New Retailer: Heartbreak Boutique

New Retailer

Heartbreak Boutique

Lair has a new retailer in uptown Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Heartbreak is one of Saint John truly cool places which has to be seen to be believed.

"Heartbreak Boutique is Saint John, NB's only retro-inspired pinup clothing & roller derby shop. Women, Men & Kid's fashions with fun twists."

Head on over to www.heartbreakboutique.com and show them some love, they ship all over the world.

Thanks Heartbreak for carrying Lair and bringing the game to a whole new audience.

~Ripley

Lair of Sword and Sorcery is back online!

The Lair Hub is updating again!

Thanks everyone for your patience while the site went dark for another week.

I have returned from my travels to strange and foreign lands and will be updating again soon.

After planes, buses, subways, and even a car accident, the savage world of Kartharka seems a friendly and comfortable place to return to.

A harrowing but fruitful trip I also return with news.

Lair of Sword and Sorcery is going to be available online as well as Brick and Mortar establishments.

I have to admit that the hopes for selling only through retail were more of a feeling of Nostalgia for how I joined the gaming world but I bow to the pressures of today's market.

There will still be a lot of perks for the retailers as well as a lower cover price (not to mention shipping costs) but I feel it is time to open up to the global online gaming world.

Some of you may have noticed the Combat issue arrived to small fanfare as the issue was off the presses mere days before my leaving. Unfortunately my work schedule as well as access to technology and the internet was severely in the way of making a big fuss about this issue.

But fear not!

For those of you who still have not had the pleasure of holding an issue in your hands, some of the content will be trickling onto the site over the next couple of weeks.

You should see:

• A basic "overview of the game" item on the menu
• Additions to the background setting of Kartharka
• A new "how to contribute" menu item on the new contribution and "what you can do" guidelines. (I am loosening up on the restriction, call it mellowing in my old age)
• The updated Hero Record sheet (slight changes after publishing Combat issue, play testing works!)

And what's happening behind the scenes?

I was hoping to get the main chunk of the Veteran rules written up this week but workload was much more intense than anticipated.

I was hoping to have at least a page of guidelines to "get you by" until the Veteran issue but it looks like it will be a bit of time before that is all collated into something people can make sense of so you should see a temporary Menu item pop up sometime in the next week on What the Veteran system is and how the Heroes can earn veteran points (you will have to get the issue to find out how to spend them)

Hopefully this will allow you to jump right into your games before the Veteran issue is out.

If the Veteran issue is held up for a good deal of time then a selection of ways to spend them will be added to that menu item.

I will also be adding one more menu item on the "publishing spirit" of Lair of Sword and Sorcery.

It will have a little bit of the actual practice of putting together an issue, what the issues hope to accomplish and how they wish to accomplish it.

To keep updated on all of these things please subscribe to the blog, or like us on Facebook, and of course add us to your circles in Google+.

Combat Issue released!

The combat issue is officially on the shelves at Heroes Beacon. See the "Where to Buy" link on the right hand side for details on address etc.

Thanks Everyone for coming by to see what's up and hope you like what you see!

Next issue is definitely going to be the Veteran issue but since Sorcery is also part of the Veteran system you'll be seeing a little bit of that in that issue as well.

The Sorceror material will then be expanded fully in the Sorcery Issue.

~Ripley

The Lights are out...

What a ride it's been the last couple of months.
The combat issue is coming along, with the last page of illustration on the board and half done as we speak.
Just painting illustrations and designing the maps for the scenarios now.
Thanks everyone for the patient wait for the most important issue of Lair of Sword and Sorcery "The Combat Issue".
Character creation, combat, equipment, combat rules, scenarios, a beginning lair, the map for the first setting location of "Stroh Branoch" largest city in the winter lands, It's a big issue.

But real life happens, my day job is going to be crazy for the next week, and home life too as all those little things to make the season bright take up time.

So work on the issue will continue a bit during the next two weeks but the blogs, face books etc will be going dark for two weeks.

I hope to see everyone back in the New Year as we launch issue 2, The retailer site should be up by then, you may be able to buy issues online, the Hub site should be refreshed with a new layout and content.

The next year should see the rest of the game roll out, The veteran issue, the sorcery issue, and the Demon Lord versions of the issues should be coming out concurrently.

You should also see a small scenario collection of starting scenarios as well as larger supplements detailing the travails of my own group of players.

So Happy Yule everyone, and a Happy New Year!

PS (Crandall and I will be spending the holidays doing the fun things, like making cookies, painting ornaments, and visiting friends, everyone take a few days off the internet to do the same, I highly recommend everyone else do the same, take some time away to see the real people, the internet people will still be there when you get back)

PPS I heard that some people could not find Lair of Sword and Sorcery at the Heroes Beacon in Saint John (see the where to buy link for full address). It's in the comic section, usually on the Right hand side at the top,

~Ripley

Distribution, retailers, reprints, and the internet

What a month!
Hail all followers of the Lair of Sword and Sorcery Roleplaying game!
Lets get down to the Nitty Gritty, and have one of our uncomfortable conversations.
You may have read in previous posts or in the magazine my feelings about "the whole online thing".
I want everyone to buy their copies in a store, to help out their local economy, and to join their local community of gamers.
But I've found something out in the last month, people want to buy stuff online!
They have a community online and they are quite happy with that.
Well in my spirit of embracing all our brothers of Sword and Sorcery I'm going to start selling online, but in a way that I feel comfortable with.

So, for now, until I get everything set up you can continue to follow the link on the menu of "Where to buy" to find your local retailer to buy your copy.

In the future we will be adding a few more links, one for retailers to send them to the new retailer site (under construction waiting on approvals from the online economic powers that be).

Soon after will be a link for "buy online"

Printing schedule:

Here is how the printing schedule will happen.

Retailers will be able to order an issue as soon as it's released, 1 month later that issue will appear online.

As soon as a new issue is released all previous issues will be considered "reprints" and will still be available to retailers with a black and white cover.

All issues online will only sport the black and white cover and will be considered "reprints"

Pricing:
All retailers in my local area will sport a cover price of $4 (they get a bit of a deal as they don't have to pay for shipping)

Other retailers will have a cover price of $5 (shipping costs, blame society)

The online issues will sport a cover price of $6 (plus shipping and handling)

So if you want the snazzy colour covers and the lower cover price then please buy at your local brick and mortar store.
If you don't mind the black and white cover and like the convenience of buying online then we got you covered too.

Why?
I love local stores, without local stores I would never have met all of the great people I have over the years, would never have found out about all the great games and comics I have squandered my youth with, and probably would never have even gotten into this whole "gaming" thing.
If anyone is wondering why the gaming and comic book industry is shrinking every year then wonder no more, It's because people are not supporting their local stores, those people who wave the banner of our hobby, help all of those who are just finding out about this great hobby, are passing all their knowledge down to the next generation of sword swinging little ones.
I'm an old geezer now, with a wife, kid and house, so you won't see me hanging around at my local store too much (I'm either fixing something, running errands, or just spending time with the family) but when I do see something that I want, or need to stock up on a couple of pots of paint or a few more skeletons for my undead army, I stop by my local store.
And you should too.

~Ripley

Issue 1 back from the printers

Thanks everyone for visiting, glad to see some interest in the game.

I'll be posting more of the background during the weekend along with some colour photos from the issue.  

The interior printing is black and white but some of the photos deserve to get seen in colour so I'll be posting a few of them here.

Within the next week I hope to have copies in at least one store.

For everyone on the Web I am looking into a way to order copies.

I'm not interested in the usual print on demand or pdf download system, I want people to buy copies off the racks covered in fingerprints with bent covers. The game is printed in comic size format so it can sit comfortably on any retailers shelves that carry comics.

So if you're friends with a retailer have them contact me and I'll be glad to supply them through mail order. Pricing etc should be set within the week.