Nightmare of Empire
By now, it is no longer a matter of much surprise that I have been working extensively on the newest attempt to bring the Iron Kingdoms, setting of games like Warmachine and Hordes, to the world of tabletop roleplaying. And I think that I’ve made it pretty clear already that our latest project has been a long-awaited sourcebook for one of the game’s original factions – the Nightmare Empire of Cryx.
For those who aren’t familiar with the setting, the Iron Kingdoms were first introduced more than 20 years ago – in a trilogy of adventure modules for what was then 3rd-edition D&D called the “Witchfire Trilogy.” Within two years, it had given rise to Warmachine, the first tabletop wargame to make use of the setting, and one that’s still being played today.
I’ve been a fan ever since that time, and I’ve been working with Privateer Press as a freelancer – on and off – for about a decade now. I’ve written licensed fiction, including my first novel, and worked on the previous attempt at creating an Iron Kingdoms roleplaying game. Now, I’m working very closely on the creation of Iron Kingdoms: Requiem, which brings the setting to the 5th edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game system.
And here’s what makes our latest project, which should be hitting Kickstarter any day now, so exciting: Since that very first book, Cryx has been one of the core factions of the setting. An island nation of mechanical undead, ruled by a dragon who is essentially a living god, Cryx was one of the original four factions of Warmachine. And yet, despite no less than three versions of Iron Kingdoms roleplaying, dating back as far as 2001, there has never been a book that gave you the tools you needed to play as the forces of Cryx in a roleplaying game.
Until now. Recently, Privateer Press released their first sneak peek at the new material that’s coming in Iron Kingdoms: Nightmare Empire: a list of new classes and subclasses, several of which, I’m happy to say, I worked on designing.
But that’s far from all that will be included in the book. There’s all sorts of exciting stuff in there. A history and gazetteer of the Nightmare Empire, new spells, new monsters, rules for Cryxian warjacks, and even rules for making and playing an iron lich – one of the setting’s most iconic creations, and one that my regular GM and gaming buddy has been clamoring to play as for 20 years now.
I’ll be posting more about my work on the game as the Kickstarter launches but, for now, this is one of the big projects that has been occupying a lot of my time of late, and I’m very excited for people to get to see it come to fruition.
Of course, that’s not all I’ve been up to lately. Panic Fest is starting this coming weekend, and I’ll be covering it for The Pitch, and I’ve also got some other movie-adjacent announcements and things, but those I’ll save for their own post this week…
The Incredibly Strange Creature 
Orrin: Re Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy — After four decades personal and professional experience with MSP, may I suggest that you read the original article in Lancet (8-13-77), a 2 1/2 page thought piece that propelled Roy Meadow to ultimate (transitory) fame and has destroyed parents and families worldwide, that travesty resuming again. That imaginative piece also served as a get-out-of-jail card for Sir Roy was admitted in the tossed-off article 45 yrs ago that “we” overloaded the child with hypenaetremia to purportedly prove his mother (whose own breast milk contained salt which they did not check). It has been a lifesaving for arrogant and/or incompetent doctors who shift the focus to mothers. Lancet never did and never has fact-checked that original piece…which they cannot because there are no traceable facts. No victim family member, not alleged nurse or lab tech or hospital ever has appeared to verify, validate, etc anything in Meadow’s fanciful piece, presumably because there never were any. It is easy to find an unscientific medical person’s article—even in decent journals—of “My (One) case of MSP” usually clearly lacking even basic diagnoses which should have been ruled out: inborn errors of metabolism, not the least of the problems as well as medication errors, etc. In no way has Meadow’s theory—or the untested enthusiasm of others who’ve thought it was a neat explanation when they did not pursue medical answers—ever seen the illumination of accepted scientific validation. People vacillate between and among mental, psychological, medical, emotional and so on reasons and causes, often starting “MSP is where….”. Nearly a half century of inept “diagnosing” and cruel prosecutions invite a return to the cause: that casual thought piece, given legs by don’t-look-at-us Lancet editors who have yet to produce a single actual fact for the airy fairy theory they protect to this day.
For those who are coming here from my blog post, this will seem extremely random, but the OP is referring to a work-for-hire piece that I recently wrote for The Lineup.
As for that, I appreciate your concerns about it. When I’m doing pieces on a work-for-hire basis, I often have very little control over the scope of the piece, but I nonetheless tried to shine as much light as I could on the controversial nature of the diagnosis and the ultimate fall of Roy Meadow’s “authority” on the subject.