We’re going to have a blog carnival. Here’s the trick, the whole thing is going to be in-character. If you don’t have a copy of Maschine Zeit, you can download the timeline and basic history Timeline and Blog Entries. That should be enough to get you started. The blogs should be written by SLClemins. SLClemins, as you know or will when you read the history, is a moniker used by journalists in the machine age when talking about the space station hauntings and conspiracies, to protect themselves from reprisal.

A couple of things on the blog posts:

1) They should be about a haunted space station. Here’s one little sample. They should be in-character, attributed to SLClemins. Think independent journalism in a world where ghosts might very well be real.

2) Posts should link back to this page so it tracks back. I will repost them at the SLClemins blog page (I’ll credit them, of course, and link back to you.)

3) Keep them in the 250-1000 word range if you could. If you have something cool and/or profound, you can go beyond those guidelines.

4) Post a link to the Maschine Zeit PDF. Use this link: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=81873?affiliate_id=270525

5) Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I’m giving until July 9th for this contest. July 10th, I’ll look over all the entries and post a winner ASAP. The winner not only gets recognized as a supercoolawesome person, but gets a supercoolawesome prize. By that, I mean a piece of original art from the game. This would be one of Ruth Lampi’s character pieces (you can find samples posted earlier on this blog.) I’ll send it within the US for free. Outside the US, you’d have to cover shipping.

Any questions? Toss them in the comments. But this is pretty simple.

The year is 2110. In 2105, over a tenth of the world’s population died when a number of space stations orbiting Earth went dead. The radiation that killed them had an unexpected side effect: The victims now haunt the halls, possessing machinery and threatening anyone that dares travel inside.

Maschine Zeit is a sci-fi/horror RPG from Machine Age Productions. The game’s mechanics focus on movie logic, encouraging dramatic behavior and offering players control over most of the narrative. The game emulates the conventions of such genre works as Alien, Pandorum, Event Horizon and Dead Space.

The game comes with a ZIP file, which includes an HTML version for ease of use on your netbook, iPad or other device.

Maschine Zeit is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Maschine Zeit can be now purchased in PDF.

We’ve released a short adventure called Ephesus Abbey to coincide with that, you can purchase the two together for only a dollar more here.

“Dude, that game of Maschine Zeit was so badass, it slowly walked away from an explosion, never looking back.”

Tell me that’s not the best quote ever? It makes me wish I hadn’t already submitted the cover. There’s always room for a second edition.

That would be the reaction Jared Axelrod had. He’s the writer of this great comic called Fables of the Flying City. Check it out.

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Maschine Zeit is a game about ghost stories on space stations. A Perfect Wasteland isn’t. Or at least, not exactly.

A Perfect Wasteland offers new angles on Maschine Zeit’s universe. From deadly reality television, to a former mining ghost town, to 1960s space race paranoia, to a supercomputer that pulls characters’ minds into a virtual hell, A Perfect Wasteland takes expectations about Maschine Zeit and turns them upside-down. As well, it gives detailed advice for developing and running Maschine Zeit stories, and bits of information on the game world, ready to plug and play in your games however you see fit.

A Perfect Wasteland is the first full expansion for Maschine Zeit, tentatively slated for a Fall 2010 release. It’ll be released in hard copy format, as well as PDF, divided into a series of setting kits for ease of printing. Featuring writing by Jennifer Brozek, Duane O’Brien, Eddy Webb, Rick Carroll, Mark Truman and Alasdair Stuart, primarily developed by David A Hill Jr and Filamena Young.

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Station M8G-3T0 was lost. It’s been found; it shouldn’t have been. Your salvage mission is in for more than it bargained for; the station is filled with the hungry corpses of a terrible experiment gone out of control. It’s grace that brought them safe thus far, and grace that will lead them home.

The Serpent and the Station is the first full adventure kit for Maschine Zeit, scheduled for release at the same time as Maschine Zeit. A mad scientist Cataclysm survivor has turned alien radiation into a tool for creating zombie slaves. It’ll be available as a landscape layout, printer-friendly PDF exclusive. Written by Bart Bechtel and developed by David A Hill Jr.

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On the topic of Maschine Zeit, layout’s almost done. It’s going a little slower than expected, we ran into some kinks. But, we’re almost done. Book’s still coming out in August, preorders should be ready right around the end of May. We’re at Origins this year. If you’re going to be there and would like to play a demo, let us know. Filamena and I are also doing Design an RPG in an Hour and Worldbuilding in an Hour. At Gen Con, I just found out I’m going to be present as a guest of honor. So I’ll be doing a handful of panels, in addition to Filamena and my Design an RPG in an Hour and Worldbuilding in an Hour panels. We will be running demos there as well. We even have some minions that’ll be running demos. Let us know.

In addition to the two listed releases, we have two more in the pipeline, not yet ready to be announced. We have another in the very earliest conceptual stages. And I’m working heavily on the next Machine Age game. It should see light of day around this time next year. Expect more soon. Long story short: The Machine Age is a busy age.

You’ll notice the artwork of the wonderful Ruth Lampi on our wall as well. Now we’ve addressed that…

The Kickstarter hit $2,000. That’s awesome. In fact, it’s at $2,105 right now. This means that the contributors will soon be deciding on an exclusive supplement for the game. The final day of the campaign is Friday. Do you think we can make it an even $2,500? I do. So here’s my teaser, and it’s a doozy:

I’m already writing a new game. I literally have the design document open in another browser tab. This game is wholly different thematically from Maschine Zeit, but I can damned near guarantee you’ll dig it when you hear about it. I’m that confident about it. I’m writing this game, in addition to putting in work on a Maschine Zeit supplement, in addition to the supplement I’ll be writing for the contributors’ specs, and in addition to editing and concept work on the first Maschine Zeit adventure kit.

If I hit $2,500 in preorders by Friday, contributors will become a part of the process.

What do I mean by this?

I mean, I’ll set up an email list with contributors, if they wish to be included. It’ll be a one-way thing. I’ll send them the initial design document. I’ll send them drafts and outlines. I’ll send them art proofs. I will be open to input, if people want to see certain things in the finished product, I’ll weigh them for potential inclusion. They’ll get the layout/publisher proof of the document. Then, when it’s all said and done, the contributors will be credited in the product, and they’ll receive the final PDF.

Snappy, right?

If you’ve been wavering, considering preordering, now’s your time. If you were considering raising your amount for a better package, now’s the time. If we hit this goal, you’ll be a part of our next Machine Age Production.

So go. Look. Hear what people have to say.

Expect an update either later today or tomorrow about the final push for the Kickstarter campaign. We hit $2000. That means contributors are going to be able to decide upon a supplement I’ll be writing soon. I’m going to offer something supercoolspecial for the final push, I just have to get some ducks in proverbial rows first.

But here’s a little thing for Maschine Zeit’s Apple users. It’s a Maschine Zeit screensaver. To install it, just drop it in your Library/Screensavers directory. I’m told it should definitely work on any OS X 10.6+ machine, it may work on 10.5 or earlier, but we haven’t put it through tests.

Let me know what you think!