Simon J Rogers

4e

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:34:16 GMT

4e combat isn't slow. It's time consuming. There's a difference.

Rpgnow.com and DriveThru RPG

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:33:44 GMT

As of 1st July 2008 ProFantasy Software is no longer selling through rpgnow.com and dtrpg.com. Since the increase in percentage that One Book Shelf* took from publishers, I've been carefully monitoring sales and comparing them like for like with our direct sales. I've also compared customer data to see whether there is much cross-over, and whether they are bringing in new customers. Taking into account our own trends and the release dates of products, it's clear that ProFantasy isn't gaining any value from them; there's a downward trend in sales. The final straw was the removal of our Platinum Vendor status - we weren't in the top seven vendors in the quarter. The OBS brand is not strong enough compared with ProFantasy's to warrant what is effect direct competition, when combined with the margin they are taking. They had no suggestions for how matters might be improved, or we might have stuck around another month or so.

Pelgrane Press Ltd will continue to stay with OBS, as their brand brings many more customers than we could acquire directly, and we get lots of impulse buys. I doubt we'll ever make Platinum, but we still do respectably well, with the release of the Trail PDF being our best month.

*One Book Shelf is the merger of both rpgnow.com and dtrpg.com. The merger also introduced a bunch of micromanagement on internal site marketing which inflicted additional work, and promised lots of new features for vendors, some of which have appeared.

PS. One other thing I've noted is that UK and other European ProFantasy customers have been buying from OBS to straightforwardly avoid tax. I can't imagine many UK customers letting Customs and Excise know that they've bought software sans VAT from abroad. I know OBS intended to introduce non-US stores and register properly for VAT, but I haven't seen any progress in that so far. This may be a problem for all online download providers in the RPG and other sectors in future. This put us at a strong competitive disadvantage when we are charging VAT.

GSL CharGen

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:42:48 GMT

4e is a pain in the ass without a character generator. The GSL prevents anyone developing a character generator. I suppose there is a slight chance that fan-created versions will be permitted, but it's unlikely. Expecting players to subscribe to the DDI to get character generator is optimistic - it's crying out for a single-payment or free app.

So, what's going to happen? It's not hard to predict. There is a huge demand and it's not that hard to write a char gen for 4e. I suspect that some brave soul might create a character generator which relies on a human-readable data file. A generic version will be included with the character generator, but an SRD version, probably in violation of IP statues will no doubt make an appearance, and will be permanently available. I expect there will also be free spreadsheets and PDFs which do something similar. The PHB and other Wizards books were available even before the launch, so I have no doubt that such software will become available, and people will download and use it without any qualms.

The sensible reaction by Hasbro (I think) would be to release such a char gen as an app, make it a free part of the DDI with the subscription adding bonus features, or simply open it up in the GSL. But, I don't think they'll even consider this until the DDI has been going a good six months.

MCB Playtest Part 3

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:42:43 GMT

The final part of our in-house Mutant City Blues playtest.

Super-powered action throughout in the last playtest gave the mutant power rules a good going over. I'm afraid we didn't use miniatures. No one has reported back on your optional rules, so I think we should take those out. I could recylce them into the lab, maybe. [The GM tracks player investigative expenditure and gives out clues on a rota. I've kept it in.] Rules-related issues are in bold.

I really like MCB. It's definitely a game that GMs are going to want to run because it's such fun. Last week they were all "it could be just we are a good group", but this week, they did ascribe some of it to the game. It does show that a pure police procedural without super powers would work using GUMSHOE rules - just Esoterrorists without the monsters would do the trick. If we were the sort of group that played long-term campaigns, I'd be happy to play this. I've requested that if we play it again (maybe with another GM) we stick with the smae characters and background.

The person behind the killings was Andrea Lessing, the owner of Black Homes Ltd. She was an Albanian spy tracking down war criminals and gangsters, and had a contact in Johnny's gang, Drtian Frasheri. Frasheri was the one who put Johnny in contact with Andrea, and persuaded him to let properties from her. He has Emotion Control and Sexual Chemistry. She has Fangs, Absorption and Possession [If you bite someone with Fangs, Possession and Absorption are much more effective, plus they are close on the Quade Diagram. Using an Absorber/Possessor is a cheap trick, one that you can get away with only once, but it enabled me to have a wide range of powers used by one individual.], and borrows Sexual Chemistry from Frasheri when she needs it. She and Frasheri are responsible for the murders, and they want to send a message to other Albanian gangs.

At the beginning of the session the PCs went off-shift. However, the lead officer (DI Angelus - the one bitten by the insects) had to hand over surveillance on the two remaining Black Homes buildings to another department, and she chose SO19 - the armed response unit. This was good roleplaying-wise because they are a blunt instrument - they are trained to bring down armed suspects by killing them. So there was later a lot of "Do you want SO19 to kill them, or are you going to do something else?"

I'm pretty sure we have some surprise rules, but I can't find them. If you know where they are, please let me know.

One of the other PCs had Healing and wanted to know - did he have to touch the afflicted areas to cure the insect bites. She didn't want him touching her. I ruled that the PC could decide how his powers worked, as long as there was physical contact at the minimum.

This, I'm afraid, lead to speculation of a STD clinic where people are cured by the doctor's healing organ. There were two locations, the swank mansion where Johnny Shakalaka was holding another Albanian gangster and torturing him for information, and a Docklands warehouse where there was dogfighting (and wher Johnny currently was). Andrea called in giving an anonymous tipoff that the mansion was packed with drugs, and she sent a mobile phone picture she'd taken earlier in the mansion to prove it. She sent this to the drugs squad who immediately launched a raid. Angelus got down there and SO19, Angelus and the Drug Squad almost came to blows.

This lead to some issues about Invisibility. It needs some crunchy combat info. What is the increased Difficulty for hitting someone with invisibilty? Do they get any other general advantages (surprise, surveillance)? [Added]

Is Surveillance the skill to sneak up on someone? [It's Infiltration]

Also, Dodge. Does everyone know to dodge, or only trained people? Would a dog know to dodge a psionic blast?

Two gangsters at the front door gave Angelus mental instability (kleptomania) using Induce Mental Disorder and piled into a car, smashing through the gates. SO19 shot out their tyres before they got going. After a Driving contest, the gangsters were brought to halt. The invisible Angelus snuck up on a gangster and light blasted him. The other guy got out what looked like a gun, and I gave the other player the opportunity to make a Difficulty 4 Shooting roll to learn something of note. [This should have been a spend rather than a roll] He declined to spend points, and so the guy was shot. He had pulled out a lighter (so he would be killed) and got his wish.

Over at the other location, the warehouse, Andrea Lessing called another PC (with an absent player) to let him know she was being held hostage, in the hope the police would burst in and kill Johnny. She used her borrowed Sexual Chemistry to persuade Johnny to tie her up and stay in the room. The PCs learnt through Data Retrieval that Johnny was under MI5 protection but used Cop Talk to persuade an MI5 agent on the phone to allow them to rescue the hostage. The agent said to remove all traces of the call, and pretend it had never happened. [A faction within MI5 think an exploder on the loose is a really bad idea, and this is a good way to bring him down.] The PCs burst into the dogfighting dive, and one of the gangster with Mammal Control set all the dogs on the HCIU. Tear Gas dealt with most of them, and a Psionic Blast sorted out the rest. Meanwhile, another PC (Jésus) got an iceblast to the chest [from a gnag member. The blast educated them that blasts are dangerous.] and SO19 took the guy down [They arrived as backup]. At this point Andrea possessed Johnny. His eyes went glassy:

Can anyone tell that glassy eyes means possession, or only people with anamorphology? Possession, is very, very powerful, and I suggest that it should be an Article 18 power. It did bring up a number of issues addressed below

[This lead to the addition of some new mental powers to detect and suppress mental influence]

Andrea made Johnny use his self-detonation powers, hoping the PCs would take him down before he exploded, but instead officer Jésus used Strength to throw Johnny through the window one floor up where he exploded.

They mopped up, and Andrea used her residual sexual chemistry on Jésus. She wasn't a suspect, but she was the perpetrator and wanted to get out of custody. She tried to persuade him to take her home, and failed - but eventually got him to get into the back of the ambulance with her. She then used Possession on him, bit him to absorb his Flight powers, then flew out of the back of the ambulance over the police escort. Frasheri, her accomplice, was taken into custody.

At the other house they had a fight with someone with natural weaponry using Reflex rules as follows:

2 points to automatically Dodge a blast.

Spend X points and add it to a roll to Dodge any succesful Scuffle or Shooting attempt, with the Difficulty being the total roll to hit. This does make Dodging very powerful but fun.

They found the tortured guy. MI5 picked up Johnny Shakalaka when he reformed. [They never figured out the Boom-Boom reference.]

Other comments on the text:

They want a diagram of someone picking out their choices on the Quade diagram.[Done]

Influence Detection

Is it possible to resist EMAT protocol is you know it is being tried? Can you just remain silent? [Yes, but it's like refusing a DNA test]. Do traces of mental influence remain post-mortem?

Absorption

"Relinquishing" can this happen at a distance? Does it happen when the absorber dies? [Absorption was rewritten.]

Disintegration

Sorry - I didn't read this properly - it is a blast power when used on people.

Emotion Control

Legal implications? [Added]

Empathy

How can you be slain by Psionic damage?

Fangs

Refer to Absorption

Force Field

Impervious to light blast? Lightning? Disentegration?

Blasts - it would be nice if every blast had its own shtick.

Possession

This is an incredibly powerful ability, but I don't want to nerf it. I'd rather work around it. Do the possessor's eyes indicate that they are attempting to possess?

I think a strong recommendation to take high stability should be in the text and a mental ability sidebar somewher. All officers should undergo influence detection at least monthly, plus anytime there is even a whiff of contact with someone who has those powers. Officers should also be encouraged to move in pairs to more easily deal with the possibilty of mental shennanigans.

I am also tempted by three other abilities to mirror the anti-blast power abilities on the Quade diagram - some kind of powers) which resists against mental powers - you could spend it as Stability whereever mutant mental powers are used against them, and another one which supresses or drain mental abilities while it's in use for example in the interrogation room). Finally, another ability which allows the officer to see if a mental power is currently being used. [Done]

Psionic Blast

Is the Hurt physical? [Yes, it's brain damage reperable with Empathy] How does it manifest? I ruled that if you blasted someone down to 0 Stabilty they were stunned for a few actions and could be arrested.

Self Detonation

Can you do a smaller explosion? [No. It becomes too powerful.]

Sexual Chemistry

Do sexual chemistry points spent affect all potential targets? [Yes] Do PCs basically get to decide if they obey requests? [Yes - they find the character hot, but aren't under their control unless the player decides] I had one guy make Stability rolls. [This became the mechanic]

Good News - The Membrane is Weakening

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:48:13 GMT

Excerpt 1 from the Ordo Veritatis Operations Manual. Expect this post to be removed by the pluggers at any time. Copy and paste, my friends.

Issued by the ECSC.

See Page XX

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:45:22 GMT

The new See Page XX is up. It includes:

The Trouble With Tasers by Robin D Laws
The Trail of Cthulhu Theme (Audio) by James Semple
Cosmic Ordering with Mystic Moo with Paula Dempsey
See Page XX Interview Series, Number 2 - Luke Crane vs Jason Morningstar
The Murderer of Thomas Fell a Trail of Cthulhu adventure by William Hindmarch

Edit: People were reporting link problems which should be fixed now.

Free RPG Day

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:23:21 GMT

It's Free RPG Day tomorrow. Get a bunch of free rpg adventures, including one from Pelgrane Press. An Trail of Cthulhu adventure called The Murder of Thomas Fell is available from Pelgrane Press. Supplies are limited, so grab it while you can.

Caption Competition 3 - The Winner

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:27:33 GMT

One caption in the Trail of Cthulhu caption competition is a clear winner, with 52% of the vote. The other three share the rest of the vote evenly.

And the winning caption is:

"Too distracted by the theatrics on stage, the audience failed to see the thing rising out of what they thought was a painted lake."

The winner has been notified.

Shadows over Filmland - GSL Goodness

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:58:13 GMT

For Shadows Over Filmland, a new Trail of Cthulhu adventure series, Jee is working on a silver screen style with spooky lighting and dry ice. Here's an example from his blog:

Edit: As Robin points out in the comments, I mis-titled this. I'll save the "GSL Goodness" for another day.

Caption Competition Stage 2 Please Vote

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:01:34 GMT

Now for the second stage of the caption competition to win the leather bound Trail of Cthulhu. Vote for the caption you think is best. Voting closes Friday 20th June when I arrive at work.

Caption 1:
The Live Action edition of Mousetrap had one or two early teething problems.

Caption 2:
Linling sighed, as she sat thinking to herself;
"Always the bridesmaid, never the executioner".

Caption 3:
Too distracted by the theatrics on stage, the audience failed to see the thing rising out of what they thought was a painted lake.

Caption 4:
Nyarlathotep's marriage guidance service gets its first clients.

Trail of Cthulhu

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:31:32 GMT

Advanced copies of the second print run of Trail of Cthulhu arrived today. There are a couple of very minor typos corrected (three pages was all we could get away with and still have the book out in time), and Leonard Balsera is now in the credits for some excellent suggestions he made outside the normal channels. He wept so much when he saw we'd neglected him in the first print run you'd have thought I'd stolen his Barbie.

In addition, I have some of these:

I'll do the second stage of the leather bound competition tomorrow. There'll be a couple of others available through various channels between now and GenCon. We'll sell some there, sell some more online, and then the last few at Dragonmeet in December.

Mutant City Blues Interview

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:12:27 GMT

Here is a long interview with Robin about Mutant City Blues and GUMSHOE in general on Master Plan.

Robin also discusses how he uses CC3 to create and edit the Quade diagram.

Mutant City Blues Playtest, part two

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:47:06 GMT

Here is the second batch of original playtest feedback for our first in-house Mutant City Blues session. Please bear in mind It was never intended for publication, and was written to the designer robin_d_laws. Comments which offer explanation to you, gentle commenter, are like this [comment]

In this session, I noticed a subtle difference between an OV-style game [The OV are the PCs in Esoterrorists] and a police procedural, and that is that clues are not just a way to move between scenes, they are often literally evidence. So leads which would be redundant to the OV were pursued by the players because it built a case. So, I offered many dangling threads to lead to the same point which they carefully noted. Following only the core clues may not have built a proper case against the potential villains. Of course, some of the police work can go on off-camera (put uniform on it, send it to SOCO [Scene of Crime Officers. American acronyms are so much better. I give you Asdic vs Sonar.]), but it gives the GM an excuse to use fun scenes that otherwise wouldn't happen. There is some kind of clue type going on here - a bit like floating core clues, but redundant clues. Any one of them will get you forward, but you might want to collect more to build a case. A sidebar might be apropos.

The players churned over this week, with only two players the same as last time, and two new players. We had a few holes in the investigative skills, which I reminded people they could use under the Eso rule for that purpose.[If other players aren't there, they can use spare points set aside for this purpose - remembering other PCs skills and asking what they'd do.] I ran the two "power onset" scenes for the new players.

One player wanted a power suit, and I had to explain why that wouldn't work with the game - you’d need a whole new set of investigative skills to differentiate between a power suit and say Strength. [As well as superpowered investigative skills, for example, X-Ray vision, there are also normal investigative skills which address superpowers. In particular anamorphology - the study is the study of mutant powers and their genetics. In GUMSHOE the available clues should match the sill set. In retrospect, this could have been done with the available skills - but wouldn't have been a proper playtest.]

One player chose Radiation Projection, but this one like many others is simply not suitable for PCs except for a back story, even though it's great for a villain. I suggest we mark such powers in the chart [The Quade Diagram - the chart of related superpowers]. He swapped to Explosion, and we assumed he had worked for the bomb squad.

I did have to stop them prevaricating a few times. Even openly saying "here are you leads, you need to stop talking" and get out their didn't work. Still, I suppose if they wanted to talk that much...

There was almost no power use in this session, but it should kick off more next week.

What happened:
The pathologist reported that there were fang marks in the charred corpse of Nigel Griffiths the plant controller, leading them to look at the Quade diagram. They didn't notice absorption at this stage. They took a mould of the fangs.

They got the address of the agency which ran the drug place (Black Homes).

There was another murder in a gambling den, where all the oxygen was depleted. Four bodies were known low lives, the other unknown, but they figured out with linguistics that the other guy was Eastern European from gambling slips. The Absorber had extracted the deplete oxygen powers from him. I noticed linguistics is missing from the list of academic investigative skills. Is that right? What is it rolled into otherwise?[Linguistics is added again.]

I imagined that Absorber had got the drop on them - all the weapons were missing from the the holsters. However, I might make it some kind of Sexual Chemistry or mind control thing that an associate has, as I haven't tested the mind control powers yet. Is there anyway you can find out from a fresh corpse whether their minds have been manipulated? Does Sexual Chemistry leave distinctive traces?

It was now they considered both Possession and Absorption as possible causes.

The found that this gambling den was also let out by Black Homes, and they got the remaining three addresses and the name of the guy paying for them - Nikoleta Mita. The officer investigating Black Homes was strangely drawn to the women who worked there. [I had to be careful not to to flag her up too obviously as a person of interest at this stage, as she is the perpetrator, but thought that using a touch of her borrowed Sexual Chemistry would be fun. In most cop shows, you meet the perp early on, but they try to deflect you into thinking they are just an extra. This fails horribly when you recognise the actor as a guest star. Not a problem in an RPG.]

They followed another lead to plant controller Nigel Griffith's flat (they cleverly phoned all the garden centres asking if they had anyone special employed, and they found his address) [I had a couple of ways they could find Griffiths - they also interviewed the lady next door to the drug house to get a time for the van, and then checked the congestion charge records to track it, too] They didn’t realise he was the dead man at this stage [they hadn't remembered their Absorber theory and were looking for a living plant controller] and were sure that his drug dealing flat-mate Smorgasbord was in fact Griffiths. They couldn't get "Griffiths" to leave the flat, so one cop used X-Ray Vision to look in. and saw drug paraphernalia (I am using the generous interpretation at this stage) [There was a discussion as to whether a warrant was required to use X-Ray vision.]. They thought that this wasn't enough to enter, as X Ray Vision doesn’t mention it was admissible, so they went to an Asian storekeeper opposite and asked to look from their top window. (In the UK, "fruit of the poisoned tree" doesn't apply. If you get evidence the wrong way, you can be done for it, but evidence legally collected as a result is still admissible.)

Meanwhile, another cop paid a prostitute to call Smorgasbord, pretending to be Black Homes Ltd saying that Nikoleta was coming round. Smorg stuffed drugs into his bag and ran downstairs, a swarm of insects in front of him (I'd foreshadowed this with a cockroach under the door, but they didn't clock it). Poor old DC Angelus outside got bitten to crap, so they arrested him "firmly" and took him down the station along with a drug-addled prostitute who was in his flat.

They had fun in the interview room with Smorgasbord, a white dreadlocked drug dealer, and house mate of Griffiths, making use of Martin Minkins - an incompetent legal aid brief - who didn't advise his client very well. Eventually I got them to say what exactly they wanted (a description of the fearsome leaseholder Niki Mita), how they wanted to get it (Intimidation), and what way (pretending that they knew the leaseholder was a terrorist, and he'd be sent over to the counter terrorism squad if he didn't comply.

This lead to the name Johnny Shakalaka - aka Niki Mita - the Albanian gangster. They found he had Disintegration, and surely they should figure out from the Quade diagram where his nickname comes from? Shakalaka Boom Boom. [Disintegration is next to Explosion on the Quade diagram. They never did work it out - but then it's easy if you are the GM.]

They were very keen to make Beth (the prostitute) into an authorised informant, and would really have liked some rules for this. How might this work? A dedicated pool for informants? A streetwise spend? It would be a good hook during character generation.[Actually, I don't think we've done this. Could be a Page XX article, but really it could just be a colour way of describing a Streetwise spend. Also, I make frequent suggestions which are justifiably ignored.]

They had fun in the interview room, making use of Martin Minkins - useless legal aid brief [lawyer] - who they knew wouldn't advise his client very well. Eventually I got them to say what exactly they wanted (a description of the fearsome leaseholder), how they wanted to get it (Intimdation), and what way (pretending that they knew the leaseholder was a terrorist, and he'd be sent over to the counter terrorism squad. One of the PCs was on secondment from Israel, and was very intimidating indeed.

So next time, they will be staking out the other two Black Homes properties, might accidentally end up in a tussle with the Drug Squad who are raiding one of the other houses [they were at the original scene, and there was a bit of friction then], will find Shakalaka is an MI5 informant and have to deal with the Absorber. I'll try to get some more action in, and figure out what the Absorber has against Johnny and his criminal activities.

I did find it very hard to get into player's back stories, but that may be because I didn't show them the list of possible back stories and force them to write something
down. [MCB, like many cop shows, often highlights a character's backstory, relating it emotionally to the main crime. This is thoroughly detailed in MCB. Ironically, it was the initial organisation of the rules which lead me to forget this in character generation. One amusing thing we tried - I asked the PCs to tot up their interpersonal skills, and it was gbsteve's character, the fast-track graduate trainee who suffered. The DCI said "Every squad needs a head. That's me. Every squad needs a body. That's you lot. And every squad needs an arsehole to deal with the shit. And that's you, DC Arsehole." He then suffered almost constant abuse from the DCI whenever they were together. It was fun.]

Mutant City Blues playtest Part One

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:33:25 GMT

Here is the first batch of original playtest feedback for our first in-house MCB session. It may contain spoilers for a forthcoming adventure, if I ever get round to writing it up.

Comments which offer explanation are like this [comment]
The session went fine. The whole "your city" thing worked well. [MCB is set in the players' own city, in our case, London. You plug in locations, organisations and people from MCB, and this really reduces the amount you have to know to play the game. It also helps with immersion.] I won't comment too much on what isn't a problem, only stuff which arose from play or character creation.

In char gen, they all picked a lot of powers despite my gentle advice to the contrary. [Blast powers aren't that useful with low ratings, and choosing more powers eats into your character's build totals.] Still, good for playtesting.

I started them in a van outside a gambling den, about to make an arrest on a pre-existing warrant for a guy with Strength and Heat Blast. In the van, I gave them all a flashback scene where they described what happened when their powers first manifested, and a visit from the Quade Institute guys. Sexual Chemistry at the school disco was particularly juicy.

Two officers waited at the back, while another knocked on the door, the final one stayed in the van. A women with invisibility [an Article 18 power - one you have to register and report the use of] left through the back garden, but was spotted with Thermal Vision. She was arrested for an Article 18 violation - (I thought this might be a strict liability offence). At the front of the house the main perp, with Strength burst out and threw one of the officers through the air so he smacked into the side of the van. He was drunk. It took three officers to subdue him. They considered "offering advice in the back of the van" to repay their cuts and bruises but professionalism prevailed.

This was just supposed to be an introductory scene, but their were lots of post-arrest interrogations, surreptitious dream entering and impersonations. [Much of the time was spent roleplaying interrogations.] I had put a lose thread connecting the suspect with another person in the gambling den, and they went at that like hunting dogs. The Chief Inspector got annoyed with them because they'd laid so many charges, but they did well. Incidentally, they chose the self-hating incompetent mutant as their "lieutenant." [The players get to decide which lieutenant they want, and the GM can present other options. This has some effect on the feel of the game. Do they want a free hand, gentle guidance, or a firm approach?]

The main adventure I've laid out was a little less like "here's a bunch of suspects, get the right one" and more a trail through various low-lives to find the eventual perpetrator. It uses something I heard about houses devoted to growing weed, and "The Hydroponics Centre" - can you believe THC - a real store for buying all the necessary equipment. The real one was in Ontario, I think. Someone with massive Absorption and Fangs is going around destroying some mutants into the drugs trade. The first guy was using plant control to get the weed growing, the Absorber strangled him to death with his own plants, then torched the place.

Invisibility - what are the combat effects and effects on Sense Trouble, etc? Can people with night vision see you (I assume not)? [Invisibility has always been a little tricky to handle. It's all cleared up now]
Can you use night vision and thermal vision simultaneously?
Tasers - one player pointed out that tasers do basically disable people if they hit at all. I'm not sure how to handle this.[Robin has written a forthcoming Page XX article about this]
It's much easier to devise adventures once you've seen the characters. My advice - write up enough for the first session, mark down all the investigative powers they've chosen and add them into subsequent sessions. I did mark a character sheet with every investigative power chosen, and tried to give out clues for the more obscure ones which I'd originally planned for straightforward ones.

Powers which shouldn't be used. Many of the powers available to PCs are simply illegal (except I imagine under extreme circumstance such as self-defence), or require a warrant. But, they are going to use them anyway. One PC used Observe Dreams and Enter Dreams to gather evidence, and then find clever ways to get the evidence legally. But, if he gets discovered, it's five years in jail. This is true of almost all the powers. I assume they should really be running around getting warrants. But can a police officer ever Explode or Psionic Blast someone? I think a sidebar on the use of these powers in police work would be useful, and on the chart of powers at the beginning of the chapter, their legal status should be averred to. Other wise, I think it will be tricky to stop police officers going bad in this game.[In MCB you are playing basically good cops. An deviation from that is a major backstory.]

For British policing I decided that HCIU cops would not be routinely armed, only if there was a high probability of armed resistance (it needs signing of by the Chief Superintendent). I also considered Protocol 5 - an article in the police code which says that any mutant with an offensive power (list) would not be permitted to carry a firearm. [I want to keep the UK unarmed feel, calling in armed police or getting weapons only when required. Armed police are really a spur to the PCs to get them to arrest perps before anyone gets killed ]

Blast Powers
I'll test blast powers more thoroughly next week. Most people are complaining that they aren't powerful enough. I'm going to hit them with a 37 point blaster next week to see if they change their mind. I'll try to engineer a conflict next week between an armed suspect and the character with the blast power and see who comes off best.

Blast power questions:
If you are dodging can you also fight?
How many blasts can you dodge? [You can dodge blast powers at any time as a reaction to a Blast]

More as I think of it.

If you want to read part two, let me know!

ToC Playtesting

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:16:56 GMT

We've got a new Trail of Cthulhu supplement - Shadows over Filmland - to playtest. Think Gothic films and monster movies meet HPL. We got seven short scenarios to test, as well as an intro and roleplaying guide for the setting. If you are interested, please send an email to simon@dyingearth.com, subject "Shadows Over Filmland."

More cosmographer art

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:00:40 GMT

Banana Monks have nearly finished the Cosmographer 3 artwork. Here is another peak:

Trail of Cthulhu Reprint and PDF update

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:30:32 GMT

The Trail of Cthulhu reprint is due to be completed mid-June, so I've put in a cautious street date of 1st July. I've gone for 2000 copies. The 50 leather-bounds are being printed, too, and I'll complete the long-awaited caption competition when they arrive.

We still have copies of Trail of Cthulhu left at the Pelgrane store for customers not from the US or Canada. At Indie Press Revolution, we are offering Trail of Cthulhu on pre-order - get the PDF now at no extra charge.

I'm pleased with the PDF sales for the Trail of Cthulhu - it gave us our best month on rpgnow.com. The take up of the Game Group Bundle and Player's Guide I mentioned here was higher than I expected. 23% of our Trail sales were Player's Guides, and 10% were bundles. So, there are a lot of honest people out there.

MCB Interior

Wed, 28 May 2008 16:14:01 GMT

Interior art for Mutant City Blues. Someone bearing an peculiar resemblance to serpentstar apprehends a suspect.

Mutant City Blues Cover

Tue, 27 May 2008 16:00:54 GMT

Cover first draft. Comments welcome.

The Empty Men

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:31:40 GMT

GM Skarka is writing the first Adamant Entertainment Trail of Cthulhu adventure, entitled The Empty Men, to be released in July. It will support both Pulp and Purist styles of play.

Based on the title, what do you think it might be about?

Map of the Month - Pete Fenlon style

Tue, 13 May 2008 12:40:57 GMT

Many of us remember, and were inspired by Pete Fenlon's wonderful maps for the Middle Earth Roleplaying Game. Today, Pete is Chairman and Studio Director at Mayfair Games. In January, with Pete's permission we released a style pack for making maps in his style as part of the Cartographer's Annual 2008.

Steve Townshend produced this beautiful map in the Pete Fenlon style.

It uses only specially designed vector symbols combined with CC3's effects to get the right look.

Style packs are preconfigured so that if you select a tool (for example, rivers, roads and terrain), it looks right for the map style. To create a forest, you just select the forest draw tool, click points for the border, and it does this, adding random tree tops and edge trees.

You building up mountain ranges by selecting a symbol, then placing. They are selected randomly from a collection of symbols. So this was one click per mountain, and the mess at the bottom is a mountain cursor. You can tab through random styles if you don't like the current mountain at the cursor.

The distinctive ridges are also built up of symbols. On the left, with CC3 effects off, on the right, with them on.

Although the styles definitely make it easier to create maps such as these, Steve Townshend demonstrates that the human touch is still required to get an aesthetically pleasing map - style packs just make it easier to get the desired effect.

You can download the map in CC3 format here.

It happens to the best of us...

Fri, 09 May 2008 14:41:32 GMT

Sometimes domain name renewals just don't go smoothly. Look at rpgnow.com. It happened to Profantasy once ten years ago, too, although holding pages weren't so friendly then. So, let's just check our domain expiry dates, eh?

In the mean time, you can buy PDFs at DriveThruPRG. Same back end, different store front.

Eso Play

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:13:29 GMT

Here is some detailed Esoterrorists actual play, demonstrating the strengths of the clue-giving system (and, to be fair, of this particular GM).

Massive Info Dump

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:34:00 GMT

A day of tons of new releases. On the Pelgrane Press store or IPR.

For GUMSHOE:

We've released Stunning Eldritch Tales, a collection adventures by Robin D Laws for Trail of Cthulhu. Gosh, they are good, and well playtested. The street date is 13th May.

The Trail of Cthulhu PDF. As it says. People who preordered have been emailed a voucher for a free copy. People who have ordered to date have been sent a voucher for a reduced price copy. If you haven't heard, email me.

Trail of Cthulhu Player's Guide The ToC Player's Guide is a subset of the ToC (99 pages) and includes all non-GM material, but (and I whisper this) you can run GUMSHOE games using this alone.

Trail of Cthulhu Game Group PDF Bundle (1 x ToC and 3 x ToC Player's Guide). The bundle is an interesting experiment in the spectrum of honesty of PDF users. If I sell lots of these, I'll be pleased but slightly surprised. The idea is, the GM gets the Trail of Cthulhu PDF, the players get three copies of the Player's Guide between them.

For the Dying Earth RPG:

We've released after a slight hiatus Tooth, Talon and Pinion :The Excellent Prismatic Spray 7/8 Double Issue. It's full of creatures which you might eat, might eat you, or there might be some negotiation involved to determine who is eaten. There are also adventures and a walking tour by the famed Grashpotel.

I've emailed all of our subscribers for updated addresses. If you are a subscriber and you haven't heard, please contact me.

Trail of Cthulhu Sales

Tue, 06 May 2008 11:18:14 GMT

All the Trails of Cthulhu destined for the distribution are now sold. ACD swooped in nabbed the last hundred or so from Aldo while I was away. If stocks dwindle, I'll keep an eye on channels on line and highlight those retailers who still have stock. For example, Leisure Games in London and End Game in California. If you are retailer stocking Trail, you might consider posting here.

IPR and Pelgrane have 71 left between them for direct sale in the US. I've got about 50 in the UK. Chaosium have none (and I shipped them 100), which is pretty spectacular.

So, basically, woot! 2000 copies sold, pretty much.

Because the Trail printer found it difficult to deal with a foreign company (they insisted initially on invoicing me for tax and I wouldn't pay until they corrected it), the reprint won't be for a few weeks.

I've got to choose between another 1000, or else 1500 for the next print run. Tough decision. It's just south of $2 difference per copy.

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