Hi everyone!

You may have already seen this from Amy’s posts, but we’re going to be at MCM Comicon London this October (27th-29th). You can find us at Stand 721!

We’ll be running all of our RPGs and we’re offering our brand new card game, Evil Overlord, along with Champion of Earth for anyone who wants to give it a go!

This is our 4th MCM Comicon in October and, as always, we’ve volunteered to run a panel about creativity, as well as talking with anyone who wants to get into writing, comics or games. We believe that working to help other people achieve their creative dreams is one of the greatest responsibilities of the companies in these industries.

We’ve got a huge amount of experience across our team: from writing novels to creating comics, from game design to sound and artwork. We use these skills to create our own games and to help others create the game or comic they had always dreamed of!

We’ll be at MCM with a huge number of our games, and we’ll be more than happy to share any or all of them with you!

You can find all of this and much more at Stand 722:

Champion of Earth

A massive favourite at the last MCM, we’re bringing Champion of Earth back, once again to MCM London. You can have your chance to defend the Earth against not only Aliens, Undead and Creatures, though!

We’re bringing the brand new expansion, Robots and Cyborgs, with us as well, which adds Robots and Cyborgs as enemies, along with loads of brand new equipment for you to try!

We hope you’ll join us in defending the Earth at MCM as one of our 8 brave Defenders!

Era: The Consortium – A Sci-Fi game with 500 years of playable history

In Era: The Consortium, you can explore a massive universe and play at any time during the 500-year history. This allows you to play any sub-genre of Sci-Fi you want: colonisation of the first planet, exploration of new solar systems, first contact with aliens, all-out war with forces determined to destroy the Consortium or as part of a Resistance movement trying to overthrow an evil government!

The critically acclaimed Era: The Consortium “Last Stand of Stiletto Unit” session is going to be running as a demo throughout the weekend, so come along if you love Sci-Fi! Have a chance to save 14 billion lives inset at the climax of the game’s 500 year history!

We’ve been running this game for a long time, and loads of people have had a great time playing!

We’ve recently run a successful Kickstarter which enabled us to add 8 new expansion books to the Era: The Consortium universe and we’ll be bringing them with us. Gain Psionic powers, play as a secret agent, enter the virtual worlds within computer systems and play as a brand new alien race – the choice is yours!

Era: Survival – Survive a world where Infected zombies are everywhere!

The fan favourite Era: Survival puts players into Gaia, a world where Humanity is dying out – in 100 years, there may not be anything left. No-one knows what caused the cataclysm and, honestly, no-one really cares any more. All that matters now is staying alive: faced with the Infected Mutants and Shamblers as well as the 14 factions of humanity convinced that they have the best way of surviving this post-apocalyptic world.

Will you survive? Find out in our Era: Survival Session “In Her Name”, which we’ll be running throughout the weekend!

If you’re interested in joining in, we’ve got a Kickstarter for Era: Survival running during the convention , so feel free to drop by and grab one of our flyers or talk to us about it!

Era: Hitman – Become a super-powered assassin!

Era: Hitman places you in control of an assassin with superhuman abilities. Avoid guards to reach your target in this game, inspired by Assassin’s Creed and Hitman!

After an amazingly popular Kickstarter campaign, we actually sold out of copies of Era: Hitman, but we’ve got hold of another print run just for you guys!

We’ll be running demos of this for the first time at this convention, so don’t miss out this chance to try our latest game!

Era: Lyres – Adventuring? That sounds dangerous…

In Era: Lyres, you enter a fantasy world… but not as adventurers! Adventuring is dangerous, dirty, and doesn’t even usually reward you all that well! Instead, you are going to tell stories to the good folk of Yarnolth and convince them you have been on amazing adventures and have saved them! In return, they will reward you with gold and adoration!

Find out whether you have what it takes to be an adventurer in Era: Lyres, and don’t forget to bring your friends! We’ll be running sessions of it for anyone who wants throughout the weekend!

Era: The Empowered – Be a superhero!

Who hasn’t wanted to be a superhero at some point? In Era: The Empowered, you can create and play with your own powers to fight the evil villains who plague your city. Or… perhaps you’ll join them?

We’ll be running demo sessions of Era: The Empowered for anyone who wishes to play! Just come to the stand and ask to play!

Era: Silence – Join with your friends to prove yourself as a Warrior!

Visit the Isle of Silence in this game, where you must work as a team despite being unable to speak to each other. If you fail to overcome the Challenges placed around the Isle, you will never earn your name as a warrior and return.

Can you overcome the Challenges of the Isle? Find out with us – we’ll be running demo sessions of Era: Silence throughout the weekend!

If you’re interested in knowing more about what people thought of our games, check out our video log from October 2017:

Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uGuIW9Sr2U

Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSrFxcQgVio

Day 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUpabvxa-o4

Comics – Sci-Fi to Superheroes!

Shades of Vengeance also creates comics, and we are bringing several of them to MCM! With two Science Fiction comics (in the Era: The Consortium universe) and two superhero comics (in the Era: The Empowered universe), we’re starting to move onward with our comic production!

We hope that you’ll visit our stand and check out what we have to offer!

Ever dream of becoming a writer or game creator?

Ed and Leo are running a panel about how to be creative and how to keep that creativity going through the hard parts of projects.

Of course, you can also join us for a chat at our stand any time!

We’re pleased and proud to be visiting MCM Comicon once again! We hope you’ll join us!

Shades of Vengeance will be exhibiting at Stand 721, near the S5 entrance, for all 3 days!

– Ed

At this very moment, Ed and Leo are just finalizing the setup of our booth at MCM Comicon in London. You can find us at Stand 1232. We’ll be there through the entire weekend so you’ll have plenty of time to stop in and check us out.

For the first time ever, you can check out a copy of Era: Silence and attempt to earn your true name by overcoming the Challenges on the Isle of Silence. Do you have the self control to play a game with limited communication? Stop by our booth to play this and any of our 5 available games either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Ed will be right there to answer all of your questions and even just have a chat about creating games if you’re interested.

There will not be a news post on Saturday due to our attendance at Comicon but be sure to check our Facebook and Twitter pages through the weekend to get loads of updates, photos, and videos! Remember to tag us in any photos you take with Ed or the GM crew, we love to chat with fans!

Have a great weekend and I’ll catch up with you next week where we can talk about the end of our Kickstarter event!
-A

Continuing our week of art! Today I get to share with you some new pieces for our Era: The Consortium expansions. It’s not all story artwork and card game images around here. Ed has decided to pre-release some of the finished logos! These familiar Consortium images each have a bit of tweaking to make them more appropriate for their respective expansions, though they both look fabulous.

Everyone is hard at work making these expansions spectacular and we hope to have them out to you and ready to play as soon as possible!

If you’re in the mood to play something even sooner, check out our ongoing Patreon campaign. You can get special access to new Consortium sessions every month!

See you next time!
-A

Today begins a week of art for Shades of Vengeance. It’s been awhile since we gave you some delicious images to snack on, so Ed’s taken pity on us and handed out a whole crate full!

Perhaps you’ll remember Champion of Earth? It’s one of our upcoming games and is certainly getting a lot of attention right now. This card game is still in early stages of development but the cards themselves are coming through the art department and they’re looking gorgeous!

I have a selection to show you today, each one a bit more interesting than the last. Let’s introduce you to a few of our characters…

Of course, our characters don’t always look so smart and clean cut. These guys will be seeing some action and taking some damage which is when you’re going to see them look more like this…

We also have a few card backs that I’ve been allowed to show you. The artwork for this game is incredible and it just keeps coming!

So there you have it, plenty of new images to get you thinking about how this game is going to be played and what exactly that creature with yellow eyes just might be. If you have a guess I’d love to hear it. I’m not sure but I think its eyes follow me when I try to shut the laptop…

Back in a few days with more art and more news!
-A

“Did it hurt?” Nico leaned closer to the fabulous creature in the pink tank top and fire engine lip color. Her eyes scrunched up, thinking.
“Ok, I give up… did what hurt?”
“When you fell from heaven.”

Nico smiled with all his teeth and leaned in close but the girl just rolled her black lined eyes up and around. She slid away from the bar, careful not to get too close to Nico who shrugged and took another swig of Jack and Coke. Some ladies couldn’t handle the heat.

He swaggered over to an empty table near the dance floor and as Nico sat, a divine looking woman in a yellow dress walked through the door. She headed straight for his table and when she came within earshot he put both hands over his chest.

“Oh sweetheart, you must be a thief… cuz’ you stole my heart.” He paused for a reaction. Nothing. She didn’t look at him. Instead, she scanned the room. Her dark eyes deep in thought.

“Is your name Summer?” Nico purred. He didn’t wait for her to answer, “Because baby, you’re hot as hell.”

The mystery woman reached out a hand and snagged his drink off the table, still not bothering to even glance at him. Nico’s mouth fell open. The perfect woman. Beautiful and gutsy to boot. He cleared his throat to deliver another great line when an ear busting boom rocked the nightclub.

Smoke and screams mixed with techno beats and created a chaotic mess. Clubbers rushed off the dance floor, tipping over chairs and shoving each other to the ground. Nico stood with slow exaggeration and watched the unfolding madness. A hand tapped him on the shoulder and he turned.

The yellow dressed woman smiled, tipped back his drink, emptied it, then shook the tumbler in front of his face. Ice cubes danced in the glass.

“Be an angel and get me another one of these, would you sweetcheeks?” The woman tossed the tumbler into his hands and he fumbled to catch it.

“The name’s Penumbra,” she said with a smirk. Movement from the floor caught Nico’s attention and his stomach squirmed. He stared open-mouthed as inky darkness crawled up Penumbra’s calves, her hips, her bosom.

“And I’ll steal more than your heart if it’s worth anything…” She looked him over and let out a disappointed sigh. With a flick of her hand, she transformed into a living shadow.

Nico’s eyes bulged and he tried to take a drink from the empty glass to wet his suddenly dry mouth. An ice cube stuck in his throat. He spluttered and coughed it out.

“Now stand back Romeo,” Penumbra melted into darkness, “I’ve got work to do.”

Sozu tracked six blazing red shots headed in a straight line for his chest. In the chaos of battle, there are moments which slow down to micro-speed level. The shouts of the other soldiers. The smell of burned fuel. The bursts of explosions. They all happen with detached exaggeration. This was one of those moments.

Sozu felt a rock crunch under his boot as his body stiffened to prepare for the shock of the oncoming weapon’s fire. There was no getting around it. This was his end.

He felt a small stab of regret remembering that just last week he’d ordered new boots. Something he’d never get a chance to wear. In fact, it was only last Tuesday that Sozu had visited the armoury. That moment played out with crisp detail in his mind.

“Hey, if it isn’t my second favorite lieutenant.” Tech Sergeant Davis had slapped Sozu on the back and given him a wide grin, waiting for the invitation to deliver his punchline. Sozu obliged.

“Oh yea? Who’s your first?”

“Your wife,” Davis  guffawed and slapped Sozu on the back again. The Tech Sergeant motioned Sozu towards a standing repair pod, “Step into my office. What’ll it be, full armor upgrades across the board?”

“Hah, you wish.” Sozu had laughed. “What do I need all that for? Nope, I just need a tune up and a polish. Make sure all the old crap I’ve already got is still working.”

“You sure? I don’t think this is gonna get you through a harsh breeze let alone another deployment.” Davis eyed Sozu’s armor with healthy skepticism.

“Every time I come in here you try to get me into one of those fancy bells and whistles upgrades.” Sozu had scoffed. “Who needs all that? Not me.”

As the bullets pounded Sozu’s chest, the force of their impact drove him backwards. His feet left the ground and he said a silent goodbye to the world. His back slid against hard rock. He bounced twice and went tail over tea kettle in the dirt until he came to a stop. Dust swirled around him.

After several painful moments, Sozu opened his eyes. He wasn’t dead.

His hands searched the front of his armor and though there were some dents, nothing had penetrated the tough metal skin. Sozu laughed.
“Davis, you sneaky son of a bitch!”