What Am I Working On?
+ some general talks and random announcements
It has been quite a while(seven months) since the last project update post. A lot has happened since, some projects got finished and some were scraped off altogether.. So lets get started as:
Before anything else, I want to appreciate all my subscribers. I stated this newsletter with zero following on all social media. My two books had been rejected by publishing houses as ‘No one knows Arjun Agarwal’
While I don’t have tens of thousands of people following this newsletter, I no longer at zero. At time of writing, The newsletter has 75 subscribers. While 75 is not an earth shattering number, My first self-published novel was exclusively bought by you all other than a handful of relatives, teachers and friends.
Therefore, I am having a virtual party and you are all invited.
Let’s talk about the completed projects:
We Made Two RPGs
From March 21 to March 31, We made and published two rpgs from the scratch. The entire journey was documented on this newsletter.
The first one is called Cops and Comedy and is inspired by Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
The second one is called Intrigue and is inspired by Blindspot.
Both are pay what you want and all proceeds go to a charitable cause.
We Made Some Beautiful Zine
To celebrate the New Year, I had made five eight page printable zines with quotes suggested by a group of redditors and cherry-picked by yours truly.
You can read the actual posts here(part one) and here(part two).
However, please don’t click on the 30 under 30 reading challenge link. The project was discontinued due to some reasons.
In the works:
While I work on many projects behind the scenes and while many don’t make it past the most basic of acid tests, these are the ones which are already in the works and are coming ahead.
Edwana and Hawking
The story of a annoying, narcistic but genius criminologist Professor Benjamin Hawking and naïve, vanilla but deeply understanding student Edwana and their adventures through collage.
Curse of Strahd: Serial Novel
There are many types of stories in the world. Some of them are light and fun, meant as an escape from a dull and dreary life. Others are meant to teach us lessons.. But then there are those stories where the good guy doesn’t always win and sometimes there is no point to the pain and suffering in the lives of the characters.
This is that type of story.
In hidden corners of the universe are nightmares with motives beyond our comprehension and hunger beyond our imagination. These unfathomable forces manipulate life, death, and even reality itself. They are known by many names but we will call them the Dark Powers.
The Dark Powers don’t hide in the shadows, they are the shadows. They are the Mists and the darkness. They are the reason water manifests as floods and the sun is swallowed by darkness every evening.
These mysterious, deathless beings are the architects of domains of dread and have located their dreadful domains deep within the Plane of Shadow. The Dark Powers watch over every events within their domain. When their gaze drifts, they reach into other planes to collect heroes and villains to add to their terrifying menagerie.
In one of these domains, under a raging storm, a lone figure stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of a castle, staring down a sheer cliff at the village below. A cold bitter wind spins dead leaves about him, billowing his blood red cape in the darkness. Lightning splits the clouds overhead, casting stark white light across his face. He has a look of power - and of madness. His once handsome face has been contorted by a tragedy darker than the night itself.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself, this is not where our story begins…
Clio-Amanda Council
“Those who don’t know history, are destined to repeat it.” - Edmund Bruke
“History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there” - George Santayana
The Galactic Council has prospered for two thousand years. Nobody suspects that the council has made certain errors, which has caused its core to turn rotten. That was until Histroengineer Shubham Agitos used his new program to foresee its terrible fate.
Exiled to the desolate planet Dorars, Shubham establishes a super computer, Clio-Amanda system which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.
Now the responsibility falls onto a group of bright minds to make sure that the fall and rise of the Galactic Council goes according to plan. And every mistake, proves the same universal fact: History Repeats Itself, Always.
The Party
We are throwing a virtual party, and everyone is invited. To take part just help complete these challenges…
2 squares get crossed out: I design five more zines
4 squares get crossed out: I write a 3000 word chapter for The Great Substack Story Challenge
1 row/column/diagonal gets crossed out: I release a new chapter of Clio-Amanda System(chapter 3)
2 row/column/diagonal gets crossed out: I launch a podcast to introduce all of you to Huzefa(co-author Clio-Amanda), Kush and Rishita(co-authors Edwana and Hawking) row/column/diagonal gets crossed out: I make Myth of Krisodoris: The Frontliners free, forever.
All squares are crossed out: I design 2 more RPGs, both for charity.
Send the photos by replying to the mail. I’ll keep the bingo and the list updated.
Thanks for reading,
Warm Regards,
Arjun Agarwal.
Hey, just found your newsletter and thought it was cool.