Back in 2008, myself, in conjunction with Reality Deviant Publications (now known as Gun Metal Games), launched a new science fiction space opera setting called Reign of Discordia, which at the time was exclusively for the True20 system. This was a new product line (in fact, the first product line overseen by me as an IP creator), and it would eventually feature a core book, two adventures, two sourcebooks, and later, a port to the Traveller system, which adapted it to those rules and expanded the setting content. All in all, it did OK. I’m not going to sugar coat things and say that it was wildly successful commercially, after all, it was launched the same weekend D&D 4th edition was released, and frankly, that just wasn’t the best time for a new roleplaying product line to make a big splash if it didn’t happen to be D&D. It did, however, get some excellent reviews, and it sort of acquired a bit of a cult following. Reign of Discordia also received widespread distribution in 2010 due to its inclusion of the Haiti Relief Bundle, which was a very large collection of RPGs put together into a low-priced package to raise money for Doctors Without Borders as they were helping the victims of the massive earthquake in Haiti (a Google search tells me that 220,000 Haitians were killed and over 300,000 were injured).
Five years ago, David Jarvis, owner of Gun Metal Games, very generously gifted me with ownership of the IP I created. Unfortunately, part of this gift was that he no longer had the time and energy to put into overseeing its continued production. Interface Zero had taken off as the premier set of cyberpunk rules and setting, and today services the genre as well or better than the original Cyberpunk game, which dates back to the ’80s. At that time, Reign of Discordia was to be licensed out from me to Marcus Bone, who was working on porting it to Savage Worlds.
In taking over, there were things I wanted to do. Big things! Things that have yet to come to fruition! Among them were having a self-contained book where the rules and setting were integrated into one product. Original fiction was another. More supplements! More alien species! More starships! More adventures! More stories! But, as seems to have been the case with this setting, there were setbacks. Sadly, Marcus Bone suffered tremendous financial setbacks shortly thereafter, forcing him to drop the project. I, at the time, was preoccupied releasing and promoting my first novel, Echoes of Olympus. As a result, Reign of Discordia fell by the wayside. Despite this, I’ve always felt that this setting deserves to be seen and enjoyed by gamers and readers alike.
So, that brings me to the present and future of the setting.
My feeling is that in this age of Kickstarters and fan-made Wikis dedicated to commercially available IPs, the value this RPG science fiction setting isn’t necessarily in selling the setting content, but rather, selling the projects that will come about because of the setting. In other words, by holding back this information, it limits the number of eyes of the material to those who have paid for it. That, in turn, limits the number of people might be interested in the things that might come next… the very things mentioned above.
For that reason, I’m putting the core material on my website, free of charge. This is rules neutral setting material. In other words, it doesn’t tell you how to make a character, or run a game. It’s also not entirely complete at this time. There are still two or three important chapters that have yet to be converted to the web and posted. Feel free to look this over, adapt it to the science fiction RPG of your choice, and use it however you wish (that is unless you wish to do anything commercial, in which case contact me and we’ll discuss your ideas).
That brings me to what’s to come. As I stated above, I want to do a self-contained Reign of Discordia roleplaying game, and I want to do a line of fiction. In fact, the first novel is written and one other author is working with me on his own novels. I’d also like to do a full-length computer RPG set in the Reign of Discordia universe, and there’s a startup studio that wants to work with me to make this a reality. Plus, look for Reign of Discordia articles, which will appear on this website. I’m spinning this setting back to life, and I’m doing it in a way that will, at least partially, be freely available.
Come back frequently for more material. In fact, in my next blog, I’ll briefly go over what Reign of Discordia is, what it is not, and what sets it apart from other science fiction properties that feature humans and aliens. Better yet, share this with people on the various gaming websites. I don’t hit the big gaming communities myself anymore, but I suspect there are people there who might be interested.
If you’d like to support me financially in this endeavor (not to mention gain access to all tabletop and fiction products as they’re released) please back me via Patreon. While this is not required, it would be greatly appreciated. You can find that here: https://www.patreon.com/DarrinDrader
As an added bonus, Marcus Bone has finished and compiled his Savage Worlds rules port, and that is freely available for download on the main Reign of Discordia page on this site.
Until next time, take a look and I hope you enjoy.