After a far-too-long-in-development cycle, I am happy to announce that Streets of Bedlam‘s first supplement, Five-Story Drop, is finally out in PDF!

Attention Kickstarter Backers!
If you pledged $25 or more, you are due a free PDF copy of Five-Story Drop as part of your rewards. I have sent out message with details on how to claim your copies via Kickstarter so please check your email for those instruction.

Where do we go from here?
I’m going to do a couple more edit passes on Five-Story Drop before committing it to print. I’m also looking into the suggestions over at the Pinnacle Forums to see what, if anything, can be added to this book before it goes to print.

I expect to submit to the printers by the end of the month and I should have hardcopies in my hands by mid-July.

I have a lot of other stuff to wrap up as part of the Kickstarter, so I’m gonna hop off, but Five-Story Drop is finally here!

Out in PDF this Friday:

One false move. One bad deal. One broken promise. That’s all that stands between you and a one-way trip off the nearest skyscraper.

You manage to navigate the ins and outs, you’ll find yourself on the top of the heap. You stumble, you’ll spend the rest of your short life sucking wind until the concrete comes up to kiss you.

At least you’ll have lived a story worth telling, yeah?
Because in the end that’s what we’re all doing here.
Telling stories.

Five-Story Drop is a collection of episodes for Streets of Bedlam: A Savage World of Crime + Corruption.
Within these pages, you’ll run across a suburban cannibal cult, drug-running streetracers, a precinct-wide conspiracy, the return of a notorious serial killer, and a man who simply refuses to stay dead.

Five-Story Drop includes:

“Does a Body Good”
“Life in the Fast Lane”
“The Burial Plot”
“That Man’s Got a Real Backscratcher”
“Eli Mendoza is a Dead Man”

Five-Story Drop hits in PDF this Friday, June 14th. Hardcopy is due out mid-July.

Some edits and additions to make but I’ll see you all on Friday with a completed Five-Story Drop. 😉

Two Weeks
Two weeks to go and things are going well. I’m currently staring down the barrel of a bachelor weekend so, aside from tending to the animals and not sliding completely into dishevelment, I’m going to focus completely on Five-Story Drop, both in writing and in catching up on some inspirado (and probably at the same time).

Topic of Discussion
PEGInc.com forum member cbooth is looking for details from folks who are playing/have played Streets of Bedlam. My hope is that many of you fall into one or both of those categories. Would you mind dropping by the forum thread and giving him some advice?

The Future!
I was hit by a major bolt of inspiration for a Streets of Bedlam supplement (beyond the currently-in-planning Judges + Kings) that I think folks will really dig. But I’m not touching it until 5SD and the straggler scenarios are finished. Still, I’m assembling the team to get some of the wheels turning for when I am ready to launch.

Missed last week’s update so let’s get to the details:

“Does a Body Good” – 95%
“Life in the Fast Lane” – 30%
“The Burial Plot” – 60%
“The Man’s Got a Real Backscratcher” – 20%
“Eli Mendoza is a Dead Man” – 80%

That’s what’s done so far. Not what I was aiming for, not what I was hoping for, but it’s the truth.

What I do on Little Fears projects when deadlines get missed one too many times is set a done-by date where, if the product is not out, I promise to release it for free. So far, that’s motivated me to finish every project where I’ve set that deadline.

Since a bunch of you are already owed Five-Story Drop, I can’t do that. But what I can do it this:

If Five-Story Drop isn’t out in PDF by Friday, June 14th, each and every Kickstarter backer at the $45 or higher pledge level will receive the third Streets of Bedlam book (tentatively titled Judges + Kings) in print and PDF for free when it releases including shipping (which will be sent separately from SoB and 5SD; it will not delay your already-due shipment).

So, there ya go. That’s the ultimatum. I’ve yet to miss one of these. And I don’t intend on starting now.

June 14th. Mark it on your calendars.

See you next Friday.

Sorry I missed updating you all on Friday but the week was, once again, crazy busy. The good news is that I made solid progress on “Does a Body Good” so I should finish up three of the five stories this week. (“Does a Body Good”, “Eli Mendoza is a Dead Man”, and “The Burial Plot” for those wondering.)

I cleared my plate of all other post-day job responsibilities so my focus will be entirely on Five-Story Drop until it’s finished.

I will do my best to get it done by month’s end. I will update again this Friday will a full breakdown of all five scenarios.

Welcome to the first of the Five-Story Drop updates. Work has been settling down some so I managed to plug away at Five-Story Drop this week. I didn’t manage my one hour every day goal but will be sticking to that as closely as I can from hereon out. This week, I focused on finishing up “Eli Mendoza is a Dead Man” which isn’t complete but is in much better shape. I also inserted everything I did have done into layout so I can see at a glance where things are at. I revised some of the intro section as well to make the book more useful for players and GMs.

This weekend, I aim to finish up “Eli Mendoza” and focus on getting “The Burial Plot” further along and adding more meat to “Life in the Fast Lane.” This time next week, my goal is to have 2 of the 5 scenarios completed.

Some of you have been asking about the status of Five-Story Drop. And you should be. We reached and breached the ridiculously overdue date some time ago. The book is flat-out late. Worse than that, it’s LATE.

The fact is I’ve been swamped at work and have had some big opportunities come my way that forced my attention elsewhere. That’s a horrible thing to admit but it’s true. A lot of you are waiting on Five-Story Drop to get done so you can get the first book much less the supplement. On top of all of this, my family and I took our first actual vacation as a family ever which took me away from all writing for anything the past week. This was arranged half a year ago so, while the timing was inopportune to say the least, it was a) too late to change and b) a wonderful time with my wife and kids.

I am truly sorry for the continued delay. That doesn’t reverse or magically *snapwow* finish the book but I am.

So. Five-Story Drop. The book’s in decent shape. All five scenarios are well in-progress with two of them, “The Burial Plot” and “Eli Mendoza is a Dead Man,” almost finished. Two more of them are about 40% done with “Life in the Fast Lane” in the weakest shape at about 20% done.

The upside is that work has slowed back down to only mildly insane. One of those big opportunities still has potential to flare up but I have time. Of course, I had time before and then other things swallowed up those days leaving me without much to show for it.

Where things stand are I’m dedicating an hour a day to Five-Story Drop until it’s done. I can do about 1k words in that hour, more if I’m in the zone, and will work and work and work to get it done. That’s a promise I’m sure you’re sick of hearing but I’m making it again.

To add some due pressure, I’ll update the site every Friday with a status report. If I start to fall behind, pile on me. I have it coming. I have it coming because you have this book coming.

If I can beg your forgiveness once more, I’ll get Five-Story Drop done and in your hands ASAP. Thank you for your continued patience.

Hey everyone, sorry for the last minute notice but I’ll be sitting down with the folks at #rpgnet for a chat tonight, starting at 8p Eastern/7p Central. I’ll be talking about all things Streets of Bedlam and Little Fears, as well as whatever other topics pop up.

You can pop into the chat via this link. I hope to see you there!

C’mon, Blair, it’s been forever.
I know! I have no excuse for how long Five-Story Drop is taking. I can assure that I am working on it. In fact, I’m going to work on it every day until it’s done. I’ve taken some time off from writing on 5DS due to being out of town for work, writing other projects, and allowing myself to just be tired in the evening.

But this has gone on long enough. A good many of you are owed this book (along with other books) and I need to fulfill this promise to you. So I’ll be head-down on Five-Story Drop in the evenings in order to get this wrapped up.

Thank you for your patience. If I may ask for just a little more, I will try to reward you for it.