The Mars Colony Ashcan Edition debuted at Gen Con ’09. In my opinion, it was a success! I put together 25 hand-made copies. The covers were “martian red,” adorned with nothing but white embossed lettering. The contrast made it stand out, and I sold 18 copies at the Forge Booth. An early playtest report generated enough buzz to move all but two of the remaining copies.
I’m quite pleased, and hope that it leads to some solid feedback. So far so good.
I’ve been toying with a second edition to Hero’s Banner for some time now. However, I’ve never been able to justify the work it would take to revise an entire book — a book that generally stands up just fine in my opinion. Would I make some changes to it if I was starting from scratch? Yes. But the game is three years old now, and I am a big believer that, once released, art should stand on its own. (I’m looking at you George Lucas.)
So where does that leave things? Well, within the next day or two, I will be putting the final touches on a short document that updates Hero’s Banner as I play it now. This document will be free to everyone. What’s more, because it will be a short web release, I will be able to update it from here on out forever. I encourage everyone who is interested in Hero’s Banner to give the new guide a quick read-through and perhaps give the game another chance.