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First up, Rebecca Lovatt over at The Arched Doorway has just posted a fantastic new interview with Brandon that took place earlier this year at Minicon. Highlights include an embarrassing story from Brandon's youth, a discussion on the setting of Dark One, an update on White Sand, and tantalizing hints about the future of the cosmere! Shadows of Self is already a little over a month away, which means that Brandon will soon be on the road again. Tor posted the schedule for the US leg of the tour a few weeks ago and today Gollancz has posted the UK leg. Also included in Gollancz's announcement was a mention of special lanyards being give away at the UK stops which according to the announcement can be "personalized with cards from either the Reckoners, Mistborn, or Stormlight Archive series". This likely refers to the special punch-out figure cards of Szeth, Regalia, Obliteration, and Newton Brandon gave out during the Words of Radiance and Firefight tours. Which would indicate that he's planning to do something similar for this tour as well. Remember if you are planning to go to any of these signings to follow the included links (or go to the Events page on Brandon's website) to find out that location's policies. Some of these events are ticketed or require the purchase of Shadows of Self from the store hosting the event. PROVO, UT (Release Party) Store: BYU Bookstore Address: Brigham Young University, University Hill, Provo, UT 84602 When: Monday, October 5, 2015 @ 10:00 PM DENVER, CO Store: Tattered Cover Book Store Address: 2526 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80206 When: Tuesday, October 6, 2015 @ 6:00 PM HOUSTON, TX Store: Murder by the Book Address: 2342 Bissonnet Street Houston, TX 77005 When: Wednesday, October 7, 2015 @ 6:30 PM SAN DIEGO, CA Store: Mysterious Galaxy Address: 5943 Balboa Avenue, #100 San Diego, CA 92111 When: Thursday, October 8, 2015 @ 6:00 PM SAN FRANCISCO, CA Store: Borderlands Books Address: 866 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 When: Friday, October 9, 2015 @ 12:00 PM SAN JOSE, CA Store: Kepler's Books Address: 1010 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 95025 When: Friday, October 9, 2015 @ 7:30 PM PORTLAND, OR Store: Powell's Books Address: 3415 SW Cedar hills Blvd. Beaverton, OR 97005 When: Saturday, October 10, 2015 @ 7:00 PM CHICAGO, IL Store: Barnes & Noble Address: 297 Oakbrook Center Oak Brook, IL 60523 When: Monday, October 12, 2015 @ 7:00 PM LANSING, MI Store: Schuler Books & Music Address: 2820 Towne Center Blvd. Lansing, MI 48912 When: Tuesday, October 13, 2015 @ 7:00 PM BOSTON, MA Store: Brookline Booksmith Address: 290 Harvard Street Brookline, MA 02446 When: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 @ 6:00 PM (Signing thread) MANCHESTER, UK (Gollancz Fest) Store: Waterstones - Manchester Deansgate Address: 91 Deansgate Manchester, UK When: Friday, October 16, 2015 @ 6:00 PM (Room 1/Room 2) LONDON, UK (Gollancz Fest) Store: Waterstones - London Picadilly Address: 203 - 206 Piccadilly London, UK When: Saturday, October 17, 2015 @ 2:00 PM (Room 1/Room 2) LONDON, UK Store: Forbidden Planet - London Megastore Address: 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, UK When: Monday, October 19, 2015 @ 7:00 PM SHEFFIELD, UK Store: Waterstones - Sheffield Address: 24-26 Orchard Square, Sheffield, UK When: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 @ 1:00 PM NEWCASTLE, UK Store: Waterstones - Newcastle (event located at The Newcastle Mining Institute) Address: Neville Hall, Westgate Road, Newcastle, UK When: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 @ 6:30 PM EDINBURGH, UK Store: Waterstones - Edinburgh West End Address: 128 Princes Street, Edinburgh, UK When: Wednesday, October 21, 2015 @ 6:00 PM LEEDS, UK Store: Waterstones - Leeds Address: 93-97 Albion Street, Leeds, UK When: Thursday, October 22, 2015 @ 1:00 PM NOTTINGHAM, UK (w/ Bradley Beaulieu and Leigh Bardugo) Store: Waterstones - Nottingham Address: 1/5 Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham, UK When: Thursday, October 22, 2015 @ 7:00 PM NOTTINGHAM, UK (FantasyCon) Location: East Midlands Conference Center and Orchard Hotel Address: University Par, Beeston Lane Nottingham, UK When: Friday, October 23 - Sunday, October 25, 2015 (Event thread) Will you be seeing Brandon on tour? Who do you think will be on the new cards? Check out our forum topic here to discuss the tour as a whole, or check above for the individual event threads (which will be added as they are created).

A few weeks ago we posted about the Mistborn board game prototype that Crafty Games planned to reveal at GenCon. I found it quite exciting and was desperate for information, and there were quite a few users who felt the same, so I started work on this secret project. I reached out initially to Tellingdwar, and later to Crafty Games, about collecting and posting information about the game for those of us who could not attend. I hope you all find it as interesting as I do! Final Empire: A Mistborn Board Game The Game Final Empire is a semi-cooperative, resource-manager game set during the events of the first Mistborn novel. Three to five players assume the roles of various factions and must work together to solve the "Problems" facing the Final Empire. In order to solve these problems players must expend a certain combination of resources, but in return they receive Favor from the Lord Ruler. The six factions available to play at GenCon were the Noble Houses of Elariel, Hasting, Lekal, Tekiel, and Venture as well as the Steel Ministry itself. The final release plans to include a total of ten factions. Each round players produce resources (food, money, prestige, skaa, warriors, and atium) in different proportions and combinations based on their faction. House Venture, for example, keeping in line with the books, produces atium, while the other factions cannot on their own. Atium works as a sort of wildcard, you can use it in place of any other resource, and you can convert between different resources to get something that is missing, but in the long run the players must work together, pooling their resources, to succeed. There are 4 tiers of "Problems", at the start of each turn a problem is added to the board in the corresponding column and each pre-existing problem moves up one tier. If a problem passes tier 4 than it is said to "Erupt" (a nice nod to the Ashmounts) and it causes various problems for the players, such as increasing the level of "Unrest" or giving players "Disfavor". The main part of gameplay is the negotiation between players to solve these problems. Getting the right number of resources is only part of the issue, as players also have to decide how the reward of Favor tokens is divided. Anything except Favor gained in previous turns can be negotiated: resources, Personality cards, out-of-game favors, etc. Short-term deals concern the current round (such as Players A, B, and C agree to solve a problem and contribute resources equally and will divide the Favor equally) and are binding, however long-term deals which concern future rounds (such as Player B telling Player A that if they let B help them with this problem they will let A help them a problem on their turn) are not. Which has the potential for a lot of scheming and backstabbing. Another gameplay mechanic is the "Personality" cards. These cards can have a variety of effects, such as altering the number of resources needed to complete a mission or change a problem’s tier. They can also be used to add advisers to one’s faction, or kill the advisers of another faction. These advisers can do things like generate additional resources, or even make long-term agreements binding. The game can end in two ways, either the Unrest reaches 8 or a special problem card (Vin) is resolved. If she is not defeated and is allowed to erupt she increases the Unrest by 4. If the players are able to defeat Vin then the player who has the highest amount of Favor is the winner. If the Unrest reaches 8 then the rebellion occurs and the player with the least Favor (the faction furthest from the Lord Ruler) wins. The Reception The board game seems to have been received extremely well, by fans of the series and people unfamiliar with it alike, I’ve yet to find a negative review or post about it, they’ve all been very positive. Tellingdwar was actually a volunteer for Crafty while he was there and demo’d the game for five hours each day. He enjoyed it so much that one day when his shift ended he commandeered one of the boards and continued playing it with some of his friends. I’d say that is definitely a testament not only to its "fun-ness" but also to its replayability. Plans for Release and Expansion (plus naming rationale) Crafty Games plans on doing a Kickstarter later this year (around Oct/Nov, which would correspond fairly well with the release of Shadows of Self) with an actual release of Quarter 4 2016. There are also plans to release expansions based on the later books as well. These would use the same board and tokens but the cards and factions will be swapped out to match the narrative of each book. These expansions also tie into why the game is not called "House War". I will admit that I was one of the people who greatly preferred "House War" to "Final Empire" but Crafty's reasoning does make total sense. While "House War" does fit well with the base game with its rival Noble factions, the expansions will not have those same factions and will deal with different themes, as such "House War" would not be an accurate descriptor. Mistborn Adventure Game Crafty also talked briefly about what’s coming up for the Mistborn Adventure Game in the relatively near future. Up first is a supplement focusing on the skaa, much like Terris: Wrought of Copper did for the Terris people. The title, Skaa: Tin & Ash, was revealed earlier this year and it’s currently looking at a release during the first quarter of 2016. In addition to that there is a follow-up to their Alloy of Law supplement in the works. With the release of Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning on the horizon they have plenty of new material to work with. Crafty is currently looking at it releasing sometime during 2016. So what do people think of the game? Does it sound like a game you’d like to play? Will you be backing the Kickstarter? Is anyone excited for the MAG supplements? Check out our forum topic here to discuss everything! Photo credits: Mistborn: Final Empire banner from Crafty Games GenCon announcement. Board Game Demo photo from Crafty Games' Twitter. Board Game Playthrough photo from Crafty Game's Facebook page.

Crafty Games (makers of the Mistborn Adventure Game) have just posted their plans for this year's GenCon (July 30 - August 2, only a little over a week away) which include several pieces of Mistborn-related news. Most notably they announced that they will be showing their prototype for a Mistborn board game. After announcing that it was in development back in March without much information, they have finally given us a title, "Final Empire: A Mistborn board game", as well as a brief teaser description. They've also announced a panel entitled "Mistborn: Scheming Across Scadrial", which they have not gone into much detail explaining, only that it is "a little more than it seems on the surface" and that "if you’re a player or reader of the Mistborn Adventure Game you’ll definitely want to sit in if you can." For fans of the Mistborn Allomancy Dice which were Kickstarted at the beginning of this year, Crafty Games will be giving out a free Aluminum dice (a design not included in the retail set or the exclusive Kickstarter set) as part of any purchases people make at the con. We also finally have a rough idea for when the release of the next MAG supplement, "Skaa: Tin & Ash", will be. It should be hitting stores some time this winter! So, is anyone planning on being at GenCon? Please tell us if you are, we'd love to get firsthand reports of the game and panel! Check out our forum topic here to discuss the game and other GenCon plans! Photo credits: Alex Flagg and the board game prototype from the Gamerati Facebook page. Mistborn: Final Empire banner from Crafty Games GenCon announcement.

Tor today has released the prologue for Shadows of Self, the sequel to The Alloy of Law. Chapter one and two is now available too! I shall spoil nothing of it here, so you best just read it. You know, if you want. Shadows of Self comes out October 6th in the US and October 8th in the UK. After that, we will get The Bands of Mourning in January. With this plus Stormlight 3 news that Brandon occasionally tweets, the rest of this year will be really fun. Check out our forum topic here to discuss the prologue, here for chapter 1, and here for chapter 2!