Why Sojourner Tales?

I was moseying through my emails when something different caught my eye: A Kickstarter by Tracy Hickman. I've always loved Tracy Hickman's writing, and I'm one of the fortunate people who not only has met Tracy, but been privileged to have some personal conversation time with him. He's an amazing guy and one of the kindest people I've ever met. So, I immediately clicked on the link to check it out. I watched the Kickstarter video, and fell in love with the concept. 

One thing that seems to be common among most Sci-fi/Fantasy writers is a love of games. I enjoy the occasional RPG or X-box, but I particularly love board games and card games. I like to interact with the people playing and the round-the-table, taking turns, method is my favorite. Sojourner Tales is even better. You have a game board with all the cool pieces, people roll dice and take turns, but the play is based on decisions people make in the accompanying story. One story module offers dozens of game scenarios and if you get multiple story modules, you've got a lot of games, and every one different. It's like one of those books where you make the character's decisions in those turning-point moments, then skip to page X to see what happens. Except this is putting the concept into an interactive board game. THAT IS COOL. So I signed up. I wanted the game, but I didn't realize there was more being offered until Tracy talked about Add-ons. I could get in on the game design.

For a very reasonable price, Tracy allowed contributors to create their own story modules to go along with the game, and gave us license to sell those modules. When he offered a limited number of openings to be part of the original experiment, putting together the modules, getting the kinks out of the system, and being among the first stories available in the store front, I said, "Please?" And Tracy said, "Yes." I am SO stoked!

I already have some ideas. I'd like to use Sojourner Tales to do prequels for characters in my book, Noble Ark Something along the lines of: Aline's journey after her parents died, Ichiro and his black market activities, Nathan's escape from Daerli, and the list of possibilities goes on. None of these will be spoilers for the book, but having read the book will make the Sojourner game even more fun, and playing the game will give you a more in-depth understanding of the characters--the kind of information that would slow a story down, yet makes a great story in and of itself. Can't wait! Because I already know where I want to go with this, I'm able to make the story module available as an add-on in my Kickstarter for Noble Ark. As soon as the story modules start becoming available to the public, I'll be near the front lines to get mine to my fans.

So, why Sojourner Tales? Why ever not!