A millennia-spanning, strategic tabletop roleplaying game from industry award-winning designers Brian R. James and Matt James.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
RED AEGIS October Update
about 10 years ago
– Sat, Nov 01, 2014 at 08:48:57 AM
Hello again gamers!
Layout: Layout of the RED AEGIS Core Rulebook began last month and it was my hope to have the PDF to backers by Halloween. Alas, I underestimated how long this process would take. As of today, the first 70 pages of the manuscript have been completed out of 320. Our graphic designer is working hard, but the early going has been slowed down by illness and my asking for some time intensive work (such as blending the half-page illustrations into the page background). Bottom line, is that work is being completed, just at a slower pace than I anticipated. When we get through Chapter 9 (roughly the halfway point) I’ll send out the draft PDF to backers so you can get a closer look at the work in progress. Apologies for the delay. We really appreciate your patience.
Art: The very first piece of art that I commissioned for the RED AEGIS Roleplaying Game was the map of Namarune, illustrated by Mike Schley. Between his freelance works for Scholastic, Wizards of the Coast and other publishers, Mike Schley’s talents are in high demand these days. I met with Mike at Gen Con this year, and as luck would have it, he had an opening in his schedule to complete another map. And what a gorgeous map it turned out to be.
Those of you that have reviewed the draft manuscript know that Namarune is merely one continent among many in the default game setting. I pleased to now show you the full map of the World of Aegis.
-Brian R. James Lead Designer, Vorpal Games
RED AEGIS September Update
about 10 years ago
– Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 01:16:20 PM
Layout: I’m pleased to announce that the RED AEGIS Core Rulebook is now in layout. That means that our graphic design guru, Erik Nowak, is taking the content from the manuscript and laying out the final pages in Adobe InDesign. This will take a few weeks to complete, but we have a few pages we can preview for you right now.
Art: The final artist we want to showcase for you is Jim Nelson. Jim illustrated four pieces of art for the Core Rulebook and we couldn’t be more pleased. If you head over to Jim’s blog you can see this art in three stages: the initial sketch, a grayscale study, and the final art. The following example depicts the city of Wimachanca, build high atop the Titan Spine Peaks by the Itztama tribe. We asked Jim to depict the city in transition from night to dawn, and he nailed it.
RED AEGIS August Update
about 10 years ago
– Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 06:54:04 PM
Hello again gamers!
Updated Schedule: The initial round of edits on the RED AEGIS Core Rulebook are now complete. Alas, this effort shined a light on areas of the manuscript that could benefit from further clarification, as well as some game mechanics that need additional tuning and refinement. This additional, but necessary, development work puts our August target date out of reach. I’m disappointed that we cannot deliver RED AEGIS to you this month as scheduled, but I hope you’ll find the final product worth the wait. At this point, I estimate a delay of 4 to 6 weeks, which would get the finished PDF of the Core Rulebook to backers by early to mid-October.
At that time, we’ll release the Core Rulebook on DriveThruRPG.com and give folks approximately two weeks to digest the book and report on any lingering issues before we send the manuscript to the printer. Our printer, based in China, requires approximately 9 weeks to manufacture and ship product across the ocean. So, those of you waiting patiently for a hardcover copy, are looking at a mid to late January delivery date. A frustrating delay, without question.
Beta Manuscript: On a more positive note, we want to get the latest version of the beta manuscript into your hands to review. Any and all feedback is welcome, but I’d like each and every one of you to take a moment and review the list of Kickstarter Backers starting on page 315. If your name is misspelled, missing or needs a correction of any type, now is the time to speak up. The backers listed are from the Scholar pledge level and higher.
For backers at the Monolith level or higher, the download link for the beta manuscript will be sent to your Kickstarter Inbox (a few minutes after this update goes out).
Gen Con 2014: I’m flying out tomorrow morning (at an ungodly hour) to attend Gen Con in Indianapolis. Matt and I will hosting a RED AEGIS seminar on Friday at the Crowne Plaza hotel from 2:00 – 3:00 PM in Grand Central D [https://www.gencon.com/events/54739]. In addition to getting the inside scoop on the process of creating the game, I’ll be raffling off several RED AEGIS challenge coins and a t-shirt or two to those in attendance. If you’re at Gen Con and want to meet up, the best way of contacting me is through Twitter @brianrjames.
RED AEGIS Swag: All t-shirt and canvas map orders have been shipped out to backers. The challenge coins, which just arrived yesterday, will be mailed out by the end of the month. It's not too late to add a coin to your pledge. Just head to https://redaegis.backerkit.com/preorders/ and add one to your order. If you take a picture with your RED AEGIS swag we'd love to feature you on our Facebook page. Send us your photos!
Art: This month I want to showcase the art of Ricardo Guimaraes. We challenged Ricardo to conceptualize several of the monstrous races of Namarune, including the giant-like manok and the insectoid volvhen. These are just two of the perilous factions your tribe will likely contend against in a RED AEGIS campaign.
Once more, thank you VERY MUCH for backing RED AEGIS, and apologies again for the delay.
-Brian R. James Lead Designer, Vorpal Games
RED AEGIS June Update
over 10 years ago
– Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 01:28:10 AM
Design: Writing is still ongoing, which means we are now a couple weeks behind schedule, but our editing team has already begun the work of fine tuning the completed chapters of the manuscript. We are still on target to release the completed PDF of the RED AEGIS Core Rulebook in August, though it may be later in the month.
BackerKit Surveys: In the next day or two, you will receive an email with a special link to a BackerKit survey (which we are using instead of Kickstarter surveys). It is important that when you receive the survey, you get it back to us as quickly as you can. This information is critical for us as we initiate the printing & fulfillment stage of the project.
You do not need to make a login and password to fill out your survey, just fill it out and you’re all good to go. In the BackerKit survey, please answer any questions we may have regarding your pledge, provide shipping information, pay for international shipping if you forgot, and if you want you can even order more items or “add-ons”. You do not have access to this link yet, but it will be available soon via email!
Illustration: Over the last couple of months, artist Eric Belisle has been working on three illustrations for our game, each depicting one of the three playable tribes of Namarune. The results are fantastic, so I thought it might be fun to give you folks an insider’s look into the process of commissioning art.
The process begins with issuing a contract and art order to the illustrator. The art order provides the artist a brief description of the illustration to work from. Included here is the art description I sent Eric for the portrait of the Xaire tribe:
As you can see, the art order sets the stage but doesn't go into too much minutia. I've found that artists give their absolute best when they have creative freedom. Working from the art order, the artist's first task is provide a sketch of the illustration.
The sketch provides a good picture of the art's final composition. It's at this stage that you offer final suggestions to the illustrator. My feedback to the illustrator was to ensure that multiple ethnicities were represented in the portrait. In Namarune—the starting region of the game—tribes are unified by a common ideology and not by ethnic bloodlines.
Here is the final illustration of the Xaire. As someone with zero artistic talent, it's always inspiring to me when an illustrator can take a few sentence description and turn it into a stunning work of art. The other two tribe portraits are amazing as well, but I'll reveal them to you at another time.
Cheers!
-Brian R. James Lead Designer, Vorpal Games
RED AEGIS July Update
over 10 years ago
– Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 01:26:46 AM
Gameplay: Several playtesters have noted that RED AEGIS plays like a curious fusion between a traditional tabletop roleplaying game (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons) and a 4X turn-based strategy game (e.g. Sid Meier's Civilization). This is indeed our intended goal, but for many of you it has been difficult to conceptualize how the game is actually played. Included below is a gameplay example of a typical round in RED AEGIS.
Art: The next artist we want to showcase is Kerem Beyit. We asked Kerem to draw scion portraits for three castes in our game, (from left to right) the scepters, factols, and coursers. To make things a little interesting, Kerem was charged with matching the likeness of real life people in his illustrations (backers that pledged at the $1000 producer level). We are very pleased with the results and hope our producers recognize themselves in the art! :-)
BackerKit Surveys: We still have roughly 100 backers that have not yet completed the survey at BackerKit. If you are one of these individuals and are having difficulty completing the survey (or have not received an email regarding the survey), please contact me at [email protected] and I'll be happy to assist you. This information is critical for us as we initiate the printing & fulfillment stage of the project.
If you missed out on the Kickstarter campaign, it's not too late to reserve your copy of of the game. Click the image above to pre-order a copy of RED AEGIS Core Rulebook, Digital Boxed Set, or any of the add-ons (for a limited time) from the Kickstarter campaign.
If you already have your copy, please share this link on social media to help spread the word. It's very much appreciated.
