Keranak Kingdoms Fantasy Setting Released - Includes a Tenkar's Tavern Location! ;)

The Keranak Kingdoms Fantasy Setting was just released by DWD Studios. While intended to be used with DWD's Barebones Fantasy RPG it's generic enough to used easily with any Fantasy RPG System of your choice.

I'll be posting a review of this sometime over the next few days, but in the meantime I wanted to draw your attention to a location found within the pages of the Kernak Kingdoms Fantasy Setting:

The border town of Tenkar, named after the dwarf Reik Tenkar and the establishment located just outside the town limits known as Tenkar's Tavern. It gets 5 paragraphs in total.

How frickin' awesome is that?

Mother Nature is a Gawd Damn DCC RPG Patron!

It was damn foggy this morning

Really. She has to be. No other way she can be so full of life and destruction at the same time.

I'm back from my 17 hour day in the Rockaways here in NYC, and two weeks after Hurricane Sandy it still looks like it was hit by a blizzard - a blizzard of sand. I guess her name was more accurate that anyone imagined when they named her.

I have a shitload of gaming stuff that I'm supposed to be working on for future publication once my life gets back to normality, but all that might be trumped by my desire to put a DCC Patron patterned on Mother Nature together as a fan project on the blog.

It might help me sort through the destruction that Hurricane Sandy wrought as well as the indomitable resolution of human nature to repair, rebuild, replant and basically resurrect a community after such a calamity.

So, after a piece of cake and a beer (not at the same time ;) I'm going to put my head to my pillow and think of such things and the people I met today, folks that won't let mother nature have the last word. There is some gaming material in what I witnessed today, just as years of gaming has helped me in doing my job since I came on in the 90s.

 

Mini Review - Edge of Space (SciFi RPG Mini Game)

Matt Jackson was kind enough to offer me a copy of his latest release: Edge of Space, a rules light SciFi RPG.

It certainly is light. The whole package comes in at 8 pages, including the cover (so 7 pages for the rules themselves. It even comes in one of those single sheet, fold me into a booklet option, so you can truly take it with you. Not bad at all for a buck.

Character gen and task resolution vague remind me of traveller. Take that with a grain of salt, as I haven't played Traveller in about 20 years ;)  Choose a profession, roll for skills and you are good to go. You really will be up and running in no time. Task resolution is 2d6 plus skill level against a difficulty level, or against another roll if it's an opposed task. As I said, simple and to the point.

Combat is resolved as above using opposed rolls and success (one side or the other will be the attacker in each round, determined by a roll off of 2d6). Each successful hit inflicts a wound, which steps your through levels of damage from Health to Dead and the steps in between.

There are no weapon tables, no armor tables, no tables or lists to buy anything. There are no definitions of skills, which would be most useful, especially for the optional Psychic Troop Profession's psychic skills.

There is no setting or background material with the exception of the introductory paragraph and no sample adventure or sample character.

To me, it feels like the skeleton of a game. There is a solid system here, but without the flesh and muscles, the bones are going to have a hard time standing on their own. Could the reader / prospective GM flesh this out on their own? Certainly, but there are other systems out there that have done that for you.

If you want to play a quick session or two of scifi and your trust your GM implicitly, as he/she will have to make up many decisions and skill definitions on the fly, you have in your hands the bones of a solid system that will let you do so.

Matt, add some flesh to your creation and we'll get a chance to see what it's able to accomplish.

From the blurb:

This rules lite game allows you to put on your power suit, grab your pulse rifle and assume to role of space marines at the edge of known space. 

The Edge of Space Rulebook is designed to allow GMs to easily get an exciting science fiction game up and running in no time. Character generation takes only minutes while still providing players with wide ranging character types to flesh out their space marine squad and get ready to squash bugs in the deep blackness of space. 

So what are you waiting for? Grab your friends and get ready to kick some alien butt! 

This purchase includes both a PDF version suitable for reading on your computer or mobile device and a 'PocketMod' PDF version for printing. The PocketMod version lets you print your own 4.25" x 2.75" sized game books from a sheet of paper. Small enough you can take a copy wherever you go so you are ready for immediate gaming!

Invested in the Dice - Changing Perspective From DM to Player

As I mentioned in my previous post, last night was an unexpected opportunity to sit in a game as a players instead of my normal slot as DM. I was also a bit sleep deprived and running on a caffeine high, so maybe my perception was a bit skewed, but I noticed something - dice roll results meant something to me.

When I DM, I let dice roll as they may. I'm not looking to kill PCs, but shit happens and dice are the impartial arbitrators of the rules of fate. I'm very happy with that, even if I do feel for the players when their characters get killed.

As a player, I see myself focused on every die roll. I'm not talking just my own rolls either, but the rolls of my fellow players and the GM. My PC's survival is dependent in a large part on how well my fellow PCs roll and how poorly the DM rolls.

I guess I need to switch the side of the DM screen I sit at a bit more often.

I can now understand the argument to put more die rolls into the hands of the PCs and away from the DM when possible and logical, as it makes players more involved in the whole process. I used to think turning monsters saves into static spell attack rolls based on the save number as blasphemy, but I can see how it might add to the play experience from the players' point of view.

Anything that makes players more involved in the gameplay without changing the balance of the game should art the very least be tried in my opinion.

I may have just have to house rule this into my games later...

A Boxed Magadungeon of 1E on Kickstarter? Cataclysm at the Acaeum

I need to thank James and his Dreams of Mythic Fantasy blog for bringing Cataclysm at the Acaeum to my attention. If there is one thing horribly missing in our hobby these days, it's boxed sets. That is part of the appeal of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria and Delving Deeper (if and when we finally see the boxed set of the second), its a box. It can sit on a shelf, it has heft and most importantly, you don't need one gigantic awkward book for the contents. Instead, numerous smaller booklets are a viable choice.

So, besides it being a boxed set, what else do we know about CatA? From the Kickstarter we get the following details:

Cataclysm at the Acaeum is a megadungeon boxed set that is compatible with the First Edition game (as well as the OSRIC system) (They are now adding the option of receiving a S&W version instead of or in addition to the 1e / OSRIC version). This boxed set will include four 36-page adventure books (each containing 4-6 scenarios), three 32-page adventure books (large scale adventure), 24+ cardstock maps and a poster map of the acaeum complex. There will also be a separate book detailing all significant NPCs, New Monsters and New Magic Items. When complete, this will be the largest boxed set produced for the First Edition game!

That is a lot of gaming. There are also some stretch goals, which is good, as it already has hit its funding goal with 27 days to go (it's currently sitting at $4770 with a base goal of $4000). It's being done by Pacesetter Games and Simulations. They have a few dungeons up on RPGNow. I may have to check one out to see the quality of product they bring to the table.

There is no PDF version being offered, and the lowest buy in is $65 (includes shipping in the states)

It looks promising, but the cover art has to go. I'm going to work on the assumption its a placeholder at the moment.

Whereupon Joe the Lawyer Took Us To "Blood Island"

Just add some tentacles and shit and we killed it! ;)

Late yesterday afternoon, Joe the Lawyer offered to run last night's game session. He knew I'd been working 60+ hours a week the last 2 weeks and was willing to shoulder the burden for me. He's also been working on his own adventure, "Blood Island" and was interested in giving it a little test.

I was on board so long as the rest of the group was, and they were, so it was time for me to create a Flailsnails character for Joe's Blood Island (in which he was running a modified LotFP Weird Fantasy ruleset).

So, I used the Autarch website to get me my 5 characters and actually landed one with a 17 strength, 18 con (19 with bonus due to being a Dwarf) and a 14 wisdom. Tenkar Calishun, Dwarven Fighter / Cleric 1/1 using the LL AEC rules was thus born. Like how I combined two rulesets to generate a character to run in a third? heh

Joe kept a great pace going last night. We had but one true casualty (well, two if you count Greg's Fighter going to negatives but getting saved by one of my CLWs) of the four of us, and the challenges were challenging. Our sole death was in the final encounter - it was basically a random sacrifice as we all ran to safety. Craig, thanks for taking the hit for the rest of us ;)

It is fun being a player sometimes :)

The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Limited-Edition Wizard Cover Comes With Art Folios!

Maybe, just maybe, the fine folks over at Goodman Games read this blog on occasion (actually, I know Harley does). So maybe someone read one of my many post saying that the art in the DCC RPG main book and modules was good enough for them to be selling prints.

Well, they aren't offering prints but they are giving away art folios.

Yep, for free. But there is a catch.

The Brad McDevitt art folio is a print version, and it's only available with the DCC RPG Limited Edition Wizard Cover Version that ships in December. To get it, you need to preorder from Goodman Games by November 30, 2012.

The second art folio is available to all purchases from the Goodman Games webstore from now until the end of the year. This is a Peter Mullen art folio. It's in PDF format only.

So, if you pick up the new DCC RPG LE, you get both folios. Yep, I just accounted for 60 bucks plus shipping of my recent overtime - of course, I sent it to a funeral home by mistake (thanks paypal!) but I've already sent an email to Goodman Games to sort that out...

Why send flowers when Paypal will let you send the DCC RPG to a Funeral Home...

The TSR Reprints Keep on Coming - AD&D 2e Hits in May 2013

I just caught this on Joe the Lawyer's blog - AD&D 2e is being reprinted in May of 2013. I don't think this is "new" news, but it's certainly worth mentioning.

You really can't blame WotC for pushing earlier edition reprints like they are going out of style - they have very little RPG related income coming in between now and the release of 5e based on new products and they need to fill the gap anyway they can.

As a bit (alright, huge bit) of a grognard, I'm very happy with the reprints they are putting forth. My 2e books, much like Joe states on his blog, have the worst binding of any RPG books I own, with the possible exception of Unearthed Arcana for 1e.

I still remember taking a walk out to "Discount Books" in Jackson Heights to grab my copy of the Player's Handbook for  AD&D 2e the day it released. Needless to say, it wasn't discounted. ;)

I want ToEE to be reprinted, as I ran that so many times it is literally beat to all hell...

Rebooting a Campaign - With Benefits?

Rebooting may not be the right word. Let's say, ending one campaign and starting a new one, with a continuing core of old players and some new blood.

How do you reward those that have been there from the beginning without "shorting" those that are new to the group?

I was thinking same world, different area, move the timeline down - so either a political / family / historical connection or two or a passed down family heirloom for those that had played the first campaign.

I'm not totally sold on either, but I would want to reward those that have stuck with the group from the beginning.

This is all assuming that I do a reboot / restart / new start of the campaign. I might just pick up where it left off, but as that is getting further and further back in time as we playtest A&A (and we've missed 2 weeks to hangover / work on my end) I think it would be simpler and fairer to the now expanded group to start anew when we get back to playing a regular campaign.

How have you / would you handle this type of situation?

Fighting the Internal Clock - or How I'll Stay Awake to DM Tomorrow Night's A&A Game

When the DM is on a Caffeine Rush the Players Better be Extra Careful...

I've been waking just before 3 am the past week to get to work by 4 am - and the previous week I was waking just before 4 am to get there by 5 am.

Things to note:

1 - I am not a morning person by nature. I like to sleep in until 9 or 10 if given the chance.

2 - Our Saturday night game doesn't kick off until about 930 pm, and we don't hit our stride until about 10. We've had sessions where I didn't get to log out of G+ Hangouts until after 4am

3 - I've therefore been waking at a time I've been known to still be gaming, or after game chatting.

4 - It's barely 930 pm right now and I'm doing a bit of the "junkie nod" at my computer desk. If I don't stay in motion or active, my head will probably hit the keys ;)

Tomorrow will be a night of very caffeinated tea and a 5 hour energy or two (spaced well apart).

I wonder if my players' PCs will be at further risk with my future caffeine rush ;)

(as a side note - I have to be AT work at 240 am on Monday morning - so up at 145 or so. I wonder if I should even bother going to sleep)

A Kickstarter About a Transvestite Latina Chef - Soraya Sobreidad"s "FIERCE" Cooking Show! - Yep, Speaks For Itself

Don't ask me how I stumbled across Soraya Sobreidad"s "FIERCE" Cooking Show! it was on my home page in Kickstarter as it is nearby geographically.

It has nothing to do with RPGs, unless you play World of Darkness or Apocalypse World, in which case it should fit right in.

The video for the Kickstarter is like watching a train wreck, but more like one of those animated gifs that just repeat and repeat and repeat. You can skip to about 7:45 on the Kickstarter video if you want to get to the "meat" of the matter. Or just watch the Youtube clip - it's better produced and shorter.

I really don't know what else to say. Oh, I almost forgot - Fierce! (there must be a use of this word in the transvestite subculture that I don't know about - not that I should!)

If nothing else, there is one hell of an NPC for a modern world setting that you could steal from this.

Oh, btw - 1 backer, 75 bucks out of 8K - and 30 hours to go to fund. Maybe a rambling 12 minute long video is not the way to showcase a Kickstarter? Because really, the subject matter should sell itself ;)

Butt Kicking For Goodness! Assorted Kickstarter (and Indiegogo) Updates Through 11/8/12

When you have your fingers in many Kickstarter Pies, you tend to get many updates.

Oh, and for those that have been asking - the current overtime due to Hurricane Sandy will not be used to fund further Kickstarters. Alright, some of it may be used that way, but I'm sure my wife has other plans for most of it ;)

Spears of the Dawn

Funded earlier tonight


Your unstinting generosity comes through once again as I hit the $10,000 stretch goal that will fund color art for The House of Bone and Amber. Thanks to your effort, publishers are soon to have over sixty pieces of African-flavored b/w art for use in their own projects, plus the color illustrations from The House of Bone and Amber. You've made it obvious to any observers that there is indeed a market for this kind of gaming, and there's room for independent publishers who want to put out something to satisfy that demand.

So what now?

Now the payments are being processed and Amazon and Kickstarter are taking their cuts. Once I get the final information, I'll send out the beta PDF, which includes more art that's come in since the alpha and corrections supplied by you eagle-eyed alpha readers. I would expect this to happen in about two weeks.

Once that's provided, I continue to receive art from my talented colleagues while I finish doing the rewrite and layout of The House of Bone and Amber and arrange for the color work to be done on it. The current schedule is for a March 2013 release, whereupon backers will all get the final PDFs of both products and print backers will get their POD copies dispatched by the keen professionals at OneBookshelf. The art and InDesign templates will then be bundled together and put up on DTRPG/RPGNow for free download. I would prefer to get this all put to bed before March, and I would not be surprised if I was able to do so, but the March deadline was set to include time to handle the inevitable problems that crop up in production. ( someone who knows how to plan ahead and make an accurate delivery estimate)

You have my thanks once again for the great generosity you've shown. This is the first Kickstarter I've run myself, and you've made it quite the success. Once you all have what you've so munificently paid for, I look forward to using this model for bringing out other material for your gaming delectation. Until then, may you find good use for Spears of the Dawn.


Axes and Anvils


Big 'ol Update
Update #30 · Nov. 08, 2012 ·

I know many of you are chomping at the bit to get your hands on the rules - I assure you that everything possible is being done to make sure that you not only get a great first product but a great product line. That took some doing and stretched our resources a bit. No problem. Challenge accepted. Let me catch you up on where we are -

Nystul's Infinite Dungeon: The first Castle Nystul product and the one that spawned A&A. It is ahead of A&A in the queue. Great news! The text version of Vol 1 has gone to backers and is in art / layout! The way is clear for A&A. (see, now I don't need to add the Nystul's Infinite Dungeon update ;)

A&A Extras: Lots of goodness coming! Wait until you hear these drinking songs!

I have fiddled a bit overlong with locking down the design of the game. That's because it matters so much to me because it matters so much to all of you. I want to deliver with a vengeance. Still - time is an issue. At any of the larger companies i have worked the dev time would have been like 6 months longer but I promised November so I have to let go : )

Someone asked if she would be able to give the book as a gift. Maybe. There is a lot to be done to do this right.

Here is what my plan is - I'm going to get you all playing in November. Many will be able to play with me online (finally figured out how to do it!). I'll get at least a draft to you by Christmas - the only delay being getting all the awesome art Jeff wants to do will take him some time but that shouldn't stop you from playing. He is really excited about this project and i want to give him room to run.

Addressing the gift giving issue - I think what I will do is get the multipath book done in time to be a Christmas Present to you guys. I'll set it up as a free download and for those of you who need a physical gift we will figure out a way to get you a copy to wrap.

I have been spending a lot of time figuring out the Living Campaign component. I don't have a lot of time to get that right. I'm going to be contacting the Lords soon about being able to contribute maybe more than they hoped : )

Dwarf Con - The Con YOU made possible! I'm currently running a membership drive - the first 50 to register for a Weekend Membership will only be charged $25! Simply write "Thanksgiving Special" in the special instructions field of the web form! That's half off the door price! It's also an Early Bird so you still get a free TShirt! I will also enter those first 50 in a drawing for an upgrade to VIP! I'll go one better for you - until Thanksgiving if you decide you want to come as a VIP enter "Backer" in the comments field and I'll give you $20 off!

Cairn: Another project is launching this weekend. We are doing this in part to cover costs (the laundry list of stuff I'm putting together and a con are an expensive proposition!) It's different because it will be a 5 day window and when it is done we will be delivering in 9 days or less. (this will be interesting to see how it plays out) A two week blitz! We did that because our first priority is A&A and the last thing we needed was anything standing in our way clogging up the works.Cairn is a great little one off and will make a great Christmas gift!

Thanks again for your support, patience and enthusiasm! I can't wait to start playing with some of you and meeting a few of you at cons!

ONWARD!!!

Dwarven Adventurers Box Set (is anyone surprised that I supported this at a very nice level?)


Backers!

October Shipments have been mailed. Remember that if you had any add-ons that require your order to ship at a later date then it will ship later.

Character Cards arrived and we are very pleased! :D

We are tentatively planning to have the rest of the cast dwarves & troll in our hands mid-late November (We hope before Thanksgiving). And from there it is just mailing them all out!

Bard & Druidess + Her Familiar!

When a $1k project raises over $135k, I'm willing to wait 2 months extra ;)

Re-Creating my Melnibonean Art from Deities & Demigods!


New: Empire of the Petal Throne Art Kickstarter!
Update #61 - For backers only (I doubt Jeff minds me sharing this)· Nov. 07, 2012 ·

My next Kickstarter art project has launched!

This time around, I'm re-visiting the drawings I did for M.A.R. Barker's Legions of the Petal Throne painting Guide article way back in Dragon Magazine #6. These were my first professionally published drawings, ever! Stretch goals include drawings of ALL of the underworld creatures, which were never depicted in the original Empire of the Petal Throne RPG from TSR! Check it out:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/revisiting-my-legions-of-the-petal-throne-art

-Jeff Dee

Starships & Spacement 2nd Edition


Goblinoid Games posted an announcement 3 days ago
Hi all! Just a quick update.

I got a UPS ship notice today for the books! However, I’m not yet sure if it is for the whole order or just part of it (for example, just the hard covers or just the perfect bound books or everything). But I’ll keep everyone updated. I should be able to start shipping some orders within a week. (this had an October delivery estimate - so for a Kickstarter / Indiegogo project this might even be considered "early" ;)

All the best,
Dan


wow - no spoiled fruit in this bunch - go figure ;)

My Upcoming Labyrinth Lord Session (and most other gaming) is on Indefinite Hold

My current work schedule, due to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy to the Outer Boroughs of NYC, has pretty much put all my gaming (with the exception of my regular Saturday Night Game) to a screeching halt.

Working from 4am to 4pm (and potentially later) there is no way I can participate in a week night game session, let alone run one. At the moment, I still have weekends off, but that's subject to change with little notice, so even my regular group may be left high and dry one Saturday night.

Ah well, in theory it gives me lots of time to think up stuff ;)

Scourge of the Demon Wolf in Hand (S&W Adventure and Sourcebook)

It's funny how things work out.

I ordered Scourge of the Demon Wolf in print from Lulu last week. I've always enjoyed Rob Conley's work, and I figured even if I don't have a chance to use it right away, it should be a good read.

Then last night, Rob emailed me and asked if I would like a copy of, you guessed it, Scourge of the Demon Wolf. It's like getting a chance to open your Christmas presents early. I asked for a PDF copy from Rob, so it would be "work portable" and readable during some free time, and Rob promptly obliged. I didn't get much of a chance to look at it last night, as Mister Sandman comes early when your 12 hour day starts at 4 am, but what little look I had at the PDF was impressive.

Got home today to find my Lulu package with a print copy of Scourge of the Demon Wolf and I'm even more impressed. Rob opted for a higher end, almost glossy paper and it really shows of the artwork - page 30 is frickin' awesome! I want my players to stumble across this:

Hopefully I'll be able to find some time over the weekend to give this a good read and review. Work needs to slow down and shorten it's days back to normal ;)

BTW, Rob has Scourge of the Demon Wolf bundled with the Majestic Wilderlands, his take on Judges Guild's Wilderlands setting for just 12 bucks at RPGNow

Most of Us Have a "Favored Class" - What is Yours?

Back in my early days of playing, when a fighter (or any of the subclasses) had less than 18/51 Strength, it wasn't considered viable. Yep, for my first few years of teenage gaming, that's how we saw things.  I played mostly fighter classes initially, but then branched out to the alternate Bard from Dragon #56 and the Illusionist class after it got buffed by the Unearthed Arcana.

Upon my return to gaming, I found myself playing Clerics, both in Castles & Crusades and the D&D Next Playtest. Needless to say, I played them as very martial minded clerics.

In truth though, my preferred class is probably DM ;)

Do you have a favored class or class type in D&D styled games?

Reviewing a Train Wreck - Classes and Races: Dinosaurs (for Pathfinder)

All THIS can be yours for a mere $2.99

It isn't often that I review a product that, going in, I know is going to be Attack of the Killer Tomatoes type of bad.

Meaning, it's so bad, it's actually fun to review. That's pretty bad.

So, let me get right to it. See the cover art up above? Thats as good as it gets. No, I'm not kidding although I wish I was.

Maybe you really don't believe me. If you look at your calendar, it's November 6th, not April 1st - trust me when I say to you - this is no joke.

Still, you need more evidence. Maybe there were survivors of this train wreck. Maybe there is something redeemable after all.

Lets move in for a closer look. Hey, look at the cute dino!

The Saurischian are a race descended from the predators of the past. They value tribal cooperation and the thrill of the hunt.

Physical Description: Slender and fast, the Saurischian vary from 90 to 150 pounds. They range in height from 4 to 6 feet. Their skin tends to have some sort of spot or stripe that tend to run in families.

Their tails are long and slender and not useful for holding things. (My God! There is so much useful description here!). This is followed by the Pathfinder Stat block info. Hey, they are familiar with Rapiers! (why that is, I have no idea)

Yep, that's all you get for the description of one of the two races, except for the pic. What, you want to see the pic? Don't say I didn't warn you...

Does he even have opposable thumbs to hold a Rapier? Does he wear clothes? A belt?

Also, I'm pretty sure you need more than the following when using the OGL, but I could be wrong (I suspect the author is wrong):


Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
System Reference Document. Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. Copyright 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
The Book of Experimental Might. Copyright 2008, Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved.
Tome of Horrors. Copyright 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Authors: Scott Greene, with Clark Peterson, Erica Balsley, Kevin Baase, Casey Christofferson, Lance Hawvermale, Travis Hawvermale, Patrick Lawinger, and Bill Webb; Based on original content from TSR.

Get it while you can, before it get's pulled.

Or rather, don't get it. For $2.99, it's the equivalent of burning 3 one dollar bills...

Butt Kicking For Goodness! Assorted Kickstarter (and Indiegogo) Updates Through 11/6/12

I think I like the "Butt Kicking For Goodness!" line from Baldur's Gate for this ongoing series of posts. Let me know if you think it fits or not, and if not, what your suggestion would be for the title of the series.

Alright, without further ado, and in no particular order:

Swords & Wizardry: The Actual 1st Edition Roleplaying Rules


Delayed shipping, delayed invoices

Update #34 · Nov. 05, 2012 · 16 comments  

We have made an egregious error in our cover art due date. There's no way to beat around the bush. Our original art order went out with a November 15th due date which should have read November 1st and no one caught it. Imagine our surprise when November rolled around and no cover art came in, only to find out the mistake was ours. We therefore apologize for the delay in getting the book out to you. (even with the delay, it's no where near as late as the majoritiy of Kickstarters run. Still, that's one HELL of a fuck up!).The book went to the printers today but they cannot print until we receive the cover art. The printers need about 3-4 weeks to turn it around to us and then we need another week to get the packages in your hands. Therefore, we are expecting a delivery date just before Christmas. We will make every attempt to get the books in your hands by the 25th of December. These initial packages will not include the Monster Book. The art deadline on the Monster Book is December 1st due to the additional art we added. Therefore we expect the Monster Book Pledges and those that include the Monster Book to be delivered after the New Year.

As soon as we have the cover art we will post images and the progress report here. As for the invoices, we have delayed these as well to investigate different shipping options since 20% of the Rappan Athuk packages were damaged by the post office. We believe we have found a solution with double boxing the books. This has slightly increased the shipping by $2 but should ensure the books arrive in pristine condition. On top of that we had to give mama frog a few days off - we've been working her to death. Therefore the surveys should be going out by the 15th of the month.

In light of the recent news we have decided to add 2 more dice for free to all the pledges that have dice or those that have added them on. We will now include a D% and a D3 to the set. All 10 of the dice will be packed in a spring top cube case as well. We hope this can make up for the delay in the delivery.

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tremulus: a storytelling game of lovecraftian horror


Sean Preston
Tuesday Nov 6, 7:32am EST
Hello All!

You'll find the latest iteration of tremulus at the following link:
no link for YOU ;)  (Gotta love a game that give you an updated PDF every two week so)

1. You'll want to grab the changelog there
2. You'll note we put in version numbers now.
3. You'll want to DL the revised playbook package.

If you've got any questions, please join our tremulus forum, and post them there. We have an active, helpful, and friendly community growing!

Best,

Sean

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backers only - project name redacted


November Update

Update #15 - For backers only · Nov. 05, 2012 · comment   (last update via Kickstarter was way too long ago) 

Hi all!

I'm very glad to say the last piece of art is finished (and amazing), the last tweaks to the rules completed, and as of today, XXXXXXXX is in layout.  XXXX XXXXXXX will be working xxx magic over the next few weeks to produce the final pdf and print version of XXX.  I'm as eager as anyone else to see what xxx does with it, but I've told xxx to take the time xxx feels she needs to do it right. I appreciate everyone's patience, but I want to assure all that the extra time taken on the art and editing thus far has been well worth it.

Names - you will all be credited as backers of course, but if any of you want a different name listed than the one I have through Kickstarter, please email me and let me know so I can change it.

Some of you have no doubt noticed my presence on the web is not what it used to be.  As some of you know, I joined XXXXXXX program in XXXXXX assisting with XXXXXXX.  As a consequence, my internet time is severely curtailed.  Its best to contact me by email directly - XXXXXXX@XXXX - rather than through Kickstarter, if you have a message.  I'm usually able to go through my email every two or three days.  My new duties haven't had much bearing on XXX however, as it has largely been in the hands of others to complete, but I do apologize for not being on top of timely updates for those who've been wondering where the project stood.

While XXXX works on the layout, I'll be putting together the pdf of XXXXXXXX and doing some work on the cover.  Will update again when there's more news. (I still have no idea from this update when the project will be ready - it's already late, it's only going to get later)

Oh, lastly, It's been pointed out to me that the XXXXX development forum is down since (I think) yesterday.  I don't know why that is but I assume it is just temporary.  That forum has largely served its purpose anyway, but if it turns out to be permanently down, I'll look into some other forum options.

XXXX

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Reaper Miniatures Bones: An Evolution Of Gaming Miniatures


First Shipment to begin this week!

Update #77 · Nov. 06, 2012 · 50 comments  

We’ve finish casting all of the 1000s of Sophie models and we have received the ball caps and T-shirts from our vendor so this week we will be starting the shipping of these items, including shippable Crown Jewel rewards. Things will be showing up at your doorstep soon!

We are on schedule still to start shipping everything else next March. (woot!)

We’ve added the ability to add special characters to your address. If you need to make changes to your address like using cyrillic, please go back to the Post Kickstarter Reaper Pledge Manager and make sure your mailing address is correct. For your security and protection your original log-in tokens are expiring, so when you log-in again you will get a new log-in link sent to the email address you have on record with us.

The PDF downloads are now available at the Post Kickstarter Reaper pledge manager. If you log back into the RMP your success page will now have the download links for you.

and finally, it’s not the greatest picture as we didn’t take it, but you’ll get the idea.

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King For a Day


Page 259
Update #29 · Oct. 31, 2012 · comment  

Well. I almost got there.

I am leaving for 3 weeks in Vietnam and will get back to writing when I get home.

In the meantime, I'm going to send PDFs to people who asked to help review.

Thanks again for all your patience. Jon Hunt is working on one of the NPC pieces of art and if he gets it done in the next 24 hours, I will post another update.

Thanks again for everyone's patience. (I am resigned to the idea that this will happen when it happens if it happens while I still remember what it's about)

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Other "Backers Only" Updates - Summarized and scrubbed.

A - Yep, the author has picked up speed. It's late and will still be later still, but not as late as we had projected when we projected how late it would be. So, the initial estimate was too short, the revised estimate was too long and the current estimate may be just right - at least until the next update.

B - It's late but getting there. Shipping's a biatch, so if you pledged for print at one of the lower levels for multiple products, they'll all ship at the end when the last product is ready - nothing to see here. consistently good quality and consistently horrible timeliness

Any updates you may want me to add in future postings can be emailed to erikATtrubluniteDOTnet.

If it's backers only, you can scrub or I will at your request.

I have a shitload more to add, but this will be an endless post if I do it tonight ;)

Cool Kickstarter, Annoyingly Confusing Pledge Levels - Shadows of Esteren

I'm on a Kickstarter kick. I'll freely admit that.

Why is it? Because much of the coolest stuff going on in our hobby is happening on Kickstarter (and Indiegogo to a lesser extent).

Case in point: Shadows of Esteren - a medieval roleplaying game with horrific and gothic influence. Holy shit but if it actually hits those sweet points this game could be a killer!

Actually, it probably hits those sweet points, as this is the second Kickstarter for the game (the first wrapped up in the end of July, and I was way too invested back then in way too many Kickstarters). The first Kickstarter raised over $55k against a goal of $3k. This one? $35k against $3k with 21 days to go.

Yep, it's funded and will fund more before it warps, probably more than the first round.

My issue with the Kickstarter is not the product, but the needlessly confusing Pledge Levels.

Here's an example:

I'm sure it looked really good in the concept phase, but when you drop a dozen or so of these on the page...

Still, it looks like a cool game. You can actually get the PDF of Book 0 at the Studio2 website for $5 before committing to the Kickstarter.

Managing Time in My Game Sessions

I'm really horrible at managing time in the game sessions that I run.

Usually, we wind up BS'ing for the first 30 minutes or so, game for 3 to 4 hours, and then BS at the end for 5 minutes to an hour - which is all fine and dandy until your new work schedule has you getting up at 3 am. Starting a game session at 930 PM and staying up to past 2 am just isn't a feasible as it was a few weeks ago (even when you have off the following day).

So, I need to manage the time better.

A 3 hour session, with a 30 minute BS session up from, 2 / 2:15 of game play followed by 15-30 minutes wrap up would probably work well.

Only problem is getting everyone on the same page - gamers are like cats, nearly impossible to herd properly ;)

Sometimes Shaking the Tree Drops Fruit - Indiegogo Updates in My Mailbox

Yep, I got some Indiegogo project updates in my mailbox this morning. Two were in relation to projects I supported during the LotFP Insane Multi-Project promotion this past summer, and the other was for Angels, Daemons and Beings Between for the DCC RPG.

The updates were nice to get, and in neither case am I worried about the projects completing. It does appear that Raggi does read the Tavern on occasion:

Good news, bad news. 

Bad news first: Everything isn’t going quite as smoothly as hoped with all the projects and the timing, so looks like we’re going to be a bit late on delivery (one of those unfortunately common occurrences with crowdfunding). (emphasis mine)

The good news is that Jeff has turned in the text for Broodmother so work is moving forward! WOOOO!

Is crowdfunding a bad thing? Hell no! It's bringing games to out table that might not get seen otherwise.

Somebody just needs to keep on top of those that take our money to fund their projects. Kinda like how my parents had to get on my ass in High School to do my homework and reports in a timely manner and not wait to the last evening of vacation to work on that 10 page paper.

I'll be working on an addendum post to yesterday's overdue Kickstarters thanks to the comments and emails I've received from my readers. Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow.