One of the things I love most about having made a gaming system is watching fans interact with and make modifications to it. Recently I got something  just like this in my inbox. Silvervine fan Mike Rutenbar emailed me a word document character sheet that he made for the Silvervine system. It mimics the style and feel of “Old School” character sheets used for D&D prior to 3rd edition. The sheet was so awesome we made some minor tweaks and got Mike’s permission to upload it. So, as a final christmas gift to everyone here is Mike’s Old School Silvervine sheet. You can get it from our download section or from Drive Thru RPG.

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

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?cPath=&products_id=86971

Some News To End The Year And Start The New One

There are quite a few things being planned and finished right now at the Silvervine offices. I like keeping people informed, so here is a quick overview of some things going on with SVG.

1. Errata and New Print Run – It should come as no surprise to anyone that Silvervine Games is a very very small company. We do this mostly for love of the game but we have a dedication to making a quality product. It took us 7 years of working in our spare time to get Silvervine to a state that we decided was good enough to put out there. We got something we really liked and something that everyone who saw it really seemed to like. We sold out of our first print run over the course of two small conventions. That’s a great response if I ever heard one! But no book, especially one done by a very small group, is without errors and we’ve caught a few issues since release. Rather than do a new print run with the typos and errors from the first book we are going to make some minor changes where we can and have a new print run ready sometime in the beginning parts of the new year. We’ll also be making a valiant effort to provide updated PDF copies to people who purchased the first run. We’re not sure of the exact system yet, but we’ll set something good up. In addition, we are going to be making a static errata page on the website where people can find errata with ease. Expect these things sometime after January.
2. Player Picture Project and Next Products  – Some of you are familiar with the Player Picture Project and how we like to make use of character concepts that people have made at convention games. Check out the chapter pictures in front of every chapter in the Silvervine Games Core Rulebook and Cyrus Worldbook if you aren’t. Well, the player picture project is going to be springing up again in the first bit of January, but with some changes for ease of use. We’ll be modifying some sheets so that PPP releases and characters can be filled out mostly on the computer. So to all of you out there with a plethora of awesome characters, I’m looking at you Brian Miller – the man of a million characters, get ready for a new round of PPP awesomeness.
3. SVG: TLDR – One of my own personal projects that just hasn’t gotten off the ground yet is SVG: TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) a series of web videos aimed at teaching the game and certain GMing ideas to players and GMs. While many people learn games from books, many more learn them from other people. Silvervine has its own unique flavor that sometimes requires Game Masters to think in a different way. In SVG: TLDR, we’ll be imparting information your way in an electronic face to face. If you’ve got any topics or questions you’d love to have us cover, just shoot an email to contact@silvervinegames.com.

With those few tidbits to sate you over, we wish everyone a happy end of the year. We’ll see you all in 2011.

– John Arcadian, C.E.O. Silvervine Games

Well, things have been mighty quiet around the Silvervine Games offices these last few weeks. With some great successes at our fall conventions and some great responses online, we got struck by the plague and spent a good chunk of the past few weeks recuperating. With health returned (mostly) we’ve got a few end of the year gifts for everyone.

  First, we’ve reduced the price of the Core Rulebook and Cyrus Worldbook until the end of the year. Get it now for only $12.99. If you’ve been waiting for something like this to pick the book up, now is your chance and it won’t last long.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=85795

Second, we’ve put the Quick CC Guide up for free download on DriveThruRPG. This is the same one we use at convention games. If you want to preview the game before buying, check it out through this.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=86932

Third, we are going to have some more announcements before the end of the year and a few more things to put online. Check back, because you’ll like what you find!

Thursday is Thanksgiving, and there is a lot to be thankful for here at the Silvervine offices. We’ve had great response to putting out Silvervine’s first real product, the Core Rulebook and Cyrus Worldbook. Not only did we sell out of the first print run in a very short time, we’ve sold about as many on Drive Thru RPG. If you haven’t already picked up the book, go check it out on Friday.

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=85795

If you’ve already got the book, tell some friends about it or write a comment about the game. The sale price will make it well worth it for anyone to pick up. And don’t worry, we didn’t forget you. We are going to put something special up for free on Friday as well.

So if you’ve purchased the book, or even looked at the book, you may have seen the dedication. If not, go get a copy and look at it…it’s cool I’ll wait.

As you can see the dedication is to fans, and part of the reason for this is because we’re shocked and amazed that we have fans! It’s an odd thing really. Even now after a few cons and a burgeoning diaspora of SVG players, none of us at the team can help but giggle when we hear how much people dig the game. As I thought about how I would explain our system to people, I thought about how at cons our tables are like the band Motorhead, if nothing else, we’re the loudest…but that’s a good thing, right?

So what’s next? Well, I suppose we’re hoping to get ready for upcoming cons, and perhaps working on getting a stronger presence here at home. Also, we’re trying to work up some extra stuff to be published electronically. So, definitely look for that.

Thanks for everything kids.

Cheers

Matt Solomon

If you missed out on your chance to pickup the Core Rulebook and Cyrus Worldbook at Con On The Cob or Oddmall (a last minute convention), you can now get the PDF on DriveThruRPG. This is the full color, bookmarked PDF of the Core Rulebook & Cyrus Worldbook PLUS the extra Game Master’s Secrets and Adventure hooks section for Cyrus. Go check it out now. For one week only, get the PDF at our Con On The Cob and Oddmall prices by using this URL:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=85795&discount=62721

Now that Con on the Cob is over and our first print run is mostly decimated, we thought that we would show you what life at the Silvervine offices is like on a daily basis.  Yeah, kind of like the picture below, life as an employee of Silvervine is  being Kilted all the time, slightly off sync with your fellows, and frolicking through a green meadow full of rainbows and unicorns.

So the real story behind this photo is that there was a vendor called Fantasy Visions who set up a green screen and had a choice of photos you could be shopped onto. Not being ones known for over-seriousness, we decided that we needed to do a can-can line with the unicorn option they had. There are a few more that we had them do, which may or may not get posted here. Until then, enjoy the zaniness and the lack of shame that we at SVG revel in every day. 

Wow. Not enough can be said about the awesomeness of Silvervine’s debut at Con On The Cob. We all but sold out of books, and did if you count the off convention sales that we made with the handful left. The gaming was excellent and most of our games had 3 or 4 people waiting to get in. It was an awesome time and the range of characters we saw was incredible!

So, with that being said, post a comment about your character concept. Share it with the world. People never believe the kinds of characters seen in SVG, but we want to show them. So drop your character in the comment section or go over to our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/silvervinegames and put the description on our wall.  Thanks for making the convention such an awesome time!

More photos can be seen at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=322495&id=38182248031

Con on the Cob is just a few days away. If you are attending, here are our schedule of games and seminars.

If you can’t read that, you can find a version that is all textified below. Remember, all our games are free to play in and character creation only takes 2 hours while you look over all the options and put together an awesome character. If you want a headstart on making a character, download the NEW quick character creation guide here – Silvervine Games Quick Character Creation Guide.

Well we’ve done it. After a 7  year long journey that started as little more than a “sure why not” project, we’ve completed and gotten our first print run of the Silvervine Games Core Rulebook and Cyrus Worldbook. We’ll be selling the first copies at Con On The Cob (OCT 14 – 17, Hudson Ohio), our home convention and where we are Gaming Guests of Honor this year. If you are local to Ohio or one of the many who travel to the convention, you should join the ~1,000 other attendees and check us out. Aside from all the other fun things to do at the convention you’ll be able to jump into the games and character creations that we are running. You can also check out the booth, pick up map folios, get your book signed, hang out with us at the parties on Friday and Saturday, and do lots of other fun things! Con On The Cob is a truly great convention and we’re proud to debut Silvervine there.

You can pick up a paper copy of the book (320 pages, B&W, Perfect Bound) for $29.99.  PDF copies (full color) will be included on CD and can be picked up separately (price TBD).  We’ll do a second print run after CotC and make copies available online.

Come to Con on the Cob, play in some of our games, pick up the book and have a great time!

Well, come hell, high water, or typographic tragedy, we’ve got a book. I sent the final press ready file to the printer today around 2pm and got confirmation that printing has started. If the time frames on printing and shipping hold, it’ll be around the start of October that we have it in our hands. With that, I’m going to go sleep for a few days. –JA

P.S. Here is the cover and back for your perusing pleasure.

Front

Back