Traveller, Beta the Devil You Know, DTRPG Charity and Sales, White Star, TnT Deluxe and Inked Adventures goes sci-fi self-promotion slot

Savage September is still happening at DTRPG and RPGNow which means money off adventures, rules and supplements for the Savage World system.  Correction: "System" September - it seems to be for all sorts of different rules, inc. d20 titles. Or did Savage September become System September?  I'm not so sure now...  Also there's a charity drive for Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (US).  > $25usd for $200usd value in titles RPG Bundle Here < (Edit: I took too long to type this and the link is no longer valid, d'oh)

Right, Traveller something old-school something something classic something science-fiction RPG, it's new, it's classic, it's rebooted, it's revised etc ...

Mongoose Publishing has
returned Traveller to us (again)
but it's an unfinished beta
playtest rules,
which you have to pay for.
?

If you're into sci-fi RPG pen and paper games and cut-price PDFs, you will not have failed to have noticed a current bestseller is the Traveller Core Rules Beta.  I enjoy reading Traveller rules for the original setting background (i.e. the Imperium cannon borne out of GDW's game of the late 70s).  For me, Marc Millers T4 Traveller, and to some extent Mongoose's earlier adaptation edition of "classic" Traveller  contextualise that setting in clear and concise terms, more so than the LBBs did.  To be fair my collection of for the original system is eclectic: a Starter Set, a bunch of LBB supplements, bits from the past, extras from Ebay, Judge's Guild guides, purchased PDFs, website wikis and a hankering to buy the complete collection from FFE.  What I'm saying is that I enjoy acquiring Traveller rules and modules, old and new, just for the love of the game and perhaps to "mine" material from all sources for the ultimate campaign using which system takes my fancy, however ...
With some many existing systems why would I want to pay for an incomplete "Beta"?  After typing the above, I realise, with irony, that maybe I'm the ideal market for Mongoose.

"Traveller Has Returned!"

No, wait, you did this before and never let it go away.

"The Beta Playtest Core Rulebook, laid out and ready to go! After many, many moons of writing and internal playtesting, this book is now ready to be seen (and commented upon!) by dedicated Traveller players. All that is missing from this PDF is a few pieces of artwork!"

I know community playtesting is a real thing, (and Oh God the secretive DnD5 playtest seemed to go on forever), but I'm still having trouble not seeing pre-release launches and community chartered kickstarters as lazy and cynical tickbox marketing, i.e. it's just how they do things now.  There's also some flaws in these approach.

Imagine, you pay for this system, a mere $20usd/£13gbp*.  Let's say you like the rules, you run a campaign, you know that you will get a reduction on the final publication (committing you to the first official print of this new edition).  But wait, there's feedback from the community as a whole, they don't like the rules you like and they are dropped some favourite content of yours from the final piece, leaving your campaign incompatible with new supplements.  But, surely, I hear you say, the final publication will not be that different, maybe they will be just a tinkering with the odd rule here and there?   Well, if that's the case, what's so very wrong with an old fashioned "errata sheet"?  Also, you must ask if Mongoose are pledging that they will support this line for as long as they have the license and won't be releasing a newer edition?

In Mongoose's defence, at least they are still selling their previous publications (I appreciate this brave new world where publishers embrace the past with pride, looking at you, Wizards').  So, is this a relaunch? Why and how is this greatly different from other systems which you can own whole volumes of at modest price?

I'm guessing that for the almost-oldies like me that this will be a curiosity purchase and maybe for new players it's a chance to start from scratch. Maybe it's a competitive response to the prolonged GDW Traveller 5 hardback kickstarter.  By the way, us non-backers of us can buy the PDF for that gem now as well ( T5 Traveller5 Core Rules Book )

Maybe I expect betas to be free and faulty, not alphas claiming to be betas.  A programmer friend had to explain the terminology to me. I guess it's snappier than "work in progress, pre-publication preview".

*I'm so broke at the moment that I'd really have to justify this to myself so I haven't bought it, even out of curiosity, yet.

White Star is finally available in print. :)

If you didn't know, White Star -White Box Science Fiction Roleplaying is an old-style of D&D intersecting with Star Wars and other space operas. Simple, fast, familiar, with blasters.

I printed the rules as an A5 booklet but it didn't turn out too well, so I’m assuming the DTRPG POD versions will be superior.
Naturally, I'm broke this week/ month, but it looks so shiny.
I still have to pay off that freighter, not to mention those bounty hunters we ran into in Milton Keynes.


A D&D Dragon Quest Game boxed set (TSR) thudded heavily onto my door mat last week.  This is a flashback to the missing years.  I didn't play D&D much in the early 1990s, I was playing mostly in the middle of the 80s. In the 90's AD&D went to 2nd edition and for the newbie players TSR brought out several introductory box sets.  Also Game Workshop (my Mecca, my dealer) by then had stopped importing RPGs.   Naturally, I've collected more games since, but one box missing from my collection was D&D Dragon Quest (not to be confused with DragonBall-Z or SPI's DragonQuest RPG). Any how, long story short, a chat in a facebook group led to me buying this shrink-wrapped gem for a song.  If you are fond of the B/X style game or want to introduce people to AD&D or AD&D2e this game is very accessible. Also it's a "complete" game system, much like boxed games such as Hero Quest, with some simplified and unlimited experience rules.  If you choose to keep playing with just this set using your own campaigns, you can.  I feel this is important to mention, since so many of the gateway boxes after BECMI (from TSR and Wizards') were deliberated hobbled to encourage purchase of the main products.  I think I had seen this set in the past and had ignored it, possibly confusing it with Dragon Strike which has that VHS tape and employs photos for PCs instead of art.  I will always will art over oily barbarian photos any day.  This is another reason to perhaps seek out D&D Dragon Quest, because it is an archive of TSR colour art, pulled together from cover and filler art from the different editions and iconic Dragonlance images.
Entry on BoardGameGeek  Review on Lost and the Damned nabble forum


The following item has but been long awaited but is now bookmarked on my shopping list:

Tunnels & Trolls Deluxe Edition is finally available as a PDF (outside of the Kickstarter) on DriveThruRPG. Currently it is $20 USD.  Like many I'm a fan of the 5th edition (plus WIZ/POW house rules), and slowly 7.5 has grown on me.  The nice thing about T&T at it's heart the same authors have kept to similar rules across the editions, but what they have done is expanded aspects and provided a wealth of background and campaign information. Curiously, it was the lack of "world" which made 5 appeal to me, which meant I could fully own the campaigns with my own creations, right down to the monsters, because of the easy to use monster rating system.  Being T&T, the bestiaries only ever resemble the Monster Manual in part and even the seasoned D&D player might not know what to expect from a T&T manticore with regards to how it's special attacks are implemented.  There's usually enough eccentricity in T&T to make a player think twice about where they actually are and what they are actually doing.  Being slightly reserved and rather serious about my tabletop fantasies I sometimes agree that some of the humour throughout the rules isn't necessary for the fun, and it's a mistake to dismiss T&T as silly and puerile, or just for solo games, in the same way that it is wrong to dismiss old D&D as TPK dungeon crawling.  In the right hands, compared with other systems, T&T has always been very powerful and fast moving imagination vehicle.  I am in no doubt that this will still be the case in T&T Deluxe.

T&T Deluxe, Flying Buffalo.

This is it! The new and improved, Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls. T&T is the second ever fantasy role playing game, and the easiest to use. This book contains everything you need to play the game solo (with the many solo adventures) or with a group of friends. Includes a lot of extra material and descriptions of the worlds played in by the designer and his friends back in the late 1970’s. 

The first 166 pages are the core rules, followed by the Elaborations section which has optional rules and systems you can pick and choose from to add to your T&T games. There is also a 16 page full color section which includes color maps of Trollworld, Khazan, Khosht and Knor along with other paintings and maps. There is a 50 page Trollworld section that includes descriptions of locations on every major continent and three cities, plus a detailed Trollworld timeline. The book also includes a solo adventure that gives you the chance to bring dead characters back to life and a GM adventure on the continent of Zorr, plus a detailed weapons glossary and much much more - over 380 pages of material. 

Note that this version of the rules does not yet have the internal links, BUT once we have that done, you will be able to download an updated copy of the PDF for no extra charge.

http://bit.ly/TnTdeluxe (DTRPG affiliate link)

Inked Adventures - recent publications...

Rugged Explorer ATV

Having tried to justify this blog by typing about a selection of games which I can barely afford by different publishers, what now follows is shameless self-promotion in order for me to raise funds for this terrible affliction that many of us suffer from, the need to game and failing that, the need to procure and collect games.

As some of you may well know I draw maps and plans for Inked Adventures.  Okay, I sort of am Inked Adventures, but I like the idea of Inked Adventures as a sort of faceless megacorporation hell-bent of world domination, ... one hand drawn product at a time!

Hinged Dungeon Doors

My business plans usually reflect this.

My accountant said that I can't have the second helicopter, not until I sell at least three more pre-print copies Compact & Worn Starship Deck Plan 6x6 Tiles.

He says that I shouldn't be giving away the ATV for free and that no-one wants easy-to-assemble Hinged Dungeon Doors on their gaming table. 

Lord knows, he says, how many Map&Dice Playing Cards I need to fence, to pay for the marble lining in my office jacuzzi.  I swear that at this level of poverty the caviar will spoil!

From the Inked Adventures site, click for more photos and descriptions
Compact & Worn Starship Deck Plan 6×6 Tiles

Rugged Explorer ATV Inked Adventures Free

Hinged Dungeon Doors $3.50 $2.50

6×6 Starship Tile Sampler: Cargo Lifter Micro Freighter Free

Compact & Worn Starship Deck Plan 6×6 Tiles $10.00 $7.50

Inked Adventures Map and Dice Playing Cards $12.00

Inked Adventures main site: http://inkedadventures.com/main
Store of DriveThruRPG: http://bit.ly/IAstore

Thanks for reading. :)
- Billiam B. Terran Date 20150923.2140

Inked Adventures Map and Dice Playing Cards

My labours of ink, love and print on demand ...

Yet again, I'm using this blog to cross-promote my Inked Adventures products. Seemingly mercenary, I genuinely want to share this with you, for some players, this product may, in fact, enhance your overall quality of life, in the way that practical, yet novel, luxuries always do.  I appeal, dear reader, to your honest must-have inner drive, which keeps our humble roleplaying industry, nay, capitalism itself, trudging along through recession, like a hardy soldier in mud, spurred on by a rolling of cents and shillings across counters.   

These playing cards (to call them merely "playing cards" seems so wrong) are a genuine labour of love, not merely a cynical recycling of my previous geomorphs (not a "cynical" recycling, at least).  It is a creation of a thing that I wanted in my own life.  No doubt there are many similar products out there, in your local store, on the web, but this feels one relatively unique as far as accessories go, at least aesthetically, and perhaps, conceptually. 

No, wait, come back!  I had strange experience this week.  I thought that I had saturated my social networks and circles with links to the Inked Adventures Map & Dice Playing Cards, but followers and friends are still asking "what is this?"  So, maybe I'm far too well mannered in my abuse of social sites for marketing.  Perhaps, as always, I'm a little embarrassed that the product isn't my next tile pack for 25-30mm minis (see IA products), since I tease my customers with pre-colour art for most of the year and promise glorious caverns, dungeon expansions, forests and now spacecraft, but completion is slow. This is my first printed product from DriveThruCards (my second on TheGameCrafter) and boy, I am proud of it.  

The idea is that if you're an improvising DM who is caught short without dice or a dungeon adventure, perhaps on a holiday ruined by poor weather, you can "wing it" with this pack of playing cards.  If all else fails, the people you are with can just play card games, such as poker, blackjack, or go-johnny-go-go-go-go.  

On each card (apart from the 2 jokers and a guide card) is (A) a reduced size hand drawn dungeon geomorph area map with descriptive title; (B) three random dice results and (C) a normal card suit and number.

A. Dungeon geomorph area maps.

A dungeon master can use the cards as an inspiration for drawing his/her own dungeon, or pre-planning a map or use the cards randomly in play (as a random dungeon builder).  The titles are purely for atmosphere and reference.  Naturally, there are some limits to the non-square format of the cards, but overlapping cards on the table can help with this. 

The area maps in the spades suit are main entrances/exits and "end of row" geomorphs, these can be removed if you to create an unending "mega-dungeon" level.   The geomorphic area maps on the cards can also be used in conjunction with the Inked Adventures large geomorphs set for minis. 

B. Dice rolls / random numbers

Although not tied to any specific system, the choice of dice is inspired by older D&D systems where the d20 and d6 are paramount (OD&D, Holmes D&D and clones such as S&W WhiteBox and Delving Deeper), and percentile based games.  The dice rolls represented are a d20, d6 and d100.  Now, I, know what you're thinking: the probability of those number ranges will not work when spread across 52 cards and that we must never mix cards and dice!  Granted, it's a bit of a fudge, so you may want to get the agreement of the other players at the table before you start using the cards for life and death rolls.  Playing cards retain fixed probability if cards are always returned to the deck.  In the gaps in the maths we've slipped in a few "critical" results, i.e. there's a few extra 1s and 20s on the d20 result and some a bonus 01 and 100 on the d100.  In some ways, cards can be better than dice. ;)  

(uncropped card art)

The optional Jokers prompt a drawing of two cards and a discarding of the most favourable or least favourable result, depending if it's the "Good Luck" or "Bad Luck" Joker, respectively (see above).

It's important to remember that if you're going to use the cards as random number generators that you may need the whole deck, so this may not be possible if you are using the cards to make a dungeon level map.  I'm guessing you can always buy a second deck. ;)

C. Normal Bridge Playing Cards. 

Many RPG systems use standard 52/54 card deck for special item effects, NPC traits, character rules, storytelling or even in-play Tarot card substitution.  So even as a plain old mundane deck of cards it's is still of use to the tabletop roleplayer.  (Hint: they make the perfect gift!)

Creating your own dungeon card games.

I've already been asked by several people whether or not this pack of cards is a game in it's own right.  Technically, it's not.  It's a map creation and dice accessory, plus it doubles as a novelty pack of bridge playing cards.  However, just playing around with the cards can reveal potential.  A simple (but flawed) solitaire game I play is a "route finding" adventure.  I draw cards at random and place them in a line - North-South or East-West.  The object is to escape the dungeon by heading in one direction. Generally cards cannot be rotated (unless the edge of the table is reached or it's an end of row/dead end card).  I usually start by heading North (overlapping the cards so the maps join). You must be able to travel from a corridor exit/entrance on the South of the card to the North side of the map on the card.  If your way is blocked, you must double back to the starting card and then lay out a new row, heading South or East or West.  You win by dealing any (main) stairs or a dungeon exit/entrance card (one of several in the spades suit), but it also depends that the corridors take you there without a dead-end or bypass.  The trick is to get out in the fastest time (the least number of cards), but the reward for a slow exit is a pretty dungeon map.  Two player race-to-win variants with counters are also possible. In a more advanced game, the d100 result can represent gold coins found in an area, or a "danger rating". A high or low total at the end of play may influence the choice of winner.  This probably doesn't read very clearly, but it's an example of random fun which can be had with the deck on it's own, no rpg rules etc.  I'm fantasising about designing an extra deck of monsters and treasure with simple system for solitaire dungeoneering, but you may find that you can come up with something far superior using your own system mechanic.   The dice results can also be compared like stats in a Top Trumps deck, where the player declares his/her choice of stat (d6, d20, d100 or card value) against their opponent, and the highest wins the card.

On DriveThruRPG$12 USD + p&p

Not nominated for an "Ennie"; not on a Kickstarter; and dinosaurs with dice tattoos

I would like to point out that this deck of cards has not been seen at GenCon and has never been on a nomination list, and is not on a Kickstarter, so there will be no reminders of deadline dates and level-up pledges or whatever they are called.  But I am fickle man, and it a moment of self-criticism I will tear them from the shelves, to be burnt with other older works in the Stalinist fires of historical perfection.  I do, however, reserve the right to spam all my own accounts, until I have a new favourite in my life. Next week it might be dinosaurs with dice tattoos, but for now I worship at this humble altar.

Thanks for reading. May your dungeons be beautiful.

Map & Dice Playing Card Links

DriveThruCards: http://bit.ly/IAcards

DriveThruRPG: http://bit.ly/IAcardsDTRPG

The Game Crafter: http://bit.ly/IAcardsTGC

Home site: http://inkedadventures.com/main

Try-before-you-buy micro-cards download: 

http://inkedadventures.com/main/2015/05/inked-adventures-mapdice-playing-cards/ 

OSR on DTRPG? with 15% Off. -ADnD Unearthed Arcana Premium Reprint and a Lulu voucher

DriveThruRPG and RPGNow have a featured "old school" games page -"OSR" even.
This brings me great pleasure.  It's a tidy compact list for now - a sort of "gateway game" selection.
Print a new a those games of old and their modern simulcrum-retro-cloney friends!

Old games, but no attic mould.

And, just as I was typing this the same nice folks at DTRPG have smuggled out a code that should
provide 15% off those featured OSR titles.
Use code at check-out:
OSRF711F2
Move quick because it's anti-magic shell expires and it then it will be etherealised:
"The coupon code is good for the week of Monday 5/13 - Sunday 5/19" -DTRPG

That's 13th May until 19th May - oops, already lost a day. Getting that Majora's Mask feeling...






Whilst we're in a coupony mood...

Possibly the last Lulu code I'll have for you for some time, due to Google Affiliate Network being turned off in the next couple of months - I haven't found out yet who Lulu will be providing codes through ... Hopefully every other link on my site will still work (sheesh, thanks Google, first Google Reader, now the Google Affiliates Network, what next? Blogger?).  Lulu is still one of the best resources of home published indie RPGs -in ebook form and printed. (IMHO, as the forum posters say)

Books & eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off- Enter code MAYBOOKS13 - Save up to $25
(I haven't tested this one - I'm guessing it's for the US store only)
MAYBOOKS13
-Yes, and I know it's really late!

In an unrelated -but sort of related to OSR- point, I'm also still pleased that Wizards' are really commiting to publishing quality collector reprints of the core rules and popular adventure module ranges.  Who'd have believed it, eh?  We literally kept waving the cash in their face. ;)

Shrink-wrap... break the seal ...
Look at the shiny goldness!
(Glowing under-face light effect not included)

For little me, my partner snaffled Premium Print - AD&D Unearthed Arcana from Amazon to accompany it's older brothers of PH, DMG and the MM.  Again, I'm surprised at how much fun it is have new versions of old rules I already own, but with shiny pages, gold edging, ribbon markers and blacker-than-black illustrations.   

Unearthed Arcana is bizarre beast - it divided my AD&D playing friends back when it first came out.  Bearing in mind, some rules had been already adopted by players from official magazine articles, it was great to see them all bundled up in a tome, and then some.  The class revisions, spells and all sorts of extra rules were minutely debated, whilst none of us could establish why we would really need that many pole-arms (no, really - it's an appendix, a whole dedicated appendix).  Maybe this was because we were all closet-aristocrats who looked down upon "peasant" weapons - our game was one of vague fantasy, not the specialist historically referenced kind - get thee to Sealed-Knot!  Tonight, I pointed out to my partner the difference between a Glaive and a Guisarme ... Let's just say that she told me to get back to my book. ;)

If you didn't have the originals but have purchased the other AD&D reprints, UA isn't essential for playing AD&D, but it was significant in terms of game-play development and as a stepping stone to modern editions, as it fixed and totally reworked, core game features before AD&D2 came along.  Think of it as "DnD1.5" ;) As a lover of hard cover rule-books on the shelf it looks delicious with the other three "core" books.  Is there a Latin name for RPG rule-book lovers?  Y'know, like "bibliophile" but more specific...

The question is ... do I start collecting the adventure module hard backs etc or even the AD&D2 reprints? (I only procured the black cover editions for the first time year before last - AD&D2 has less of a nostalgia tractor beam pull on me - and before you ask, my 3/3.5 are pretty immaculate so the reprints of those are out of the question...) The power of embossed covers, gold edging and matching spines, eh?



Anyhow, be lucky and spend wisely.

Screw that. Spend with abandon! Your economy needs you!

20% off RPGs on LULU.com in April 2013

Books & eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off
Enter code APRILBOOKS13
Save up to $25

Code:
APRILBOOKS13

I've just tested this code and it doesn't work in the UK/GB Lulu site - but it's fine for the US store (my advertisers' account mainly provides me with US site codes).

Here's a sample of some of my favourite old school style games /RPG-clones available from Lulu.com:
Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox Rules- the spirit of OD&D is alive and well in this fast play simple, complete system.  Basic Fantasy RPG (B/X clone with rule-fixes) and test your expert play with Monkey Isle.  Mix up a little Labyrinth Lord with Gamma World by playing Mutant Future and boost the mutated monster hoard with Tim Snyder's Deviant Database.  If you like mutants and the older gaming style why not purchase (the slightly tweaked text) of TSR's 1976 game Metamorphosis Alpha?  Again, I simply must recommend the pocket-sized fast-play sci-fi pulp classic: Tales of the Space Princess (which I haven't played yet, but one day, one day!).

Edit:
Slick black and white hand drawn dungeon maps: Dyson's Delves. !

I loves print-on-demand rulebooks.  It's the future, don't ya know? ;)

RPG deals March 2013 20-25% off at Lulu and DriveThru

So I've missed World Book Day and GM's Day 2013, but at at least the DriveThru GM's Day Sale is still in progress (until 12th March inclusive).  In the UK it's Mother's Day on Sunday as well - I've only just remembered to send a card, but mum isn't really interested in special offers on roleplaying games.  Her loss!  I'm keeping the dice.

Apart from DriveThru/OneBookShelf's Print program, the largest supplier of indie publisher RPGs rules and accessories in print is still Lulu.com (see the "Games" section for RPGs) Lulu are offering 20% reductions in March.

Books & eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off-
Enter code
MARCHBOOKS13
- Save up to $25

(This code is for the US site only)

Remember to shop responsibly and game with abandon! ;)

Mysterious Packages

 

Random sychronicity brought me two postal gifts at once.

The book:
Dyson’s Delves Limited Edition on Lulu http://bit.ly/VkyrlS
Lovely maps, adventures and lined notesheets, maps similar to those found at Dyson's Dodecahedron

The figures:
Dwarven Mages sculpted by Mick Leach of Eastern Front Studios
Eastern Front Studios - Facebook Group -lots more pictures of figures and sculpts in progress.

Lulu.com 20% off books in January with code

Books & eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off- Enter code JANBOOKS13 - Save up to $25

That's

JANBOOKS13

at checkout.

I've just saved EIGHT (8) whole American dollars (I can't remember what that is in British Shillings) on a copy of Dyson's Delves Limited Edition -just for the glory and inspiration!
(Try here if link broken)

Happy Print-On-Demand and eBook Shopping! ;)

December Lulu Code, Ebooks vs Print

It's nearly half way through December but there's still time to exploit a code and get yourself a little gift for Christmas. ;)

Books and eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off- Enter code
DECBOOKS12
- Save up to $25. Expires December 31, 2012. Only valid in the US Store.

Like many other people I fascinated by wrestling match between traditional book markets, ebooks and print on demand.  If I can afford them and they are actually available on the shelf I often favour great big musty reference manuals - or even pamphlets of printed rules over reading on a screen - but the convenience of PDFs and other ebook formats is beginning to appeal. Certainly educational texts do very well on tablets - tutors can annotate the texts - they are searchable, reading lists can be downloaded in minutes.   However, when it comes to gifts, it's difficult to beat the physical artefact, and being a fan of indie published games, sometimes that would mean a print-on-demand purchase from a site like Lulu.

Recently I received an email drawing my attention to a graphic of charts and comparisons between real book use and the electronic form and how the future of libraries may be affected by the way we perceive and access texts.  Like Allison, I definitely believe that there will always be a role for physical dead tree books.

Allison Morris's graphic:

(Please Include Attribution to TeachingDegree.org With This Graphic)

Interesting stuff. :)

Lulu.com 20% off in November 2012 and DWD Star Frontiers

Quick, quick, we've burnt Guy Fawkes - time to get on with the rest of November!

Here's a magic code for you to whisper to the robot cashier over at Lulu.com

NOVBOOKS12

Books & eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off- Enter code NOVBOOKS12 - Save up to $25

The code blerb says "US site only" - which is confusing because as a British customer I've just had no trouble getting a reduction in my shopping cart. Valid until 30th Nov.

Whilst checking this code out, I saw this in the top ten sellers in the Games section:

Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn published by DWD / Bill Logan $9.35

"Star Frontiers - a classic science fiction role-playing game from the 80's that should have persisted today. Here it is for your gaming pleasure!""

I've been aware of some harmless free downloads online at starfrontiersman.com for some time, but this seems like a very bold move.  I'm hoping that DWD have full rights to the game mechanics and art.  Naturally, I'm assuming here that the text is different (at least the downloads I've seen in the past were like that)  I recommend having a browse about the web before you buy this, also if you're really interested in procuring a piece of TSR RPG history, have a look on Ebay or other second-hand stores - the intact box set is lots of fun to delve through.

Some thoughts regarding the original Star Frontiers:

After discovering that the Space Opera RPG was way more like Traveller than I had first assumed. apart from 15mm figure games like Laserburn, Star Frontiers is still looking like one of the earliest games to embrace a more cinematic approach to sci-fi, i.e. Star Wars or BattleStar Galactica, where everyone is packing a sidearm with city maps, hover car chases, outdoor location maps, and kill-first-ask-questions-later creatures that wouldn't be far out of place in Gamma World.  It's interesting that the Star Frontiers writers only included starship combat in the following set, Knight Hawks.  Compare this to the Traveller starter rules (first 4 books) which cover the very basics of character generation, combat, space combat, skills, world gen, vehicles, interstellar trade, but did so with the broadest brush strokes (refined and expanded in later booklets).  If you wanted, Traveller could be very "sandbox" in play.  Star Frontiers was very much played specific to a dramatically set scene: -alien terrorists walk into the bar / you've crashed - survive / you're being chased by something big and vicious / out of control city monorail - now deal with it!  In fact the similarities between the original Star Frontiers set and Gang Busters are notable - there's press-out character and vehicle counters, city floor-plan, location driven adventures (you are here - place counter on map) - although Star Frontiers does have an exploratory hex-crawl in it's introductory module -which was not uncommon in some Traveller adventures as well.

[-- Random thoughts end --]

I seem to have a terrible cold - possibly caught off some late night geomorph designing ...

Happy Shopping!

And remember, if you can't afford it: do what I do, buy it for yourself then thrust it upon a loved one to give you for Christmas (demanding the full retail price, of course). ;)

Deviant Database -for Mutant Future (Tim Snyder TSAW)

<--- This arrived today.  The Deviant Database!

Edit: Links -
Deviant Database on RPGDriveThru
Deviant Database print book on Lulu.com
(alternative link)

I did not see the sorry mutant who had left it in the plastic toy box which I leave out at Rad-Ridge on barter day.  The thing had taken the scale-fruit remains and left the valuable cabling, no accounting for taste.   My claws clumsily fumbled with the package ...

Thank you Mr Tim Snyder of The Savage Afterworld.  Tonight's dreams will be both creepy and exotic.

The Deviant Database is a supplementary "Monster Manual" for the GammaWorld-like  Mutant Future - the main rulebook of which I'm still waiting to arrive for from Lulu - I've gone for the hardback btw.

It seems to be common knowledge that Mutant Future is compatible with Goblinoid's other games, such as Labyrinth Lord (which is a D&D/retro-clone), so the one use of the Deviant Database is that in can be used to spice up any old-style D&D campaign - especially, those with a surreal or other-wordly twist - such as Sword and Planet setting games, Spelljammer aliens, planar adventures - scenarios where the classically mythological can be set aside for the truly strange or aberrant.  Examples include: skunkapes, creatures with laser vision, Cheetapedes, and many of B-movie anti-Darwinistic hybrids.  One whichstands out is the, quite literally, insane Mechanibal - robot predators who harvest and graft parts  to themselves of other robots (and other technology).  I imagine that these robots could be hundreds of years old, perhaps in continuous "pain" and in hatred of their "meatbag" creators.  Perhaps there's an opportunity for a being like this to appear in steampunk games (consider the "Warforged" of Eberron - but the failed Frankensteinian experiments sealed up in vaults) .  And that's just one creature.

I've owned a copy of Gamma World for many years, but it was an edition I'm not fond of - with colour-coded charts and missing rules of really basic stuff, like vehicles and equipment price lists (fundamental things!) Also the exploratory introduction modules seemed a bit too abstract -not enough context.  More recently I've really enjoyed reading through The Mutant Epoch - for which the character generation and dice mechanics are sublime, but it uses it's own system - so I'm really looking to dipping into Mutant Future, just because I'm hoping that I'll be in familiar territory game mechanic wise. (By the way the system in TME is good, it's just sometimes the old brain can only cope with Basic D&D) My other, also surreal, foray into mutated futures is the facsimile of the original Metamorphosis Alpha by Jim Ward - truly wonderful from a historical perspective, but can also be appreciated as a really straight forward (nearly-pick-up-and-play) rule-set.

(I'll probably add some more product links to this post at a later time.)

You should leave now.  Take this plastic spear.
Good luck out there.
The Bad-Zone gets quieter just before morning...


Deviant Database on RPGDriveThru
Deviant Database print book on Lulu.com
(alternative link)

20% off Books and eBooks at Lulu in October

Wow.  I'm really rubbish at this.  When I started this blog I wanted it to be bristling and busting with money off coupons.  I would at least be posting LULU's monthly deals - at the very start of the month.  So here we go... half way through October... nearly Halloween and all that, two paydays until Christmas and so forth...

Books & eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off- Enter code
OCTBOOKS12
- Save up to $25

That's like a whole fifth off!  Huzzah!  No, really, I get impressed by these things.
The code seemed to work for me earlier (in the UK) so I don't think it's limited to US customers only.

Most RPG and solo game stuff can usually be found in the Games section on Lulu.
(One day I'll give in to my id and buy myself a copy of old school GamaWorld styled Mutant Future.)

Remember, the world economy needs your money!

DriveThru CARDS!

This just in.  A new store...

http://drivethrucards.com/

So far I've been mainly looking at  places like Game Crafter for fantasy game publishers to produce small run card based games.  The Onebookshelf company is now offering this new print on demand service - starting with poker sized cards, but more with formats to follow.  A noteworthy feature is a randomisation facility for publishers selling sealed "booster" or expansion packs.  In principle I always thought that collectable random contents (as with Magic, Pokemon et al) was a pretty evil practice, but it'll be a perfect facility for some CCG designers. :)  Personally, I hope that OBS will eventually offer square card formats - partly for my obsessions with tiles. :)  

As I type this, there's no products on there yet, but I'm betting you'll see an influx of indie games, and maybe a few old classics.  A brave new world, my friends. 

Information for publishers (PDF)

Inked Adventures goes Geomorphic

It had to happen eventually, since geomorphs are so much fun to draw!  The final product is still a way off - and may be launched on Gamecrafter as an actual print product (40+ cards), and possibly available in b/w as a bargain PDF.

Source/details:
http://billiambabbleinkedadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/geomorphic-dungeon-tiles-early-sneak.html
http://inkedadventures.com/main/2012/09/geomorphic-dungeon-tiles-early-sneak-peak/

Inked Adventures Store on DTRPG:
http://bit.ly/IAstore

(Shameless ego/product cross-promotion as "Billiam Babble" of Inked Adventures is yours truly, and all my other actual review posts are currently only in draft form - bad Billiam, bad blogger Billiam.  But, hey, Geomorphs! all hail the old school!)

DriveThruRPG's Crowdfunding Policy and How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

Another quick post about Kickstarters and crowdfunding and then I'll get back to the fun. ;)

Amidst other news, like the mighty Sean Fannon moving on from DriveThruRPG (Sean has managed the RPG downloads site since it's beginning, prepared newsletters and fielded many publisher and customer queries personally, so it'll be strange to see him step away from the helm...Good Luck, Sean!)  -there's been a change of policy with regards to the use of crowd-sourcing by publishers.

Now, I wasn't really aware that they had a policy on this, but I suddenly feel a little vindicated in the fact that crowd-funding and straight-forward product selling can sometimes appear be at odds with each other.  It's also nice to see that OneBookShelf Sites (DTRPG, RPGNow, Wargames Vault et al) recognize that crowdfunding, despite my paranoias, is now playing such an important role for small games publishers.

DriveThruRPG and Crowdfunding

In the past, we have maintained a strict policy regarding publishers who use Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or other such crowdsourcing platforms: No publisher has been allowed to use our tools or infrastructure to distribute news or links about projects being funded and distributed via Kickstarter or similar sites. To put it simply, DriveThruRPG is a business modeled on driving sales through our marketplace, not sending customers elsewhere.

However, we also understand the power and appeal of crowdfunding for you, the independent publisher. And while formats may change, crowdfunding is not going away any time soon. With that in mind, we have established a new policy regarding projects funded on Kickstarter and Indiegogo:

We welcome publishers who will use Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund their projects, and we will be happy to work with any publishers to handle product fulfillment and distribution via our site, whether in PDF or print. Our publisher tools can easily mail out coupon codes for electronic copies to all or any subset of your backers.

For POD fulfillment, we won't charge any fee beyond print and shipping costs: Simply set up your title using our print program (and note that your first title we will prep for you at no additional cost); supply us with the data of what book goes to whom; and we will have the books printed and shipped to your backers. 

If you have any questions or feedback regarding this topic, please don't hesitate to contact Scott Holden (scott@onebookshelf).

I find it interesting again that they're highlighting the print-on-demand service, which implies to me that they recognize that publishers are partly turning to Kickstarter to fund bulk print runs.

...It keeps occurring to me that if a company like RPGNow/DTRPG could ever bundle Letter sized boxes into the POD mix, many of the dreams of games publishers will be fullfilled, especially in the nostalgia market, where we want our games to all look like D&D Original or Basic Sets (name your artist and style).  But I digress.... 

The point here is that maybe we're all moving at different speeds.  Personally, I'm slowly coming around to the idea that crowdsourcing is actually good news for the RPG industry, because this is a niche hobby which relies on word-of-mouth exposure to gain new customers.  Kickstarters seem to be a effective way of making people aware of pen and paper games, of unpainted fantasy figures by independent sculptors and so forth - because popular kickstarters quite literally "go viral".  Still, I assert that crowd-funding shouldn't always be the first choice whenever anyone has a new idea or a publisher wants to immortalize a product in a special format.  Crowdfunding should be one of many options.  I can see why it's tempting to go for it first, and I'm still see requests for pleding as a type of ungentlemanly hard-sell - but that is merely my preference.  Whether or not crowdfunding hype alienates customers is up to the individual publisher/project leader.  I'm now less convinced that kickstarters will wipe out traditional markets, no more than eBay did - in fact I guess that online traders can adapt very quickly to change, if required.

From all of the feedback I'm getting regarding my stance on my being opposed to crowdfunding/sourcing with RPG products (especially where POD will do the job), it seems that backers are extremely discerning about how they pledge and what for, and that the people running projects are even seeking advice on the best ways to be good to their pledgers without falling into traps, such as promising too many handcrafted dice bags as perks (for hypothetical example).   -On Facebook I was invited to observe Kickstarter Best Practices and Lessons Learned  - which I recommend checking out if you're planning to set up a project, or have experiences you'd like to share with others.

It's admirable that a site like DriveThru is acknowledging the changes in publisher habits.  To an onlooker like myself this helps establish crowdfunding is becoming a respectable acceptable part of game publishing.  One of my fears was that some parts of the customer base, tradesmen and some publishers would see kickstarters as somehow being "dodgy" or "a way to make a fast buck" or somehow disreputable, or that innocent dreamer/designers were allowing themselves to be seduced into taking part in unforeseen nightmarish production and distribution scenarios.  Also, I'll be honest, by not being involved with crowdfunding I'm avoiding the "fatigue" in advance and saving myself a lot of time by sifting through all of the hundreds of zombie board game ideas (I'm guessing, I think a friend recently made a joke about there being so many zombie related projects) - but that's really more about me trying to simplify my life rather than sufficient reason to boycott kickstarters.

In summary, it's good to see a site like DriveThru moving with the times and supporting small publishers with the new realities of crowdfunding, and this helps old fashioned folk like myself learn to trust that crowdfunding isn't actually a harbinger of some sort of apocalypse for consumers. ;) Intriguing ...

Blood & Treasure RPG and Lulu 20% off code

Blood & Treasure
Fantasy Role Playing Game
is out now available
on Lulu.com
in print and PDF form
(if link doesn't work try here)

I've just seen that Tenkar's Tavern is talking about John Slater's Blood & Treasures Complete*, and I'm suddenly reminded that I've yet to type up my long overdue review of Tales of the Space Princess (that retro sci-fi dungeon-crawl in space - random comments and links here, here and other places).

I don't have a copy of B&T currently, but I'm a fan of the works of Mr Slater because he understands the friendly power of fast pick-up-and-play dice mechanics - usually with a familiar nod towards older systems.

I really must write proper reviews, instead of just pointing at things ...

*Announcement page in author's blog (inc. links to the different formats)

No September code yet, but the August code is still valid until the 31st:

Books & eBooks from Lulu.com 20% off
Enter code
AUGBOOKS12
- Save up to $25

The Game Crafter at GenCon 2012

Need to get your card and board game concept into print?  One solution is The Game Crafter
It works very much like a print-on-demand site (like Lulu but with counters, playing pieces, pre-cut cards, boxes, board art and so forth), and you can sell through their site as well.

Tox of CritsHappen interviews JT at Gen Con 2012 (via TGC news)



http://youtu.be/xIzDSshwCmo

My own geomorphs

I'm aware that there was an absolute craze for geomorphs, with designs splashed across the blogs and forums last year.  I still marvel at the layouts created by Dave's Mapper, and at all of the people willing to draw geomorphs by hand and share them with the world. 

After shunning the humble geomorph for many years, now, as a back-burner project, I have decided to dabble in this tesselatory madness!   Although, it'll probably be 100 years until I pull together enough to make a playable set.

See my post at Inked Adventures (blogspot mirror) here.

Fabled Lands 5 nearly in (real) print

Great news!  Morris and Thompson have changed their minds on an e-book / app -only route for their long promised (since the 80s edit.- 90s) continuation of the open-(now termed "sandbox RPG") solo gamebook adventure that is Fabled Lands. 

Fabled Lands: Gardens of riotous foliage in the white sea-cast s...: You saw it here first. The new paperback edition of Fabled Lands 5: The Court of Hidden Faces has gone to proof stage this weekend. All b...

The sale of the printed versions (which hopefully match the other four many of us have bought recently) of Fabled Lands 5: The Court of Hidden Faces will be made possible through Amazon's Print-On-Demand Createspace service.  I'm also fairly excited about Amazon doing print-on-demand service!  Book 6 may follow soon.  I still find it hard to believe that authors and publishers will offer electronic versions of books whilst not providing purchasable dead-tree versions through a no-expenses print-on-demand sites.  I know that the prices are high and the profits are low, but if you have a large fan base who like old rulebooks (especially in the case of out of print RPGs), is it not worth a try?  After all, we'll probably purchase every different edition/format going.

In the case of authors Dave M. and Jamie T. the original list of 12 books (was it 12? - correct me if I'm wrong) is a reminder that when a series is commissioned sometimes only a handful of manuscripts have actually been written.  Titles and cover art are all that's needed (for marketing) and the rest until the text is submitted at a later date (or never at all, if the series is axed)- at least this was my, all but brief, experience with writing commissions back in the day.  So don't be surprised if the total number of titles doesn't match up to the 80's projection (imho ;) ).  Also, I get the feeling that the printed copies are only made possible because of the mobile-app versions of the games, so I really mustn't grumble too much about alternative mediums.  I like both, but I much prefer rolling the dice with a character sheet and an ink and paper book.  I also really like Russ Nicholsons art in black and white on the new pages.

Set sail for yet more adventure!

(The first four books are listed on my astore page here )

See also: Fabled Lands books on Amazon US