Dragonsteel summary part 2, game ideas

So I couldn't get the files back from the Dragonsteel summary I did, so I had to rewrite everything, a week's worth of work, but I finally did it.

Other stuff that's happening is Heather totally rocked her classes for Spring semester! The last day of finals was Thursday and she did so good. Her Summer classes start on Monday.

The Church has invited people to send in submissions for music to make officially in the new Hymn book or Children's songbook. Heather can probably do something great. If it was making a board game for the church I could probably do something great.

Speaking of board games, so I've had an idea for a rehab of the Lab Mice game. I'm changing the theme to be they're aliens now instead of mice, which will totally open up the audience and people who want to play. The race of the aliens are supposed to be like, big lizard horses, things, is the idea. Klidrins is the name of the species and thus the game. Same concept, except I'm expanding the powers so each trait has three powers depending on the there trait they hook up with, not two, which creates three new powers. I'm also hoping to make it more simultaneous so there's less down time. I'm not a big fan of a lot of downtime. It's a work in progress.

I also had another idea for a game where there's a lot of simultaneous play which is steampunk themed. Where Dominion has you building your deck, Mystic Vale your cards, Century: Golem Edition your hand, and Dice Forge your dice, this one has you building your action pool for action selection. Also, there's resources. And a semi-worker placement kind of thing.

Also still thinking about A Thousand Faces.

Got the pixalmator program on the computer again which is super nice for making cards and such.

Any who, here's the rest of that summary I have so far:

Chapter 10 

In Tzendor, Topaz uses makeup to disguise Bat’Chor and himself. As they go out in disguise, they remark on how even the peasants are better off than before, due to the new emperor Aronack. As they approach the Temple of Hsaw, they mix with other pilgrims who are visiting it for religious purposes. Topaz’s knowledge of when these pilgrims arrived causes Bat’Chor to once again wonder is Topaz needs to sleep.

They enter the building and Bat’Chor is amazed by its architecture. Topaz and Bat’Chor get their own small private room to stay in located near the building’s outer wall, and discuss architecture. Three hours later, the pilgrimage director calls them and their pilgrimage group out of their rooms to see the object they’ve traveled so long to see.

They walk down a hallway with other pilgrims into a large room. In the center of the room surrounded by a glass case is an ancient sword, a relic. Bat’Chor is a fierce warrior and thus is interested. Topaz notices that part of the hilt is made of Dragonsteel in an odd pattern and shows Bat’Chor. Bat’Chor asks if they are there to steal the sword, but Topaz replies in the negative, saying that they are there to instead steal a scroll, located on a nondescript bookcase at the back of the room.

Chapter 11

Martis and Yoharn practice dueling outside, as Courteth and a group of girls look on. Jerick is also nearby, and Ryalla comes up to talk. Jerick notices that while Ryalla seems subservient, she is actually rebellious underneath the surface, which no one but Jerick notices. They start to bond.

In a break in the dueling, Martis’s father Kalord comes to talk with him, telling him that Jerick is doing better at Martis in his studies and that he needs to step up his game. Martis acts submissive but yearns for the day when he can overpower his father.

Ryalla thinks how sad it is that Jerick is caught in Courteth’s wiles. Martis notices Jerick looking with longing at the duel and, in order to look good in front of Courteth and humiliate Jerick, invites him over to spar. Jerick readily agrees, but is, of course, woefully beaten. The king and Doram pass by, the king commenting that he forbade Jerick to practice, but Doram adding that he didn’t forbid him to fight. Jerick vows to learn how to fight.

Chapter 12

In the middle of the night, Topaz explains to Bat’Chor the security measures surrounding the sword, and the alarm that will go off if any traps are activated. They sneak off and enter what appears to be a service closet but actually leads to up behind the sword room, filled with complicated machines for the traps. A window peers into the sword room, and Topaz and Bat’Chor look in to see a group of thieves attempting to steal the sword. 

Topaz purposefully sets off a trap, setting off a loud alarm that blares through the building. The thieves barely manage to escape, and Topaz grabs the scroll. Bat’Chor and Topaz enter the hallway, now crammed with people trying to figure out what’s going on. A tall man with a deep birthmark on his face enters at the front of the chapel, and Topaz suddenly collapses, the hand with his topaz ring pulsing like a heart. 

Bat’Chor manages to lug Topaz back to their room, but the tall man is following them. Topaz uses his magic to makes cracks in the wall, but can’t bring it down. Topaz curses the Lords for giving him no power to destroy. Bat’Chor is ready for a fight, but Topaz stands up again and causes the cracks in the wall to suddenly grow with moss and fungi, which manages to break the wall apart. The two escape. 

Later on a boat, Topaz explains that what he did was cause microscopic spores to grow. When Bat’Chor asks him how he did it, Topaz replies that he doesn’t know. Topaz gives Bat’Chor the scroll, telling him to bring it to the Trexandian scholars to translate. The two will separate but meet back up in Lakdon in about a year once the translation is done.

Chapter 13

Jerick is now fifteen. He and Doram practice fighting, and Jerick is improving. Jerick asks Doram about the Eternal War, and learns that even peasants can fight in it, but Doram encourages him not to. Courteth comes in and reminds Jerick about a feast happening that night.

Later as Jerick walks down the hallway, thoughts enter his head that are not his own. It seems as if two people are talking with each other, mentioning obtaining a bargaining item. Jerick recovers and convinces himself that he’s just overtaxed from studying too much.

Courteth prepares for the feast and punishes Ryalla by forcing her to do her homework for her. As Courteth leaves, Ryalla congratulates herself for tricking Courteth: Courteth was about to be kicked out of school for not doing any homework, and so she forced Ryalla to do it. Ryalla convinced Courteth that she hates reading, thus making sure that Courteth “punishes” her by forcing her to read. After reading a book about folk tales, Ryalla goes down to Topaz’s rooms to water his plants like she does every week. When she approaches, however, the plants burst into life and grow rapidly, which is a sign that Topaz is now somewhere in the palace. 

Chapter 14

Jerick enters that feast, and him and Martis sit near each other to keep an eye on each other. Jerick begins thinking about his father, and the next thing he knows someone is asking him if he’s alright, as he had zoned out. Martis and Jerick exchange barbs, and the king gets up to speak. Right before he can, a large tearing noise is heard above and Topaz drops from the ceiling with a colorful scarf, stealing the limelight. 

Prince Yoharn is very unconfident in himself, and doesn’t think he’ll be a good king. He feels like he’s just faking everything, and contemplates that he’d give Jerick the crown if he could get away with it.

After the feast, Frost is in his room when Topaz sneaks up on him. Topaz comments again on how he thinks Frost is more than what he says he is, which Frost denies. They discuss Jerick’s education and Topaz learns that Jerick has become skeptical of magic. Topaz vows to correct this, and leaves.

Chapter 15

In school, the teacher Vendavious discusses the recent essays the students just turned in. He then begins a discussion on a newly developed theory about Axios. The Axios is the base element, incredibly small, and everything in the physical world is made up of them. He gives the students an essay to read on the subject and dismisses them.

Jerick sits in the library reading the essay and is surprised when Topaz shows up to talk with him. Topaz notices that his years of studying have made Jerick argumentative and cynical, and he points this out. Jerick apologizes, but when Topaz mentions magic Jerick scoffs at the idea. Topaz begins to speak about presumed reality.

Topaz shares a story of when he visited a faraway land where people had a superstition that they had to throw rocks at a certain type of tree before going near. Topaz uncovered the origins of why they did this and knew that it was safe to go near the trees, and to prove his point he forced a man to go near a tree without throwing rocks at it first. However, the man’s presumed reality was stronger than actual reality, and the man died of fright right then and there. After his story, Topaz gives Jerick a small red fruit and leaves.

Chapter 16

Jerick looks up the fruit and learns that it is a Ballas fruit, which only grows in Souterhn Yolen and spoils within hours: it was impossible for Topaz to give him one still fresh and red. Jerick ponders this in the back of an amphitheater where Scathe the Horwatcher is preforming a magic show. Frost comes up and speaks with him, and Jerick discusses with him Topaz and the fruit and how Scathe does all his tricks.

Scathe’s last trick is waving a Tamu Kek bone from a Sho Del over candles several times and making them burst into flame. As Jerick ponders presumed reality, the Ballas fruit, and through some prodding from Frost, Jerick begins to notice waves coming off of the bone. Suddenly, Jerick’s vision switches from normal to being able to see individual Axi. Frost is blown away that he can do this, and explains that Jerick and Topaz do this, but no one else can that he knows of. Scathe himself doesn’t even know what he’s doing when he uses the Tamu Kek bone.

Jerick sits at his table long into the night thinking, and Ryalla comes in. They talk, and Jerick asks Ryalla soul-searching questions about himself, such as if he’s arrogant. Their conversation is interrupted by footsteps approaching, and while Jerick wants to hide Ryalla responds that the people can’t see them if they don’t want them to. Scathe comes in, but even though he is feet from Jerick and Ryalla, doesn’t see them. He and another man talk about a token of bargaining, and then leave to continue their conversation elsewhere. Ryalla acts as if it was no big deal, but Jerick realizes that Ryalla can do magic too and doesn’t even know it.

Chapter 17

Martis heads home after dueling practice to find his father, Kalord, beating the cook for getting his food wrong. Martis mentions that he thinks Jerick will beat him in the testing in a few months, which causes Kalord to come at him in a rage. However, Martis fights back, which is unexpected, and due to Martis’s training and Kalord’s lack of practice, Martis beats his father and stabs his cheek with a knife. Martis takes over for Kalord as ruler of their house.

In Jerick’s rooms, Topaz comes in and Jerick apologizes. Jerick asks him how they can do magic, but Topaz doesn’t know. Topaz calls it microkinesis, but says everything he’s read about it claims that magic is evil or of the Fain. Topaz warns of an unknown danger that’s coming, but hints of it can be found in ancient legends and myths. 

Their talk is interrupted by a disturbance at the window, and they look out to see a man in white armor riding on a horse up to the castle. Topaz and Jerick use microkinetic vision to determine the composition of the armor, which is steel. They then rush down the hallway to meet the visitor, and Topaz explains how Dragonsteel gives off pulses in the spiritual realm. Jerick mentions how the Tamu Kek does this, and Topaz says that’s because Sho Del have some Dragonsteel in their bones. They reach the gates where the king is greeting the visitor, Hsor. Hsor announces to everyone that he has just come from the Eternal War hunting after a Sho Del assassin. He promises riches and glory to anyone who can catch the assassin, which causes quite a stir.

Chapter 18

Jerick is invited to the throne room to see the king and Hsor, as Jerick might be able to identify what a Sho Del looks like. Jerick is confused and claims he’s never seen a Sho Del before. As Jerick walks down the hallway after being dismissed, he hears a commotion at the gates. He goes over to see a mad beggar trying to enter the palace. However, the beggar turns out to be Torell, who is unaware of how he sounds and looks. 

After five years away from the palace, Torell’s speech has become like the peasants’ speech, and he thinks his dirty robes are still pristine because the common people’s clothing was all he had to compare them to. As servants clean him up, Topaz comes in to see him and talk.

In his command pavilion, Martis receives reports from some scouts. Martis plans on capturing the Sho Del, but not by hunting it. Rather, he has spies in the other hunting parties so that he can intercept it when it is captured. He makes plans to marry Courteth and become king.

Chapter 19

The weather has turned cold and icy, and Ryalla walks around the frozen palace grounds. Courteth finds her and punishes her by telling her to read her homework books in four days. Ryalla complains, but Courteth catches on that Ryalla has been playing her for a fool. Courteth orders Ryalla to strip down to just her shift and walk out into the freezing pond up to her neck. Ryalla’s years of slavery and obeying orders cause her to do so despite herself. As Ryalla stands in the pond in agony, Courteth lectures her from the side. Ryalla feels her body begin to shut down, and she begins to sink under the water.

Suddenly, Topaz is there, grabbing Ryalla and dragging her to shore. He presses his topaz ring against her and she feels sudden warmth and healing. Completely healed, she watches as Topaz, his demeanor dark and menacing, slowly advance upon Courteth. Plants around him burst into rapid life, and Topaz threatens Courteth, who runs away in fright. The plants go back to normal and Topaz tells Ryalla that she’ll never have to worry about Courteth punishing her again.

Courteth races back to her rooms and calms herself down. She convinces herself that the plants growing was just a trick. Martis enters and proposes a union with her, claiming that the Sho Del assassin will soon be his. Courteth knows that the best way to get back at Topaz is to go through his friend Jerick, and so she denies Martis, planting in his head the need to humiliate Jerick.

Chapter 20

Ryalla sits by the pond that was her near-demise, and realizes that her punishments only worked because she willfully obeyed and allowed them to. Jerick comes up and they talk, both admitting that Topaz can do magic.

Frost and Topaz talk in Frost’s room. Frost muses how Topaz does so much with so little information and is almost tempted to tell Topaz all he knows, which would break a vow he’s made. Whatever Frost is, it is much greater than Topaz assumes. Bat’Chor arrives and gives Topaz the translation of the scroll. One section is a legend from thousands of years ago about an alter to five gods, the names of the gods being written in Dragonsteel on the alter. The alter was later destroyed. The names of the gods are written on the scroll, but it was a part the translators couldn’t translate, and were left in their original tongue.

Frost admits that he can translate them, and does so, justifying his actions that any scholar could translate them, even though he knows that what he was doing was close to being “a betrayal of his promise.” However, the scroll only has four names down, not the name of the fifth. Frost says he knows what it is, but says he is forbidden to share it, to Topaz’s anger. 

Topaz tells Bat’Chor they’ll find the name of the fifth god on their own, pointing out that the bits of Dragonsteel that the names were made of would still be around even after thousands of years. In fact, the pattern of one of the names was identical to the piece of Dragonsteel on the sword hilt: that piece had come from the alter. They plan on going and looking at famous pieces of Dragonsteel to see if one spells the name of the fifth god, and Frost agrees to give them the alphabet so that they can translate it when they find it.

Martis’s servants find a group of hunters that caught the Sho Del assassin, and kill them, bringing the Sho Del to Martis. Instead of taking it to the king immediately, Martis says he has a better plan.

Chapter 21

Jerick visits Torell and asks about his parents. When he tells him, Jerick’s mind goes fuzzy until Topaz snaps him out of it. Topaz says they’ll have to do something about that, and then that the king has an announcement to make and they should go. As they walk down the hall, the voices in Jerick’s mind come again, one saying to proceed with the plan and that a distraction was made for them. Topaz didn’t hear the voices and says that that power isn’t microkinesis, but cognitive magic, which comes from the Sho Del. They hurry to the king.

Meanwhile, Martis talks to the bound Sho Del, giving it a blunted sword and telling it to kill the king. He then rushes to the king, who is making his announcement. The Sho Del rushes at the king but it intercepted by Topaz and Jerick. Topaz tries to swing a sword at it twice, but both times his body refuses to cooperate and his swings miss at the last moment. The Sho Del kicks Topaz out of the way. Jerick fights with it, and is about to defeat it when Martis yells out to him to kill it to avenge his parents, who were killed by a Sho Del. Jerick freezes, allowing the Sho Del to move past him and to the king. Martis then defeats it according to his plan, leaving Jerick humiliated. 

Chapter 22

The king announces the engagement of Martis to his daughter. 

This is the last chapter of Part two, and then there's another interlude.

Father's Day, Sanderson Q&A

Today is Father's Day! Happy Father's Day dad! And me, too, I guess.

I spent countless hours looking on the Dragonsteel summary on a different computer that  can take on the bus, a Mac. I wrote a lot and then Saturday morning I forgot to plug it in and it ran out of juice and died. When I restarted it all my work was gone. Poof. Deleted. I had saved it, but that computer doesn't have Word so I used Notebook instead, and saved it to notebook, and I thought that was fine but I guess it wasn't because it all got deleted. So now I have to re-do all that work, or call up Heather's brother Chris who knows a thing or two about computers and see if he can't help me hack into the computer and get it back. So no new Dragonsteel summary for you guys today.

Instead, here's some Questions and Answers with Brandon Sanderson which I consider to be really interesting. Enjoy.

Question #1:

Would aluminum give an atium shadow? Like if someone threw an aluminum spear?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

The aluminum would not give an atium shadow. Good question.

QUESTION #2:

Would a Hemalurgic spike take surges?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

Hemalurgy can interact with every one of the magics. I designed it specifically in writing Mistborn for future use. Because some of the magics are so limited by their planet I wanted one that transcended all of them and Hemalurgy is very important to the entire Cosmere. Its invention is a thing of great power and great danger to the entire Cosmere.

Questioner:

But, I mean, somebody couldn't just walk along with a metal spike on, say, Nalthis. Stab someone and have the power, right?

Brandon Sanderson:

If they knew where to stab them, yes they could.

Questioner:

Anywhere in the Cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson:

Yes.

Question #3:

Is anything magical going on with the screams Szeth hears?

Brandon Sanderson:

Uhhh, Szeth's screams. Uhhm, I'm trying to decide how to answer this. It is not, see here's the thing. What we would call magical may not be considered magical in the Cosmere, but it depends on your definition of magic. Would Szeth if he were on our planet and have done those things would he hear those screams, probably not, but would someone else in the Cosmere who had gone through what he had gone through hear those screams, yes.

Questioner:

So it has to do with the spiritual realm?

Brandon Sanderson:

Yea, mhmm, yea.

Question #4:

In Elantris it talks about how the wood and stone in the city is rotten and crumbling. Why does this happen?

Brandon Sanderson:

This is because when objects become Invested for long periods of time their Spiritweb changes to accommodate the investiture. When the investiture was pulled up off the stuff in Elantris its Spiritweb was severely damaged so it showed that in the physical realm. This happened with the Lord Ruler when the Bands of Mourning were ripped out of him.

Question #5: 

Do all Shards have some sort of Shard-induced weakness, like how Ruin and Preservation can't see metal? 

Brandon Sanderson: 

Yes.

Question #6: 

Why on earth does Marsh have a Feruchemical atium spike? You've said that Ironeyes is in fact Marsh. Did Ruin spike someone for him? Or did Sazed grant him the power?

Brandon Sanderson:

Dead inquisitors Vin killed. Some were granted the spike for reasons I haven't spoken of yet.

Question #7: 

Don't know what the question was, but the answer is a cool look into Brandon's mind about how he writes his Cosmere books.

Brandon Sanderson: 

So it is this weird balancing act that, as a writer, you have to perform, particularly with the longer books in the longer series, where you want to make sure they're engaging to the hardcore fan, but not overwhelming to the person who maybe hasn't reread the books since the last one came out. And I don't know that I have that balance figured out, but it is something I think about a lot...

Question #8:

When will we visit the Spiritual Realm like we have done the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson:

Yes, you already have, briefly when Elend transcended and burned atium with duralumin.

Questioner:

Okay, so when Kelsier is in the-- Which Realm is he in?

Brandon Sanderson:

He’s in the Cognitive Realm.

Questioner:

Is he seeing people from other worlds or is he--

Brandon Sanderson:

No, he meets some people who are traveling but Cognitive Realm is location dependent.  He is on the Cognitive Realm on Scadrial and the people he runs into there-- until he kind of travels off into space, which is where he finds the fortress.

Questioner:

So even though he’s tied to Scadrial could he go to the Cognitive Realm of other worlds?

Brandon Sanderson:

He would have trouble getting to another planet, being a Cognitive shadow like he was.

Questioner:

So is there some particular thing that somebody would need to have to be able to move between the realms?

Brandon Sanderson:

A body is helpful. Depends on what their ties are and things like that.  Not always, but yeah.

Question #9:

So, the Spiritual Realm is not the Beyond?

Brandon Sanderson:

No, Spiritual Realm is not the Beyond.

End of the hiatus, Dragonsteel summary part 1

Yeah, so I have depression, and things are hard to get done and do when you have depression, I guess? Anyway, I haven't posted in like over a month but whatever. I used to post every week and had a goal to post every week, but sometimes it was every two weeks. Anyway, it's not like I'm held to a strict schedule or am accountable to anyone or anything. I mean, even Eric, who used to post daily, never said he would. Except to himself, I guess? And now he's doing it weekly now, if that? Alex never set up nay sort of expectations, and Ryan's is like, once a year? Anyway, I too never told anyone how often I'd post, but it was about once a week. I digress.

My grandmother Perazzo passed away, and Heather, Joy, Henry and I headed down for her funeral on Monday May 14. I was a pallbearer.

Then my brother Ryan got married on the 17, and so we got to drive again all the way to Southern California and then all the way back.

And then my sister Hannah is going to get married, but on the day before Heather graduates so we can't go to her wedding.

I'm in my last class for my Master's, and all that is left after that is taking a test and doing student teaching. Yay! So far I have gotten an A in every single class so far.

I checked out Brandon Sanderson's Honor's Thesis from the BYU library, which is a novel he write called Dragonsteel. I'm done reading it but I noticed that its plot summary isn't included anywhere on the forums of wiki, and so I thought that I'd finally contribute to society and add it, figuring that it takes about two months to get a copy of it from the library and there's only a couple of copies. I figured I'd do under others what I'd want somebody to do for me, and if I was a big Sanderson fan I'd want to know what happens in Dragonsteel, but when I looked there wasn't anything. When I do put it up it will be on this page.

It's 53 chapters with three interludes, and here's what I have written so far (it's taking a lot longer than I thought it would):

Chapter 1

Eleven year old Jerick is content living his life in the small village of Farastham, but his lumberjack father Rin has bigger plans for him. Rin is well liked and respected by everyone in their village. A school starts in the village, and Rin, knowing Jerick to be incredibly inquisitive and intuitive, signs him up to go once a week.

The teacher of the school, Torell, comes from the capital of Yolen, Lakdon.  Jerick, through eavesdropping, learns that he has no desires to be there teaching peasants, but sees it as punishment from the king. During classes one of the rules is to not ask questions, but this is something Jerick can’t help, and whenever he does so Torell slaps him with his thin reed. When asked when they will learn reading, Torell scoffs and says that if they would bring in their own scrolls he would teach them after class, knowing full well no peasant had any scrolls.

On his way home from school one day with his father, Jerick and Rin hear screams of horror. Running over, they see a crowd surrounding a bone-white six-legged beast of some kind with pure black eyes. Rin informs Jerick that it is Fain, a creature of evil that are all monsters. The Sho Del are a race of creatures that live south that are also Fain, and down near their border where the Dragonsteel wells are located is a war known as The Eternal War.

After school a different day Rin asks Torell when Jerick can start reading. Torell says that a book costs a crin to buy. Rin then pulls out a silver crin, worth ten years of his savings, to buy the book for Jerick so that he can learn to read.

Chapter 2

In a history lesson, the boys relearn how Oreon the White created the world and all good things, and how his brother Xeth the black, out of jealousy, created the Sho Del and other Fain creatures. Their lesson is interrupted by the priest, Wat. After class Torell starts teaching Jerick how to read.

At home, Jerick receives his caste mark as a present. Everyone 12 and older receives a castemark, which is a symbol of which caste a person is in. Jerick’s says lumberjack on one side but Rin left it blank on the other.

A visitor comes to town, a man dressed in outrageously colored clothes. He has white hair and a hawk-like face. Toreel moans, “Not him!” when he sees him. The visitor announces that in three months the king would be visiting the town for a business deal with cattle dealers. Later the visitor, Cephandrious Maxtori, tells Torell that the King made a bet with house Lord Kalord Stafen that a peasant can be educated to be like a nobleman at that the king would also be checking in on the school’s progress. Cephandrious tells Jerick to just call him Topaz, and shows him a large Topaz ring he has on.

Later that night Topaz convinces Jerick to sneak into Torell’s house to steal some food. After stealing some, Topaz gives it all to Jerick, asking him to give it to those that need it most. He also encourages Jerick to learn as much as he can, and then runs off.

In a later lesson, Torell continues to teach Jerick how to read from the book he bought, which is about the three realms of existence, the spiritual, the cognitive, and the physical. Torell explains that the cognitive realm is associated with the Sho Del.

Chapter 3

Jerick is becoming very proficient at reading. The cattlemen arrive. One of them is of the  Ke’Chan ethnicity, who are a race of people with darker skin. Another one gives Jerick chills, although he doesn’t know why. The day for the King’s arrival arrives. The King, King Rodis, is given a tour by the Foreman and Rin. He is the first fat person Jerick has seen in his entire life. Afterwards they go to the school, where Kalord Stafen asks the boys of the school questions, but none of them get the right answers. Jerick knew the answers to all the questions but his own, which was exceptionally hard. Jerick makes a fool of Kalord, and Kalord hits him, but is then restrained by the King.

Later at the cattle yard, Jerick and his parents are there. Jerick sees the cattleman that gave him chills, and fells a coldness form him. Jerick throws a rock at him, which causes the man to drop his disguise momentarily, revealing it to actually be a Sho Del assassin, with bone-white skin and eyes of pure black. The Sho Del shouts, and Jerick can see the sound waves somehow. The shout leads the cattle to stampede, but Rin is able to drag the King to safety. The Sho Del shoots an arrow, killing Jerick’s mother, and then grapples with Rin with a knife as Rin stops him from reaching the King. Jerick sees the knife coming towards his father and yells “Get out of the way!”

The next scene is of Jerick sitting by himself on the dirt, his parents dead under white cloths next to him. The King comes up and snaps Jerick out of his self-imposed stupor, and asks him if he wants to help the King win his bet by going to the capitol and learning there. Jerick says he’d have to go ask his parents first and if the King has seen them. Disturbed, the King says he’s already talked with them and they’re fine with it, and that he’s never met a better man than his father.

Chapter 4

During their trip back to the capitol on a ship, Jerick is amazed by how small his village really was as he sees big villages and sees the world through a new paradigm. On deck, Topaz insults Kalord about his wife leaving him, and Kalord comes inches from backhanding his face. Topaz is a Jesk, and it is illegal to strike him. Kalord’s wife left him because he was abusive.

Jerick eavesdrops on the King and Topaz in their cabin. The king mentions that Jerick claimed he could see the force of the water against the ship, to which Topaz is stunned silent for a moment. When they begin to mention what happened to his parents, Jerick pulls away, convincing himself that it was rude to eavesdrop in the first place.

They arrive at Lakdon and see the crowd waiting for them. Jerick spots the princess, Courteth, and is smitten by her, for which Topaz shakes his head in disapproval.

Chapter 5

Ryalla is the slave servant girl of Courteth. Courteth treats her poorly, and is seen to be cunning and manipulative. Ryalla is forced by Courteth to knell longer than anyone else near the docks, by punishment of Courteth who claimed Ryalla made them late. Topaz and Ryalla ride back to the castle in the same carriage as Jerick, and Ryalla is shocked as to how naive Jerick is to what she takes for common knowledge. Topaz asks Ryalla if Courteth is still giving her grief. Topaz is not fooled by Courteth at all, and is Ryalla’s friend. Along the way they pass the Temple dedicated to Slonis, goddess of mystery and childbirth.

At the stables, Topaz meets up with his friend, Bat’Chor, a Ke’Chan man. Ryalla leads Jerick into the castle, and learns that Jerick has never heard of slaves before. When Ryalla mentions that both of her parents were dead, Jerick freezes in the hallway midstep, his eyes dead and glassy. A moment later he’s back to normal and acts as though nothing had happened, to Ryalla’s unease.

Chapter 6

Jerick is dressed up and presented before the Queen and Prince Yoharn. He is given three rooms and a variety of clothes options, which he considers wasteful. He seems unsure of how to treat and address servants.

Later that day is a feast, and Topaz chats with Jerick before it begins, giving him advice and telling him to be wary of Martis, who is Kalord’s son. Martis does indeed sit by Jerick, and makes fun of his peasant lineage and the way he talks. The King asks Topaz for their entertainment, and Topaz stands up to tell a story.

Chapter 7

As Topaz tells the story, he juggles several balls in a very skilled and seemingly impossible way. Topaz tells the story of the creation of the world, how Oreon the White created man to be immortal and able to do magic. Xeth the Black was jealous and had Slonis help him to create the Sho Del. Xeth then tried to corrupt thousands of men, but only found one, who betrayed mankind to Xeth. Xeth destroyed them and Oreon mourned for ten thousand years before creating man again, only this time mortal and unable to do magic. The only one that remained from the old race was the betrayer, who lives among them still and whose name has been lost.

After the story ends, Jerick and everyone else discuss how Topaz got the story wrong. Martis plays a prank on Jerick, and he realizes that nobles and peasants are the same. Jerick challenges Martis, making the King’s bet a personal one.

Later that night Topaz comes to Jerick’s window, explaining how he needs a place to lie low as Kalord is after him again. When Jerick confronts him about getting the creation legend wrong, Topaz simply explains that he told the version that used to be, and that Topaz is worried about something evil coming and wants the people to prepare for it. At night, Jerick looks over at Topaz several times, but Topaz’s eyes are always open and staring at the ceiling.

Chapter 8

In the morning, Jerick is awoken by Frost, his new tutor, and Topaz’s friend. Frost and Jerick discuss how legends, languages, and everything changes, and the only eternal things are truth and Dragonsteel. Jerick wonders if Dragonsteel is actually real, and Frost tells him to ask the King to look at his castemark, which is presumably made of Dragonsteel. They begin their tutoring session.

Walking to his first class lesson, Jerick runs into the King speaking with Dorm, captain of the royal guard. Jerick asks to see the King’s castemark, and he shows him. It seems to be made of very fragile thin wire, but when it is tried to be bent turns out to be indestructible. For a moment to Jerick’s eyes it suddenly appears to burst with light and power.

The lessons are to be held in the library. The king introduces Jerick to his fellow classmates, Martin and Yoharn, and to their teachers, Scholars Vendavious and Teniclese, and a Horwatcher named Scatherem. Horwatchers are mistrusted in that society, and Jerick is alarmed and interested to hear this. He will be teaching about Realmatic theory and give demonstations on the nature of magic. The king tells Kalord that their bet begins here and will end in four years when the boys will take the tests.

Chapter 9

Ryalla hides from Courteth on the balcony, daydreaming about not being a slave. Courtheth passes her spot several times without seeing her. Topaz, sitting outside on a thin ledge, sees her and they converse. Topaz leaves and Courteth punishes Ryalla for hiding, even though Ryalla claims she was in plain sight the whole time. Ryalla gets Courteth ready to go, and they leave for the libabry.

At the library Courteth manipulates her father into letting her take school lessons with the boys, even though she doesn’t want to learn but just be admired by Martis and Jerick, who are enraptured by her. The lesson begins, and even though questions are not aloud, Jerick asks them anyway, eventually coming to the conclusion that the teachers see questions as an aid to thinking, not a replacement for it, and thus punish those who ask questions to get them to see how valuable they are. Ryalla bemoans her and Jerick’s status in life and hopes that one day it will change.

Interlude One

Topaz flips into Frost’s room from the window, and they have a conversation in which Topaz accuses Frost of being more than just human, to which Frost denies. Topaz bums food of Frost, explaining that Kalord tried to have Topaz poisoned the other night. Topaz says there’s more to Jerick, but Frist reminds him that humans can’t do magic. Topaz causes a candle to burst into flame just by looking at it, to which Frost just snorts and says he hardly calls Topaz human anymore. Topaz thinks that whatever he, Topaz, is, Jerick is one too. He goes on to say that Ryalla also might be one, as she could bend light around her so much that even Topaz almost didn’t notice her. Frost grew troubled at that. Topaz says that something is coming, and has to leave with Bat’Chor to find out what it is and prepare for it.

End of Book One

Chapter 10

In Tzendor, Topaz uses makeup to disguise Bat’Chor and himself. As they go out in disguise, they remark on how even the peasants are better off than before, due to the new emperor Aronack. As they approach the Temple of Hsaw, they mix with other pilgrims who are visiting it for religious purposes. Topaz’s knowledge of when these pilgrims arrived causes Bat’Chor to once again wonder is Topaz needs to sleep.

They enter the building and Bat’Chor is amazed by its architecture. Topaz and Bat’Chor get their own small private room to stay in, and discuss architecture. Three hours later, the pilgrimage director calls them and their pilgrimage group out of their rooms to see the object they’ve traveled so long to see.

Next week off from school, baby coming soon

This next week I have off from school. Yay! Which means I will be taking time to clean the apartment and getting it ready for the new baby who is due November 10. Also, if you remember the situation with the new school not being ready for us to teach in, and me having to teach in the gym, well the new school is set to be finished this week. Then they will have four inspections, and the plan is to be ready to go by the Monday after the break. We'll see how that turns out. I had really high hopes, up until during an after school meeting with all the teachers when the administrators had a guy come in to encourage us that it would be done on time. After his talk I felt way less optimistic that it would be done. That's called irony: when an event occurs opposite of what you would expect. They expected it to make us more optimistic but instead it made me less optimistic. Dude, I don't know what we'll do if it's not ready by then.

Played my new game Dice Forge at clubs night a few weeks ago and with Heather twice yesterday. I won at clubs night by 5 points and Heather beat me once and I beat her once, by about 6 points and then about 20 points. It's a fun game.

Alex said he'd be interested in playing Pandemic Legacy with more of his brothers than just Eric, and I totally want to, but I have no idea when I'll be in Fallon next, much less for an extended period of time. This year was the year Heather, Henry and I would go to Fallon for Thanksgiving and Mesa for Christmas, but with the baby being born on November 10 we weren't planning on going anywhere for Thanksgiving.

The new baby is coming soon and Henry is very excited. He points at Heather's tummy and says, "Baby sister come out! Right now!" What a cute kid. He's going to be so good around her. Maybe a bit too friendly. We'll have to make sure he doesn't cuddle her too hard. Or try to feed her anything. Or anything like that.

Speaking of Henry, this last week Heather, Henry and I went to a farm place that had a corn maze and was selling pumpkins and had a whole bunch of fun stuff for families and kids. There was a little petting zoo area there that Henry loved, and we got a video. There was also this wide but short metal slide that you could go down into corn seed that Henry absolutely loved. When we got home he still had corn seed hiding in his clothes that we had to get out. I got a video of him playing with it later and singing to himself too.

So this next week I'll be cleaning up and getting the apartment ready for the baby, since I have the week off of work. My Grand Canyon University master's is going well. Hopefully my American Preparatory Academy building will be ready by next week. Speaking of my school, we're already getting ready for Winterim and we're sending in our Winterim proposals! I'm doing Game Design again obviously and I'm also going to offer the Psychology and Science one I did last year too, but now I'm calling it Psychology, Philosophy, and Science wince we talked a lot of philosophy last time, too. For a third class I was thinking about offering a Brandon Sanderson class, and we could talk about the Cosmere and create our own magic systems and the like. I might team up with another teacher who's actually good at writing to do that one though. We'll see.

Post-Christmas games binge review

This Christmas break was amazing. I didn't get in my weekly post because I was so busy with everything else that was going on during break. And by everything else I mean playing games. But I'm back at school and blogging again.

During break I played a lot of new games, most of which I had never played before, including a lot of new ones that we got for Christmas.  Following are some of my thoughts.

Seafall: Seafall was an incredible game and an incredible experience. I loved it. It was my first time ever playing legacy game, (and Ryan's as well), and it was a blast to be able to change everything about the game. From the cards themselves to upgrading your own province board to making your ships better, it was awesome being able to change things for future games. The best part though for me was being able to discover islands. Sailing out into the wild unknown waters and using an explore action to see if you could discover an island was so amazing. I was the first one to do it in my game. And while I was not the first one to set up a colony on one of the islands, I was the first one to get three, getting me that milestone. Like in Eric's blog, it's really hard to not talk about the best, most exciting moments of the game because of spoilers, but let me just say the stuff in those little boxes is awesome. The entire game felt like an epic story to me, unfolding a secret past history of the sea that we slowly uncovered and discovered. All in all it was a great game and I had a great experience. It's too bad I can't go back and do it again, not in the same awe-inspiring way, because uncovering the secrets was one of the best parts. There was one time when we knew what we had to do, but weren't sure how the game would know when to trigger itself when it happened, but as it turned out everything happened smoothly and the game knew just what to do with itself. I can't wait to play another legacy game, such as Pandemic: Season 2, coming out later this year.

Viticulture: I love this game. I can't even explain really why, but this game is so fun and amazing. I just love the fact that you can use your workers in summer OR winter, but not both, and how your grapes in the crush vats and your wine in your cellar age at the end of every turn--I love those mechanics. And the visitor cards give a whole new spin on everything. This game is just great, and definitely one of my favorites of all time.

My Village: I like this game a lot better than regular Village. There's the amount of growth you literally see in front of you as your village gets bigger and progresses. It's the cool fact that you have five guys and once one of them dies you need to replace them to keep doing that part of your village. But mostly it's the dice. That glorious mechanic of that dice pool. I love how you can pick any two dice to add up to the number you want. I love the fact that there are the black dice which you can pick, but cost you two time to do so. I love how you can activate your buildings with them depending on what number is on the banner. It just all comes together for me so neatly and clearly. But yeah, picking two dice from that dice pool is just a great mechanic.

Mystic Vale: It was so fun to be able to construct your own cards. Which pieces fit together the best? Will that card part even come up when this is out there? Building up supercards was one of the best parts of the game. And I like how when you spoil you get that one-shot free mana, but man, spoiling! I hate spoiling! But when you can pull it off--wow, you're feeling good about yourself. I haven't played it enough to get all little tricks and dig into all the corners and niches that this game has to offer, but I hope to soon.

Codenames: This was quite a fun party game. And it was a lot shorter than I was expecting it to be. I was expecting a game to last around a half hour, but most games only lasted from about 10 to 15 minutes. And it was fun being both the person giving clues and the person pointing at words based on those clues. They are about equally fun in my mind, because with one you can make awesome clues, but have to wince inside when your team just doesn't get it, and with the other you can try to extrapolate what the code master meant and try to delve into their thought processes.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig: This game was really fun. I loved being able to construct my very own castle, and loved how the extra points on the room tiles made sense. The meat locker wants to be attached to an outside room to let out the smell. The theatre loses points if it's next to a sleeping room because the noise coming from it would wake up the guests. It was little things like that that made playing so much fun. Plus, you even got to set the prices of the rooms every go around. My trick was not placing the rooms my opponents wanted too far out of reach, but I'd put them just low enough so that they would justify buying it and I would reap the profit.

Imhotep: This game was really simple, and thus fun. You grab stone, place stone, or sail. And that's it. Yet the game remains competitive and tense as you try to balance those three very simple things. Timing is so critical to this game. I only barely barely won my first game I played by one point.

Istanbul: Letters and Seals: This is a really good expansion. I don't see myself playing with it all the time though, because Istanbul by itself is so polished and tight and close to perfection in a game. The expansion adds a whole lot of neat nifty stuff, but as a result also adds a little bit of complexity and AP. With the added piece you can move it increases options on your turn and also the likelihood you'll have to pay two lira when you go to a spot. But it was definitely a lot of fun; all of the new added stuff is solid.

Caverna: Like Agricola, but you feel more free in this game to choose your own path. In Agricola you were always worried about feeding your workers and getting tons of every animal so that you didn't go negative, but in Caverna both of those problems are fixed.

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn: I played with Alex twice. I lost the first one terribly, but almost one the second one. I was so close! I like how it's a card and dice game, with the dice activating card powers, and some card powers allowing you to change dice. The card drafting thing would have been so neat to do, but there was just no time this vacation.

Shakespeare: This game only lasts six rounds, which is incredible, because you think you won't be able to get anything done, and then by the end you look back and think, wow, I got a lot done. I really liked this game.

Alhambra and Fresco: I loved the city building of Alhambra with the wall thing, and I loved how if you paid for a city tile exactly you got to go again, and I loved how you could only pay for a tile using only one type of currency. It's a good game, and Heather really liked it too and was excited when she learned that we also got a copy. I loved the hiding-the-workers part of Fresco, where you reveal where your guys are going at the same time. But I don't know if this is just me but the only place where that really mattered was the market. It seemed like any other place it didn't really matter as much. Oh, and painting the ceiling too I guess because they might paint the section that you were going to paint, or move the abbot away from the place you would have gotten bonus points from. And I liked the getting-up-time mechanic, similar to the one in Viticulture. Plus, the mixing colors together to get other colors is just genius.

Treasure Hunter: A fun game. It has this really cool card drafting mechanic where you want to lowest in a suit or the highest in a suit, but not the middle of a suit, and so you're trying to build up a team based on their rank number to get highest or lowest. Plus there are dogs and coins and weapons and all sorts of crazy things. Also, a short game. That won a lot of points with me; I love shorter games.

Hey, that's my fish!: A simple game that can get deep if you want it to. My wife got me this for Christmas. I first played it with Brandon earlier last year.

Kingdom Builder: This was a fun little game. It's not super deep, like other games I like, and it is kind of annoying having a one-card hand (a hand of card?), but other than that it's pretty solid. I love how with the expansions it adds a ton of new goal cards, because those three goal cards are the focus of the game, and I'm a sucker for variety.

Dominion expansion cards: Speaking of variety, I got a whole bunch of new Dominion cards! Some of which no one has ever played with before because they're from the new second edition games that just came out. We actually didn't play this over the break though....

We made a list of who won what game with how many points and how many players were playing. I think Alex is doing some math to crunch some numbers to determine who is the overall Christmas break games champion. Or something like that.

In other non-game related news: The Fitbit challenge! My family is doing a Fitbit challenge where we see how many steps we get in one month. It averages out to about 7,000 steps a day I think. Because I walk to the bus stop to and from school every day, I easily rack up over 20,000 steps in one day. Plus as a teacher I'm up in the front of the class teaching too, so things are going well for me. But it's so funny, because now I love waking around and even go out of my way to do it now so that I get more steps to beat everybody else. So the challenge is working--it's getting me to exercise more. Right now I'm in first place. :)

Heather and I saw Moana over the break (thanks Hannah!) and it was great.

And everyone made it safely home! I'm so grateful that we were blessed with safe travels. Heather, Henry and I made it home safely, despite horrid Salt Lake City roads, and Eric and Ryan managed to make it to BYU-I safely, and my mom and dad made it back home to Fallon safely, all of which I am incredibly grateful for.

Cosmere: The Game location samples, Plus: White Sand vol. 1

Last week you got to see a sample of some of the cards that are used for my game Cosmere, based off of the works of Brandon Sanderson.  If you missed that, check out the post here: Cosmere Game.

This week, I am showing you some of the location cards used in said game.  Once again, the artwork is taken from off the internet, and I don't have any legal ownership of it, I merely use it to give me a feel for how the final product of the game will work.

First off: Arelon Palace, from Elantris.  If you have a person here and are losing at the location, it gives you a nice bonus of one extra card at the start of each of your turns.

The Court of the Gods, from Warbreaker.  This is the place where all of the Returned live, who are treated as Gods by their people. As such, at this location no one can be harmed or damaged.

Also from Warbreaker is the D'Denir garden, filled with hundreds of statues.  It rewards the players based off of how many people they had on it when it scores, allowing them to draw cards as soon as it does so. 

The City of Elantris from the novel Elantris.  During the course of the novel, Elantris is cursed and a nightmare slum for its neither-living-nor-dead occupants. Thus, I made it so that you lost something every time you put a card onto this location. Elantris is also the highest scoring location in the game, which kind of makes up for that.

Fadrex City is a city that contains one of the Lord Ruler's supply caches.  When this location scores, all of the equipment, instead of going to the discard to be lost, is instead put on top of your deck to be reused on a near future turn.

Kharbaranth, from the Stormlight Archive, houses an incredible library full of awesome knowledge. Thus, when you have a person on this location, you can access that knowledge, and look at the top 2 cards of the Time deck.

Kredik Shaw, home of the Lord Ruler, who has ruled for a thousand years.  In this location, only the most powerful may go: those of rank 3 or higher.

The Purselike is a great place for chill people to hang out and live.  Invite your chill friends: every time you put a person here of rank 1 or 2, you can place another.

So there you have it: 8 of the 16 locations for the game.  When I get around to it I'll put numbers on the three shards in the upper-left corners telling the players how many shards they get from winning at that location.

Meanwhile: Guess what book I checked out from the Provo public library today?

White Sand! (Volume 1)  For a preview of some more of the pages, go here: White Sand.

Cosmere: The Game

When I was a Senior in college, my college capstone class was The Literature of Awe.  In this class, our final paper and project had to deal with literature and awe, and had to be related to each other.  I chose my topic to be Brandon Sanderson and his literature. Brandon's 0th law is even: "Always Err on the side of what is Awesome."  My entire final paper was about his books and magic systems and the Cosmere and his awesome putting-the-pieces-together-at-the-last-minute-to-solve-the-problem-satisfyingly endings.  As well as the paper, I also had to do a project.  Hmm... give me free range to do a project, do you?  Watch yourselves, here comes a game.

So I developed a card game based off of four of the major magic systems in Brandon's Cosmere works.

Here's the promo video I made for it, which I put on Facebook and now don't know how to get it onto Youtube: Cosmere Introduction Video

The idea is simple: you choose a deck (it comes with four), the other players choose a deck, and then you battle each other for control of shards throughout various places found throughout the Cosmere. The first player to 16 shards wins.  Each deck consists of its own magic system. There are the Elantrian deck, the Allomancy deck, the Awakener deck, and the Surgebinder deck.  Each deck uses its own unique system of magic.  And, just as Allomancy's metals can be categorized into an awesome little chart:

So can the powers that each deck offers you:

Time for a little bit more explaining. [Note: all artwork is prototype, taken from off the internet. It is just sample artwork.]

Elantrian Deck: The Elantrains are capable of harnessing the Dor (a source of great power) by drawing certain symbols. Depending on what the symbol looks like depends on what it does. Elantrains are the people that can draw these symbols, called Aons.  In my earlier drafts of the game, this was by far the most powerful deck, and thus broke that game. I fixed that (I hope, more play testing needs to be done) by categorizing the Elantrains into beginners, intermediates, and experts, which can each draw Aons only if their skill level matches the complexity of the Aon. Before, I allowed all Elantrains to be able to draw all Aons, and that was too powerful.  In this deck, you have to attach an Aon card to an Elantrain for the Elantrain to draw it, thus activating the Aon's power. This is the: Everyone can do everything, Magic from external card, deck.

Allomancy Deck: Allomancers are able to burn (in other words, metabolize) certain metals to harness and use specific powers. For example, an Allomancer that can burn tin swallows tin and then burns it to enhance their physical senses. An Allomancer that can burn zinc can pull on others' emotions. Mist born can metabolize all the metals, while Mistings can only burn one. In this deck there are 2 Mistborn, and all the other Allomancers are Mistings, meaning that most of the Allomancers can only utilize one metal. Metal cards need to be played on the Allomancer for him/her to burn that metal. There are eight different Mistings, one for each of the eight basic metals (physical and mental). This is the: Specific Magic powers per person, Magic from external card, deck.

Awakener Deck: Awakeners get their power from the number of Breath they hold. There are Breath tokens that you place on your Awakeners to tell you how many Breath they have. Breath can be transferred from person to person, and the more Breath one has, the more powerful they are. Having more Breath gives the Awakener inherent special abilities, such as looking at the top card of your deck or the Time deck. The deck also comes with items that you can invest Breath into to have them do your bidding magically: for example, a rope, which when you put a certain number of Breath into and give it a certain command, can grab items or tie up an opponent. Unlike the Elantrian and the Allomancer decks, the magic can be used without any external cards. This is the: Everyone can do everything, Magic from self, deck.

Surgebinder Deck: Surgebinders can use magic if they have a certain amount of Stormlight in them. This Stormlight comes from the money cards of this deck, and is placed onto the Surgebinders so that they can perform their abilities. There are ten abilities, and each Surgebinder only has access to 2 of them. Some of them include: using illusions to disguise yourself, teleporting to another location, using Stormlight to stick your opponent so that they can't move, and so forth. There are ten different types of Surgebinder, each with a unique combination of exact 2 powers. This is the: Specific Magic powers per person, Magic from self, deck.

So there you have it: the four different decks you can use, each with its own unique system of using magic.  During early play testing I tweaked the rules, and will continue to do so with further play testing.

Question and Answer Session:

Q: Are you planing on getting this published?

A: Yes, but I don't own the intellectual property for this stuff, Brandon Sanderson does.

Q: Have you talked to him about this game then?

A: Yes, I have contacted him once.  Here's how it went down: I took this concept and emailed the CEO of Mayday games with it.  This is the e-mail I sent:

Hello Seth:
My name is Andrew Perazzo, and I am currently in a class at BYU.  In this class, my classmates and I are creating our final projects.  Because inventing tabletop games is my hobby and passion, I am creating one as my final project.  Tara and many others in my class are interested in my game and want to see it succeed, and Tara and others suggested I try to publish it.

I am contacting you to hopefully start going through the process of getting this game published.  A URL to a short video of me explaining my game is below. (It will go to Facebook, which is where the video is embedded . . . I'm not sure how to change that.)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203354885579073
Please e-mail me with any questions, comments, or concerns, at [address].  Also, my personal cell-phone number is [number].  I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Andrew G. Perazzo

After this email, I got an email back:

I love that you contacted me Andrew AND that you know Tara too, it is a small world!  I watched the video and like it, but there is a huge problem... getting the intellectual property from Brandon Sanderson will be a very tough battle unless you have some connection.  Great ideas for a game, but it just isn't realistic to think you can get the license to make a game of Brandon's out of the gate.

On a personal note I'll say I'm a stormin' huge fan of his work though, I finished Words of Radiance way too quickly!

Regards,

Seth Hiatt

Mayday Games Co., Ltd.

So then I emailed Brandon Sanderson with these emails attached, and here's what he said:

Andrew,

Thank you for sending this! Your ideas are quite good, however, you'll need to go through my agent with a proposal on game designs as everything like that goes through him. You'll have a better chance at getting him on board if you team up with someone like Mayday Games, who is experienced in the industry. I will forward this on to my agent with a note that you might be contacting him with a proposal at some point, but it would be good to contact him sooner rather than later to find out if the rights have already been sold to another company.  My agent's name is Joshua Bilmes and his contact info can be found here: [contact info]

Best,

Brandon

So then I contacted his agent, Joshua Bilmes, and here's what he said:

Dear Mr. Perazzo:

Brandon is personally designing his own Cosmere card game, so this is a sno-go.

And that was his entire email.  So . . . was there another publisher or not?  I don't know. So I let it drop after that, figuring I was busy with school and everything else. My question is: If Brandon was designing his own Cosmere card game, then why didn't he tell me instead of asking me to talk to his agent? Maybe he just didn't want to tell me to my face, or maybe he mentioned it once to Joshua and then forgot about it, or maybe Joshua didn't want an unknown game designer working on the project?  I don't know.

Q: So what are you going to do now?

A: I'm going to continue working on the game and making it the best it can be, working out the asymmetrical decks until they're balanced, and making the gameplay smooth and fun.  Then I'm going to give a copy to Brandon and talk to him about any future it might have.

Q: Any ideas for future decks, such as Hemalugy and Feruchemy?

A: Yes, although I am going to focus on the four decks I have right now and making them the best they can be before making other ones.

Q: Oh! Does that mean--

A: Yes, I already know what you're going to ask, you're going to ask if you can use hemalugy and feruchemy with allomancy to create compounders.  The answer is Yes, but like I said, I'm focusing on the first four decks first before I delve into anything else.

Q: Do you need help play testing Cosmere?

A: Sure, just let me know. I'm a bit busy with school right now, but during Christmas break we can definitely play.