Hi folks,

I've been waiting a while to tell you all about this project, it's coming soon to the wider Verse Online Multiverse and it's something we've never done before.

It started out as a kind of accident too.

Those of you with children might know that the nadir of the parenting experience is a rainy Sunday afternoon when your eight year old is bored. However, it was just such an afternoon that proved to be role play game designing alchemy.

I'd just received a copy of the Mutants and Masterminds basic rules (if you're curious and you've never played it, you can pick up the free starter rules set plus a bunch of other stuff from Green Ronin here) and in a moment of parental desperation started to play with my Marvel obsessed son.

Mutants and Masterminds, for those that have yet to explore it, is basically the gold standard of super hero RPGs on the market today, better, I would argue, than Marvel's own offering which launched last year.

I began to sketch out a campaign setting after the game (which was my son's first ever RPG and got him well and truly hooked, nice work me...), and after several months of writing I'm close to finishing the first book of Verse Online's new Mutants and Masterminds world - Nova City Heroes. In November we hope to bring you the first part of Nova City Heroes: The Vanishing saga, 21 adventures in three seven episode books.

In this journey, your heroes are some of the few to have been left after 95% of the world's supers vanish overnight into another reality. You are the unknowns, the underdogs, the other guys, now faced with the task of unravelling evil conspiracies, dealing with rogue robots, sinister psychics, infiltrating sea bases, underground bunkers and communing with the supernatural to work out what has happened.

As we get closer to launch date, we'll keep you posted with more Nova City lore and details about the Vanishing.

Arcverse News

Back in the Arcverse, we're closing in on a publication date for the Book of the Phantasm, which has been delayed slightly in the past few weeks. This week I have mainly been developing the feats of the Rune Witches, one of seven new character origins you can play. I'll be sending out the playtester's draft in a month or two, so we can get your input on what works and what needs some work (there's always something...).

This week's lore hit comes is Lures Askar, last of the Starrander Emperors that began with Jorei Starrander.

Growing the team

If you like reading Arcverse lore and would like to be part of the development of the Arcverse itself, I'd be keen to have a chat. It's not a job for the faint hearted and you'd have to be comfortable taking the core material that we've been working on for years and expanding it. I'm interested in assembling a team of freelance writers (the pay isn't extravagant, so only step forth if you're really prepared to participate in a labour of love) to help expand the World Anvil pages. If you have a niche area of interest, Oloris, the Celestial Realm, the tea shops of Arc etc, and you want to write more history, NPCs, locations, items etc then drop me a line for a chat.

Anyway, hoping that this finds you well today and enjoying life,

Speak soon,

Nick