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FAR WEST Weekly Update, July 10th

Hey there —

Another quick one (as all of them will be in July, as I get this wrapped up) — work continues.

Other news this week, of FAR WEST-related interest. The composer Carlos Rafael Rivera contacted me via Twitter to let me know that his score to the Netflix series GODLESS is now available (I’d contacted him back in December asking about it, and apparently he was able to use my email and others to convince the label to do a release). I picked it up, and it’s now sitting in my FAR WEST writing playlist (which is also my background-during-gaming playlist, so that’s convenient!). Worth checking out, especially if you use music when you game. Here’s the opening track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9prkspi14xY

Back to work for me. As always, I’m available via email, Twitter, etc. if you need to reach me. In closing, I’ll leave you with a piece of interior art that I don’t think I’ve shared with you before (but yeah, I know — it’s been so long, I may have).

Hope everyone has a stress-free week. Talk to you again soon.

Gareth-Michael Skarka
Lawrence, Kansas
10 July, 2018.

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Far West Weekly Update, June 29th

A very brief one this week, folks, as I sit here in the blast-furnace hellscape of Kansas. Heat indices of 115+ are no kinda fun, especially when you live in a house with no central air — curse these 19th-century neighborhoods! Ah, well — I’ll just take it as “sensory research” for writing about the Thousand Mesas region!

Work continues, getting back onto schedule. I am still expecting to be sending a finished manuscript to layout (and to you) in July.

As always, I’m available via email/twitter/etc.

Stay cool, and to quote Warren Ellis from his email newsletter this past week: “Turn down the volume on the world when you need to. Go outside if you can. Make a fort if you can’t. Do what makes you happy. You’re allowed to, and you deserve to, and never let any bastard tell you otherwise.”

Gareth-Michael Skarka
Lawrence, Kansas
29th June, 2018

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FAR WEST Update, June 18th

Hey folks—

Held this one off until Monday — last week was a week of family obligations that kept me pretty busy. My birthday was mid-week, Father’s Day was yesterday, and, unfortunately, earlier in the week we had to put our old lady cat to sleep. She was our last remaining pet, and had inoperable cancer, and she’d made it 18 years, but had let us know that it was time.

Work continues — now that all that is behind me, I have nothing ahead but getting this done (well, that and the World Cup, but I’ve learned to multitask when matches are on!).

I thought I’d take this opportunity to give you a bit of a heads-up on what’s in the pipe for release soon after the core book.

First up, the backer-exclusive release, Legends of the Far West, which is a collection of fully-developed NPCs, each with a collection of adventure and encounter hooks so you can drop them into your games. Since we’ve made the switch over to the D6PLUS system, it’ll also feature a bunch of ready-to-play templates as well — fast-play characters that you can quickly customize, if you don’t want to go through the full character creation process. Great for beginning players or friends who’ve dropped in and want to sit in on a game.

Also ready to go is Black Crow, the FAR WEST card game. By which I mean a card FROM the Far West, not about Far West. It’s an in-setting game — the card game that’s played in saloons and gambling dens all across the Far West. I’ll be talking more about it when we’re ready to release it, but I can tell you that like most things about Far West, it’s a mash-up of Western and Chinese influences. In this case, the game itself is an amalgam of the historical Western card game Three Card Brag, and the Chinese card game Sì Sè Pái (“four color cards”).

Alright — I need to get back to work. As always, I’m available via Twitter, email, etc. if you need to ahold of me.

Talk again soon,

Gareth-Michael Skarka
Lawrence, Kansas
18 June, 2018

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