KDLadage
Explorer
Hello all. My name is K. David Ladage. I have been away for a long time (far too long, to be honest). Back in 2000-2005, I was the primary author, co-founder, and promoter for Jagged Edge Games. JEG was a hobby-project company and the primary line of materials revolved around the UMBRAGIA campaign setting. We had some moderate success.
Between 2005 and 2010, my writing partner (Richard Bowman) and I had a whole slew (a comedy of errors, in many ways) of real-life TM issues cause our lived to be derailed. I can assure you that we both managed to survive the ordeals (I think I came out of it a little less bruised than he did). In the midst of that period, he and I decided to spilt all projects that JEG was working on. He kept the name and many of the smaller projects he was working on. Umbragia, however, was my baby. I kept that.
Skip forward.
About nine months ago, my two small boys discovered the LEGO game HEROICA. This is an awesome game, and if you have smaller kids, I highly recommend checking it out. My seven year old was enchanted by the game; he loves it. Slowly, I started adding RPG elements into the play and he has eaten them up. I decided I wanted to create a rules-lite RPG we could play with the HEROICA LEGO pieces.
I began writing simple rules. As I did, and as I researched simple and effective ways of handling basic RPG concepts, I found myself distracted -- a trip down memory lane. I started searching for games that were important and influential to me as a young gamer. I managed to pick up a couple of copies of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (as well as the retro-clone DARK DUNGEONS). I was reading all sorts of stuff on-line when I found it.
Back in 1985, I purchased a book published by Bard Games called The Arcanum. In an age when we were still coming our of the 'steam tunnel' incident in Michigan, and some organizations suggesting role-playing was a recruitment tool for witch's covens, devil worshipers, and other ne'er-do-wells... this book had a simple black cover with a large red pentagram. I loved it. My copy was destroyed (with a lot of other RPG material) when I was in the Navy. I was heavy into GURPS at the time, so my focus in putting my collection back together was there. I had all but forgotten about The Arcanum over the next decade.
I was on-line a couple of weeks ago. I was staring at the RPG.NET entry for The Arcanum. All of the memories of how amazingly awesome that book was came flooding back. It had elements which would not become common place in RPG design for years. Some that still have not (and not for good reason). They help to define the unique flavor of that system.
So what do I do? I search frantically through eBay, Alibris, Noble Knight Games, and similar sites. I purchase copies of the original trilogy as published by Bard Games in 1985/1986, as well as copies of the 1995 reprints from Death's Edge Games. I read the material again. I fall in love all over again. I had a series of long discussion with my wife. Then I contacted Stephan Michael Sechi. I discussed with him the possibility of purchasing the rights or licensing them.
Effective 17-July-2012 I, Kenneth David Ladage (d.b.a. ZiLa Games), own all rights to the text, artwork, concepts, artistic expressions, and other elements of all releases of the book titled "The Arcanum" (Bard Games, Death's Edge Games). It is my intention to do three things with this property:
1. I will be tearing the system apart, checking each section for its strengths, consistency with the rest of the system, and other intangible factors. I will then, after some re-writing, put that system back together into a new 4th Edition. My goal at this point, is to have this portion of the project completed within 6-months. I will be purchasing an ISBN for the final product; it will be available through multiple outlets.
2. The rights for the two companion volumes are owned by another company. Thus, I will be writing a book of animals, creatures, and monsters written up in a format consistent with the new, updated system. Then I will be writing a campaign setting book that is an update of the UMBRAGIA: Realms of Shadow campaign setting. Both of these volumes should be available sometime next year.
3. Although I have not contacted them yet, it is my intention to get in touch with Robert 'Liquide' Ljung, Nikolaus Ruf, Benjamin Seibold, and Don McInturff. These are people that were amazingly kind and helpful in the old days of Jagged Edge Games. I hope to get their support and contributions to this new stage of my writing career.
Between 2005 and 2010, my writing partner (Richard Bowman) and I had a whole slew (a comedy of errors, in many ways) of real-life TM issues cause our lived to be derailed. I can assure you that we both managed to survive the ordeals (I think I came out of it a little less bruised than he did). In the midst of that period, he and I decided to spilt all projects that JEG was working on. He kept the name and many of the smaller projects he was working on. Umbragia, however, was my baby. I kept that.
Skip forward.
About nine months ago, my two small boys discovered the LEGO game HEROICA. This is an awesome game, and if you have smaller kids, I highly recommend checking it out. My seven year old was enchanted by the game; he loves it. Slowly, I started adding RPG elements into the play and he has eaten them up. I decided I wanted to create a rules-lite RPG we could play with the HEROICA LEGO pieces.
I began writing simple rules. As I did, and as I researched simple and effective ways of handling basic RPG concepts, I found myself distracted -- a trip down memory lane. I started searching for games that were important and influential to me as a young gamer. I managed to pick up a couple of copies of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (as well as the retro-clone DARK DUNGEONS). I was reading all sorts of stuff on-line when I found it.
Back in 1985, I purchased a book published by Bard Games called The Arcanum. In an age when we were still coming our of the 'steam tunnel' incident in Michigan, and some organizations suggesting role-playing was a recruitment tool for witch's covens, devil worshipers, and other ne'er-do-wells... this book had a simple black cover with a large red pentagram. I loved it. My copy was destroyed (with a lot of other RPG material) when I was in the Navy. I was heavy into GURPS at the time, so my focus in putting my collection back together was there. I had all but forgotten about The Arcanum over the next decade.
I was on-line a couple of weeks ago. I was staring at the RPG.NET entry for The Arcanum. All of the memories of how amazingly awesome that book was came flooding back. It had elements which would not become common place in RPG design for years. Some that still have not (and not for good reason). They help to define the unique flavor of that system.
So what do I do? I search frantically through eBay, Alibris, Noble Knight Games, and similar sites. I purchase copies of the original trilogy as published by Bard Games in 1985/1986, as well as copies of the 1995 reprints from Death's Edge Games. I read the material again. I fall in love all over again. I had a series of long discussion with my wife. Then I contacted Stephan Michael Sechi. I discussed with him the possibility of purchasing the rights or licensing them.
Effective 17-July-2012 I, Kenneth David Ladage (d.b.a. ZiLa Games), own all rights to the text, artwork, concepts, artistic expressions, and other elements of all releases of the book titled "The Arcanum" (Bard Games, Death's Edge Games). It is my intention to do three things with this property:
1. I will be tearing the system apart, checking each section for its strengths, consistency with the rest of the system, and other intangible factors. I will then, after some re-writing, put that system back together into a new 4th Edition. My goal at this point, is to have this portion of the project completed within 6-months. I will be purchasing an ISBN for the final product; it will be available through multiple outlets.
2. The rights for the two companion volumes are owned by another company. Thus, I will be writing a book of animals, creatures, and monsters written up in a format consistent with the new, updated system. Then I will be writing a campaign setting book that is an update of the UMBRAGIA: Realms of Shadow campaign setting. Both of these volumes should be available sometime next year.
3. Although I have not contacted them yet, it is my intention to get in touch with Robert 'Liquide' Ljung, Nikolaus Ruf, Benjamin Seibold, and Don McInturff. These are people that were amazingly kind and helpful in the old days of Jagged Edge Games. I hope to get their support and contributions to this new stage of my writing career.
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D ), but I wish you the best of luck!
