Due to a good number of requests from players running their own games, we’ve made the new player cheat sheet that we use at conventions available online. You can find it in our downloads section (boy do I need to get my butt moving on the website upgrade/redesign) and at RPG Drive Thru.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=92754

http://www.silvervinegames.com/Svg/Downloads#cyrusgameaids

It’s the perfect thing to refresh new players on what they can do at the table.

Are you going to be at Origins Games Fair in Columbus this year? If so, check out the many Silvervine games offerings we’ve got going on there. If you know and love Silvervine, we’d love to see you help us spread the word. Drag your friends into SVG games, tell complete strangers in the halls about Silvervine, or just dress up as your favorite character. Here is our schedule of games in chronological order. Can’t wait to see you there!

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6161

Thu 12:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6231

Thu 2:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

SVG – Whose game is it anyways?

Event # 6233

Thu 2:00 pm – 4 Hours

Come watch Gnome Stew GM John Arcadian runs a game with no prep. You provide the building blocks, he crafts the story on the fly. He’ll run the game win the adaptable Silvervine Games system in an Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk world. Come check it out. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6397

Fri 10:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6413

Fri 12:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

SVG – To Board or Not To Board

Event # 6415

Fri 12:00 pm – 4 Hours

Elijah Cornelius, adventurer, scholar, and heir to the Duke Albionach, has arrived in Windrah after some unforeseen delays.  He is in a hurry to leave for the city of Dwarvenhome, but there are those that mean him harm that are trying to prevent his departure.  His brother, Percival, has gotten wind of this, and has sent allies to his side.  Will he make his ship and his destination? Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting.

Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome.

SVG – A Killer In The City Of Courts

Event # 6479

Fri 2:00 pm – 4 Hours

March 5th, 1853 – Quill, the City of Courts. Duke Albionach Cornelius is found dead of a heart attack, but something isn’t right. Witnesses saw an abnormally lanky man running down an alley by his apartment. Approached by the Brothers’ Cornelius, heirs to duke Albionach, can you solve the mystery of the death and prevent further murders? Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome. Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6497

Fri 4:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6517

Fri 6:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

SVG – Big Trouble in Little Judarin

Event # 6518

Fri 6:00 pm – 4 Hours

In the dwarven port city of Judarin, inter-clan feuds and rivalries are as old as the stones themselves.* When Elijah Cornelius, an heir to the Cornelius shipping fortune, comes to Judarin researching a book, it is a golden opportunity for your house to gain prestige by demonstrating the famed dwarven hospitality. Unfortunately, he chose someone else as his guide. Now it is your job to make sure he leaves the city embarrassed, uncomfortable, humiliated and possibly wet while blaming it on the guides of your rival clan, the Grit-Honlecs. *Not geologically accurate. Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome.

SVG – Brothers In Peril

Event # 6572

Fri 8:00 pm – 4 Hours

The letters of the Cornelius brothers can be found throughout the Traveler’s Guide to Cyrus, detailing their adventures and the eventual loss of Percival to his misuse of forbidden magic. Pick up where the letters left off and play the first published adventure from Silvervine Games. Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. This is an experience game, and players will need an approved character at Journeyman experience tier to play.

SVG – First In Class

Event # 6573

Fri 8:00 pm – 4 Hours

Professor Masteron’s classes at the CommonWealth college are always entertaining, especially when you get to relive them. Participate in the class as one of the Professor’s old comrades, come to tell the class about a previous adventure from when the professor was a research assistant digging up ruins in the Sunsleep jungle. Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6640

Sat 10:00 am – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

SVG A Killer In The City Of Courts

Event # 6642

Sat 10:00 am – 4 Hours

March 5th, 1853 – Quill, the City of Courts. Duke Albionach Cornelius is found dead of a heart attack, but something isn’t right. Witnesses saw an abnormally lanky man running down an alley by his apartment. Approached by the Brothers’ Cornelius, heirs to duke Albionach, can you solve the mystery of the death and prevent further murders? Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome. Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6657

Sat 12:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

SVG – To Board or Not To Board

Event # 6713

Sat 2:00 pm – 4 Hours

Elijah Cornelius, adventurer, scholar, and heir to the Duke Albionach, has arrived in Windrah after some unforeseen delays.  He is in a hurry to leave for the city of Dwarvenhome, but there are those that mean him harm that are trying to prevent his departure.  His brother, Percival, has gotten wind of this, and has sent allies to his side.  Will he make his ship and his destination? Anime/Fantasy/Steampunk setting. Pregens provided, starting level characters welcome.

Silvervine CC and Intro Game

Event # 6729

Sat 4:00 pm – 2 Hours

Armored Mage,Ninja Paladin,Talking Sandwitch? Try Silvervine’s unlimited character creation and an intro game. Silvervine offers unlimited character creation options with a straightforward point buy system. Thematic elements allow you to customize even further. Your armor looks however you want it to, your spells have whatever effects you describe. Dice rolls determine the success of an action, while Cinematic and Shared Narrative determines what actually happens. The game is shaped by the player’s descriptions of their incredible actions as much as it is by the Game Master. Use your character in our other games, or submit it to the Player Picture Project for possible inclusion in our publications.

With the new print run and a bit of leftover stock of penny dreadfuls and bandannas, we’ve set up an online store. You can buy the Core Rulebook/Cyrus Worldbook w/PDF, our 2 published Penny Dreadfuls, or get yourself a stylish and sexy SVG Bandanna. Go be a bold little consumer and help us fund new projects!

http://www.silvervinegames.com/purchase.html

Good News Everyone!

We’ve just updated our process for the Player Picture Project and given it a permanent home on our website.

http://www.silvervinegames.com/playerpictureproject

If you aren’t familiar with the PPP, you should be. Since we love seeing the incredible and diverse characters that come from our players, we try to make use of them in our publications and games whenever we can. If you submit your character to the Player Picture Project using the PPP PDF form, we might turn it into a Pregen for use at convention games, include it as an NPC in a published adventure, or even showcase it on the chapter pages in an upcoming book (as seen to the left). Check out the new PPP page and the fully interactive submission PDF. Grab your best character, fill out the form, and then send it to  ppp@silvervinegames.com. We can’t use the character or commission art for it without the digitally signed form, so go fill one out and show us the awesome characters you can come up with!  http://www.silvervinegames.com/playerpictureproject

We’ve been scrambling on convention prep this year, but we are hitting more smaller conventions in the area. We just went to UBcon up in Buffalo, New York and it was great. Here is a bit of heads up on the next conventions we’ll be going to.

Fopcon – The Federal Order of Police Convention

Saturday April 30th

4275 Powell Rd. Huber Heights, Ohio

http://fopcon.com/

John and Ed will be running games and character creation. John will also be trying to explain his multiple speeding tickets…

Ancon – Another Game Con

May 20th – 22nd

Clarion Inn Hudson
240 East Hines Hill Road
Hudson, OH  44236

http://anothergamecon.com/

John, Ed, Alec, and Ryan will be there running games, doing character creations, and selling the next print run. This is a perennial favorite convention of ours. Come check it out and challenge Ed or John with a game of Whose Game Is It Anyways.

Marcon

May 27th – 29th

Hyatt Regency Columbus

350 North High Street
Columbus, OH 43215

http://marcon.org/wordpress/

John will be helping Andy Hopp and running some games on Friday night and Saturday. Saturday night there is going to be a room party, put on by Con On The Cob. John is going to be helping out with that and kilted the whole time, so you know it’s going to be fun.

One of the most awesome things about the thematic and cinematic angles built into the Silvervine system is the fact that focuses and skills act to enable a player’s ideas instead of limiting them. Some game systems are so mechanically focused that not having the specific power means you can’t perform particular tasks. This is less of a mechanical aspect of those systems and more of a game philosophy. “In order to do X, you need ability Y.”  Sometimes this is stated, sometimes it is just assumed.

To me, the powers a character has should never work in this way. A task is a task – and if the player can come up with a logical, fun, or semi-valid way to complete it, then that should be allowed. If a character is trying to get past a door, there are many ways to make that happen. They could go the standard routes:

• pick the lock
• knock the door down
• remove the hinges
• find a weak point in the wall

But they could also dig into their character’s theme and abilities to do something really cool*:

• use a telekinetic power to turn the handle from the other side (Telekenesis)
• teleport to the other side or make a duplicate on the other side to open the door (Regardless of Distance, Shadow Walk, Divide)
• utilize their incredibly high finesse and skill to drive a blade through the lock, breaking the tumblers but allowing the door to be opened. (Good Roll, High Weapon Skill)
• use a matter manipulation power to modify the door or wall (Stonebread**, Elemental Force, Muddy Ground)
• use their misting ability (intended as a defensive mechanism) to move under the crack. (Mist Form)
• call upon their knowledge to find a hidden lever for the door (Architecture, History, Dungeon Knowledge, Politics)
• use their ability to break armor or cleave opponents in two to get an advantage to break down the door.(Armor Break)

While the many ideas listed above aren’t necessarily the way the challenge was written to be overcome, they each provide a solution. In many of the cases, they provide a solution that is more appropriate to a player’s concept of their character. A knowledge based character’s knowledge should enable him to do more than just read books and make rolls to remember things. A combat character with interesting options in other situations  is much more epic than a combat character who just kills things. A character whose theme is their deep connection to shadows shouldn’t need a million skills on their sheet to do cool things with the shadows. Enabling these things makes a character feel more vibrant and well liked.

This is why I think Game Masters should….

Think Of Focuses and Skills as Enablers

Special abilities in all systems enable characters to do awesome things beyond what you would find in mundane life. A soldier trained to fight in the army isn’t the same as the cyber-jacked soldier who is the hero of a movie. A martial artist can’t really fly through the air ala wire-fu, but that wouldn’t make for great movies that detail the concept of achieving the awesome through skill and training. A character in a roleplaying game is almost always more awesome than any real life counterpart or inspiration. The differences are those special abilities, sometimes just incredible skill, that are built into the character.

So when a character has a nifty focus, look at it in a multifaceted way. What could that enable the character to do beyond what is written in the description?

For the focus Shadowwalk, which allows a character to move between two shadows, a bit of stretching and some extra rolls or manna spent in the use might*:

• Allow a character to explode the shadow they come out of for intimidating effect or to blind their enemies. (+1 manna, Extra roll)
• Enable them to extend the shadow and darken a streetlight to help hide themselves. (+1 manna, extra roll)
• Roll through the shadow but leave an item they are trying to hide behind to prevent it from being taken by guards. (No extra roll or manna, but no guarantee they can easily retrieve it later. Make it only available when the shadow they left it in is in the same place or they have to go into the exact shadow to find it, a fun time if that shadow was a person or moving object’s shadow.)
• The Game Master might let the player stretch the ability far from its intended purpose and let them see through shadows instead of walking through them. (+2 manna, extra rolls, headache for the character and a die penalty for a little while afterwards. They could however spend some extra exp and make this an additional ability tied to the shadowwalk without any penalty.)

Using powers as enablers can make cool Thematic (fluff) elements possible too.*

• It might mean that they are constantly covered in thematic moving shadows, a sign of their dark pact or their time trapped in the shadow world.
• Be the reason that their gun fires bolts of black material, flying through the air crackling with dark lightning.
• Allow them to work shadow’s like marionettes while telling a story. (1 manna)

While some of these uses might be covered better by other powers or skills, they might also be the difference between awesome and mundane in a situation where the player is really into the action. Really, what is more fun for a player: Being told they can’t do something really cool because they don’t have the specific ability that is written in that way, or letting them stretch the established rules a bit to do something thematically or mechanically awesome in one situation?

So think of the focuses on the sheet as things that can open up whole new worlds. Look at the options they might present or the cool moments they could be the genesis of. If you like the idea, let the players know you might be amiable to more open interpretations of the powers.

*Things bolded in parentheses within the lists are my suggestions for powers that might work or extra things the Game Master might require to make it happen.

**The moment a playtesting group came up with the idea that the stonebread spell could be used to turn dungeon walls into bread that could easily be pushed through, it was a tasty and carb loaded downhill ride for dungeons everywhere in the world of Cyrus.

When we started Silvervine 7 years ago, it was little more than a time filler project in between games. Matt Solomon and I had played a game of 3rd ed. D&D that ended in a rules dispute. Imbibing copious amounts of sake, we talked about everything we’d love to see in a roleplaying game. 7 years later, we’ve put the main book out and gained a decent little following. It has gotten a lot bigger than we planned, but that’s good. It’s taken us by surprise and we’ve grown a lot more than we ever expected.

For the last few months, we’ve been talking about our expansion plans and decided that we really needed to move into some larger (not my refurnished basement) offices. We also started kicking around some crazy ideas. One of those being the fact that we all like beer and some of us have always wanted to run a small restaurant/microbrewery.  About a month ago we found a beautiful foreclosed 2,500 sq ft office building in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio that was zoned C2 for restaurant usage. The upper floors have enough space for the Silvervine Offices and storage for print runs, and a basement can hold the microbrewery. Yesterday, we closed on the building and are beginning renovations. One year from this exact date, we plan to open the Silvervine Games Microbrew Pub and Offices. We’re still mulling over some fun names for it, but we plan to have gaming nights and make it an environment friendly for gaming. Here is a mockup of the space as planned. Mind you things are bound to change in the next year, but it is an exciting development! More to come soon!

A few days ago we finished up a post publication proofing run on the Silvervine Games Core Rulebook & Cyrus Worldbook. See, we were pretty hard pressed against our deadline for printing the first run in order to make sales at Con On The Cob. It was hectic. We did some very late nights, we worked out plans and backup plans in case the printers couldn’t deliver, and we got it out on time and had completely unexpected levels of sales. It was great, but more typos than we were comfortable with crept in or weren’t picked up. There were also some printing errors that made for a much darker look than we wanted. Those kinds of things are going to happen with any book. Nothing is ever perfect, and even the big boys get typos and errors in their work; more often than you would expect actually.*

While most readers will gloss over a majority of the typos and errors, not even noticing them, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the book as good as you possibly can. So, in preparation for the upcoming convention season, we decided to do a rigorous in house proofing. This will make for a cleaner book overall, and it helped us pickup some of the errata issues. Nothing too major as far as errata, and we’ll be putting up a list of errata by edition very very soon.  And you’ll be seeing the book available in print again very soon as well. We’ll also be working out a way to provide updated copies of the PDF to anyone who purchased one of the first print run. Not sure how, but we will.

- John Arcadian

*Every time I see a typo in someone else’s work, I get a little happy inside.

It’s March 4th again, GM’s day. A day to celebrate everything about being a Game Master. To reward those who run our games, putting in hours of hard work beforehand or improvising on the fly to give us really great play experiences. GM’s day is also traditionally a day to put gaming supplies on sale, and that is something we’d normally do, but we’ve got something different for you this GM’s day. Let me start by telling you a little story.

A few months back, I was running a one shot of an adventure that I was writing a review of for Gnome Stew. My printer was busted, and I wanted to print some of the maps out in color anyways. I swung into a print shop, handed them my thumb drive and asked them to print 4 pages. “I’m sorry sir, due to corporate policy, we can’t print this. It is copyrighted material and you need written permission.”  The company that made it neglected to put a print disclaimer on the pages for the printouts. Even though they were marked as printouts in big bold letters, and even though I could have called up the author and gotten the guy permission over the phone, the corporate policy required it in writing. That got me thinking. It’s easy to forget to include a print disclaimer on the pages that you should. There are also a lot of times when you might need to print out a section of the rules for quick reference. If you don’t have a printer, then you  might get stuck on the wrong end of a corporate policy. Since Silvervine is a small company, and understands what GMs go through, we got with our legal rep and worked up something nice.

Yup, in as plain English legalese as we could print it, we’ve got a blanket print disclaimer that covers our products.  Basically, it gives you the right to print one full backup copy of an electronic product from Silvervine games and you can print limited sections if we forgot to put a print disclaimer on the individual page. If you get stuck at a print shop trying to print something, just point them to this page. We’re going to make our print disclaimer live perpetually at http://www.silvervinegames.com/printdisclaimer.

If you think this is a nifty idea, and that more companies should try to provide common sense solutions like this, spread the word. Talk about it on Facebook, Spread it on Twitter, send the link to your favorite bloggers.

We hope this small step helps smooth out any situations you might have. While we’ve currently only got the one product that we sell (there are a bunch of free downloads at our Drive Thru RPG store), we’ve just started work on our first published adventure, so this might come in handy for you in the future.

Good Gaming and Happy GM’s day.

they’d be pretty spot on, unfortunately. The upside to long pauses between updates is that it usually means we are busy working on things to bring to you! We’ve got a lot that has kept us busy these two months. Some of those things are:

• Getting the book ready for a second printing. We released with a limited run at Con On The Cob this last October, and we sold out not soon after. Since we  had a pretty rushed end to the production cycle, we wanted to give the book a good going over again. And that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. Much of our time during the last few months has been spent in going through the book with a fine toothed comb and eliminating every typo demon we find. We’ll be producing an errata list soon, but there aren’t any major changes. Just clarifications. We’ll let you know as soon as the new version is out and available for purchase again.
• Preparing for the next convention season. We’ve just finished submitting our events for our big convention, Origins Games Fair June 22 – 26 in Columbus Ohio, and we are going to be hitting a few before and after that. We’ve been preparing to go to gaming stores in the Northern Ohio area and run games as well. So if you know of a local gaming store, have them contact us at contact@silvervinegames.com or arcadian@silvervinegames.com and we’ll see about scheduling something.
• The first published adventure in Cyrus. If you’ve read the Traveler’s Guide to Cyrus, you know it is interspersed with letters from the Cornelius brothers, the last one leaving readers with a mystery. The first published adventure will help solve that mystery, and it will put the entire Traveler’s Guide To Cyrus into your players hands as an in-game prop. Stay tuned for more on this.
• There are a few more things going on that I can’t talk about, but they’re kind of nifty. Two of these things I can’t talk about I’m incredibly excited for.
• Oh, and if you are a fan of our Facebook page, there might be a special Origins adventure going on Saturday night just for you… But that will be talked about closer to Origins.