About this project
Music enchants. Elevates. Destroys. Literally shapes our world.
It's also a cornerstone of urban fantasy adventures.
The modern bard. The faerie singer. The mad fiddler or vampire rock star - this is their domain.
But the wild allure of mystic bardery is a hard path to pursue. There are devil-deals and heartbreaks, load-ins and flame-outs and two-minutes warnings where the crowd might literally eat you alive.
Do you have the courage to throw down with legends?
Let's ROCK!!!
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A roleplaying sourcebook dealing with magic, music and urban fantasy, POWERCHORDS is a new project from fantasy author, game designer and occasional bass player "Satyr" Phil Brucato. (Mage: The Ascension, Deliria: Faerie Tales for a New Millennium, Witches & Pagans, Ravens in the Library)
Featuring artwork from acclaimed illustrators Aaron Acevedo, Jason Engle and Bryan Syme, POWERCHORDS explores the crazy world of musical magic: feral groupies, sinister patrons, smoky clubs, and tour buses rank with the flop-sweat of the damned!
Drawing inspiration from real-life adventures - and from the fantasy fiction of Anne Rice, Charles de Lint, Mercedes Lackey and others - POWERCHORDS takes you on a backstage tour of urban bardery. Big breaks, bad busts, sex, drugs, rock-n-roll... from street-corner busking to headlining tours, POWERCHORDS gives you characters, settings, plot hooks and gear suitable for any urban fantasy game setting.
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A print-on-demand roleplaying game sourcebook POWERCHORDS will be available in PDF, softcover B&W and hardcover color editions. The book will be promoted through various websites and communities, with orders for the book being taken and filled to order, as with our previous project, the anthology Ravens in the Library. If successful enough, POWERCHORDS might be made available through gaming stores as well.
If we're especially successful with our fundraising, the book might be larger, with more artwork and higher word-and-page-counts.
Current plans sets this up as a 120-page, 60,000-word book. A "plug-in-your-favorite rules system" supplement, POWERCHORDS will feature a handful of rules drawn from the revised Compact System(tm), with suggestions for other systems as well. With this book, you could play a fiddle-wielding vampire, a honey-voiced faerie, a hard-rock zombie, or simply a scruffy mortal who wants to be in a band and damn everything that stands in her way!
POWERCHORDS outline features five chapters, an Introduction, and a rule-systems Appendix that presents game stats in the Compact system(tm).
Introduction: Mystic Rhythms
Chapter 1: The Big Gig
Chapter 2: Grace Notes
Chapter 3: Goodies & Gear
Chapter 4: We're With the Band
Chapter 5: Hitting the Road
Appendix: Cranked to 11
Funds will pay all contributors, secure proofs for publication, and provide rewards for project sponsors.
Current Contributors are:
Phil Brucato - writing, illustration & design
Sandra Buskirk - editing, illustration & proofreading
Sherry Lynne Baker - graphic design, illustration & layout
Aaron Acevedo - illustration & graphics
Jason Engle - cover & illustration
Bryan Syme - illustration
Estimated release date is early summer, 2011. Production events may move that date slightly forward or back.
Check this page for weekly updates!
FAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on October 1, 2010.
Pledge $1 or more Pledge $1 or more
Original Flash Fiction - each week, the backers of the previous week receive a new, unpublished story written for that week by the author of POWERCHORDS. If the funding is successful, first-week backers will receive all the previous tales after the final week, plus a fifth one for being the first sponsors to invest in this project. PLEASE post a contact email so that I might send these stories to you, and please spread the word as well. Thanks!
Pledge $5 or more Pledge $5 or more
"Thank you" credits in the book and on Brucato's urban bard webcomic Arpeggio (see arpeggiothecomic.com)
Pledge $15 or more Pledge $15 or more
"Thank you" credits above, plus a PDF copy of the book
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
As above, plus you get to name a band mentioned within the book
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
As above, plus a hardcover color copy of the book upon its release.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
As above, plus an exclusive "I'm with the band!" POWERCHORDS t-shirt
Pledge $150 or more Pledge $150 or more
As above, plus an illustrated character based on you (or a character you create) within the book itself
Pledge $150 or more Pledge $150 or more
As above, plus you're in a "band" within the book, formed of characters based upon (or created by) the top five sponsors. If there are more than five contributors giving over $150, we'll probably add more bands!
Pledge $175 or more Pledge $175 or more
As BOTH $150.00 options above, plus you can name a second person to become a character within the book as well.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
We'll think of something even more cool than the other options!
Project By
SatyrPhil Brucato & Silver Satyr Studios
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SatyrPhil Brucato, aka Phil Brucato or just plain Satyr, is the award-winning author/ designer of Deliria: Faerie Tales for a New Millennium, Mage: The Ascension and Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade, among many other works.
His short stories have appeared in Weird Tales, Steampunk Tales, the Sword & Sorceress series, the Bad-Ass Faeries series, and various other collections; his interviews, articles and essays pop up in Realms of Fantasy, Witches & Pagans, books by Disinformation Press, and a Live Journal blog. A former bass player for several local rock bands, he's still got plenty of friends living the dream on the road, including SJ Tucker, Nathaniel from Abney Park, all the boys in Emerald Rose, and Monica, Paul and William from Faith and the Muse.
In his copious spare time, Satyr also writes the urban fantasy webcomic Arpeggio, the tale of a clueless teenage bard. Away from the computer, he dances, spins fire, and pontificates at great length. You can find more information at the links below.
