Skotos Tech & Sanguine Productions Collaborate on Ironclaw Game

Berkeley, CA, November 28, 2000 – Skotos Tech, publisher of multiplayer online interactive fiction games, and Sanguine Productions, producer of the Ironclaw roleplaying game, have announced that they will be working together to produce an Ironclaw-based Skotos game late in 2001.

"Sanguine Productions approached us at GenCon, asking to be one of our first seven external designers," says Christopher Allen, Skotos Tech CEO & President. "There's traditionally been a strong interest in anthropomorphic gaming in the online interactive fiction world, and we'd heard great things about Ironclaw, so it was a natural selection."

"After doing substantial research we found that the majority of our target audience participates in MUDs or MUCKs," says Ted Wadsworth, Sanguine Productions CFO. "So it is our pleasure to announce that we will be joining resources with Skotos to tap into this market and provide a high quality online Anthropomorphic RPG environment."

The Ironclaw game depicts a world at the crossroads of history – a Medieval society teetering at the edge of the Age of Reason. The anthropomorphic races of Calabria come together in the city of Triskellian. Here, guilds war against the noble house of Rinaldi in a battle of words and deeds. Meanwhile, ominous rumors have begun to arise from beyond the walls – of ancient enmities reignited and the forgotten magic of the Autarchs rediscovered.

Ironclaw is built upon a long tradition of anthropomorphic fiction – where animals take on human characteristics. It includes classic novels like "The Wind in the Willows" and "Watership Down"; movies such as "Who Shot Roger Rabbit?" and "The Secret of NIMH"; comics from "Albedo" to "Sherman's Lagoon"; and fantasies including "Spellsinger" and "Redwall". In Ironclaw a variety of anthropomorphic animals, from apes to wolves, vie for domination.

Sanguine Productions has assembled a team of dedicated StoryBuilders to create the first online text-dominant Ironclaw game. The team is being led by Ted Wadsworth, CFO of Sanguine Publications, and Amanda Geyer, a long-time administrator at FurryMUCK – an anthropomorphic interactive fiction game that has been running since 1990. They plan to start the story of Ironclaw in the city of Triskellion with "The Mystery of the Coin Shavers", a tale of intrigue that pits the factions of the city against each other.

Sanguine Productions is one of the Skotos Seven, a group of external developers that will be using the Skotos StoryBuilder Server to produce interactive fiction games. The StoryBuilder Server allows for the creation of complex virtual worlds with no programming experience. Other developers already announced include: Nikkisa Christian, Jeff Crook, Daniel O'Huiginn, Gareth-Michael Skarka, and Sam Witt.

ABOUT SKOTOS

Skotos Tech (www.skotos.net) is an online game company committed to creating a community of StoryBuilders and players. Skotos offers tools that allow its game designers to concentrate on the plot, character, and detail of the worlds they create. Skotos provides an environment that allows players to explore these worlds, share their accomplishments, and possibly become StoryBuilders themselves. Skotos Tech is located in Berkeley, California. Its first game, Castle Marrach, is now open for beta testing at http://www.skotos.net/games/marrach/.

ABOUT SANGUINE PRODUCTIONS

Sanguine Productions Ltd., located in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a traditional roleplaying game publisher that has been producing Ironclaw since 1999. The company is headed by Jason Holmgren, author and artist for "Joe Genero" and "Fineous Fingers". Sanguine Productions has already published three Ironclaw supplements to date: Rinaldi, Doloreaux, and Phelan. More information can be found at http://www.ironclaw.gs.