Triskele Game Design Studios - Ætherverse

I've received news that the company managing Ætherverse at the printers is shutting down operations. Unfortunately, this means that the game will officially be out of print for some time (including through Amazon.com, etc). I was hoping to keep the game in print while I commenced Triskele's reorganization but sadly this won't be the case.By the end of the month, the game will be unavailable. There is however, as always, a silver lining. As I've been hinting, I'm going to be putting together a "1.1" edition of Ætherverse. Several months ago, this simply entailed doing some typo and "bug" fixes in the text and adding new abilities that had made itin though a newsletter. Now, however, I've decided that the revision is going to be a little bit bigger.

Ætherverse: Revised First Edition will be a fairly heavy attacking of the core of the game. I'm going to work on giving the entire system a nice tune-up, incorporating suggestions and feedback from the players, and filling in the various balance holes that became clear once a larger number of players got ahold of the game. This will include a new playtesting run, and more opportunities for player feedback. Ætherverse was already very much a game created "by gamers for gamers"; we're going to continue this philosophy during the revision.

We're also going to do something quite interesting during the process: blogging it. I'm going to provide weekly posts and updates on how it's going, starting with an overall "here's some ofwhat we're going to do" list for the first few posts.

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Over at the recently reconstituted The Warp, there's a discussion going on regarding competing with the larger entities in the wargaming market, specifically Games Workshop. One of the posters made a good point, and I gave them a nice, lengthy response illustrating that post in action. Since it's rather interesting (at least in my own deluded mind) I figured it would be useful to share it and get some feedback from the larger public.

The original comment, from Warp.net user "Americanbear":
Maybe if you tried somewhere GW hasn't got a stranglehold on you would have a bit more success...

And my rather long-winded reply...

Yep, this is how you "compete" with GW. As has been said, NOBODY can compete with the "giant" in terms of marketing. What has to be done to be "successful" is two things: define your intended level of success, and do something other than what GW already does. Trying to compete directly against 40k just isn't going to work (see, also: Void, VOR, Starship Troopers, Warzone). The best way to go is to offer a different enough product that stands out on its own merits (like Warmachine) or to find a different niche within the hobby and build from there (like Ætherverse).

What we did with Ætherverse is sort of two-fold. First, accepting the reality that GW isn't going to be going anywhere. Wishing that they'd stop doing what they're doing is totally unrealistic, because it works... for *them*. Privateer has had some success acting like GW in many ways, but they have the budget to do that. GW being omnipresent is partially a disadvantage... but it's also a HUGE advantage that can be capitalized on in many ways.

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Æthergate #9 (September 2005) is now online! This issue, the semi-monthly free newsletter features four new attributes for Ætherverse, as well as background (and two army lists) for a post-nuclear world discovered by the AEC. Two of the devolved human species, dubbed "goblins" and "orcs" by a fantasy-reading research assistant, frequently find themselves at odds with each other over the remaining resources on their continent.

The Æthergate newsletter is always a free download, expanding the universes and rules of Ætherverse with new abilities, scenarios, and army list ideas.

Previous newsletters and more information on Ætherverse (and the new game Upheaval) can be found at the Triskele Games website.

Yesterday, Ætherverse: Upheaval, the new skirmish campaign miniatures wargame from Triskele Games officially went on sale!

Upheaval is a 48-page PDF, and in a special agreement is exclusively available through Wargamedownloads.com for the first month of release. Upheaval costs $8.00 (US), and customers that purchase Upheaval will be eligible for a $5.00 rebate on a purchase of the Ætherverse rulebook.

For more information on Upheaval, check out the Upheaval page at TriskeleGames.com

Coming Soon from Triskele Game Design Studios is a new miniatures game based on Ætherverse: Upheaval. Upheaval is a new, fast-paced game of small skirmish combat, set in the cities of the parallel universes of Ætherverse. Upheaval features an exciting campaign system, giving players new strategic choices as they guide a band of green troops through battle after battle, guiding their experiences and upgrading their abilities and equipment until they either become an elite force or are destroyed and replaced by new green troops.

Available exclusively in digital download format from online PDF retailers, Upheaval is a 48-page PDF written by Jason Lauborough, designer of the original Ætherverse and featuring art and fiction from the Ætherverse print rulebook. Upheaval will be priced at around $10-12 (still to be finalized). The game leverages aspects of the revolutionary Ætherverse army design system to provide a highly flexible upgrade path for units as they progress through the game. The gameplay portion of Upheaval features a revised and pared-down version of the Ætherverse rules, optimized for small-skirmish play between two to four small units of troops (roughly 8-30 models per army).

Upheaval is suitable for sci-fi play of military or "gang warfare" variety, historical and modern skirmishes, and fantasy warband campaigning. The PDF also contains options for adding even more detail to your campaigns, as well as providing rules for creating units that are already experienced, allowing for "one-off" games to be played between interesting armies without having to go through a full campaign system.

Upheaval's gameplay rules is ideal for 2-4 players, and the campaign system supports as many players as desired. Upheaval is fully supported by the Triskelegames.com website, including an active forum community, and will receive periodic free updates through the release of the semi-monthly Æthergate Newsletter.

Upheaval will release on or around August 29, 2005. Stay tuned for additional details regarding outlets for the title.

The July, 2005 edition of Æthergate is now online! Æthergate, the official newsletter of Triskele Games, features new rules and gameplay ideas for Ætherverse. This month's newsletter is the biggest ever put out, and it got a visual upgrade, too!

The newsletter can be downloaded in PDF format from: http://triskelegames.com/newslette…

These monthly add-ons to the innovative and versatile Ætherverse are always a FREE download. No payment will ever be required just to keep up with what's new in the game. You're spending enough on minis, you shouldn't have to spend more to keep your favorite rules current.

Twelve new abilities and four new melee weapon classes expand the army creation flexbility of Ætherverse more than any single source thus far. These new abilities run the gamut from the mundane (a new sniper-boosting weapon add-on, and the ability for mounted troops to ride down those fleeing from them) to the technological (a target-seeking weapon upgrade or electrified armor) to the magical (a new demon-summoning command squad) and give players even more possibilities in creating their armies. If it's possible to improve on infinity... we're going to try and do so.

These abilities are immediately available for use in Aetherverse play and also in publications utilizing the AVDesign Open License.

The Æthergate Newsletter is also available for download at the Triskele Game Design Studios website at www.triskelegames.com.

I'm getting into the closing phases of a total overhaul of the Triskele website (www.triskelegames.com). It's primarily a visual / organization upgrade at this time, but it will make the addition of new content to the site much, much easier. The performance of the site should also be quite a bit better.

I'm still getting all of the old pages converted over to the new format, but almost everything is back online now.

At this point I'd like to invite feedback from folks on how the page loads, runs, and looks for them. The goal is to make things on the site easier to find; I'm hoping that this serves that goal well. :)

Also, please let me know if you run into any issues. The only known issues are:
-If you increase the size of the text from the default, you will get overlap issues (I've yet to implement fixes for that)
-The site will likely NOT work well in anything older than IE 5, Firefox 1.0, or the most recent Netscape. Based on my tracking, less than 1% of the total visits to the site have been on non-supported browsers, so I'm not TOO worried.

Thanks, everyone!

In celebration of finally having books back in stock (with us, the book has always been available to distributors, retailers, and through Amazon.com), I've decided to drop all shipping costs on Ætherverse orders. From now on, all copies of Ætherverse ordered through the Triskele site (http://www.triskelegames.com/place…) will include free shipping. This includes international orders!

This weekend, Triskele Games will be present at KublaCon, at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt. The convention runs Friday-through-Monday. We're going to be running the following events at the convention:

• Demos! There will be demos of the game ongoing for most of Saturday and half of Sunday. They'll be happening in the Miniatures Foyer, just look for the Ætherverse sign.
  
• A Tournament! Sunday at 1pm, we'll be running the first ever Ætherverse tournament. It's a 3000 point tournament, with a plan for 3 games (though if games go fast enough we may run a 4th game). If you don't have miniatures or have never played the game before, don't worry! I'll be bringing extra miniatures from my personal collection to help field armies, and will be on hand to help players build armies before the tournament. The tournament already has 9 people confirmed as participating (through the Triskele forums), so it will definitely happen!
  
• A Mega-Battle (maybe)! The schedule includes a spot for a Mega-Battle on Saturday night. I've not gotten any sort of feedback on this one, so we'll see if it gets players.

In addition to all this, the game is going to be for sale at the Fantization Miniatures booth in the dealer room. Fantization is offering a 10% Discount on the book to anyone that participates in an Ætherverse event. So, come on by, play in a demo, and get your book at a discount!

Also, the convention has named me a special guest, but I'm not totally sure what that entails. I think I just get a special button or something... we'll see. Hope to see you at the convention!

Well, the big announcement that I've been planning for a few months has finally gone "live". We're excited to announce the official launch of the AVDesign License program. What is the license? Here's the text of the Press Release that went out today, but first the executive summary...

The Army Design System from Ætherverse is now covered under a license that allows anybody or any company (under a certain size) to create army lists and publish those army lists. Sounds pretty simple, but it allows for a ton of new content to be created for the game, further spurring its growth. This licensing program lets miniature manufacturers create rules for the minis they produce without having to go through the hassle of creating their own game. All those amazing, homeless miniatures can now come in out of the cold and find their own home.

On top of that, small publishing companies that want to get their feet wet in miniature wargaming can do so. Companies with existing RPGs can now carry those worlds over into a wargame. Aspiring authors can write a bunch of background material, create a PDF including wargame stats for featured nations or armies in that background, and get their start in the publishing world.

The AVDesign license has the potential to revolutionize miniature gaming in the same way that the Quake engine did for video games and the d20 license did for role-playing. A world of freedom has been opened up for companies, creatives, and for players.

Please check out the license page for more information. The press release follows.

The AVDesign license is a free, open license allowing game companies to include army lists created using the Aetherverse Army Creation System in their printed or digital products. This allows independent miniature manufacturers to easily provide their customers with rules for their miniatures; allows game publishers to quickly expand their IP into the wargaming genre; and makes it much easier for aspiring designers, writers, and artists to spring into the publishing side of the hobby. The army lists created using the army design rules are fully compatible with Aetherverse and considered official, letting licensees skip the process of designing and releasing full new games and allowing their customers to dive straight into an established game with existing opponents.

Under the license, participants may create “army lists”, or a series of stats and abilities, using the Aetherverse rules and publish these freely alongside their own IP content, including background, scenarios, and artwork. Products created under the license can range from free handouts (packaged with miniatures, designed to let customers “plug in” their new purchases to Aetherverse) to fully realized campaign settings, giving players several armies to pit against each other in exciting new worlds.