Update Video
almost 5 years ago – Sun, May 02, 2021 at 04:45:22 PM

Howdy Friends,

Here is the long-awaited update video, complete with accompanying script. 

Also if you want to pre-follow Chromatic Gamut and get updated when it launches, you can do that here. 

Video Script:

*Scene: Three people on a couch take up the whole screen*

Brad: Hey what's up?...Nope, that's not the vibe.

Everyone: *laughing*

Jaron: Sup bro!

C.J.: What's up guys, Action fiction team coming at you live

---Video Cuts----

Brad: I'm Brad

CJ: I'm C.J. Thomas

Jaron: And I am Jaron R.M. Johnson

Brad: Are we doing full names?

Everyone: *laughs*

---Video Cuts----

Jaron: *at C.J about Brad as all three of them laugh, with mock sternness* If you tell him to do another shitty take, he's gunna do another shitty take. Shitty Shitty Take Take.

---Video Cuts----

Brad: Hey Guys, I'm Brad S.V. Roberts

C.J.: I'm Jaro....nope.*all three burst out laughing*

---Video Cuts----

Brad: I am trying to decide on a god to ask for strength to deal with your nonsense!

Jaron: When you finish that could you ask them for forgiveness on my behalf...

Brad: No

C.J.: I'm just a kid my life is a...

All: NIGHTMARE

---Video Cuts----

Action Fiction Logo Appears Fullscreen.

Brad: Hey guys, I'm Brad S.V. Roberts

C.J.: I'm C.J. Thomas

Jaron: and I am Jaron R.M. Johnson, and three of us founded action fiction...uh...in 2019, and then brought you Monster of Murka, the core book, and now for the last 8 months we have been working to bring you Restaurants and Retail. 

Uh..It's not lost on us that it's taking a lot longer than anticipated so we wanted to record this video really briefly just to talk about where we're at in the process ...uhhhh...what the process has been like so far, and then we're also going to hand off to a couple of other Action Fiction friends who will begin talking about their project which is coming up shortly.

First off...uh, there's no way to say this other than we're sorry it's taking this long. We really really came at this with a high level of confidence and then got hit by a lot of curveballs in a short amount of time. Not the least of which is December was an absolute disaster month. Um...for a lot of people on the team...um...and uh...one of the big ones that's been kind of weighing on the team right now is..uh..throughout the editing process it's not just us who's editing, it's also JB who's our lead editor and layout artist.

Typically the process goes the three of us edit and then we hand off to JB for final edits, and then he does layout. JB has been going through a lot of health concerns lately he's been stuck going from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment in the last 5 months and that's really slowed down the writing...er sorry the editting process. 

For us that means, ya know, we don't want to become the bottleneck so we're doing what we can to move the process forward on our part...uh...but we also don't want to lose J.B., J.B. is an incredible valuable asset to the team, he brought the core book to life, and he's the sole savior of that book, he really saved it. So we wanna support him through the process, so this is our way of saying, ya know, we're sorry that it's taking so long, but it's important to us that we maintain J.B. as part of the project, so we're just going to keep pushing forward in the currrent state of affairs, um C.J. is gunna update us at the end of the video with where we're at on this, as well.

---Video Cuts----

Brad: Um....Before C.J. speaks...uuuhhh...I wanted to say that...uh...the editing team for Restuarants and Retail is what you see here, and J.B. who you can catch at DropTheDie (link to J.B.'s twitter) on various social medias, most notably twitter.

All of which you see on this camera, also work 40 hour a week jobs, so the amount we are able to commit to editing restuarants and retail is limited by...um....the human mental capacity...and....uh...energy levels. Right? Um...In addition to that action fiction values, and this is where it begins to sound a little bit corporate:

*in faux-corporation voice* Action Fiction values the mental health of our partners and our employees even if that is...it's founders.

Which means that uhh....sometimes we struggle with not just motivation to edit, but motivation to go on in general. And so we take days. Uhh...we are an anti-crunch company, and with all of that said we know what it looks like to start a new kickstarter before fulfilling the entirety of this one. We just want tooooo be transparent about all of it, and not skirt around the issue, but say that we are aware of what it looks like, Chromatic Gamut, which Bailey and Snails will talk about in ...uh....the later portion of this video...., is being done by bailey and snails WHO, you may not be aware of this, are actually different people than us. 

ummm....just completely seperate entities entirely with their own experiences and thoughts and....uh....they are doing the primary work of it, Action Fiction is working in more of a uhh...publisher standpoint there.

So I'm gunna let C.J. talk about how much we've done, how much we have left to get done, but I just wanted to tell y'all that we love you, we appreciate your constant support, um...every single thing that you do is.....a boon to us. We actually just finished working on Flavor City, we just finished the lore section for Flavor City, and it's amazing and I am so excited, and C.J. is going to talk about how much we have yet to do. 

---Video Cuts----

C.J.: WE HAVE THIS MUCH LEFT TO DO

*drops very heavy book he has never read about Henry VIII on the ground with a large thud*

Brad: *with reluctant acceptance*: It's a lot

C.J: *sadly*.: It's a lot

C.J.: All jokes aside, we have actually made it uh a huge portion of the way through this book, as Brad said this book is 350 pages long, it's MASSIVE. Um...but we are through most of the mechanical edits so that's; Spells, Items, Monsters, and player options which includes all of our new Subclasses, and....

Brad: Backgrounds, feats, epic boons

C.J.: Epic boons...um...We're through all of that and like Brad said, a portion of the way through the lore sections. Lore will be one of the last things that we do before we proceed into backmatter, frontmatter, all of the juicy details that no one reads but that we have to put in the book anyway. 

So that's all great, we are...we're getting through it we're almost there, but it will take a little bit more time to punch through all that and..uhh..in the meantime we have Bailey and Snails coming up next to tell you about our upcoming kickstarter project: Chromatic Gamut.

---Video Cuts----

*Scene: A Discord Call between Snails and Bailey*

Bailey: I'm Bailey, I am the creativer lead and co-project lead for our new project Chromatic Gamut. I am LGBTQ+, I am a person of color, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII was a writer for R and R and now I'm the creative lead for this new book. 

Snails: *says nothing*

Snails: *Still nothing*

Snails: Oh Me! Right. Hi I'm Snails. I'm also queer. And Uh...I was also a writer for Restuarants and Retail, and now I'm the Art Director/co-project lead with uh....with Bailey on Chromatic Gamut.

Bailey: We're creating a new book, Chromatic Gamut, that is set to release in june of 2021, and it is a 100% LGBTQIA+ led, written, arted, 5e supplement book.

Snails: With the exception of 2 legacy hires: We have the same layout artist from the previous books and the same cover artist from the previous books. So the overall book will be the Murka that you're used to, but the rest of our Artists and the rest of our hires have been entirely queer.

Bailey: Yeah, it was a really fun process, uh...selecting them all for the project...I say fun but also exhausting. Cuz....what'd you...you like agonized over it for weeeeks.

Snails: Well, we had 72 submissions and we had room for 8 writers, and we got so many GOOD submissions. It was like....don't we have room for a team of 20? don't we have the budget? I think we ended up taking on one extra writer, and that's all we could afford. It was that tight.

Bailey: Yeah..yeah I know we tried to keep the team much smaller this time. Because as Brad, and C.J., and Jaron will go into more detail with you guys later, uhhh...they advised us to make it smaller, because like they just had, like, so much amazing content from R and R (not to toot my own horn as a writer on R and R) but um....I think they're at like 400 pages now, for Restaurants and retail, which is A LOT. So we kept a tighter ship over on Chromatic Gamut, we're at 69,000 words.

Snails: Nice

Bailey: Chromatic Gamut is set in fantasy New York which we call Magnamalus, and it...is....about...ya know being loud and queer and having fun and you can engage with the world as much as you want to....you know...uh.....fight back against gentrification, and the exploitation of queer created media for profit. Uh....or you can just exist in the world as a LGBTQIA+ person and know that it's a safe space where you can be without having to deal with the harsh realities of the world.

---Video Cuts----

Snails: Uh yeah, some of our new subclasses include the Path of the Stone barbarian, the Sky Birate, Um...a Mushroom Warlock that Bailey made, Oh God we also have theeeee Uh, Drag Paladin, that should be fun the oath of....artistry! That one was pretty interesting. And...others, lots more...14 in fact.

Bailey: Yeahhh, 14 new subclasses, 30 new monsters, 5 new factions, a bunch of Items and Spells, 2 Side character...sidekick characters....

Snails: Yeah, 2 new Sidekick tracks. Including if you wanna do like an enemies to lovers romance with like an NPC, we have one for those.That one...that one was a cool one to watch get developed.

Bailey: Or you could just hang out with the cool new item Enemies to Glovers

Snails: What...but it....*stage whispers* it has nothing to do with that though...

Bailey: I know but it's a....word pun...work with me Snails!

---Video Cuts----

Bailey: The...uh...book launches in june of 2021 with our new kickstarter, and it's a completely different team than what is working, or who is working on what, is what I should....probably more appropriate...What is working on restaurants and retail...uh...Brad and C.J. and Jaron, 

Snails: So...in case you can't tell this is attempt number 3 because we are very bad at talking about ourselves and to people about things but rest assured, we know for a fact that Jaron, Brad, and C.J. are hard at work on Restaurants and Retail because we pop into their editing sessions occasionally. And uh....I go in with the intent of making fun of them, and...I still make fun of them but they're very pitiful when I do.

Bailey: Yeah... There's been a few times when I could actually..um....hear jaron that Jaron is laying face-down on the ground. We don't usually do video chats but..um...but I can hear that he is laying face down on the ground. After several hours of editting. So...uh....it's been a very...interesting process to see them go through it. 

Uh...not to say that they're not available for information and input and stuff like that on Chromatic Gamut but it is...uh....run and led by Snails and myself, and then our...Amadeing...Amadeing? Amazing! writing team and uh...artists that are now hard at work, we're going to have a product for you guys to look at starting in june to hopefully come and help us kickstart it. To uh...help us come and create some big gay fun for everyone.But you don't have to be big and gay to consume the media. 

Snails: Oh Yeah! I think there's enough stuff in here that anybody will enjoy. I mean...you don't have to be gay to enjoy a Unicorn parrot. 

Bailey: This is true, this is very true. Anyways, hope to see you guys then and uh...we'll hand it back over to uh...Jaron and C.J. and Brad. 

Snails: But before we do here's a sneak peak of the unicorn Parrot that Bailey's making move across the screen in the editting process...don't you love that I'm giving you this work 

---Video Cuts----

Action Fiction Logo Appears Fullscreen. with Unicorn Parrot, Murka Pride Flag and Noble House Flag Design sheet overlaying it

Bailey: I do thank you very much snails, we'll throw in some uh, cool little teasers for you guys. 

Fade in on the previous couch Scene

Jaron: Thanks for watching...

C.J. and Brad: adding nothing of value Yup

Jaron: Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. THANK you. thanks. Thanks for watching. 

Brad: I dunno that you said it enough but seriously, thank you guys, thank you all for all the support you've given us and we hope to be worthy of that support.

C.J.: We hope to be as free of the chains of restuarants and retail as you will be happy to...nope, nope that's not it

Brad: NO that was good you had it!

Jaron: *laughing* I don't think he was going the right direction with that sentiment... but I love and respect it so much...

I think that's good, I think we did it. 

Brad: Jenny, do you want to say something to the people?

Jenny: *meekly* Thank you. 

All: *laughs*

Video and Pre-Video Videos
almost 5 years ago – Sat, May 01, 2021 at 01:37:49 AM

Hey Y’all 

First off, we wanted to say, as always, thank you for everything y’all do to support Action Fiction and this Kickstarter. If you want to keep the good times going, we have a lot fun in our Discord and everyone who’s not a bigot or troll is welcomed with open arms. We'd love to have you join us. 

Secondly, we wanted to say that the video we promised y’all explaining more on how the project is going will be posted up tomorrow as soon as Brad gets a chance to do so.  In the meantime, here are a couple of recently unearthed videos of our writers talking about what they wrote for the book.

Please keep in mind that these videos were filmed pre-kickstarter and therefore before the kickstarter funded, and as such may contain outdated information like "Our kickstarter is launching on this date..." and the like. 

Again: Please ignore any information that does not make sense in this context :)

First Up: Bailey talking about the unique Voucher system she created.

Next: Here's Snails discussing their design of one of the most popular subclasses: The Path of the Punk Barbarian

See You Tomorrow!

April Update.....Apdate?
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 10:17:46 PM

Hi Everyone,

Our sincerest apologies about the amount of time since the last update, there are no excuses, we will try to do better, we were doing better, and then we weren't. Additionally, there will be a video update coming at the end of this month where you can see our exhausted faces and pause it to draw little mustaches and devil horns on us. As well the video will likely feature a few cameos from some of the less forward-facing members of our team, so you can meet them!

....to be clear please do not use permanent marker on your computer screen. Or do, we aren't here to tell you how to live your life.

In the meantime here is CJ measuring a cup of Reese's Pieces, presumably for Flavor City things, for your enjoyment while we give you a quick update on everything on.

RESTAURANTS AND RETAIL UPDATE

The Good News:

We have mostly finished Flavor City! As we predicted in our last update, this bit has been very stop and go. We had to add several things wholesale, and often stop to completely redo paragraphs, but it has still been much faster than any of the previous sections.

The Bad News:

We'll elaborate more on this in the video at the end of the month, but the book is somehow MUCH bigger than we realized. On the one hand, that's great. More content for y'all to consume, more helpful hints and GM tools to help give your food and retail games some meat. It also means more editing and more hard decisions on what to cut for us.

CHROMATIC GAMUT

With the caveat that Chromatic Gamut existing in no way affects the progress of Restaurants and Retail here is an update on Murka's newest, queerest expansion yet.

Principle writing is done! Editing now begins on what is, and I really cannot stress this enough, A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BOOK DONE BY A COMPLETLY DIFFERENT TEAM, THAT WILL IN NO WAY SLOW DOWN RESTAURANTS AND RETAIL.

More details on when to back this book that we take a lot of PRIDE in publishing at the end of this MONTH when the video comes out. 

IN CONCLUSION

We are still pushing, with Sisyphean determination and cunning, our rock up that hill as best we can, and we promise to be as forthright, forthcoming, and available as we possibly can be with y'all forthwith. 

As a reward for being patient with us, while the next few weeks will likely be bare with progress update information (we'll be finishing up Flavor City and Moving onto The Hall of Murka and there are only so many ways we can say that) we will be releasing some goodies in the form of Outline Mock-ups, new content (that even the playtesters never saw), pictures of us pulling out hair out, and more!

As always you can catch us on Twitter , Discord and Twitch (Our twitch channel is actually broadcasting the epic conclusion of one of our ongoing streams Tonight!

Thanks to each and every one of you,

Action Fiction

Mid-March Update!
about 5 years ago – Fri, Mar 12, 2021 at 09:46:02 PM

RESTAURANT AND RETAIL UPDATE:

Hey y'all it's been about two and a half weeks since our last post, which is a little longer than we're trying to do this, so here's an update on where various Action Fiction projects are. 

We're done with player options.

That means Items, Spells, Monsters, Subraces, Backgrounds, Subclasses, Feats, Epic Boons, and any associated lore, breakout boxes, informational tidbits, and doohickeys in all of those sections are completed in their entirety and awaiting Layout.

Now, onto lore and miscellany other chapters. These chapters typically go faster but only because they are very stop and go in an attempt to reach a certain Nirvana between funny, interesting, and Mach:10 fantasy. There's no mechanical balancing with these so if the sentence works then into the heart shaped box it can go. But not everything can come as it is, so if it doesn't smell like teen spirit? We may have to rewrite the entire section to make it fit. 

MAPS ARE OUT

This is technically an update for the original Monsters of Murka book, but we discovered that at least 1 person had an issue with not recieving their printed maps like we thought they had!

I'm not gunna lie, this freaked us the fuck out, so we went and printed all the maps, put them in envelopes and are shipping them ourselves. You should receive yours in however long it takes USPS to get it to you. YAY fulfillment!

CHROMATIC GAMUT HAS BEEN CAST

That's right, Action Fiction's next project has officially been cast. Kickstarting in the pride month of June 2021 (which means we'll have all your Restaurants and Retail stuff out to you by then, or we can't start the a new kickstarter) Murka's Big Gay Expansion aka Chromatic Gamut officially has a writing staff.  HEEEEEERRREEE THEY ARE:

Women's History Month

Are you a woman or Femme Nonbinary person? Are you in the TTRPG space? Do you want more visibility? Then have we got the thing for you! 

As always Action Fiction is uplifting marginalized voices, so we have created a new monthly-promotions channel for just that purpose. Each month we'll have a different theme to highlight creators in our space.

This month specifically we are trying to highlight Women and Femme Nonbinary individuals in the TTRPG space on our various Social Medias.

What's more, we've already started! Check out our twitter for proof.

If you are interested in promoting your page, upload your information in our new monthly-promotions channel in our discord and then we'll promote it on our socials. 

More updates can be found on our discord.

Conclusion,

Things are moving, it may not always feel like it, and oftentimes we find ourselves wishing that just for a little bit, as ironic as it is, time would stand still. But it doesn't, and as long as it doesn't we here at Action Fiction will keep plugging away at the things we've promised you, if little by little, until they're done.

Thanks to each and every one of you,

Action Fiction

Late February Update: Editing Progress and Finalized Shipping Information.
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 07:46:03 PM

Hello Friends!

Good news everyone, we are alive! I know you were all so worried about us because we didn't post anything yesterday. But we've been hard at work getting all your Restaurants and Retail edited and got some great news for ya, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY STARTED ON SUBCLASSES! Additionally our monster, spell, and item cards are beginning to really take form! We don't want to show you them until we have a really good idea of what they'll look like, but y'all should be excited!

Shipping Update: Jaron is the God of Backerkit, Worship at the altar upon which he collapses in the fetal position!

WHAT'S UP FRIENDOS, IT'S YA BOI JAY-AY-RON AND I DID THE THING. I found a way to make it charge Media Mail rates by default, and only add shipping rates as appropriate for your add-ons. This was made possible by one of Backerkit's folx, Alex, who showed me a part of Backerkit that I had somehow overlooked and that no other Backerkit associates had realized I'd missed. The tldr; of this is that, if you log into your Backerkit accounts NOW, you should see SIGNIFICANTLYreduced shipping rates all around. This ALSOmeans that we won't have to send out any complicated discount codes for shipping refunds or anything like that. So, shout-out to Alex for figuring that shit out and then shout-out to me because I banged my head against the wall for several hours on Thursday (I think) to make it happen and then an extra-thicc shout-out to Y'ALL for exercising patience with us while we figured it out. Y'all being so patient with us makes you the real rock-stars.

EDIT: Canadian Backers may have seen an incorrect number, Discord user Fracture caught that and it should now be corrected

Conclusion:

As always if you want to interact with our amazing community or talk to us in a more direct fashion you are welcome to message us on Kickstarter OR, for what is likely to get you a quicker reply, Join our Discord. 

P.S. Applications Closing For Next Murka Book

Lastly at Midnight EST on 2/22/2021 the application process to write on our new Project, The Chromatic Gamut, ends! So if you want to APPLY to get paid and work with us you should do that!

Keep on keeping on,

Brad