Newsletter

Hi everyone,

What is horror, and how do you make it? It's very much on my mind at the moment, as each day starts with several hours sweat on the next Project Tempest story. So I was lucky to have our first returning podcast guest, Ed McRae, on for a conversation that went from Cujo to Batman to Kiwi and Scandinavian noir. A good & ghastly time!

Also in this update: we didn't win the Shirley Jackson award (but that's ok), and a little Thousand Year Old Vampire recommendation.

I'd love to hear what you think of the Ed McRae conversation, and if you choose to like and subscribe to the podcast on your favourite service, this really helps us out. Thank you!

PODCAST CONVERSATIONS

The Project Tempest podcast is where we talk about creative journeys and what's on our mind.

Our second conversation with Ed McRae, kiwi horror author, narrative designer and narrative paramedic for the video games industry. Ed's been a screenwriter and story designer for over 13 years, and was lead writer on the hit online RPG Path of Exile.

>>> Listen to the conversation with Ed McRae
>>> Subscribe to the Project Tempest podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or directly on Captivate. If you enjoy it please consider rating it 5 stars.

We didn't win! But the awesome novella Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones did, plus NZ horror legend Lee Murray picked up an award for the anthology Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women. There's a beautiful montage in here of writers' favourite inspiration spots, too.

THOUSAND YEAR OLD VAMPIRE

A solo roleplaying game about the remorseless crush of memory over millennia. And vampires.

Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings is 'lonely rpg' made for playing by yourself (quite an option in pandemic times). It's very open and free-form: rather than leading you by the nose through a pre-made adventure, it prompts you to make your own story about the many centuries of a vampire's existence, beginning with the loss of mortality and ending with inevitable destruction.

Memories and experiences are the key, and the possibilities are endless. You're free to shape any flavour of vampire you like: Anne Rice, True Blood, Buffy, Nosferatu, Dark Shadows, anything. The prompts are poignant and evocative, and your own responses  will surprise you.

I've found Thousand Year Old Vampire fascinatingly close to my long-term goals for Project Tempest - create an emotional geography and help people fill it with their own stories - and it's definitely worth checking out if you're interested in game design, storymaking, or just good fun bloodsuckers.

Let me know what you'd like to see more of in these newsletters, and thank you for being part of Project Tempest with us.

Cheers

C J Halbard