With Origins event registration being open now, you can sign up for these games that are being run in the Silvervine system at Origins. None of them are being run by the company, but they look frigging awesome. We’ll be playing in some of these games, and we will also be running some pickups there. More on that later. Go check out (and register for) these awesome sounding games now!

6099-The Core Trilogy: Rotten To The Core (Episode I)

05/30/2012/7:00 PM   180 Mins.

6335-The Core Triliogy: Shaken To The Core (Episode II)  
05/31/2012/7:00 PM   240 Mins.

6488-The Core Triliogy: Igniting The Core (Episode III)

06/01/2012/12:00 PM   240 Mins.

6584-The Core Trilogy: Rotten To The Core (Episode I)   
06/01/2012/5:00 PM   180 Mins.

6740-The Core Triliogy: Shaken To The Core (Episode II)  

06/02/2012/11:00 AM   240 Mins.

6863-The Core Triliogy: Igniting The Core (Episode III)   
06/02/2012/7:00 PM   240 Mins.

6013-Travelogue 101: The Steel Spine Tunnel   
05/30/2012/9:00 AM   240 Mins.

6054-Travelogue 101: The Steel Spine Tunnel   
05/30/2012/2:00 PM   240 Mins.

6100-Travelogue 101: The Steel Spine Tunnel   
05/30/2012/7:00 PM   240 Mins.

6953-Travelogue 101: The Steel Spine Tunnel   
06/03/2012/2:00 PM   240 Mins.

http://www.originsgamefair.com/Events/tabid/2794/Default.aspx

I’m going to start off by saying that this year is very odd for us, and for convention goers in general. The timing for a lot of the big conventions that we normally attend changed a lot. Convention dates were changed, submission deadlines were moved, and a lot of convention goers that I’ve heard from are being forced to decide which of the conventions they can make it to. We’re in a similar situation, and that’s why it has taken us so long to get this convention information up. With so many great conventions changing dates and our other scheduled time commitments,  we didn’t have as much manpower to move between them all. So our convention schedule is going to be lighter than in previous years, and it is going to be structured a bit differently. Check them out below.

Marcon 2012  April 6th Through 8th
Columbus, Ohio

Not quite an official convention appearance, but John will be there this weekend hanging out. He’ll be willing to run a pickup game or two if he has time.  If you want to find John while you are there, you can just look around for the kilted guy with the brown jacket.

Fopcon 2012 Saturday April 28th
Dayton, Ohio

Edwards Yarrus will be bringing Brian Miller and running some Whose Game Is It Anyway at this very fun one day convention down in Dayton. I highly recommend this one.

Origins 2012 May 30th to June 3rd
Columbus, Ohio

Con On The Cob is definitely our home convention, but Origins is where we’ve gotten a lot of exposure and met a lot of our fans and friends. Sadly, our schedules don’t coincide with running a full slate of games and their submission deadline was well before we were able to nail this down. So this year we will be at origins, but our game running will likely be pickup games. We will have a system to notify you of when we are running games, and a way to get in touch with us to request we run some games. While we would love to have a bigger presence here, it is unlikely to happen.

Ancon 2012 June 21st to June 24th
Hudson, Ohio (Akron Area)

Another Game Convention is going to be more in line with our schedules this year, so we will be running some games here once we get them submitted. Ancon is a great little convention, and we look forward to seeing Frank, Super Dave, Wood, Chris, and all our other friends who are involved with the running of this.

Gencon 2012 August 16th to 19th
Indianapolis, Indiana

Silvervine hit Gencon big a few years ago, and John usually goes with Gnome Stew or Engine publishing. This year we are going to be going as Silvervine. John and Ryan will be there running games and hanging out, and Ed might be showing up as well if his schedule allows for it. When registration opens on May 20th, you should see our games there. We’ll keep you posted on this as more information is available!

http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/silvervine-campaign-character-sheets-2802/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=silvervine-campaign-character-sheets

Then you should listen to some of the podcasts they do. Links below:

• Silvervine Campaign: Session 2, Episode 1 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign: Session 2, Episode 2 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign: Session 2, Episode 3 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign Session 1, Episode 1 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign: Session 1, Episode 2 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign: Session 1, Episode 3 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign: Session 1, Episode 4 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign: Session 1, Episode 5 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Campaign: Session 1, Episode 6 (gamer-goggles.com)
• Silvervine Character Creation (gamer-goggles.com)

If you didn’t see it through Ryan Thomas Edward Hale’s post on our facebook wall, they’ve got some more audio of their Silvervine campaign up. Just check out their tag for all things SVG, here:  http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/tag/silvervine-games/.

In other news, I’ve just gotten back from a long needed and long (wibbly wobbly time-wise) vacation. It’s been great, and now there are a bunch of things that are getting kicked into gear. Some projects that got delayed due to burnout, some projects that got delayed due to waiting on other factors, and some projects that just got delayed because of having to fight off invasions from alien forces (don’t ask). As the next few weeks progress, you’ll be seeing many more updates and many more fun things coming out of the SVG labs. Also, enjoy this picture of Bruce Campbell as Brisco County Jr. smiling at some sticks of dynamite. It is our inspiration, and now it can be yours.

Through Gamer Goggles just posted the second section of the audio they took during the game I ran for them. The second part includes most of the hilarious parts, like the hive of worms becoming a video game machine. Go check it out here:

http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/silvervine-campaign-session-1-episode-2-2296/

And here is the first part:

http://gamer-goggles.com/blog/silvervine-campaign-session-1-episode-1-2187/

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/

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.