Staff Spotlight: Hank White

Core Rulebook Gameplay Director – Cracked Monocle Developer

Hank White is a man who does not fear the small things in life, crocodiles, raging buffalo nor angry dinosaurs ever stop him from pushing forward. In fact, he is the only person in Cracked Monocle’s history to have a formal interview before joining the company, and despite the strenuous process and quantum physics problems he was required to solve, he successfully joined the company in 2009 to help with marketing.

Soon after joining the company though, it became clear that Hanks greatest strength was the development and understanding of our system, not his marketing skills. So as we have done many times before with our staff, we swapped him into a more fitting role; Gameplay Director for the Tephra Core Rulebook. Many skills you can thank Hank for, in particular Luck was almost entirely his creation and has remained one his favorite skills throughout the development process.

Now that the Core Rulebook for Tephra has wrapped up with its development, Hanks focus has shifted to the adversary packet for our backers where he frantically working to clean up their descriptions and build them into functioning characters.

Outside of Cracked Monocle, Hank works as an internet support technician to pay the bills and is looking into pursuing a degree in computer science. Many nights you can find him either playing in or narrating one of the several Tephra and Pathfinder games that he participates in. On free evenings, he enjoys sitting down, grabbing a game console and training his Pokemon to be ready for any opponent who would dare challenge him.

Community Questions:

Mr. White, How do you keep your hair so immaculately fluffy? 

• Well it is primarily all about the conditioner, I use “Pantene Plus for Curly Hair.” Good genetics don’t hurt either.

Have you met a steampunk skill or specialty set that can best Red Mage?

• You can’t best the red mage, because he will just change his character sheet to counter you.

With the core rules published as well as adversaries, what will be the first focus of the expansion materials that you work on?

• Most likely I will have a heavy hand in crafting and the core adversaries book. I’ve really enjoyed working on and refining bio-flux and gadgets over the last few months, so you will most likely see a lot of my work there. My hope is to also heavily expand upon the Ayodin race as they are my favorite race in the Tephra setting. Eventually I hope to have  a large hand in the Ayodin expansion.

What updates are planned for the core book before its release? What bugs are you aware of that are top of the list for fixing?

• One of the largest things that I’ve been striving to clean up was the faith skill. There were several exploits in both that skill and luck that could be extremely overpowered. One in particular was a specialty combination that allowed you to not only negate all hits except critical hits, but paired with critical hits, allowed you to almost always critical hit someone in return.

Is Daniel made of jam? Have you tried any? I hear he spreads well on English muffins.

• Yes, but that is a sticky situation.

What would be your ideal adventure?

• My ideal adventure would probably be an airship style game, where you were playing a crew that was faced with constant moral decisions. Of course, I couldn’t enjoy a game without lots of NPC’s and heavy combat.

Two days ago, I made the claim that,“in honor of us hitting 11.5k on our kickstarter, I’m here to tell you that if we hit 13k, we will publicly post a video of our staff doing a dance of the communities choice.”  Well I awoke this morning to find our Kickstarter at $13,096, thus with excitement and fear, I open the voting on our facebook page to the community.

Any dance we will attempt to do, although I can’t guarantee we will do it well. If you don’t see your song on the list, go ahead and add it, multiple votes are allowed.

And please, be kind with us <_<

**UPDATE Sat 1:40PM**

Depending on the length and difficulty of the song/dance, it could take us 2-3 weeks to complete the filming of our dance. Don’t worry though, we will make sure to keep you updated with still clips and video snippets of the process!

Just when we thought our Kickstarter had plateaued, along came Clockwork Con and some $500 donations from extremely supportive folks. In less than 3 days, we sky rocketed up nearly $2,000 dollars, passing $10,000 and almost reaching 11!

Everyone over here at Cracked Monocle has been dancing jigs and singing to the skies in our happiness. Ya’lls support has taken our kickstarter far and above where we hoped to dream and it has opened some doors that otherwise would have been out of our reach. We are looking to significantly expand our first print run (I mean, you’ve already grabbed up over 250 books!), possibly getting custom Tephra dice made, working on art for our next expansion, and exploring the possibility that we might actually hit GenCon!

If you are looking to back our kickstarter project, you can follow the link (HERE) for more information.

We really can’t thank you all enough, you are beyond amazing, you are Epic.

Cheers!

Cracked Monocle is proud to be hosting Clockwork Con’s Gaming Room. Clockwork Con is set to be Austin’s First Steampunk Convention and will be drawing acts and guests from around the United States. We highly suggest you come stop on by, check out all the great steampunk events, then of course, you know, come by and play some Tephra!

Over the course of three days (January 20th-22nd), we have a weekend full of panels, personalities, performances, artists and concerts. At the moment we have over 40 panels, ranging a huge variety of topics from leather working, victorian hairstyles, writing in steampunk, and the philosophy of steampunk. There will be a tea room hosted by the Steeping Room; A Burlesque show hosted by the wonderful Talloolah Love featuring many talented dancers from around Texas; A Comedy and Magic Performance by Cut Thrust & Run, Roscoe from Biloxi and Mr. Saturday and Sixpence; A Concert with the amazing sounds of Steam Powered Giraffe, Marquis of Vaudeville, Deejay Dr Q, and Bones Jangle; More than 15+ Steampunk Vendors and Artists; A gaming room run by the Steampunk Gaming company, Cracked Monocle; And a Gadgeteer Festival that provides an opportunity for artists and craftsman to show off their amazing creations. 

You can get more information on the event at www.clockwork-con.com.

Hope to see you all there!

Well Folks, after 3+ years in the making, we are proud to officially launch our Tephra Kickstarter, marking the final step towards having our game on store shelves around the nation! Thank you all for your outstanding support over the years!

~The Cracked Monocle Crew

Why We Need Help

With your help, we’ll be able to print a solid first set of hardback books and start shipping them to the many game stores who’ve asked for them. We’ll be able to set up our book at the printer, letting us print more books in the future, as demand calls for it. 

We need $1,000 to get going, but for every few dollars over $1,000, that’s another book we can print and another gaming shelf we can stock. 

If you’ve been watching Cracked Monocle piece together Tephra over these last fews years, thank you for your support. And today, with your pledge to support Tephra, you’re helping make our dreams become a reality. 

To view our kickstarter click here!

UPDATE 1/11/2012:

Wow! Thank you all so much for your support! We have far surpassed our goal and pushing nearly $5,500. Every cent you have all contributed will help us print books and and put the finishing touches on Tephra, and without you, it wouldn’t be possible. So thank, for helping us make our dreams come true!

ERA Regaltus Inaugural Launch Successful
By Petty Officer-3rd Class D’ARCY DICKINSON
The Aldamiir Weekly News

NEW WELTHAYUS MILITARY BASE – The Evanglessian aerial navy’s newest legend-class airship launched yesterday, the ERA Regaltus. The ERA Regaltus is 1,455 feet long, making it the third largest airship in aerial navy after the ERAC Integrity and the ERA Murdrum. The Regaltus is named after the Crimson Marshal Godard Regaltus, a man made famous for his archery skill and legendary for his death on the battlefield near the beginning of the civil war, in defense of our emperor, Emperor Deylus Luthricien. At the prow, the ERA Regaltus’s figurehead is a man wielding a silver bow and arrow, in honor of its namesake.

The legend-class airship, a design created by Countess Savannah Fayne-Dreyfus in the final years of the Hurricane Wars, involves the use of sealed hydrogen and numerous graviton spheres. Sealed hydrogen (also invented by Fayne-Dreyfus) has the same properties as hydrogen, but is as non-flammable as helium, making it the new gas of choice for lighter-than-air vehicles. By combining the sealed hydrogen with well-placed graviton spheres, the ERA Regaltus (and its predecessors) are nearly impossible to gun down, and they can carry a complement that will make any Paldoran Stormship think twice before nearing this powerhouse.
The Regaltus is captained by Philomena C. Kingsmill IV. The maiden voyage, which includes a small peacetime crew of 2,200 and carries 280 ironbirds, will be making its first stop in Varsylis in six days.

Vehicles are a staple of steampunk, I mean what adventure would be complete without some sort of steampowered contraption helping you get from one spot to another? To help you in your adventures through Tephra, we’ve entirely rebuilt Engineering from the Ground Up! So Enjoy our Preview of the Engineering Skill!

As this was completely redesigned, we would love to hear your feedback and listen to your experiences playtesting these new changes!

Engineering Preview PDF

Marksmanship has always been a favorite skill among many of our players, and we are glad to be able to share with you the latest iteration of its development.

The Update has balanced many of the existing specialties as well as added several new ones.

Gnomish Scientists find cure for “Metal-Derangement”
By COOLEY RAFTER ASHBERRY III
The Aldamiir Account

The Evanglessian Gnomish Affairs Department (EGAD) announced last night they have found a cure for “metal-derangement,” a mental disorder afflicting many Evanglessian gnomes.  According to Prof. Dr. Willoby Wiles, department chair at EGAD, “Though few gnomes admit to the disorder, many Evanglessians [gnomes] suffer from metal-derangement.” Metal-derangement is a disorder in which gnomes have an unusual fascination with metals, almost to the point of obsession.

“Normally, [gnomes] love nature – you know, trees, dirt, animals. Metal-derangement causes [gnomes] to have an irrational obsession with all things metal,” Wiles said.

EGAD has made claims about the prevalence of this disorder in the past. Two years ago, esteemed sociologist Dr. Giles Quirk said, “There appears to be an unusual fascination in Evanglessian gnomes with regards to metals.” He then went on to say (off the record), “Of course, these metal-deranged gnomes have helped spur numerous technological advances within Evangless, and if a cure was ever found, it’d be to the loss of the scientific community as a whole.”

Wiles said otherwise, “Metal-derangement prevents [gnomes] from ever truly knowing peace of mind. Metal-derangement causes rudeness, carelessness, and thoughtlessness. Though some scientists might think it is a blessing, in truth, it causes far more harm to the [gnome] suffering from the disorder than they might possibly know.”

Unfortunately for EGAD, the medical community isn’t taking their cure seriously. Wiles prescribes that gnomes with an unusual love for worked metals start taking “daily walks outside the city, frequent the Aldamiir Zoological Gardens, or try [their] hands at gardening.”

After the press conference, Dr. Quirk was overheard to say, “That’s not a cure! That’s just exercise.”