I’ve finally pulled my head out of the muck and mire of a million projects, so I thought I’d give you a quick post to update everyone on Silvervine news and happenings.

1. Conventions. We’ve been determining which conventions we want to hit this year, and we’d like to expand out to smaller conventions in various places. If you have a convention you’d like us to consider, drop a comment on our facebook or here on this post.

2.  Through Gamer Goggles did a video showing creating a character. They’re good people, so you should go check it out and check out their site as well.

http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/silvervine-character-creation-1917/

3. The website redesign we talked about is coming very soon. That, work on the Mechanomicon, the hectic holidays, actually taking breaks, saving the world from inter-dimensional raiding forces of the Utrom, etc. have kept us pretty silent. Our efforts right now are going into redoing the very old website and making it incredible. Below you can see a teaser of one of the early mockups that we did.

And that’s all for today. Here’s to a good 2012!

Aremis over at Through Game Goggles shares his thoughts on Silvervine Games and the game we ran for them. It’s a common story that I’ve seen across many gaming tables. It begins with incredulity and ends with…

Well, go check it out:

http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/first-impression-silvervine-system-1296/

One of our players has created a really nifty race that we decided to write into the world of Cyrus through the Player Picture Project. The concept behind it seemed too spooky not to release at Halloween, so here you go, a freebie from Silvervine – The Animated Objects race. You can download a PDF at Drive Thru RPG.

Animated Object

Race created by Tim Hornikel

Art by Avery Liell-Kok

Attributes: +1 Perception, +1 Strength, +2 Toughness,
Starting HP: 6 x Toughness
Movement Rating: Average (40 feet)
Racial Affinity Focuses (½ cost) :
Non Organic (NO BREATHE, NO FOOD, NO SLEEP, NO HERB) (Free)
Levitation (Free)
Telepathic Communicator*
Racial Language: Archaic Elven, Any one language of the race they came from.*

* An Animated Object can not communicate with other races if they have not purchased Telepathic Communicator. They can think and move, but not make their thoughts known.

Despite already wielding phenomenal magical power, the Godelves of Cyrus had always been fascinated with ways to increase their ability to wage war and subjugate the world. To that end they carried out many profane experiments. One of those experiments resulted in the creation of weapons and objects animated by the souls of murdered slaves.

The goal of these experiments was to create weapons that could fight without a bearer. If the bearer died in battle, the weapon would continue fighting unencumbered by restraints of mortal flesh. The Godelves were only semi-successful. They did indeed create weapons capable of fighting without wielders, but the weapons were not wholly controllable and they retained some personality of the creature they were created from.

The Godelves shelved the idea, literally. They contained the Animated Objects up in boxes that would contain their magic  and make them inert. These boxes were scattered amongst the Godelven empire to be used as last resort defenses in case of slave revolt. Most were forgotten in the mists of time, but many have been released and live out interesting lives in the hands of adventurers, rascals, and kings. Some decry being wielded by lesser beings and choose to carve their own path from the world.

All Animated Objects, as they have come to be known, have a few things in common. They always contain some amount of metal in their construction. They never take the shape of anything bipedal or animal, always being a created object of some sort. No Animated Object retains the memories of the individual which they were created from, but the memories do exist within special rune covered metal cubes which are separated from the objects during the creation process. Some examples of animated objects which have been found are swords, lyres, arrows, mirrors, and other weapons and household objects.

When an Animated Object was created, the soul of a being was extracted at the moment of death and implanted into a specially prepared magical metal. This metal was then forged into the desired shape by a Dwarven slave. Part of the metal was separated from the object and turned into a rune covered cube which would retain and constrain the memories and personality of the being which was used to power the object. The soul would reside within the object itself, developing a new trainable personality. The experiences that an object had then would get transferred to the storage cube, no matter how far away or hidden it was. Though the Animated Object only had access to the new memories and personality it made, it was found that they would feel attachment to certain races, most likely the one that they were created from. Likely, this is some bleed through of the old memories and personality.

Conventional damage and magical spells can harm and incapacitate an Animated Object, but it is hard to truly kill one. There are rumors of a few ways to do so The first is to destroy the storage cube, which will release the soul within the object and leave the object inert. The second way is to cast an object into a fire hot enough to completely destroy the metal. The third way to destroy an Animated Object is by having them absorb the memories of a cube that is not theirs. This will short out the cube and release the soul.

Through Gamer Goggles did an interview with us at Con On The Cob.

http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/silvervine-games-team-interview-700/

As you can tell from the picture we gave them, we were as serious and taciturn as we usually are. They put up with us beautifully though and got a lot of pictures of our games. Go check it out.

Silvervine fan and friend Alana Smith just got this incredibly kick ass tattoo of her Silvervine Character – Marybeth Annalynn Bobbilee Sparkleshine the III. You can see the SVG logo right there in the picture she sent. She just raised the bar of Silvervine fandom.

So the question now is “Are you cool enough to get a tattoo of your SVG character?” Until the answer to that is yes, you will never be as cool as Alana.

P.s. Alana is going to be running her own games in her world at Con On The Cob. You should definitely check out the Zoot Suit Gang games if you are going to be there.

Con On The Cob is just 11 days away and we wanted to give you a small preview of some of the great things we’ve got going on at this year’s CotC. This year’s Con On The Cob starts off the year of the Mechanomicon. Our next book is going to revolve around mechanical and steampunk aspects of Silvervine and the world of Cyrus.

Character Creations With Expanded Options – Character creation sessions will be expanded with focuses and skill options that will appear in the Mecahnomicon.

Mechanist Themed Games – All of our official games will be based around mechanist themes, exploring parts of the Cyrus and becoming the inspiration for events that might become canon within the world. The games will also be playtesting new rules we’ll be including in the Mechanomicon, so you’ll get your names in the books as official playtesters.

Airships!!! – One of our key focuses will be on airships. We’ve got Airship creation playtests that will let you create your own Airships. You can then use your airships in our giant airship combat on Saturday at 2pm. When we say giant, we mean giant. The game will eclipse 4 tables and ALL of the area between them…

New Worlds By Other People – Alana Smith will be running some games set in her own world, so check them out and see what others are making with the Silvervine System.

Pre-orders Of Something Special – The wrench has always been a symbol of Silvervine and we are working on a deal with Forged Foam (formerly EdHellen) to craft the SVG wrench as a boffer weapon. We’ve got a prototype that we’ll be carrying around, and we’ll be taking pre-orders for anyone who wants one. It’ll be the perfect compliment for any steampunk costume or just a great way to showcase your Silvervine habit. It’s also a great way to punish motivate players. The goblin is not included.

Our Schedule

SVG Games by SVG

Thursday the 13th, 6 PM – 2 Hours Character Creation
Friday the 14th, 10 AM - 2 Hours Airship Creation Playtest
Friday the 14th, 10 AM - 4 Hours The Great Tech Heist
Friday the 14th, 12 PM - 2 Hours Character Creation
Friday the 14th, 6 PM - 4 Hours Mine Mine Mine
Friday the 14th, 8 PM - 4 Hours Tick, Tock – The Tramp of Doom
Saturday the 15th, 10 AM - 2 Hours Character Creation
Saturday the 15th, 12 PM  - 2 Hours Airship Creation Playtest
Saturday the 15th, 2 PM – 4 Hours Airships Over Anacandra
Saturday the 15th, 4 PM - 4 Hours The Great Tech Heist
Sunday the 16th, 2 PM - 2 Hours Whose Game is it Anyways?

Plus pickups whenever possible.

SVG Games By Others

Friday the 14th, 2 PM - 4 Hours Zoot Suit Gang
Saturday the 15th, 2pm - 4 Hours Zoot Suit Gang 2

So, Silvervine’s home convention, Con On The Cob is coming up in Mid October. Are you going to be there? You should be, and not just for the awesome incredible Mechanomicon stuff that Silvervine Games will be debuting there. Seriously,  you should come for some of these things:

• Drink And Draw – Watch artists Drunkenly Scrawl!
• Seminars – Listen to semi-famous people talk!
• Parties – Hang with people you enjoy!
•  The Mother Of All Marketplaces – Buy things that will bring you happiness!*
• Musical Machinations – Listen to songs that deepen the soul and madden the mind!
• Entertain the Chilluns – Watch your little monsters delightful offspring play!
• Roleplay Away – Play some games that are (and I guess aren’t) Silvervine!

Seriously, you should get your shiny Wazoo to Con On The Cob in Hudson, Ohio Thursday on October 13th and you should stay until Sunday, the 1th. It’s gonna be a fantastic time, as always! Also, you should check back here in the upcoming weeks to get some sneak peaks and special downloads in preparation for the Mecanomicon stuff we’ll be testing at the convention.

*SVG does not guarantee happiness from the purchase of material things. That would go against our existential roots… or something.

Drive Thru RPG is having their Christmas in July sale right now.  You know what’s on sale as part of that? The Silvervine main book. Go check it out! Share the news with anyone you know who might like Silvervine. It’s only $12.74.

 http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/rpg_xmas_in_july.php?manufacturers_id=3450&filters=0_0_0_0_31815#selectpub

Hey Everyone,

Fresh out of a skype meeting and have some exciting news for you. One of our next projects, the Mechanomicon, is coming along nicely in the beta planning phases and we’ll be ready for external playtest come Con On The Cob. That means we’ll be  making the them for every SVG game at con on the cob Mechanist’s Paradise. We’ll be debuting some new rules for playtesting, we’ll have extra character creation options for testing, and we’ll be using the play experiences at the convention to create canon for the upcoming Mechanomicon. So if you haven’t registered for Con On The Cob yet, do so. Our games will be up soon and lots of information will be posted here.