Venom, Vengeance and Victory: The Serpent and the Sands

Today sees the pre-order launch of The Serpent and The Sands, a combined guide to North Africa and 10-part TTRPG campaign for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20. It’s been nearly 18 months in the making and I did the narrative design and direction and led the creative side of the book, as well as writing the first and last missions, Dying to Meet You and The Hidden City .

It really does take a long time to bring these things to fruition and I can still remember sitting down at my desk and sketching out the first outline of the overall plot and characters. As usual, I had the beginning and the ending figured out, it was just that annoying middle 95% that was the issue!

Making one of these RPG books is a lot more work than writing a novel, but one great bonus is that you get to share the load and the journey with a whole bunch of talented people who helped bring the vision to life.

Massive thanks to all the writers including Richard August, Brad Bell, Jason Brick, Nathan Dowdell, Bill Heron, Patrick McNally, Meric Moir, and Mari Tokuda. There’s also a ton of artists like Andre Meister who did the excellent cover, Glynn Seal’s fantastic cartography, Ricardo Amato’s art direction and all the hugely talented interior artists who illustrated the book so beautifully.  And that’s not even counting all the backroom staff at Modiphius, who did a ton of work behind the scenes to support the book from inception to birth.

So, here it is. I hope you like it and that it might even inspire a few people to check out the RPG itself. It really is a great fun and rip- roaring pulp rollercoaster ride through world war 2. It brings me immense pleasure to still be working on it.

So, get out there, sign up some fellow adventures and get cracking. The rise of a new serpent empire is imminent and only you can prevent it!


Innsmouth Book Club: Tolkien Talk

Innsmouth isn’t traditionally the most welcoming of places, but I’m kind of known there now, so they let me walk abroad once in a while, without being dragged down to the murky depths. The Esoteric Order of Dagon don’t do a very good cup of tea, but the sushi’s excellent, if you like that kind […]


Interview with Fluff n’ Crunch

Occasionally, I get a chance to emerge from my writing, game designing and narrative bunker and come blinking into the light for a chat with some interesting people. Check out the Interview here. Fluff n’ Crunch are a splendid set of chaps who do deep dives into games design and narrative, especially in Modiphius’s 2d20 […]


The Musketeers versus Cthulhu

Publication day and always a joy to see a new story going into print. Today’s comes in the form of an excellent new anthology entitled The Musketeers Versus Cthulhu in the Court of King Louis from the estimable Black Ink Fiction, which is now available in print and on Kindle in the UK and US. […]


Corridors

Author copies of the fantastic new anthology, Corridors, by Innsmouth Gold have dropped through my letterbox this morning and the compilation, which is based on the King in Yellow mythos of Robert W Chambers, features some fantastic stories from the renowned Innsmouth Writing Circle. It’s available now in print or ebook direct from the Innsmouth […]


Constellation nominated for a BSFA award

No matter what anyone tells you, it’s always splendid to be nominated for an award and with the British Science Fiction Association’s annual list just published, I was delighted to see that The Constellation of Alarion has made the longlist for Best Short Fiction for 2021. Of course, it would be amazing to win, but […]


Vital Signals/Future Plans

It’s probably a bit late now to wish everyone a happy new year, so all I’ll say is, welcome to 2022, let’s hope it doesn’t suck as much as its immediate predecessors. It’s started off on a good note for me at least, as I’ve just received my author’s copy of Vital Signals, a brand […]


Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Arrives!

Wow, this was a while coming! I’ve just received my contributor’s copies of the full range of Achtung! Cthulhu books, dice, and accessories and I have to say they are glorious! Seeing your words and ideas made into such impressive physical form is always a supreme thrill and this is the culmination of over two […]


Massive Damage Adventures

It’s always marvellous to have a chat about my work as an RPG narrative designer and I joined the splendid Meric Moir from Massive Damage Adventures for an extended Q&A where we discuss the forthcoming release of Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20. We cover all kinds of material including the factions, lore, and much much more in […]


The Constellation of Alarion Launches!

It’s The Constellation of Alarion launch day and my brand new collection of sci-fi short stories is now available to buy in paperback and e-book! It’s available on Kindle and paperback on Amazon UK and US, in PDF and paperback on DriveThruRPG, in PDF from Modiphus.net and also on Smashwords! Some early reviews are in, […]