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.
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Here is some detailed Esoterrorists actual play, demonstrating the strengths of the clue-giving system (and, to be fair, of this particular GM).
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I've just received my copies of Profane Miracles, an Esoterrorists adventure by Spirit of the Century co-author Leonard Balsera. It's our first saddle-stitched book. It's available from the Pelgrane Press Store and Indie Press Revolution, and in your FLGS in the next couple of days.
I'm happy with the print quality and it's pretty sturdy.
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Here is a review for Trail of Cthulhu.
"If you are intrigued with the genre, pick it up. If it doesn't give you new ideas and new enthusiasm, read it again." And another here for Esoterrorists. I'm sure Robin must be blushing at the quote. "The best Mystery/Investigative RPG ever" Also, The Game's the Thing podcast covers Esterrorists in their latest issue. It can be found here. The Eso bit starts at about 26.50, and describes actual play. "They hit it.""It felt very natural"
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As I am now listed on IPR, I thought it might be nice to get all share-y with the data, as my fellow IPR publishers often do.
From its release to the end of 2007, The Esoterrorists has sold just over 1000 copies. I'm really pleased with this - it's our best selling game (just) since The Dying Earth RPG. Nearly 20% of the sales are PDFs, and thirty-five in GUMSHOE bundles. 70% of print sales are through traditional distribution to retail channels via Impressions Advertising. 66% of the PDF sales are through One Book Shelf, that is DTRPG and rpgnow.com.
I make about three times as much on a print mail order sale as a retail sale, and there is a good chance I'd make more money if I didn't sell this book through distribution at all. So why do I do it? First, I could be wrong; I might not sell enough to make up for the shortfall. I also want to do my little bit to help retailers, which I do think helps the industry. But, it's mainly because I'd rather risk making a little less money and have more people playing the game. This is partly non-commercial, but also, the more people playing GUMSHOE games, the more they are likely to buy new ones. For example, through GUMSHOE brand recognition, it might help Trail of Cthulhu sell the much greater volume it needs to pay for my first offset litho print run for five years. Trail has had good pre-order levels in the main thanks to IPR, and these has really helped make the print run possible. I'm printing 2000 off, which I hope I can sell through in a year, although with 4e round the corner, who knows what will happen?
It's interesting that some indie designers I've spoken to (Paul Czege for example) would rather maximize their return per book, and not sell so many copies. Some (not sure about Paul) think the whole three/four tier structure is broken altogether, or there is even a whiff that it is somehow morally dubious. To be honest, unless you are selling thousands of copies and using offset litho, the economics of selling through distribution are marginal, but it's only through distribution that you can sell huge numbers. Perhaps I'm just nostalgically hoping for an enormous 5000-book hit with ToC.
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Albion's Ransom: Little Girl Lost, is now available from the Pelgrane Press Store. This Esoterrorists campaign, written by Ian Sturrock was inspired by William Blake's eponymous work. It's set in Britain, but slanted towards a team of American investigators, with an appendix for American GMs unfamiliar with the UK and Manchester in particular. One of our (US-based) playtesters described it as "I'm British, Spank Me"!
We've also released Fields of Silver, Lynne Hardy's campaign and sourcebook for Turjan-level characters. In the Dying Earth RPG, there are three styles of play, reflecting the three collections of tales Jack Vance wrote. The least powerful of the protagonists (in game terms) was the picaresque Cugel upon who, most DERPG PCs are based, and the most powerful Rhialto, who nonetheless suffer similar ignominious irritations. In the middle in power terms, but very different in terms of challenges, are driven warrior magicians based on Vance's early work - Turjan of Miir. It is these characters who will explore the campaign setting Lynne has provided. The background is more sombre and bizarre, with elements of the horror of Clark Ashton Smith. Mention of Smith brings me on to Lovecraft: Fields of Silver has some of the flavour of Chaosium's world-spanning Cthulhu adventures.
In the Dying Earth RPG Robin Laws mentions the following lists of elements for Cugel-style adventures:
Odd Customs, Crafty Swindles, Heated Protests and Presumptuous Claims, Casual Cruelty, Weird Magic, Strange Vistas, Ruined Wonders, Exotic Food, and Foppish Apparel
An adjusted list (written by David Thomas) in Turjan's Tome goes as follows:
Essential Elements - Opportunity for bloodshed
- Horror
- Ruined Wonders
- Lost Knowledge
Important Elements- Casual Cruelty
- Weird Magic
- Strange Vistas
- Odd Customs
Inessential Elements- Crafty Swindles
- Heated Protests and Presumptuous Claims
- Exotic Food
- Foppish Apparel
Lynne has hit all of the essential and important elements been unable to avoid the odd crafty swindle, exotic food and elements of dark humour. All in all, this book is more suited to traditional roleplayers than the Cugel- and Rhialto- style high jinx, and includes episodes of genuine horror.
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I now have Albion's Ransom (an adventure by Ian Sturrock) and Fields of Silver (Lynne Hardy's long awaited Turjan-level Dying Earth supplement). I'll get them up for sale tomorrow, and they should be in stores soon.
Those spatulate fingers are Sasha's ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pond823. We are in the office talking about... stuff.
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robin_d_laws is working on the Esoterror Fact Book - a bumper setting supplement for The Esoterrorists. It will include a chapter on special force OV sweeper teams, who go in with heavy weaponry after the OV investigators have left. This means more combat crunch, and Robin would like to know what you want to see. Post your answers here.
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Jerome's cover for Lenny's Esoterrorists adventure*.
*I was hoping Lenny was going to write more material for us, but his mom said it was too scary for him. He's gone to bed with his My Little Pony.
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We've just released a new PDF-only Esoterrorists adventure. It's available from rpgnow.com. Set in the UK, it's designed for about three hours play, at a very fast pace. It was originally written by one of my gaming group the fine Italian Paolo Bongiovanni for one of our games, but it was so exciting, I suggested he write it up properly for publication. It uses a timer in the last half hour or so of the game, and we just put things to bed as it went off. The timer was hidden from everyone.
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A new style of art for Albion's Ransom. Jérome is rather versatile.
(Incidentally, I'm rather proud of my subject for this post.)
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Another amazing photomontage from Jerome. It's the cover to our first Esoterrorists adventure, written by Ian Sturrock (serpentstar). Set in Manchester and environs, Albion's Ransom: Little Girl Lost features the desperate search for the missing daughter of a senior OrdoVeritatis agent. Interior art and layout are to follow.
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We've released The GUMSHOE Book of Unremitting Horror. As an experiment, I've made the PDF immediately available both with the print version and also as a stand-alone. It will be interesting to see how it fares compared to Fear Itself (which is also now available as a PDF). I've also introduced a complete GUMSHOE Bundle - this was our top selling product at GenCon. I haven't yet decided how long to keep it on sale.
Details of new stuff:
- GUMSHOE Unremitting Horror, a crossover book for Fear Itself and The Esoterrorists is now out. For the first time, it is released simultaneously as a PDF and print book
- Get our three GUMSHOE releases The Esoterrorists, Fear Itself and Unremitting Horror as a reduced-price bundle. You can get either the print or PDF version.
- Lenny Balsera has completed his Esoterrorists adventure called Profane Miracles
- Ian Sturrock has completed his new Esoterrorists campaign Little Girl Lost
- The Trail of Cthulhu first round playtesting has begun
- Fear Itself is now available as a PDF from the webstore.
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A review (and mini-review) of all of our GUMSHOE releases here. Link courtesy of pond823.
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I haven't been to GenCon in the States since the first Indie, and I'm really looking forward to it. You can find Pelgrane Press and ProFantasy Software on stand 1921, opposite the art show. We've planned lots of great events, and we are releasing three new products. We'll also have The Esoterrorists, Fear Itself, and the complete Dying Earth range, as well as a preview of Trail of Cthulhu. Robin D Laws will be at the stand for signings and chit chat. Grab the chance to get your signed limited edition of The Birds first thing when the hall opens. | Thursday | 10 AM | 11 AM | | Friday | 4 PM | 5 PM | | Saturday | 3 PM | 4 PM | | Sunday | 11 AM | Noon |
gbsteve will be running half-hour demos of Fear Itself and Esoterrorists on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Kenneth Hite and Robin D Laws will be available on Saturday afternoon between 3 PM and 4 PM for a Trail of Cthulhu Q&A session. If you are able to come to the Q&A or are interested in the demo, please let me know,
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Along side some excellent indie games and Qin (published by Pelgrane's French translator) Esoterrorists has been nominated for an Ennie award in the Best Rules category and got an honourable mention in Best Game. CC3 has two honourable mentions, but suffered I think because its category was abolished.
Voting will open here.
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Leonard Balsera (lcdarkwood) has submitted a well paced and action-filled Esoterrorists adventure for publication. It's scary. Lenny must have given himself nightmares after writing it*. We are looking for play testers. Email me if you are interested.
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I've just received the French version of Esoterrorists. Add an "e" and it goes all French on you. The GUMSHOE system becomes Détective/Gumshoe, and the blood corpse Cadavre Sanglants. The other noticeable differences are glossy paper, and A4 size. Valerie has kindly promised to do something for those Pelgrane Press mail order customers in France who ordered the English version. Expect an email if you come into this category.
For more information see the 7eme Cercle website here.
Fear Itself is ready to be printed, if I can get the damn thing uploaded, and should be out by the end of the month.
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The Esoterrorists PDF is up for sale in the Pelgrane Press store. It'll be available from rpgnow.com on Monday, along with full details.
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We are looking for playtesters for a big Esoterrorist adventure written by Ian Sturrock. Playtest will finish in six weeks' time. Please email me if you are interested.
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