Mist-Robed Gate: Back in Print! Recession Special!

So, I just received a new print run of Mist-Robed Gate, and it’s absolutely lovely. It’s the same text, so as before, the book includes the rules for the game, the LARP chapter, the extensive filmography and the chapter on recipes for a MRG party– but I upgraded to a higher-quality printer, and also upgraded the weight of the paper for extra sumptuousness. It’s positively silky.

Here’s the best part: the price of the book is still $24. It’s important to me that I offer the highest-quality product I can, and with the current economic climate, I’d rather pay a little extra for that quality than pass the cost on to you. And in that spirit, the PDF is now $13 as well. (And don’t forget the Forbidden Tiger Manual supplement, PDF only, for just $3.)

People who are on backorder: I’ll be sending your copies within the week! I’ll also have copies available at Dreamation.

Order Mist-Robed Gate here
Order the PDF here

Lotus Arts, MRG News

Mist-Robed Gate is currently between print runs. That doesn’t mean it’s out of print! But it does mean that you can’t get a hard copy right now. You can still get PDFs no problem.

Check out Lotus Arts de Vivre too. They make beautiful expensive things with a sort of modern take on Art Nouveau aesthetics, all rich organic curvilinear forms and the saturated colours of jewels and tropical birds, but interpreted in a more naturalistic fashion, taking from the shapes of natural things instead of the formalisms of ukiyo-e.

Forbidden Tiger Manual

The first Mist-Robed Gate minisupp is now available. It’s ten pages, $3. Click this link to buy through Paypal.

cover image

Forbidden Tiger Manual is a supplement for Mist-Robed Gate. It has new rules for kung-fu action games, new recipes, and a new character sheet for the new rules. I hope you enjoy!

Mist-Robed Gate: Preorder Update

Thanks again to all of you who have preordered the game, or ordered after GenCon. I’m sorry it’s been taking me so long to get your books in the mail—I just sent them out the other day, because right after GenCon, I had to unexpectedly move house and the complications of relocating delayed shipping.

I apologise for that delay, and I’d like to offer you all something special for your patience. I’m thinking of a free, exclusive web supplement for you. Give me some ideas, and I’ll run with one.

Mist-Robed Gate Play Aids

Hey, pretty kids. What’s up?

Two Scooters Press is back from GenCon and we had a great time there. We got to meet some of you and had some really good experiences. More on that later.

For now, I just wanted to say thanks for all the interest in Mist-Robed Gate. That really made my con. I’m hard at work on play aids for you—a character sheet, prop and set cards, and references for the knife ritual and wirework. I hope to have them available for you Thursday morning, at the latest, so keep your eyes peeled.

Mist-Robed Gate Preorders are Closed

Thank you all for the interest in my game! I’m super-excited about delivering it to you.

Mist-Robed Gate: Dexcon AP

Brennan livejournaled about my Dexcon game of MRG. Thanks, Brennan!

DexCon Debriefing

So, Elizabeth and I went to DexCon this weekend and had a lot of fun. Here’s the rundown:

We played Russ’s game Contract Work, which is a lot of fun. It’s about contract killing. He has some concerns about the mathematical rough edges it has, and sure, it’s not done yet, but it’s going to be a really good thing when it is. It’s pointing at a really cool new thing, structurally, and he runs it really well. What I’m most excited about, though, is that it’s not just good for its thing, but also, the formula he’s got in it is obviously also the formula for heist movies and ‘catacomb plunderer’ action film.

It’s Complicated went really well both times we ran it. One session turned out to be an 80s drunken college kids movie about being trapped in a morgue freezer on a dare, and the other was a reality show about failed or just inconsequential celebrities. Who knew that IC was a game that’s good for reality shows? We hadn’t predicted it, but Shael and Ellen and Bret twigged to that immediately and it was super great. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages.

Mist-Robed Gate went really well too. I had fun running it, and it seemed like Lilith enjoyed watching. I gotta figure out how to insert new players in the middle of an already-running game. Thanks to all my players!

It was great seeing my tribe and hanging out. We had some pretty serious crowd anxiety, and like Elizabeth and I both sort of flipped out about that. But it was nice. I got to see some of Jenn’s new art! I got to see new Annalise books! We talked about games with Bret and Shael and Ivy and Jere and Bob! There was a flowchart! Rob showed us the proofs of Misspent Youth! Gingerbread smells good. Oh shit I have to send formalwear email.

P.S. Also my car exploded but now it is okay and thank you everyone who came to our aid in dealing with that. You are all lifesavers. Gummi lifesavers.

Mist-Robed Gate Preorders

Update: Preorders are now closed.

I’m very happy to announce that the first fledgeling has left the nest. Mist-Robed Gate is finished and going out to the printer soon, and now you can preorder it.

It’s going to be gorgeous. Jonathan’s doing layout for me, and I did some art, and have you seen the cover oh be still my heart I love it so much. The graphic above is a promo bookmark, which you can get inside of a copy of Elizabeth’s “It’s Complicated,” or with a preordered copy of this game.

Preorders cost $24, with $5 shipping, national or international. I should have them before or right after GenCon. You can click this link to order one.

Along with the rules of the game, you’ll find lots of support material in the book. There’s an extensive filmography (by my friend Evan, a film student and all-round excellent dude; he worked his butt off on it), a chapter about tea, and a chapter about snacks to serve during the game—which ones you should buy and which you can make, and simple recipes for those—so you know everything you need to throw a Mist-Robed Gate dinner party. And the LARP rules too, if you’re into that kind of thing.

This is a game for enthusiasts, and the more you know about the genre, the more fun you’ll have with it. But, you don’t have to be familiar with the genre to play Mist-Robed Gate (Meg Baker wasn’t), and it plays well with large groups, so the more the merrier! Go nuts, play it with all your friends at once.

If you have any questions, go ahead and ask me in this post or go make some noise at the crosspost on Story-Games.

Raise the Red Lantern

So, on the way to Kelly’s Pesach Seder, Josh and Elizabeth and I developed a LARP hack for the Mist-Robed Gate.

It’s easy.

There’re some central facilitator tasks that you’ll need to assign to somebody, and that person probably shouldn’t play a character, but they may be an audience member, which means they participate in the wirework vote and can frame scenes. Whenever you get to the end of a scene, you should come back to see the facilitator, get a recap of what scenes happened while you were away, deliver your own recap, and then see who’s at the top of the ’scene frame’ list. That person gets to frame a scene immediately with whoever’s present, or you can wait a small amount of time for another scene to end, if you need a character that’s somewhere else and it looks like they’ll be done soon.

You don’t have cards for props and sets. Instead, you should play in a place with several distinct rooms, and you have a supply of physical objects that you’re allowed to use as props. When you need a new set, you assign the set to an unused room, and when you need a new prop, you assign it to a physical object. You own props by carrying them on your person, so you need to think a little about this; if you use a real replica sword without a hanger as a sword prop, you’ll need to keep it in your hand, whereas if you use a pocketknife, you can stick it in your pocket.

You don’t use a real knife for the knife. Instead, each set has a colour-coded lantern; when the knife is covered, there are no lanterns. When the knife is uncovered, the facilitator hangs white lanterns in every set. When the knife is drawn, the lanterns are changed to yellow, and when it is bloodied for the first time, they are changed to red. If you don’t have lanterns, you can use flags or scarves or something. To show that you have the knife, make the ’sword finger’ gesture: Extend your second and middle fingers together, and curl up the thumb, ring, and pinkie. Point the sword finger at the person you are passing the knife to. To signal acceptance, kneel and touch the sword finger to the ground. To stab a person, touch them against the throat or collarbone with your sword finger.

When wirework begins, ring a gong to summon all the players so they can watch and vote.

You should dress up so we can see your character’s colour in your outfit.

That’s basically it.