icebear
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The Gamemaster's Screen now available on Amazon & Smashwords!
🕑 Added 2020-03-19 14:29:36 +0000 UTCSo hey, I wrote another book. :D It's up now on Amazon, and for those of you who've espoused a dislike of funneling money to Jeff Bezos, I've gone ahead and put it on Smashwords too. (Pretty sure he doesn't own that yet.)
I know I've been talking it up forever, so here it finally is. I'll paste the description down below. (it's the same as the one on Amazon, if you already clicked.) It's a sci fi/fantasy erotic thriller, so not the more straightforward smut I usually write, but there's ample smut. (fwiw, if you get a couple chapters in and are like "where the heck is the smut?" - I was feeling the same way in revision, and then I got to the back half and was like "oh, there it is, almost every chapter"). But smut or no, I think it's a fun read, fun characters, fun concept, and hopefully fun execution.
As I've noted in the past, I am a huge TTRPG guy, and I've wanted to do something more explicitly with that for a long time. My early Character Creation short stories series was an exercise in that direction (and I know some of you were brought here from those stories, which is awesome). Most of the time, I write whatever pops into my head, and sometimes it has magic and fantasy and sci fi stuff, and sometimes it only has enough to enable the MC I want to have happen. For once, I wanted to roll up my sleeves and geek it up. That's not to say you'll have a hard time following or enjoying if you're not a tabletop gamer, any more than you can't enjoy a Marvel movie if you aren't into comic books. There's easter eggs for gamer folks, but the story is open to anybody.
Also exciting, I'm publishing under my own name for once. I figured it was just non-smutty enough that I can deal with looks from the fam at Thanksgiving. :D So that feels pretty cool, to be able to link folks to my work without it also sending them on to the likes of that Todd fellow and letting shit get real in a hurry. Huzzah for being almost respectable!
Promotional synopsis:
Once a year, Jacob and his friends gather for their annual Week o’ Gaming to kick back, role play, kill monsters, and reconnect. Sure, their weekly online game scratches the itch, but this is their one opportunity for them all to gather around a table with familiar faces and roll some dice. Only this time, a time not too far from now, the Week o’ Gaming culminated in a party wipe, the characters reduced to dragon food. The players return home disappointed, and their GM Jacob devastated. To make it up to them, he borrows an experimental program from the secretive tech development lab where he works and presents them not merely with a new campaign, but a whole new game.
The Near Future is unlike anything they’ve ever seen. By uploading his gaming app to the players’ cybernetic implants, Jacob provides them a virtual reality gaming experience set in a world that looks, sounds and feels as real as their own. Suddenly they can not merely imagine being heroes, but actually inhabit their characters’ larger-than-life personas for themselves. The group, consisting of a snarky streamer, a frustrated coach, a down-on-her-luck secretary, a meek paralegal, and the paralegal’s boss fraught with nostalgia for his heyday, can leave those lives behind. Guided in the creation of their characters by a mysterious but sexy artificial intelligence, for a few hours on Wednesday nights, the players can become so much more: powerful, cunning, desirable, and empowered to take their fate into their own hands.
The game seems to cover everything. It immerses them in a futuristic version of the real world. Character knowledge like disabling security systems, wielding deadly weapons, or even channeling magical spells becomes player knowledge through seamless uploads to their implants. The app even inflicts and processes the characters’ perceived pain – and their pleasure.
But as inexplicable occurrences, suspicious behaviors and bizarre coincidences mount up, the players begin to wonder if there is more to this game than their GM led them to believe. What are they really playing, and who are they playing against?
Comments
R Masters
Looking forward to it, thanks
Ice Bear
Glad you liked it! You're definitely right that this book was more about character and "setting" (e.g. the game) establishment. Once I finish up Losers part 3, I'll be getting going on book 2, where we'll get more into narrative and a bit less on d20 rolls. :)
R Masters
Really enjoyed it, nice change of pace and I hugely enjoyed the TG elements. I think you were a little more interested in exploring the game's rules and applications than in the story and erotica, but they were super fun and interesting to read and think about.
BarryBarlow
Very interesting and promising concept! Your male characters are very gentlemanly. They are with grouped with very provocatively sexy characters but don't try covertly MC them, express frustration or have to jack off between sessions.
Indeed, I hold out hope for a TIOS short involving a male to female TG with subsequent subjection to the various rules, but recognize that's a long shot. Anyway, that's neither here nor there! In the meantime, thanks for all your writing! Keep up the great work. :)
Ice Bear
Glad you liked it! And yeah, it is fair to say I don't play the field enough sometimes. In this particular case, I think the whole dudes playing girls/girls playing dudes is one of those interesting dynamics of role playing games that complicates relationships in interesting ways. Perhaps for Brendan more than most.
Ice Bear
ikr?! I was kind of nervous hiring an artist I didn't know (especially for the cost involved), but man, super worth it imo. Getting to see the characters rendered visually is such a huge payoff.
Ice Bear
I'm so glad you liked it! I knew it wouldn't be the fastest paced, but like you say, I wanted to introduce cast and setting and all, and hoped they'd do the rest for me. :) More to come!
I just finished it, quite enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the next. I like the way it's going, and I agree the payoff is going to be worth it. I'd also like to add that I really appreciate the TG element thrown in with Brendan/Lane. That's something I enjoy that hasn't been part of your work, to date, and I'm really happy to get a bit of that in there.
ukyo_rulz
Whoa didn't realize this had come out. Gonna set up a Smashwords account to get it from there as soon as I have time. Also the cover looks great nicely done!
Just finished this book and I can't wait for the next installment. The effort you put into really fleshing out the characters shows and while it makes for a slower paced story the payoff is sure to be worth it.
VitAnyaNaked
Well, our congratulations on the release of this surely great book. The main thing is to create what you want and have endless creative ideas for this)
