanks to the efforts of the good folks over at Arc Dream Publishing, The Unspeakable Oath has returned from the grave and is now available for sale. If you haven't seen the new website, check it out here!

One thing both Pagan and Arc Dream agreed about when we worked out an arrangement for bringing The Unspeakable Oath back was that the old subscribers needed to be taken care of... even though it had been nearly a decade since a subscription was purchased.

To that end we have combed our records and found 90 unfilled subscriptions. The hard part isn't getting these old subscribers their books, its finding where our old subscribers have scurried off to since that last address we had. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to post the names of all the subscribers with outstanding subscriptions here, on the TUO website, and on other forums like Yog-Sothoth.com and the Delta-Green Mailing List. If you see your name, please get in touch with Arc Dream publishing through their website and they will attempt to confirm that you are who you say you are... mostly based on confirming what your old address was when you had a subscription. They'll get a PDF AND a hard copy out to you. Don't get in touch with Pagan Publishing. We don't have any copies to send to you. That's Arc Dream's balliwick.

Here are the list of Subscribers and the last issue they have a subscription for:

Through Issue #18:

Steve Bull

Michael Cisco

Eric Dowe

Ron Dunnett

Yossi Gurvitz

G.S. Kirkham

Robert MacLaughlin

Bruce A. Paulson 

Matthew Reinke

Clark V. Wallace

 

Through Issue #19:

Dale Batson

Andrew Bird

Brian Judas Bradley

Fredrick H. Brown

Sean Carney

Matt Cowger

James Crisp

Alex Driver

Jay W. Dugger

Douglas B. Dunaway

Tracy Scott Emrich

Cameron Fairchild

Adam E. Gauntlett

Leon C. Glover

Richard Keenan Greenalch, Jr.

Martin Herles

Kevin Hester

Dermot Hill

Nathaniel Hoffman

Robert Hradek

Douglas Ianelli

Mark Jahnke

Robert Jase

Sean Jensen

David Jerabek

Frank J. Kaeberlein

Daniel R. Lackey

Thomas R. Lane

Stephano, Lanticina

Dr. Casmir Liber

Perry Lin

Donnovan K. Loucks

James Lowder

James Majka

John C. Maniha

Greg Marks

William McCarthy

Herbert McCowan

Jeff McSpadden

B.T. McTeer

Mike McVeigh

David W. Miller

David Millians

Russel Mirabelli

Allen Mixson

Thomas Moffatt

Harry Morris

Morten K. Pettersen

Graeme Price

Eric Priehs

Philip C. Robinson

Gregory Allan Rutherford

Mark A. Santillo

Adam Schroeder

James Sessums

Scott Shafer

A. K. Shipman

Claude Sigmund

Paul Sissenstein

Lena L. Sorensen

Walk Spafford 

Daniel Speir

Martin C. Stack

John R. Stansfield II

Scott Stoyanozich

Daniel V. Thibault

Paul Villanueva

Jason Vines

Mark Vorwerk 

Patrick Wetmore

Charles Wilkins

Mark Williamson

Fabio Zanicotti

 

Through Issue #20:

Patrick A. Buehler

Jacques De Sorgher

Chick Lewis

Beth Savage

 

Through Issue #21:

Andreas Melhorn

 

Through Issue #22:

Leroy Castle

 

Through Issue #23:

Stephen Page

More Con News, Bumps in the Night, Reprints & PDFs

As events rocket past once again I have fallen behind keeping the general public up to date on the comings and goings at Pagan Publishing.

First: Con News

Pagan Publishing will be attending Gamestorm in Vancouver WA, just across the river from Portland. The con is held at the Vancouver WA Hilton Hotel from March 24th to March 27th. Hope to see you there. I plan to run some Delta Green scenarios and some stuff from our upcoming Horrors of War collection.

Second: Bumps in the Night

Bumps in the Night creeps forward. The second edit/proofread of the interior is being done and it'll soon be time to start soliciting printers for bids. When the book is ready to go to the printer we will start soliciting you, the loyal Pagan customers, for pre-sales to support the cost of printing. We plan to offer PDFs along with the pre-orders.

Reprints & PDFs

We're still looking to do reprints of out of print Pagan products and still plan to take the first step into that arena via pdfs through DriveThruRPG. Delta Green is re-laid out right now. Delta Green: Countdown is next and then The Golden Dawn and other rpg titles will follow. Delta Green: Alien Intelligence and Delta Green: Dark Theatres will be next on the agenda. We're working with Arc Dream to bring other Delta Green titles to pdf publishing.