Recently in Book 3 Category

With the action of Book Three finally concluded, the first order of business is to give my deepest and warmest thanks to the tremendous team that brought it to life. This time, that list of thanks is extraordinarily long, but a few people deserve particular kudos -- notably the awesome story direction and experience design provided by Brooke Thompson and Jan Libby, and the amazingly flexible and unflinching production logistics of Robert Wood. There's so much more to talk about, of course, but it is time for this outstanding cast and crew of Book Three to take their bow: there will be plenty of time of additional meta discussions during the hiatus before the inevitible Book Four.)

"Eldritch Errors: Red Moon Rising" (January 2008 - December 2008):

J.D. Ashcraft (GMD Studios, producer) /prop development
Nova Barlow (actor) / nightmare confessor
Toby Barlow (actor) / himself
Oded Burger (actor) / NYC Forsythe henchman
Alexander Calhoun (actor) / nightmare confessor
Chris Campbell (GMD Studios, developer & artist) / web, art & prop development
Brian Clark (GMD Studios, creator/producer/writer) / story, Peter Severn, Arthur Lydney, nightmare confessor
Ron Cohen (actor) / Exu
Dee Cook (actor) / nightmare confessor
Andrew Cowan (GMD Studios, technical lead) / web & server programming
David Crouse / nightmare confessor
Ian Cyr (actor) / nightmare confessor
Wendy DeLaney (actor) / Dr. Elizabeth Riley
Nicko Demeter (actor) / Sacramento Forsythe representative
Miguel Drake-Mclaughlin (videographer) / Bryce hotel sequences
Mike Ferraro (GMD Studios, assistant producer) / props, locations & logistics
"g3k" (actor) / nightmare confessor
Chad Haefele (actor) / nightmare confessor
Pamela Hedden (actor) / Mrs. Compton
Lenore Henry (actor) / nightmare confessor
Jeff Himmelman (actor) / Spukhafte Fernwirkung
Tammy Kearns (GMD Studios, producer) / logistics
Marie Lamb (actor) / nightmare confessor
Jonny Leahan (GMD Studios, producer & actor) / "The Sculptor," event production
Jan Libby (director/producer/writer) / story, Dr. Elizabeth Riley
Lou (LouMac) Maccarone (actor) / nightmare confessor
Gary Millus (actor) / Bryce Drogher
Brian Murphy / nightmare confessor
Caroline Murphy-Himmelman (actress) / B.A. Saint-Feline
Ron Nickell (actor) / satellite photo mule
Andrea Phillips (actor) / nightmare confessor
Mark Rabinowitz (writer) / Eddie Pope
"Rekidk" (actor) / nightmare confessor
Jim Rhoades (GMD Studios, developer & artist) / web, art, video & audio development
Mark Sanders (actor) / Arthur Lydney
Jamie Simo (actor) / nightmare confessor
Kimberley Tibbert (actor) / nightmare confessor
Brooke Thompson (creator/producer/writer) / story, B.A. Saint-Feline, Sploit and the dreamers, web & art development
Jen Waite (actor) / nightmare confessor
Krystyn Wells (actor) / nightmare confessor
Dee Winter (actor) / Dreamer Dee, nightmare confessor
Robert Wood (GMD Studios, assistant producer & actor) / logistics, Sploit, "Gatekeeper," nightmare confessor

Long time, no schmeldritch ... how the hell are you supposed to tell when we're being quiet on purpose and when it means something is kicking, you ask? When I feel compelled to get a quick laundry list out of details out, I guess. Bad puppetmaster!

Some of you might have heard that the lovely offices of GMD Studios were burgled during the summer -- who'd have thought having walls of glass were a security risk! Most notably, they stole a number of computers (including the one with the list of people to send Book 2 coins too, so we're going to need your help to recollect that information.) Most bizarrely, they stole all the extra Book 1 coins laying around the various rooms -- I can only imagine their disappointment when they tried to pawn them. A pox of crickets on their households!

Even more important, though, is a bit of pre-announcement on the Eldritch 3 Reboot. One of my goals for the Eldritch universe was always to have a structure flexible enough that we could have "guest puppetmasters" conduct entire Books in the sequence, much the way guest directors might helm an episode of an established television series. In this case, that means the best I'll be able to credit myself on this Book is as "series creator" or maybe "executive producer". Who's helming it then, you ask?

Brooke Thompson and Jan Libby. Boy are you guys in for a (trick or) treat. See you in the intermission ...

I'm in the doghouse, and I deserve to be. I'm not sure I'll make the dog collar a permanent fashion accessory (we're pretty casual around here for such elaborate bling), but it is appropriate in the short term. When clients ask me why I'm wearing a dog collar with a tag labeled "Providence," I'll explain to them that some really important people wanted to remind me that my clients are taking me away from what I'm supposed to be doing.

One day, I'll tell you the story about how the Poet snagged the Puppetmaster, the Sculptor and the Cultist up into a mad scientist project, all while Sploit got sucked into some kind of psychological testing project. Lesson: even a deep team bench can be devestated by the realities of people chasing a living (the flip side being, of course, it is so much easier if someone is paying you a wage and telling you it is your job.)

Solutions: an even deeper team bench and a recontemplation of what it means to provision them. Armchair quarterbacking yourself mid-recovery is gauche, though, and I'm already in the Lovecraftian doghouse. Why bring a knife to a rocket propelled grenade launcher fight?

Your outpouring of friendly support is amazing, and has barely felt like stalking at all! I'm humbled by it and don't take any of you for granted. I've missed you too. The pre-production wheels are already in motion of making sure we earned that support, although the proof will be in the pudding.

When I saw the full moon in the sky during the pre-dawn drive to work, I knew it was time to shutter up Schmeldritch. Otherwise, people might wonder if Book Three has started or not, and you might as well say it has: once the interludes are over, we tend to get pretty quiet here in favor of EldritchErrors.com to help new players jump in. It is always so hard to avoid indulging in one brief William Castle moment before shuttering this place up, though. It will be the first Schmeldritch post new participants stumble into for a while. This time, I might even indulge and give myself two brief moments to set that stage.

It goes without saying that the Eldritch crew thinks I'm insane, they've grown used to the mad scientist cackle coming from my office from time to time. My expectations for "Red Moon Rising" are obviously higher than they were even for "Scream in the Mountains," and after that many of us were going "holy crap!" May I recommend that experienced participants change their tin foil hats daily during Book Three and leave it at that?

For new participants, welcome to the party, you're still fashionably early. Don't worry that Eldritch Errors has been going since last April, Book Three was developed with you in mind. It was also developed with Book One participants in mind, as well, so you'll have lots to discover together. You might even argue that new participants only missed the confusing, complicated setup to the real action.

Until we see each other again, I leave you with a quote from Lovecraft: "I hate the moon - I am afraid of it - for when it shines on certain scenes familiar and loved it sometimes makes them unfamiliar and hideous."

As the capper on a romp of a chat with participants last night, I couldn't resist kinda-answering some of the questions about Book 3: When will it start? What will it be about? Will you be doing live events in my town finally? The short answer was: "Book 3 is called Red Moon Rising: you already know when the peak of that story is, and the duration will be shorter than Book 1 but longer than Book 2." People who have been participating in the story have been pondering the implications of that for a while.

While we never want to spoil where the story is headed for people, there are certain goals for the series that I also hinted at. I want you to get to meet all of the characters in the story so that they breathe beyond just text -- some of those are so special, that it is worth doing it right rather than doing it quick. I want Book 3 to tie up most of the loose ends dangling from Book 1 into a rough "first trilogy," but we have alot more story planned for you than that. If we can accomplish 75% of that in the first trilogy I'll be satisfied, as long as each Book continues to top the previous Book in every important way (without putting us in a position where we can't top ourselves again in the Book that follows.)