Another quick update rounding up some of the cool stuff I’ve been working on in my role as “loremaster” (not my official title) on the Asmodee Franchise Development team, this time focusing on Legend of the Five Rings!
At Gen Con this year, I spent four days working at the Legend of the Five Rings booth helping Palindrome Interactive show off the combat demo of the first-ever L5R video game, Shadowveil. You can watch the reveal trailer and learn more on the game’s Steam page, and if you weren’t able to try it out in person you can get a basic walkthrough of the demo at LegendoftheFiveRings.com. Over on Facebook, I interviewed game director Filip Andersson about the title’s design and development so far, and I also asked some fans about what they thought of the demo. I’m really proud of the work the Palindrome team has put into the game so far, both in terms of making something that’s great fun to play as well as capturing the essence of Legend of the Five Rings and the Crab Clan specifically. I hope you’ll check it out!
Also at Gen Con, Office Dog showed off the very first L5R Eurogame, River of Gold. Having played it several times, I think it’s a fun, lightweight, quick-and-easy play that will appeal to fans of euros more generally, not just Legend of the Five Rings fans. I also had the opportunity to talk to the game’s designer, Keith Piggott, about his work on the game and some of its design inspirations and goals. To help promote the game in the weeks leading up to its launch, I worked closely alongside Aconyte Books and author Robert Denton III as they created a series of short stories that brings the ports and markets along the River of Gold to life and introduces readers to four of the clan patrons included in the game. The short story series also included the first online story choice offered to L5R players since 2021. You can check out part one of the series here and either read or listen to it—Heather Jinmaku did a fabulous job narrating these stories and bringing the characters to life.
As part of the #GenConOnline programming this year, I got to chat all things Arkham Horror with my colleagues MJ Newman and Philip D Henry as well as some of the awesome authors at Aconyte Books.
Arkham Horror is the classic board game of Lovecraftian adventure originally designed by Richard Launius in 1987 and revitalized in 2005 (2nd edition) and 2018 (3rd edition) by Fantasy Flight Games. As a setting, its stories primarily revolve around a group of ordinary folks investigating mysteries of cosmic horror in and around Arkham, Innsmouth, and creepy New England. Unlike some traditional Cthulhu Mythos games or stories, Arkham Horror has strong pulp and even noir influences, so during the game players can end up with a nun riding a motorcycle shooting Cthulhu in the face with a blessed shotgun. That’s one extreme, anyway, and other games and novels explore the creeping dread and horror aspects of the setting.
Like many people, Arkham Horror 2nd edition was actually my first “hobby” board game. I’ve been working on the Arkham Horror brand since 2014, first as the editor for the Investigators of Arkham Horror anthology and the seven Arkham novellas that are soon to be collected in Aconyte’s first omnibus, Dark Origins. As time went on, I also began coordinating FFG’s internal story group for the Arkham Horror setting, so I’ve gotten to work with MJ and Phil on games such as Mansions of Madness 2nd edition, Arkham Horror 3rd edition, the Living Card Game, and more. Now I get to work closely with Aconyte to get the tone and feel and details of the setting right.
Welcome to the professional portfolio and personal blog of Katrina Ostrander, a writer of fiction and games who works full-time in the tabletop games industry. Here you can find resources and advice on writing, roleplaying, and gamemastering, as well as updates on her latest publications.
