The Secret War is moving on to the Layout stage of development and I’m here to let you in on what you can expect to find. Keith, the artist behind the layout of our original book, has finished nearly all of the art for the expansion and is currently working on the details of putting the whole thing together.

If you’ve got a copy of the original Era: The Consortium rulebook then this should all look pretty familiar. We’ll have separate sections for Story, Character Creation, Equipment and a GM section. Of course, there won’t be changes in the rules for the expansion! If you don’t have a copy of the Core Rulebook for the game you can head over to either our current Kickstarter or to our online store to pick up a copy.

Ed is ready to tell you all that our goal is to have this expansion ready and out to its own Kickstarter within the first quarter of 2016. If everything keeps heading in this direction we should make it, no problem!!

That’s all for this week, see you next time!

-A

Ed and the team have been working up a sweat rolling and gaming with tons of folks at MCM. The Last Stand of Stiletto Unit is one of our toughest scenarios but we’ve had loads of people take on the challenge. To those of you who managed to become legends and save 14 billion lives: Congratulations!

Back at the office, work is still going on and anyone who’s not over at MCM is busy with game production. Our Secret War artist is back on track after only a minor delay. Ed is confident that he’s going to be dazzling us with some new artwork very soon and we can’t wait to show you all.

If you’re not already, get on down to MCM. I heard Edward James Olmos is going to be there so someone has to find out and let me know! I’ll see you next week for more news.

-A

Do you know what Stiletto Unit is? Perhaps you’ve heard us mention it before or had a friend who played our convention session of Era: The Consortium, “The Last Stand of Stiletto Unit”. We’ve only got one more week before MCM Comicon where we’ll bring it out again for anyone brave enough to give it a try.

Before you sit across the table from a steely-eyed GM (every one trained by Ed personally!) who is ready to throw everything they’ve got between you and success, let me give you some background.

The people of the Consortium live in a future far from today where the Earth and everything on it is only a distant memory. They have explored, colonized, and discovered alien races. Making their home among new planets and solar systems, humanity has built a new society where financial wealth equals political power. Among the corporations in the Consortium, seven of them, the Big Seven, share almost complete control.

However, not everyone is pleased with the way things are being run and the lack of influence being given to other alien species. In response to the oppressive culture, a small and peaceful Resistance movement forms.

As things have a way of doing, small aggression escalates to all-out war. The companies behind the Big Seven perceiving the Resistance to be a threat to their control create and mobilize military efforts to quell the rebellion. The lives of everyday people are caught between these two warring factions.

Sensing an economic (and therefore political) threat from the growing profits of an alien company, one CEO from a Big Seven corporation decided to take matters into his own hands. He employed a team which developed a top secret weapon capable of annihilating all life in the Icaunus Solar System. This single weapon would destroy the alien company and with it nearly all of the members of the Resistance, though quite a number of innocents would also be slaughtered – 14 billion lives in all.

He planned to excuse it as a natural disaster, an interaction between solar flares and the wormholes that allow inter-system travel, which would allow the Big Seven to tighten their grip on the lives of all Consortium citizens while they repopulated the Icaunus system with their own people.

With the secret help of a few other companies in the Big Seven, this weapon was mounted on the Consortium’s flagship cruiser, the Orion and made its way towards genocide.

The Resistance gathered all its forces and threw their entire might at the ship, hoping to infiltrate deep enough to disable the weapon. They suffered heavy casualties but one team, Stiletto Unit, successfully reached the engine room. Stiletto Unit is the elite fighting force of the Resistance and if anyone can save Icaunus, it will be them. With resources running low and enemies everywhere they’ll have to act fast.

Do you have what it takes to join them?

-A

Before the time of awakening, when all Vilithii lived under the direction of one being, life was simple: act in accordance with the knowledge that you were in the presence of a living god. One all-powerful being, consuming and draining the essence of lower lifeforms. This god was self-named, Vilithii, and in their devotion all followers took their name from it.

In this way a great civilization was built and with it a social hierarchy. Collectors who were at the bottom of the pyramid harvested nutrients and through self-sacrifice fed the great Vilithii god until it was the most dominant of all the species. In a world that was blinded by fear and devotion one Vilithii named Setting Sun saw through the façade of lies and torment.

Setting Sun realized their god was mortal, made from the same mind and material as each and every one of them. Without thought for what might happen next, Setting Sun put into action a plan that would strike down the tyrant and free them all from their single minded devotion. In one fell swoop Setting Sun changed their world, their history and their future.

They were free. They were a species without a god, without direction or motivation but they were free. For Setting Sun that freedom was welcome but for many others who lost power, status and faith that day… it was just the beginning of their nightmare.

Until next week!

-A