It is a new year, with new hopes, dreams, and games. While the President is off celebrating his inauguration, I thought I would do the same with a not-so-brief update on what 12 to Midnight has in store for the coming year.

For starters, we had our annual Board of Directors meeting on January 15 th, and I was elected company President for 2005. You may wonder, “What happened to Ed Wetterman? What does this mean for the company?”

The answer to the first questions is: he is right here. Ed is a vital part of this company—I daresay the heart of it—and he is not going anywhere. Ed helmed an excellent 2004 term as President and safely navigated us through the sometimes turbulent waters of our first full year in existence. Unfortunately, he has had a lot on his plate outside the company and was ready for a break. I went into the kitchen at an inopportune time, and when I came back I was President.

The answer to the second question is even easier. Practically nothing is going to change. Even though the company is structured like a corporation, internally we operate more like a studio. We share writing and editing duties, and we all have equal votes on important matters. Everything we do is highly collaborative, and I am sure is the reason for our high quality. When three or four people pour over a project like we do, it almost HAS to be good. What will change this year is that we will be stepping out from behind our iconics more. It has been fun bringing Jackson, Lance, and Dr. Maclanahan to life here on the site, but I think maybe we have done our job too well. To some folks, we are the iconics. It is time you get to know the real us.

Looking ahead, we have great things planned for 2005. RPG Objects invited us to share publishing duties for Modern Dispatch, and our first issue will be out in a little more than a week. After that, look for a new issue from us every four weeks. The comment we read most often about us on forums is “12 to Midnight—they do great work, but they sure aren’t prolific.” This year, Modern Dispatch is going to help turn that around. We have some really neat things in store for the Dispatch, as you’ll see in the very first issue. Just like with most magazines, you can buy issues individually or you can save quite a bit by subscribing.

Our next big project is a departure from the norm— our first game aid, called Green’s Guide to Ghosts. Green’s Guide is a ghost-hunting “how to” book written from Jackson Green’s perspective. (So I’m already going back on my statement about stepping out from behind the iconics. Actually it was co-authored by myself and Ed Wetterman) It includes separate advice for players and GMs on how to conduct a ghost-hunt, an equipment guide, a template for converting any character to a ghost, three adventure outlines, and much more. What do I mean by much more? Lots and lots and lots of adventure ideas. What you won’t see are advanced or prestige classes, skills, or feats. Blood & Spooks by RPG Objects has already covered that territory. Green’s Guide compliments that product rather than competes with it. It is in the last round of edits and will be heading to layout very soon. Look for the d20 version in the next 60 days and a Savaged version following closely.

More than 60 days out we have an adventure by Weekend Warriors author Jerry Blakemore. Weathered is set in Pinebox, and falls somewhere between Last Rites and Bloodlines in terms of scope. I don’t want to give away too much yet, but believe me you won’t be disappointed.

Ed Wetterman and I are both in the early development stage of a total of three adventures, including “Last Rites II”. As Ed has mentioned in the forums, the Last Rites sequel has been a big challenge because the first one set the bar so high. We have lots of ideas–the challenge is in picking and choosing which ones fit while retaining everything that made the first adventure so fun. We are shooting for a release to coincide with the two year anniversary of the first adventure’s release in mid-August.

We have also been working with a handful of freelancers on various projects. Our policy is to not publicly disclose projects until we have a first draft in hand, but I can tell you we have outside writers working on five adventures and one game aid. We are always open to fresh proposals. Just check out the writers’ guidelines link in the menu.

Finally, we have every intention of supporting all our products in both d20 System and Savage Worlds editions. While the d20 System is still the 800 lb. gorilla of game systems, we are all big fans of Savage Worlds. On the rare occasions when we can all get together and game, we do so with ole’ Smiling Jack on the character sheet.

From all of us, thank you for supporting us in our first year and a half of existence. Literally, without you it is all for nothing. Please stop by our forums and let us know what you like, what you don’t, and what you want to see from us in the future.

Preston P. DuBose
President
12 to Midnight, Inc